I have never had a very strong penchant for movies. For me, TV shows have always been my go-tos. However, with not much to do this holiday break, I found myself watching a wide variety of movies that ranged from diving into the Marvel Universe for the first time to rewatching one of my favorite movie series: The Hunger Games. 

On one of the days that I aimlessly scrolled through my Netflix feed, I came across the movie Don’t Look Up, which was released on Dec. 24th, 2021. The trailer showed a promising plot filled with action and comedy, and I could immediately tell that it would be a movie I would enjoy. 

Don’t Look Up is about a Michigan State University PhD candidate named Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) who discovers a comet heading directly towards Earth, resulting in total world destruction. She then travels to Washington D.C. with her professor, Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio), to inform president Janie Orlean (Meryl Streep) about the matter at hand. The problem is that Orlean does not believe that the comet is a prevalent issue, and decides not to take any immediate action to stop it. Throughout the movie, Mindy and Dibiasky do whatever it takes to spread awareness and prevent the comet from hitting the planet. 

This movie was utterly engrossing. Every moment of Don’t Look Up was filled with intensity, comedy, and love. DiCaprio and Lawrence perfectly portrayed their characters as a professor with high anxiety and a college student with a quick temper. 

Out of the entire movie, the ending was my favorite part. I am not going to explain what happens, as to not spoil how it ends, but it was absolutely chilling. Once the movie was over—after screaming at my TV—I laid in my bed and could not stop thinking about the conclusion.   

Aside from the ending, I also pondered the underlying themes and messages present in Don’t Look Up. The movie was, in whole, satirical towards the current climate of our society today. Adam McKay, the writer and director of the film, wanted to bring across the message that people cannot continue to avoid the inevitable by simply denying that anything is happening. 

This idea relates most prominently to the rising issue of climate change. There is a debate going on of whether or not climate change is truly real and harmful, and though there is a grandiose amount of science to back up that it is present, there are still people who believe that it is a hoax. In Don’t Look Up, this is portrayed by some people advocating for something to be done in order to prevent their planet from being destroyed by the comet, and others voicing that there is no real threat. 

The satire intertwined into the plot of Don’t Look Up was brilliant. I found it to be very clever to share a profound message through this movie, something that will be seen by many. I applaud McKay for coming up with such an ingenious idea for a movie and DiCaprio and Lawrence for doing a spectacular job of making that idea come to life.

Though I have never had much of a penchant for movies in the past, the remarkable plot of Don’t Look Up has me now branching outside of my comfort zone and exploring parts of my Netflix feed I would have never imagined possible.