027 War of the Worlds (2005)

Three years after teaming up for Minority Report, Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise reunited once again for War of the Worlds. To talk about their second (and, to date, final) collaboration, we're welcoming in Jeremy Kelly, our (brace yourself for this hyper-specific title) resident mid-2000s sci-fi remake expert. In this episode, we talk about the ways this movie differs from the original H.G. Wells version of War of the Worlds, the effectiveness of a small story within a global story, and the movie's abrupt ending. We also discover that we like and dislike wildly different sequences of the movie from one another, realize that this is (in more ways than one) a secret sequel to The Shawshank Redemption, and keep an eye out for Channing Tatum's uncredited role as "Boy in Church" (note: he is still not in this movie).