Don’t Look Up: One Tiny Detail Shows How Perfect Its Apocalypse Response Is

Don’t Look Up is typically explicit with its apocalyptic commentary, but one tiny subtle detail perfectly underlines the movie’s great disaster response. Directed by satirical mastermind Adam McKay, Don’t Look Up has received mixed reviews for its cautionary tale about society’s response to and prevention of catastrophic events, with timely metaphors to the climate change crisis and COVID-19 pandemic. From political corruption, capitalist exploitation, and general denial of impending doom or personal responsibility, Don’t Look Up is an exaggerated look at how society today greets tragedy, typified by the small details that pepper its narrative.

Part of what made Don’t Look Up’s film such a hot topic of discussion upon its release was the lack of subtlety in expressing its themes and message. The film outwardly criticized the government, particularly through Meryl Streep and Jonah Hill’s parodic characters, for its lack of action and focus on politicizing issues for their own gain; the media for laughing such tragedies off and avoiding any real call to action; and corporations and celebrities for capitalizing on either the comet or the response to it without any true push to stop the threat. While the explicit nature of Don’t Look Up’s narrative made its call to action feel more urgent, the subtle details are what truly exhibit the film’s strengths in its apocalyptic response.

In the scene when Don’t Look Up’s characters all begin looking toward the sky as they see the comet approaching overhead, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Randall Mindy gets out of his car next to a supply store. A tiny hidden detail of the scene shows the store with big signs advertising shovels, which are snow being sold at the incredible price of “only” $599.99 each. Considering the average shovel costs about $20, Don’t Look Up’s minor background detail just goes to show how outrageous the capitalist exploitation of tragedy is in society. The insane price-hiking of an everyday tool like a shovel is just one of the brilliant ways that Don’t Look Up supports its overarching commentary, which actually feels much more true and realistic for disastrous situations. It also serves as a tremendous follow-up to Don’t Look Up‘s joke of the general inexplicably charging Kate for free food.

The shovel price increase is a timely reflection of the recent real-life catastrophe with price-hiking and panic-buying of toilet paper, hand sanitizer, masks, and water bottles at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns when there was arguably no need for aggressive stockpiling of such tools. After the trends of consumers buying toilet paper spiked, the price of this everyday product increased around the world as well. By not explicitly addressing the outrageous shovel prices in Don’t Look Up, Adam McKay’s apocalypse response is much stronger in its subtly, letting viewers reach the same conclusion for the real world without overtly explaining the comparison.

Don’t Look Up’s detail also makes perfect sense when comparing the comet apocalypse to the pandemic shutdown, where the products whose prices are spiking are the ones that people think will help them survive, but aren’t actively stopping the threat. People are stockpiling shovels in order to build bunkers to survive the comet in Don’t Look Up, while people stockpiled toilet paper in COVID-19 so that they wouldn’t have to leave their homes. The connection also has much more significance in that businesses and corporations are exploiting survival necessities for financial gain. Don’t Look Up’s sneaky feature just goes to show that America’s capitalist mindset of prioritizing making a buck over saving peoples’ lives doesn’t stop, even when a meteor is literally going to destroy the entire planet and they’ll never use the money they make anyways.

About The Author

Jordan Williams
(811 Articles Published)

See also  Candyman: The 10 Scariest Moments From The Original Films

Jordan Williams is a Movie/TV Feature Senior Staff Writer for Screen Rant. She graduated from the University of Oregon in 2020 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Media Studies.

Jordan is based in Seattle, Washington and enjoys exploring the natural beauty the PNW has to offer. She runs on coffee and classic movies, taking pride in having watched every film on AFI’s 100 Greatest Films list and every Best Picture Oscar winner.

More From Jordan Williams