'War Of The Worlds Revival' Ending Explained: Is Goliath Destroyed?

War of the Worlds: Revival’s ending revealed the exact reason why the super-intelligence invaded Earth. William “Will” Radford, who worked as a domestic terrorism analyst for Homeland Security, learned that these extraterrestrial hybrid organisms (biological and cyber) were after our most precious resource, our data. But don’t ask why these aliens were so interested in people’s Facebook images or the items in their Amazon cart, because I am quite certain that not even the makers of this chamber drama gave it a thought. I mean, a cyber-adaptation of H. G. Wells’ famous novel is indeed an interesting premise, but in the end, nothing makes sense really. You can see these aliens can be seen as an allegory for corporations, governments, and artificial intelligence developers that want to steal our private data so they can better understand user behavior and create a personalized leash to rule over us, without us actually realizing that we are being controlled by an invisible hand. But none of it really matters, because the aliens weren’t able to fulfill their true objective. Will destroyed them with a biological virus that ended the alien invasion for good. However, the government, and the multinationals, are still a threat, so beware. With that said, allow me to take a deep dive into everything that went down in War of the Worlds: Revival’s ending.

Spoiler Alert

First thing first, Disruptor, the anonymous hacker DHS was looking for, was none other than than Will’s son, David, who, with a team of rebels, wanted to expose the government’s top-secret surveillance program, Goliath, through which they wanted to invade everyone’s personal lives and use anything found against them, if needed. I mean, some presidential candidates have already tried that trick to rig the election, so nothing new there. Coming back to the story, David, while collecting information about the DHS’s top-secret program, came across some classified documents that suggested these extraterritorial sightings started the moment the government initiated the data collection program in 1948. The authorities and those in power always knew these aliens had been keeping an eye on us for a long time, and would try to attack us if they greenlit Goliath, the mass data collection server. Everyone was against the program, yet NSA Director Donald Briggs activated the program to trigger the alien invasion. They travelled through the galaxy to steal our data, and there was no way humanity could stop them, because these hybrid organisms had breached into government and military servers and emptied the data, thereby disabling all the weapons we had against them. Humanity was on the brink of destruction when Will and David came up with a plan to infect these machines with an old-school “Rabbit Virus.” However, their first attempt fell flat, as these weren’t basically cyber machines but hybrid organisms that could only be destroyed by a biological virus, not a computer virus. Coincidentally, Will’s daughter, Faith, who worked as a biologist, had created a cannibal code that reprograms DNA to attack cancerous cells. Faith’s fiancé, Mark Goodman, theorized that if they could just reprogram the alien DNA to cannibalize itself, it would destroy all these machines and put an end to the threat. Well, that was what David did; he created a cannibal virus and sent it to Will, locked inside the DHS building where the Goliath server was located. And as soon as Will got the thumb drive through an “Amazon” drone piloted by their delivery agent, Mark, Will quickly went inside the server room and plugged the virus into Goliath’s servers, which were being eaten up by the extraterrestrial machines. For a moment, it seemed like Will lost his life in the suicide mission, but conveniently enough, he didn’t suffer so much as a scratch. The same way Faith survived and didn’t faint for a second even after losing so much blood from a leg wound. Oh sorry, her fiancé had wrapped the wound with tape; I guess doctors should consider that too in the future. Amazon packing tape is the best thing to come out of this film.

Coming back to War of the Worlds: Revival’s ending, the aliens finally ate the cannibal virus and malfunctioned. Will destroyed the machines before they could empty the data on Goliath and therefore B-2 stealth bombers which were about to blow up DHS building, immediately aborted the mission. Will and his “entire” family saved humanity, and it was a happy ending for everyone except for those who lost their lives in the alien invasion, but they are just numbers on the screen. Secretary of Defense Walter Crystal wanted to rehire Will to pioneer a new data collecting protocol, but he refused to be a part of it. He didn’t want to be a government puppet anymore, and would now work as a Disruptor with his son to keep a watch on the government and expose them if they tried to invade people’s privacy again. Will and his family had only exposed one of their surveillance weapons, but we all know that there are many more out there. Hence, even though the external threat has been neutralized, the widescale invasion of privacy is still happening, which Will and his son, David, may deal with in the sequel to the film, if there is one.

Speaking of the sequel, I don’t think the aliens will be sending another horde of their evil machines to the planet, considering Goliath was deactivated. However, if mankind unleashes other mass data collecting weapons again, or triggers the same machine a second time, then we can expect them to return for some data dinner in the sequel. So fingers crossed.

In a way, both Briggs and Will were doing the same thing. I mean, their intentions were different, but they both invaded people’s privacy. Briggs wanted to collect data on each and every citizen so he could control their lives, while Will was constantly keeping tabs on his children so he could protect them. His late wife, Erika, who died of some terminal illness, had left him a voice note on Facebook asking him to look after the kids. Will took the message to heart and became an overprotective father who hacked into his children’s mobile phones and computers to spy on them. Well, he tried to explain that he wanted to protect them from perils, but they had a right to privacy, just like any other citizen, and this was something both Briggs and Will needed to understand. But because Briggs was the bad guy, he stuck to his evil ideas and did everything in his power to protect his dream project. In the end, Will uploaded a video on the Disruptor YouTube channel and exposed him and his evil machine to the world. This further suggests that even if Goliath wasn’t destroyed during the alien impact, then the government would have no choice but to discontinue the project. Either way, Briggs had activated it against the wishes of his superiors. 

Meanwhile, Will, being the hero, had a change of heart and learned his lesson. He understood the fact that his children had grown up and wanted their dad to meet them, visit them, and interact with them, not keep an eye on them from afar like a CCTV camera. They wanted him to get involved in their lives, not invade them from his computer desk. Thankfully, Will came to realize that his children weren’t babies anymore. They had become adults who could make their own decisions in life and knew the difference between right and wrong, which meant he should stop prying into their lives and start interacting with them outside the digital world. In the end, he even enlisted their help to stop the invasion (both internal and external) that earned both his kids the recognition they deserved. David and Will were hailed as “heroes for privacy rights” all over the social media, while all legacy media posted about Faith’s experimental vaccine that saved the world. Hopefully, she would receive more government funding to continue her research in the field and make parents proud. And last but not the least, the grumpy distant father finally became a part of the family again and even attended Faith’s baby shower. Well, that was a win for sure.