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The story opens with Brooklyn dock worker Ray Ferrier finishing the third shift in the morning. His ex-wife Mary Anne and her new wealthy husband Tim drop off Ray's 10-year-old daughter Rachel and teenage son Robbie at Ray's house. They are staying with him in Bayonne, New Jersey, while Tim and Mary Anne visit her parents in Boston for the weekend. Later that day, Ray wakes up from a nap and Rachel tells him that Robbie has stolen his car and left.

Ray sets out to find him, but is immediately distracted by a strange wall cloud. It begins to unleash EMPs repeatedly in the same area a short distance from Ray's house. The EMPs disable all of the working electronic devices in the area, including cars, leaving everyone stranded. Ray finds Robbie, and he tells him to take care of Rachel while he goes to investigate where the EMPs hit. He tells a fellow mechanic to change the solenoid of the car that he is repairing. Ray and many other people find a mysteriously cold hole from which a large Tripod machine quickly emerges, and then begins to vaporize the human beings in its path. The Tripods also seize some people, imprisoning them in a metal cage located where the legs join the main fuselage. Ray runs from the scene back to his house. After packing food, Ray and his kids abandon their home and steal the only operating vehicle in town, due to his advice of changing the solenoid in the car.

They drive to Tim's large house, where they take refuge in the basement for the night. During the night, a tripod disables a large airplane that crashes into the development, demolishing all of the houses. In the morning Ray has a brief conversation with a small news team, who show video footage to Ray of the lightning in the previous "storm". The woman shows it in slow-motion and he sees what they believe to be a pod, with the aliens "riding" with the lightning into the ground where the Tripod machines were buried. The woman believes the Tripods were buried in the earth since before the rise of humanity. The news crew decides to leave after hearing a horn blast of a nearby Tripod. Ray takes Rachel in his hands and tells her to look only at his face and nowhere else in order not to see what happened during the night. Ray and his family drive towards Boston. At one point they stop in order for Rachel to go to the bathroom. She runs to the river, but there she sees bodies being brought by the river. Ray comes to her and closes her eyes in order not to see anything. When army passes nearby, Robbie wants them to take him with them but none of them listens to him. He has an argument with Ray. Later Ray asks Robbie to drive the car to sleep a little. In the evening their van is seized by a mob. Ray is able to escape by firing a small revolver that he brought from his house, but the vehicle is eventually stolen by another man who took Ray's revolver after it was dropped down and who kills the man attempting to drive the van and takes his place. Ray and his children surrender the vehicle and continue on foot. They reach a Hudson River ferry in Athens, New York, but three Tripods appear over the horizon. The ferry moves off, but another Tripod hiding underwater tips the ferry over and many on board fall victim to more tripods. Tripods are catching those in the water and taking them aboard. Ray, Robbie, and Rachel escape and swim to safety. Shivering, the trio witness refugees running over the hill across the Hudson a few miles away being attacked by Tripods. They escape as they see the town of Athens being destroyed.

Later, they come across American military forces somewhere in Massachusetts, trying to keep the Tripods back but ultimately fruitless effort as the alien machines are protected by force-fields. Although their weapons are ineffective, the Marine Corps delays its advance so the refugees can escape. Robbie wants to witness the battle and Ray reluctantly lets him go in order to save Rachel from being taken away by a married couple nearby.(Ray left her there and ordered to not go anywhere in order for him to reach Robbie.) The woman tries to convince her to come with them, telling her husband she can't leave her there alone. In the ensuing chaos an enormous firebomb erupts and the entire military platoon is wiped out. Robbie is separated from Ray and Rachel and they fear he is dead.

Immediately following the battle, Ray and Rachel are offered shelter in a basement by a man named Harlan Ogilvy who lost his family to the Tripods. The invaders settle close to the house where the trio is hiding and tensions start to emerge between Ogilvy, who wants to strike back at the aliens, and Ray, who is preoccupied with his own safety and that of his daughter. Ray wants to hide until the invaders move off to a different area. Meanwhile the invaders begin spreading a strange "red weed", which appears to be a mysterious plant synthesized from the blood of harvested humans.

From the start Ogilvy exhibits signs of mental stress. Later that night a Tripod probe invades the basement, where the three manage to escape detection. A small contingent of aliens then enters and explores the house, even examining photographs of their human prey while Ray struggles to stop Ogilvy from attacking the aliens, until a siren emitted by the Tripod summons them to return. Ogilvy cracks mentally after witnessing one of the Tripods harvesting blood and tissues from a helpless human victim. Ray, concerned that the commotion Ogilvy is creating might draw the attention of the invaders to himself and his daughter, is forced to murder Ogilvy to silence him. Ray and Rachel fall asleep, but are awakened as a probe enters the basement and sights Rachel. Ray attacks the probe with an axe and the probe retreats, while Rachel flees the house.

Ray attempts to find Rachel, but he is attacked by a Tripod. He tries to find safety in a truck, but the truck is tossed upside-down by the Tripod. While upside down, Ray sees Rachel standing on the ground harsh and screaming as the Tripod heads toward her. As Ray escapes, he finds Rachel being pulled into a metal cage on the Tripod along with other humans. The Tripod seems not to care about Ray anymore and so Ray heads to a nearby HMMWV where he finds a pack of hand grenades. He throws a grenade at one of the Tripod's legs, but its shield deflects the blast. Now the Tripod has its attention on him, however, and Ray is then placed into the same cage as Rachel, where he finds her in shock. Ray is grabbed by a mechanism that attempts to pull him into the body of the Tripod to certain death, when a soldier and others valiantly fight to keep him out of the clutches of the device. After the group successfully saves Ray, it is revealed that he left two grenades into the Tripod. The grenades detonate, causing a multitude of explosions in the Tripod, destroying it entirely. The cage lands on the ground and everyone in it escapes.

After they are freed, Ray and his daughter continue to move towards Boston. It is there that they find that all the "red weed" is dying, along with other Tripods. He notices that the shields are not active when he realizes birds are flying near and landing on one still-living Tripod, so he tells a soldier. The soldiers attack the Tripod with Javelin missile launchers. The Tripod topples to the ground, disgorges a revolting cargo of blood-colored liquid, and the alien invaders inside are found to be dying as well. With the threat over, Ray finally brings Rachel to Mary Anne and Tim at Mary Anne's parent's house, where she has been waiting for them - along with their son Robbie. Mary Anne thanks Ray while hugging Rachel, and she seems grateful to Ray for all he has done.

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