By Izzy Becker ‘24, Feature Staff Writer

Adam McKay, American film producer, director, and comedian, began his career in the 1990s as a writer for the famous late-night comedy sketch show, Saturday Night Live. Recently, he has directed popular movies including Step Brothers, starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, and Vice. However, five months ago, a movie released that might be his most important piece: “Don’t Look Up,” a science fiction comedy, has sparked major conversation on social media due to its striking resemblance to modern-day politics.

Although the film has many jokes and punchlines, they only act as distractions that dance around McKay’s real point: the earth is slowly dying and humanity cannot care enough to save it. The asteroid about to hit the earth in McKay’s film represents the current climate crisis that the world is facing. In addition to this, speculation has surfaced that McKay uses the character of President Orlean, played by Meryl Streep, as a satirical reference to former President Trump, who similarly ignored the calls for climate reform.

The movie begins when scientists Kate Dibiasky and Dr. Randall Mindy, played by Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio, discover and confirm the existence of a world-ending comet heading towards Earth. Nevertheless, President Orlean, along with her son, Jason, played by Jonah Hill, not only ignore but make jokes about the comet, mocking the scientists and their credentials. Consequently, the public becomes extremely polarized due to this issue, and two opposing political groups form.

One group believes that a comet is coming, trusting the scientific confirmations and adapting the phrase “Just look up.” The other group believes that there is not a comet, that the comet is not important, or that it is just a scheme created by scientists and politicians to scare mankind; they utilize the phrase “Don’t look up.”Arguably one of the most interesting moments of the film is when President Orlean finally acknowledges that there is a comet. However, her team ultimately invests their time in extracting materials from it with the help of billionaire scientist, Peter Isherwell, rather than aiming to stop it. 

Similar to the groups in the movie, viewers at home are also divided in terms of their response to the film. Many say that the film is a beautiful yet terrifying representation of our world today, and they argue that it uses comedy to portray the outlandish values of modern-day politicians. Others criticize the film for its cruel intentions to scare the public, and it leaves audiences rattled and disheartened. Some also believe McKay is over-exaggerating the ongoing climate issues by comparing it to a deadly comet. Rotten Tomatoes, a popular American film and television review site, writes that the movie “aims too high for its scattershot barbs to consistently land.” Manohla Dargis writes, in a  New York Times review, that “McKay’s touch here is considerably blunter and less productive than it has been in a while.”

However, despite the many critics, McKay defends his movie. As he posts on Twitter, he “[loves] the heated debate” about the movie, but he warns, “If you don’t have at least a small ember of anxiety about the climate collapsing, I’m not sure if ‘Don’t Look Up’ makes any sense.” McKay portrays humanity as having the ability to bypass science for short-term gain and status, a viewpoint he expresses through the ironic and comedic moments in the film. Whether you support the message of the film despite its controversy, “Don’t Look Up” will go down in history as a monumental film, scoring 152 million hours viewed in its first week of release, and using a powerful celebrity cast to convey a significant societal message.