“Leave the World Behind,” the latest Netflix original based on the book written by Rumaan Alam in 2020, has taken the world by storm with its remarks on race and technology in modern America.
Starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke and Kevin Bacon, the two-hour movie features a family vacation to a rental home in Long Island that abruptly ends when the owners, who are strangers to the family, appear at the door during a blackout. Both families lack trust in each other until more strange disasters occur.
In the film, hidden messages behind the bizarre incidents confused viewers.
Farrah Mackenzie, playing Clay’s daughter, Rose, sees a bunch of deer early on, which are seen again several times. They initially are innocent, but later on they begin to threaten humans. It was hard for viewers to figure out what the purpose of including them in the movie was.
Another random scene is when Clay tries to get to town to find out what is going on, and he stops for a panicked woman he sees at the side of the road. She pleads for help, but Clay could not understand Spanish so he drives off. Her fate was unknown, which angered some viewers.
Towards the end of the movie, hacked Teslas on autopilot were seen crashing into each other.
Musk responded to the scene by tweeting, “Teslas can charge from solar panels even if the world goes fully Mad Max and there is no more gasoline!”
The apocalyptic thriller was executively produced by former U.S President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama through their company Higher Ground Productions. The two sent a message to the world for what may come in the future. War and technology were both prevalent in the film, hinting at a possible cause of the world ending.
Barack Obama reportedly passed along many critiques to director Sam Esmail, keeping the plot more realistic.
Conspiracy theorists and viewers believe that the Obamas are the ones behind the line, “I’m sorry asking you to remember that if the world falls apart, trust should not be doled out easily to anyone, especially white people,” but there is no proof of their claims.
With the movie ending in a cliffhanger, fans were not given closure—implying a sequel could be announced to satisfy the lingering questions. The fate of the two families was not revealed as with the person behind all the catastrophes, which will likely be addressed in the sequel.
