Netflix’s new movie, ‘Leave the World Behind’, has got people discussing its controversial ending. Apocalyptic thrillers usually have a conclusion for the characters, but this Sam Esmail directorial leaves everything open-ended, and viewers have no idea what will follow next.
The director himself talked about the vision behind having such an ending, which threw people off, so much so that they criticized it heavily, saying that the entire film didn’t amount to anything as there was no conclusion. So, how does Esmail feel about it?
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Director Sam Esmail Wanted To Provoke Conversation With ‘Leave the World Behind’ Ending
Adapted from Rumaan Alam’s 2020 novel, ‘Leave the World Behind’ stars Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke as Amanda and Clay Sanford, who go to Long Island for a vacation with their two kids. They are joined by G.H. Scott (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha’la Herrold), who claim that the rented holiday property belongs to them. They explain the reason behind their sudden appearance with a blackout in Manhattan.
As things become vague and unexplained eerie events keep happening, the two families get wary of one another and the world. Technology unwittingly wages a war against humanity, but in the end, the youngest Sanford, Rose, finds herself in a bunker, finding an escape in her favorite show, ‘Friends’, while the rest of the characters are still scrambling to make sense of what’s the way forward as multiple explosions occur in the distance.
Explaining the idea behind this, director Sam Esmail told The Hollywood Reporter, “We knew going into this that the ending was going to be polarizing, but we did not want to pull punches on it. I think in a traditional disaster film, a genre that I’m a huge fan of, so no knock on disaster films — I mean, Day after Tomorrow is one of my favorite movies — but the expectation is at the end of these films, your cast of characters overcomes the disaster and the world reverts back to some sane semblance of normalcy. I knew that I wasn’t going to do that.”
He further added after ‘Leave the World Behind’s release, “As a film lover, I’m excited when I leave a movie wanting to spend hours talking about it. And when you end a film with sort of a pat answer, where the heroes do overcome something, those tend to be the movies where they kind of come and go. So we knew making this film that we wanted to go in this provocative way, and we assumed the risk that it would divide people — and hopefully in a good way, because that provokes conversation.”
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What Happens In The Book In The End?
While the movie ended with ‘Friends‘ theme song “I’ll Be There For You” by Rembrandts playing as Rose watches the series finale, her family witnesses the world burning, and America as we know it changes forever. The song title could be an indication of how Rose would go back to find her family.
In the book, Alam also did not go for a clear-cut answer to what would become of them. However, in the source material, Rose gathers the supplies from the underground bunker and goes to help her parents and her brother. She also intends to extend help to the Scotts.
In a conversation with Variety, Alam called the cinematic ending “funny” due to the confusion. He said, “In the film, they set that timer, and so there’s a literal ticking clock, and we hear the timer alarm go off. That’s the last moment we’re with Ruth and Amanda. And the last thing that G.H. has said is we’ve got to go to that bunker. You as a viewer may say, “Oh, they’re not going to make it.” But I have this vision of G.H. as so competent, and I feel like he’s solved every problem. But I don’t know what’s going to happen to Archie. The truth is that I don’t know. This is something I’ve heard Sam say a lot, that he also doesn’t know. But this is open enough that it becomes something that is possessed by its audience. I’m not withholding a definitive answer because I’m not in possession of that.”
So, it’s on the viewers to decipher what actually happens to the Sandfords and the Scotts, and America in general.
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