The magi in Matthew’s gospel studied the heavens for signs of what will happen as ordained by the gods of the heavens. Then, they saw a new star, a star that breaks all the rules –it moves! They follow the star, all the while searching for a new-born king. As the story unfolds in Matthew’s gospel, they arrive at the home above which the star stops. They find the boy Jesus, acknowledge him as a king and then travel back home.
The new film, “Don’t look up!” is about people’s reaction to a warning from two astronomers that a meteor “the size of Mt Everest is going to crash into the earth soon and its entire human population will die.
The world won’t hear of it. With comments like “I’m not worried — it won’t hit our little planet,” says one reactor. Others simply say, “There is no comet. It’s all fake news.” Then, there is always those who say we all gotta die of something, sometime.
There is a a small family group, though, that decides to simply be with one another for a kind-of last supper. Before the comet crashes into the earth, this group sits down to a final meal together. They have accepted their end and are at peace. They talk about what they are thankful for. One guy leads a beautiful prayer and they share the meal until the instant they are annihilated. That’s how the movie ends and the credits begin rolling. Then, in a trick codicil, a rocket returns to earth with the big shots who had paid their way into an Elon Musk kind of arrangement. They come back to earth and like Adam and Eve in the garden or like Noah and his crew they step into a new Eden, a perilous one as it turns out. At that moment, each of them comes face to face with their own destiny.