Who’s Who
Mark Rylance in ‘Don’t Look Up’ Reminds Us of These Billionaires
Jeff Bezos, do not text.
Jan. 20, 2022
Mark Rylance in ‘Don’t Look Up’ Reminds Us of These Billionaires - Netflix Tudum
Of all the outlandish characters in Don’t Look Up, reclusive billionaire Sir Peter Isherwell (Mark Rylance) might just be the most memorable. Isherwell is the founder of Bash, the tech conglomerate that — spoiler alert! — ultimately dooms the planet through a combination of greed and total incompetence. It’s a character and performance that’s clearly indebted to some of the world’s wealthiest businesspeople. Below, we break down the many influences of Peter Isherwell — just like he ruins planet Earth.
Steve Jobs: Apple co-founder, chairman and CEO
How he made his billions: Phones, computers, tablets, turtlenecks. Here’s a quick primer, streaming on Netflix.
What they have in common: Isherwell is introduced at a Bash event not dissimilar to one of Jobs’ iconic Apple keynote presentations; he’s even wearing a very snappy piece of knitwear. Here, Isherwell announces new software: Bash LiiF, which can sense its user’s mood and respond in real time to “make sure these sad feelings never, ever return.” Not quite the iPhone, but maybe someday.
Jeff Bezos: Amazon founder and executive chairman
How he made his billions: A delivery website that has quickly become every other kind of website as well.
What they have in common: Bezos has become notorious for his interest in space; earlier this year, he took his own phallic rocket into orbit for a whole 10 minutes. In Don’t Look Up, Isherwell derails the US government’s mission to space in favor of his own, pushing President Orlean (Meryl Streep) to abandon nuking the incoming comet so that he can instead mine it for precious minerals. At the end of the film, he also blasts off with a crew of elite passengers to escape the incoming destruction of the planet. Look, we’re not saying Jeff Bezos has a top-secret lifeboat spaceship, but we’re also not not saying that.
Elizabeth Holmes: Theranos founder and CEO
How she made her billions: Lying.
What they have in common: As Isherwell, Rylance adopts a voice that might best be described as “children’s public television host gone rogue.” It’s high-pitched but not nasal, with a singsong, sinister quality. Sonically, it exists far away from disgraced Holmes’ deep, insincere baritone, but it feels like a member of the same family all the same — especially when Isherwell confronts Dr. Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio), and you can briefly see the real anger beneath the benevolent performance.
Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook co-founder, chairman and CEO
How he made his billions: A social media website with casually sexist roots. Watch The Social Network to learn a little more.
What they have in common: Really, just vibes. While Isherwell has his fingers in quite a few tech pies, it doesn’t seem like he’s quite branched out into social media just yet. What Zuckerberg and Isherwell share is, quite simply, an incredibly uneasy way of interacting with the world around them. Rylance is an off-kilter presence in every one of his scenes in Don’t Look Up; it’s easy to imagine Isherwell broadcasting an upsettingly long look at his barbecue routine, or giving a surreal presentation in an augmented reality world. These are just two incredibly normal guys, nothing to see here!
Elon Musk: Tesla CEO
How he made his billions: PayPal, and later, electric cars.
What they have in common: The aforementioned preoccupation with space, as Musk continues to push for human colonization of Mars. He’s also a big fan of memes, as is Isherwell — In his opening Bash presentation, Rylance’s character has a good chuckle at a video of a dog riding a chicken. Isherwell is also notorious for buying the Gutenberg Bible and losing it, a stunt that sounds very Muskian to us. (It also recalls pharma-bro Martin Shkreli’s infamous Wu-Tang Clan album purchase; Shkreli, for once, is disqualified from this list for not being rich and evil enough.) But above all, what Musk and Isherwell really have in common is a predication toward incredibly absurd backseat driving, comet-sized or otherwise. Remember when Elon offered to build a child-sized coffin submarine to facilitate the Thai cave rescue? We do.
All About Don't Look Up
The Don’t Look Up star is drawn to ordinary women facing extraordinary circumstances.
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“I truly cannot think of a more comforting dish.”
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Check these flicks from this one-of-a-kind movie mogul.
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