[Linkpost] Don't Look Up - a Netflix comedy about asteroid risk and realistic societal reactions (Dec. 24th)

A random idea on how this film could end by explicitly promoting existential risk awareness:

• At the end of the film, imagine the comet impacts Earth and humanity goes extinct.
• The audience is surprised that the movie actually ends in extinction and the heroes don't win.
• The otherwise-comedic film ends on this serious, sad note.
• The screen goes dark, and the following text appears:
• "Experts estimate the chance of extinction via asteroid or comet impact within the next 100 years at only ~1 in 1,000,000."
• "However, experts believe the chance of extinction from other causes is much higher."
• The film cuts from black to Toby Ord in his office, reading the caption of Table 6.1 from his book The Precipice: "My best estimates for the chance of an existential catastrophe from each of these sources occurring at some point in the next 100 years..."
• The film cuts to the table itself as he begins reading the risks aloud:
• "If you're wondering if this is a joke, it's not. The risks really do seem to be this high."
• Cut to credits.

Any predictions on whether the film will seem to be positive from an existential-risk-reducing perspective or not?

Or perhaps more constructively, what possible features of the film could make it seem positive from an xrisk perspective? Which possible features could make it seem negative?

Possible Positives:

• If it makes viewers viscerally feel the importance of preventing extinction
• If it reminds viewers of the importance of preventing extinction, such that they are more likely to take other action to reduce extinction risks in the future
• If it educates people on coordination problems or other obstacles that humanity actually faces (or may actually face) when trying to deal with extinction risks

Possible Negatives:

• If it leaves viewers with a false impression of the absolute risk of extinction due to asteroids
• If it leaves viewers with a false impression of the relative risk of extinction due to asteroids (relative to other extinction risks)
• If it reduces the chance that other (positive) Hollywood films about extinction risk get made in the coming years

I'll be looking forward to see if/how they deal with the aftermath of the impact, and specifically with the agricultural collapse that would ensue which is probably the most severe consequence of an asteroid/comet impact.

I just started watching it. My thoughts so far:

One thing that's not believable in the movie is that the media barely reacts to the two scientists' message when they break it to the New York Herald and the talk show; instead, there's memes making fun of them. In 2020, social media was buzzing with memes about Trump's assassination of Soleimani starting WWIII; you'd think there'd be at least a similarly sized reaction to a warning that A GIANT COMET IS ABOUT TO STRIKE EARTH AND WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE.

Also, goddammit president, asking how much it will cost to stop the comet and bikeshedding with the scientists over whether it's 100% or 70% likely to hit. First of all, even if there's a 10% chance that it will strike Earth, we should be trying to deflect it! Second, preventing an existential catastrophe that is certain to happen is worth the entire value of the world economy!

I think there could be some EA press written around this. I hope Toby Ord gets at least one interview out of it.