Don’t Look Up Movie Analysis Essay Example

Amidst the current apocalyptic-like pandemic, Netflix releases “Don’t Look Up”, a disaster comedy film– outrageous and seemingly satirical until you notice the realistic parallels within real life and the movie itself. Despite the exaggerated character traits and very bizarre scenarios, the film manages to create near-plausible elements that only adds to just how disturbing it all is.

Don’t Look Up is set in a parallel universe within the 21st century where two scientists, Kate and Dr. Randall, discover a comet bound to hit the earth and to destroy all life on the planet. The film revolves around the lives of these two who struggle to relay the information to the rest of mankind as they face the unprecedented obstacles of avoiding a scientifically certain apocalypse– clearly a parallel between our world and the impending effects of climate change. The scientists are only ridiculed and made into numerous internet memes after attempting to emphasize the severity of the situation on national live television. The US government also seems to take the information too lightly and only respond accordingly after formulating a plan to use it for their own political advantage. Even after all necessary evidence is released to the public regarding the comet, there is still mass confusion and distrust that further creates divisiveness within the masses.

The people’s continuous deflection of the circumstances can be associated with Psychoanalytic Theory created by Sigmund Freud (1936) that describes the 3 components of the human psyche; the Id, Ego and Superego. Freud believed that as our principle decision-maker, the ego functions to protect us from anxiety through defense mechanisms. A few of these defense mechanisms being: Denial, Rationalization, Reaction Formation and Repression. Denial plays a key role within the society in Don’t Look Up as the people refuse to acknowledge the distressing events that occur quite all of a sudden within their lives. It is easier for them to deny the facts and to suppress any accusations made against them. Any arguments made against their beliefs become an accusation against the individual person themselves and their intelligence. This is noticeable quite commonly in ‘our world’ in which people repress any new information that is not already in line with their own views and opinions.

The phrase “Don’t Look Up” is coined after the scientists point out that all people need to do is “just look up” and notice that the threat is very much real. The US President co-opts the phrase, and her cult-like followers chant “don’t look up!” during her rallies– ‘the scientists only want to make you scared’ to appeal to the population’s ego and pride. This also displays another instinctive cognitive mechanism– heuristics and biases, namely Confirmation Bias and Selective Perception; the tendency to selectively focus on information that already confirms our existing beliefs.

A study by Behimehr et al. (2020) studied Cognitive Biases and their effects on Information Behaviour on a sample of graduate students. The findings showed that the participants may have focused on one dimension of the topic they are familiar with and ignored the other dimensions due to several biases. One consequence of such is search failure– sticking to the keywords they already know, which only provides information from the same echo chamber these keywords originated from. The participants displayed behaviours of Selective Perception, Overconfidence effect and other similar biases. This phenomenon has become increasingly prevalent, as we have developed easier access to communication, so has the spread of misinformation become rampant online.

Don’t Look Up is a disturbing yet humorously brutal insight to society and the world we live in. It is clear that the movie intended to provide a disturbing social commentary on the social atmosphere and mediasphere we have created that could potentially lead to our downfall. It is similar to Black Mirror, another Netflix series, which is well-known for its dark themes of reflecting modern society and how it exposes our foibles in a disturbingly accurate way.