Plot Summary
Kate Dibiasky, a doctoral candidate in astronomy at Michigan State University, discovers a previously unknown comet. Her adviser, Dr. Randall Mindy, confirms that it will collide with Earth in approximately six months and is large enough to cause a global extinction event. NASA verifies the findings, and Dr. Teddy Oglethorpe, head of their Planetary Defense Coordination Office, accompanies Dibiasky and Mindy to present their findings to the White House. However, they are met with apathy from President Janie Orlean and her Chief of Staff Jason Orlean, who is also her son.
Oglethorpe encourages Dibiasky and Mindy to leak the news to the media, which they then do, on The Daily Rip, a popular morning talk show. When hosts Jack Bremmer and Brie Evantee treat the topic lightly, Dibiasky loses her temper and angrily rants about the threat before she flees the scene. Mindy receives public approval for his looks, while Dibiasky becomes the subject of negative memes for her on-air behavior. Public reaction is muted, and the whole thing is downplayed by NASA Director Jocelyn Calder, a top donor to Orlean with no background in astronomy. When Orlean’s sexual relations with Supreme Court nominee Sheriff Conlon hit the front page, the president tries to divert public attention to the looming threat of the comet, announcing a project to use nuclear weapons to strike and divert the comet.
The mission successfully launches, but Orlean abruptly aborts it when Peter Isherwell, the billionaire CEO of BASH Cellular and another top donor, discovers that the comet contains trillions of dollars’ worth of rare-earth elements. The White House agrees to commercially exploit the comet by fragmenting and recovering it from the ocean, using technology proposed by BASH in a scheme that has not undergone peer review. Orlean sidelines Dibiasky and Oglethorpe while hiring Mindy as the National Science Advisor.
Meet the Cast
Info & Stats
Director:
Adam McKay
Writers:
Adam McKay, David Sirota
Stars:
Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep
Categories:
Comedy, Science Fiction, Drama
Budget:
$75,000,000.00
Revenue:
$791,863.00
Age: RÂ Â |Â Â Duration: 2h 18m
Watch the Trailer