Tripod (The War of the Worlds)
Encyclopedia
Tripods or fighting-machines are a type of fictional three-legged walker from the H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...

' classic science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 novel The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds is an 1898 science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells.The War of the Worlds may also refer to:- Radio broadcasts :* The War of the Worlds , the 1938 radio broadcast by Orson Welles...

, used by Martians
Martian (War of the Worlds)
The Martians, also known as the Invaders, are the fictional race of extraterrestrials from the H.G. Wells novel The War of the Worlds. They are the antagonists of the novel, and their efforts to exterminate the populace of Earth and claim the planet for themselves drive the plot and present...

 to invade Earth.

Novel

The tripods walked on three legs, had metallic tentacles underneath, an appendage housing the heat-ray, and a hood-like head. H.G. Wells first describes the tripods in detail:
Another eyewitness described them as "Boilers on stilts, I tell you, striding along like men" (Book 1, Chapter 14).

A London newspaper article in the book inaccurately described the tripods as "spider-like machines, nearly a hundred feet high, capable of the speed of an express-train, and able to shoot out a beam of intense heat" (Book 1, Chapter 14). Ironically, earlier newspaper articles under-exaggerated the Martians as being "sluggard creatures." The main character witnessed the tripods moving "with a rolling motion and as fast as flying birds" (Book 1, Chapter 12).

The tripods are armed with a Heat-Ray
Heat-Ray
The Heat-Ray is the primary offensive weapon used by the Martians in H. G. Wells' classic science fiction novel The War of the Worlds and its offshoots.- In the novel :...

 which is held by one of their tentacles and black smoke
Black smoke
The black smoke, or black powder is a fictional poisonous gas in H. G. Wells' science fiction novel The War of the Worlds, used by the Martians to eliminate groups of humans remotely, especially artillery crews, before they could fire. The rockets from which they explode are fired from a "black...

, a type of poison gas which is deployed by cylinders. It can also discharge steam that dissipates the Black Smoke.
Their tentacles, which hang from the main body, are used as probes and to grasp objects. The tripods also sometimes carry a cage or basket which would be used to hold captives so the Martians could drain their blood
Blood
Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....

. The height of the tripods is unclear, a newspaper article describes them to be over 100 feet tall (30 m). However, they can wade through relatively high water. HMS Thunder Child
HMS Thunder Child
HMS Thunder Child is the name of the fictional ironclad torpedo ram of the Royal Navy that is destroyed by Martian fighting-machines in H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds...

, a Royal Navy Torpedo Ram engages a trio of tripods pursuing a refugee flotilla off the coast of England.

In the book the tripods are delivered to Earth in massive cylinders, shot from a sort of gun from Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...

 (in the PC game adaptation
Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds
Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds is a title used for two 1998 video games published by GT Interactive. The first is a real-time strategy game developed by Rage Software Limited for the PC...

, the Martians refer to this device as a "large-scale hydrogen accelerator"). Once they arrive on Earth, the machines are soon assembled. A London newspaper article cites unnamed authorities who believed, based on the outside size of the cylinders, they carried no more than five tripods per cylinder (Book 1, Chapter 14).

The depiction of the tripods in any medium only very rarely takes in account the fact that, according to the book, the Martians never made use of the wheel and made singularly little use of the fixed pivot. (Book 2, Chapter 2). This is in accordance with a lack of such joints in the Martians themselves — who are tentacled invertebrates after all — but makes designing a feasible walking machine difficult. When one of them is brought down by its leg being smashed, the driver is able to repair it within a day.

The original conceptual drawings for the tripod machines, drawn by Warwick Goble
Warwick Goble
Warwick Goble was an illustrator of children's books. He specialized in Japanese and Indian themes.Goble was born in Dalston, north London, the son of a commercial traveller, and educated and trained at the City of London School and the Westminster School of Art...

, accompanied the initial appearance of The War of the Worlds in Pearson's Magazine in 1897. When Wells saw these pictures, he was so displeased that he added the following text to the final version of his book:

I recall particularly the illustration of one of the first pamphlets to give a consecutive account of the war. The artist had evidently made a hasty study of one of the fighting-machines, and it was there that his knowledge ended. He presented them as tilted, stiff tripods without either flexibility or subtlety, and with an altogether misleading monotony of effect. The pamphlet containing these renderings had a considerable vogue, and I mention them here to warn the reader against the impression they may have created. They were no more like the Martians I saw in action than a Dutch doll is like a human being. To my mind, the pamphlet would have been much better without them.

The War of the Worlds (1953 film)

The Martian machines in 1953 movie The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds (1953 film)
The War of the Worlds is a 1953 science fiction film starring Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. It was the first on-screen loose adaptation of the H. G. Wells classic novel of the same name...

 are drastically different from the ones in Wells' novel. Instead of towering tripods, the Martian machines resemble sinister-looking manta ray
Manta ray
The manta ray is the largest species of the rays. The largest known specimen was more than across, with a weight of about . It ranges throughout waters of the world, typically around coral reefs...

s with three electromagnetic legs, visible only when emerging from the pit made by their tapered oblate landing cylinder and later indirectly by their scorching effect on the ground. Designed by Albert Nozaki
Albert Nozaki
Albert Nozaki was an art director who worked on various films for Paramount Pictures. He is perhaps best known for his memorable design of the Martian war machines from the 1953 film The War of the Worlds and for his art direction on the epic The Ten Commandments...

, this machine is armed with a reddish and visible Heat-Ray — once more in keeping with the novel — mounted atop in a gooseneck device incinerating anything the ray hits.

The machines also have two weapons which fire green blobs from the tips of the wings which are called Skeleton Rays or Skeleton Beams, so named for the ghastly visual effect it has when striking a human: causing a silhouette of the victim's skeleton to become visible as it disintegrates. These weapons are immediately hypothesized authoritatively by the character Dr. Clayton Forrester to neutralize meson
Meson
In particle physics, mesons are subatomic particles composed of one quark and one antiquark, bound together by the strong interaction. Because mesons are composed of sub-particles, they have a physical size, with a radius roughly one femtometer: 10−15 m, which is about the size of a proton...

s, "The atomic glue holding matter together," causing the target to vaporize, usually leaving behind a black stain on the ground (either the remains or a scorching of the terrain in contact), and appear to be deployed as a long range surface weapon compared to the Heat-Ray used at closer range and against taller structures or aircraft.

These war machines do not have tentacles; presumably, the Martians in this version have no use for humans. Their tactics for advancement across the terrain bear this out, sweeping out section-by-section, "...slash[ing] across country like scythes, wiping out everything that's trying to get away from them," as described by the character of General Mann in his analysis.

The ships are also equipped with a retractable electronic eye, which is used as a probe and resseambles the Martian's face, deployed from a round hatch on the machine's underbelly which is completely seamless at any other time. There is suggestion that the Martians are physically linked to their machines as at one point in the film, the severed probe seems to stain a piece of cloth with blood. However, because there is a continuity goof involved it is of debate that the blood may be from a recently struck Martian and not from the device. The use of this probe and subsequent physical reconnoiter (and contact) by the aforementioned Martian is the only time they show other than a homicidal interest in humans.

Another major difference is the presence of a shield resembling the jar placed over some clocks — cylindrical with a hemispherical top — that protects the machines from heavy fire, even the massive power of nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...

s, without even touching the machines bubbled inside.

A major difference between this film and H.G. Wells' book was that the film machines were invincible to any war machines on earth; their force field protected them even from the atomic bombs. In the book, they were vulnerable to artillery fire and a torpedo ram
Torpedo ram
A torpedo ram is a type of torpedo boat combining a ram with torpedo tubes. Incorporating design elements from the cruiser and the monitor, it was intended to provide small and inexpensive weapon systems for coastal defence and other littoral combat....

 and they seem to have no shield.

Television series

The serialized War of the Worlds
War of the Worlds (TV series)
War of the Worlds is a television program that ran for two seasons, from 1988 to 1990. The series is an extension of the original 1953 film The War of the Worlds, using the same War Machine, often incorporating aspects from the film, radio adaptation, and original novel into its mythology.Though...

 TV series was established as a sequel to the 1953 film with many of the alien technology in the first season cued with visual references to the design of those in the aforementioned film.

While almost never using war machines in general, the series does reveal in one episode that these same aliens (from Mor-Tax
Mor-Tax
Mor-Tax is the name of the planet on which the aliens from the first season of the War of the Worlds TV series, the Mor-Taxans, originate. While the show's existence as a continuation from the 1953 film would make the aliens Martians, the first season rewrites this origin due to the supported fact...

; not Mars) did at one point use tripods in their past before evolving into the floating machines as seen in the film. This "older model" resembles the latter machines with only a few noticeable differences.

Aside from the legs, there is no visible mounted Heat-Ray; however, where the latter models have a green window in its front, the tripods have an orange/red colored window (framed in blue circle) that, coupled with its pulsating glow, suggests that it is a cruder version of their Heat-Ray and is built into the body of the machine. Whether it is a Heat-Ray, or what other weaponry this model possesses is unknown. While the new models are reminiscent of a swan
Swan
Swans, genus Cygnus, are birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae...

, the tripods seem more inspired by an insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

, both in its (briefly seen) movement as well as the sound it emits. The TV series also gives insight into the machines, referred to both by humans and aliens alike as ships
Warship
A warship is a ship that is built and primarily intended for combat. Warships are usually built in a completely different way from merchant ships. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster and more maneuvrable than merchant ships...

. In "The Resurrection", the interior of the machines are seen to be lit by cold colors of blue and black (with only a sliver of neon green). The machines have an on-board computer that the aliens can communicate with even when distanced by location and time, and even with relatively primitive equipment

When asked how the aliens make the machines fly, Dr. Blackwood refers to Dr. Forrester's unconfirmed speculation that they are able to use brainwave
Electroencephalography
Electroencephalography is the recording of electrical activity along the scalp. EEG measures voltage fluctuations resulting from ionic current flows within the neurons of the brain...

 impulses. This is given credibility when three aliens later take possession of the tripod. From inside, it can be seen that there is no obvious physical means of operation; instead, the three are simply seated back-to-back, a formation seen quite commonly among the aliens throughout the season, frequently in a state of some type of shared mental exercise (though what this practice is exactly is never detailed in the series). A similar seating construction appears to be present in the later machines with the device clearly identified as the computer placed in the center.

Information given in the show also suggests that deflector shields were not used until the 1953 invasion, after a recon mission proved that humanity had the means of effectively damaging their machines. The limited strength of their unprotected warships is also suggested by the fact that two or more of them were downed by a militia of no more than just 38 men. Curiously, a late episode features a mysterious pod of theirs found that is made of an element that is, by all accounts, virtually indestructible.

The pod in question appears to have to no weaponry and can only seat a single alien. Its purpose is not given, leaving its connection to the invasion and the aliens' technological progress unknown.

H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (2005 film)

In H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds
H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (2005 film)
H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds is one of three film adaptations of H. G. Wells' classic novel released in 2005, about a Martian invasion of Earth...

, the only true-to-book adaptation of Wells' novel, produced by Pendragon Pictures, the fighting machine design is based on the praying mantis insect, which according to Timothy Hines was one of H.G. Wells’s favorite insects. The Tripod has a free moving head as depicted, the head fits into a slot on the main body section, where the neck extends giving a better view around the area. It has four metallic tentacles, with numerous joints making it look more machine-like, that are mainly used to grab humans during the film. The machine has three long, stilt-like legs which occasionally move with the right and rear leg moving forward at the same time. The Heat-Ray appears on the top of tripod head as a round mirror on a metallic arm, and when the mirror rotates at fast speed it begins to emit incredible heat with a range of over 2 miles. The black smoke
Black smoke
The black smoke, or black powder is a fictional poisonous gas in H. G. Wells' science fiction novel The War of the Worlds, used by the Martians to eliminate groups of humans remotely, especially artillery crews, before they could fire. The rockets from which they explode are fired from a "black...

 is emitted from the tips of the tentacles of the Martian machine in the form of a spray instead of the cannon-like device firing shells used in the book version. The tripod also has a basket on the rear to place the captured humans in, but the basket looks more like a bucket. There are numerous other machines seen, such as four-legged fighting machines, and six-legged Handling-machine
Handling-machine
In H. G. Wells' science fiction classic The War of the Worlds, the Martian Invaders used two primary machines, the fighting-machine and the handling-machine....

s resembling a scorpion
Scorpion
Scorpions are predatory arthropod animals of the order Scorpiones within the class Arachnida. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by the pair of grasping claws and the narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back, ending with a venomous stinger...

.

H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds (2005 film)

In H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds
H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds (2005 film)
H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds is a science fiction horror mockbuster by The Asylum. It is one of three 2005 film adaptations of H. G...

(aka Invasion), a film adaptation from The Asylum
The Asylum
The Asylum is an American film studio and distributor which focuses on producing low-budget, usually direct-to-video productions. The studio has produced titles that capitalize on productions by major studios; these titles have been dubbed "mockbusters" by the press.-History:The Asylum was founded...

, the fighting-machine is a walker, but not a tripod. Instead it is a menacing, six-legged machine resembling a crab
Crab
True crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax...

. The Heat-Ray
Heat-Ray
The Heat-Ray is the primary offensive weapon used by the Martians in H. G. Wells' classic science fiction novel The War of the Worlds and its offshoots.- In the novel :...

 is built into the body of the machine, shooting through a slot on its "head", which can turn around on the bottom part that houses the legs. This machine can also eject an object that emits a green gas (a substance similar to the black smoke
Black smoke
The black smoke, or black powder is a fictional poisonous gas in H. G. Wells' science fiction novel The War of the Worlds, used by the Martians to eliminate groups of humans remotely, especially artillery crews, before they could fire. The rockets from which they explode are fired from a "black...

) through the same slot. It also has an opening atop the head through which Martians can leave the machine, as well as at least one appendage, a clawed, metallic tentacle, that is depicted as grabbing fleeing humans. The machines do not appear to have particularly heavy protection against artillery, unlike the machines protected by invisible shields in the 1953 and 2005 film adaptations. They are probably about 20–30 feet tall. The book does mention some crab-like machines, however these are Handling-machine
Handling-machine
In H. G. Wells' science fiction classic The War of the Worlds, the Martian Invaders used two primary machines, the fighting-machine and the handling-machine....

s, not fighting machines.

War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave (2008 film)

In the Asylum's 2008 sequel War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave
War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave
War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave is a 2008 direct-to-DVD science fiction film starring and directed by C. Thomas Howell....

the new walkers are tripods called squid-walkers. Unlike the first film the Martians do not control the tripods from the inside but instead the tripods are living cyborg organisms controlled by a single entity from a mothership. They also have the ability to fly. A Heat Ray is attached to the walkers, as well as a kind of ray that teleports humans to the mothership, where humans are drained of their blood to feed the aliens. Whereas Wells' Tripods carried cages to capture humans, these Tripods place the humans in the machines themselves. The interior of the machines is organic, with no windows or controls, as these Tripods travel at will. The walls within the organic corridors are curiously lethal, as an unknown force literally pulls in anyone unlucky enough to touch them. The fate of anyone pulled in is unknown.

War of the Worlds (2005 film)

There are several differences between the tripods as described in Wells' book and those in Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...

's 2005 film
War of the Worlds (2005 film)
War of the Worlds is a 2005 American science fiction film adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel of the same name, directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Josh Friedman and David Koepp. It is one of three film adaptations of War of the Worlds released that year, alongside The Asylum's version and...

, which come from an undisclosed planet. In this version, the tripods were long ago brought to Earth, having been buried underground in its past. The aliens instead travel in capsules to the machines by some kind of "beaming" that resembles lightning
Lightning
Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...

 (from where or what is unknown), which transports them underground to the machines. The lighting makes the capsules travel faster than the eye can see and the unearthing of the first machine suggests that they may have also each been kept in something similar to a cylinder (which could have been part of the rocket or transportation that brought it to Earth long ago). In an interview, screenwriter David Koepp stated his belief that they were planted long ago by the extraterrestrials as a part of a "contingency plan." The features of the tripods also differ as they do not possess the black smoke and are equipped with some type of invisible energy shield that becomes visible when struck, although nothing can penetrate them (a reference to the 1953 version). They are armed with two tentacles with Heat-Ray
Heat-Ray
The Heat-Ray is the primary offensive weapon used by the Martians in H. G. Wells' classic science fiction novel The War of the Worlds and its offshoots.- In the novel :...

-like weapons that incinerate humans to ash, leaving the victim's clothing behind while destroying and burning everything else. This has brought some confusion to fans. It has been proposed the heat-ray only destroys "organic" matter, though this does not fully explain the destruction of the buildings, vehicles, and the untouched cotton and wool of the clothes, both of which are organic. A possible solution would be that the heat-ray is a high energy coherent emission of microwaves similar to a Maser
Maser
A maser is a device that produces coherent electromagnetic waves through amplification by stimulated emission. Historically, “maser” derives from the original, upper-case acronym MASER, which stands for "Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation"...

 that causes the water in the human body to superheat into very high temperature steam, which then causes the victim to explode into ash as it instantly expands; this would also account for the metal objects it hits catching fire, as they heat up like metal placed in a microwave oven
Microwave oven
A microwave oven is a kitchen appliance that heats food by dielectric heating, using microwave radiation to heat polarized molecules within the food...

 will. They also have several searchlight
Searchlight
A searchlight is an apparatus that combines a bright light source with some form of curved reflector or other optics to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular direction, usually constructed so that it can be swiveled about.-Military use:The Royal Navy used...

s mounted on the front of them. Of particular note, in this film's version the tripod's legs are completely rubber-like in their appearance and movement. They have no visible mechanical joints or pivot-points, and propel themselves by truly "walking" over any terrain; this can be seen as faithful to the original text, where the tripods are described as being more organic in nature than mechanical. Spielberg's tripods also emit loud, deep bellows, which seem to be a means of calling out to other tripods, similar to how they are described at one point in the novel. The sounds consist of one loud 113 Hz
Hertz
The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....

 blast (between A2 and A#2 on the musical scale
Musical scale
In music, a scale is a sequence of musical notes in ascending and descending order. Most commonly, especially in the context of the common practice period, the notes of a scale will belong to a single key, thus providing material for or being used to conveniently represent part or all of a musical...

) for three seconds, followed by a deep 136 Hz blast (near C#3) for another three seconds. They are also equipped with numerous tentacles for capturing humans as well as two cages under the head for temporary holding with a point over the cages that opens to suck up captured humans, as well as a retractable probe to search abandoned buildings and locations that the Tripods are unable to reach. The point over the cage seems to be a weak point, for in one scene, a grenade is able to destroy one Tripod from there. Additionally, the tripods have another tentacle used as a pipette
Pipette
A pipette is a laboratory tool used to transport a measured volume of liquid.-Use and variations:Pipettes are commonly used in molecular biology, analytical chemistry as well as medical tests...

 to drain human blood, which is then sprayed from the Tripods' heads as fertilizer to aid the spread of the red weed
Red weed
The red weed is a fictional plant native to Mars in the novel The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. It is this plant that supposedly gives Mars its dull red colour...

. The captured humans that get sucked into the Tripods could very well have their blood drained in the machine by a process that is a more "direct" form of blood drain. Similar to the book, the tripods appear to emit some kind of black-green smoke before arming and firing the Heat-Ray, although this may only be dust and steam from clearing the vents. The tripods are made to look like the aliens themselves, which have three legs and numerous arms attached to the body. Some people have commented that the heads of the tripods look like cuttlefish
Cuttlefish
Cuttlefish are marine animals of the order Sepiida. They belong to the class Cephalopoda . Despite their name, cuttlefish are not fish but molluscs....

.

The lethality of the tripods can be summed up in a phrase spoken in the film (a paraphrase of a line from the 1953 film): "Once the tripods start to move, no more news comes out of that area."

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds

The tripods are described in Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds
Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds
Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds is a 1978 concept album by Jeff Wayne, retelling the story of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. Its format is progressive rock and string orchestra, using narration and leitmotifs to carry the story via rhyming melodic lyrics that express...

 and depicted on the album artwork painted by Michael Trim
Michael Trim
Michael Trim is an artist most famous for illustrating the cover of Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, which depicts a Martian tripod striking down the heroic Thunder Child...

. This version of the tripods does have some inconsistencies from Wells' description in his novel, such as the Heat-Ray emanates from a proboscis
Proboscis
A proboscis is an elongated appendage from the head of an animal, either a vertebrate or an invertebrate. In simpler terms, a proboscis is the straw-like mouth found in several varieties of species.-Etymology:...

 in the cupola rather than shooting from a box or case carried by the tripod, the cage to hold captured humans being is used by the handling-machine
Handling-machine
In H. G. Wells' science fiction classic The War of the Worlds, the Martian Invaders used two primary machines, the fighting-machine and the handling-machine....

s instead of the fighting-machines, and the "cowl" (cockpit) of the fighting-machine is static instead of separately rotating.

Parallel and sequel novels

In Kevin J. Anderson
Kevin J. Anderson
Kevin J. Anderson is an American science fiction author with over forty bestsellers. He has written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and with Brian Herbert is the co-author of the Dune prequels...

' The Martian War
The Martian War
The Martian War: A Thrilling Eyewitness Account of the Recent Invasion As Reported by Mr. H.G. Wells is a 2006 science fiction novel by Kevin J. Anderson . It is a retelling of H.G...

the Martians use two type of tripods, the ones from The War of the Worlds and a smaller, "overseer" variant. In Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds, the tripods are described as having legs that can telescope down allowing for entry and exit, and as being possibly based upon the original body type of the Martians.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

The second volume
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II is a comic book limited series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, published under the America's Best Comics imprint of DC Comics...

 of the comic book
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, publication of which began in 1999. The series spans two six-issue limited series and a graphic novel from the America's Best Comics imprint of Wildstorm/DC, and a third miniseries...

retells the story of The War of the Worlds, and the tripods are prominently featured. These tripods are more organic-looking than in other depictions, with wide, crested heads. They are depicted with details of the tripods from Wells' original novel; they have the Heat-Ray and baskets for captured humans. The tripods are shown to be destroyed by heavy artillery, launched from Captain Nemo
Captain Nemo
Captain Nemo, also known as Prince Dakkar, is a fictional character featured in Jules Verne's novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island ....

's submarine.

One notable point about this particular adaptation is that it gives voice to an issue which has plagued moviemakers over the years: namely, that a tripodal structure has no analog with bipedal or normal quadrupedal locomotion (though kangaroos do sometimes use their thick tails as a third leg). The character Edward Hyde
Edward Hyde
Edward Hyde may refer to:* Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon , English historian and statesman* Edward Hyde , British MP* Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon , Governor of New York and New Jersey* Edward Hyde Edward Hyde may refer to:* Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (1609–1674), English...

, whilst attacking a tripod by clinging on to its leg, asks it "I'm no engineer and correct me if I'm mistaken, but don't you have rather a design flaw in these things? Now, don't get me wrong: God created a lot of useless, stupid-looking things on this world too, but he didn't see fit to make any of them three-legged. Why was that, do you think?" The superhumanly-strong character then brings down the tripod by ripping off one of its legs.

Influence on later fiction

Alien tripod war machines have appeared in several novels, movies, video games and television series.

A trilogy of novels by John Christopher
Samuel Youd
Samuel Youd is a British author, best known for his science fiction writings under the pseudonym John Christopher, including the novel The Death of Grass and the young adult oriented novel series The Tripods...

 called The Tripods
The Tripods
The Tripods is a series of young adult novels written by John Christopher, beginning in 1967. The first two were the basis of a science fiction TV-series, produced in the United Kingdom in the 1980s....

, is heavily influenced by H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...

. The novels provide a type of alternate ending to the H. G. Wells story, whereby the tripods succeed in their invasion. Christopher's
Tripods, however, are very different from those found in the works of H. G. Wells. In the trilogy the tripods do not come from Mars, but another distant world. Also, these tripods do not consume humans or feature weapons, but are used instead to control the human civilization with a "cap" or metallic grid attached to the scalp. Large cities, science and technology are no longer part of the human civilization; humans are forced to live in small rural communities. The main feature of these tripods is a large arm
Arm
In human anatomy, the arm is the part of the upper limb between the shoulder and the elbow joints. In other animals, the term arm can also be used for analogous structures, such as one of the paired forelimbs of a four-legged animal or the arms of cephalopods...

 that is extended from the base of the tripod's head and used to lift humans into the head, predominantly for the purposes of capping.

The Tripods was later made into a BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 TV serial, which ran for two series but was cancelled before the three-part story was completed.

In Larry Niven
Larry Niven
Laurence van Cott Niven / ˈlæri ˈnɪvən/ is an American science fiction author. His best-known work is Ringworld , which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics...

's
Rainbow Mars
Rainbow Mars
Rainbow Mars is a science fiction short story collection by Larry Niven. It includes the five previously published Svetz stories and the novel, also called Rainbow Mars in which humans from Earth visit Mars and find it populated by the creations of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Bradbury, C. S. Lewis,...

, time travelers from the 31st century passing through the late 19th century observe the Martian tripods attack a Brazilian city.

The tripods also inspired the AT-AT, AT-ST and other walkers in the
Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...

space opera franchise.

In Scary Movie 4
Scary Movie 4
Scary Movie 4 is the fourth film of the Scary Movie franchise, directed by David Zucker, written by Jim Abrahams, Craig Mazin and Pat Proft, and produced by Craig Mazin and Robert K. Weiss. It is distributed by The Weinstein Company via its Dimension Films unit in the U.S. and Television, and...

, a spoof of Spielberg's film, the Tripods have only three tentacles, and fire the Heat-Ray from their centre eye. When the first Tripod emerges, it appears as a giant iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...

 (named a triPod), selecting
"Destroy humanity" and transforming into how they appear in Spielberg's film. Its other features are given a comical treatment; the cages on their backs feature a V.I.P area. Inside the Tripod is the bathroom from Saw, where it is revealed the aliens are commanded by the Saw doll
Billy (Saw)
Billy is a puppet that has appeared in the Saw films. It was used by the series' primary antagonist John Kramer, a.k.a. Jigsaw, to communicate with his test subjects by delivering recorded messages, often appearing on a television screen or occasionally in person to describe the details of the...

.

Creatures and machines similar to the tripod are featured in many video games, such as the Striders from Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2 , the sequel to Half-Life, is a first-person shooter video game and a signature title in the Half-Life series. It is singleplayer, story-driven, science fiction, and linear...

and their companions, the Hunters from Crysis
Crysis
Crysis is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek , published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, and released in November 2007. It is the first game of a trilogy. A separate game entitled Crysis Warhead was released on September 12, 2008, and follows similar...

 and its sequels and spin-offs; Annihilator Tripods from
Command & Conquer 3
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed and published by Electronic Arts for the Windows, Mac OS X and Xbox 360 platforms, and released internationally in March 2007...

; Colossi from StarCraft II; Science Walkers and Defilers from Universe at War, and Darkwalkers, which use rays and emit a similar noise, from Unreal Tournament 3.

Alien tripod mecha have appear in many animated movies and series, for example in the three-part pilot of the
Justice League; the
Japanese animated film
Be Forever Yamato; in episodes of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, 'Ed, Edd, n Eddy
and Kim Possible
Kim Possible
Kim Possible is an American animated television series about a teenage crime fighter who has the task of dealing with worldwide, family, and school issues every day. The show is action-oriented, but also has a light-hearted atmosphere and often lampoons the conventions and clichés of the...

, as well as (albeit based on automotive spark plugs, and with four legs) in a daydream sequence in the 2006 film Cars
Cars (film)
Cars is a 2006 American animated family film produced by Pixar and directed by John Lasseter and co-directed by Joe Ranft. It is the seventh Disney·Pixar feature film, and Pixar's final, independently-produced motion picture before its purchase by Disney...

.
In the Japanese anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 Space Runaway Ideon
Space Runaway Ideon
is a 1980 anime television series produced by Sunrise.-Production:Ideon was created and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, and was the series he produced immediately following his most famous work, Mobile Suit Gundam....

, several of the Buff Clan's heavy mecha have three legs, inspired by the Tripods.

Issues #7 and #12 of the Sonic X
Sonic X (comics)
Sonic X was an ongoing comic book series published by Archie Comics, based on the English dub of the Japanese anime of the same name. Like Archie's other title, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic X features SEGA's mascot video game character Sonic. It began in September 2005 and was originally meant to be a...

comic book feature a three-legged alien machine reminiscent of a Tripod. The machine is armed with laser weapons & shields, and goes on destructive rampages when activated. However, the origins of the craft has not yet been explained.

The Mechwarrior
MechWarrior: Dark Age
MechWarrior: Dark Age was a tabletop wargame by WizKids set in the BattleTech universe that uses the Clix system...

collectible miniatures game also has its own version of the tripods, called the Ares. Developed under the fictional "Rhodes Project", the 135-ton mechs closely resemble the tripods in the Steven Spielberg version, except that their legs are more squat and robust. Their names are also adapted from prominent Greek gods (Hera, Hades, Zeus, Poseidon).

In the animated superhero film
Superhero film
A superhero film, superhero movie, or superhero motion picture is: action, fantasy and science fiction film; that is focused on the actions of one or more superheroes, individuals who usually possess superhuman abilities relative to a normal person and are dedicated to protecting the public...

 Ultimate Avengers 2
Ultimate Avengers 2
Ultimate Avengers 2 is the sequel to Ultimate Avengers. The film was released on August 8, 2006...

, a race of aliens called the Chitauri invade earth. Machines resembling Wells' Tripods are briefly seen attacking London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, as a deliberate homage to War of the Worlds.

In the 2010 TV movie High Plains Invaders, a Western film aboout an alien invasion of the American Wild West in the 1890s, the alien antagonists were inspired by the machines of Wells' fiction. The machines walk upon legs (four legs instead of three) and carry a weapon above their head on a neck, resembling the Martian Heat-Ray from the 1953 film adaptation of War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds (1953 film)
The War of the Worlds is a 1953 science fiction film starring Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. It was the first on-screen loose adaptation of the H. G. Wells classic novel of the same name...

.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK