I grew up in Kentucky and every year during tornado season we were subjected to weather alerts advising us of tornado watches and of course the dreaded tornado warnings. As kids we would occasionally peek out our living room windows anxiously looking for funnel clouds and at times actually descend into our basement crouching in a corner next to our furnace waiting for disaster to hit from above. This happened time and time again, but we never saw a funnel cloud nor experienced the terrifying monster that we nervously awaited. As we grew older, each weather alert became less and less impactful because nothing ever resulted from it. We had grown numb and dismissive. This movie reminded me of that chapter of my life.
The movie opens with a Michigan State PhD candidate (Jennifer Lawrence) discovering a comet while surveying the nighttime sky by an observatory telescope. An astronomy professor (Leonardo Dicaprio) calculates its orbit only to discover that it has a 100% chance of impacting Earth at an extinction level event (ELE) in only 6 months/14 days. From there, the movie has us witness how such a serious discovery is believed, communicated, and handled.
The President of the United States (Meryl Streep), annoyed by the timing of the news of the planet-killing comet, decides the best solution is to sit tight and assess. Popular daytime talk show hosts Jack & Brie (Tyler Perry & Cate Blanchett) have the astronomy pair on to discuss their revelation, but instead of finding the story terrifying and unsettling, the bubbly hosts find the news exciting and pompously reject the threat to humanity. The CEO of a cell phone company named BASH and third richest human on the planet (Mark Rylance) plans a mission to send drones to the comet to drill explosives deep inside it that when detonated, will splinter the giant into smaller meteoroids that will then be steered into the Pacific ocean where they will be recovered and knowingly worth trillions of dollars. A win-win, right? Save the planet and help the rich get richer.
Seeing a picture of a comet hurtling towards Earth isn't enough to make anyone believe the apocalypse is near. But once the comet can finally be seen by looking up into the sky, the reality of the situation sinks in across the nation, while the President still campaigns at rallies to convince her supporters it is a loss of their rights to look up, and actively ignites a movement to resist and instead look down.
Meanwhile, a joint United Nations deflection mission fails at launch, leaving the planned BASH Mission the only hope to save the planet. It too fails, however, leaving the planet to its forecasted, forewarned fate.
The movie is peppered with well-known actors throughout. Dicaprio and Lawrence are outstanding. Streep, Blanchett, and Jonah Hill, who plays the President's son and Chief of Staff, provide comedic moments. Timothee Chalamet brilliantly portrays a religious skateboarder, and delivers an eloquent prayer at a gathering of characters sitting around a table giving thanks, before enjoying what turns out to be their final meal.
The movie is a metaphor for what is happening around us. We hear about our planet's crisis. We are subjected to media and pictures of the crisis, yet we are slow to act on it, don't believe it, or ignore it all together. We elect leaders who are dismissive or turn a blind eye. We prioritize news stories where a celebrity breakup is more important than saving our planet and in turn ourselves. Sadly, we have grown numb to the sound of the ticking timebomb. It's the tornado that never appeared.
***Be sure to continue watching during the closing credits - all the way to the end***
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