The Real Science Behind the Movie 'Don't Look Up' - An interview with scientist AmyMainzer by Nancy_A
— now available on Netflix — is not your usual sci-fi disaster film. Instead, it is a biting parody on the general public’s dismissal and indifference to science. While the movie is about a comet on a collision course with Earth, filmmakers originally meant “Don’t Look Up” to be a commentary on climate change denial. But it also is reflective of the current COVID denial and mask/vaccine resistance, as well as our existing political polarization.
Filmmaker Adam McKay wanted this film to portray the science — and the challenges faced by scientists — as realistically as possible. He brought in well-known astronomerMainzer is a professor at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona and one of the world’s leading scientists in asteroid detection and planetary defense. As principal investigator of
We helped design the comet — one that would fit the bill for the movie, but also be scientifically accurate. We described the circumstances of the discovery — how such an object might be recognized, how the trajectory would be determined, and how the scientists would react as they started to learn more about the object.
The good news is that in reality, we have found most of the really large near-Earth asteroids out there – things that are capable of causing global catastrophes. When we get to asteroids that are 1 km or larger, we know of more than 90% of those and none pose any hazard that we know of. DON’T LOOK UP Mark Rylance as Peter Isherwell, Meryl Streep as President Janie Orlean, and Jonah Hill as Jason Orlean. Cr. NIKO TAVERNISE/NETFLIX © 2021. Used by permission.
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