War of the Worlds (2025)
War of the Worlds is a 2025 science fiction movie directed by Rich Lee, with a running time of 1h 31m. It stars Ice Cube, Eva Longoria and Clark Gregg.
Will Radford watches the world through screens. A Homeland Security analyst buried in a mass-surveillance program, he tracks threats from behind a monitor until an attack by something unrecognizable turns his suspicion inward, toward the government he serves. This screenlife take on H.G. Wells unfolds entirely across devices and feeds, updating the 1898 invasion story for an age of dragnet data. Ice Cube leads, with Eva Longoria and Clark Gregg in the mix. The format is the gamble: a planetary catastrophe glimpsed through webcams, dashboards, and the cold glow of a login screen.
Quick answers
What is War of the Worlds about?
Will Radford watches the world through screens. A Homeland Security analyst buried in a mass-surveillance program, he tracks threats from behind a monitor until an attack by something unrecognizable turns his suspicion inward, toward the government he serves. This screenlife take on H.G. Wells unfolds entirely across devices and feeds, updating the 1898 invasion story for an age of dragnet data. Ice Cube leads, with Eva Longoria and Clark Gregg in the mix. The format is the gamble: a planetary catastrophe glimpsed through webcams, dashboards, and the cold glow of a login screen.
When was War of the Worlds released?
War of the Worlds was released on 29 July 2025.
How long is War of the Worlds?
War of the Worlds runs 1h 31m.
Who made War of the Worlds?
War of the Worlds was directed by Rich Lee.
Where can I watch War of the Worlds?
War of the Worlds is available on Prime Video.
Where to watch War of the Worlds
Stream: Prime Video
Cast
- Ice Cube as William Radford
- Eva Longoria as NASA Scientist Sandra Salas
- Clark Gregg as NSA Director Donald Briggs
- Iman Benson as Faith Radford
- Henry Hunter Hall as David Radford
- Devon Bostick as Mark Goodman
- Andrea Savage as FBI Field Agent Sheila Jeffries
- Nicole Pulliam as News Reporter
- Michael O'Neill as Secretary of Defense Walter Crystal
- Jim Meskimen as POTUS
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A few thoughts on War of the Worlds
For the surveillance-state anxieties, Ghost in the Shell remains the sharpest study of watching and being watched across a networked world. Muse's Simulation Theory supplies the paranoid, synth-heavy backdrop. The roots are worth revisiting too: H.G. Wells's original novel The War of the Worlds, and Jeff Wayne's musical adaptation, still deliver the invasion with more menace than most screens manage.
Mass surveillance states watching their own citizens
Will Radford tracks threats from inside a Homeland Security surveillance program until the invasion turns his own tools against him, updating H.G. Wells for an age of dragnet data. These films, a game, and an album build the same world: a society watched so completely that safety and control become impossible to tell apart.
Stories told entirely through screens, webcams, and hidden footage
War of the Worlds unfolds entirely on devices, webcams, dashboards, feeds, a planetary catastrophe glimpsed through the cold glow of a login screen rather than a wide shot. These films commit to that same restrictive format, telling a story through the footage a camera happens to catch rather than through anything staged for an audience.
Being watched by something that never blinks
Every frame of War of the Worlds is filtered through Will Radford's surveillance dashboards, a story about a threat that is always being watched even as it watches back. These films, a game, and a comic share that unsettling premise: characters under constant observation by something with no interest in their consent.
An insider who becomes the target of their own agency
Will Radford spends his career protecting a program that turns on him the moment he becomes a suspect rather than an analyst. These films follow other insiders inside intelligence and military machinery who find themselves exposed by the very systems and agencies they were trained to trust.