The angry interview featured in Don't Look Up strangely mirrors an awkward real-life news broadcast. Written and directed by Adam McKay following the success of his other films like The Big Short and Vice, Don't Look Up landed on Netflix late last year to mixed reviews. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence as two astronomers who embark on a nationwide media tour to warn of a massive asteroid that is on a collision course with Earth.
Don't Look Up is a clear satirization of mankind's attempts to deal with the climate crisis, with DiCaprio's Randall Mindy and Lawrence's Kate Dibiasky struggling to get the American government to appropriately react to the incoming threat. As part of their media tour, Mindy and Dibiaski are guest stars on a morning talk show hosted by Brie Evantee (Cate Blanchett) and Jack Bremmer (Tyler Perry). As with the rest of their efforts on Don't Look Up, Mindy and Dibiaski's warnings are largely ignored, with the hosts explaining that they prefer to only talk about the happy news. Dibiaski then proceeds to get angry and start yelling at the hosts on live TV.
This angry Don't Look Up interview is shockingly close to a recent interaction on a real English news channel amidst the country's record-breaking heatwave. Edited together and posted to Twitter by Jānis Lācis, the short clip features Dibiaski's angry outburst followed by a clip of a real-life meteorologist warning that the British heatwave will be "brutal" and result in a number of heat-related deaths. One of the hosts then interrupts the meteorologist, explaining that she would prefer the show to be "happy about the weather," teasing that meteorologists are "harbingers of doom." Check out the clip below:
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Although the stakes in Don't Look Up are clearly more extreme than in the British news clip, it's not hard to see the similarities between the fictional scene and the real-life interaction on British TV. The hosts in both cases are intent on giving bad news a happy spin, even when a silver lining is almost impossible to find. As with Dibiaski's angry outburst following Brie and Jack's refusal to heed her warning, the meteorologist maintains his serious tone, doubling down on his warning that the heatwave will have serious consequences.
Much of the division surrounding Don't Look Up doesn't seem to be regarding the film's obvious pro-climate activism messaging, with many viewers instead criticizing the film's heavy-handed approach to this messaging. Despite some of Don't Look Up's satirical elements lacking subtlety for some viewers, it's interesting to see one of the film's moments so clearly foretell a real-life interaction about a climate-related issue.
Source: Jānis Lācis