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Tripods or fighting-machines are a type of fictional three-legged walker from the H. G. Wells' classic science fiction novel The War of the Worlds, used by Martians to invade Earth.
Novel
The tripods walked on three legs, had metallic tentacles underneath, an appendage housing the heat-ray, and a hood-like head. H.G. Wells first describes the tripods in detail:
Seen nearer, the Thing was incredibly strange, for it was no mere insensate machine driving on its way. Machine it was, with a ringing metallic pace, and long, flexible, glittering tentacles (one of which gripped a young pine-tree) swinging and rattling about its strange body. It picked its road as it went striding along, and the brazen hood that surmounted it moved to and fro with the inevitable suggestion of a head looking about. Behind the main body was a huge mass of white metal like a gigantic fisherman's basket, and puffs of green smoke squirted out from the joints of the limbs as the monster swept by me. And in an instant it was gone.
– The War of the Worlds, Book 1, Chapter 10
Another eyewitness described them as "Boilers on stilts, I tell you, striding along like men" (Book 1, Chapter 14).
A London newspaper article in the book inaccurately described the tripods as "spider-like machines, nearly a hundred feet high, capable of the speed of an express-train, and able to shoot out a beam of intense heat" (Book 1, Chapter 14). Ironically, earlier newspaper articles under-exaggerated the Martians as being "sluggard creatures." The main character witnessed the tripods moving "with a rolling motion and as fast as flying birds" (Book 1, Chapter 12).
The tripods are armed with a Heat-Ray and black smoke, a type of poison gas.
It is still a matter of wonder how the Martians are able to slay men so swiftly and so silently. Many think that in some way they are able to generate an intense heat in a chamber of practically absolute non-conductivity. This intense heat they project in a parallel beam against any object they choose by means of a polished parabolic mirror of unknown composition, much as the parabolic mirror of a light-house projects a beam of light. But no one has absolutely proved these details. However it is done, it is certain that a beam of heat is the essence of the matter. Heat, and invisible, instead of visible light. Whatever is combustible flashes into flame at its touch, lead runs like water, it softens iron, cracks and melts glass, and when it falls upon water, incontinently that explodes into steam.
– The War of the Worlds, Book 1, Chapter 6
Their tentacles, which hang from the main body, are used as probes and to grasp objects. The tripods also sometimes carry a cage or basket which would be used to hold captives so the Martians could drain their blood. The height of the tripods is unclear, a newspaper article describes them to be over 100 feet tall (>33 m). However, they can wade through relatively high water. The HMS Thunder Child engages a trio of tripods pursuing a refugee flotilla off the coast of England.
In the book the tripods are delivered to Earth in massive cylinders, shot from a sort of gun from Mars (in Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, and in the PC game, the Martians refer to this device as a "large-scale hydrogen accelerator"). Once they arrive on Earth, the machines are soon assembled. A London newspaper article cites unnamed authorities who believed, based on the outside size of the cylinders, they carried no more than five tripods per cylinder (Book 1, Chapter 14).
The depiction of the tripods in any medium only very rarely takes in account the fact that, according to the book, the Martians had never invented the wheel and never incorporated its principle in their technology — which presumably would include mechanical joints. This is in accordance with a lack of such joints in the Martians themselves — who are tentacled invertebrates after all — but makes designing a feasible walking machine very difficult.
The original conceptual drawings for the tripod machines, drawn by Warwick Goble, accompanied the initial appearance of The War of the Worlds in Pearson's Magazine in 1897. When Wells saw these pictures, he was so displeased that he added the following text to the final version of his book:
I recall particularly the illustration of one of the first pamphlets to give a consecutive account of the war. The artist had evidently made a hasty study of one of the fighting-machines, and it was there that his knowledge ended. He presented them as tilted, stiff tripods without either flexibility or subtlety, and with an altogether misleading monotony of effect. The pamphlet containing these renderings had a considerable vogue, and I mention them here to warn the reader against the impression they may have created. They were no more like the Martians I saw in action than a Dutch doll is like a human being. To my mind, the pamphlet would have been much better without them.
Adaptations
The War of the Worlds
The Martian machines in 1953 movie The War of the Worlds are drastically different from the ones in Wells' novel. Instead of towering tripods, the Martian machines resemble sinister-looking manta rays with three electromagnetic legs, visible only when emerging from the pit made by their tapered oblate landing cylinder and later indirectly by their scorching effect on the ground. Designed by Albert Nozaki, this machine is armed with a reddish Heat-Ray — once more in keeping with the novel — mounted atop in a gooseneck device incinerating anything the ray hits.
The machines also have two weapons which fire green (rotoscoped) blobs from the tips of the wings which are called Skeleton Rays or Skeleton Beams, so named for the ghastly visual effect it has when striking a human: causing a silhouette of the victim's skeleton to become visible as it disintegrates. These weapons are immediately hypothesized authoritatively by the character Dr. Clayton Forrester to neutralize mesons, "The atomic glue holding matter together," causing the target to vaporize, usually leaving behind a black stain on the ground (either the remains or a scorching of the terrain in contact), and appear to be deployed as a long range surface weapon compared to the Heat-Ray used at closer range and against taller structures or aircraft.
These war machines do not have tentacles; presumably, the Martians in this version have no use for humans. Their tactics for advancement across the terrain bear this out, sweeping out section-by-section, "...slash[ing] across country like scythes, wiping out everything that's trying to get away from them," as described by the character of General Mann in his analysis.
The ships are also equipped with a retractable electronic eye, which is used as a probe, deployed from a round hatch on the machine's underbelly which is completely seamless at any other time. There is suggestion that the Martians are physically linked to their machines as at one point in the film, the severed probe seems to stain a piece of cloth with blood. However, because there is a continuity goof involved it is of debate that the blood may be from a recently struck Martian and not from the device. The use of this probe and subsequent physical reconnoiter (and contact) by the aforementioned Martian is the only time they show other than a homicidal interest in humans.
Another major difference is the presence of a shield resembling the jar placed over some clocks — cylindrical with a hemispherical top — that protects the machines from heavy fire, even the massive power of nuclear weapons, without even touching the machines bubbled inside.
A major difference between this film and H.G. Wells' book was that the film machines were invincible to any war machines on earth; their force field protected them even from the atomic bombs. In the book, they were vulnerable to artillery fire and a torpedo ram.
Television series
The serialized War of the Worlds TV 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.
While almost never using war machines in general, the series does reveal in one episode that these same aliens (from Mor-Tax; not Mars) did at one point use tripods in their past before evolving into the floating machines as seen in the film. This "older model" resembles the latter machines with only a few noticeable differences.
Aside from the legs, there is no visible mounted Heat-Ray; however, where the latter models have a green window in its front, the tripods have an orange/red colored window (framed in blue circle) that, coupled with its pulsating glow, suggests that it is a cruder version of their Heat-Ray and is built into the body of the machine. Whether it is a Heat-Ray, or what other weaponry this model possesses is unknown. While the new models are reminiscent of a swan, the tripods seem more inspired by an insect, both in its (briefly seen) movement as well as the sound it emits. The TV series also gives insight into the machines, referred to both by humans and aliens alike as ships. In "The Resurrection", the interior of the machines are seen to be lit by cold colors of blue and black (with only a sliver of neon green). The machines have an on-board computer that the aliens can communicate with even when distanced by location and time, and even with relatively primitive equipment
When asked how the aliens make the machines fly, Dr. Blackwood refers to Dr. Forrester's unconfirmed speculation that they are able to use brainwave impulses. This is given credibility when three aliens later take possession of the tripod. From inside, it can be seen that there is no obvious physical means of operation; instead, the three are simply seated back-to-back, a formation seen quite commonly among the aliens throughout the season, frequently in a state of some type of shared mental exercise (though what this practice is exactly is never detailed in the series). A similar seating construction appears to be present in the later machines with the device clearly identified as the computer placed in the center.
Information given in the show also suggests that deflector shields were not used until the 1953 invasion, after a recon mission proved that humanity had the means of effectively damaging their machines. The limited strength of their unprotected warships is also suggested by the fact that two or more of them were downed by a militia of no more than just 38 men. Curiously, a late episode features a mysterious pod of theirs found that is made of an element that is, by all accounts, virtually indestructible.
The pod in question appears to have to no weaponry and can only seat a single alien. Its purpose is not given, leaving its connection to the invasion and the aliens' technological progress unknown.
H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (2005 film)
In H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds by Pendragon Pictures, the tripod design is based on the praying mantis insect, which according to Timothy Hines was one of H.G. Wells’s favorite insects[citation needed]. The tripod has a free moving head as depicted, the head fits into a slot on the main body section, where the neck extends giving a better view around the area. It has four metallic tentacles, with numerous joints making it look more machine-like, that are mainly used to grab humans during the film. The machine has long stilt-like legs which occasionally move with the right and rear leg moving forward at the same time. The Heat-Ray appears on the top of tripod head as a round mirror on a metallic arm, and when the mirror rotates at fast speed it begins to emit incredible heat with a range of over 2 miles. The black smoke is emitted from the tips of the tentacles of the Martian machine in the form of a spray instead of the cannon-like device firing shells used in the book version. The tripod also has a basket on the rear to place the captured humans in, but the basket looks more like a bucket.
H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds (2005 film)
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 single entity from a mothership. They also have the ability to fly.
War of the Worlds (2005 film)
There are several differences between the tripods as described in Wells' book and those in Steven Spielberg's 2005 film, which come from an undisclosed planet. In this version, the tripods have long been brought to Earth, having been buried underground in its past. The aliens, instead, travel by something resembling lightning (from where or what is unknown), transported underground to the machines. The unearthing of the first machine suggests, however, that it may have also been kept in something similar to a cylinder. In an interview, screenwriter David Koepp stated his belief that they were planted long ago by the extraterrestrials as a part of a "contingency plan." The features of the tripods also differ as they do not possess the black smoke and are equipped with some type of invisible energy shield which becomes visible when struck, although nothing can penetrate them. They are equipped with two Heat-Ray-like weapons which incinerate humans to ash and leaving the victim's clothing behind, while destroying and burning everything else. They also have several searchlights mounted on the front of them. Of particular note, in this film's version the tripod's legs are completely non-machine-like in their appearance and movement. They have no visible mechanical joints or pivot-points, and propel themselves by truly "walking" over any terrain. Spielberg's tripods also emit loud, deep bellows, which seem to be a means of calling to other tripods, similar to how they are described at one point in the novel. The sounds consist of one 113 Hz blast (between A2 and A#2 on the musical scale) for 3 seconds, followed by a 136 Hz blast (near C#3) for 3 seconds. They are also equipped with tentacles for capturing humans (and two cages for temporary holding) as well as a probe to search abandoned buildings and locations which the tripods are unable to reach. There are several cosmetic differences between the Tripods seen at the beginning of the movie and the tripod the main characters are captured in near the end. Additionally, the tripods have a tentacle used as a pipette to drain human blood, which is then sprayed as fertilizer to aid the spread of the red weed. Similar to the book, the tripods appear to emit some kind of green smoke before arming the Heat-Ray, although this may only be dust and steam from clearing the vents.
The lethality of the tripods can be summed up in a phrase spoken in the film (a paraphrase of a line from the 1953 film): "Once the tripods start to move, no more news comes out of that area."
Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds
The tripods are illustrated on the album artwork of Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, painted by Michael Trim. However, this design does have some inconsistencies from Wells' description in his novel such as the Heat-Ray being in the cupola rather than being held separately in a mechanical arm, the cage to hold captured humans being used by the handling-machines instead of the fighting-machines, and the "cowl" (cockpit) of the fighting-machine static instead of separately rotating.
Parallel and sequel novels
In Kevin J. Anderson' The Martian War 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, the tripods 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.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The second volume of the comic book The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen retells the story of The War of the Worlds, and thus, the tripods are prominently featured. These tripods are more organic-looking, with long, curving heads almost resembling a queen Xenomorph from Aliens. Otherwise, they match up well with the tripods from the original novel; they have the Heat-Ray and baskets for captured humans.
One notable point about this particular adaptation is that it gives voice to an issue which has plagued moviemakers over the years: namely, that a tripodal structure has no analog with bipedal or (normal) quadrupedal locomotion (though kangaroos do sometimes use their thick tails as a third leg). The character Edward Hyde, whilst attacking a tripod by clinging on to its leg, asks it "...I'm no engineer and correct me if I'm mistaken, but don't you have rather a design flaw in these things? Now, don't get me wrong: God created a lot of useless, stupid-looking things on this world too, but he didn't see fit to make any of them three-legged. Why was that, do you think?" The superhumanly-strong character then brings down the tripod by ripping off one of its legs. It should be noted though, that two legs are certainly less stable than three.
Influence on later fiction
Alien tripod war machines have appeared in several novels, movies, video games and television series.
A trilogy of novels by Samuel Youd (under the pen name "John Christopher") called The Tripods, is heavily influenced by H. G. Wells. The novels provide a type of alternate ending to the H. G. Wells story, whereby the tripods succeed in their invasion. Samuel Youd's Tripods, however, are very different from those found in the works of H. G. Wells. In Youd's trilogy the tripods do not come from Mars, but another distant world. Also, these tripods do not consume humans or feature weapons, but are used instead to control the human civilization with a "cap" or metallic grid attached to the scalp. Large cities, science and technology are no longer part of the human civilization; humans are forced to live in small rural communities. The main feature of these tripods is a large arm that is extended from the base of the tripod's head and used to lift humans into the head, predominantly for the purposes of capping.
The Tripods was later made into a BBC TV serial, which ran for two series but was cancelled before the three-part story was completed.
In Larry Niven's Rainbow Mars, time travelers from the 31st century passing through the late 1800s observe the Martian tripods attack a Brazilian city.
The tripods also inspired the AT-AT, AT-ST and other walkers in the Star Wars space opera franchise. They were parodied in the movie Scary Movie 4 as a giant iPod (a "triPod") playing an 80s music playlist before switching to the 'destroy humanity' playlist and transforming into an actual tripod from the 2005 film.[1]
Creatures and machines similar to the tripod are featured in many video games, such as the Striders from Half-Life 2[2] and their companions, the Hunters from Crysis and its sequels and spin-offs; Annihilator Tripods from Command & Conquer 3[3]; Colossi from Starcraft 2; Science Walkers and Defilers from Universe at War, and Darkwalkers, which use rays and emit a similar noise, from Unreal Tournament 3.
Alien tripod mecha have appear in many animated movies and series, for example in the three-part pilot of the Justice League; the Japanese animated film Be Forever Yamato; in episodes of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, 'Ed, Edd, n Eddy and Kim Possible, as well as (albeit based on automotive spark plugs, and with four legs) in a daydream sequence in the 2006 film Cars. In the Japanese anime Space Runaway Ideon, several of the Buff Clan's heavy mecha have three legs, inspired by the Tripods.
In the movie Scary Movie 4, which parodies the War of the Worlds remake along with other scary movies, the tripods arrive on Earth in the form of iPods, which play "Karma Chameleon", before morphing into tripods and attacking the populace.
Issues #7 and #12 of the Sonic X comic book feature a three-legged alien machine reminiscent of a Tripod. The machine is armed with laser weapons & shields, and goes on destructive rampages when activated. However, the origins of the craft has not yet been explained.
The Mechwarrior collectible miniatures game also has its own version of the tripods, called the Ares. Developed under the fictional "Rhodes Project", the 135-ton mechs closely resemble the tripods in the Steven Spielberg version, except that their legs are more squat and robust. Their names are also adapted from prominent Greek gods (Hera, Hades, Zeus, Poseidon).
Footnotes
- ^ "Synopsis for Scary Movie 4". Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0362120/synopsis. Retrieved 2009-05-11.
- ^ Ben Bowen (24 December 2004). "Half-Life 2 review". Just Adventure. http://www.justadventure.com/reviews/HL2/HL2b.shtm. Retrieved 2009-05-11.
- ^ Alec Meer (26 March, 2007). "Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars Review". Eurogamer. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/command-and-conquer-3-tiberium-wars-review. Retrieved 2009-05-11.
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