As a Fridge page, spoilers are OFF!
Fridge Horror
- The last-ditch Sleeper Ship mission was doomed from the start. Even if they didn't land right in the middle of the hunting grounds of a pack of carnivorous birds, most of the passengers were middle-aged and elderly, meaning there were never enough people of child-bearing age who could procreate and continue the species. On top of which, they were all naked and the ships didn't seem to have much beyond the cryopods and their support systems. They didn't even have a simple knife.
- This depends on whether the original mid-credits scene is applicable, as it clarifies how the survivors whose pods failed were meant to serve as menial labor and thus presumably more physically fit. Whether they would have been qualified to survive and service everyone who refuses to work at the same time is still in question.
- It’s also continues to show how President Orlean and Isherwell were so shortsighted, ignorant and narcissistic that they didn’t even think of how the human race was supposed to continue after they abandoned Earth, and it is perfect Laser-Guided Karma that the people who doomed everyone to extinction and then ran away ultimately get their comeuppance.
- Of course, this is assuming they meant to repopulate the human race, and the entire purpose of the mission wasn't just to allow them to prolong their own lives with no higher purpose.
- Given the United States' propensity for meddling in other countries' affairs (especially their enemies) and reinforcing their global hegemony, it's entirely possible that they themselves, or more precisely Orlean and Isherwell, deliberately sabotaged the joint Russia-China-India deflection plan just to remove another obstacle to their own ambitions.
- The situation is reminiscent of the Stuxnet virus that destroyed Iranian uranium centrifuges. Given Isherwell's apparent stranglehold on network technology in this setting, and his Breaking Speech to Mindy showing how he'll gladly exploit his company's resources to remove obstacles to his plans, there does seem to be an implication, even if no character in the movie suggests it.
- Incredibly minor one: Doctor Oglethorpe is shown being a Kind Hearted Cat Lover, if his affectionate, relaxed pet cat is any indicator. But the cat is noticeably absent during the last supper at the Mindy residence. Either the cat died during the course of the movie or was left home alone, trapped in a house while it likely panicked until the house was wiped from the Earth.
- Dr. Mindy's last thought: "We really did have everything, didn't we? I mean, when you think about it" is chilling when taken in context to what the movie is really about. Humanity has every tool available to stop the comet (or climate change) and because of greed or ignorance or maliciousness we end up dooming everyone.
- This could also mirror some criticism of the film and its themes. While the actors portraying the characters actually do seem to have everything: yachts, private planes, mansions, villas, good looks, large fortunes, numerous awards, incredible fame and power in their industry, the "we" of all humanity can feel pretty hollow to some audiences living paycheck to paycheck, let alone billions of people that still lack access to basic medicine, food and water. We really don't have it all, and the sacrifices that must be made to address a global, systemic issue like climate change would be far greater than simply blasting away a comet and would leave us with even less. One of the biggest barriers in tackling climate change is that the everyday lives of people would have to change, and the movie never addresses that in its metaphor the solution would be for us to not have everything.
- That is a strawman argument, however — just because the actors have wealth and luxury doesn't preclude them from sincerely wanting to combat climate change. It's like trying to insist that someone cannot fight world hunger if they're not hungry themselves.
Fridge Brilliance
- Isherwell boasts being able to predict anyone’s cause of death using social media profiling. His prediction turns out correct for President Orlean (eaten by an alien creature she carelessly approached), but entirely wrong for Doctor Mindy (predicted to die alone, actually got to Face Death with Dignity at a supper shared with friends and family). What might have contributed to it is that Isherwell, and the prediction system he built, assumes all people are just as vain, greedy and selfish as himself, which proves correct for Orlean (a straightforward President Evil), but not for Mindy, who at worst embodies that Humans Are Flawed, and that threw the prediction off.
- Also, it is likely that the algorithm is limited by the choices the subject makes and if the subject changes their path in life, they can prove the algorithm wrong. At the time Isherwell told Mindy about this prediction, Mindy's wife had left him due to him cheating on her, he was in a shallow relationship that would have burned out sooner or later, and he'd sold out his principles for fame and money. In other words, he wasn't all that different from people like Orlean and Isherwell. If Mindy hadn't had a Heel Realization, Isherwell would have been right.
- It could have been a Self-Defeating Prophecy, i.e. it was *telling* Mindy about this prediction that shocked him into the mind-frame to have his Heel Realization.
- I took it to mean that he got it wrong because he forgot what it was and guessed wrong. He even said when he was telling about how Doctor Mindy would die that, "Your death is so unremarkable and boring... I can't even remember what it said".
- An alternate take: Isherwell mentions he knows everything about Dr. Mindy back to 1996. Part of the reason Dr. Mindy's wife forgives him is because she cheated on him in college, which was presumably before then. So Isherwell may not have actually had all the relevant data!
- A final possible reason was that, in the movie, Isherwell's technology has ~52% chance of success. Hence, why his prediction software was 50% right (Orlean) and 50% wrong (Dr. Mindy).
