Don't Look Up is a 2021 American satirical science fiction film written, produced, and directed by Adam McKay. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence as two astronomers attempting to warn humanity about an approaching comet that will destroy human civilization. The impact event is an allegory for climate change, and the film is a satire of government and media indifference to the climate crisis.[6] The supporting cast includes Rob Morgan, Jonah Hill, Mark Rylance, Tyler Perry, Timothée Chalamet, Ron Perlman, Ariana Grande, Scott Mescudi, Himesh Patel, Melanie Lynskey, Cate Blanchett, and Meryl Streep. 


 Produced by Hyperobject Industries and Bluegrass Films, the film was announced in November 2019 and sold by Paramount Pictures to Netflix several months later. Lawrence became the first member of the cast to join, with DiCaprio signing on after his discussions with McKay on adjustments to the script; the rest of the cast was added through 2020. Filming was initially set to begin in April 2020 around the U.S. state of Massachusetts but was delayed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; it eventually began in November 2020 and wrapped up in February 2021. 


 Don't Look Up began a limited theatrical release on December 10, 2021, before streaming on Netflix on December 24. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the cast but were divided on the merits of McKay's satire: some found it deft, while others criticized it as smug and heavy-handed. Despite the reviews, the film was named one of the top ten of 2021 by the National Board of Review and American Film Institute. It has received four nominations at the 79th Golden Globe Awards, including Best Picture – Musical or Comedy, and six at the 27th Critics' Choice Awards, including Best Picture. On January 5, 2022, Netflix reported Don't Look Up had set a new record for the most viewing hours in a single week, making it the third most-watched Netflix film in the company's history. 



 Kate Dibiasky, a Michigan State University astronomy Ph.D. candidate, doing work with the Subaru Telescope, discovers a previously unknown comet just inside of Jupiter's orbit at 4.6 au from the Sun. Her professor, Dr. Randall Mindy, calculates that it will impact Earth in about six months and is large enough to cause a planet-wide extinction event, which NASA internally confirms. Accompanied by NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office head Dr. Teddy Oglethorpe, Dibiasky and Mindy present their findings to the White House but are met with apathy from President Janie Orlean and her son, Chief of Staff Jason. 

 Oglethorpe urges Dibiasky and Mindy to leak the news to the media, which they do on a morning talk show. When hosts Jack Bremmer and Brie Evantee treat the topic frivolously, Dibiasky loses her composure and rants about the threat, prompting widespread online mockery. Dibiasky's boyfriend publicly denounces her, while Mindy receives public approval for his good looks. The actual news about the comet's threat receives little public attention and is denied by Orlean's Director of NASA, a top donor to Orlean with no background in astronomy. When Orlean is involved in a sex scandal with her Supreme Court nominee, she diverts attention and improves her approval ratings by confirming the threat of the comet, announcing a project to strike and divert the comet using nuclear weapons. 



 The mission successfully launches, but Orlean abruptly aborts it when Peter Isherwell, the billionaire CEO of tech company BASH and another top donor, discovers that the comet contains trillions of dollars worth of rare-earth elements. The White House agrees to commercially exploit the comet by fragmenting and recovering it from the ocean using new technology proposed by BASH's Nobel Laureates in a scheme that has not undergone scholarly peer review. The White House sidelines Dibiasky and Oglethorpe while hiring Mindy as the National Science Advisor to co-opt him. Dibiasky tries to mobilize public opposition to the scheme but gives up under threat from Orlean's administration. Mindy becomes a prominent voice advocating for the comet's commercial opportunities and begins an affair with Evantee. World opinion is divided among those who demand destruction of the comet, those who decry alarmism and believe that mining the comet will create jobs, and those who deny that the comet even exists. Dibiasky returns home to Illinois and begins a fatalistic relationship with Yule, a shoplifter she meets at her retail job. Mindy's wife confronts him about his infidelity, and then returns to Michigan without him. Mindy, becoming angry and frustrated with the administration, rants on live television, criticizing Orlean for downplaying the impending apocalypse, and questioning humanity's indifference. 


 Cut off from the administration, Mindy reconciles with Dibiasky as the comet becomes visible from Earth. Mindy, Dibiasky, and Oglethorpe organize a protest campaign on social media against Orlean and BASH telling people to "Just Look Up", and call on other countries to conduct comet interception operations of their own. China, India, and Russia have been cut out of the comet mining deal, so they prepare a joint effort to deflect the comet, but an explosion destroys their spacecraft, leaving Mindy distraught. BASH's attempt at breaking the comet apart also goes awry, and everyone realizes that humanity is doomed. Isherwell, Orlean, and others in their elite circle board a sleeper spaceship designed to find an Earth-like planet, inadvertently leaving Jason behind. Orlean offers Mindy two places on the ship, but he declines, choosing to spend a final evening with his family, Dibiasky, Oglethorpe, and Yule. As expected, the comet hits Earth, causing a worldwide disaster and triggering an extinction level event. 22,740 years later, the 2,000 people who left Earth before the impact land on a lush alien planet, ending their cryogenic sleep. They exit their spacecraft naked and mostly empty-handed, admiring the habitable world. Orlean is quickly killed and eaten by an alien creature as others of its kind surround the humans. A post-credits scene shows Jason emerging from the rubble, having survived the comet, screaming for his mother, and trying to post on social media on his phone.