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Michigan State doctoral candidate Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) and astronomy Professor Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) discover that a 鈥減lanet killer鈥�-sized comet is headed toward Earth in the film Don't Look Up.听(Credit: Netflix)听

Just how popular is the most-watched movie on Netflix right now? Released on Dec. 24, 2021, Don鈥檛 Look Up (written and directed by Adam McKay, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio) recently recorded the biggest week of views in Netflix history, with more than 152 million hours streamed as of Jan. 2, 2022鈥攏early 40 million hours more than the next nine most popular shows combined.听

What鈥檚 fascinating is that it鈥檚 also a movie heavy on science, both in the realms of science fiction and the portrayal of modern-day scientists.听

Rick Stevens, department chair and associate professor of media studies in the College of Media, Information, and Communication, examines how science and technology get framed in public communication and pop culture. In particular, he studies how science fiction is a space where the public can comment on culture, explore its social dynamics and think about ethical issues presented by science.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a space where we take the familiar and make it unfamiliar so that we can talk about it, or we take the unfamiliar and make it familiar so that we can recognize it,鈥� said Stevens.听

Stevens spoke with CU Boulder Today about the new film鈥檚 popularity, the way it plays with the portrayal of science and why we might be in a new golden age of sci-fi entertainment.听

Warning: spoilers ahead!听

Lost in translation听

Within the first 10 minutes of the movie, Michigan State doctoral candidate Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) and astronomy Professor Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) discover that a 鈥減lanet killer鈥�-sized comet is headed toward Earth. Yet when Dibiasky and Mindy inform the United States president about the impending comet collision, the president and her son (Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill), are more concerned about the upcoming midterm elections.

Even as Mindy, Dibiasky and a NASA expert attempt to articulate the science and the consequences, they are met immediately with impatience and critique. Hill鈥檚 character, both the president鈥檚 son and chief of staff, dramatically complains that the science is 鈥渟o stressful.鈥� The scientists are left with the White House team announcing they will 鈥渟it tight and assess.鈥�

鈥淚t's a constant trope in science fiction that scientists have figured out that society is doomed or has a danger and people won't listen,鈥� said Stevens. 鈥淭he trope in this movie is a little bit more obvious because it shows just how much these characters struggle to communicate.鈥澨�

The scientists in the film also want to simply share the data and the evidence,听but they are repeatedly pressured to become storytellers, celebrities and counselors.听

Scientists, engineers and mathematicians often use specific terminology to communicate their work and findings within their fields. While this jargon is useful for them, it is difficult for others to understand.听Don鈥檛 Look Up showcases how it鈥檚 a whole different ball game听for scientists to communicate to politicians and the general public鈥攁nd how much being able to do so matters in today鈥檚 world, according to Stevens.

鈥淭ranslating scientific findings and data into ways that average people can understand it is its own enterprise and endeavor,鈥� said Stevens. 鈥淜nowledge in a mediated age has to make its way into mediated culture or people can't find it. It's not always accessible to people from their couches.鈥澨�

Peer review, scientific 鈥榗ertainty鈥櫶�

Don鈥檛 Look Up might also go down in history as the first major Hollywood film to mention the scientific peer review process more than a dozen times and address the concept of scientific certainty.听

鈥淭his is the first time I've heard the peer review process so extensively discussed in a movie, which is great. This is music to my scientist ears,鈥� said Amy Manizer, an astronomer and professor of planetary science at University of Arizona, who served as a science advisor for Don鈥檛 Look Up during production. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a movie at its core that really speaks to the importance of science-based decision making in our society, in our daily lives.鈥澨�

Yet a key moment in the movie illustrates just how much the White House trusts the reputations of elite scientific institutions over the rigorous scientific publication process of peer review. As the humble Professor Mindy repeatedly emphasizes that their discovery is peer-reviewed, the White House team and others doubt its accuracy and ask that the data be reviewed by researchers at Ivy League universities and NASA. Only after the findings are confirmed by the prestigious organizations do the politicians believe them.听

In a follow-up meeting, the president asks Mindy how certain he is that the comet will hit Earth, to which he replies: 鈥�100%, 99.76% to be exact.鈥澨�

Suddenly, the White House team is more worried about 鈥渓ooking like idiots鈥� in the news than saving all life on Earth. When in reality, scientific data is almost never 100% about anything, and 99.76% is about as certain as it gets.听

鈥淭hat's the brilliance of this film: it brings that kind of peer review of science language into a media sphere, and then major news media reacts to it in the ways that our current popular culture works. Then we watch how that quickly gets distorted, and what we would consider 鈥榮cientific certainty鈥� becomes very uncertain,鈥� said Stevens.听

The film isn鈥檛 about whether or not the science is sound, Stevens added.听

鈥淕iven that it鈥檚 a scientific fact [that in the movie, a comet will strike and destroy Earth], it鈥檚 a story of what could happen in our political and media-driven world, which keeps people from accepting or doing the things that can help us survive,鈥� he said.听

Social responsibility and science fiction

During the space race of the 1950s, science fiction was used as a tool to change the way people saw their world, whether it involved living on the moon one day or more immediate issues of racism and education, according to Stevens.听

鈥淪cience fiction has historically introduced complex topics to the public to get them to think about social issues in particular ways,鈥� he said.听

In the case of Don鈥檛 Look Up, there are a plethora of scientific, societal and political messages McKay aims to convey, but one that stands out to Stevens is the point the movie makes about the anti-intellectual nature of our popular discourse.听

鈥淪cience gets this treatment of: This is not a controversial subject, it's only controversial because of the consequences,鈥� said Stevens. 鈥淎nd we can't really have a conversation as a public about these consequences, because politics and media culture just are not geared towards helping people have these kinds of discussions to save the world.鈥澨�

As Don鈥檛 Look Up sets records and joins Dune, many popular Star Trek reboots and a variety of sci-fi shows and movies streaming on online platforms, are we in a new golden age of sci-fi? And if so, what might that mean?听

Stevens attributes much of this uptick in science fiction and fantasy content to smaller budgets and economic flexibility that come with streaming services. Overall, streaming is cheaper and less risky, and doesn鈥檛 rely on a theatrical release during a pandemic.听

鈥淭here's this moment now where science fiction is becoming more prevalent, more possible,鈥� said Stevens. 鈥淎nd because of the rise of the number of quality streaming shows and movies about important social issues, there are more people willing to use these platforms to say important things.鈥澨�

Don't Look Up is now .听