“Don’t Look Up”: What is a bronteroc and how did the idea of ​​the post-credits scene come about?

It’s not a Marvel movie, but “Don’t Look Up”, The most recent premiere of NetflixIt also has a post credits scene. Charged with a lot of black humor, the scene that we will see in streaming is not the only one that director Adam McKay had in mind, although it does connect with another moment of the film and the mention of a creature that many are already wondering about on the networks social: bronterocs.

(SPOILER ALERT: Next, we will give some details about the plot of the movie “Don’t Look Up”. If you don’t want to know more, don’t keep reading)

At a momentous moment in the development of the story, Dr. Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) sided with President Orlean (Meryl Streep) and technological genius Peter Isherwell (Mark Rylance), although he later began to show doubts that end for irritating both leaders. This is how Isherwell reveals to Dr. Mindy that, thanks to his technology, he knows everything about him, even how he will die.

This possibility remains in the head of President Orlean, who then asks Peter to tell her what he knows about his future. The businessman responds: “You will die eaten by a bronteroc”. The scene leaves the characters in the same doubt as the spectators: what exactly is a bronteroc?

Scene post credits

In the post credits scene, the mystery is revealed. Thanks to cryogenic chambers, a small group of lucky Earthlings manage to survive until the year 22,740, in which they finally find a habitable planet.

When she descends, the president is quickly fascinated by a creature that appears at the scene. But the animal does not take long to launch itself on its face and devour it. “What was that?” Asks one of the humans. Peter responds: “It must be a bronteroc.”

As you can guess, bronterocs are a made-up species for the movie. According to an interview by Adam McKay for the portal “Variety”, it was Meryl Streep’s idea that her character, because she is so narcissistic, also wants to know how she is going to die.

“We were filming the scene with Rylance, Meryl and Jonah at the BASH control center for the second release. And I suggested we play a bit. ‘Why don’t you improvise a conversation,’ I told them. Maybe something will show up. Meryl, who is a great improviser, said that ‘I want to know how I’m going to die,’ ”McKay recounted.

“They kept improvising and it was decided that Jonah’s character was going to die three days later from eating contaminated human flesh,” said McKay, who then decided that Streep’s character was going to escape Earth and thought, ‘why not a creature eats it. ‘

“Mark, Meryl and I polished a little more. Every time we said the creature’s name, it changed. In one shot, the bronteroc thing came out. When we filmed it, we thought it was a lot of fun and that’s how it turned out, ”McKay recounted.

Alternative endings

The decision of a post-credits scene not only has to do with giving value to all the people who are part of the film, not only to the actors, producers and directors, who appear at the beginning of the film, but also for McKay’s need to give the viewer a change of mind after the devastating end of planet Earth with which he closes “Don’t Look Up”.

With the help of visual effects specialist Raymond Gieringer, they created the bronteroc for the post-credits scene seen in the film, but this was not the first idea they had in mind.

“The original ending was that, going down to this new planet, someone would say, ‘Ok, it’s time to build our houses.’ And someone added: ‘But the capsule in which we were taking all the workers exploded.’ So Mark Ryance’s character would say, ‘I give a billion dollars to whoever makes my house for me.’ Then another said: ‘I offer 2 billion.’ And so the bid continued and you realized that they only rescued the billionaires, “said McKay.

Finally, in the aforementioned interview for “Variety”, the filmmaker also answered if the death of President Orlean attacked by a bronteroc, meant that this would be the fate of all the other rescued humans. The answer was: “That’s right, I think that implies the scene.”

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