Since the end of last year and the beginning of 2022, one of the recurring topics of conversation in social networks and perhaps in other spaces is the film Don’t look up. The production of Netflix is a satire towards different contemporary behaviors, from the self-absorption of human beings, motivated by social networks and other factors, to the economic pulses between one another.
Within the story of Don’t look up, one of the most used jokes arose from a conflict between Kate Dibiasky, played by Jennifer Lawrence, and General Themes, acted by Paul guilfoyle. While Kate waits together with Doctor Mindy (Leonardo Dicaprio) to be cared for at the White House, General Themes offers them some food and charges them ten dollars. Up to here, there is nothing strange. What is the detail that bothered Kate? Food, inside the White House, is free.
Therefore, Kate returns again and again to this moment during the question. The scientist cannot understand why the general charged them for something that did not cost him anything. Among the possible interpretations that can be made of this, at least two stand out: the influence of the military over the civilian and another provided by the columnist Kevin Erdmann in Screen rant, related to greed.
A possible explanation for one of the jokes of Don’t look up
Kevin Erdmann discussed the timing and use of the joke during Don’t look up. One of the points he takes in his analysis is when Kate is talking with Yule, the character played by Timothée Chalamet. She explains that it must have been a kind of power game, since General Themes did not need that money. Erdmann interprets this as one of the messages implicit in the production: “In all probability, the blanket charge for free food is certainly in line with the film’s central message that the rich and powerful take what they want because they can, regardless of the consequences or impact on the common good”.
The above is summarized by the author as a “game about unbridled greed.” This definition is important because it goes through different phases of the film. Another of the moments where Erdmann recognizes this game of greed occurs when a decision has to be made about what to do in relation to the comet. Initially, the United States would attack the threat so that, by fragmenting it, the impact against the Earth would be less damaging. But Peter Isherweel, played by Mark Rylance, is opposed because he is interested in collecting the minerals from the meteorite and then trading them. Another example of how the greed of a few conditions the future of many, even if it is a fiction.
Don’t look up It was released on December 5. It was one of the most anticipated films for the second half of 2021. Part of the cast is made up of the aforementioned Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio, along with Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, among other figures within the film industry. The movie can be viewed through Netflix.