The release of the movie Don’t Look Up on Netflix in late December of 2021 demonstrated the controversies in our world today. The messages of political corruption, pop culture, and differing opinions in this movie are all examples of what is really happening presently.

The movie is about the discovery of an extinction-level comet, Comet Dibiasky, named after Jennifer Lawrence’s character Kate Dibiasky, an astronomy student, headed toward Earth. When Kate and her professor, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, release the information, the American public responds in an ignorant and ineffective way. The president, played by Meryl Streep, campaigns for an unworthy candidate for the senate and ignores the issue of the comet.

The position of pop culture in the movie, which included a character played by Ariana Grande, illuminates how the media is more interested in celebrity news than imminent danger. They gloss over the bad news of the comet with comedic comments and only talk about it for a short period of time. Everything about the movie is a combination of comedic acting with a serious topic to highlight the dissension of our country and the rest of the world today.

Looking back on the limited progress the United States made when there was a pandemic – COVID-19 – on the rise we can compare that to the movie with the limited progress the United States made when learning about the comet. In the past we didn’t take any action against the virus until it was too late. The movie relates to the issues happening now because of the rise of technology, climate change and the omicron variant. The growing technology shapes our way of life today and the new innovations create a better future for the world. In the movie the issue of the comet is trying to be solved by new space technology. This technology is created by Peter Bash, he represents the tech moguls in the world today and how they are changing people’s perspectives on how many issues can be solved by technology. The rise of the omicron virus relates to scenes in the movie when people look up toward the sky, see a bright “star” with a tail, and realize that the comet is real.

Overall the varied efforts people are taking to highlight the faults in our world illuminate how they are affecting people everyday. The movie is one of the many examples of how the world is distracted by social media and how important information is laughed off.