Childhood Ruined? Wildcard: War of the Worlds (2005)

Gathered together from the cosmic reaches of the universe, here in this great screening room with comfortable recliners, are the most powerful forces of good ever assembled. Keith.

There's no union regulations when you're battling aliens.

Terry. It'd be kind of satisfying to see that cat get dusted.

Derek. He's doing his best, right? There's an alien invasion going on, and I like how the older kid's argument is, you don't even know what to do! No one fucking knows what to do! It's an alien invasion! And the Power Twins, Zapp and Jordan, with their magical lemur snort dedicated to fumbling their way through movies one forgotten gem at a time. This week we watch the 2005 Steven Spielberg alien invasion remake, War of the Worlds. This is Fumbling Through Film. The wind is blowing toward the storm. That is weird.

Come on, Rachel, wanna see something cool?

It's okay. I wanna go inside.

It's okay. Huh?

I wanna go inside.

Okay, you go ahead.

That's enough weather for me. I wanna go by myself.

It's kind of fun, isn't it? No.

Come on, it's the 4th of July.

Hello and welcome to another one of guys' genre-finding brand new episode of Fumbling Through Film, the only show that dares—I guarantee dares—to bring together three dudes to talk about movies. These aren't just any movies, though. Could be. They could be argued that they are any movie. Uh, debatable, but yeah, they're the ones we've missed, overlooked, or feel are simply worth reviewing. visiting, that Venn diagram there is like a perfect circle with any movie.

It might be this, it might be the smallest, like, Venn diagram possible.

No, it's a perfect circle.

Perfect circle.

Uh, my name is Derek and I am a fumbler. Joining me here in the Fumbledome, our reclaimed planetarium that we got off of police auction, is the one and only Prime Minister of Fumbling and Film, Keith.

Hey, hey, what's up KG, fumbler extraordinaire? So happy to be here.

So happy to be here, Keith. I'm so happy you are here. The other person that I guarantee is smiling ear to ear just because he's here is a Dr. Dre of Kansas, Terry.

That's right, I've got a Grinch-like smile upon my face curling around. Um, I'm just full of— my heart's grown 3 sizes just joining the chat here.

Yeah, you know, we make a lot of Grinch references.

We love the Grinch around here.

For a show that's not really about the Grinch.

I think, you know, we talk about movies, like movies that we missed, overlooked, need revisited. And then there's also the Grinch, which is the other part of the Venn diagram that we have.

Yes, we refuse to watch the Grinch movies.

Yeah, yeah, but we'll talk about it all day.

Yeah, wouldn't touch those with a 10-foot pole.

No, but I'll talk about him nonstop. Make nothing but Grinch references. You know what else we should make nothing but?

Podcasts?

This podcast.

Oh, Terry's a podcast.

Nothing other than this podcast.

Terry said podcast. He's got spinoffs, I think.

Yeah.

Terry's got plans, but I'm not part of them. Derek has The Midpoint as his spinoff podcast.

Yeah.

Yeah, we got like the many faces of Terry.

Yes, the, the Dr. Dre of whatever this week brings.

Yep.

And Keith is Pepperidge Farm Remembers. That's the name of his podcast. You just remember stuff from back in the day.

While I eat Pepperidge Farm cookies.

Yes, he tells guests about it, then he gets flabbergasted. Never heard of it.

Pepperidge Farm Remembers. Yeah, yeah. And it's like, do you remember this? No. How dare you? Get off my show.

The worst, the worst part is I forgot that commercial. Pepperidge Farm remembers commercial.

Wow.

Anyway, we should tell— since we do nothing but make this podcast, we should tell people what it is we do here. Yes.

And he's opened with that, but okay.

Every week we watch movies, but not just any movies. Every month one of us chooses a, a theme, a genre, a guiding light, some sort of swirling cloud storm in the sky that we gotta stare at and pick movies towards. And we each pick a movie that adheres to that whatever and doesn't get afraid of a storm even though it shoots 27 lightning bolts into the same spot.

It's a little concerning, I would say.

It's like the 4th of July. Not really.

Really?

No, not at all.

What way? Give me 5 reasons. Nothing.

Yeah, exactly. He couldn't come up with five, so he just started. He just started singing. Sorry, distracts from it.

Yeah. Oh, say no. I'll give you one. Okay, I'll give you that's one. Give me four more.

The only reason it was like Fourth of July is because he made it like Fourth of July. The weather phenomenon. Really?

He is really super excited in that scene for like some crazy thing.

Well, he just thought it was cool weather until it wasn't.

The smile on his face, though, is like just oh man.

Like, just like wonder. Yeah.

Which I think Tom Cruise always has.

Well, I think it's because he's never seen a storm like that this time of year. Springtime, maybe. Not now.

Yeah, that's true. I'd be just as happy if I saw him in the winter.

Storm on the horizon.

Yeah.

Yeah. Anyway, we each pick movies that adhere to that theme. And on the 4th week, we spin a wheel. And it gives us a movie that we had mentioned sometime over the previous 3 weeks when we watched that movie. And that's what this week is, is a wheel week.

Yes, a random pick.

A random pick. But before we get there, let's tell people what it is we did this month. It was a me month. The wheel gave us a new order and me started first.

Yes.

And so I chose the theme of childhood ruined. where we had to pick a movie that we watched as a kid, haven't watched since, that we determined if it was still good or if it was good or we were just dumb kids. The first month I picked The Rocketeer. Then Keith chose Dreamscape. Dreamscape. Then Terry gave us Cat in the Hat. Cat in the Hat.

All right.

And then the wheel spun and gave us War of the Worlds from 2005 because Dakota Fanning was In Cat in the Hat and also in this.

That's right. 2 very similar movies, even.

2 very equally disturbing movies.

Mm-hmm. Could you imagine climbing out of the ground as like the Cat in the Hat after like the lightning storm?

The Tim Robbins character could have been replaced with Mike Myers' Cat in the Hat to the same effect.

Yes. Yes, I would love that. Okay, let's do that.

And Tom Cruise could have been replaced by Alec Baldwin.

Yes, to the same effect.

It would be exactly the same movie.

All right, now before we talk about our viewing of War of the Worlds—

Did you say Tim Robbins, by the way? Do you mean Tom Cruise?

Tim Robbins? No, the basement dweller, Tim Robbins.

Oh, the creepy guy. Yeah, yeah, Cat in the Hat. Yeah, he should be Cat in the Hat.

Tom Cruise is, is Alec Baldwin.

Yes, yes, you're right. Okay, you're right. That's perfect casting.

Yeah, and then and the the girl and her brother are just the same two from the cat.

Same two. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just take the whole cast from Cat in the Hat, move them over to War of the Worlds. Mm-hmm.

That would be kind of satisfying to see that cat get dusted.

We didn't see Tim Robbins get dusted.

Yeah, but this is no no I'm but I'm actually saying like it would be great to have seen the cat get dusted.

Yeah, fumble cut. Yep. It's a deleted scene.

Mm-hmm.

The door closes, but we're on the inside.

Yeah.

All right, well, before we talk about our viewing of War of the Worlds v. Cat in the Hat 2005—

That would be a good— I know we talk about this a lot, but a versus movie, like the War of the Worlds, like the tripods trying to kill the Cat in the Hat, they just can't kill him.

They just can't.

Him and him and Thing 1 and Thing 2 just causing havoc for them.

But here's the thing, the Cat in the Hat could have a very Dr. Seussian sort of tripod as well, because I feel it's like a very Seuss sort of doohickey with it. Yeah, super weird long legs and stuff.

Yeah, so you can have like a big kaiju battle.

Yeah, but it would be called like a, a Flurb or something like that. Yeah, right, a Flurb pod. A Flurb pod. Yep. Now before we could talk about our viewing of this movie, before we even do a deep dive in this movie, Did any of us have any previous knowledge or history with this movie?

Uh, outside of just seeing it when it originally came out, you know, that'd be about it.

You saw it when it came out?

Yeah, I mean, it's Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg. Yeah.

Yeah, this is a— this could— this would be a very fitting movie as well for my childhood.

For your childhood?

Yeah, yeah, because it's a movie I remember liking a lot as a kid but have not watched it since.

Liking a lot as a kid? Wow. Like, how old you would have been in 2005? No, put Terry in like the 12. Yeah. Okay. I could see that. This is a very— yeah, I could see that. I had never seen this movie before. Surprise, surprise. I am a super fan. Well, I don't want to say super fan. I'm a big fan of the original 1953 movie. I think that's when it came out because it used to be one of those creature features that would come up on Saturdays and it used to be creepy to me as a kid, but I liked it because it was aliens and sci-fi.

Mm-hmm.

I love that original version. I haven't seen that. Now that could have been a movie for my childhood ruin because I don't know if I've watched this as a kid.

I'd love to see it. I've not seen that one.

That's a good one. It's a goodie.

I think I've read the book back when I was a kid too. I remember. Oh yeah, some of that. Yeah, yeah, it's been a long time now.

We're much older than you, Terry. I don't remember the original radio broadcast. I'm not that old.

Oh, you didn't listen? No.

Oh, if my kids were on this podcast, they would tell me that I was that old, and I'd have to like shake a fist at them and like, are you young whippersnappers?

Yeah, I, I've been a—

I paused the movie because I started watching it on my own this morning, and then I paused it so that I— my older son came out and sat down, just kind of started watching right wherever I was at. I paused it to kind of explain to him the whole, the whole thing about the radio, the whole history of War of the Worlds. Yeah, the original radio broadcast and like how it was such a cool thing. Well, Like, maybe some people don't think it didn't think it was cool at the time, but just kind of amazing that like they like really pulled that off just with basic old school radio and all. And then, uh, went back to watching it.

Well, now I think it's time for us to sit back and relax because I'm gonna take you guys closer than you could ever imagine to War of the Worlds with another patent pending Fumbler's Deep Dive. Yeah, War of the Worlds. This son of a bitch came out on June 29th of 2005. It's rated PG-13, has a runtime of 1 hour and 57 minutes. An alien invasion threatens the future of humanity. The catastrophic nightmare is depicted through the eyes of one American family fighting for survival. This one had a handful of taglines. He's got the whole world in his hands.

No, I don't like that one.

I don't like it either.

Doesn't make any sense.

Nope. They're already here.

I like that.

And then this summer, the last war on Earth won't be started by humans.

Boo.

Boo as well. I agree.

Second one was best. Those are pretty good.

They should have stopped at number 2. Yeah, it had a $132 million budget. It opened to $64.8 domestic, which was good for first on the elongated Fourth of July weekend.

Oh, it's the 4th of July weekend. 4th of July. I wonder, he's like, it's just like 4th of July. That's exactly the only reason.

I think it must have come out on like a Wednesday and then went all the way through the— through Sunday. Yeah. So the top 5 for that weekend, just so you can be like, oh, I remember that. Number 5, Herbie: Fully Loaded. Oh, in its second week. Wow. Number 4, Bewitched, in its second week.

Okay, barrel joint.

Number 3, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, in its 4th week.

I've never seen it.

And War of the Worlds displaced this movie in its 3rd week, Batman Begins. Oh, same year. Pretty wild, huh? Yeah, it gets a 6.6 on IMDb, a 76 Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Couple of blurbs. Michael O'Sullivan from the Washington Post said this: War of the Worlds is taut, gripping, and surprisingly dark filmmaking. David Denby from the New Yorker said this: it's as if the aliens landed and everyone died so that Tom Cruise could grow up one more time.

That's amazing.

Guess so.

That goes back to the childlike wonder comment.

Yes.

It's kind of true, honestly.

As Keith mentioned, this bad boy is directed by Steven Spielberg. He has 60 directing credits in film and TV going back to 1959.

Dang.

He did an episode—

Doesn't that always seem like a low number?

It feels like, but I mean, that's 60 in like 60 years. So yeah.

And I mean, because we've been— it's spanned, you know, just a little bit over our entire Lifetime. So it just seems like he's been there like our entire lifetime. And so it— because he has been. And 60 is a lot for a director anyhow, probably. But I'm always like, I'm always like, man, that number seems low for him.

Well, wait till I— let me refresh your brain with what he did. He did an episode of Marcus Welby, M.D., an episode of Columbo, 2 episodes of Amazing Stories.

Oh yeah, of course.

Amazing Stories, that was his show, I think, right?

It was his idea. Yeah, he did the music video for Marcus Mumford's song Cannibal. He's done movies like The Sugar Land Express, 1941, Always, The BFG.

Oh, War Horse. These are all great.

But in 2011, he directed The Adventures of Tintin. Oh, intrepid reporter Tintin and Captain Haddock Set off on a treasure hunt for a sunken ship commanded by Haddock's ancestors. Stars Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Nick Frost, Simon Pegg, Toby Jones, and weirdly not a single woman in the top 18 credits on IMDb. Oh my God, that is weird. That movie's supposed to be really good. I've never seen it.

I mean, it's actually pretty good. I forgot that Spielberg directed it, but it's a fun animated movie, especially Based off like a Dutch cartoon or something like that, isn't it? Yeah. Comic book series and stuff. Yeah. It's, but it's, it's cool cuz it's not your normal standard looking, uh, animation that, you know, almost every movie looks like today with Disney and Pixar and stuff like that.

Yep. Supposed to be good. Never seen it. It's like on my list of things to maybe check out and I'd forgotten it existed until I did this deep dive today. Yeah.

No, I hardly ever think about that, but that's what the deep dives are good for this.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I've forgotten things like the BFG and War Horse even existed too.

Yeah, and I won. I gotta look up that episode of Columbo now.

And the thing is, I don't know what the BFG stands for except for Big Fucking Gun, uh, from video games.

Uh, I think it's giant actually.

It's Big Fucking Giant. No, it's, it's the Big Friendly Giant, I think.

Big Friendly Giant. Yeah, but the Ronald Dahl, the thing, it's based off a book or something, but I've never seen it.

I don't know.

I wish it was the Big Fucking Giant.

Which is rated R, hard R.

Hard R. This movie has 3 authors. Well, 2 authors and 1 story by, uh, is written by Josh Friedman and David Koeppe. It's based on the story by H.G. Wells. Josh Friedman has 17 writing credits in TV and film going back to 1996. 31 episodes of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

I forgot that existed.

It's supposed to be really good. I never watched it though. 41 episodes of Snowpiercer, 30 episodes of Foundation. He did movies like The Black Dahlia, Avatar: Way of Water, Avatar: Fire and Ash, The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Oh, wow.

But in 2024, he wrote Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

Oh, sweet.

Many years after the reign of Caesar, A young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike. Directed by Wes Ball, stars Owen Teague, Freya Allan, and Kevin Durand.

Yeah, I like that movie. I remember seeing that in theaters. I really liked it.

I like that one as well.

The other writer, David Koepp, or Koepp, has 43 writing credits going back to 1988. He did Toy Soldiers, Jurassic Park, Carlito's Way, Mission: Impossible, Panic Room, Spider-Man, Sathura, The Mummy— 2017 The Mummy.

Oh.

But in 1999, he wrote and directed Stir of Echoes. A man has visions of a missing neighborhood girl, which is like the most underselling of that movie ever. Stars Kevin Bacon, Zachary David Cope, and Catherine Irby.

I feel like I remember seeing this, but I don't know if I did it.

It's an also-ran with The Sixth Sense. It's a guy that sees ghosts.

Okay, okay.

But a very specific ghost.

I remember seeing it. I just, I wouldn't be able to tell you anything about it though.

Yeah, I— there's a girl who goes missing in a basement maybe. I don't remember.

Yeah, he's like digging. I remember him digging.

It was a good movie. I remember liking it quite a bit.

Yeah, I remember liking it too, but I really actually can't think of any plot.

I actually may have read the book.

I don't know. Is it a book?

I think there was a book on it that I actually also read and then saw the movie and I still couldn't tell you anything about it. So yeah, that Kevin Bacon was in.

Kevin Bacon was in it? The story was by H.G. Wells. Yes. He's written 46 novels and a shit ton of short stories. His novels include The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, The First Men in the Moon. A ton, right?

I love The Time Machine.

Love a lot of bangers. Yeah, his first one was The Time Machine, I think, which is nutso. This movie stars Tom Cruise as Ray Ferrier. He has 53 acting credits going back to 1981. He was Woody in Losin' It. He was Jack in Legend. He was Cole Trickle in Days of Thunder. David Ames in Vanilla Sky. Roy Miller in Night and Day. Uh-huh. Stacey Jaxx in Rock of Ages.

Wow.

But in 2004, he played Vincent alongside Jamie Foxx's Max in the Michael Mann-directed Collateral. A cab driver finds himself the hostage of an engaging contract killer as he makes his rounds from hit to hit during one night in Los Angeles. Hmm. Movie's pretty outstanding.

That sounds good.

It is outstanding.

It is on my, it's on my list of, uh, things that I need to rewatch. 'Cause I remember seeing it. I, I don't think I saw it in the theater, but I remember watching it, uh, when it came out, like on DVD and stuff like that. And, and that's the only time I've seen it. I do remember being really good.

That might be the best Tom Cruise movie, in my opinion.

Really? Wow.

Yeah, it's very good. Very good. Jamie Foxx is a cab driver and, uh, Tom Cruise is a hitman, and then he gets Jamie Foxx to take him from hit to hit.

Yeah, that sounds awesome. I like that idea a lot.

It's Michael Mann too, so yeah, highly acclaimed director.

Yeah, yeah. Did he do Thief? Thief is a good movie.

I don't know, maybe.

I think he did. But yeah, Michael Mann's great.

So we talked about Dakota Fanning last week, and she's like the highlight of this movie in my opinion. So I'm gonna skip her, and I picked out a couple other people. I picked Miranda Otto, who plays Mary Ann, right? I think that's Tom Cruise's ex-wife.

Yep, yep.

She has 76 acting credits in TV and film going back to 1987. She did an episode of The Flying Doctors, 7 episodes of Kashmir Mafia, 13 episodes of 24: Legacy, 36 episodes of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. And movies like— she played Esther Mullins in Annabelle: Creation.

Oh God.

Glenda Lake in Danny Deckchair, Lenore in I, Frankenstein. Uh-oh. Éowyn in Lord of the Rings: Two Towers and Return of the King. She's the one that's in, in love with, uh, what's his face? The king.

Aragorn.

Aragorn, yeah. But he's in love with another one, an elf.

It's a classic love triangle.

Spoiler.

But in 2022, she played Sue in Talk to Me.

Oh.

When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, They become hooked on the new thrill until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces. Stars Ari McCarthy, Hamish Phillips, and Kit Earhart Bruce.

Is she the mother of the—

She's the mom. Yeah, yeah, it's a great movie.

Oh my God, great movie. It is very good. That's enough how good it is.

I actually, I actually enjoy the movie as well.

Yeah, highly recommend it. It's really good. Uh, I need to rewatch it.

And then I picked one more person, Lenny Venito. He was Manny the Mechanic.

Oh, great. Yeah.

He has 84 acting credits in TV and film going back to 1988. He did an episode of The Cosby Mysteries, 6 episodes of NYPD Blue, 13 episodes in The Night of Prosperity. He played Francis Squatch Squassarelli.

Squatch? Yes.

Okay.

He was Marty Weaver in 44 episodes of The Neighbors. He was Duffy in 24 episodes of Kevin Can Wait. He played Bowling Ball Head in Men in Black 3.

Oh, wow.

He was Todd the building manager in Solitary Man. He was Lenny in 2005's The Honeymooners. But in 2003, he played Louis in Gigli. Larry Gigli is assigned by a crime boss to kidnap the brother of a prominent district attorney, and a beautiful woman known— oh, beautiful woman known only as Ricky is sent to stay with him to make sure he doesn't mess up the job. Stars Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. It is considered one of the worst movies ever, and I brought it up in the past.

Yes, and on— you tactically brought up on a wheel pick, so it cannot be an option.

Yes, and I hate to say this, I don't remember the movie. I've seen it, I don't remember very well, but there's a chance that Lewis plays the, uh, uh, handicapped brother.

Oh, oh dear.

Yeah, I'll leave it at that.

Leave that to your imagination.

Yes. How about some War of the Worlds fun facts?

Yes, absolutely.

One scene, our opening scene, shows Ray running out of the house to find Robbie while dozens of people are still outside his house photographing the lightning storm. To film the scene, producers hired people on the street to come to the street at the time of shooting with a camera and film so they could get pictures of Tom Cruise for free. Wow. That's how they got people.

That's how they hired people.

Yeah. You wanted pictures of Tom Cruise? Be here with a camera and you'll also be in a movie.

I mean, okay, I guess whatever works. Yeah, I'd be happy just to be in it.

I don't know, you know, Tom Cruise, like the Tom Cruise part is like, man, I guess.

But is that a way to get around from paying them? Like, probably extras.

It'd be nice to be like, wow, I was actually in the movie with Tom Cruise in a scene. Isn't that cool?

Wait, I thought they were gonna let us take pictures with Tom Cruise.

Nope, just love him. Nope.

It says right here, it says right here in what you signed, pictures of, not with.

Yeah, and it's not even like a Comic-Con where like these people, hey, I met so-and-so, and it's just them standing next to somebody getting a picture taken. He didn't really meet him.

I guess in the loosest terms he did, but he ran outside, waved his hands around, and turned around.

Now from what I have heard about Tom Cruise, I, I, I'm guessing that when they said cut on that scene, he probably went back out and like shook hands and—

Oh, is he one that does that?

He's apparently very big about doing stuff like that.

Well, good for him. He also does his own stunts.

Yes.

Yes. Uh, oh, I get that. The thing where he's lowering the, um, the crate onto like the bar—

I bet you he learned how to do that and did it.

100%.

Yeah, 100%.

He figured that one out.

That was the first thing I thought when I was watching, like, he's really doing that, isn't he?

Necessary for the film for him to actually be able to do that. It just establishes his character. It's so important to his character, him like lowering that thing down.

And when it was happening in the very beginning, I'm like, this is gonna come back later. Yeah, he's going to use a crane to stop an alien because he's really good at it.

Everybody needs to. Yeah, yeah.

Like, why spend that much time showing him doing it if it wasn't important?

He can operate heavy machinery. Maybe he can operate a tripod.

There's no union regulations when you're battling aliens.

I mean, that might be the best tagline of the whole movie.

That's pretty good. Yeah, we should throw that on a poster.

All right, more fun facts. During the filming of the underwater scenes where the ferry capsizes, director Steven Spielberg played a prank on Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning by playing the dramatic music from Jaws. Wow. Through the massive underwater speakers on the soundstage. I guess that's a prank.

It's pretty funny.

It's probably more disturbing. Like, could you imagine being underwater and just having like Blasting Jaws. Like, could you even hear it? It would just be like— you just feel it more than anything.

Feel the bass. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think I'd like that.

No, me neither. Terrible prank, Steven Spielberg. What a jerk. Yeah, too rude to a little kid too. That little kid hadn't seen Jaws.

That child probably doesn't even know what Jaws is.

Yeah, she knows what the Cat in the Hat is, but not Jaws.

Yeah. Oh, should have played the Cat in the Hat theme.

Just toss the head out there and it was floating in the lake.

Tripod comes out with the hat on.

Just after hearing Steven Spielberg make a remark about how catastrophes brought out the best in people, David Koepp, writer, writer of this movie, wrote the scene where Ray is forced to give up the van at gunpoint. The guy's like, no, you think so, Steven? I'm gonna show you what people are really like.

What do you think of this?

That scene Oh, that scene gave me problems.

Yep, I didn't like it.

When Rachel is taken by a tripod, Ray passes by a corpse of a cow. Although it looks only like a casualty due to the attack, it could be taken like a reference to the original novel where the narrator tells that the Martians drunk the blood of people and animals too.

They might have drunk that cow's blood.

I think they did.

Why wouldn't it?

I would.

I mean, as a Martian, I would be drinking any blood I could find.

Yeah, particularly the larger the mammal, the better.

Yeah, and they weren't drinking all— they were also using it for fertilizer, spraying it, spraying their crops.

Yeah, misting, misting blood out into the air.

So metal.

Chilling.

Yeah, it is kind of using blood for fertilizer. Sure, why not? I'm sure it's very efficient for Martian vegetation.

Blood fertilizer sounds like a Metalocalypse Death Clock song.

Yes, uh, that is actually— I'm gonna write that down. That's a good one. Blood fertilizer. There he is.

Yeah, I'm gonna get my album working on the song that Rachel sings to herself while Ray is killing Ogilvy is Hushabye Mountain from the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. In 1968. That's nice. It is. When the aliens are investigating the junk in the basement, one of them plays with the bicycle wheel. This is a reference to the original book. Oh, at least what this fun fact says. The main character observes that with all the advanced technology the aliens possessed, they do not use any wheels and wonders if the alien life form had skipped the invention of the wheel.

The aliens never invented a wheel. I doubt that.

I find that hard to believe.

Hard to believe. Like, there's no way. They had to have. Like, yes. They're not flabbergasted by the idea of a circle. Mm-mm. But he probably was looking at like, wow, how like primitive. Yes. Why would they? You probably— they've probably moved on and invented like wheel 2.0 that's a million times better. Yeah. Super wheel.

But also, I mean, just like Not to be like, that might be looking a little too deep into it. He touched the thing and it fell on him. He got freaked out by it for a second.

I mean, he got scared. Yeah. He's not like in studying it like this is some sort of new technology. Could you imagine if he's like, oh my God, they're like driving bicycles around in like the next scene?

I'm— that would've been great seeing them like on a tandem bike after that down.

They're like wobbling, trying to figure it out. Yeah.

But they do it like all practically, like the old, uh, Kermit the Frog riding a bike in the original.

That is, that's exactly what I was thinking is like, Hermit and Fozzie and Gonzo, like, all on like a, a 3-person bike.

There's these 3 aliens that really could have used better characters— character design riding a tandem bike. That'd be awesome.

It just cuts like the main characters now of the movie are these 3 aliens and they're driving around and they just find love and peace. Yeah, the aliens have won, so now they're just exploring the Earth, finding new things.

Riding along the lakefront.

Bike. Sounds nice having a picnic out there. That'd be good.

All right. So this movie, as we all know, is a remake of the 1953 classic that starred Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne, which was a film adaptation of the original record radio, the radio broadcast, which was based upon the book. Now, the original broadcast, I have a very brief synopsis here. Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio broadcast on October 30th, 1938. Was her dramatization presented as fake news bulletins describing a Martian invasion of New Jersey? Its realistic format made some late-tuning listeners think it was real. Did it really cause a mass panic? Not really. Not on the scale that— like, it's more of an urban legend than anything else now. Wow. While there were people that were like confused or frightened and a few local incidents occurred, uh, later research shows that the audience was relatively small and newspapers greatly exaggerated. And people thought that newspapers were exaggerating it to discredit radio because radio was a rising competitor to newspapers.

Oh, the classic rivalry: newspaper versus radio. Radio killed the newspaper star. Uh huh. Yes, yes. Tales all the time.

That's it, Poyos. That's as deep as I could get us.

Well, that is pretty deep. It's. It's almost like there's a bunch of lightning shot into the ground. Like, it's almost like buried inside me all along that you just found it.

It only took 26 pinpoint strikes of lightning, each one shooting an alien driver into the dirt.

To crack open my chest and throw in an alien.

It's to really bring Terry to life.

Yeah, yeah, I'm wide awake. Yeah, I got my alien pilot inside.

We're all missing an alien pilot, it feels like sometimes.

I agree with that. I would love an alien pilot every once in a while.

I wish I had an alien pilot and I could just like relax.

Just, just do your thing, alien. Go look at some wheels. I know you think those are pretty cool.

And a picture. Be stunned at a picture.

Photography.

Confused by a mirror. Astounded by a wheel.

I've never seen my reflection. Is this what I look like?

Oh God, you— I'm sorry.

Bob, why do you tell me I put on weight?

All right, that was so beautiful, but now I clearly—

I am not.

Nope.

All right, well, we need to talk about our viewing of War of the Worlds from 2005. Terry, did it hold up to your memories as a child?

Somewhat. I thought it was still good, um, but I thought I had a— sometimes I felt like it was a little— the tone was a little strange, I guess.

Like, yeah, I agree with that. I don't know what you thought the tone was, but For me, it was like—

to me, like, that's kind of dark. Like, like, to, you know, like, it was like a weird clash between trying, like, trying to be kind of Spielberg-y but then like going a little too far with the darkness. I don't know, I was like kind of shocked how dark some of the moments were. Like, we were talking about that scene with the mob, and I'm like, yes, why do we even need this? I guess like it's just like a showcase of just misery. Like, it was a showcase of misery.

Like, yeah, that's like one of the more jarring scenes. And like the 2 things that occurred to me were like, like why didn't his son wake him up maybe a little earlier before they got into like the middle of a town? Mm-hmm. Uh, but also like as soon as that guy like finally like gets the car from them, mm-hmm, and he hops in and they go inside that thing and they just look out the window and everyone has now just jumped him in the car and like, yeah, it's like, well this, you're not going anywhere now, buddy. Only for them all to basically just be walking a little bit down the road to get onto the ferry.

Yeah, it's gotta be awkward walking alongside Tom Cruise after that whole mob tried to steal—

Yeah, sorry we tried to kill you and steal your child and destroy your van so nobody can have it.

Like, yeah, like, I get that it's trying to showcase, yeah, humanity's desperate and dark, but it's kind of felt like too much, you know?

Also, speaking of too much, one guy yells, you could fit 20 more people in there. Dude, it's a minivan. You're not fitting 20 more people in there.

But I also like how after they rip him out and he pulls out the gun, they're like, hey, hey, you don't need to be like that.

Yeah. As he's overreacting, as they're beating his son to death in the background.

Yeah. I feel that's an appropriate response.

Oh God, I would've pulled that out way sooner if I was them. Like, seriously, they start trying to break the window of the car. I'm like, come on.

I mean, the only other thought that should be crossing your mind instead of doing that is, uh, that gun's got 6 bullets. He just shot 2 into the air. All right. Like this isn't gonna. He only killed four of us.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, it was a strange scene. Like I feel like there's stuff like that in this movie where I'm like, it almost feels like it doesn't want to go all the way, but it does. Like when it does go that direction, you're like, "Jeez, okay." Like I don't know because it's not like the darkest movie ever, but it is getting pretty gritty and like Jesus. Like I don't know. I felt like it was a strange balance that it didn't quite do moments like.

It was just like the destitute dregs of humanity. Like that scene, them trying to get on the ferry.

Yes.

Felt like that. The basement scene.

Yeah, the creepy guy that they— that helps them. I'm like, this is just not needed.

Yeah, those, those scenes. And there was another scene too that really bugged me. Like, I, I— oh, when when his son just wants to see it. He wants to be there. He wants to see it. And he leaves his kid at the tree to stand there. And those parents were going to take the girl even though he was like 15 feet away. That's my dad right there.

And she points at her dad like, yes, yeah, there he is. Please stop trying to kidnap me.

And all he has to do is look back and wave and be like, I'm coming. I'm right here.

Just leave my kid be. You had to put up a hand. That's all you had to do. And I'm sitting there. I'm— I very rarely do I talk to the TV when I watch a movie. But it's funny that Talk to Me is one of those where I yelled at the TV when I was watching it. And this one, I was just like, go get your fucking kid!

Right. Just do it.

I'm watching this. I'm just like, go get your goddamn kid. Just leave me. Just stop this. It's insane.

Yeah. And as soon as his son runs over that, like, ridge, like, the whole thing explodes.

Yeah. Right.

Yes. Yeah. So I'm like, oh my God.

They did that. I'm like, oh, that is a—

Very bold choice. That's dark, but very dark, very bold.

I didn't like how angry this movie was.

It was angry. That's a great way to put it.

So like, Tom Cruise is angry, the ex-wife is angry, kids are angry, the aliens are angry, the people on Earth are angry. But then like, none of the anger ever subsides at any moment. No, like, there's nothing where, like, oh, the kid's like, I gotta stop being pissed off because we just gotta work together to figure out how to survive, right? The kid's got, like, I'm gonna save the world bullshit going on. Like, you— do you see what's happening?

You're too— like, even I know young impressionable kid, like, this to me, it would, like, scar me to be like, I'm never going out there. Like, why would you want to go fight them?

Like, yeah. Like, it also, anytime they does kind of have like one of those like moments to breathe type scenes, like things, it's very quickly interrupted by like the next, like as soon as they're like, whew, okay. All of a sudden, boom, here's something hitting the house or here's—

A plane crashes on their house.

Yeah. Yeah. A plane takes out the entire neighborhood except for them.

The car, except for the car. And they're able to drive the car through the wreckage, which I'm like, that's a Why go in that direction?

Yeah, it's it's uh um I think it's weird too. I think the characters like I think Tom Cruise's character is interesting, but he doesn't really grow in the way I expect him to. Like everyone, like you said, is angry at each other, and they don't get they. I wish they all liked each other a little bit. Yeah, it doesn't feel like it doesn't feel like Tom Cruise likes his kids. It doesn't feel like the kids really like him that much. No, and it doesn't.

Obviously, it wasn't like uh it. It wasn't, you know, uh, an amicable divorce. No, obviously it was a rough split. But like, yeah, those kids really seem like annoyed that they even have to go to his house.

Like, it should be an arc where they grow closer together, but it never feels really like they do besides trauma bonding, I guess. But like, even then, they don't really seem like they get along.

Yeah, there, there isn't a point where Tom Cruise becomes a better father. There isn't a point where the kids don't yell at him. It's constant. Yeah, they don't call him dad except for the fear— like the, the son at the— oh God, I hated this so much.

That's his arc.

So they, they make the bold choice to have the son say, I gotta be there, I gotta see this, go over the ridge, and the ridge be engulfed in flame and alien. Yeah, there's no way that kid's alive.

No, zero. Unless you're committed to it, if that's what they want to do.

Yeah, they must have had a test audience that was angry that the kid died because there's no way you have him just show up in Boston at the end.

How do you even get there?

At his grandma's house. What?

He's a kid, he can't just walk over to Boston.

Yeah, also, yeah, he— if, if he did escape, he escaped with the, uh, the army and he should still be hanging with them.

Yeah, there's— that doesn't make— if he's there and he's like Hey, Dad, or I'm sorry, Dad, or I'm like, why is he calling him Dad now?

You know, it would have, um, it would have worked better, I think, if right before the whole thing ends like that, when they run into the army and he's like, hey, what happened here? So if they would have met back up in that city all together and then they all arrived in Boston together, like the, the, like they walked up to the house together and not like him already being there. I think that's about the only Because he would have stuck with the army folks and not just like left and got to his grandma's house.

Like, I don't know, I get it's got to be a happy ending because the aliens are all dead, but if, if you're gonna make that choice in the movie, yeah, like you said, Terry, stick to your guns. Let's stick to it, right? Look at the cost.

Yeah, yeah.

Sorry, your kid died.

Your kid wanted to go fight in the war and now he's dead.

Like, and now you have to deal with that because he essentially did it to begrudge you, right? Like, just because you didn't want him to, he had to do it.

And I know this is a part of the book and whatever, but like the whole— the ending just doesn't really work for me, at least in the movie, where it's like they just die randomly because, yeah, they got sick. They don't really explain it besides the narrator telling you at the end.

Yes, it's—

they needed to set that up if that was the case. Like, I don't know, I know this maybe it's a little too generic, but like have like the main character be the doctor or so, you know, something to like hint at what's gonna happen. Because it really comes out like— the only reason I knew it was gonna happen is because I knew the story already. But like there's no clue that like, you know, my God, how are they actually gonna beat these things? This is impossible. You know, you're expecting something like some crazy like tactical thing they're gonna have to do, but just randomly they're sick, which it makes sense, but they don't set it up.

No, here's the thing about that though. The ships were already on Earth. Yeah, so it's not like they just happened across Earth and they're like, let's go see what this shit's about, and then they get sick, right? They knew about Earth, and even the narrator at the beginning says they've been observing us for millions of years.

Yeah.

They should know what the atmosphere is.

I think they're fine when they, when they first, like, they drop them in via lightning into the ships and stuff like that. They're fine. It's when they start getting out and exploring around, like, each house and stuff. And then they just get, they get natural germs.

I get that. But you would think that if you are observing this planet and the atmosphere and the ecosystem for millions of years and You're an intergalactic traveler. We have that technology. You would understand what the atmosphere and ecology is like before you go out there without some sort of like artificial—

Spacesuit?

Yeah, a spacesuit, an artificial environment, anything like that, right?

Yeah.

You're just out there walking willy-nilly. It's just like the science, right?

You're out there riding a bike.

Out there riding a bike. It's just like in the movie Science, right? When water is their big nemesis. And her atmosphere is like 90% water.

It's like, just put some clothes on, alien. Why are y'all naked? Like, just put on some, like, a bodysuit and then you're not gonna get splashed with water.

Exactly. So it's that sort of stuff that drives me nuts. These— this being— these beings have traveled across galaxies because they're not— they're not— or at least solar systems, because they're not from our solar system.

Right. Yeah.

They're not Martians or Venusians or something like that. They're from some other distant solar system and/or galaxy. They have that technology. They know what they're doing. They're not—

Done it before, I would guess.

Yeah, they've gone to other planets. Like, how is this the one that's just like, oh shoot, they have parameciums here, we didn't know what that was gonna happen?

Well, they showed it. They never came back and checked in on everything after they—

Exactly.

Buried the ships there in the first place. They didn't like Send their scouting party to be like, yeah, maybe this is the time we should do this, you know, and planning and stuff like that. Instead of like, why did they decide that now's the time? Who knows?

Maybe it was just really unlucky. Like, you know, like they showed up, they're taking over, everything's going great, then like something like COVID just appears and they're like, uh-huh. Yeah. So like after the aliens are all dead, the humans start getting sick too and they start coughing. It's like, oh, if they would have—

if they would take 2019, they were fine.

In 2020, they showed up on the wrong year and some sort of horrible pandemic was just about to happen.

Yep, here comes bird flu.

Great.

Yeah, the bird flu, and it happens to affect aliens just as bad as birds. And all the birds are landing on the aliens. See, there we go. They should have been setting up bird flu this whole movie, and that would have been perfect.

And I, and I think that's really perfect.

I think so. Or mad cow disease.

Drinking the cow blood.

Yeah.

Aliens are eating cows and all of a sudden, boom, they're all going crazy and dying.

Yeah, I think that might be my biggest problem with this is like you're normally used to like a movie where like the, um, you know, the, the lead is, you know, like an Independence Day, like Will Smith is saving the day at the end and stuff like that, you know, other big movies like this where there's your lead is the guy who's basically end up saving the day. Like nobody in the movie really does any— doesn't save anything. They just— the aliens messed up and kill themselves off because they were prepped.

They had to put that moment in there towards the end where Tom Cruise notices the birds are able to land on the ship. Yeah. Like, look at the birds, the shields are down. And then this guy that's just directing traffic all of a sudden is like a commander. Fire, fire. Let's get the, the, the whatevers are the key. The javelins. The javelins are the key. Let's get them.

Like, how come the shields are down? Yeah, exactly. The alien turned them off, or do they— because he's sick and so the metal is sick too?

Yeah, the one alien's sick, and I guess to keep the shields up, he has to be constantly pumping a lever.

It's all pressure-based.

Yeah. Oh, you know what else would have, like, would have made some— maybe a little better sense is like when they, when they abduct the girl Uh-huh. Like, and they brought her up, if she would've gotten like taken into the like inner core of the thing and like, I don't know, maybe sneezed on 'em.

Oh, sneezed in their face. Yes.

Why?

Like, like that would've made suddenly that would've been boom. Oh, oh, there's some germs we weren't expecting. And, and that would maybe do something a little bit more for me. But like none of the, the people that are like trying to survive through this, they're not actually doing anything for like to stop the— like, the invasion stops on its own. There's no, like, hero to the story, I guess.

What do you mean they're not doing anything? All they're doing is they're, they're trying—

Well, no, no, no, what—

no, I mean, like, come there. I know I'm being facetious because, like, the whole movie, it's like this family drama more than it is— yeah, with the backdrop of an alien invasion. And it's closer to a disaster movie than it is an alien movie.

Yeah, it's like this— them trying to get to Boston. And that's it.

It's a road trip. That's it.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. That's it. Yeah.

And, and much like the movie Twister, I had a very— I had a real hard time with the movie, the original movie Twister, because it felt like they acted as this tornado was anthropomorphized. I can't think of the word. I can't say it properly. Where this tornado is out to get these people.

It's evil.

Yeah. It felt like in this movie They were out to get Tom Cruise.

They did. Yeah, they really did.

Like, why?

I don't know, maybe they hate him.

Like, even when he was running away in that scene where he's running away at the very beginning, it felt like they were shooting all the people around him. And it was done in a— it was— it almost— it was done in a way where it was like, we need to make a ride at Universal Studios.

Hmm.

That It felt like that, right?

Like, then you get a bunch of human ashes thrown in your face as you're going through.

You can donate your ashes to Universal Studios.

I was like, oh my gosh, how— because he's running with his mouth open. I'm like, oh my gosh, how much did he just ingest?

He's just eating people left and right. Yeah, yeah.

I thought it was just near misses.

I like that scene. I thought it was really cool with like the laser beams and stuff, but I think it is very like convenient that he's able to escape everything where literally almost every single human being around him is dead. Like, yes, he didn't do anything unique. He just ran down the road like everybody else.

I don't know, like, he didn't even like zigzag or anything.

He just ran. Like, the scene is kind of cool though. I like the effects and the dusting is very like scary. And then like the realization when he gets home, like, what's all over you? He's like, oh God. And he like really flips out. I think that like whole scene after like Him processing what's happening, trying to you know like he's obviously horribly traumatized and like I think that's pretty well done.

That's a really and the kids are just yelling at him.

Yeah, yeah, which is the obvious. What's your problem?

What's on you? What are you doing? Tell me what that is.

What is there dust all over you, you idiot? And he's like, yeah, like that is a lot of stuff.

We got sixty seconds to get out of here.

Boom. Yes.

Now all now in addition to like I've because it's a couple notes I wrote down for the very early parts of movie that was like. Man, how much dust did he ingest?

That's one of your notes?

Yep. And then the other one was if that, like, the, like, EMT thing that the, that the aliens send out, you know, with the electric shock.

Oh yeah, the EMP.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm sorry. Yeah, EMP, not EMT. Uh, they do that and, like, he checks, his watch is gone, the phone is off, all the other things. There's some people taking pictures with regular cameras, so that makes sense. But how's that guy videotaping stuff?

Oh, good call. I don't know.

There's one guy walks up with a video camera. I'm like, I thought all that stuff was like knocked out.

But that was a really cool shot though, because he gets vaporized, drops the camera, and then you could watch it all happening in this, in the camera viewfinder.

Yeah. Like found footage. Yeah. Yeah.

It was cool. But I'm like, eh, unless that guy had already figured out the battery thing, because there's always something with, you know, batteries and solenoids that could, that aren't bothered by by the UMP. So, you know, that's when he's able to go and get the, the car and stuff like that. But yeah, those are like a couple of just— oh, also when they, when they're like, they head out of town and they go to the mom's house. Yeah. And they walk in and he's like, all right, let's, let's get something to eat. And he starts like, let's make you a peanut butter sandwich. We're all gonna have peanut butter sandwiches. Those kids sit there like, we've never been in this house before. We don't know where any of our own food is.

Yeah. It's okay to eat the food in there, honestly. Yeah. I feel like he's acting— he's probably, he's being like the proud I don't wanna bother my ex-wives. Yeah. Yeah.

But what, what, like he, he's going through the box of stuff he brought with as opposed to like, hey, what, what do you guys have here? Let's, let's look around. Let's see what we got.

Yeah. I guarantee the ex-wife's gonna be like, you know what? It's okay. You ate some of my food after a horrible alien invasion. It's probably okay.

You threw, you threw half a peanut butter sandwich against the window. Yeah. And just left it there.

I'd rather be okay. I'll just shut up to my leftovers than throw the peanut butter on my window.

Well, actually, yeah, she'll never know about that cuz the plane fell through that part of the house.

Oh, thank God.

Yeah, thank God. Yeah, because if she came back and that so weird slice of bread was there, God damn.

Oh, there'd be hell to pay. There'd be hell to pay. Yeah, there's that scene where Tom Cruise walks up out of the basement, he like looks at that window and it's all gone. He just swipes his brow like, well, thank God.

But I did— I mean, it's a small little thing in the movie, but I was really like, they're in their own house, why aren't they just like just Dad, there's stuff over there. Go grab that.

Help your dad out. He's having a hard time.

Really, like, clearly having a hard time.

He is not the greatest.

Yeah, they're, they're not giving him a break at all. No, he is holding it together, uh, with like, you know, masking tape at this point.

Yeah, I don't think these kids quite understand still what's going on because they didn't see a bunch of people get dusted. Like, this guy went through something crazy. He wasn't the greatest guy beforehand.

No.

But he is barely hanging on, and I feel like most people would get the vibe like, okay, we gotta be nice to him. Let's be— treat him delicately because he's gonna snap. Uh-huh.

He's acting—

he's acting more erratic than normal.

Yeah. We gotta tiptoe around this guy.

And no, no, we're like, no, Dad, screw you. I'm not gonna— I'm not hungry.

Tell him what's wrong. Come here, let's do our claustrophobic meditation real quick. Let's do that real quick. All right, now let's get back to arguing with Dad.

All right. Yeah, yeah. Oh, well, let's take care of the— I mean, look, I get it. You should probably take care of children. But it's like, oh, let's worry about the young girl. But Dad, he's— let's screw him. He's freaking out. Let's say it's fine. Like, this feels like, you know, like, I get it. He's not—

yeah, you guys know some breathing techniques. Why don't you help him with them? Yeah, right. Dad, breathing through your nose, out through your mouth.

Come on, let's count. Count. Not the greatest dad, but he is trying to help them, you know?

Yes, he is. He is trying. It's not a huge try that he's doing, but he's trying.

He's doing his best, right? There's an alien invasion going on. Yeah. And I like how the older kid's argument is, you don't even know what to do. No one fucking knows what to do. It's a goddamn alien invasion.

Please, young child. Oh, you want to go look at the fighting? Oh, cool.

Why? Let's see what they do. They destroy everything in their path. That's a horrible idea. Why do you want to be in the path, you dumbass?

Here's my idea. I'm gonna go live in the sewers.

Yeah, exactly.

But it's cannibals. Great idea.

I've got ideas. I don't know what to do. Look, I'm thinking of all the spot. I don't know, I'll go find a ditch and just lay in there and hope they don't notice. Like, what else do you want? I made you a peanut butter sandwich. That was an idea, obviously horrible. I mean, like, I brought— you're the one who brought a bunch of junk. I mean, I guess he doesn't—

I stole a car to get us out of there.

Yeah, you stole my goddamn car first, and then I stole a car. And you think you're better than me?

Oh, so I'm gonna get on Tom Cruise's side here a little bit.

So here's, here's another question I have, and I don't know if this was there because there's any additional fun facts or anything. I didn't get a chance to look this up.

No, there are no fun facts.

But there— so, uh, he's playing baseball and playing catch with the kid. Yes. And he throws it through the window, and then they frame up a thing of him right in the middle of it. Yes. And then later on, uh, when they're in the car, right about to have like the whole thing torn apart, people trying to get the car and stuff. Like somebody throws a brick or something and puts a hole right in the middle. And there's, there's one other time as well that something happens where like there's this like perfect circle with somebody in the middle of it. And, and I, I just noticed like I saw it as like a repeating pattern. It was like 3 things I could think of offhand right away, but it almost seemed like a weird repeating thing.

I wonder if Steven Spielberg Is a big fan of the band Perfect Circle. Oh, maybe.

I bet he is. I bet he loves that band. Can you imagine him jamming out to a Perfect Circle in his like studio, like writing his scripts and stuff? I can't.

I gotta work perfect circles into this movie somehow. I'll tell you what, there's a lot of things that don't get paid off in this movie. Yes. Yeah, I that's one of them.

Like those people, like those people who got. Did they just get pictures of Tom Cruise?

Yes. Yeah. They didn't get any money at all.

They didn't get paid off. Yeah. There's just a lot, like, there's a lot of cool, like, ideas and things, and it's trying to stay true to the, the original broadcast and/or movie. In the original movie, there's this scene that always freaked me out as a kid. That's like in a barn and like the probe comes in. and sees them. It's a guy and a girl there, and it always freaked me out as a kid, but it was awesome, right? It's one of those kind of freakouts that you like kind of enjoy, and being like a 10-year-old or 8-year-old, like, it just— it was cool. So I was excited to see that. It was kind of this— the basement scene was kind of that, but I don't remember there being like a crazy... borderline— yeah, I don't know what that guy's— guy seemed like he was too interested in the little girl.

Yeah, yeah, there was a look because he's staring at her weird right away.

Yeah, there's a lot I didn't like about that. And then Tom Cruise killing— they could just left because they'd leave right after.

Well, it was the kind of— they're like trying to hide. The aliens all like turn their heads because that guy's like freaking out. Like all the aliens go silent and stare at the house while he's like motoring to himself.

But he's the— he's murdering himself, he's digging a tunnel. They could just been like, okay, and just backed their way out and left.

Tiptoeed away. Yeah, he wouldn't have cared, he's busy.

Yeah, but I guess they did sleep like babies after he killed him. They probably felt nice.

It felt nice knowing that they killed that horrible man.

Yeah, there's a corpse one room over.

I feel so comforted right now.

Yeah.

Did we do it, boys?

I think we did. I think we did.

Did we get through War of the Worlds 2005?

I mean, not just that, we basically got through— we got through month number 1 also.

And month number 1, a little pat on the back for all of us, I think. Yeah, so month number 1, year 2, DTF.

DTF. What did you guys think of War of the Worlds 2005?

I, uh, I didn't dislike it, but again, like I said, the ending is weird because like they just kind of die off on their own without the hero actually saving the day. I mean, he saves the relationship with his kids, which is probably more important.

No, he doesn't. They're gonna hate him in 2 weeks. They still hated him at the end.

They called him Dad instead of Ray. They love him now.

Yeah, but he left them for dead.

I'm sure he's never getting, uh, a weekend with them again.

That's for sure.

No, for sure it's his fault. In fact, in fact, yeah, in fact it is.

No, the last time you watched— the last time I left you over the weekend, stupid alien invasion. I'm not leaving with you.

Yeah, you think those aliens like were waiting for their moment to arrive? They're like watching Earth and they saw him like yelling at his kid, throwing the baseball, and they're like, all right, this is our chance, let's kill this guy. You only care when there's aliens invading.

Uh-huh. You only put effort in when it's—

when— yeah, the end of the—

oh, and that's why it always seems like it's Like it's focused that they're all focused on him because they this is what they've been observing the whole time is parental behavior and they're like oh Tom Cruise is terrible. Ray is terrible at this take him out.

Humans must die. He's failed. Yeah, he was like the one that they looked at like we'll decide with him if the humans should die. Okay, yep kill him. The more we talk about though obviously the more I disliked it. Um but I didn't think it was horrible. It's just this weird angry movie like Derek said. I think that's a great way to put it. It's just angry. Like, it has bad vibes, and sometimes it's on purpose. And I don't— I like movies that have bad vibes. I like depressing, sad movies. But something's odd about this, I guess, where it's not quite like you would expect. I don't know, there's something off, and I don't think it works quite right. There's some good scenes. I think the, like, aliens invading initially is really cool. Uh, like, the visuals are kind of interesting, um, with like the effects and stuff. But I just think that the— a lot of the problem too is with the characters. I feel like they're all very negative and they all don't like each other, and they don't ever grow to really become like they like each other. Like, Tom Cruise is trying to look out for his kids, but he's never been the greatest dad, and then the kids are just constantly antagonizing him, I feel like. So I don't know, it's a kind of a mixed bag of a movie, I think. Um, it's just, uh, yeah, that's— I think this is That's all I got.

Yeah, I'm middle of the road with this movie. I mean, it's fine. I didn't hate it. I didn't think it was particularly good, but I didn't think it was bad. Like, it's just, it's mid. Yeah, I didn't— I did not like the attitude of this movie because it was very angry and there was no— nobody came together to solve a problem. Nobody learned anything along the way. Like, there was nothing. There was no character arcs. It was just like a bunch of bad shit happened. These people survived, and then they made a bold choice with a character where he should be dead, and then they just totally reneged on it and said, hey, he's alive. Surprise, he made it here before you guys did.

Yep. Dumb.

Yeah, like, it was, it was fine. Will I ever watch it again? No. Was it better than the original? No way. And I haven't seen the original since I was a child, but I guarantee it's better. Guarantee it's better. Well, we know what we thought. What did the internet have to say? Well, on January 28th, 2006, MovieGuy81007 had this to say. Better than Independence Day.

Hmm, maybe.

The first time I saw War of the Worlds, I was blown away. I think the script is good. Great. Okay, great special effects, good acting, good directing, and great sound. This is 10 times better than Minority Report. No, no, no, I've seen Minority Report like once and I say no to that. This is one of the better Steven Spielberg films. Wrong again. No, I, I think Steven Spielberg had a slump during— I think Steven Spielberg had a slump during Saving Private Ryan through Minority Report. What? He got back on track with Catch Me If You Can. I think the aliens are better in War of the Worlds than Independence Day. I hope this movie gets nominated for an Oscar. War of the Worlds is what Minority Report should have been.

This guy's obsessed with Minority Report.

My only complaint I had with War of the Worlds is no mention of God.

What? That's your complaint? Wait, what? Ah, is God an integral part of the original book?

I doubt it. 2 found it helpful, 1 not so much.

No, he's not gonna elaborate on that. No elaboration. He's just gonna say that and end it.

I don't think So people don't understand how— what 10 out of 10 means. Yeah. No, 10 out of 10 means perfect. So if you have a complaint, it's not a 10 out of 10, right? At least it's—

yeah, it's already a 9 at best.

Yeah. Yeah.

Like my one complaint. All right. It's not a 10. It can't be.

I did the original. I feel like my friend watched the original War of the Worlds and he said there was like kind of a Christian overtone to it. So maybe that's—

Maybe I, like I said, I watched it as a kid. I wouldn't have detected—

I don't know.

overtone.

I don't know, but I think that's a very strange way to end your review because it comes out of nowhere.

I, I agree.

I don't know if that's a needed concept to have in a War of the Worlds film. Every War of the Worlds has to have God in it or it's not War of the Worlds. No, like, that doesn't make sense. He'll really hate the newest War of the Worlds.

There's no— I mean, they, they, they, they tore apart a church. What is he— what more did he want?

Now God was kind of in it. Yeah, well, in a way, God's always with us, so he was There was that weird—

it wasn't weird, but it was like a— it was a well-constructed shot where like it was backlit and it kind of looked sort of like—

Like angelic?

Angelic in a way.

Like, I don't like when she like gets grabbed. Is that what you're talking about?

No, it was earlier in the movie. I can't remember exactly what was happening, but you know, you know how like when they're like, oh, here's our Christ character and they'll backlight him and have his hands out to his sides and stuff like that?

Is that what Tom Cruise was outside every day taking pictures? And he's like, what? He did kind of get crucified in this, in like a metaphorical way.

By his children.

Yes. And then at the end, he cuts back and there's his whole like ex-mother-in-law and stuff like that. And there he has to stay like 40 feet away and they're just kind of like staring at him like, yeah, no thank you for bringing your granddaughter home or anything like that.

Thank God you're here.

You think that after living through the apocalypse, you could, like, cross that bridge?

I'd be happy to see just about anybody I knew.

Exactly. I knew you. Give me a hug. Jesus Christ.

Yeah. Haven't we been through enough? Yeah. I would love a movie where, like, I'm kind of thinking about this God thing where, like, in Jesus' times, the tripods come out.

So War of the Worlds in, like, zero.

Yeah, year zero. Yes. And Jesus fights them.

Jesus versus War of the Worlds.

They've been, they've been coming back at all different times.

Yes, they're waiting for Christ to be gone. The first, last time they tried to invade, Christ stopped them, and so now they've been waiting.

I'm down for that.

He's just smiting aliens all around him.

Yeah, I, I wanna, I wanna comment back though, Derek, the one thing you were saying about how like people don't understand, like a 10 for review. Like when, when they give you up to 10, then there's, there's wiggle room.

Yeah.

Like on Letterboxd, you will only get, you only get 5. And so like, if I'm going on there, like it looks like I have like a bunch of like perfect movies.

Yeah.

Perfect. Or like 4s. Yeah. 4 out of 5. People are like, wow, that's pretty big. Well, okay. Yeah. 'Cause you didn't gimme anything else. Like I didn't have any more wiggle room to say that it was probably the lowest half of that.

You could do 4.5 on Letterboxd, to be fair.

Yeah, or 3.5.

Yeah, maybe I need to work on, on doing that a little bit better.

I agree though, Keith, because after a while I'm like, like, I'm watching movies but making sure I'm watching good movies, and I'm like, 4, 4, 4.

Yeah, like, I get a lot of 3.5s and 4s on mine. Like, I, I like this movie.

Is it perfect? No, but I really enjoyed it. 4.

Right. Yeah. Even movies I love usually get a 4.5. I hardly ever give it— well, I give out 5s every once in a while, but yeah, I give out a few 5s.

Yeah. All right. Well, not to be outdone, on June 29th, 2005, he must have— this person walked right out of the theater and wrote this, uh, review. Figaro14 had this to say.

Okay.

Don't waste your time. It's a huge disappointment. This is a film that is all special effects and zero plot. Yeah, many of the plot elements loosely based on the George Pal 1953 version make absolutely no sense in this version. Having Tom Cruise play an auto mechanic instead of the Gene Barry role of the scientist takes away any opportunity for plausible explanations of what is happening.

He's also essentially— what's that? He's not a mechanic.

No, he's a, he's a is a dock worker. Essentially what you are left with is 2 hours of running from alien war machines.

Mm-hmm.

There is no growing threat whatsoever. Within minutes of the start of the film, the aliens are attacking and people run and die. Not much to hang a 2-hour film on. Don't waste your time. Watch the original instead. It's far superior to this shoddy remake. 9, found it helpful. 10, not so much. 1 out of 10.

And I could say this the same thing. This guy, like these people, they don't understand what a 10 means. They also don't understand what a 1 means. I mean, I guess his review sounds like he really disliked it a lot, but yeah, this is one that you're not getting a 1 out of.

I like— yeah, go ahead, Terry.

People who give like movies like this a 1 out of 10 usually have not seen a lot of movies that are really bad, you know what I mean? Like they don't have a good idea of how bad it really can get, because they can get really bad, and this is not anywhere close to that.

Ever seen The Cat in the Hat?

Uh, okay, I like that better than this.

I also— they don't, they don't know about Tubi Originals.

You're insane. I, I think there's a level of recency bias too when people write.

Yeah, that's true.

Like, they watch it like, oh God, I hate it, that's the worst thing I've ever seen, and they're just— they didn't— like, they're not digesting it right. So they're writing a review right after watching it, they hated it, so it's a 1. Right? Yeah.

And sometimes some movies just click with you in a way that you really don't like, and so you just give it a 1.

And that's— sometimes you need to listen to 3 dudes talk about it. Yeah, exactly. Because we've had times on the— on this podcast where, like, like, I know I've had times where I've been like, man, that was a really awesome movie, I really enjoyed it. I talked to you guys, I'm like, huh, it was, it was an okay movie. All right, yeah, that makes sense. Maybe it's not a You know, maybe it's not a 4.5, maybe it's a 3.5, and I really should get over it. But no, I thought it was cool, and then I just talked to you guys.

That does happen to me too. We're like, yeah, yeah, I come into this review, this review in particular, going like, I don't even know what I'm gonna say. Like, it's all right, I guess. And then now I got a lot to say, apparently.

Yeah, the long— the longer we talk about it, we start picking things apart. Like, oh geez, yeah, okay, yeah.

I don't even think we got very nitpicky on this one. Everything's very surface level.

Yeah, for— yeah, for—

I mean, it was fine, right?

It's not that bad, but it's not that good.

Well, we did it! We got through War of the Worlds 2005. And so you know what that means?

What?

Keith already mentioned it. We made it through another month, our first month of Y2 of DTF Down to Fumble.

Feels good, feels good.

So Keith, I'm sure he's got a brand new sheet On his spreadsheet. Oh, we have to rank them, don't we?

Yeah, I don't have the spreadsheet up there yet, but I've got it written down here.

We gotta rank these things.

This year we're going all handwritten. I like it.

No, no, no, I'm writing it down here and then I will, I will transfer it to the other.

Oh, okay. Nothing like making an extra step.

Yeah, we're gonna make a big scroll this year and unfurl it at the ends.

I have my order. I don't know if anyone wants to go first, but I'm ready to rock.

Well, it was your month, so go ahead.

All right. Uh, Rocketeer, War of the Worlds, Dreamscape, Cat in the Hat.

Same for me. Wow.

Terry's Cat in the Hat. And then what else after that?

No, no, I'm gonna go Rocketeer's number 1. Okay, I'm gonna go Cat in the Hat number 2. Jesus Christ. And then I think I'm gonna go— oh, I don't know, these two I feel like are close in my head, but I'm gonna go Dreamscape and War of the Worlds.

Wow.

Wow. Okay, look, you know what, I'm actually very— as much as I'm disturbed by the fact that Cat in the Hat was number 2, I'm so happy that Dreamscape still made 3 for you then.

Wow. Cat in the Hat was a close number 1, but I was like, I don't think I can do it. I don't think I can do it.

Yeah, I really wish— I really wish you would have said Cat in the Hat was number 1. That would have been great.

Wow. Yeah, okay, we're off to a rocking new year.

We are, we are.

With Dick Clark.

That's right, honorary 4th member of the podcast.

Dick Clark is the wheel. Yes. Makes sense. We gotta know what month 2 has in store. And the wheel bestowed that, that burden onto Keith.

Did it? Did— ah, all right. Well, man, I had a really cool idea. Um, well, one I thought was cool and what I think you guys would have absolutely hated and dreaded, but I'm gonna say—

I'm curious. What's that?

Oh no, no, no, no, no, I'm, I'm gonna— I'm not telling you what it is. Because I'm going to use it in a future month. I just did not get a chance to, to do the work, uh, that I needed to. Oh, uh, Netflix this week dropped all the James Bond movies. Uh, uh, they're all streaming now over on Netflix. And, uh, so I'm going simple. We're gonna do Bond.

Oh, really? Interesting.

Okay.

There's a lot of movies to pick in Bond. That's—

There are a lot of movies to pick in Bond.

Lots of different Bonds as well. How interesting you pick Netflix of all streaming services I don't have, Keith.

Very interesting.

I thought this was on MGM. I, uh, Netflix just got them and dropped them all this week. Wow. And, uh, Terry, yes, your library probably has—

I bet they're still on MGM as well, but I bet you they're in the library for sure.

Yeah. Uh, I am going to, uh, pick, uh, for the, for the first one, 1969, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Uh, this is the George, uh, Lazenby as James Bond, his one and only. He pops up once.

Is that the movie's name? On Her Majesty's Secret Service?

Yes, On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

All right, well, we got it. We, we finished our month of childhood ruined. Was any of our childhoods ruined?

Nah, I don't really care that much.

I thought it was cool as a kid, but, uh, I mean, Terry's gonna love Cat in the Hat no matter what.

I like it. I think I, I think my childhood was already prepped for that one with Dreamscape. Sure.

I like Cat in the Hat, so it's fine. War of the Worlds, I could take it or leave it. I don't care.

As long as Cat in the Hat— Terry got double childhood ruined.

Yeah. Cat in the Hat, as long as it's preserved, anything else can burn as far as I care.

The Cat in the Hat is preserved. Well, I guess that leaves us With nothing to do but to end this the way we end everything. Oh, Max, I heard there's a song about me. Why don't you put it on? I'm curious to hear it.

Uh, I don't think you're gonna want to hear it.

Max, just put it on. Put the song on.

It's not very nice.

Max, Max.

Are you sure? Put it on. Okay.

You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch.

That's me.

You're a fugly piece of shit. You bring bendy straws to bathrooms cuz you like the taste of piss, Mr. Grinch.

No. No, no, I don't. Max?

I wouldn't suck your dick if it was dipped in honey and could cure cancer.

Jesus Christ, Guys, who wrote this? Who wrote this song, Max? Also, you have no dick. Stop, stop the song.

I can't, Max. No, I can't stop.

Just stop the song.

Hit stop.

Thanks for listening to Fumbling Through Film. New episodes drop every Thursday. Got feedback or questions? Email us at [email protected]. You can see our films to fumble before you tumble into the grave and other musings on Letterboxd at Fumble Through Film. The through is T-H-R-U. You can also follow Keith on Instagram @kg3030lives and on Letterboxd @kg3030. Terry is on Letterboxd @terry2099. Derek is on Letterboxd @derek9nine. All original music is done by the Dr. Dre of Kansas, Terry, so hit him up for them bangers. Our new podcast logo is done by the delightful and talented Sanjay Vicky Nayak. You can find her on Instagram @einkstein. That's Einstein with a K in there. We'll see you next week as we keep on fumbling.