Something I was wondered whilst watching War of the Worlds, was how long it took everyone (if they managed to put it together at all) that aliens were attacking the Earth.

You never quite get the feeling that everyone knows what's going on. I know, that's supposed to be part of the story's paranoia, but when you think about it, as a culture, we are so inundated with tales of alien attacks, abductions, flying saucers, robots, time travel, multiple dimensions, artificial intelligence, and Evil Secret Government Programs, that's it's hard to imagine Tripods coming up from the ground and everyone's first reaction NOT being, "Holy Shit! It's giant robots piloted by aliens!" Seriously, I think in real life we'd put the reality of an alien attack together within minutes, thanks to all the training movies and television have given us for how to act in such situations.