Tripod (The War of the Worlds)
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The fighting machine (also known as "Tripod") is one of the fictional machines used by the
Martians Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, has appeared as a setting in works of fiction since at least the mid-1600s. It became the most popular celestial object in fiction in the late 1800s as the Moon was evidently lifeless. At the time, the pred ...
in H.G. Wells' 1898 classic science fiction novel ''
The War of the Worlds ''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by ''Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and by ''Cosmopolitan (magazine), Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US. The novel's first appear ...
''. In the novel, it is a fast-moving, three-legged
walker Walker or The Walker may refer to: People *Walker (given name) *Walker (surname) *Walker (Brazilian footballer) (born 1982), Brazilian footballer Places In the United States *Walker, Arizona, in Yavapai County *Walker, Mono County, California * ...
, reported to be 100 feet tall, with multiple whip-like tentacles used for grasping, and two lethal weapons: the
Heat-Ray The Martians, also known as the Invaders, are the fictional race of extraterrestrials from the H.G. Wells 1898 novel ''The War of the Worlds''. They are the main antagonists of the novel, and their efforts to exterminate the populace of the Ear ...
and a gun-like tube used for discharging canisters of a poisonous chemical black smoke that kills humans and animals. It is the primary machine the Martians use when they invade Earth, along with the handling machine, the flying machine, and the embankment machine.


Description in the Novel

The fighting machines walk on three tall, articulated legs and have a grouping of long, whip-like metallic tentacles hanging beneath the central body, a single flexible appendage holding the heat-ray projector, and atop the main body a brazen hood-like head that houses a sole Martian operator. "Chapter 10: 'The War of the Worlds' by H.G. Wells." ''Wikisource''. Retrieved: January 31, 2015. The fighting machines are armed with a heat-ray, which is fired by a camera-like device held by an articulated arm, and a chemical weapon known as "the black smoke", a poison gas which is deployed from gun tubes. The fighting machines can also discharge steam through nozzles that dissipates the black smoke, which then settles as an inert, powdery substance. The metallic tentacles, which hang below the main fighting machine body, are used as probes and to grasp objects. The height of the fighting machines is unclear; a newspaper article describes them to be more than tall. HMS ''Thunder Child'', a
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
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 com ...
, engages a trio of tripods that are pursuing a refugee flotilla heading to France from the southeast English coast; the ''Thunder Child'' is eventually destroyed by the Martian heat-ray, but not before taking out two fighting machines. The original conceptual drawings for the fighting machines, drawn by
Warwick Goble Warwick Goble (22 November 1862 – 22 January 1943) was a British illustrator of children's books. He was educated and trained at the City of London School and the Westminster School of Art. He specialized in fairy tales and exotic scenes fr ...
, accompanied the initial appearance of ''The War of the Worlds'' in ''Pearson's Magazine'' in 1897.


Adaptations


''The War of the Worlds'' (1953 film)

The Martian fighting machines, designed by Albert Nozaki for
George Pal George Pal (born György Pál Marczincsak; ; February 1, 1908 – May 2, 1980) was a Hungarian-American animator, film director and producer, principally associated with the fantasy and science-fiction genres. He became an American citizen after ...
's 1953 Paramount film ''
The War of the Worlds ''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by ''Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and by ''Cosmopolitan (magazine), Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US. The novel's first appear ...
,'' barely resemble the same machines in the
H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''
War of the Worlds ''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by '' Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and by ''Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US. The novel's first appearance in hardcover was i ...
'' (1988–1990) television 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. An older model of the 1953 film's craft is shown to have physical legs more similar to the novel version.


''War of the Worlds'' (2005 film)

There are several differences between the fighting machines as described in Wells' novel and those in
Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spie ...
's 2005 film, which come from an undisclosed alien world. In this version the tripods were long ago brought to Earth, having been buried underground sometime in its distant past. The aliens instead travel in capsules to their buried machines, which transport them underground. In a published interview screenwriter
David Koepp David Koepp (; born June 9, 1963) is an American filmmaker. Koepp is the ninth most successful screenwriter of all time in terms of U.S. box office receipts with a total gross of over $2.3 billion. Koepp has achieved both critical and commercial ...
stated his belief that they were planted by these extraterrestrials as a part of some kind of alien "contingency plan" (said plan never being revealed to the audience).


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

In Pendragon Pictures' direct-to-DVD '' H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds'' the tripods have a large, free-moving head atop the smaller main body, giving its sole Martian occupant a panoramic view. It has three thick, metallic tentacles, which are held on high, made up of boxy-looking segments, making them appear like large bicycle chains rather than slim and whip-like, as described in Wells' novel; they are used mainly to capture humans during the film. The tripods have three long, ridged, and stilt-like legs, which occasionally stride with the right and rear leg moving forward together in a clumsy, unconvincing manner.


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

In the Asylum's 2008 sequel '' War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave'', the walkers are tripods called ''squid-walkers'', and are capable of flight. Unlike the first film, the Martians do not control the fighting machines directly from the inside but manipulate
cyborgs A cyborg ()—a portmanteau of ''cybernetic'' and ''organism''—is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.
by remote control. A heat-ray is attached to the walkers, as well as a kind of ray that teleports humans directly to the alien mothership, where humans are then drained of their blood to feed the invaders. Whereas Wells' fighting machines carried cages to hold captured humans, these tripods place humans directly into the tripods' interiors. These appear organic, with no windows or controls, and the walls absorb anyone unlucky enough to touch them, sending them to an unknown destination.


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

The fighting machines are described in Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds and depicted on the album artwork painted by Michael Trim. This version of the tripods does have major inconsistencies when compared to Wells' description in the novel. However, these tripods are popular with fans of the novel.


Parallel and sequel novels

In
Kevin J. Anderson Kevin James Anderson (born March 27, 1962) is an American science fiction author. He has written spin-off novels for ''Star Wars'', ''StarCraft'', ''Titan A.E.'' and ''The X-Files literature#Novels, The X-Files'', and with Brian Herbert is the ...
' ''
The Martian War ''The Martian War: A Thrilling Eyewitness Account of the Recent Invasion As Reported by Mr. H.G. Wells'' is a 2005 science fiction novel by American writer Kevin J. Anderson, published under his pseudonym Gabriel Mesta. It is a retelling of H. ...
'' 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 ''Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds'' is a sequel to H. G. Wells's science fiction novel ''The War of the Worlds'', written by Manly Wade Wellman and his son Wade Wellman, and published in 1975. It is a pastiche crossover which combines H. G. ...
'', the fighting machines 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.


Influence on later fiction

Creatures and machines similar to the fighting machines are featured in video games, such as the Annihilator Tripods from ''
Command & Conquer 3 ''Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars'' is a 2007 science fiction real-time strategy video game developed and published by Electronic Arts for Windows, Mac OS X and Xbox 360 platforms, and released internationally in March 2007. The game is a dir ...
,'' or the Striders from
Half-Life Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable ato ...


Coinage

In 2021 the
Royal Mint The Royal Mint is the United Kingdom's oldest company and the official maker of British coins. Operating under the legal name The Royal Mint Limited, it is a limited company that is wholly owned by His Majesty's Treasury and is under an exclus ...
announced a new version of the UK two pound coin in tribute to H.G. Wells. The coins bear an image of a Martian Fighting Machine with four instead of three legs, and
The Invisible Man ''The Invisible Man'' is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells. Originally serialized in '' Pearson's Weekly'' in 1897, it was published as a novel the same year. The Invisible Man to whom the title refers is Griffin, a scientist who has devo ...
wearing the wrong style hat, resulting in derision from fans and collectors of Wells' work.


References


Notes


Bibliography

* Dalby, Richard. ''The Golden Age of Children's Book Illustration''. New York: Gallery Books, 1991, . * Edge, Laura Bufano. ''Steven Spielberg: Director of Blockbuster Films''. New York: Publishers, Inc., 2008. . * Hagerty, Jack and Jon Rogers. ''The Saucer Fleet''. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Apogee Books, 2008. . * Morris, Nigel. ''The Cinema of Steven Spielberg: Empire of Light''. New York: Wallflower Press, Columbia University, 2007. . * Rubin, Steve. "The War of the Worlds." ''
Cinefantastique ''Cinefantastique'' is an American horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine. History The magazine originally started as a mimeographed fanzine in 1967, then relaunched as a glossy, offset printed quarterly in 1970 by publisher/editor ...
'' magazine, Volume 5, No. 4 1977. * Vander Hook, Sue. ''Steven Spielberg: Groundbreaking Director''. Edina, Minnesota: ABDO, 2009. . * Warren, Bill. ''Keep Watching The Skies'' Vol I: 1950–1957. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 1982. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Fighting machine (The War of the Worlds) The War of the Worlds Science fiction film characters Literary villains Fictional mecha Extraterrestrial supervillains