In Other Adaptations
Orson Welles' radio adaptation dramatizes the effects of the black smoke. In fact, the poison is depicted as being potent enough to render gas masks useless, as do modern nerve gases.
The only accurate screen appearance of the black smoke is in Pendragon Pictures' film adaptation. However, the film's aliens only use the smoke twice, and it is not described in any detail.
The black smoke is briefly mentioned in the 1978 musical version, where a tripod releases it while engaging the Thunder Child and later on when the narrator is trapped in the house. Its effects are not mentioned however; this is likely the result of an earlier usage being removed at the script editing stage. This musical version featured musicians known as the Black Smoke Band.
In the 1998 PC game, the black smoke can be launched from cannons by three Martian Machine units: the Fighting Machine, the Bombarding Machine and the Tempest. The smoke deals very high, always fatal, damage to any human vehicles that come close to it. However, this version lasts for a limited time, depending on what type of canister launcher the black smoke is launched from.
The Asylum film H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds features a deadly gas, but it is green rather than black in color. The "green smoke" does appear, however, to have the same deadly effect as the black smoke; it also has the same density, since it can be escaped by climbing to higher altitudes. Whereas the novel's smoke is launched from "black tubes" attached to the machines on an arm, this smoke leaks from a small object ejected from the walkers, from the same slot from which the Heat Ray is fired. The smoke in the novel was described as an ink-like vapour, but the film's smoke is believed to be a kind of toxic gas. It is described in no detail.
In the Asylum's 2008 sequel, War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave, the black smoke is left absent, though chemical warfare is briefly mentioned. A fleet of jets, upgraded with the Martian technology left from the first film, are equipped with a kind of Heat-Ray and missiles containing mustard gas, a weapon that has only been used in warfare once before, in World War I.
The black smoke is not used in Steven Spielberg's 2005 adaptation, but was a considered addition as early as a first draft until it was dropped due to paucity of time. It is also absent from the TV series, though the aliens do make attempts at engaging in chemical warfare.
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