War of the Worlds (2025)

22:35Jason Mantzoukas:You've all heard the usual travel advice, right? Pack light, bring a neck pillow, Keep a portable charger handy. Yeah, yeah, those are all good. But the real travel hack, don't wait until you land to start learning the language. Instead, try Babbel, right, for just 10 minutes a day. That's all you have to commit, 10 minutes a day. And sometimes you can even do less. Babbel can help you start having real conversations in as little as three weeks. Instead of memorizing random vocab, you are learning phrases, you know, things that you would use ordering dinner, asking for directions, you know, talking with the locals.

23:09Jason Mantzoukas:What I love about Babbel is it gamifies learning a language. And you know what? For me, I need that. I need to want to go back every day to learn. And I've been now on a year long streak with Babbel. I was thrilled. I don't think I've kept up with any of my apps in any way like Babbel. Okay. If you've got summer travel coming up, now is the time to start so you can actually use what you learn on the trip. Right now, Babbel is offering listeners up to 60 % off. Go to babbel.com slash bonkers. That's Babbel, B-A-B-B-E-L.com slash bonkers for up to 60 % off. Rules and restrictions may apply. By the way, we were just talking about the end.

23:50Jason Mantzoukas:There's so much before, but I will say that the fact that Ice Cube is able to give his son access to another drone, not an Amazon Prime drone, but another drone to run like strafing fire against the aliens. I couldn't understand that. Oh, yeah. I couldn't understand that. And those drones have missiles on it? Like military drones? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I laughed so hard earlier in the movie when the sun's walking down the street. He's already been attacked, but the meteors have come. They're attacking. And Ice Cube, both to his son and his daughter, just keeps on screaming. Get away from that. Get out of here.

24:30Jason Mantzoukas:Now. Get out of there! Run, get out of there! And I kept on saying, to where? Where to? Where are you going to go? Where would you like them to go? And he's telling them, he's like, go straight, make a left. I'm like, where? Where are they going to get to that will be safe from the giant alien ships that are firing? Although here's the thing about the aliens, though. they don't seem too concerned actually with killing people. No. Only like if they're being attacked by helicopters or whatever. Only push comes to shove. Yes. They're not just destructive in terms of like walking down the street, you know, zapping everybody.

25:14No, they're not. What do you think though that they actually, what do they want to do with that data? They want everybody's nudes. But seriously, what are they doing?

25:25Jason Mantzoukas:They're feeding. like that's I think that they're vampires that feed on data and they're just finding planets with data so so when they get data more little ones are born is that what those little insects were all the little bugs I liked the little bugs element of it but I I don't think they ever figured out a meaningful way to tell us what was the bad guy's plan like I I guess I understand how we stopped them by poisoning the data or whatever but like twice by the way we do that twice yeah right we give them two we give them one virus that's kind of okay and then one virus that's kind of partly a human virus because i think one of them we gave them was covet 19 well yeah and i don't i didn't know how they were half biological and half cyber which ava longoria says multiple times i just believed her when she said it i oh absolutely and the and the the smoking gun information that ice cubes son gives him that illustrates all of this is the case is basically 12 PDFs that are just old documents showing that aliens have come before in the past.

26:30I was like, this is not nearly enough information. This is just basically 12 single documents that he gets to open and be like, they've been lying to us the whole time. But, but what have they been doing with that data? Yeah, we don't know. We don't know. None of it solves any of the questions. It just proves to him that he's been lied to. And because Goliath is, because there's so much data that's about to come in, that's somehow triggered the aliens? I think so. Like, I think Goliath is so much more data rich that it's like too attractive to them.

27:11Jason Mantzoukas:Well, I mean, but here's the other thing. His job is spying. Like at certain points, it's not just about people in the United States. He's pulling up camera views of everywhere. So he is. And I just want to go back to this because why is what the government doing wrong and what he is doing on a daily basis, even to his own family? Right. like there's not that's what i wanted to say to his son too it's like focused on on just what pops is up to yeah i mean i do also just want to get into he is the head of nsa surveillance domestic domestic and he is tasked with uh analyzing this situation at one point the president's like all right what do you got and we know we know that he we know what he's been doing because we've been watching in real time and he gives a full-throated yeah analyzed version of what is happening mr president gentlemen we're seeing a full attack on our infrastructure on power grids water communication and top-level military targets they knew exactly where they were going and they are systematically eliminating resources and our ability to coordinate a response here let me show you these locations are our global response headquarters our most sensitive targets and they're taking them out one by one based on their prioritized destruction of these critical intelligence command centers my analysis suggests nuclear power facilities are next electric grids will follow leaving us completely helpless do you see that they're grouping to concentrate their attack.

28:53Jason Mantzoukas:Exactly. And they will be much stronger in groups. So if we concentrate our armed response assets to our high priority locations, we can hit as many as possible. I think it's the only option we have right now. How do you know? Yeah. How do you know? Yeah. He has taken it in. He's analyzed it and he's giving he he is reporting out like a very high level kind of summary and we never saw any of those pieces coming together honestly most of what he's done has been to alter the electronics in a tesla that he got his daughter in so that it would have higher battery to get her farther away from the bad guy and by the way i i know that a tesla if you're a down on 12 it's just going to drive right to a charging station it's not going to allow you to go on the road with that little of a charge where does he send her To a hospital?

29:47No. No, Paul. They're all full. They're just in an office, it looks like. It looks like he just sent her to an abandoned office. Yes, to an office park.

29:57Jason Mantzoukas:By the way, Scott wants to point out that his official title is Domestic Terror Analyst. Now, I don't know much about much, but it seems like when your title is just analyst, that you're pretty low level. He's too old to have this job. He's too old to have his job, but it's like you are if I don't see a head of or anything like that on your title, like I I am concerned that you are being led into these Zooms. And he's always late with the president. He's on with the president. So he should have dozens and dozens and dozens of people who are doing exactly what he is doing. He if he's talks to the president, he shouldn't be doing that many clicks.

30:41Jason Mantzoukas:Well, and also I will say that the president should be in a safe room, not in the Oval Office. The president is fully not protected. Well, it's hard to trust anyone's background, Paul, because what we'll find out later on is, of course, that this hacker we've been looking for the whole time, the disruptor, is actually his son after all. And the fact that he couldn't figure that out makes me think he's absolutely terrible. But the dumbest because he should have he has on his computer his son's location everywhere. Listen, the the guys when he photoshopped himself and also when did he cut that YouTube video together?

31:21Cut like a meme video. He made a real. He built a meme video with like all sorts of specifics and jokes in it. And like I was like, what the fuck? He did a great job on CapCut. But here's my question. When the sun is, when we think he's at his actual home, which is Ice Cube's home, when we think he's there, there's a giant explosion, which Ice Cube is tracking.

31:51Jason Mantzoukas:The aliens come to Ice Cube's house. Correct. And destroy it. But the sun reacts to it so strongly. The camera goes flying. Things are happening. The camera's on the ground with soot on it. But then we find out that he is not at his home. He's at one of the other hackers' homes and has a backdrop, like a screen that he pulls down. What was he reacting to? Who knows? Well, I think the aliens, I think, were coming for all of the hackers. His whole disruptor team got attacked at one point. do you think he was just maybe like having like phantom like like like uh like june going to see a horror movie with you you jump out of your seat so maybe uh maybe like when that explosion happens like oh he just like he just kind of had his own yeah he shouldn't have gone anywhere i loved it during the whole attack like there's still an element that is monitoring like social media like there's hash hashtag free earth like yes ice cube is somehow monitoring social media as well.

32:59Again, this is a 60 year old man. The world is ending. The world is clearly... People have access to internet still. They took down a lot but they didn't take down our

33:08Jason Mantzoukas:Wi-Fi. Although at one point, didn't they say they took down all the power? You can't take our Wi-Fi? People still gotta post. We have to. That's when I will start posting. By the way, you keep on saying he's old in this movie and I don't disagree. That's why I wanted him to do more like hunting and pecking. I wanted to type in, be like, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, I was obsessed with the fact that, well, also the idea that his daughter and her baby daddy would be on Facebook. Yeah. Is the only flaw of the movie, to be honest, but like, that's absurd. They're only communicating on Facebook.

33:52Everybody's communicating on Facebook. It's the most important app in everyone's lives. But I laughed so hard. Everything's all right at the end. This is incredible. He saves the world. And then on Facebook, we get to see pictures of her baby shower. And there are four people there. Five. The five cast members of the movie. Okay, so you're right. It's the two kids. It's Mark and it's Eva Longoria. Yes.

34:22Jason Mantzoukas:So are we to believe that they are now a couple? I hope so. Oh, that would be wonderful. I'd like to see him get back out there. I would love it if they were the only five people who survived on Earth. Because she's the head of NASA. At the end of the movie, she becomes the head of NASA. She's in front of the White House. Maybe they needed to shoot that scene in 2025 just to finish the film. Because after COVID protocols are lifted, we can finally get the five gas numbers together. Five years later, NASA basically doesn't even exist anymore as an entity. We live in a post-NASA world right now.

34:55Jason Mantzoukas:I guess I did have a problem that the president was so quick. Like he's hearing, okay, aliens have attacked. The meteors are things. They're taking our data. And he goes, well. I see no other option to initiate this war of the worlds to save us all. He does say the titular line. Oh, yeah. Which is repeated multiple times, too. And then like Ice Cube is like, yes, yes. Like he's psyched like it's a football game. Like finally, finally we are in this. Finally, we've got a war of the worlds. Honestly, as though everyone's been waiting for this and preparing for it. Yeah. And they keep on saying on the front lines.

35:33Jason Mantzoukas:Where are the front lines? Every shot of the globe, it seems like they're everywhere. Yeah. In the daytime. And we're losing. All of our ships have capsized. All of our planes are falling out of the sky. We are losing in a way that is shocking. but they barely show because mostly what we see is a cacophony of drop-down menus. There are shots in this thing where I just wrote down some of the things that are available in drop-down menus on IceCubes. And one of them is, this is just an option in one of his drop-down menus. Show sensitive government addresses. That's an option he can click. Show sensitive government addresses?

36:18But then some of the other options are just copy. Like, there's such a range of options in that dropdown. It is. Yeah, like it might as well also be like the thumbs up emoji. Like, it is absolute madness what he has at his fingertips. And also how it's what you were saying earlier, Paul, about him acting like he was at like his kid's sporting event or something. Right. Like it's the same thing we had with when Hugh Jackman was a hacker in whatever hacker movie that was. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Swordfish. There's an element of trying to give intensity and action and emotion to what is such a just flat.

37:01I'm just typing on a computer to try and give it weight. And that is why he's late to so many high level meetings. because Sandra Nass is calling. People are always calling in when he's doing something else. He's on the phone with someone. Someone else is calling in. Everybody's got to be on video. You'll never get a phone call in this movie. Just straight up audio. You have got to be on video. And that's the way that urgency is created in this, which is so wild.

37:37Jason Mantzoukas:I mean, my favorite moment, though, is when his son reveals that he is the disruptor, the person they've been chasing. He goes, It's you! It's you! Yeah. Well, yes, kind of. How could you, man? How could you? My own son is hacking the government. It's you! It's you! It's you! Like, out of his chair. And there's a couple moments when he gets out of his chair. That's probably my favorite. But the second is when clearly as an actor, Ice Cube understands he can't leave this room. So he runs to the most flimsy glass door, like where if you pull in the door, it kind of makes a clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk sound.

38:19Jason Mantzoukas:You know, it's like it's not even sealed. He runs that glass door locked like is locked from the inside. I'm like, what? That door doesn't even seem to have a lock on it. And if it did, a strong push would break it like he's not in a secure room. He's in a office that most normal offices - He's in a conference room in West Hollywood. Yes, let me be clear. He's in his manager's office. Well, but here's the thing, though. I do wish they had some sense of like, oh, these aliens have a certain Achilles heel. They can't go into - Great, I would love this. They can't go into coffee shops. They can't go whatever it is because they are half human.

39:07Like there's something about them. But as it stands, there is no. They are susceptible to COVID-19. There is no safe place. So, yeah, the Department of Terror Analysis or whatever is on lockdown. But what does it mean? Nobody is safe in this world. Well, also, how come the aliens haven't attacked the building he's in, which is where, like, Goliath is? They should have just come right to that. That was their last stop, Jason. I guess so, yeah. Yeah, it just was, like, last on the agenda. The way the movie is set up, he's alone, I believe, on a Sunday or on a weekend or whatever, at the Department of Homeland Security, which suggests to us that they take the weekends off entirely.

39:52Yes. The entire Department of Homeland Security takes weekends off. Right, because there's no one in the entire building. Clark Gregg is like, what are you doing there? Why are you at work? And what? If he wasn't, the building would be empty. Yeah, it seems someone should be there 24-7.

40:12Jason Mantzoukas:But by the way, it seems like they're doing a very important thing, which is bringing down the disruptor today, who's like number 12 on the most wanted list. And it seems like Andrea Savage is like, I need the warrant. and he's getting a warrant. He's getting a search warrant for the FBI. Why is she even reporting to him? She reports to him multiple times. I'm like, you're the FBI. He is an analyst. Again, he's doing too much and also not nearly enough. Well, you're so right because on the one hand, he runs the world. Yes. Like truly, he runs the world. Alone. Alone in that office. Yes. but at the same time like he has he also seems to have no idea what's happening and is making all like terrible decisions yeah well there's another thing that i've just been realizing too like we're supposed to believe that he is smart but he stops these aliens by putting a 128 gig like hard drive in like like usba right which by the way so i just googled that as we were talking here it goes 128 gig hard drive is suitable for basic use oh yeah uh but uh moderate it would not be sufficient for users who uh need a game or a software you couldn't even put like a high fidelity album on 128 i have a a four terabyte or like a small a sand disc like that's tiny like just up it guys like if we're taking down the entire make it sound big that's what i mean by when he finally gets when the son gives him the Goliath whistleblower document, it is so basic.

41:51It's so not interesting. It's so not impressive, I guess, is what I mean. You know, like, yeah, you think it's going to be this big reveal. They've got this cutting edge software. And all it is, is a bunch of old photos of UFOs from the 50s. Here's here's what I find to be so fascinating about this filmmaker and the choices that are made. Like you could still open up six of those files and look at like old-timey newspaper clippings or whatever, but have hundreds of files sent over. Yes, right. And yet the choice is like, no, just 12. Yeah. Just 12. Well, it does feel like, the movie does feel like, by having Ice Cube as the lead, it's that same way that Liam Neeson action movies function.

42:36Like, this is for dads and uncles. Right. And I don't think they wanted to clutter it up too much and to confuse the dads and uncles. Right.

42:46Jason Mantzoukas:It's just sort of like computers can get you any information, obviously. And Amazon's great to deliver you shit. And your kids are on Facebook being weird. And you got to monitor them. And you don't know what your kid's doing in the next room. And Teslas are basically ambulances and can save your life. Yes. This is for dads and uncles. This is what this movie is. Oh, my God. Well, it's so funny. So our youngest son came in while I was watching it this morning and goes, oh, what video game is this? amazing and I said oh no this is a feature film what I also appreciate from that that's knowing funny knowing both the people in that story my wife and my son is that he would ever assume that you were up at six in the morning playing a video game like that would like like he would have been I like that you felt like you needed to identify that you knew both of the people in the story me your wife and your son just want to I just want to just say that I go on record and say I I know both of them.

43:39You know both of the people. I like that before you provided your anecdote, you were like, just so you know, this is from insider info. I happen to know the person that June is mentioning. He's my son.

43:52Jason Mantzoukas:Yeah, he knows what's up.

43:57That was wild. I know both of the people. Oh, man. Oh, God.

44:08Jason Mantzoukas:This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. I know you've heard us talk about BetterHelp a lot on this show, but do you know how much people love it when they use it? Yeah, you can see for yourself. Check out the amazing customer reviews updated every day at betterhelp.com slash reviews. You'll find hundreds of people sharing how much BetterHelp has helped them. You know, the feedback from people who have used BetterHelp speaks for itself because BetterHelp has an average live therapy session rating of 4.9 out of 5 based on over 1.7 million client session reviews. It is no wonder more than 6 million people have used BetterHelp globally.

44:46Jason Mantzoukas:Haven't tried it yet? BetterHelp makes it easy to get started. Just answer a few questions and you'll get matched with a therapist. You're in good hands. BetterHelp therapists have at least 3 years and 1 ,000 hours of hands-on experience. See the reviews, see what stands out, and see if BetterHelp is right for you. Visit BetterHelp.com slash bonkers. That's BetterHelp.com slash bonkers. Look, I never get new glasses because why? They're expensive, right? Guess what? This is where Zenni comes in. Zenni is an online eyewear shop with stylish prescription glasses, sunglasses, and customizable lens options at prices that make it easy to own more than one pair, all starting at under$30.

45:32Jason Mantzoukas:Now, I'll be honest, Zenni is a sponsor. They let me get a pair of glasses, but guess what? I returned on my own accord. Anyway, you go to zenni.com, you pick a frame, you enter your prescription, you customize the lenses, and they ship right to your door. There is no store visit. There is no pressure. They have this great app where you can actually see what the glasses would look like on your face and it saved me some potential embarrassment. I also get a chance to try some different lenses. Like I did try clear lenses. I'm not clear, but like clear glasses. And you know what? People have been complimenting me nonstop.

46:04Jason Mantzoukas:All right. So that scratched up pair of glasses you got, the ones with the weird frames that are a little bit crooked, they've done their job. Let them go upgrade with Zenni. All right. Go to zenni.com slash podcast. Use the code podcast 15 for 15 % off your first order, plus free shipping on all U.S. orders over$65. The styles sell out, so don't sit on it. That's Z-E-N-N-I dot com slash podcast promo code podcast 15. You know, I take a handful of supplements. Actually, I take more than I want. And I thought, oh my God, every morning I got to get up. I got to eat these horse pills. I put them on an empty stomach.

46:42Jason Mantzoukas:It's disgusting. It's gross. I wish there was a better way. And then I realized there is IM8. It is the way to simplify your supplement routine once and for all. IM8's Daily Ultimate Essentials has 16 supplements, replacing 90 ingredients across nine major organ systems in one drink. 95 % of people who've tried it for 12 weeks felt more energy. And that's from a clinical trial conducted by the San Francisco Research Institute. Now, I love IM8 and I guess the reason and simple because it's delicious. And yes, it made me stop taking all those horse pills I was taking every single morning. So if you want to start a new regime, get your supplements in a different way, go to im8health.com slash bonkers right now and use the code bonkers for a free welcome kit.

47:26Jason Mantzoukas:Five free travel sachets plus 10 % off your order. That's code bonkers at im8health.com slash bonkers. Code bonkers at im8health.com slash bonkers. These statements have not been And evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration, this product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Oh, this is the thing that was driving me nuts. Clearly, they weren't making the movie together. And everyone says data differently. So it sounds like they're having a fight. So Sandra would say data. And he'll be like, we need the data. These things eat data. Check in the data center. Stand by.

48:01Jason Mantzoukas:Collecting data to get to the data. These little guys are drawn to data. You know, everywhere they've been going, there's a data center. No, the code you will be carrying is data. What if we starve them out? Take away the data. So we got to infect all the data centers. Data center? Yeah, data centers. We use the data centers they've connected to as bait and plant an old school rabbit virus to infect the data they're eating. The more data it consumes. Data. Data. Data. Data. Data. Data. Data. They're eating our data. My data's being drained. They're speaking back and forth, and it does feel like they're having a pissing contest on how to say it.

48:37Well, and there's only one right way to say it, of course, which is data.

48:41Jason Mantzoukas:Data. Dada. Not dada. Dada. Dada. Oh, do you have that dada for me? Give me my dada. Now, where did we ever get to see where those little bugs that were feeding on the dada went? I mean, they're all over the place. they're attacking Ice Cube when he gets into the Goliath room, I believe. When those little snake legs pull him. That's right, that's right. But they seem to be sweet. Eva Longoria gets him. She traps a couple and she's keeping them as pets, I think. Yeah, I think that's really what I'm curious about. Because she's like, oh, I like these little guys. But meanwhile, the scene before, they were crawling all over her.

49:23And also, they have blood. Hey, guess what? They also have blood. So get out of there, Eva. That's crazy. there's so much happening outside like the movie is unquestionably happening outside like aliens are attacking there's so much happening and we spend all of our time watching Ice Cube try and maneuver a cursor like that the movie we're watching is Ice Cube and a computer I would love someone to pull some data on how how much screen time is devoted to just his screen and moving windows around and answering calls and typing and coding versus like action with people and aliens. Like I really do need to know because it did feel like, God damn it.

50:16I am watching a computer screen. Now there's another, it was stressing me out. It was stressing me. I think there's a way that this style or whatever you want to call this can be very interesting. I just it just didn't really work here. But because I think to use these elements, all of the way that we communicate is so smart. If you're interested in interrogating how we communicate, right, this is not doing that.

50:43Jason Mantzoukas:I do want to also bring up that, you know, earlier we've been talking like, oh, clearly, Amazon wanted a lot of product placement. Would it surprise you to know that this was a movie not made by Amazon? It was made by Universal. it is only being distributed on Amazon. So this is not... Wait, so the Amazon stuff was in there before Amazon was part of it? Yep. I mean, I think that they probably did some sort of branding deal with them. Oh, okay, okay, okay. But it was not like, this wasn't a direct... It wasn't cooked up by Amazon. No, Universal Studios bought this movie independently of Amazon.

51:16Jason Mantzoukas:That's shocking. And then maybe that was a backdoor idea, but this is not an Amazon made for Amazon movie. I'm surprised there was not an Alexa moment in this whole thing. I'm shocked that somebody didn't say, Alexa, where are the robots? Alexa, find Disruptor. Well, a lot of things, once they get into audio, because so much of it is video, the movie really falls apart. It's like when he is able to talk through the Amazon truck, through a system, the speaker system? What speaker? What speaker? speaker and how does he have fine he's able to like connect to the camera and mark almost drives off the side of the road he's so shocked yes yes i mean just to go back and say there is a camera in a commercial airliner that just has footage of like where's that camera well like what cameras in a commercial airliner how come there aren't a bunch of shower cams if that's what we're showing that's what he's getting in there early why why isn't he in there exactly checking out shower cams.

52:21Goliath is just, it's a picture of Clark Gregg unredacted. It's a bunch of pictures from the forties and thirties of UFOs and then just shower cams.

52:30Jason Mantzoukas:You did not wash your pits. Like, it's like, it's, you know, just like letting them know, but there is something in this movie that's so crazy. Like you think this is going to be about a movie where we're taking down like a cyber terrorist, somebody who is like, uh, that organization that wears the, uh, the mask. Anonymous. Anonymous. And that first part of it, when he's getting the warrant, when he's zoning in on the house, when he's finding the block and the apartment building and everything, he's also off checking Facebook in between that. Like, it's like he's not even focused on the task at hand.

53:02Jason Mantzoukas:It's like, OK, we're going to get that warrant. Let me call my daughter real quick. You know, it's like this is there is an FBI SWAT team standing outside of a building with guns ready to go. I think you don't know what it's like, Paul, to deal with as many windows and drop down menus and the speed at which he is able to do these things is is beyond your wildest imagination. Well, I don't. Here's what I'd like to see. And listen, I think Ice Cube is a fantastic actor. I don't think he can type that fast. No, I didn't believe he could type that fast. No, he is a very fast. I know I'm a fast typer.

53:40But are you really? Yeah. Did you take a typing class? Yes. Oh, you did. I did, yeah.

53:46Jason Mantzoukas:Did you, Paul? No, Paul didn't. Well, can I tell you why? Because when they said you want to take a typing class, I'm like, I don't think I'm going to have to use typing in what I'm doing. I was adamant that I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, please. Like, this is not going to come in handy for me at all. Oh, my God. That's so funny. I rejected it. I don't think it was even offered to me. It was offered in sixth grade. We all had to learn typing. It's smart. I mean, can I just offer a PSA? This is a PSA to people that I think maybe generationally we just have forgotten or people don't know.

54:23If you have something stuck in your body, like the daughter does in this movie. She has some piece of shrapnel in her leg. Do not pull it out. Period. That will make it worse. Make it, wrap it tight so that the thing stays in there. Do not pull it out of your body. That's my PSA.

54:44Jason Mantzoukas:Okay. Well, I mean, I think that you're right on the level of Ice Cube. Like, Ice Cube is very much like, don't pull it out. He knows. I do want to also bring up that. Well, I mean, like, my guy applied a tourniquet to her leg. So at the end of the movie, when they're showing the baby shower pictures, she should have lost that leg. That's what a tourniquet does. Yeah, that leg would have been gone. Well, especially because you have to imagine that after, even after that they, you know, got the virus inside all of the aliens, I think, I don't know, even after that happened, like all emergency and like medical services must have been down for a really long time.

55:22Like I can't imagine she got any help. No. You know, so that leg had to come off. Had to go. Had to go.

55:29Jason Mantzoukas:But you know what? She lived another day. I mean, the fact that she didn't have a miscarriage, honestly, was also pretty impressive. I mean, for the amount of stress that she went through. I'm shocked they didn't try and make that the plot line. Right. That she goes into labor. Yeah. And that that is what Ice Cube is monitoring is her giving birth. The final moment of a baby being born would have been pretty great. And then if it got bitten by one of those little bugs. Whoa. First alien human robot hybrid. I love it. That's the sequel. What the hell is happening here? Boom. Boom. Just so you all know, Amazon Prime Air, it has taken flight.

56:07Jason Mantzoukas:It is an active service. This is the drone delivery system? This is the drone delivery system. It is happening in Texas and Phoenix. In like rural areas. Yes. I believe it's happening in areas that are not congested. College Station, Texas, and parts of Phoenix, and they're expanding to Kansas City Metro. and 30 minutes or less and it's only$4.99 extra to get it. But now what can they carry, though? Little boxes. Yeah. Like a thumb drive. If they actually ordered a 2TB thumb drive, it wouldn't have worked. They're cute. They're bulky and it doesn't seem to make that much sense. Honestly, it doesn't seem to make any sense.

56:50I think it makes sense in areas where people are remote. Right. You know, like that, I, that, that it's like, it's easier to fly a drone out over agricultural land than it is to send a driver that I get in the cities, anything like that. Absolutely not. No way. I mean, wow.

57:09Jason Mantzoukas:Oh, wow. But I mean, like when I drive around Los Angeles, the city that we all live in, and I see those little guys, those little robots driving around with googly eyes on them or whatever. I'm like, oh, I've already acclimated to this. I've already acclimated to driving around a city. And there's just not just now, not just robots driving around with, I guess, food in them or whatever, instant cart or whatever. But also the Waymos driverless cars on the road. I love those. I'm just normalized to now. I still haven't been in one, but I love the idea. Whimmels are great. I see. But I'm also a person who doesn't understand that little robot.

57:46Jason Mantzoukas:The delivery robot? Yeah, I don't get why. It just seems to me like it's not going to get there quickly. And what am I ordering? And to me, they just look like I feel like people must be using them as toilets. Well, then they'll have some photo. They will have a video of you shitting in it. And I think then you have to pay for it. I think that's the idea. Hey, that's a service I would sign up for. This is a movie that— Can I interrupt you for just one second? I'm so sorry, Paul. Just to go back to the robots. June. What's up? Would you have ever imagined a world in which, when you said, what is its mission, about the BB-8 robot that is rolling around on screen in Star Wars and then the little toy in your home, that now we live in a world where you regularly drive past robots on the streets of Los Angeles?

58:31It's so true. And actually. Like, what is its mission? The way that the robots, the Los Angeles robots, hotshot's move is very similar. The LARs. The LARs. It's very similar to BB-8. Yeah. You know, and it seems none of us do know what its mission is. I don't know what they're delivering. Yeah. No, I think hot diarrhea. Yeah. I don't know if it's just like if it's food or what's in there.

58:55Jason Mantzoukas:I was having lunch the other day and one just drove right by me. And then we also were in a car the other day where it was causing a traffic intersection backup. Remember the driver was screaming at it, which I was like, that doesn't really help because it's, I don't think that they're taking that in. I hope, I don't know. By the way, good, good that the residents of LA are having a road rage against the robots and not each other. Thank you. But I will just say that, you know, was this movie on your radar at all? Because this has been a movie that for the last two weeks, I have been getting nonstop text messages about people.

59:29Jason Mantzoukas:Have you seen it? Because this is a movie that had a zero on Rotten Tomato, a very hard feat to do is now moved up to 3%. But a zero is a shocking, for Rotten Tomatoes, a pretty shocking thing. And that was a big talk about it. Wow. On release, it had a zero. And I think that people are watching it to be like, well, what could it be? And here's what I'll report. Whatever you think, if you've not seen it, you've just listened to us, it will still shock you. Like even everything that we've just revealed here, it will still shock you because in this movie, there are things we can't even get to all of the things that are confounding.

1:00:09Jason Mantzoukas:Like the idea you were saying drop-down menus. There's these type and sometimes search words where it's like terrorist house, you know, Prius. There's so many. Yeah. There's so many good things like that, that are just both what are what's available in his drop-down menus and also what he can type in that is immediately then realized. And all of this is happening in real time. So like they are activating warships. Planes are dropping out of the sky. But like this movie happens in 90. This is 90 minutes or it is 12 hours. I don't know because we never see a time. There are no obvious time cuts, but time, I believe, does pass.

1:00:51You know, there's one. Not much. There's one. And I don't remember when it was, but they're waiting for something. And it's like 146 and then it's 217. It's like there's one time cut

1:01:03Jason Mantzoukas:So there's about 30 minutes 30 minutes So there's 30 minutes of unaccounted for So in that time It's when everybody in the movie goes and has a dump I would love it if there was just Minutes of the movie where it was just Webcam of an empty chair And finally Ice Cube Returns from the bathroom Damn What did I miss? I have to say I liked Ice Cube with the gray hair and gray beard Oh, he's great. I like him in a little sweater vest and a shirt. I thought he looked great. And I thought he did a hell of a job for what he had to do. And I wrote down repeatedly throughout that everybody's working so hard at an impossible task.

1:01:46Yeah. To act, not just to act against nothing, but to act against nothing but have the stakes be so high is impossible. To have it be a world war event and you're just trying to communicate the stakes and severity and scope via webcam is absurd. Without any scenic partner, without anybody to work off of or work with, it's just punishing, I felt like. And everybody's doing their best.

1:02:17Jason Mantzoukas:And I will say this. I have no problem with the acting in this movie whatsoever. whatsoever. It really is how insane it is because when that kid says, I will fly the Amazon drone to your office, he, I believe like, I love that side game. I love his son. Like when his son is like, dad, let me tell you something, dad, I got to tell you something. And now I do think that they tease the audience. Like, I'm like, Oh, he's disruptor. He's like, daddy, you got to know what's going on. He's like, you don't tell me about what I need to know. Click. You know, I'm like, well, we should have just played that up, that little twist a little bit more.

1:02:53I also felt like he needed to pay a little bit more attention to his son overall.

1:02:57Jason Mantzoukas:Yes. His son didn't seem to be as monitored as much as his daughter. Yeah, the daughter. It was a little creepy. Seems like he's got something weird going on there. He doesn't want her to, maybe like she fell in, like she became like a substitute for his wife. And now, you know, on some level, you know, not like, you know, just like he's being overly protective of her. Yeah. Yeah. he's definitely monitoring her quite a bit more because i mean to think about him being on facebook so much but not responding to a facebook friend request from four years ago like if you here's what i'd like to request from from the baby daddy from the yes from mark why does he hate mark so much because mark calls him pops when mark when he goes also mark did raw dog his daughter well but willingly it was a it was a consensual raw dog oh yeah like for conception i would imagine I don't know why he hated him so much.

1:03:49Jason Mantzoukas:Well, and also, like, when everything he does seems to be like, okay, sir, I'm on it. Yeah. He says, like, he says, get to her office, whatever it is, wherever her lab is, get to that. And he's like, on it, on my way. It wasn't like a question. It was like, on my way. That guy leaves his Amazon, but he's working. Okay, so Ice Cube and his son are shown to be expert hacker computer people, right? They are. They can breach any firewall. They can get into any system. Whatever it takes, they can do it. But at the end of the movie, when Ice Cube has to run down to the Goliath room or whatever, it is his daughter who has to do all of the hacking.

1:04:38Yes. And she's mounting the computer and I couldn't figure that out. Why is she now in charge of disabling security systems and and finding the key code and blah, blah, blah? Well, I don't know. I mean, the other main issue I had with that key code is like, OK, now we're we're to understand that this is 40 feet below the actual Department of Homeland Security. And Goliath is here and it is like the most important piece of data that we have. And they have a camera facing the keypad. Yes. Facing the keypad. and they are able to find out that password in less than 30 seconds. Immediately. So odd.

1:05:26Wouldn't it have been funny? How great, this is my pitch for the movie. Wouldn't it have been great, and maybe one of our listeners will compile a trailer for this movie that is this, that when he finally breaches and gets into the Goliath room, it is just Billy Bob Thornton from the Amazon Prime show Goliath. It is just, what's in there is only the Amazon Prime TV series Goliath. Goliath. All seasons.

1:05:58Jason Mantzoukas:I would have liked it if in a moment he's like, this is too stressful and he pops on Bosh. Oh, gotta watch. He's like Ballard. He's like, I gotta watch my Ballard. I need her to solve cold cases. Please, please, can I be on Ballard, guys? Just if you're listening, Ballard, I just want to be on Ballard. June has heard me ask about Ballard to all the Amazon execs. And they're always like, we're not. Yeah, they were like, why are you talking to us about this? Oh, yeah. Let me be Ballard, please, guys. Let me be on Ballard. I just want to just help Maggie Q or fight Maggie Q. I just want to know what's up.

1:06:36Renee Ballard, call me.

1:06:38Jason Mantzoukas:Oh, my gosh. All right, so let's take a look. Obviously, people had opinions about this movie. a lot of negative ones, but there are people out there that had a different opinion. It is now time for second opinions. Don't trust the mainstream for information. Don't trust Grammarly for punctuation. Don't trust a surgeon to make incisions. Check out Amazon user reviews, get a second Second Opinions.

1:07:13Jason Mantzoukas:Second Opinions.

1:07:18Jason Mantzoukas:Second Opinions.

1:07:22Jason Mantzoukas:Thank you, Ben Lee, for that amazing song. We don't get to hear it a lot, but I always love it. Amazon. This is an Amazon Prime movie. When we watched it, it was number six of the most watched things on Amazon. Ever? ever? Well, in the top 10 right now. Oh, I see what you mean. And so far, it already has almost 3 ,000 reviews, and 15 % of them are five-star reviews. This first one is from Liam, and the title is, Ice Cube has done it again. I like Ice Cube. I like when the president said, I hereby initiate a war of the world, and everyone clapped. And I was happy to see the man next to the tent reject a year's worth of free internet in return for picking up a drone in the middle of a field of lasers, but quickly changing his mind for a thousand Amazon bucks.

1:08:15Jason Mantzoukas:I thought that was very realistic. Personally, if someone offered me a thousand dollars in Amazon bucks, I pretty much do anything they told me, including risking my life. Oh, Liam. Oh, this is stark. Okay. So, oh, Liam, some may say this movie wasn't very good. Do not listen to them. A lot of people don't like aliens, and they give bad reviews to alien movies. There's also a part of the movie where they try to drop two nuclear bombs on top Ice Cube. But luckily, he saved himself with three seconds to spare. Lots of suspenseful moments, and even a heart-touching ending. Five stars. I don't remember them dropping nuclear bombs.

1:08:53I don't either. I don't either.

1:08:54Jason Mantzoukas:Liam is watching this in a different... Liam is also out there thinking that people are bombing, like, critic-bombing alien movies. Yeah, I also don't use the term heart-touching. No, heart-touching is not a thing. Nobody's ever used it. Phil K. writes, surprisingly gripping and good. Wait, is it Phil K. Dick? Yes, that's why it makes this one real. Wow, cool. Surprisingly gripping and good, showing tools we all had to learn to use during COVID, combined with some fancy, probably fictional government tech, it made this movie even more urgent. The way this combines all types of conspiracy theories, UAP disclosure, privacy concerns, anonymous, disruptor, etc.

1:09:38Jason Mantzoukas:It actually stands out as a representation of the frantic times we are living in. Times that could become even more frantic. Once you let the format sink in, it's hard to switch off. Quite an original take on an old story. And in a way, even scarier because it hits closer to home. It also shows us how much we live in a corporate world. And the film did not shy away from showing that. Five stars. Like they think that that was like a corporate takedown. Yeah. I wonder for this new generation, is this movie their Independence Day? It might be. Oh, God. This one is from an untitled person. And I think the truth is people are uncomfortable talking about the potential of something going wrong at the hands of our leadership.

1:10:27Jason Mantzoukas:People are uncomfortable with the return of Jesus. Okay. And the end of the world. And people are definitely uncomfortable seeing a black family save the world. So it could be subconscious, but it's definitely true. This is a good movie with a profound message that left you with something to think about. Not like those vulgar movies that people get excited about. The title, The Truth About the Low Ratings. Five stars. Snuck in the Jesus thing in there a little bit. I don't think this movie had that kind of enough. I was like, where are you seeing Jesus inside of this? I would love that. And then it just finally goes here from Amazon customer.

1:11:11Jason Mantzoukas:Amazing cyber evasion movie. I think it means invasion. Yeah. The acting was amazing, and I liked how it was directed with all the video chatting, etc. Five stars. And that is just a sampling of some of the five-star reviews of this film. I mean, maybe big government is taking it down. Maybe this is like that movie with Will Smith and the football players where he was talking about CTE and the NFL kind of squashed it. Yeah, the concussion movie. Maybe big government is making us not enjoy this. They kind of hacked into Rotten Tomatoes. Somehow I do believe that the government in this movie is operating more coherently than the government we're currently living under is.

1:11:57Jason Mantzoukas:All I'm saying is if Ice Cube can get into anything, he could definitely hack Rotten Tomatoes. And maybe there's an analyst out there jacking up scores, dropping down scores. you know he may not like uh you know she hulk and just getting in there and putting his own issues with it review bombing the woke the woke superhero movies i mean we still despite rotten tomatoes or no we saw what we saw yeah we saw we saw what we saw and it is something to see like that's the thing about this movie i will give it first of all nice hour and a half yeah oh nice the time on this was perfect perfect and you know it is so wild that it is absolutely something to behold yes even if you just watch the opening just the opening until those meteors come crashing down for sure and but the other thing i will say is we didn't talk about and i'm curious because uh i am as we know childless um and you guys are not as we've established, Paul does know your son.

1:13:00Jason Mantzoukas:But Jason, I've offered it to you multiple times. You can take any. We have two, so you can take one. Yeah, great. Again, that is such a strange offer. What did you think of the letter he writes to his children at the end of the movie? Actually, that he's trying to write throughout the movie, but then succeeds and sends at the end. Dear Faith and Dave, being a parent is hard. If I don't tell you this stuff now, I might not be able to tell you later. Protecting my kids was the most important part of my life.

1:13:39Jason Mantzoukas:But I held on too long. I was afraid to let you guys grow up. Please forgive my trespasses. I promised Mom I'd keep you safe, but you ended up saving me. And your mom would be so proud of her children. I know it's true that if I make it through this, it'll be because of you guys. Just remember, I'm with you always. It got me. It got me. I'll be honest. I actually, yes, I did. I liked what he said. I was so curious about the way that he wrote it. And I think it's because he's so used to like short missives and coding. But there's not a paragraph to be found in there. No, it's all disjointed sentences, single sentence ideas.

1:14:29Jason Mantzoukas:Well, I mean, he is saving the world at the same time. He does not have emotional growth. And that's part of it. No. Well, he does end up at the shower at the end. Sure, with Eva Longoria. And he wore the shirt. The grandpa shark shirt. He wore the shirt. But what would have helped his growth, I think, is if he ultimately needed to turn off surveillance on his daughter. if he ultimately needed delete the the ex-wife the dead wife to let go of her and to assume that she's going to be okay and the decisions she makes like he's not helping her that never really happens wouldn't it have been awesome and now this is not the movie that we saw obviously if the machines come in because they have so much access to the data what if they started sending him messages that sounded like they were from his dead wife.

1:15:27Jason Mantzoukas:Whoa. You know what I mean? Maybe she's been in the data. The world that we're living in, where AI can spoof any of us because it has access to so many hours of our voices or whatever. AI is so powerful. The world we live in, people are being deceived by AI versions of the people they love. Yes. Wouldn't that have been interesting if the way the machines were trying to obfuscate what they were doing was to have suddenly his phone rings and it's his dead wife. Well, again, I ask you, what do the machines actually want to do? Exactly. But that's the thing. They don't want to do anything because they're not interested in deceiving.

1:16:06Jason Mantzoukas:They just want to drink the milkshake. Like, we are 7-Eleven and they're coming to drink our data Slurpees. Like, that's it. Okay, okay. So this is a big drink. So for you, this is about drinking. This is a drinking. Either milkshakes or Slurpees. Yeah, this is like when... These guys are coming to drink. When Daniel Day-Lewis says, I drink your milkshake, you put that in this movie. It's like, that's what the aliens are like. I drink your milkshake. But is it just to drink our milkshake? Or is it to survive off of it? Or what is it? What is it? Are they taking it somewhere? Are they going to?

1:16:36Yeah. They're doing a better version of what we tried to do here.

1:16:40Jason Mantzoukas:No, they just are coming to take a drink. It's like we go to a place with a beach to go swimming. They're like, oh, that planet's got a lot of good data. So it's for fun? You think this is a vacation? I think it's like a buffet. We're a buffet. And they're going from place to place. So when we vacation, we go to like museums. So they pick vacation spots for data centers. Yes. And it's like, I think in my mind, it's like Brainiac. Doesn't Brainiac go around from like planet to planet and suck up all their knowledge and then keeps them in little glass jars like the city? Sort of, yeah. You know, that's what's going on here.

1:17:13Jason Mantzoukas:These are just thirsty aliens. I wish I knew what the aliens plan was. I would have enjoyed. Like that's part of the thing is they're up against an antagonist that is just so, so inscrutable and so unknowable. Yes. You know, you never even really get to see what they look like. Nope. Nope. It's always grainy. They do break off into a capsule at one point, which I thought was cool. But like, we don't even get to really see them. Well, they couldn't afford that. And also like none of the information when he opens the Goliath files and we have obviously these machines have been here. It doesn't help him at all.

1:17:47Nope. It's not like, oh, from the 30s, we discovered that they are allergic to, you know, pollen or whatever. None of it works or helps.

1:17:56Jason Mantzoukas:I mean, just thankfully, his daughter was working on this other virus, the cannibal virus. I mean, I guess all this. Thank God they are, as a family, so singular in each of their abilities and positions. It's crazy. It really, really is. And I guess the question is, would you recommend this movie to other people to watch? As I said, there is something to it is so again, if only for the first 15 minutes. Yeah, I think this is worth getting your eyes on. I had no problem watching it. I will say even at a tight 90. It went down pretty smooth. It went down smooth, but there was until that that third act kicks in.

1:18:33Jason Mantzoukas:Like I was like, there's like a little bit of a time where you're like, OK, well, what's happening next? And then once we get into the Amazon Prime, once we get into the Tesla, honestly, we're in great shape. But there's a little bit of time in between. This is the kind of movie that I think absolutely, for the sake of the episode, watch it. But also, like, this is the kind of movie that you can watch it while you're making coffee in the morning. Oh, yeah. Like, it does not demand you turn out the lights and sit down and give it your full attention. it's okay in the background and you'll enjoy it enough and it will be good for the episode for this episode you need to see some of it and I highly recommend everybody in it I cannot wait to see Andrea Savage we have a lunch planned and I am going to find out every detail I possibly can about it and I'm sure she's also being inundated as people have so curious Jason, June you want to plug anything June what do you got?

1:19:33well I don't know if it's is still in the movie theaters, but if it is, I definitely recommend that movie and going to see it. It's so much fun to watch with an audience.

1:19:42Jason Mantzoukas:Really great movie. So much fun. Jason, what about you? You know what? I don't really have anything, but I'll shout out Taskmaster Season 19. It's on YouTube now, so check it out. I love it. I will shout out Dark Web every Monday on YouTube. Me and Rob people, totally free. Everybody, thank you for listening. And if you have questions concerns, observations that we didn't quite get to, give me a call at 619-P-A-U-L-A-S-K, or just go to our Discord at discord.gg slash HDTGM, because last looks, we will break down all of them, or as many that are interesting. And last but not least, I got to thank our entire team for whom the show could not be done without.

1:20:24Jason Mantzoukas:I am talking about our producers, Scott Sonny and Molly Reynolds, our movie picking producer, Averill Halley, and our engineer, Casey Holford. All right, guys, we'll see you next time. See you next time. Okay, clickety-clackety, clickety-clackety.

1:20:41Jason Mantzoukas:For a small business owner, every day is full of surprises. Some great, some not so great. Like when a client cancels their order at the last minute. But here's a surprise you will like. Progressive provides small business owners with 30 customizable coverage options to help keep their business going strong. So go ahead, surprise yourself. Get a quote in as little as eight minutes at ProgressiveCommercial.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates and third-party insurers. Coverage is not available in all states or for all vehicles and coverage selections. Hey, Chicagoland. The Wayfair store is in your neighborhood at Edens Plaza and Wilmette.

1:21:16Finally, you can feel the fabric, sit on the sectionals, and even open the refrigerators. Plus, our in-store designers will help you bring it all together with free one-on-one design support for any project on any budget. Yep, we said free. Oh, and did we mention the cafe? So what are you waiting for? Come see all that's in store. Visit the Wayfair store today at Edens Plaza in Wilmette.

1:21:39Jason Mantzoukas:Wayfair, every style, every home.