The Netflix disaster-satire film Don鈥檛 Look Up is a thinly-veiled metaphor for humanity鈥檚 haphazard efforts to tackle climate change, told through the story of a giant comet that鈥檚 on a collision course with Earth. 快猫短视频 podcast editor Rowan Hooper reviewed Don鈥檛 Look Up with the help of Emily Atkin, who writes the climate newsletter . Listen to their conversation on this episode of the 快猫短视频 Weekly podcast or a read a transcript of the conversation below, which has been edited for clarity.
Advertisement
Rowan Hooper: Emily, thanks for joining us. So let鈥檚 set up the movie. It鈥檚 the story of two astronomers, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, who discover a comet hurtling towards Earth. And it鈥檚 a really big one, bigger even than the one that killed the dinosaurs. And it鈥檚 what they call a planet killer. So what did you make of it?
Emily Atkin: I thought it was beautiful. Which I know is a really weird word to describe a satirical film about a planet killer comet, but I thought it was beautiful. I thought it was weird. And I thought it was cathartic and intelligent. And I thought it was important. I鈥檓 a climate change journalist. And everybody else sitting in the movie theatre with me wasn鈥檛 an actual movie critic, and they were also laughing as much as I was. And I鈥檓 not sure if they cried the number of times that I did, but I definitely did cry two times. I laughed a lot in it.
RH: Yeah, it鈥檚 a great satire. And unexpectedly moving actually, absolutely hilarious, especially Jonah Hill, who plays the Chief of Staff, the White House Chief of Staff.
EA: He and Meryl Streep do such a good job playing fascists. You know, they鈥檙e just so good.
RH: Meryl Streep plays the president. We鈥檝e also got Cate Blanchett in the cast, Ariana Grande, Mark Rylance, Timothee Chalamet, an incredible cast. The premise is that the comet is flying towards Earth and astronomers have to get out there and warn the world of this imminent global threat. Meryl Streep鈥檚 this fascist US president, they have to try and convince her to take it seriously. And warn a media that鈥檚 only concerned with total showbiz gossip. So did that sound familiar in any way to you, Emily?
EA: [Laughs] Yeah, I鈥檝e been describing this movie to everybody that I tell about it as extremely cathartic. Because it was like it took every frustration that I had about the media, in particular, for the last, you know, eight years of covering climate change, and put it in a satire movie.
RH: Also, isn鈥檛 it amazing that it鈥檚 obviously about the climate crisis. But they don鈥檛 actually mention the words climate change or climate crisis in the whole movie, do they? Or did I miss that? But I don鈥檛 think they do.
EA: They do not. And I was looking out for it the whole time. And the only the only moment that I could see a mention of something that was exactly the same as climate change was, and this won鈥檛 spoil it for anybody, but it鈥檚 when there鈥檚 protestors holding signs saying don鈥檛 look up, don鈥檛 look at the comet. There are signs protesters are holding and one of the signs says 鈥渇ossil fools鈥�.
RH: Yeah, I saw that.
EA: And so that鈥檚 a climate thing. But in the movie, the very rich politicians and tech CEOs want to mine the comet for its rare earth minerals.
RH: Yes. And so 鈥渄on鈥檛 look up鈥� refers to the slogan that these comet deniers put around, to try to literally make people not look up and ignore the threat that鈥檚 coming down, looming down on them.
EA: Impact deniers, that鈥檚 what they call them. I remember watching it and being like, that would be a good thing to actually call climate change deniers. They鈥檙e always 鈥渨ell, of course the climate is changing. The climate has always changed.鈥� 鈥淵eah, we don鈥檛 deny the climate.鈥� What they are is impact deniers.
RH: Yeah, yeah.
EA: They deny the impact of climate change, they deny that human-caused climate change is going to be terrible and catastrophic.
RH: I don鈥檛 know if you read this, but the movie is co-written by the director Adam McKay, with the journalist David Sirota and it kind of came about because about the climate crisis in a really engaging and funny way for ages. And Sirota said to him, 鈥淚t鈥檚 like there鈥檚 an asteroid gonna hit Earth and no one cares!鈥� And that鈥檚 how the idea started, they literally took that one line. It鈥檚 such an effective way to talk about the climate crisis because they don鈥檛 mention it. And it鈥檚 unexpectedly hilarious. And whenever I see scientists in movies so often do the Hollywood lazy trope of them being, you know, a balding white man in a white lab coat. This time we have Leonardo DiCaprio, who he starts off a bit nervous, doesn鈥檛 he, his character, but he finds passion and anger in the end, which is great. But then we鈥檝e got Jennifer Lawrence鈥檚 character, she鈥檚 like Greta Thunberg might be if Greta turns out to be a scientist, you know, she鈥檚 angry. And she really sticks it to the politicians. And that鈥檚 great to see.
EA: Yeah, I mean, I鈥檓 not gonna sit there and act like I didn鈥檛 feel extremely seen by that character. There was definitely moments when I was watching it and I thought to myself, did David Sirota read ?
RH: I鈥檓 sure he does.
EA: I think there are a lot of angry climate scientists and journalists, and a lot of angry women in the climate movement. I thought of myself. But I also thought of Greta, I thought of . And I thought of and I thought of other angry climate writers who have been called alarmists, who haven鈥檛 been given the time of day and haven鈥檛 been credited for their work. You know, at one point in the movie, they even say that Leonardo DiCaprio鈥檚 character was the discoverer of the comet when it was Jennifer Lawrence鈥檚 character who discovered it. It鈥檚 literally named after her.
RH: Yeah.
EA: And so I was laughing so hard, because I was just like: this is so correct. I loved how, even though two white men wrote the movie, they definitely acknowledged that white men tend to get more credit and get listened to more taken more seriously than their female counterparts. And people of colour, you know, the character that that played the other scientist that never got any airtime, he鈥檚 a Black man, it was very true to life in that sense.
RH: Who knows if this is going to make a difference in terms of leading to emissions cuts on the scale that we need, but it does get the message out there. And that鈥檚 what we always need to do.
EA: Yeah, and I would say that what I thought the most impressive and important thing the movie did, for me was, it ended on this note that didn鈥檛 make me feel bad about myself. It didn鈥檛 make me feel like I needed to go back to work and work on the climate crisis. It didn鈥檛 make me feel like I needed to, you know, throw my whole life away to combat climate change. Really what I think the ending message of that movie was: value what鈥檚 important on the planet and in your own life, while you are alive, and that is not just the comet hurtling towards the Earth. That鈥檚 the people you love and the places you love and be motivated by the people and things that you love.
Don鈥檛 Look Up is in cinemas now and on 24 December.
