Streaming Spotlight by Cindy Summers
Don’t Look Up – Netflix
Breeze rating from 1 to 4 palm trees, 4 being best.
In Don’t Look Up, student astronomer Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) discovered a 9 kilometer comet while working on her doctorate research. Initially seeming a cause for celebration, including the esteemed honor of having a newly discovered comet named after her, things changed when Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his student team decided to calculate how close it would come to earth. Unfortunately the math showed that it would actually impact earth in just over six month and destroy the entire planet.
After reporting the information to NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office head Dr. Teddy Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan) they were flown in a military plane to DC to meet with the president to explain the situation. They waited until late in the evening, watching what seemed to be trivial things get more attention than the literally earth shaking news they were there to share, and were eventually told they would have to wait until the next day.
After being put up in a hotel and waiting a entire second day, they finally met with President Orlean (Meryl Streep) who downplayed the situation as did her son and Chief of Staff Jason (Jonah Hill). Both belittled Dr. Mindy & Kate and sent them on their way saying “we’ll have our scientist assess the situation…” so hang tight and don’t say anything as it’s national security.
Feeling blown off, they shared the story with the New York Herald and on The Daily Rip, an upbeat morning show hosted by Brie (Cate Blanchett) and Jack (Tyler Perry), but again were not taken seriously. Then Dr. Mindy, Kate and Dr. Oglethorpe were all swooped up by FBI and brought to the White House where President Orlean said they confirmed the science and we’re ready to take any suggested steps, seeming to be done for popularity in the upcoming elections and to avoid some negative personal press. President Orlean then made a announcement to the world regarding the comet and plan to use shuttles with nukes to change the comet’s course.
All efforts were shifted to the president’s plan and the science seemed to indicate that there was a very good chance they would be successful, until crazy tech giant Peter Isherwell, the billionaire CEO of BASH and one of Orlean’s top donors, got President Orlean to abort the mission just after take off. Peter had an alternate plan to use developing tech to blow up the comet in space and mine it’s smaller pieces filled with precious minerals estimated to be worth $140 trillion.
Kate told some people the truth in a bar and though they listened, they panicked and started rioting. The FBI grabbed Kate again, and agreed to drop any charges in exchange for her silence. Propaganda campaigns were started to discredit them, saying things like the comet doesn’t even exist and it was all a hoax, but then the comet came into plain site. The scientists replied with “just look up” and the truth can be seen, which created chaos, so President Orlean’s response was a “don’t look up” campaign, saying it was scientists just trying to invoke fear in people.
Unknown to the world and due to the fact they were cut out of the comet mining deal, Russia, China and India teamed up to send a rocket to destroy the comet but the launch failed, leaving only the BASH plan by eccentric billionaire Peter to possibly save the planet. Will greed become mankind’s downfall? Can wealth be a ticket to immortality? These are some of the things revealed in this star-filled, entertaining parody of today’s world stage, headlines and political issues.
Rated: R (Language Throughout|Graphic Nudity|Drug Content|Some Sexual Content)
Runtime: 2h 18m
