The sky is empty, for all the stars are in the first trailer for Don’t Look Up.
Actually, that silly description of writer/director Adam McKay’s Chicken Little-ish polemic against our culture of ignoring people that actually know what they’re talking about in favor of morons isn’t all that accurate. Not because there isn’t a massive A-list cast. There is, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Rob Morgan, Jonah Hill, Mark Rylance, Tyler Perry, Timothée Chalamet, Ron Perlman, Ariana Grande, Scott Mescudi, Himesh Patel, Melanie Lynskey, Michael Chiklis, Tomer Sisley, Cate Blanchett and Meryl Streep. But the sky isn’t empty. It’s got a comet hurtling right at Earth, ready to send us all to science-hating oblivion.
The first trailer sees the two central astronomers, Kate Dibiasky (Lawrence) and Dr. Randall Mindy (DiCaprio), trying to convince the White House—including President Orlean (Meryl Streep) and her son/Chief of Staff Jason (Jonah Hill)—that there’s a catastrophe on the way. Anyone familiar with McKay’s comic and political work, and the intersection of the two, knows about how well that goes.
Take a look:
This seems like it’ll be more of a farce than McKay’s targeted and detailed The Big Short, especially since much of the first teaser is concerned with DiCaprio’s labored and anxious breathing. There are also glimpses of what seems to be an Armageddon-like plan, where astronauts are flying up to fight the incoming space debris, and if McKay’s track record is any indication, those astronauts will likely become space debris pretty quickly themselves.
We’ll find out when Don’t Look Up hits Netflix on December 24.