Capítulo 4 de 25 · 3'58"
Kate and Mindy are in the Oval Office to warn the president that a comet will hit Earth. Orlean's questions are not about the science but about the price and the calendar: "What is this gonna cost me?" and "When are the midterms?" Her conclusion is the title of the scene: "I say we sit tight and assess."
❝ Monólogo · 4 frases Mindy explains the comet
The more nervous he gets, the deeper he hides in jargon, and the fear shows anyway.
Orlean Asks What the Comet Will Cost
At the White House, Kate Dibiasky and Dr. Mindy brief President Orlean on the comet they discovered: five to ten kilometers wide, capable of wiping out the planet. Before hearing them out, Orlean asks what it will cost her and checks the election calendar. With midterms three weeks away, she decides to do nothing for now.
The briefing is real science delivered to a political machine. Mindy tries to make the danger impossible to minimize — "If this comet makes impact, it will have the power of a billion Hiroshima bombs," and "I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation" — but Orlean keeps translating it into her own terms: "What is this gonna cost me?" and "what's the ask here?" The scene's most famous line is a decision not to decide: "I say we sit tight and assess." It is not skepticism about the data; it is scheduling. "So, if this breaks before then, we lose Congress," she says, and asks Oglethorpe to find some Ivy Leaguers who will say something more convenient.
A1–C2 es la escala MCER. Las tarjetas por encima del nivel elegido se atenúan y la reproducción no se pausa en ellas.
“Tell me about it and then tell me why you're telling me about it.”
She asks for the facts and the reason in one breath, showing exactly how she ranks them.
Formal
“If this comet makes impact, it will have the power of a billion Hiroshima bombs.”
One familiar reference turns an abstract number into something the room can actually feel.
Neutral
“I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation.”
Gravity means seriousness here, yet in this room it is also literally true.
Formal
“It is going to happen.”
Four words strip out every hedge and leave only certainty.
Neutral
“What is this gonna cost me?”
One question shrinks a global crisis down to her own wallet.
Informal
“Okay, at this very moment, I say we sit tight and assess.”
Business calm is used to dress up doing nothing about a planet-killer.
Formal
A comet between five to ten kilometers across, that we estimate came from the, uh… from the… from the Oort cloud. Wow. Which is the outermost part of the solar system.
Siguiente · 05blow someone offLa escena: Scientists Leak the Apocalypse WarningThe midterms are three weeks away. If the comet news breaks before then, she says her party loses Congress, so she chooses to sit tight and assess until after the election.
She never seriously disputes the data. She asks how certain they are, then moves straight to cost and timing, which is the film's point: the facts are not the problem.
It means to wait without acting while you study the situation. Orlean uses it to delay any response to the comet, dressing up inaction as prudence.
At the end she says to get some other people on it, "some Ivy Leaguers." She wants credentialed experts who will give her a more convenient answer than the Michigan State pair.
