‘Don’t Look Up’: Director Adam McKay Reveals Jonah Hill’s Hilarious off-Screen Character Death

Don’t Look Up is a satirical comedy that tackles the serious subject of climate change. It creates high stakes and pokes fun at the crowds that don’t believe in the scientific proof. Don’t Look Up gives Jonah Hill the opportunity to inject the film with a lot of improvisation. However, writer/director Adam McKay revealed that Hill’s character has an off-screen death.

[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers from Don’t Look Up.]

Who does Jonah Hill play in ‘Don’t Look Up’?

Hill’s Don’t Look Up character is named Jason Orlean. He’s the son of President Orlean (Meryl Streep) and is the Chief of Staff. He’s incredibly dismissive and according to his own mother, he doesn’t know how to “read the room.” Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) plead for their help after discovering a comet hurtling toward Earth.

However, Jason is comfortable with his wealthy lifestyle. He overtly exploits Americans and has a strange obsession with his mother, as he talks about his mother’s potential feature in Playboy. Don’t Look Up ultimately ends with the comet destroying Earth and doesn’t leave Jason in the best of situations.

Director Adam McKay reveals Jonah Hill’s hilarious character death

Variety interviewed McKay about the various endings for Don’t Look Up, one of which involves Hill’s character, Jason. The creative team was riffing to come up with different character deaths. However, they didn’t all make it into the final product.

McKay said that Jason would “die in three days from eating tainted human flesh.”

Meanwhile, President Orlean escapes Earth in time before the comet hits the planet. However, she quickly meets her demise after landing on a new planet. He asked Streep, “What if you’re eaten by a creature?”

“Mark [Rylance], Meryl, and I kind of cleaned it up a little bit,” McKay said. “I think every time we said the name of the creature, it changed — and the take we used was a brontaroc. And then after we shot it, I said, ‘That’s really funny. We should end with her getting eaten by a brontaroc!’”

The final ‘Don’t Look Up’ ending

However, McKay told Variety that they came up with the post-credits scene while they were filming in Boston. He said, “What if Jason Orlean, who you could argue is maybe it’s the most despicable character in the movie — what if he’s the last guy on Earth?”

The final end credits scene shows Jason emerging from a pile of rubble. However, the shoot wasn’t in enjoyable weather conditions.

“It was ice cold; it was the coldest day of the entire shoot,” McKay said. “And poor Jonah,” McKay said. “We’re, like, ‘All right! Get in the hole.’ And it was misery.”

McKay continued: “I said, ‘Jonah, I’ve never done this in my life. But if you get this on one take, I won’t do another take.’ And then I went behind the monitor, and I was like, ‘I shouldn’t have said that.’ Because I always get a second or a third take,” McKay said. “And then Jonah improvised the beat about ‘Like and subscribe, I’m the last man on Earth!’”