Leave the World Behind
Entry updated 23 December 2023. Tagged: Film.
US film (2023). Esmail Corp, Red Om Productions, Higher Ground Productions. Directed and written by Sam Esmail, based on Leave the World Behind (2020) by Rumaan Alam. Cast includes Mahershala Ali, Vanessa Aspillaga, Kevin Bacon, Charlie Evans, Ethan Hawke, Farrah Mackenzie, Myha'la and Julia Roberts. 141 minutes. Colour.
In a remote rental vacation property on Long Island, New York, the Sandford family are unexpectedly visited by their landlord, GH (Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha'la). They apologize for turning up unannounced, but claim that New York has been shut down by city-wide black-outs. This information tallies with the Sandfords' own experiences during the day, in which they witnessed an out-of-control oil tanker running aground, and have been unable to get any of their phone or Internet connections to function. The evidence slowly builds, through plane crashes, car accidents, and a series of odd wild animal migrations, that America is suffering a nationwide breakdown of digital communications, which may or may not be the act of a malicious invader.
Esmail's adaptation of the novel by Rumaan Alam is divided into discrete chapters. The first outlines the growing sense of Disaster that accretes around seemingly unrelated incidents: strange animal behaviour around the house; the sight of local Survivalist Danny (Bacon) stocking up on bottled water and canned goods; and the sudden grounding of a stricken oil tanker. The second exploits the Paranoia that arises from the arrival of GH (Ali) and Ruth (Myha'la), a father and daughter who claim to be the owners of the house that the Sandfords are renting, but who can offer only circumstantial evidence. The third deals with the quest for medical aid for Archie (Evans), who is suffering from a condition analogous to radiation sickness, seemingly caused by high pitched siren-like noises that the family have experienced.
Much of the film's originality comes from its exploitation of modern humans' reliance on digital technology. As with the Mel Gibson vehicle Signs (2002), the coming apocalypse is signified by the simple absence of a broadcast signal. Clay gets lost on his trip into town because his GPS does not work; Rose (Mackenzie) only cares about whether or not the End of the World will prevent her from seeing the final episode of her binge-watch of the comedy Friends (1994-2004). Planes falling out of the sky is not an unknown trope in apocalyptic fiction, but Esmail's imagery embraces contemporary culture with a massive and ongoing pile-up of self-driving Tesla automobiles.
It is GH who offers the most plausible deduction for what is occurring, suggesting that America is under attack from an unknown foe employing an experimental strategy to disrupt Communications, sow dissent, and leave the confused and frightened locals to "do the job for them" in turning on each other. Much of the tension in the final act derives from the consideration of whether this is or is not a Conceptual Breakthrough; repeatedly in the early acts, the characters act on only partial information or personal prejudices, while GH urges them to rely only on observable facts. Clay (Hawke) finds leaflets dropped from a drone proclaiming "Death to America" in Farsi. Danny claims that a contact in San Diego has seen similar leaflets written in either Korean or Chinese. The unreliability of witness testimony accentuates the sense of the cast as little people caught up in events far beyond their understanding, and is reinforced by Clay's encounter on the road with Salvadora (Aspillaga), a frantic and lost woman who begs for a lift or the chance to use his phone, summarizes an experience not unlike the family's own, but mis-describes the drone overhead as dropping "red gas" rather than flyers. She delivers this speech entirely in unsubtitled Spanish, which Clay does not understand, and which makes no concession to the viewer's linguistic capabilities. The prospect remains, as in the conspiracy series Rubicon (2010), that the Invasion is a false-flag attack arranged by a wealthy elite seeking to capitalize on the damage done to the stock market.
The film's Slingshot Ending, in which the cast decide to appropriate a nearby doomsday bunker with no consideration of its builders' wishes, demonstrate the film's gentle segue into Survivalist Fiction. The closing credits reprise the Rembrandts' iconic theme song to Friends, with its boast that "I'll be there for you / when the rain starts to fall," achieving ominous undertones in a context that increasingly favours everyone looking after their own self-interest, and the sight of the cast repeatedly not "being there" for anyone except their immediate kin. Ruth describes Friends dismissively as nostalgia for something that never existed, alluding obliquely to its historical and cultural position as a gentle celebration of life in a New York that never suffered the 9/11 terrorist attacks, even though they occurred midway through the serial's original broadcast run. The idea invites comparison with writer/director's own Mr. Robot (2015-2019), which took place in a New York riddled with conspiracies and self-deceptions, and which also featured a reactor meltdown in New Jersey – an event offhandedly mentioned by one of the characters. [JonC]
see also: Basilisks; Long Night; Twelve Monkeys.
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