If a massive meteor were expected to collide with Earth in six months’ time, what would our leaders do? Everything in their power to stop it? Or everything possible to leverage it for political and financial gain?
How about the rest of us? How would we cope with the prospect of impending apocalypse? By facing the end of the world with sobriety and compassion? Or drowning ourselves in sex, drugs and celebrity gossip? Might some of us even enjoy the drama?
Adam McKay’s new film, Don’t Look Up, is a starry satire addressing these questions with a broad brush – and fresh urgency. It is that rare thing: a mainstream movie that seeks genuinely to engage with the issues dominating the news and plaguing our dreams.
Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio play the misfit scientists who spot the comet; Meryl Streep is the Trumpian president who seeks to sweep this species-ending event under the carpet until it is expedient.
Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry are the remorselessly lightweight hosts of a US daytime talkshow on which the news is broken, Mark Rylance the creepy tech billionaire with ambitions to be the messiah who saves humanity.
Here, Blanchett, Perry, Rylance and McKay answer questions about how they would face the end of the world as we know it.
Tyler Perry
When do you think the world will end – and why?
Oh my gosh, this is so sad. Well, if we keep on the path we are on, especially with climate destruction and the hatred between people and the evil that continues to live, I think we will be our own demise. Thank God I know Jesus!
Are humans cynical about extinction?
I don't think so. So many people are caught up in their own worlds and own day-to-day lives and more interested in a reality star than what is going on in the world of extinction. So many people are self-centred, which is pretty sad.
If extinction were imminent, which daily chore would you stop immediately?
I would stop working out right away. I wouldn't lift another weight, I wouldn't run another mile. I would sit on my ass and eat as many cookies as I could find.
What would you most regret having done and not having done?
I would regret that I didn't get to see my son grow up to be a man. I would regret not spending as much time with him, because of my business, as I would have liked to.
What movie, meal and drink would you try to enjoy before the end?
It would probably be some funny, silly comedy like Anchorman, to make me laugh really hard. Who cares about the meal and what I'm eating? For drink, I wouldn't care, either. But there would be some strong sativa weed that I would want to enjoy right before the end.
What do you find terrifying?
I find terrifying what is happening in the world and politics. I find terrifying what is happening with climate. I find terrifying what is going to be left to my son and grandchildren when this particular generation, who have some sense, are dead and gone. I'm worried, I'm really concerned, and find it very terrifying.
Do you subscribe to any conspiracy theories?
Absolutely not. Unfortunately, I've been named in some of those and it's scary to think people believe these things. We live in a world where social media manipulates people in other countries and helps overthrow governments, and somehow that's OK. And it shouldn't be.
Cate Blanchett
If extinction were imminent, which daily chore would you stop immediately?
Stockpiling toilet paper. I do find routine strangely comforting, though. So I might, sadly, go into routine overdrive. Baking like there's no tomorrow – when there actually wouldn't be one.
Where would you want to see in the apocalypse – and with whom?
I guess dancing up a storm in the living room with my husband and children, and the farmer from across the way. Man, that farmer can dance.
What do you find terrifying?
Leaf blowers. They encapsulate all that is wrong with us as a species.
Do you think Covid has brought into focus how rich many people's lives used to be?
I'm not really a believer in "the good old days". Richer before? I'm not so sure. Things weren't working for millions of people before the pandemic. Systems were already broken, or breaking open. You could say the pandemic just made these fissures and inequities undeniable. It certainly brought into focus how possible it would be to implement a basic living wage.
Do you subscribe to any conspiracy theories?
Conspiracy theories freak me out; I mean, the fact that they are believed at all keeps me awake at night. I relish them in movies and novels – where they belong.
What is the most propulsive thing that has ever happened to you?
Giving birth. That and spending 36 hours in the eye of a hurricane off the coast of Greenland.
Mark Rylance
When do you think the world will end – and why?
Pretty soon now. Is that why we don't insulate our homes? Why bother?
Are humans cynical about extinction?
No, we commit to it wholeheartedly. We imprison our own conscience and murder the poor in third world countries. Let's not be cynical, that takes some commitment.
If extinction were imminent, which daily chore would you stop immediately?
Mopping my conscience with biodegradable bleach.
What would you most regret having done and not having done?
Eating animals that have been tortured to death in a factory farm. And not? Sitting down in traffic on the M25 a few decades earlier.
What movie, meal and drink would you try to enjoy before the end?
What movies, meals and drinks do you get in prison for breaking the law in civil protest?
If there were a meteor heading for Earth, where would you want to be – and with whom – when it hit?
Anywhere but the M25, rushing around in circles going nowhere with no one.
What do you find terrifying?
That those of us with the passion and wisdom to see what is terrifying ahead are jailed, rather than employed to help us avoid the terror ahead.
Do you think Covid has brought into focus how rich many people's lives used to be?
Has Covid affected our ability to give and receive love to and from others? Love is the only lens that can focus a life. So why don't we insulate our homes?
Can the venality of those in power ever be overestimated?
What would be the advantage of doing that? Would it help insulate our homes?
Do you subscribe to any conspiracy theories?
The conspiracy of silence.
What is the most propulsive thing that has ever happened to you?
Catching a peeping tom at my bedroom window. If I had insulated my house, his face might have been further away? Whatever. He certainly changed my climate.
Adam McKay
What do you find terrifying?
The moment that you realise you've been fooling yourself and it is far too late to take action.
Do you think Covid has brought into focus how rich many people's lives used to be?
Oddly, at least in America, I think it did the opposite. Many people finally got a break from the constant grind of working to pay endless debts and keep giant corporations' share prices up and seemed to question what it's all been for. Millions are quitting their underpaying jobs and at least a dozen unions nationally are on strike.
Can the venality of those in power ever be overestimated?
Never. Unless they say they love God and country constantly with an almost over-the-top sincerity. In that case, we can all relax, because they said it, right?
Do you subscribe to any conspiracy theories?
I think most of the answers are out in the open, but we're told they're boring or not clever enough to speak of. But I am partial to the idea that the entire art world is a money-laundering front, because that means money-laundering can be beautiful and occasionally move us to tears.
What is the most propulsive thing that has ever happened to you?
One time during a power outage, I came down the stairs in our pitch-black house, miscounted the steps, fell and my whole body went completely horizontal in mid-air. Somehow, I was unhurt.
When do you think the world will end – and why?
The world won't end until the sun goes supernova in five billion years. Unfortunately, it's possible humans are long gone by then and it's highly intelligent jellyfish left to soar off in a spaceship to inhabit a distant planet as the Earth is incinerated.
Are humans cynical about extinction?
We can't comprehend it. We pretend to be cynical, because it looks much cooler than just staring in silence with our mouths half open.
If extinction were imminent, which daily chore would you stop immediately?
The chore of not smoking.
What would you most regret having done and not having done?
Even without the world ending, I will always regret happily voting for Bill Clinton – and the time years ago I did a Nas song at karaoke.
What movie, meal and drink would you try to enjoy before the end?
Is there a movie where the main character figures out how not to cry and crap his pants as the end of the world approaches? I would watch that movie while enjoying a meal of cigarettes with a nice tall glass of cigarettes.
Where would you want to see in the apocalypse – and with whom?
At home with my family. Or in an all-nude waterpark.
Don’t Look Up is in selected cinemas now and on Netflix from 24 December
