Randall's last line, "The thing of it is we really… we really did have everything, didn't we? I mean, if you think about it.", was improvised by Leonardo DiCaprio.
The Chicxulub asteroid that Kate Dibiasky mentions struck Earth 66 million years ago in what is now the Gulf of Mexico. The asteroid was an estimated 10 kilometers (six miles) wide and caused the death of 75% of all life on the planet. Known as the dinosaur killer, the asteroid left a crater estimated to be 150 kilometers (93 miles) in diameter and 20 kilometers (12 miles) deep.
Jennifer Lawrence shot most of her scenes with a broken tooth and could not have it repaired because of the restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The missing tooth was added in post-production.
Leonardo DiCaprio spoke with real-life astronomer and film consultant Amy Mainzer to portray his character convincingly. According to Adam McKay, DiCaprio had long conversations about the real mathematics behind it and received a quality education in orbital dynamics over roughly six months.
It was Jonah Hill's idea for his character to carry a Birkin bag everywhere; he and the producers thought it would add an absurd touch for the President's chief of staff to carry the nuclear codes in a $30,000 bag (originally inspired by the English actress Jane Birkin, for whom Hermès designed it in Paris).
(About 20 minutes in) President Orlean mispronounces Dr. Oglethorpe's name as Ogilvy. Ogilvy was the name of the astronomer who first notices the beginning of the Martian invasion in H. G. Wells's "The War of the Worlds".
Asked whether President Orlean is a Republican or a Democrat, director Adam McKay did not clarify but gave this answer: "I don't think either party has much to be proud about over the last 40 years."
During the final title sequence, a red car is visible in the debris field. Given the film's satire of billionaire tech moguls in space missions, this may be a parody of the red Tesla Roadster launched into space by billionaire Elon Musk in 2018.
Timothée Chalamet was not going to have long hair in the film, but because shooting was postponed from April to November 2020, he did not cut his hair during quarantine. Later, during a Zoom meeting, the director liked the film's look and asked him not to cut it before shooting.
The images of the comet are almost identical in shape and direction to the comet Hale-Bopp, which was visible to the naked eye for about 18 months in the late 1990s.
Jennifer Lawrence hated the opening scene in which she looks at the computer while quietly rapping Wu-Tang Clan's "Ain't Nuthing ta F' Wit". The scene was shot many times and Lawrence grew increasingly embarrassed by her own performance. Since the scene is only a few minutes long, she was much happier when she saw the final product.
(About 1 hour 40 minutes in) A QR code appears on screen. If scanned, the link opens a YouTube video titled "Ariana Grande & Kid Cudi - Just Look Up (Full Performance Video) - Don't Look Up - Netflix".
In just 11 days (2021) it became Netflix's 3rd most-watched film of all time.
The phone number given for America's Hottest Talk Line, "where hot girls are waiting to talk." (1-800-532-4500), is safe to call.
Most of the smartphones used by the characters throughout the film and offered by the BASH company are "Hydrogen" phones made by the cinema camera manufacturer RED. The phones were a huge fiasco because of their high price and constant delays, which meant they were quite outdated by the time they were released.
In the final title sequence, the bronze bull statue that in real life stands on Wall Street in New York can be seen floating through space in gold. In the Bible, the golden calf represents the worship of false gods, and this image is often used to describe the capitalist excesses shown in the film.
During the final montage, as the comet collides with Earth, a naked couple is briefly shown having sex in bed. This was not shot for the film but is actually taken from a real pornographic video titled "We have fun secretly". Uploaded to the PornHub channel Lena Rica in 2019, the video had reached 680,000 views by the time Don't Look Up was released.
The line spoken by POTUS's son, "If she wasn't my mother…", echoes Donald Trump's words about Ivanka Trump, "If she weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her."
Matthew Perry was cast as a Republican journalist and had shot one of his three scenes when he had to leave due to a medical emergency. This would be his last film appearance before his death in 2023.
(About 1 minute in) Kate places a figurine of astronomer Carl Sagan next to his book "Intelligent Life in the Universe", which he co-wrote with the Soviet astronomer Iosif Shklovsky, known for his work on existential risks to human life on Earth.
According to Adam McKay, Leonardo DiCaprio, despite having a stand-in artist, had a problem with Meryl Streep's nude scene: "Leo views Meryl as film royalty. He didn't like seeing her with a lower back tattoo, walking for a second naked." DiCaprio's comment was met with negative reactions and was called "sexist" and "hypocritical".
One of Leonardo DiCaprio's biggest requests of Adam McKay was to include a big meltdown scene for his character in the style of Peter Finch in Network (1976). McKay initially resisted the idea, thinking it would be too preachy, but DiCaprio insisted they could make it funny.
Adam McKay wrote Jennifer Lawrence's character specifically with the actress in mind.
In the family dinner scene, Timothée Chalamet's character is preparing a flat-topped mound of meat in the kitchen. This is a homage to Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), where Richard Dreyfuss does the same thing with mashed potatoes.
Adam McKay set out to make this film as a climate crisis metaphor after reading the 2018 IPCC climate report.
Leonardo DiCaprio was courted for a period of five months, and the actor finally fixed his character in the script before signing on.
Woodrow Wilson's presidential portrait hangs in the Oval Office. Wilson created the Espionage and Sedition Acts, which made it a crime to speak or write against United States involvement in World War I.
The cast includes five Oscar winners (Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep and Sir Mark Rylance) and three Oscar nominees (Timothée Chalamet, Jonah Hill and Ariana Grande).
In the mid-credits scene set on an alien planet, among the survivors of humanity a long-haired man with a tattoo reading "Paul" can be seen. This was supposed to be Kid Rock. An impersonator was hired for the film, and he also appeared in a deleted scene with Matthew Perry.
When Kate tells Phillip that the comet is bigger than the meteor that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, a man in a dinosaur costume appears in the background.
Adam McKay had planned to make the film for Paramount Pictures before Netflix bought it in April 2020.
Adam McKay based President Janie Orlean's scandal on Jennifer Lawrence's real-life nude leak during the major iCloud data breach of 2014. Numerous other celebrities were affected by the cyberattack.
This is the second widely reviewed film to be rated "rotten" on Rotten Tomatoes and still be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar (after Extremely Loud & Incredible Close (2011)).
Jennifer Lawrence was the first member to join the cast.
While the hair, makeup and costume departments were improving the actors' looks, many actors could not get to set, so some wigs had to be adjusted and fitted remotely. Cate Blanchett was in London until shooting began in Boston and brought her own wig from home. Because Rob Morgan could not attend rehearsals, he got help from someone to try out different wigs at another show in Georgia.
Adam McKay initially suggested that Meryl Streep's character have a Suze Orman-style look, but Streep wondered why so many Republican women had that yellow-curled hairstyle and wanted a rather Republican look. Once the clothes were on, they were off. Whenever Streep's personal hairdresser Tony Ward did her wig and hair, if he pushed it a little higher she would say, "Don't try to make it look pretty. I like it when it has this flat weird thing!"
In a callback to an earlier news broadcast when Dr. Mindy sees the comet, in the background there was a sign advertising shovels for $599.99.
At the time of its release, this was the second most-watched film on Netflix within 28 days of its launch.
When Randall toasts the Dibiasky comet, a board with cartoons and memes briefly appears. A picture of Galileo Galilei (one of the inventors of the telescope) has a handwritten note: "Throw my telescope in the air sometimes, singing 'AYYYO GALILEO!'".
It was shot over a period of four months.
Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and Cate Blanchett won the Oscar for Best Actress in 2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively.
The production received a $46.4 million tax credit from the state of Massachusetts, the largest tax credit it had ever granted.
The Air Force Base scenes in the film, including the scenes inside the C5-B Galaxy plane, were shot at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee, MA, just outside Springfield, MA.
Jennifer Lawrence reported earning $25 million from this film.
Sir Mark Rylance, in the role of Peter Isherwell, plays almost exactly the same character he played in Ready Player One (2018) as Halliday, the brilliant creator of The Oasis, right down to the odd delivery and mannerisms.
The BASH report shown by Dr. Mindy in the middle of the film contains some passages from the paper "Mission Functionality for Deflecting Earth-Crossing Asteroids/Comets" by Sang-Young Park and Daniel D. Mazanek, published under DOI: 10.2514/2.5128. The visible figures are irrelevant.
The name of Ariana Grande's character, Riley Bina, is a nod to journalist Bina Venkataraman, whose 2019 book "The Optimist's Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age" partly inspired the film with its message about society's need to better plan for future events.
Leonardo DiCaprio was reported to have earned $30 million from this film.
The BASH BEAD device to be used to break up the comet bears a striking resemblance to the omnidroid in The Incredibles (2004). When it is introduced, both Peter Isherwell and Dr. Randall Mindy say 'incredible' one after the other.
At around 1:25:15, Prof. Mindy objects to Peter Isherwell's plans to split the comet and profit from the rare metals inside it, because the plans had not been peer-reviewed by other scientists. Isherwell responds by explaining that the BASH algorithms are advanced enough to evaluate Prof. Mindy's profile and even predict that he will die alone. Later in the film, President Orlean jokingly asks Isherwell how she will die, and Isherwell tells her she will be eaten by a "Bronteroc." In the end, when the comet strikes Earth, Prof. Mindy dies with his family and friends, while shortly after the survivors' space capsules land on an alien planet, President Orlean is eaten by a Bronteroc.
Ariana Grande's character performs "Just Look Up" at a concert, a reference to her 2017 song "One Last Time."
In President Orlean's office there is a framed photo of Meryl Streep with Steven Seagal.
This is the second disaster film after the 1979 Ronald Neame film "Meteor" to foreground the political bureaucracy surrounding an impending asteroid collision with Earth and to potentially make the situation worse. In the latter's case, these political problems are eventually resolved.
An actor named Devin Peters is being interviewed for his upcoming film.
Next to BEAD's injection robot, after Peter leaves in anger, the President stands beside a giant FLAMMABLE sign and lights a cigarette.
Meryl Streep had also played a character named Orlean in Adaptation. (2002).
Leonardo DiCaprio and Melanie Lynskey have both had love affairs with Kate Winslet: DiCaprio in Titanic (1997) and Revolutionary Road (2008), and Lynskey in Heavenly Creatures (1994).
When Leonardo DiCaprio's character, Dr. Randall Mindy, is featured in a government-sponsored TV commercial about a phone line for questions, the very long list of credits and titles shown beneath his name says "Discoverer of the Dibiasky Comet." If he had been the discoverer, it would have been called "the Mindy Comet."
Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence had previously appeared in disaster films about doomed ships; Titanic (1997) concerns the real ocean liner that sank after hitting an iceberg in 1912, and Lawrence's Passengers (2016) concerns the fictional starship Avalon, which is severely damaged after colliding with an asteroid.
Meryl Streep and Timothée Chalamet had previously appeared in Little Women (2019).
Michael Chiklis and Melanie Lynskey also worked together on the popular TV series The Shield (2002).
In one scene, Peter Isherwell (Mark Rylance) stands behind President Orlean (Meryl Streep) and smells her hair. This bears some resemblance to the "hair sniffing" theory often used against Joe Biden at the end of his presidency. With this display, the film proves that it mocks both sides of the American political spectrum.