Falling Skies is an American post-apocalyptic science fiction television series, created by Robert Rodat and executive produced by Steven Spielberg. The series stars Noah Wyle as Tom Mason, a former history professor who becomes the third-in-command (under Captain Weaver and retired United States Army Colonel Porter) of the Massachusetts Militia Regiment, a paramilitary group of remnant US military personnel, military veterans, civilians and various fighters fleeing Boston, US, following an alien invasion that devastated Earth. The series also stars Moon Bloodgood, Drew Roy, Jessy Schram, Maxim Knight, Seychelle Gabriel, Peter Shinkoda, Mpho Koaho, Connor Jessup, Will Patton, Sarah Carter, Colin Cunningham, Doug Jones and Scarlett Byrne.
The series, a production of DreamWorks Television—and from 2014 to 2015, being a production from Spielberg's Amblin Television—was broadcast in the United States on the cable channel TNT, and in Canada on Super Channel (first-run broadcasts) and on Space (second-run broadcasts on a one-year delay). The series premiered on June 19, 2011. On July 18, 2014, TNT renewed the show for a 10-episode fifth and final season, which started on June 28, 2015, and concluded on August 30, 2015.
On January 1, 2026, Falling Skies was added to Netflix for streaming.
Over its run, the series was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Special Visual Effects, and 14 Saturn Awards including three nominations for Best Television Presentation and one for Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series.
Series overview
Falling Skies begins six months after an alien invasion of Earth, where in the early days, the invaders neutralized the world's power grid and technology, defeated and largely destroyed all the world's militaries, and killed over 90 percent of the human population by destroying all of the world's major cities and capitals. The remaining 700 million humans, spread across the planet, continue to be killed by the alien invaders on an ongoing basis.
The aliens include mechanical attack drones called "mechs"; a species of six-legged beings known as "Skitters" that appear to control the mechs; and a mysterious species known as the Overlords, or "Espheni", the latter presumably the actual engineers and masterminds behind the invasion and Skitters' masters.
The aliens' objectives are not explained until the fourth season. They plan to extract helium-3 from Earth's moon to power their technology and to use humanity as an enslaved frontline military force in their war against another alien race. To do this, the invaders round up children between the ages of 8 and 18 to each of whom a biomechanical mind control harness will be attached to their spine. Forcibly removing it generally kills the child, but midway through the first season, a surgical method is developed that allows a harness to be safely removed, leaving in place the "spikes" that connected the harness to the spinal column. The fifth season reveals through an Espheni communication device (which Ben, who has the spikes, can interact with by touching it) that the Overlords have a Queen. In the series finale, the Queen explains that the invasion upon which the entire series is based is the result of a prior Espheni attempt to invade Earth, which is the only habitable planet in this galaxy and thus of immeasurable strategic importance. Her beloved daughter led that invasion 1550 years ago, but the Espheni underestimated humanity and the invasion was stopped. The Queen's daughter was killed and eaten, so the Queen swore to wipe out humanity in revenge.
The story follows a group of survivors who band together to fight back. They call themselves the "2nd Mass", an allusion to the historical regiment from the Continental Army. The group is led by retired United States Army Colonel Dan Weaver. Boston University history professor Tom Mason is second-in-command and must put his extensive knowledge of military history into practice while searching for his son Ben.
At the end of the second season, a new alien race known as the Volm are introduced. Led by a Volm nicknamed Cochise by Tom Mason, the Volm are another species conquered by the Espheni in their galactic expansion, and who want to destroy the Espheni in revenge. While more Volm forces arrive at the end of the third season, an attack on the Volm across the galaxy causes all but Cochise and a small team of Volm to abandon Earth. Cochise and his soldiers continue to aid humanity in their war with the Espheni despite the lack of support from their superiors, notably Cochise's father.
In the fourth season, a devastating Espheni counterattack relegates humanity to Espheni-controlled ghettos across the planet. Meanwhile, Tom's half-Espheni daughter Alexis continues to grow and develop psychic powers due to her heritage. After the 2nd Mass eventually escapes the ghettos, another attack severely depletes its numbers. Learning of a power core on the Moon that controls all Espheni technology, Tom and Alexis launch an attack on the power core using a captured Espheni spacecraft. Alexis sacrifices herself to destroy the power core and Tom is lost in space, but the Espheni war machine is left crippled by the loss of their air support and mechanized servants.
In the fifth season, Tom is rescued by the Espheni's ancient enemy, the Dornia, who guide him into finding his inner warrior to defeat the Espheni once and for all. Returned to Earth, Tom rallies humanity into a global resistance that will march on major Espheni bases all over the world. Tom leads the militias in the United States in a march on the Espheni base in Washington, D.C. With the help of an Espheni communications device, humanity learns that the Espheni serve a previously unknown queen who comes to planets when victory is assured and the Espheni are moving from invasion to occupation. Indeed, while in Washington, Tom spots signs of the Espheni moving in on Earth. Tracking the queen to the ruins of the Lincoln Memorial, Tom confronts her alone, and she informs him of the true reason for the invasion. Tom manages to infect the Espheni Queen with a Dornia bioweapon, killing her, and spreading the bioweapon throughout the Espheni species. The Espheni are destroyed and the Earth is freed. Months later, humanity is united in a favorable position, no longer faced by the pre-invasion challenges of over-population, while moving forward with the benefits of the technology taken from the Espheni, Volm and Dornia. Humanity begins rebuilding Earth and making plans to elect a new leader; when Tom is offered the leadership position, he refuses it.
Cast
Main
Actor Character Seasons 1 2 3 4 5 Noah Wyle Tom Mason colspan="5" style="background:#dfd; text-align:center;" Moon Bloodgood Anne Glass-Mason colspan="5" style="background:#dfd; text-align:center;" Drew Roy Hal Mason colspan="5" style="background:#dfd; text-align:center;" Jessy Schram Karen Nadler style="background:#dfd; text-align:center;" colspan="2" style="background:#fdd; text-align:center;" style="background: #ececec; color: grey; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " style="background: #ececec; color: grey; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " Maxim Knight Matt Mason colspan="5" style="background:#dfd; text-align:center;" Seychelle Gabriel Lourdes Delgado colspan="4" style="background:#dfd; text-align:center;" colspan="1" style="background: #ececec; color: grey; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " Peter Shinkoda Dai colspan="2" style="background:#dfd; text-align:center;" style="background: #ececec; color: grey; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " colspan="2" style="background: #ececec; color: grey; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " Mpho Koaho Anthony colspan="5" style="background:#dfd; text-align:center;" Connor Jessup Ben Mason colspan="5" style="background:#dfd; text-align:center;" Will Patton Dan Weaver colspan="5" style="background:#dfd; text-align:center;" Sarah Carter Maggie colspan="5" style="background:#dfd; text-align:center;" Colin Cunningham John Pope colspan="5" style="background:#dfd; text-align:center;" Doug Jones Cochise colspan="2" style="background: #ececec; color: grey; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " colspan="3" style="background:#dfd; text-align:center;" Scarlett Byrne Alexis "Lexi" Glass-Mason colspan="3" style="background: #ececec; color: grey; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " style="background:#dfd; text-align:center;" style="background: #ececec; color: grey; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; "
Recurring
Production
Conception Development officially began in 2009, when TNT announced that it had ordered a pilot for an untitled alien invasion project. Falling Skies was created by Robert Rodat. Rodat wrote the pilot episode from an idea co-conceived with Spielberg. Originally, Falling Skies was called Concord, referencing the battles of Lexington and Concord and Tom Mason's former profession as a history professor. Spielberg then came up with the title Falling Skies. "I felt that this was a very interesting postapocalyptic story with a 21st-century [spin on the] spirit of '76. I came up – out of the blue one day – with the name Falling Skies, which is basically what happens to the planet after this invasion. What is unique about this particular series is that the story starts after a successful conquest of the world," he stated.
Spielberg was attracted to the project due to its themes of survival. "I've always been interested in how we survive and how resourceful we are as Americans. How would the survivors feed the children? How do they resupply themselves militarily in order to defend and even take back what they have lost?" he added. Like much of Spielberg's work, such as The Pacific and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Falling Skies''' running theme is family and brotherhood. He explained, "It's a theme I harken back to a lot because it's something I believe in. It's something I have the closest experience with. [Laughs] They say write what you know, and with seven children and three sisters... I tend to always come back to the family as a touchstone for audiences to get into these rather bizarre stories."
While writing the pilot, Rodat dedicated a five-page montage to the alien invasion, but decided not to go through with it as it had been done before in films such as War of the Worlds. "I wrote a few drafts of it and I looked at and say, 'Ay-yay-yay, I've seen this before. There's no emotion to this. It feels like one of those montages,'" he said. Rodat came up with the idea of having the children in the series "harnessed by aliens". "When we were working out the initial stuff, the thing that excited [Spielberg] was the idea that adults are killed if they're a threat, and kids are captured for whatever reason and changed or altered. The harness was a logical outgrowth of that. Then what we'll explore is what the harnessing does to the kid over the course of the show but that also is something that's going to have to unveil itself gradually," he stated. Spielberg previously explored the idea of enslaved children in the 1984 film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
Series lead Noah Wyle emphasized Spielberg's presence on set by stating, "Anytime he gives an anointment to a project, it steps up the pedigree." He continued, "[His] fingerprints are all over this. He shaped the script, cast the pilot, watched all the dailies, made the editing suggestions, worked on the post and on the aliens and spaceships."