The Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made

0:00 This video is sponsored by Rocket Money, which I will tell you about later.

0:03 You know, it's been a really good year for movies so far,

0:05 but I have to admit that sometimes they can be a little too much for me.

0:09 As a lot of movies have gotten more ambitious in scope,

0:12 more groundbreaking with their visuals,

0:15 I often find myself getting overstimulated.

0:18 I had to leave the newest "Mission Impossible" like 45 minutes in because the AI

0:22 villain in that movie made me so dizzy I thought I was going to throw up.

0:26 That's real, by the way.

0:27 I'm kind of doing a bit right now, but that actually did happen to me.

0:30 And don't get me wrong, I loved "Sinners." Such a fun theater experience.

0:33 But the whole time I was watching and I couldn't help but think

0:36 how much better it would've been if instead of doing the whole vampire thing,

0:39 they had just screen recorded a bunch of Zoom calls.

0:42 And then I found out about the new "War

0:43 of the Worlds" movie and all of my prayers were answered.

0:46 Oh.

0:47 My.

0:48 God.

0:50 "War of the Worlds" is Amazon's take on Steven Spielberg's

0:52 take on the HG Wells novel from 1,000 years ago.

0:56 And I say Amazon and not Prime Video because where

0:59 a lot of Prime content is made with a noticeable production value,

1:03 this movie feels like it was made in an Amazon warehouse.

1:07 No, Mark!

1:08 No!

1:08 It's also kind of an ad for Amazon, but I'll get to that later.

1:11 The main character of "War of the Worlds" is Will Radford,

1:14 who works for the Department of Homeland

1:16 Security as a surveillance and threat assessment expert,

1:19 which certainly makes it sound like we could be in for an exciting movie here.

1:23 In reality, all Will actually does is sit

1:26 at his computer all day watching drone footage of Washington DC.

1:30 I think the conceit of the movie was, okay, what if Jason Bourne...

1:33 Yes?

1:34 Worked from home.

1:35 Sorry?

1:36 And he was played by Ice Cube?

1:37 (explosion blasts)- [Will] Aw.

1:39 (jet whirs) Aw no.

1:42 That's not gonna work.

1:43 From the opening montage, it's not entirely clear what Will's role here even is.

1:48 It kind of seems like the computer is already marking everything for him

1:52 and all he needs to do is see if the text is green or red.

1:55 If it's green, he can move on to the next batch of footage,

1:57 but if it's red, he can also just move on to the next batch of footage.

2:01 Nothing he's doing matters at all.

2:02 This car is driving suspiciously close to the Pentagon.

2:06 Let's go ahead and give that a threat level of medium,

2:09 provide no further information, and then get back to looking at buildings.

2:12 You realize pretty quickly that Will seems

2:14 to be a lot less interested in securing the homeland than he is using his access

2:18 to government equipment to spy on his adult children.

2:21 He spends the majority of his time just looking at them, watching them.

2:25 He has cameras at their jobs, at their homes, inside their fridge.

2:29 Okay, so we got four avocados,

2:31 one mayonnaise, four avocados, and eight unknowns.

2:35 I'm sorry, it can tell just from the outside

2:38 of this container that there's cake in there,

2:40 but it doesn't recognize a cup of pudding?

2:42 [Will] You haven't had any protein this week.

2:43 How do you know?

2:44 Let's just say me and your fridge is pretty tight.

2:47 I love his character, one, because of Ice Cube's transformative performance.

2:52 Really?

2:52 A muffin?

2:53 What are you thinking?

2:54 Jesus, Dad.

2:54 How many times have we been through this?

2:56 One hard boiled egg.

2:57 But also I like that he doesn't seem

2:59 to know why his family doesn't fuck with him.

3:02 Hey, Pops.

3:03 I'm not your daddy, man.

3:04 Sorry.

3:05 [Drew] He finds out his daughter didn't invite him to her baby shower.

3:08 [Will] What shower?

3:09 Oh shit.

3:10 So he hacks into her MacBook and is like, "I don't get it.

3:13 "Why doesn't she trust me?" (notification chimes)- Damn.

3:16 Why would she say something like that?

3:17 And you can see their last text exchange was her asking

3:19 him for a ride to the hospital and him being like, "Hmm, not sure about that.

3:24 "I'm gonna be absolutely swamped that day,

3:27 "watching a live feed of you going to the hospital." One

3:30 of the other main characters in this movie is his friend,

3:33 question mark, who works at NASA.

3:35 And if it wasn't made obvious by the logo behind her and her multiple mentions

3:39 of the NASA satellites that she has access

3:41 to, her name in the movie is Sandra NASA.

3:46 Just wanna make sure nobody's confused about where she works.

3:49 And look, I'm guilty of sometimes saving someone in my phone as first name,

3:53 their name, last name, the thing I know them for.

3:55 But even in the government database that he uses throughout the movie,

3:59 he types in her name as Sandra NASA, so I think that is her legal name.

4:04 Anyway, this is a great scene because in the span of about 15 seconds,

4:08 you can see Ice Cube go from, "Crazy weather?

4:11 "Not my problem.

4:12 "Whoa, that weather's crazy, but it's not my problem."- Take a look at this.

4:17 [Will] I watch people, not weather.

4:18 All right, that's crazy right there.

4:19 Well, I got bigger fish to fry than watching clouds.

4:22 Now I know what you're thinking, this movie is great so far,

4:24 but how come nobody's gone on Facebook yet?

4:27 Don't worry, he does.

4:29 For several consecutive minutes.

4:33 [Erika] Remember to take out the trash today and be nice to the kids.

4:37 That's how she died.

4:38 You forgot to take out the trash and she got hit by a garbage truck.

4:41 [Will] Yeah.

4:42 Here's another example of very efficient writing in this scene.

4:45 From this, we don't just learn that wife is dead.

4:47 We learn that in this universe, the deliverability of a Facebook message is

4:53 what indicates whether or not someone is alive.

4:56 This is a crucial detail to remember as later

4:58 on when shit hits the fan and the aliens start attacking, spoiler alert, sorry,

5:02 there's a very tense moment where Will's message

5:05 to his daughter Faith does not go through.

5:08 The implication being that she died so

5:11 hard her Facebook doesn't even work anymore?

5:13 Look, I know Facebook certainly has some weird policies,

5:16 but I don't think they deactivate your account the moment you die.

5:19 Now, thankfully she survived, and her dad is able to confirm this because he,

5:23 again, has access to 24/7 live feeds of every building she might be inside of.

5:29 Aw, he really does care.

5:31 That'll teach her not to be so cagey about her privacy.

5:34 Also, I see these are all Ring cameras they've placed around their house,

5:37 but what is this one for?

5:39 The one that's eye level with the couch.

5:41 That to make sure nobody breaks in and starts watching TV?

5:43 Now, I think this is a good time to remind you

5:45 that Ice Cube spends 99% of this movie sitting in one spot.

5:51 This is a sci-fi action adventure about aliens attempting to destroy Earth,

5:57 and it is filmed entirely from the point

5:59 of view of a guy looking at his computer.

6:03 (explosion blasts) You could make the argument that there's

6:11 no point in even trying to make this movie

6:14 if you're not going to actually film any

6:16 of the things that are supposed to be happening.

6:19 And I'd almost be inclined to agree.

6:21 But have you stopped to think about how much more work that would've been?

6:26 Watching someone's facial expression change slightly while looking

6:30 at a bunch of desktop notifications accomplishes the same exact thing.

6:34 This is terrible.

6:34 Like, even when meteors are hitting the earth,

6:36 aliens are coming out and shooting people,

6:39 we're still not really watching any of those things.

6:41 We're just watching Ice Cube react to those things.

6:44 (explosion blasts)- Sheila!

6:47 (siren blaring) Oh my god.

6:55 This is probably the best scene in the whole movie.

6:56 Dad, have you seen this?

6:58 Dave, listen to me.

6:59 Get outta there.

7:01 Now!

7:02 That's good advice.

7:03 [Will] Keep running!

7:04 What?

7:04 I can't hear you?

7:08 You gotta go left now.

7:11 Where is he routing him?

7:12 [Will] Take a right now!

7:13 He's so confident about where to go, about where the aliens aren't going to be.

7:18 Go!

7:20 (dramatic music) (static crackling)- Oh no.

7:27 My son died from explosion.

7:29 When is this week gonna end?

7:32 [Will] Thank God.

7:35 [Drew] Don't worry.

7:35 Dave is okay.

7:36 But now Faith is in trouble.

7:39 (indistinct).

7:40 What are you doing outside?

7:41 At least put a jacket on.

7:42 It's cold out there.

7:45 Get away from that!

7:46 Okay?

7:47 Stay clear of that!

7:48 Get outta there!

7:50 Go!

7:51 Yeah, she's working on it.

7:53 Go!

7:54 [Faith] Oh shit!

7:55 (explosion blasts) (heart beating)- Wait, he has access to her heart rate?

8:02 Why didn't he just check that earlier?

8:04 How you?

8:05 How's the baby?

8:05 Stay calm.

8:07 Your heart rate is way too high!

8:09 105?

8:10 That's not that high, especially considering the situation they're in.

8:13 She just sprinted away from an alien laser beam.

8:17 If anything, it's kinda low.

8:18 She's freaking calm right now.

8:19 Oh, cool, we're moving from the computer to the phone.

8:22 (phone ringing)- [Operator] All operators are busy now.

8:25 The world is at war.

8:27 I'm coming!

8:28 Gross.

8:28 Here I come!

8:29 Hey, at least he's finally about to go to a more interesting filming location.

8:33 [Will] Damn it.

8:34 Locked in.

8:35 Nevermind.

8:36 The door's locked.

8:37 My daughter's in danger.

8:38 I have to go help her.

8:42 You know, on second thought, I do kind of like this chair.

8:44 Okay, I'm coming!

8:45 I'm coming right now!

8:47 Gross.

8:48 Quick as you can.

8:49 I'll open it for you.

8:52 Hurry up, baby.

8:53 Faith, you're gonna have to get your ass in gear, man.

8:55 This is some pathetic effort I'm seeing outta you.

8:58 Hurry, you're almost there.

8:59 (sirens blaring) Keep moving.

9:04 Just a little bit faster.

9:05 Good news.

9:06 She was able to make it into a car that's leading her to safety.

9:08 Bad news, it's a Tesla.

9:10 You think you have more power than you really do.

9:14 You think you have the power to have saved Mom.

9:17 Awkward timing with this explosion.

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10:52 And now back to the movie.

10:54 Classic infuriating movie trope here where one

10:57 character has vital information that would help everybody,

10:59 but the person they're trying to communicate it to won't listen.

11:03 I need to talk to you about something-- I don't have time for that right now.

11:05 Dad!

11:05 This is important.

11:06 I have information I think you might want to know.

11:09 Not now, Dave.

11:10 The government-- No, no, no, no.

11:11 I don't want to hear nothing you have to say.

11:13 Dad, listen!

11:14 I gotta go.

11:15 There are so many jump cuts in this movie, it's actually insane.

11:18 Like, I think they just filmed every line individually

11:21 and forgot they needed to account for conversational timing.

11:25 So then they had to fix it by putting all

11:27 these cuts in that you can't do in a movie.

11:31 YouTube video, sure, do all the jump cuts you want.

11:33 But you gotta raise your standards a little bit if you're Universal Pictures.

11:37 Now, to be clear, I don't blame any of the individual editors for this.

11:41 In fact, I don't know if I could imagine a more difficult editing task

11:45 than to have to make something comprehensible

11:48 with the source material that they were given.

11:50 Essentially, Amazon gave these two people a photo of a green

11:54 screen and a handful of Ice Cube reaction shots and said,

11:57 "Make a movie." And technically they did because we're watching it.

12:01 Sometimes I wonder though if they even knew what

12:03 was going to be on the computer when they filmed,

12:05 or if the plan was just get a shot of Ice

12:08 Cube looking concerned and then we'll figure out the rest later.

12:10 'Cause not only do they reuse shots like crazy,

12:13 but there's times where something so inconsequential happens that it

12:17 feels like it was just shoved in after the fact.

12:19 All right, time to fly this drone.

12:21 Oh wait, I can't.

12:23 I could earlier, but now I can't.

12:26 I need a level five password.

12:30 So I'm gonna DM someone else in the government

12:33 and ask for a level five password.

12:36 And now I can see the drone.

12:38 What a fun obstacle to just throw in for no reason at all.

12:41 Did it make the movie better or did it just make it longer?

12:45 [Crystal] Our forces are positioned and ready to engage right now.

12:47 What do you think, Mr.

12:48 President?

12:48 I see no other option to initiate this war of the world.

12:52 He said it.

12:52 He said it.

12:53 There are too many of them.

12:54 What are we going to do?

12:57 We're going to initiate a Star War.

13:00 [Reporter] China and the US have joined

13:02 forces in what is an unprecedented collaboration.

13:06 On the song of the summer.

13:07 [Reporter] The world's governments have finally put aside

13:10 their differences in an effort to protect the home planet.

13:13 Who is saying this?

13:15 Who is talking right now?

13:16 Such a heartwarming sequence here,

13:18 a real glimpse into what life might be like if we all just got along.

13:22 And the best part is we get to watch Ice Cube watch it happen.

13:25 Got him.

13:26 Got him!

13:27 Took your ass out, huh?

13:28 Take your inner galactic asses back home!

13:32 Meanwhile, Faith isn't doing so hot.

13:37 She's pregnant.

13:38 [Faith] I thought that I could stop the bleeding if I took it out.

13:40 I thought I could stop the bleeding by pulling

13:42 out the one object that was stopping me from bleeding.

13:45 Why didn't that work?

13:47 Gotta put some pressure on that wound, man.

13:49 No, Mark.

13:50 No!

13:50 But I work for Amazon.

13:52 Packing supplies are all I know.

13:54 Oh no, please don't die.

13:56 Hold on, Faith.

13:57 I love...

13:57 Oh wait, my girlfriend's calling.

13:59 Keep me posted.

14:00 You talking to the Cube, baby girl?

14:01 What do you want?

14:02 Big discovery here about the aliens and their intentions.

14:04 [Will] Why are they going after the chip?

14:06 These little guys are drawn to data.

14:07 These things eat data?

14:10 Exactly.

14:10 [Will] Wait a minute, this whole attack is just a big diversion

14:12 to get those tripods to the data center.

14:14 And those tripods are just Trojan horses

14:16 to get those little bugs into the servers.

14:18 I feel like I have to point out that that's not how Trojan horses work.

14:22 A Trojan horse is when you sneak

14:24 something nefarious inside of something that appears harmless,

14:27 so the people you're trying to attack let their guard down.

14:30 I don't think that quite counts when you're

14:32 talking about a 50 foot walking laser beam.

14:35 Guys, a giant robot's destroying the city.

14:38 How fun is that?

14:39 I just hope there aren't a bunch of smaller robots

14:41 inside of it who try to steal my Facebook memories.

14:44 Oh no!

14:45 My Facebook memories!

14:46 I never should have trusted you.

14:49 No, no, no, no, no, no!

14:51 [Erika] Remember to take out the trash today and be nice to the kids.

14:55 So sad.

14:56 It's like she's dying all over again.

14:58 And how is he gonna remember to take out the trash now?

15:01 Kind of seems like he already forgot the part about being nice to the kids.

15:03 Jesus, Dave.

15:04 [Dave] Dad!

15:05 (dramatic boom)- I love how often in this movie Ice Cube exasperatedly takes off

15:13 his glasses only to just have them back on immediately in the next scene.

15:18 Also, in case you didn't pick up on the insane plot twist here,

15:20 turns out the aliens aren't here to take over the world.

15:24 They're here to eat our data.

15:27 [Reporter] We are in utter chaos without our most precious resource, our data.

15:31 And 'cause of the internet, we have a whole bunch of it.

15:34 [Will] Collecting data.

15:36 Oh man.

15:37 The clues were there all along.

15:38 Look how hungry that robot is.

15:41 [Will] Shit.

15:41 Briggs is behind the whole thing.

15:44 Traitor.

15:44 Yeah, I think you're gonna wanna take those glasses off, man.

15:47 And go ahead and put 'em back on.

15:48 NASA warned you if you activated Goliath, it could spark an invasion.

15:52 [Briggs] Those dinosaur bureaucrats don't keep us safe.

15:54 I do.

15:56 So basically, this evil government surveillance program knew

15:58 that the aliens were gonna come eat all this data,

16:00 but they still wanted to collect it anyway.

16:02 And it's like, okay, I guess there's almost an interesting idea here.

16:07 There are a ton of billionaires and people in power who are mostly

16:11 aware that their choices are actively harming

16:13 the Earth and the future of humanity, but they continue to do it anyway

16:17 because the things they're doing benefit them personally.

16:20 But I do think there is maybe a tad bit of irony

16:23 in Amazon being the platform through which this message is conveyed.

16:27 A platform that is currently using my own data

16:31 to advertise groceries to me every time I pause this movie.

16:35 Our most precious resource on Earth is data.

16:38 Also, if you've ever been on the "Fast and Furious" ride at Universal Studios,

16:41 all of these webcam conversations have the same exact

16:45 cadence as the conversations that take place on that ride.

16:48 Shaw, that cockroach we beat down in Spain?

16:50 What's he gotta do with this?

16:53 Nothing.

16:54 VP, justices, chiefs of staff all secure.

16:57 You're insane.

16:58 I didn't sign up for this shit.

17:00 Thank you for your service, Radford.

17:01 You're dismissed.

17:02 Stop this thing.

17:03 Wait!

17:03 No, no, no, no.

17:04 Oh no.

17:05 He's being dismissed.

17:05 I'm not sure I understand though.

17:07 I might need to see five different examples

17:09 of him being locked out of his computer.

17:12 What?

17:14 What?

17:15 What?

17:17 What?

17:19 Oh.

17:20 He got fired.

17:21 The other twist is that his son Dave is the Disruptor,

17:25 and Will hates the Disruptor because of how disruptive he is.

17:28 It's you!

17:30 It's you!

17:32 [Dave] Yeah.

17:33 In fact, he's number one on the domestic terror suspect watch list.

17:37 But now that he's stuck on the outside too,

17:39 they'll have to work together to save the day.

17:42 He's gonna have to go from hacking

17:43 for the government to hacking to the government or-- Touchdown!

17:51 And let's pop those glasses off for a sec.

17:52 Thank you, Cube.

17:53 Then Mark and Faith send an update

17:55 photo letting Will know that everything's okay.

17:57 But it's such a bad picture that Will doesn't even seem that happy about it.

18:03 Good.

18:04 Good.

18:05 Dad, meet my Disruptors.

18:06 What the hell?

18:07 This was supposed to be our safe space.

18:08 [Dave] Guys, guys.

18:09 Enough.

18:09 It's truly fascinating to watch a movie try

18:11 to raise its stakes without any ability to do so,

18:15 because everything has to take place at his desk.

18:19 It's not like we can just go out to some big set piece and watch a cool fight.

18:23 The best Ice Cube can do is send some emails,

18:26 upload a YouTube video, use Photoshop to put his face into the YouTube video.

18:33 [Disruptor] Damn, Mr.

18:34 Radford.

18:34 That was badass.

18:35 It's riveting stuff, honestly.

18:36 This is what movies are all about.

18:38 Thelma& Louise, break encryption.

18:39 Code Crusher, bypass firewalls.

18:42 And, Burnout, just stay outta trouble.

18:45 Yeah, if there's one thing we know about Burnout,

18:46 I'd say he's kind of a loose cannon.

18:48 What the hell?

18:49 A few minutes later, that whole crew of people we were just introduced to dies.

18:53 [Disruptor] I'm being hacked!

18:54 They're hacking us!

18:55 [Disruptor] They're eating our data!

18:56 (explosion blasts)- Now the aliens have turned their attention to Dave.

18:59 (explosion blasts)- No!

19:04 No.

19:05 Oh no, he's gone for real this time.

19:07 Ice, aren't you forgetting something?

19:09 Thank you.

19:10 Now put 'em back on.

19:11 You know you can't see without 'em.

19:12 And then he sits down and then stands up,

19:15 and then he goes to pick up his chair that he threw earlier.

19:18 So like, wait, where the fuck was he just sitting a second ago?

19:21 And I guess firefighters are there already?

19:23 How did they get there so fast?

19:24 It's been 12 seconds and the world is at war.

19:27 Gonna need to take my glasses off for this one.

19:29 Oh, nevermind, guys.

19:30 His son is alive.

19:31 He was just using a green screen.

19:33 You had me worried to death, man.

19:35 You should have seen it.

19:36 I threw my chair on the ground.

19:37 Son, I'm just so glad you're alive.

19:39 For the second time today I thought I lost you.

19:42 I...

19:43 Was devastated.

19:44 Oh wait, my girlfriend's calling me again.

19:45 Girl, you gotta stop blowing up the Cube.

19:47 Okay, I got shit to do today.

19:48 [Agent] We must destroy DHS to make sure

19:50 anything that gets through can't get to the Goliath.

19:54 No!

19:54 Guys, that's the building I'm in.

19:56 Hell no.

19:57 Dad, you're gonna have to get the code into the servers manually.

19:59 They will kill you, Will.

20:00 It's a damn suicide mission!

20:01 I said I'll be fine.

20:03 I just needed to put my glasses back on.

20:05 Okay, so the plan is Will is going to leave the room.

20:09 I just hope his legs haven't atrophied in all the time he's been sitting there.

20:13 He's gotta go take this virus and put it in that delicious

20:16 data that the aliens will eat and then melt or whatever.

20:19 I don't actually really know.

20:20 There's just one problem with this plan though.

20:22 The only way to transport this virus is with a thumb drive.

20:26 And Mr.

20:26 Cube doesn't have one.

20:28 [Dave] Put it on a thumb drive.

20:29 I don't have a thumb drive.

20:31 What do you mean you don't have a thumb drive?

20:33 What?

20:34 Dude, everybody has a thumb drive.

20:35 Shit, I bet even Mark has one.

20:37 Even I have a thumb drive.

20:38 I knew it.

20:39 Faith can load it here, and I can get it to you.

20:41 How?

20:42 Prime Air.

20:43 So this is where the movie goes from good to great.

20:46 I mean, rarely do we get to see the streaming service

20:49 a movie is on become so integral to the plot of the movie.

20:54 Prime Air?

20:55 [Mark] Oh, it's the feature of delivery.

20:56 In hindsight, it actually feels kind of insane

20:58 that I even needed to have a Prime subscription

21:00 in order to watch this, to watch this movie

21:03 that is about to climax with Amazon saving the world.

21:07 [Mark] I need you to place an official order on Amazon to activate the drone.

21:10 I like when this guy's flying the Amazon drone,

21:12 but then the aliens sent out their drones to try to blow it up,

21:15 so then the other guy starts piloting a third drone that he uses

21:19 to blow up these drones before they can blow up the Amazon drone.

21:23 Touchdown!

21:23 Good job, team.

21:24 Oh no, the drone fell down.

21:26 There's no way to get it back up from here.

21:27 Okay, so what do you think that they're

21:29 going to do to get out of this situation?

21:32 I'll give you a couple seconds to think about it.

21:36 Got your answer?

21:37 Great.

21:37 So if you said that they would use facial

21:40 recognition software to identify this homeless person on the street

21:44 so that they could text him on the phone

21:47 and ask him to flip over the drone, you're correct.

21:50 But also a little psychotic for even thinking of that.

21:53 Jesus Christ, man.

21:54 But of course, you know,

21:55 he doesn't just trust this unknown number at face value.

21:57 He has to be bribed a little bit first.

21:59 So they give him a $1,000 Amazon gift card, and without hesitation,

22:05 he sprints into the face of danger to flip that thing over.

22:10 Oh my god, what a choice.

22:11 I'm pretty sure that guy exploded, by the way,

22:14 but that doesn't matter to us because the camera never turns around to look.

22:17 In his first taste of real action in the entire movie,

22:19 Will gets grabbed by an alien tentacle that penetrated the building.

22:23 And then he says this.

22:24 These things are everywhere!

22:25 Nope, there was just one.

22:27 And all he had to do to kill it was tell it to move.

22:30 Move, bitch!

22:30 Get out the way!

22:32 Just like the song.

22:33 Where is that drone?

22:34 And now for the scene that this entire movie has led up to.

22:38 [Sasha] Five minutes.

22:41 No!

22:42 I love you guys.

22:47 In hindsight, it actually makes sense why he spent his entire life in that room,

22:51 because about five minutes after he left it for the first time he died.

22:54 So maybe he was onto something.

22:55 Anyway, now it's everybody else's turn to be alone

22:57 in a room pretending to react to someone's death.

23:00 Huh.

23:00 Not so easy is it?

23:01 Maybe we shouldn't have been so hard on him, you know?

23:03 Especially now that he's gone.

23:07 I just...

23:08 I miss him so much.

23:09 His quips, his glasses.

23:11 Oh, nevermind.

23:11 He's okay.

23:12 Oh, happy ending.

23:13 I guess nobody died in the movie,

23:16 except for the millions of people who definitely died in the movie,

23:19 but we don't have to think about that.

23:21 I just got off with the president.

23:21 He wants you to pioneer a new data

23:24 collecting protocol that doesn't invade people's personal privacy.

23:27 Sorry, sir, but not for me.

23:29 If I can't invade people's personal privacy, then I'm just not interested.

23:33 [Reporter] This "War of the Worlds-"- And that's the movie.

23:35 It's a total abomination.

23:37 It's a hoot and a half.

23:39 It's already being called the worst movie of the decade.

23:41 But it begs the question, how the fuck did this happen?

23:44 Look, I refuse to believe that a single person involved

23:47 in making this was not aware of how terrible it is.

23:51 I mean, my first thought when I initially saw

23:53 people posting clips and making fun of it was,

23:55 oh, Amazon made a terrible movie on purpose

23:58 to get free publicity and its working.

24:00 If this movie was only kind of bad, no one would be talking about it.

24:04 And even if it was somehow really good, they still wouldn't be talking about it.

24:07 I think they put out this steaming pile of product placement ridden garbage

24:11 to trick me and 10,000 other YouTubers into making full videos about it.

24:16 The streaming services have caught on to the effectiveness of rage bait.

24:19 And just like those data hungry robots, none of us could resist taking a bite.

24:23 Weirdly though, the more I read about the production process,

24:26 the more I actually kind of think this was

24:28 not intentional and it just happened to suck.

24:30 The biggest factor being that this movie

24:32 was filmed five years ago during COVID lockdown.

24:35 It wasn't a conscious artistic choice to shoot it the way they did,

24:39 although they have now retroactively tried to say that it was.

24:42 They did it because they could either put each actor

24:44 in a separate room and try to piece it all together in post,

24:47 or they just couldn't make a movie at all.

24:49 And that makes sense.

24:50 You know, everything was pretty janky in 2020.

24:52 We were all just trying to adjust to that new reality.

24:55 But then they sat on this movie for five years.

24:58 We are well past the era of late night shows being filmed

25:02 on a webcam and sports being played in front of empty stadiums.

25:06 Movies have been normal again for a while now.

25:09 Nothing else looks like this.

25:11 It's so out of place in the year 2025 that you can't help but stare at it.

25:15 So I don't think they necessarily set out to make a terrible movie.

25:19 I think they just ended up with one and didn't know what to do with it.

25:22 But by waiting until audience's expectations had

25:25 long since returned to their pre-COVID standards

25:27 and would be infinitely more critical of something

25:29 that was shot exclusively on Microsoft Teams,

25:32 it created the perfect storm of negative attention.

25:34 It is the best advertisement for Prime

25:37 Air that Amazon could have possibly hoped for.

25:40 We're all voluntarily talking about it for free.

25:43 So you know what?

25:44 We gotta stop, guys.

25:45 Okay?

25:45 No more fueling the fire.

25:47 No more tweets, no more reactions, no more YouTube video.

25:50 From this point forward, or at least, let's say starting tomorrow,

25:53 whatever tomorrow is, no more uploading YouTube videos about this movie, okay?

25:57 And we obviously can't assign that rule retroactively.

26:00 Anything uploaded today or in the past, it's fine, you know?

26:04 'Cause we hadn't agreed on the rule yet.

26:05 I know I'm pretty late with this video.

26:07 People have been talking about this movie for like three weeks now,

26:10 which in internet time is about a year and a half.

26:13 But I just felt like I needed to wait for something else to come out.

26:17 An article that explains how this all happened.

26:20 I don't know, maybe a single mention of the movie from any of its cast or crew,

26:24 but there has been nothing.

26:26 Every day I Google "War of the Worlds"

26:29 2025 in hopes I can find one little nugget,

26:32 one extra piece of insight into this debacle of a film.

26:35 And there's just radio silence, to an almost alarming degree.

26:39 Not one person from this movie has

26:42 acknowledged its existence in any way whatsoever, positive or negative.

26:47 It's like the opposite of a press tour where instead

26:49 of sending all the actors out to do interviews and podcasts,

26:52 they made everyone sign NDAs.

26:55 Even Ice Cube who posts on Instagram 400 times

26:58 a day has not mentioned this movie at all.

27:01 Andrea Savage has a long list of credits

27:04 in her bio that doesn't include this movie,

27:07 but does include the hashtag #buttholes.

27:09 Great.

27:09 Now I have to click on that.

27:11 There goes my afternoon.

27:12 There's such a collective lack

27:14 of acknowledgement here that I'm actually concerned

27:16 that maybe none of the actors even know that they were in this movie.

27:21 Like, they have no memory of it.

27:23 And that's terrifying.

27:24 Someone needs to tell them.

27:25 Someone besides me, of course 'cause I've already

27:28 tried and it doesn't seem to be working.

27:29 I guess whatever happened behind the scenes

27:31 of this movie is just gonna remain a mystery.

27:34 Is what I thought.

27:35 And then something incredible happened.

27:37 Huge shout out to a YouTube channel called Toni's Film

27:40 Club for interviewing the producer and main editor of this movie.

27:44 This is exactly the kind of thing I was

27:46 hoping would come out to provide some clarity, you know?

27:49 And after watching this interview,

27:51 I am somehow more confused about this movie than I was before.

27:55 But a lot of the critiques of the movie are dealing with personal,

27:59 very subjective things that people dislike.

28:03 Yeah.

28:03 It did confirm a couple of things we all just kind of assumed.

28:05 One, that the actors did film almost all their parts individually.

28:09 [Producer] Those were remote.

28:10 Those were done with the director only.

28:12 Which explains the total lack of chemistry in every single scene.

28:15 And number two, that editing this monstrosity was an absolute nightmare.

28:19 There's some scenes where you end up with about 10 video layers,

28:23 10 performance layers, and you have to keep track of all this, make it work,

28:26 you know, make sure that everybody is able

28:28 to track and follow what matters on the screen.

28:30 It's a mountain to keep track of.

28:32 I genuinely feel bad for this guy for having had to put in hundreds

28:36 if not thousands of hours in order to make this movie come to life.

28:41 Was I scared of entering this project?

28:43 Yes, I was terrified, frankly.

28:45 Another thing is that the producer seems to genuinely

28:47 believe that people just aren't understanding their vision.

28:51 But Cube being a dad, saving his kids and family, that was the movie's intent.

28:55 They seem to think that they've made this really heartfelt movie about

28:58 a loving family and are annoyed that other people aren't seeing it that way.

29:02 Instead, the movie was received as an enormous disappointment as if

29:06 it was to be this gigantic $200 billion tent pole.

29:10 It was never intended for that.

29:12 Got it.

29:12 Okay, so then it doesn't matter that it

29:14 was bad because it wasn't supposed to not be?

29:18 From the critic standpoint,

29:18 they went into expecting something much grander in scope,

29:22 probably by way of the title being misleading.

29:25 You know, "War of the Worlds" implies something gigantic.

29:28 Yeah, and I think that's fair.

29:30 Also, you knew that this was gonna be

29:32 the title the entire time you were making the movie.

29:34 It's not like they dropped that on you last minute.

29:36 [Producer] "War of the Worlds."- But the real shock from this video is

29:39 that apparently Amazon was not involved in the production of this movie at all.

29:46 Was this one giant advertisement for Amazon?

29:49 No, it wasn't.

29:50 Amazon didn't see it until the movie was all the way done.

29:53 Huh?

29:53 The creation of Mark was simply because during COVID,

29:56 who was bringing us all these products to keep us going?

30:01 Amazon drivers.

30:02 These individuals are heroes.

30:03 And that's why we portrayed him as a bumbling idiot because he's so stupid.

30:07 I mean, important.

30:08 We wanted it to be recognizable that this is a part of society.

30:11 Okay, I guess that explains Mark's character.

30:13 But then what about the drone?

30:16 The drone, we had to figure out how do you get Ice Cube a USB stick

30:21 with a virus ready to be uploaded when he's two miles away from where Mark is?

30:25 Right.

30:25 Of course.

30:26 You know, and there's just no other way to do that.

30:29 And the logo on the screen the entire time?

30:33 There's the drone that Dave is piloting,

30:35 and then there's the drone that Mark is piloting.

30:37 It was very confusing for a time in the edit

30:40 when you didn't have the Prime Air overlay.

30:42 Okay, but what about the part where they

30:44 spent like a full minute on Amazon's website?

30:47 That was the only way that the drone which was

30:50 pre-programmed to deliver to the correct address could get to Cube.

30:53 Right.

30:54 Of course.

30:54 You know, and that's not the kind of thing

30:56 that you could just take creative liberties on.

30:59 If people saw you using an Amazon drone,

31:01 but they didn't get to see the entire process of something being ordered online,

31:04 they would be outraged.

31:06 Yes.

31:07 Okay, so that explains all that.

31:08 What about the Amazon gift card?

31:10 The Amazon gift card, I would like to address that.

31:12 LA has a huge homelessness problem.

31:15 We wanted to also take the every man who is not appreciated

31:20 and give that person the opportunity to help save the world, which he does.

31:25 Yeah, he does.

31:27 Reluctantly after being bribed.

31:30 He is incentivized with a financial offer.

31:32 And how do you get someone like that immediate money, cash in hand?

31:38 Amazon gift card.

31:39 It's the only way.

31:40 So does this mean that after Amazon licensed it, they did not add any changes?

31:45 They did not say, "Put our logo in here." Anything like that?

31:48 No, no, no.

31:49 Nothing, nothing.

31:49 Well, there you have it.

31:51 They made this entire movie about Amazon saving the world,

31:53 and it wasn't even because Amazon told them to.

31:57 They just did it out of the goodness of their own hearts.

31:59 You know, I actually think that makes it worse.

32:01 Amazon saw the Amazon character and identified clearly

32:05 this would work wonderfully for them on their platform worldwide.

32:09 And here we are, cut to three weeks later.

32:11 And it's a smash hit for Amazon.

32:13 For all the right reasons.

32:14 Thank you so much for watching.

32:15 Remember, if you didn't like this video,

32:17 it's not because it wasn't entertaining or that I was two

32:21 and a half weeks late to this whole trend or that I'm ugly.

32:24 It's that you didn't understand it.

32:26 It wasn't supposed to be good, and it's your fault for expecting it to.

32:30 All right, I'll see you guys next time.

32:31 It's a cult classics in the making.

32:33 I can already see that.

32:34 (producer laughs)