Adam McKay takes aim at Exxon’s ‘crazy evil’ and talks about climate change in new parody short.
The Don’t Look Up director produced A Love Letter to Exxon from Darth Vader, directed by Alice Park. “A long time ago, in our own galaxy, ExxonMobil knew their product would destroy our planet,” the abstract reads. “But instead of warning the public, they lied about the climate crisis to make trillions in profits. This is insanely evil. The kind of evil that someone like Darth Vader respects. It’s something like the (very real) Friendship Medal that Vladimir Putin presented to former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson for helping expand Russia’s oil and gas production and fueling its war machine.”
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McKay’s Hyperobject Industries banner stands behind the Stop The Oil Profiteering (STOP) campaign short film by Fossil Free Media, a nonprofit media lab supporting the fossil fuel liberation movement. Staci Roberts-Steele and Anna Wenger also produced the film.
Darth Vader says he stands by Exxon CEO Darren Woods and commends Woods for “doing exactly what I would do,” citing Exxon’s record of knowingly exacerbating the climate crisis for generations.
“I’ve murdered dozens of Jedi infants with my own hand and brought the entire galaxy into the grip of a dark regime of terror, but Exxon, that’s a bonus level to unlock the secret, a cheat code, bad shit on you,” says Vader in the video.
“The collaboration between Vader and producer McKay marks the first time a senior Galactic Empire military official has backed an American Big Oil corporation – a major boost for Exxon amid intense scrutiny to make record-breaking profits while families gobbled at the pump.” and communities are being destroyed and the climate,” as ExxonKnew.org notes. “Vader, one of the few Exxon supporters not directly compensated through campaign contributions or black money, instead praised the record and vowed to hug the company’s CEO when time and space allow.”
Succession producer McKay said in a statement: “In the late ’70s, Exxon committed perhaps the greatest crime in recorded history – they covered up rock-solid science showing how fossil fuels caused the global warming explosion . And do you know who loves crimes that cause untold suffering and destruction? Darth Vader.”
McKay and ExxonKnew.org draw attention to the petition to the US Department of Justice and Attorneys General, which argues that “Oil and gas companies like ExxonMobil knew decades ago that their product would lead to catastrophic climate impacts. But instead of warning us, they have spent billions of dollars misleading the public and blocking climate action.”
McKay’s Hyperobject Industries previously ran a viral fake chevron ad denouncing how oil companies are “murdering us every day.” McKay told IndieWire’s Eric Kohn that climate change is the “greatest threat in human history.”
Check out the short film below.
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