A review of "Don't Look Up" and what we should take away from it

    Don't Look Up was an amazing movie with amazing characters! It's an extended metaphor about science denial that uses the situation of an imminent comet impact. While the film is very direct in its approach, there are also subtle messages embedded in the story.

    (Spoiler Alert: watch the movie first before reading ahead if you plan on seeing it.)

    One of the most important messages was that of building political will. President Orlean was initially more concerned with the midterm elections than addressing the comet and blew off the scientists. As Kate later explains to the audience, the president changes her tone as soon as a scandal makes taking action on the comet politically advantageous.

    This is the way our actual political system is structured. Politicians are acting rationally when they take actions that improve their poll numbers and avoid taking risks that could potentially drop their approval ratings. There isn't much room for integrity in politics, so it's up to us to make sure our elected officials are acting in our best interests.

    Another theme was the deliberate use of narratives. When an autonomous device could have been deployed to knock the comet off course, the president states that the people need a hero. A pilot was selected for his strong body and commanding voice, and he was portrayed as a modern day Jesus figure, sacrificing himself to save all of humanity. Later, other narratives were created to sell the public on allowing companies to profit off of mining the comet; it would eradicate poverty and create jobs. This also had the effect of politicizing the issue.

    If a comet really were on a collision course with Earth, the narrative of individual action would make us think that there's nothing we could do about it. The same is true of other issues that are so much larger than ourselves. But we should be building political will to get the government to do what’s necessary. This is what the protagonists Dr. Mindy and Kate were doing all along. They exhibited character growth and learned how to be more effective as time went on.

   Another theme was hope. People didn’t want to hear the bad news. The media was effectively functioning as the hope police. The government even set up a hotline for people to call to help give them peace of mind. Narratives were created by the political elite to give the public hope in their plan to exploit the comet, but the skeptical scientists were never convinced and were unable to take solace in a false hope. They put their hope in scientifically-sound plans to divert the comet, and when those were thwarted by corporate and political interests, they found inner-peace by knowing that they gave it their all and never gave up.

    If you have Netflix, consider checking this one out. And if the movie inspires you to take action on any of the real-world issues we face today, my advice is to find ways to talk about those issues with others that might be receptive, be less of an individual and join a group, and to periodically call your members of congress and let them know what's important to you. As long as we're nonjudgmental, nonargumentative, and respectful, talking about important issues can have the effect of normalizing them in the public discourse and advancing that cause. And if our members of congress receive a lot of calls on a particular topic, like from a group calling campaign, they are more likely to take that topic seriously.