Collateral Damage: The Life of Bystanders in Belfast and Don’t Look Up

Movies have always thrived on disaster. Just as the worst of villains prepares us to enjoy their defeat, disasters prepare us for the pleasure of seeing them averted or survived. In crime or horror movies, villains, such as Dracula and The Joker, sometimes survive their defeat, so that their dramatic villainy can be used in later movies. In the same way, successful heroes, such as Indiana Jones and James Bond, can be retained for more heroics in later adventures. But the overwhelming majority of movie dramas end on a positive note. A few dark movies, however, end in defeat or enduring disaster, with no eventual good outcome. This pattern is used for powerful dramatic or comic effect in movies aimed at raising awareness of real world problems, such as nuclear annihilation in Fail Safe (Youngstein & Lumet, 1964) and Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick, 1964), alien destruction of Earth in The Day the Earth Stood Still (Blaustein & Wise, 1951), and alien invasion of Earth in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Wanger & Siegel, 1956). Even the most dire outcomes can be ended on a positive note in the movies. The heroism of the victims can be honored, as in movies about the Holocaust or slave rebellions. Their positive impact on others can be appreciated, as in movies about the Alamo. Even the suggestion of a promising future for the surviving remnants of the victims can be experienced as a happy ending, as in the postapocalyptic Mad Max movies. Only a small number of movies concentrate on the tormented lives of the suffering victims. Two recent movies like that have been received well garnering critical praise and many awards. Belfast (2021) and Don’t Look Up (2021) are not much alike, but each offers a depiction of good but helpless people contending with catastrophe without relief.