What Are You REALLY Scared Of When It Comes To Disaster Films?
From Titanic to Sharknado, we look back at some classic disaster films and work out the real fears they capitalised on.
War of the Worlds (2005)
Ostensible fear: Alien invasion.
Actual fear: Women.
It would be easy to say the alien invasion was a metaphor for the atomic bomb, wouldn’t it? But presuming that this film is all about the kind of devastation nuclear war brings would be like saying True Detective is just about the business of police work (which kind of turned out to be accurate… Okay, bad example). When really, I think we can all agree that War of the Worlds is 100%, absolutely about a male fear of menstruation.
Tom Cruise wants to protect his daughter from the pain and destruction of the future, particularly upon the arrival of the ‘red weed’ – yes, really – but is ultimately powerless in its wake. Men fall victim to the womb of the weed (or are driven mad by it), but eventually Tom Cruise throws a belt of grenades at the problem and hopes for the best. The red weed begins to die, the family is back together again and Tom Cruise never has to think about it or see it ever, ever again.
