10 Movies That Relied On Deus Ex Machina

War of the Worlds was based on the 1898 novel by H. G. Wells, and while updating to a more contemporary setting, it retained the original themes and ending.

Aliens appear on Earth following multiple lightning strikes, and proceed to use futuristic weapons to destroy everyone and everything in their path. They also have impenetrable forcefield shields that make them impervious to any human attacks. They start to cultivate red vegetation which they use human bodies to fertilize, and it looks like they are set to wipe out humanity and take over the planet.

When all hope is lost, suddenly the plants start to die, the alien tripods collapse and their shields disappear, meaning they can be destroyed with anti-tank missiles. A sick alien staggers out of one of the hatches and dies, and it is revealed that their immune systems couldn’t cope with the billions of microbes on Earth and were killed by bacteria.

While this is a lovely sentiment that nature always finds a way to protect and repair itself, from a plot point of view, the humans had no way of surviving until they were miraculously saved by this convenient alien weakness. It is a deus ex machina ending because they did nothing to earn their survival.