With more than 80 million views since its release on December 24th, the film Don’t Look Up has become one of the top three films ever shown on Netflix.
It is a brilliant parody on our inability as a global community to focus on an immediate existential threat to humanity. Instead of climate change taking up to six decades to threaten our existence, the producers speeded the pending catastrophe to six months due to a comet smashing into Earth.
If the hope was that this real and immediate threat would jolt us into common action, the film artfully shows how our current divisiveness would still play out. There is a dispute over the science of the probability of a direct hit (99.9% not 100%). There is diversion on social media about the broken relationship of a pop star which overwhelmed the immediacy of comet‘s threat to millions of users. The White House even championed an attempt to extract billions of dollars worth of rare minerals from the comet before blowing it up.
None of these ploys worked.
When there is finally a realization that the comet is unstoppable, the 1 percenters find ways to leave earth before the comet hits. Politicians apologize to the scientists about not believing their warnings More profoundly, as the comet hits and the Earth rumbles, the dysfunctional family of the astronomer who discovered the comet, get together to sort out their differences -thus acting as a metaphor for humanity as a whole to deal collectively with the biodiversity and climate crises.
The film brilliantly displays the difference between democracy and climate. Democracy works through compromise, climate change does not. As the climate clock continues to tick, this structural mismatch is becoming increasingly exposed. This week the European Union’s satellite data system confirmed that the past seven years have been the hottest on record.
Let’s hope the millions of viewers empower their communities and senior governments to find new ways of closing the gap.
Excellent commentary, Jon, especially your allusion to the “family” that is humanity coming together at the end of the film, which is exactly what we need now with respect to the equally existential climate threat.
Nicely reviewed. It’s hard to believe that many “main stream” reviewers have seen fit to dismiss this film seeing it not as fun entertainment with important messages but, rather, as an unpleasant and unwanted lecture. It’s brilliant and good fun. Too bad the message is so dire.
Yes, let’s hope the film and its star power are effective in increasing and diversifying participation in climate change discussions and actions.
Clarification: The male astronomer, Dr Mindy, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, did not discover the discover the comet. It was discovered, and named for, the female PhD student Kate Dibiasky , played by Jennifer Lawrence (whose presence likely is responsible for many of the millions of views). Also Dr Mindy’s family did not appear dysfunctional, indeed the seemingly happy adult sons and wife watch him on tv with appreciation and joy. The family was later estranged because Dr Mindy had an affair with a wealthy TV host. And so it goes.