Wells flipped that pride on its head.
H.G. Wells’ masterpiece is 125 years old, but its Martian invaders have never felt more relevant. La guerra de los mundos
Think about it: The Martians are technologically superior. They see humans the way Europeans saw Indigenous peoples in Tasmania, Africa, and the Americas: as inferior, savage, and worthy of extermination. The Martian heat ray is the Maxim gun. The Black Smoke is the forced relocation of entire populations. The harvesting of human blood is the extraction of resources. Wells flipped that pride on its head
Our narrator is not a hero. He doesn’t save the day. He runs, hides, and sometimes acts selfishly. He abandons a man to the Martians. Modern storytelling has moved away from the invincible hero and toward the broken survivor. The War of the Worlds did that first. Final Thoughts: The Good News and the Bad News The good news of La guerra de los mundos is that humanity survives. The Martians die. The narrator reunites with his wife. London is rebuilt. Think about it: The Martians are technologically superior
But now? Now we know better.
The final line is devastatingly humble: “The strain of the anger and terror was over. But the torment of the knowledge of our own utter weakness remained.” Here is where La guerra de los mundos transcends pulp fiction. H.G. Wells was a socialist and a sharp critic of the British Empire. At the time he wrote the novel, Britain was at the height of its imperial power. The phrase “The sun never sets on the British Empire” was a point of national pride.
Modern adaptations—from Steven Spielberg’s 2005 film (with Tom Cruise) to Jeff Wayne’s 1978 musical version (yes, a prog-rock musical)—have played with the design. But the core remains: the tripod is the opposite of human technology. It doesn't roll on wheels or fly with wings. It walks . It is alien, mechanical, and animal all at once.