Martian Fighting Machines-Tripods

Martian Fighting Machines-Tripods

A fighting-machine, also referred to as a tripod and at times a Thing, is the main war machine employed by the Martians in their attempted to conquer Earth.

Design and function
The fighting-machines are assembled in the Martian pits by handling-machines before activation and each tripod possesses an unspecified number of tentacles, one of which can retract into the tripod when its primary weapon, the Heat-Ray, is not in use. The tentacles are also able to hold a Black Smoke Chemical Launcher.

The head is described as a hood that holds the Martian pilot. The head can turn in any direction. The tripod as a whole appears as if it is made from a substance similar to aluminum.

On the back of each tripod is what looks like a metal fishing net, which they use to hold humans that they capture with their tentacles.

The tripods in the original book could be destroyed by human weapons, usually artillery, although loses were usually heavier for the humans than the Martians.

According to one instance in the book, the machine gives off a howl that is given as "Aloo!" However, this should not be confused with "Ulla", a sound given off by the Martians themselves.

Tripods in other media
In the movies, the tripods have seen many designs.

George Pal's The War of the Worlds


In the 1953 adaptation of The War of the Worlds by renown sci-fi producer George Pal, models resembling Manta Rays with a Heat-Ray "Swan-Neck" were used to portray the fighting-machine. These machines hovered in the air like a spaceship. There were originally three electromagnetic legs, which can be seen early in the film and in the climax, but were discontinued during production, most likely because the producers deemed the one million volts needed to create the effect was too dangerous.

George Pal's machine boasted two different weapons, including two wingtip mounted "skeleton beams and a Swan neck Heat-Ray. It also has a magnetic energy shield to protect the machine from enemy fire. This shield was powerful enough to withstand the effect of the atomic bomb.

Like Steven Spielberg's tripod design, George Pal's so called Manta-Machine had a sort of "Electronic Eye", used to scout inside derelict buildings.

TV series
The sequel to the 1953 film rarely uses war machines, but in respect to continuity, those seen are based on Albert Nozaki's design.

Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds
The most recent film adaptation of War of the Worlds features an amazing tripod design. It is shaped like a cuttlefish, has 18 tentacles, two "heat rays" that disintegrate humans, headlights for "eyes", rubbery/tentacle legs and two baskets for storing humans.

It is evidently taller than any other adaptation (almost three times taller than the original). In this adaptation, the tripods have been waiting beneath under the ground for countless years to be activated by the returning aliens.

It has a camera-like probe for at least one tentacle. It's feet have three long "toes" extending from the "ankles". The sound it emits is very similar to the "aloo!" of the book. The Steven Spielberg tripods also have a form of energy shield like George Pal's 1953 Martian warship. They also had sprayers on their sides used to fertilize the red weed using human blood.

Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds
Perhaps the most iconic version of the fighting-machine is the Jeff Wayne's Musical version of The War of the Worlds. This is the first tripod design not to include a storage basket (which was placed instead on the handling-machine). Its weapons include two black smoke launchers and one socket joined Heat-Ray in the cupola of the hood. It is also the most chunky and heavily armoured design; although because the cockpit is immobile, one would believe it to be it is less maneuverable. After the death of the Martians; a red synthetic is pulled out of the open hood by crows.

Pendragon Pictures' H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds
Pendragon's fighting-machines are silver, with a cockpit and a retractile Heat-Ray. It has four chain-link tentacles, 3 articulate legs and a basket for storing humans. Instead of emitting the famous "Ulla" cry, it screeches a high-pitched howl.

The Asylum productions War of the Worlds
In H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, a film adaptation from The Asylum productions, the fighting-machine is a walker, but not a tripod, either. Instead it has six legs, resembling a crab. The Heat-Ray 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) through the same slot. It also has an opening atop the head through which Martians can leave the machine, as well at least one appendage that is depicted as grabbing fleeing humans. In the Asylum's sequel War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave the new walkers are tripods. 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 signal from a mothership. They also have the ability to fly.