The Los Angeles fires have made clear the true villain of the 2024 disaster movie

Two nights ago, my wife and I extinguished dozens of scattered tea lights illuminating our apartment as electricians worked around the clock to restore power, even as winds uprooted century-old trees around them. Within a few hours, we were stuffing our bags into the trunk, full of the six items (people/pets, papers/phone numbers/documents, prescriptions, photos, personal technology, and plastic/credit cards) to evacuate to safety. . I’m lucky my apartment building is still standing, but the last update I received was from a friend who said, “It’s like Silent Hill in here.” I need to sleep, but I don’t, too transfixed by the 24-hour news reports of devastating fires sweeping through Los Angeles County, and I watch in horror, very dry-eyed as the smoke chokes off any semblance of fresh air.

Annihilation is unimaginable. Tabloid posts are plastered with before-and-after photos of celebrities’ multi-million dollar mansions reduced to rubble. Meanwhile, local news stations interview tearful families from working-class backgrounds sifting through the rubble of family homes, and drones capture the sight of razed mobile homes. “You can replace things, you can’t replace people” is a cliche steeped in toxic positivity, practiced by people who have never known what it feels like to lose. Everything. We will spend years debating “who bears responsibility,” while mutual aid organizations desperately try to help thousands of people who are now homeless, adding to the already tragic number of homeless civilians.

“We will rebuild” has been said often through gnashed teeth and deep sighs of retreat, but rebuilding takes time, supplies, labor and money. Sadly, as we move closer to oligarchy, there are undoubtedly people watching news of the genocide not with sympathy or horror, but with dollar signs in their eyes. I always turn to movies in difficult times (see also: My experience watching the “Inside Out” movies.), but it’s hard when real life seems like a sentimental clip of something Roland Emmerich made.

It is especially difficult In the wake of “Twisters” Which highlights a predatory villain so vile that it should drive anyone watching at home to the extremes.

When we meet Storm Par in Twisters, they are a highly organized team of storm chasers receiving funding through big-name investors, including the wealthy Marshall Riggs. Storm chasers use the funding to continue their work analyzing tornadoes in hopes of eventually finding a way to slow or weaken storms, but their financial backers don’t fund the team because they actually care about protecting the people in tornado alley. . In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

Investors like Riggs offer financing in exchange for the names of people whose homes have been destroyed by hurricanes… so he can offer them money for their land, often at less than its actual value. They exploit and exploit emotionally damaged and vulnerable communities who have lost out Everything Because these capitalist pigs care more about profits than helping people. While we were so busy Debating whether Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Tyler (Glen Powell) should kiss or notThe real debate was about Storm Par’s financial support and how capitalism has invaded and corrupted every industry imaginable.

Javi (Anthony Ramos) is undoubtedly conflicted about where Storm Par’s funding comes from, but it’s clear he’s made this deal with the devil because, as his business partner Scott (David Corensweet) rightly learns, it’s one of the only ways they can afford it. To continue their research. Javi He is He tries to help people in his hurricane research, and people like Riggs know that without their investments, his business wouldn’t be able to continue. Javi is another weakling who acts against his own interests because our world requires those without wealth to be forever at the mercy of those who do, while Scott has been corrupted by their influence, and is now the fantasy version of storm-chasing people. Living in poverty defends the reputations of tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

People like Marshall Riggs are unfortunately very real, and even as the fire continues to burn, they quickly come out of the woodwork like aggressive monsters. People have already done so It was taken to social media To talk about offering 15% or less of the value of their home for the land it previously sat on. Eccentric “get-rich-quick” scammers are also encouraging people to “invest” in land in the Pacific Palisades area “while it’s still cheap.” At press time, the fire had spread to more than 17,000 acres and was zero percent contained. The fire has not yet been extinguished, and these Par-esque storm-crawlers are already planning their rise as the richest of the wastelands.

As with “Twisters,” their profit margins are quite myopic. Sure, they can buy land cheaply after hurricanes or fires devastate communities, but if the hurricanes or fires never improve, any profits these jackals make selling properties built on land they bought cheaply will eventually have to be used to pay for rebuilding. once again When Mother Nature proves once again that she is not one to be trifled with. We’re less than six months away from when Twisters hits theaters, and unfortunately this major plot point feels a little too real for comfort. It’s time to be like Javi, Kate and the Tornado Wranglers led by Tyler, and finally leave these opportunistic villains in the dust.

For information on how to help those affected by the SoCal wildfires, You can find a list of resources here.