Popular Culture Review Vol. 15, No. 1 | Page 63

Bombs Away and Smash Hits at Home 59 atomic moment, though sloppier and noisier than the trench warfare that preceded it, is no mushroom cloud. It is quite harmless to those present for its detonation and, more significantly, entirely powerless against the protective shields of the Martian-mobiles. The Martians continue on their widening path of destruction, and the scientists must turn to other means to combat them successfully. Thus the Martians, as in the traditional warfare scene, present a “red menace” which must be attacked and vanquished, yet move toward the pole of ultra-metonym, of an enemy so alien and removed from earthly culture that even earth-destroying weapons have no effect upon it. Ultimately, the Pacific Tech physicists experiment on a vanquished Martian body and discover its immune system to be entirely primitive as compared to that of humans. Although the discovery is important, it comes too late for mere mortals to enact a plan exploiting it; by this time, city after city has fallen, nations lie in ruins, and Sylvia and Clayton become separated during a chaotic urban panic scene. His recollection that Sylvia always said she would seek refuge in church in such an event is significant; Clayton’s tour of various impressive, Gothic cathedrals prepares the viewer for the advent of Him, actually the authoritative voiceover of Sir Cedric Hardwicke, revealing what God has caused to transpire: Once they had breathed our air, germs that no longer affect us began to kill them. . . .After all that men could do had failed, the Martians were destroyed and humanity was saved by the littlest things which v