Greed Among Politics

How Corrupt People Will Let the World End

In the 2021 film “Don’t Look Up,” Randall Mindy, portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio, frustratingly displays how the mainstream media will put the nation at risk to make a profit.

Acting in the role of Kate Dibiasky, Jennifer Lawrence plays a Michigan State astronomy graduate who discovers something eerie with her telescope. Her professor, Dr. Mindy helps determine that this unusual sighting has never been noticed and appears to be headed straight for Earth.

Trying to get the attention of the media, Kate and Dr. Mindy approach NASA with their findings to peer-review their calculations. NASA confirms Dr. Mindy’s suspicions and they both try to reach out to news agencies and the White House; the level of disrespect that the president has for the subject is hard to watch due to the evidence of the comet’s existence.

Initially, the president and the news broadcasters do not take the findings seriously; one news anchor even makes fun of the comet by commenting the comet was welcome “as long as it hits [his] ex-wife’s house.” According to JCOM, the exchange between the astronomers and the comedic news anchors is a “metaphor for communicating climate science” in mainstream media.

While there is no doubt that the world is in danger, President Orlean, who actress Meryl Streep portrays, is only interested in helping her political campaign; she soon decides to help only when the media brings light to one of her sexual scandals which was aimed to persuade a supreme court justice nominee.  President Orlean announces the deadly comet to try and distract the media so that they favor her for trying to save the world.

After launching nuclear missiles that were intended to destroy and deflect the comet, President Orlean ordered the weapons to change course and not hit the comet. The nation was “perfectly prepared” to deflect the comet, and citizens were outraged because billionaires only wanted to “protect the future profits of cell phone manufacturers” Current Affairs.

The one shot that the nation had at saving the planet was ruined and replaced with a shaky plan to split the comet into pieces and let it fall into the ocean. Dr. Mindy frustratingly trusts the president’s plan and demonstrates how excessive false media can change minds.

The film concludes with the world ending in fire and billionaires that have escaped to live on a spaceship as a backup plan. According to Under the Paving Stone, the spaceship is a metaphor for rich people “investing in climate bunkers,” and doing anything but “shutting down production of fossil fuels” to stay wealthy.

If the world has anything to learn from “Don’t Look Up,” it is that the media is very corrupt and will curate all its propaganda in the interest of wealth.