Josh, Garrett, and David close out Spielberg in Space month with War of the Worlds — the one where the aliens finally turn hostile, Tom Cruise plays peak divorce-dad energy, and the hosts argue about whether the most unlikable protagonist in the Spielberg canon actually makes the movie work.

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Part two of our Spielberg in Space series leading up to Disclosure Day — this week it's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

We dig into E.T.'s insane box office run (28 straight weeks in the top 5, nearly a year in theaters, $2.2 billion worldwide adjusted for inflation — second only to Jaws in Spielberg's career), then connect it back to Close Encounters of the Third Kind as a kind of spiritual sequel. We talk about how Spielberg shot the film almost entirely from a child's-eye view, why his parents' divorce shaped both Elliot's story and the absent adults in this movie, and why this whole thing might be the secret blueprint for Stranger Things.

Also covered: the Reese's Pieces vs. M&M's candy debate nobody asked for, the Star Wars/Coors/Coca-Cola product placement, John Williams' score, and our final star ratings — including a Letterboxd community score that genuinely shocked all three of us.

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Close Encounters of the Third Kind came out in December 1977, made $116 million in the US alone, and lost the box office crown for that year to exactly one movie: Star Wars. Not a bad second place.

Josh, Garrett, and David kick off Spielberg in Space Month with Spielberg's pre-E.T. love letter to alien optimism. They get into why Richard Dreyfus was the right guy for a role Steve McQueen, Al Pacino, and Gene Hackman all passed on, why the mashed potatoes scene is actually the emotional center of the whole thing, and what it means that this is basically the only alien movie where nobody tries to blow anything up. All three hosts land at four and a half stars. Josh finally wins the Letterboxd guessing game. David's son watched the aliens and said they looked like naked five-year-olds.

So Many Sequels is your book club for movies. Follow along at somanysequels.com and @somanysequelspod on Instagram.