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Warning – major spoilers follow Leave the world behind
Leave the World Behind, Netflix's new disaster thriller directed by Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail, ends on a highly ambiguous note.
The film – an adaptation of Rumaan Alam's 2020 novel – follows Amanda and Clay Sandford, played by Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke, as they take a weekend trip to Long Island, New., with their two children Rose and Archie (Farrah Mackenzie and Charlie Evans). York, company .
While there, the owner of their luxury rental home, GH Scott (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha'la Herrold) return to the property under mysterious circumstances, claiming that a catastrophic event has rocked the town.
The two families are forced to live together in the house as society quickly disintegrates after the technological infrastructure, from telephones to televisions, begins to break down.
Although there are different ideas about the cause of this catastrophe – Russia, Iraq and North Korea are mentioned – the film never reveals the aggressor or whether there even is one.
It ends with Rose watching Friends alone in the basement bunker of one of her neighbors' house on Long Island. The film's enigmatic conclusion was criticized by some viewers, who complained that it was “too abrupt.”
Ethan Hawke as Clay and Julia Roberts as Amanda in “Leave the World Behind”
(JoJo Wilden/NETFLIX)
The film's ending is a departure from Alam's novel, ending with Rose gathering supplies from the house before presumably returning to her family.
In a new interview with Variety, the writer, who also serves as an executive producer on the film, addressed Esmail's ending, calling it “so satisfying.”
“To end with that special touch of humor [Esmail] “This is so satisfying and rewarding,” he said. “It's a kind of self-reflection because he's a filmmaker. He's also worked in television and he's sort of making a claim about the power of that medium and its influence on this one character.
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“I say it's funny, but I don't think it's a joke. I don't think it's a joke about Rose. I don't think it's a joke on the audience. I don't think it's a joke about Friends. It's a reminder that art is a kind of salve. The cinematic experience of watching this film is so powerful because I've seen the audience's reaction to the ending three times already and no one really knows what to think about it. You ask yourself, “Is this funny?” Is this scary? Is it really over? And I love that so much.”
Mahershala Ali (left) and Julia Roberts in “Leave the World Behind”
(©2023 NETFLIX)
When asked why it was important not to give viewers closure at the end of the film, Alam replied: “Wouldn’t that be so unsatisfying? It's a film that respects you as a viewer enough to not offer that. In this final scene between Julia and Myha'la, they don't hug. Even before that, when they're in that little shed getting to relax, Ruth acknowledges that there's some truth to the things Amanda said, that they agree on something, but it doesn't end with a hug. It's not that kind of story.
“I have no problem with a big disaster movie that saves the six or eight main characters and brings them back together after a disaster and allows you to say, 'Well, everything's going to be okay.' I just don’t think it’s that kind of film.”
In her four-star review for The Independent, Clarisse Loughrey wrote: “Esmail goes big and bold with its Hitchcock references and striking camerawork… But nothing shows Esmail's hand more than Rose's chemical confidence in Friends, a show that… Ruth describes it as “nostalgia for a time that never existed.” Yes, it’s ironic that the series is currently available on Netflix – but that’s exactly the kind of quintessentially modern hypocrisy in which Leave the World Behind revels.”
While the film quickly rose to No. 1 on Netflix, it currently only holds a 42 percent audience rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with viewers making similar complaints.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk is being ridiculed for complaining about an “inaccuracy” portrayed by Tesla in the film.
Leave the World Behind is now available to stream on Netflix.