War of the Worlds: Goliath
| War of the Worlds: Goliath | |
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| Directed by | Joe Pearson |
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| Music by | Luka Kuncevic |
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Running time | 82 minutes |
| Country | Malaysia, United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | RM 280,000 |
War of the Worlds: Goliath is a 2012 Malaysian animated science fiction film directed by Joe Pearson that was released in 15 November 2012 in Malaysia. The film is voiced by actors Peter Wingfield, Adrian Paul, Tony Eusoff, Elizabeth Gracen, Jim Byrnes, Rob Middleton, Mark Sheppard, Matt Letscher, Adam Baldwin and other voice actors; many of the voice actors had previously worked together on the early-1990s TV series Highlander. Unlike other War of the Worlds films, this film is a loose sequel to H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds. The film's title refers to the human tripod the main characters use in the film.
The film was produced by Tripod Group.
Plot
The film is set in an alternate-reality Earth. In 1899, The Martian launched an unprovoked attack on the major nations of the world. In Leeds, England, a younger Eric Wells watches in horror as a Martian Tripod lays waste to his city and then kills his father and mother. But before it can kill him, the Martian Tripod suddenly keels forward and crashes into the ground. Over 140 million people were killed by the Martians, and many of the great cities of the world were destroyed until the Martians were killed off by Earth's bacteria, to which the Martians had no defense against.
15 years later, in Manhattan, New York City in 1914, the world has seen radical change and development. It has become a dieselpunk/steampunk-like world, where Earth is at the potential onset of the Great War as the European nations' fragile alliance begins to shatter. A now grown-up Eric Wells is Captain of a Tripod squad for the A.R.E.S. (Allied Resistance Earth Squadron) organization, alongside American Lieutenant Jennifer Carter, Irish Corporal Patrick O'Brien, Canadian Sergeant Abraham Douglas, and Malayan Lieutenant Raja Iskandar Shah. A.R.E.S. is commanded by strict Russian General Sergei Kushnirov (who lost his family to the Martians in 1899 at St. Petersburg), Secretary of War Theodore Roosevelt (who forsook a second term as President of the United States), and Professor Nikola Tesla, an enigmatic scientist who reverse-engineered the technology from the first, failed, invasion of the Martians and created A.R.E.S. weapons and vehicles.
Eric Wells is given the first of a new type of steam-powered, Achilles-class Battle Tripod, (65 feet tall, armed with heavy machine guns and six light rockets, a heat ray and an 88-millimeter cannon) who nick-names his new tripod 'The Goliath'.
But as his crew are preparing to engage another group of Tripods in a simulated war game against Japanese Captain Sakai, the A.R.E.S. alliance is threatened by the onset of the Great War when Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajevo. The members of A.R.E.S. are all called back to their respective countries in preparation for the coming war, but Eric, outraged at the stupidity of the human politicians and leaders, convinces everyone to stay and prepare for the coming Martian invasion.
This proves to be advantageous, as a second, more ruthless, Martian invasion begins, using more advanced, 100 foot tall, heat ray spewing, tripod battle machines, and are now immune to Earth's bacteria. The Martians first attack the War Games, and decimate many of A.R.E.S.'s forces until they themselves are destroyed by Eric and his team. But, according to General Kurshnirov at the debrief, that was just a probing attack to judge A.R.E.S.' combat potential as the real invasion began.
Novelization
Retro Rocket Press, an imprint of digital publisher KHP Publishers, Inc., published an official novelization by science fiction author Adam J. Whitlatch on 28 October 2014. The novel was taken out of print with the closing of KHP in late 2015.
The novelization was republished by Latchkey Press on 31 July 2018, marking the novel’s first publication in paperback.
External links