I Watched The Movie The Obamas Produced, "Leave The World Behind", On Netflix Last Night, And Have So, So, So Many Questions
Netflix - Leave the World Behind is here and it’s chilling. Starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, and Ethan Hawke, the apocalyptic thriller from Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail tells the story of two families as they fight for survival amid an inexplicable blackout. Only one thing’s for sure: There is no going back to normal. Technology is mysteriously on the fritz, and the deer around the families’ Long Island hideout are acting strange. You can see just how strange in the trailer above, and in a clip from the film below.
“I had been interested in doing a disaster movie for a while, and I specifically wanted to do one surrounding a cyber attack because I don’t think a lot of people have a concrete idea of what that would look like or how detrimental it would be, not just in America, but globally,” writer and director Esmail told Netflix. “The impact of technology on society is something that I’ve always been fascinated by because I really do think it dramatically changed the way we interact and evolve as people.”
The film is based on the bestselling 2020 novel of the same name by Rumaan Alam, who also serves as executive producer of the film alongside Barack and Michelle Obama, Tonia Davis, Daniel M. Stillman, and Nick Krishnamurthy. Find out more below, and stay safe out there.
Last night I threw Netflix on after watching the Dolphins shit their pants, and this appeared as the #1 trending thing on it.
"Leave The World Behind".
Eye-catching title, and I could see Ethan Hawke and Julia Roberts in the thumbnail, and they quickly appeared on the BLARING loud trailer that Netflix automatically starts.
"Leave the World Behind" is the brainchild of Rumaan Alam, a tale that took the bookshelves by storm in 2020. It even secured a spot as a National Book Award finalist. Good shit right? You would tend to think so.
Not the case sadly.
On the surface, "Leave the World Behind" seems like your run-of-the-mill dystopian/apocalyptic thriller, with a dash of sci-fi intrigue. But don't be fooled by the end-of-the-world setting; this tale delves much deeper. It explores heavy themes of race, class, privilege, and our society's ever-growing dependence on technology.
It was adapted from the book to screen by Sam Esmail. The guy behind the hit show "Mr. Robot" (which I fucking loved). Surely, this had to be right up my alley right? How the fuck had I not heard of this I thought to myself...
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In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Esmail told them that he wanted to deviate from the book somewhat and tell a somewhat different variation of the story- “It just became a different interpretation of what Rumaan wrote, just recontextualized into the cinematic form. I'm not a fan of making a carbon copy of the book. What I wanted was to create this standalone piece so that you could read the book and you could watch the movie, and one wouldn't spoil the other, that there were sort of two separate pieces and two different interpretations of the same story.”
(I read all this this morning after I woke up and had my mind in a fucking blender, even more confused by what I watched.)
I was caught off guard almost immediately when, during the opening credits, the names Barack and Michelle Obama popped up as Executive Producers...
I also read, in everybody's favorite publication Rolling Stone that Esmail reached out to the producers, The Obama's for notes on how to go about directing the screenplay, and the notes they sent back were "fucking terrifying".
Rolling Stone- An expert in crisis management, Barack sent script notes to writer-director Sam Esmail, creator of Mr. Robot and Homecoming.
“In the original drafts of the script, I definitely pushed things a lot farther than they were in the film, and President Obama, having the experience he does have, was able to ground me a little bit on how things might unfold in reality,” Esmail told Vanity Fair in an interview published Wednesday. “I am writing what I think is fiction, for the most part, I’m trying to keep it as true to life as possible, but I’m exaggerating and dramatizing. And to hear an ex-president say you’re off by a few details… I thought I was off by a lot! The fact that he said that scared the fuck out of me.”
“He had a lot notes about the characters and the empathy we would have for them,” the director added. “I have to say he is a big movie lover, and he wasn’t just giving notes about things that were from his background. He was giving notes as a fan of the book, and he wanted to see a really good film.”
I'll get to why this was even more bizarre in the spoiler section below.
But the movie gets started with a couple that seems like they're just going through the motions is in their bedroom discussing an impromptu "vacation." the wife, Amanda, played by Julia Roberts, books for her husband Clay, played by Ethan Hawke, and their teenage son and daughter. (The daughter is a fucking weirdo btw). She found an Airbnb outside their home in Queens, in a quaint little enclave in Long Island near the Hamptons but not the Hamptons. You get the feeling the couple hasn't had sex in ages, and both of them are checked out, mainly, as you come to find out, because the wife is a raging bitch.
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They get to the house, and it is beautiful. It's set in the woods, with nobody else around it, quiet, and large-scaled. It's in the middle of nowhere so they think nothing of it when their smart devices all say "out of service," and they're unable to connect to the internet or get cell reception. Aside from that, everything seems to be going great until there's a knock on the door at night. Ethan Hawke's character goes to the door to find a well-dressed Black couple standing on the doorstep. He claims he's the owner who rented the house to them and that there's a nationwide blackout.
I'll save the rest for the spoilers, but without giving the entire thing away, suspicion mounts and mounts, tension between the homeowner's daughter and Amanda, but as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that money alone can't save you when the world falls apart. Nor, the government. Something I've been routinely clowned for around these parts for saying for a while now…
One thing I will say about the movie, and I don't want it to take away from people watching it, is that there's no real plot or storyline whatsoever. It's bizarre.
The main reason I was so confused this morning when I woke up and wondered "what the fuck was that even about?"
Obviously, it's not hard to decipher that the United States is thrown into turmoil via a cyber attack from a foreign adversary. They make that abundantly clear through the lens' of white and black suburban families who play the main protagonists.
Generals have predicted for years now that the next world war will begin and be fought electronically. So this isn't some far-fetched science fiction drama. But it's so confusing and vague.
There are SO many loose ends, and things are never accounted for or explained. It gives it an even creepier and darker undertone than I initially thought.
If you don't plan on watching it, because "Thanks Obama", or you aren't into end-of-the-world doomsday psy-ops, or you don't have netflix, or whatever, then you can read on. If you've seen it already, I encourage you to read on, and drop me a tweet or dm or something if you know any of the answers to my questions. Because it's been a long time since I've watched something as screwy as this movie was.
-------- SPOILERS -----------
Before we get into the questions from the actual movie. My biggest question is once all the haters watch this movie, will they still be laughing at me for having a disaster preparedness plan, and my bug-out-bag?
Probably.
1- Why did the movie put such an emphasis on disappearing technology, odd weather patterns, and unsettling wildlife sightings (like the deer surrounding in giant packs, and flamingos landing in the pool), and then never answer any of them?
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2- Did Elon Musk really miss the point this badly?
3- What the fuck was up with the Spanish woman? What was she saying? Can anybody translate that for me? Why wouldn't the subtitles say what it was?
(Update- found it)
4- This felt like a longer episode in the middle of a series. Not a movie. There not only was no resolution at the end, but there were so many plot holes left totally wide open. Why did they even bring them up or introduce them?
5- What was the point of the shot from the moon of the American flag?
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6 - Why did a former President have anything to do with producing a film as dark as this? One that depicts the fall of the United States of America?
7- Speaking of the fall of America, they laid out a pretty good plan for taking down the country from within didn't they? It almost followed the Russian plan the ex-KGB agent Yuri Bezmenov disclosed in an interview 30 years ago to a T.
The movie's plan was - 1- "Isolation" - Disable their communication and transportation. Make the target as deaf, dumb (Cyberattack ), and paralyzed as possible and prepare them for the second stage: 2- Synchronized chaos - Terrorize them with covert attacks and disinformation and misinformation, overwhelming their defense capabilities, leaving their weapons systems vulnerable to extremists in their own armed forces. Without a clear enemy or motive, people will start to turn against each other. If done successfully, the third phase would happen by itself: coup d'état. Civil war."
Sweet.
Kind of fucked up, no?
8- What the fuck was the point of the little girl pigging out on junk food then sitting down in front of the tv and watching mindless tv (Friends) while the world burns down around her? Was that a metaphor for us Americans poisoning ourselves and burying our heads in the sand while the world goes to hell?
9- The oil tanker that crashed onto the beach was named "The White Lion", which is an ancient symbol for Jesus Christ; we learned that in Catholic middle school. A white lion guides us and offers spiritual guidance and protection. Pretty bold symbolism smashing it into the beach in one of the opening scenes.
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10- What was up with the little girl wearing a NASA shirt the entire film? There had to be something with that, right?
And why did they switch back and forth between the son wearing an Obey shirt and then not wearing it again?
11- What the hell was the point of the shed??? Who was sleeping in there?
12- Not really a question, but found this while digging, the ocean wallpaper behind the bed in the master bedroom changes as the movie progresses.
13- What the hell was the need to draw the wildly underrated 1990s R&B group Next into this shit for? And what the hell was the point of this scene???
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14- what was up with that ear-piercing noise? Were they actually sonic weapons and microwaves like they mentioned?
15- I was going to ask what the hell was the point of the constant Friends references but I think I found it while digging. This explanation from director Sam Esmail -
16- Who was actually behind everything? China? Iran? Russia? Were they all in together?
17- What was the point of the bug bite?
18- What the hell was this QR code over the map of the US?
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19- Not going to lie, this part was terrifying and possibly the scariest part of the entire movie. As was the explosions going off from a distance in NYC.
20- I mentioned this in my blog last week about NASA telling us there's now a giant black hole in the sun, but there has been an awful lot of talk lately about EMPs, and electric grids being rendered useless in this country. Kinda concerning.
p.s. - good news though