Netflix's Don't Look Up is a satirical critique of real-life — and each member of the Don't Look Up cast drew inspiration from real-life figures. While Comet Dibiasky may not be hurtling toward Earth at this moment, it is easy to see parallels between our reality and Don't Look Up. With climate change and COVID-19 looming, Don't Look Up provides a humorous but sobering picture of our current reality.
Adam McKay's Don't Look Up follows a pair of astronomers as they fight to make the world take its own imminent doom seriously. After Ph.D. candidate Kate Dibiasky discovers a comet on a collision course with Earth, it becomes a race to save the world. However, they quickly discover that the world (especially the President, the scientific community, the media, and a large portion of American citizens) simply doesn't care. With a six-month deadline, Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Kate Dibiasky are tasked with trying to save a world that doesn't believe it's in danger. Instead of ending with the cliché, happy Hollywood ending, Don't Look Up ends with the total annihilation of planet Earth – a clear warning of the fate that awaits the Earth if climate change isn't addressed soon.
Don't Look Up is filled with a star-studded cast. Greats like Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jennifer Lawrence fill out the Don't Look Up cast, while household names like Cate Blanchett, Tyler Perry, and Sir Mark Rylance round out the supporting cast. The movie doesn't hold back punches when it comes to criticizing the current political climate, and no one – from the President to high-ranking government officials to the average Trump supporter – is safe in this satirical Netflix film.
Kate Dibiasky — Greta Thunberg
Dibiasky's character in the Don't Look Up cast isn't a perfect mirror of the young environmentalist, but there are a lot of parallels between the two. Dibiasky, understandably, is passionate about the world's fate, and she isn't afraid to show it. Yet, when Lawrence's Don't Look Up character gets angry and tries to force the world to take its fate seriously, they ignore her and turn her into a meme. When Greta Thunberg burst into the public eye in 2018, she was met with a similar reception. Her righteous anger and worry were capitalized on by many who disagreed with her message. Instead of focusing on the sound science she presented, she was ridiculed for expressing genuine emotion surrounding the fate of the planet – just like Dibiasky.
Peter Isherwell — Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, & Mark Zuckerberg
Don't Look Up's Peter Isherwell (Mark Rylance), CEO of BASH Cellular, can be viewed as the strange love child of billionaire tech moguls like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and more. He starts the movie as the eccentric, oddly-charming genius trope, but as the movie progresses, it becomes clear that there's something more sinister brewing underneath. Isherwell, like many tech moguls in the real world at the moment, has a fascination with space travel. Isherwell prioritizes money and profit over the impending climate crisis – a common criticism that the world's richest are facing today as they funnel billions of dollars into personal space projects as the planet faces catastrophic climate change. Isherwell also uses his cellular company to peddle intrusive data – enough to accurately predict people's deaths — which is a clear comparison to Zuckerberg, who has faced serious backlash for Facebook's history of dating mining.
President Janie Orlean — Donald Trump
President Janie Orlean (Meryl Streep) is a clear caricature of former President Donald Trump. From narcissism to nepotism, President Orlean has it all. When Dr. Mindy and Dibiasky approach President Orlean with news of the Dibiasky Comet, she easily dismisses and manipulates the science to fit her own agenda. Even when the clear evidence of the comet arrives, "Don't Look Up" becomes a rallying cry at her massive rallies, which eerily mirror Trump rallies, cheesy baseball caps, and all. Like Trump and his supporters denied and downplayed the COVID-19 pandemic despite a myriad of evidence, Orlean and her supporters ignored a comet they could see with their own eyes. While some minor points of Orlean might be inspired by other presidential figures — like her Clinton-esque fashion sense – her portrayal is clearly a satirical mirror image of Donald Trump.
Jason Orlean — The Trump Children
If Janie Orlean is a parody of Donald Trump, Jason Orlean (Jonah Hill) is a composite of the Trump children — Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. All four have benefitted from Donald Trump's position as President, being given seats of power that they were otherwise unqualified for — just like Jason. The character traits of Jason are built on some rumor or scandal surrounding the Trump children and their spouses; Trump Jr.'s recreational drug use, Trump's obsession with Ivanka's appearance, and Kushner's need to be Trump's number one hypeman are all rolled into one character.
Brie Evantee and Jack Bremmer — Morning Talk Shows & The New York Times
Brie Evantee (Cate Blanchett) and Jack Bremmer (Tyler Perry) could be derived from any morning talk show hosts. Their peppy attitude and preference for a good time over hard news can be found on almost every channel in the morning. Evantee very closely resembles Mika Brzezinski, the co-host of Morning Joe. Perry's character, Jack Bremmer, gives the impression of a Michael Strahan (Good Morning America) and Joe Scarborough (Morning Joe) lovechild, making sense since Perry admits he consulted the two on the role. However, McKay claims that his media characters weren't meant to satirize any one person but entire institutions. In an interview (via Vanity Fair), McKay admitted that the New York Herald in Don't Look Up was inspired by the New York Times.
Riley Mina — Ariana Grande
This inspiration is one of the most obvious — mostly because the star herself played the role. Ariana Grande took on a satirized cameo of herself in Don't Look Up with the role of Riley Mina, a pop star whose relationship drama made front-page news over the inevitable destruction of the planet. Grande's past relationships have made plenty of headlines before. However, the real pop star is much more politically active than her fictional counterpart. In the past, Grande has spoken out against fellow celebrities who fail to use their platforms for good. Grande has fought for LGBTQ rights, voting participation, feminist issues, and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Could The World-Ending Event In Don't Look Up Actually Happen?
Don't Look Up isn't the first apocalyptic film to explore the idea of a comet hurdling towards Earth, but is the science behind the scenario actually sound? While there are certain unrealistic elements in the disaster in the film, director Adam McKay made sure to conduct thorough research on such an event and even recruited a real scientist in the process. McKay hired astronomer Dr. Amy Mainzer, a former senior research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to serve as the main science consultant on the movie. Mainzer's research provided many of the story beats for Don't Look Up's apocalyptic event, and, even more frighteningly, the scientist confirmed that near-Earth objects happen quite often — just not at the same scale as the comet in the movie.
Another harrowing observation provided by Mainzer (via Den of Geek) is that the six-month window in the movie could actually happen in real life, revealing:
"There can sometimes be a very short gap from when we find one of these things to when they make their closest approach to the Sun because they move so fast. So in this case, six months from discovery to close approach or impact is pretty realistic for this class of object."
Much like the Don't Look Up cast is inspired by real people, the comet in the film is also based on a real object. Dr. Mainzer chose the comet NEOWISE after which to model the movie's comet. NEOWISE was discovered in 2020, and the behemoth was roughly 3 miles (5 km) wide. In addition, a comet was chosen over an asteroid for the movie because the former moves at a much higher velocity than the latter. Don't Look Up has a lot to say about science denialism and the current climate of egocentrism in the United States. Basing many of its characters on real-life people, and its science on sound principles, only makes the film's message that much more powerful.