Pessimism over the future of our world has led to a glut of dour, flavorless dystopian media, treated with the gravitas of real-world catastrophe which has not yet come to pass. This is what I expected as I sat down for Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail’s screen adaptation of Leave the World Behind, based on the 2020 novel by Rumaan Alam. The apocalypse isn’t exactly a pleasant thing to think about, sure, but it’s not necessarily happening right now at this exact moment, and it may never happen at all. Still, the topic is handled by current pop culture with a near-comical level of sobriety that has already been regurgitated multiple times this year alone.
I also didn’t have much expectation for a film released by Netflix, who, despite David Fincher’s recent insistence has the best “quality control” out of all the streamers producing original content, has abysmal quality control and tends to put their money into the fakest movies imaginable—especially, I feel, when it comes to their action/thrillers (ironically, not including Fincher’s own recent Netflix production, The Killer). Yet what I got from Esmail’s sophomore feature (his first since 2014’s ill-received rom-com Comet), was akin to sci-fi blockbusters of yesteryear with a light, practically Spielbergian touch and sense of adventure, bolstered by a score from Mac Quayle that imbues wonder and intrigue and an excruciating acceleration of tension. Suddenly, the apocalypse felt fun—at least, to watch on a movie screen.
Park Slope couple Clay (Ethan Hawke) and Amanda Sandford (Julia Roberts) decide to take a much-needed, but very last-minute getaway at a wooded Long Island beach house with their two teen kids, Archie (Charlie Evans) and Friends-obsessed Rose (Farrah Mackenzie). Not long after arriving at their grand rental home—a place where they can “leave the world behind,” as per the listing—the family makes a beach trip during which a gigantic tanker interrupts the idyllic scene by barreling horrifyingly into the shore.
The crash is chalked up by beach officials to an issue with the mapping system. The Sandfords return to their rental, only to discover that WiFi and phone signals are all curiously out. A man who doles out benefit-of-the-doubts a little too willfully, Clay thinks nothing of it. But Amanda, a distrustful paranoiac who openly claims to hate people, can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong.
This fear is only exacerbated upon the late-night arrival of the genial G.H. Scott (Mahershala Ali) and his headstrong daughter Ruth (Myha’la). The duo claims to be the rightful owners of the home, G.H. explaining that he’s the one who had communicated with Amanda himself over the rental agreement. Seeking shelter in the blackout after a symphony, G.H. further elaborates that a bad knee caused the pair to choose the house in the woods over the city walk-up during an emergency. But Amanda is suspicious of this admittedly weak excuse, partly due to her instinct to protect her own children and her anxiety about the blackout; though, we quickly learn that the father-daughter pair are indeed hiding something crucial. But Ruth feels that Amanda’s mistrust is guided by other, more subconscious prejudices, linked, for example, to the insistence that the Scotts sleep in the basement guest room while the Sandfords luxuriate in the Scott family’s rightful beds. The next day, when the Sandfords discover that their way back to New York City has been blocked by an endless self-driven Tesla crash (genuinely hilarious), it becomes clear that something very sinister, very far-reaching and virtually unknowable is afoot.
The Sandfords are forced to stick together, as bits and pieces of the catastrophe slowly fit into place and they find their reluctant bonds slowly strengthen. Leave the World Behind is broken up by chapters (as all films now seem to be), each portending another wave of calamity like the Plagues from the book of Exodus.
The disaster is at first pointed to a cyberattack forcing some sort of mass environmental upheaval and technological blackout, in which animals have begun to act out, planes have started falling out of the sky and vague, eerie signs of disrepair are scattered about with no known cause or effect. Leave the World Behind excels at creating tension, anxiety and doling out bits of ambiguous information to keep you guessing, creating mistrust in both the Sandfords and the Scotts just as much as they have for each other. The 141-minute film flows with a captivating rhythm and enthralling atmosphere as it pulls us along the story of two families who must contend with one another’s differences as the world falls apart. The dynamic camera (handled by cinematographer Tod Campbell, who also worked on Mr. Robot) is at times a little too free-wheeling and unmoored, with a fixation on swirling overhead shots that are less functional than grandstanding. But such creativity with movement is welcome, even if occasionally delirious.
It adds to Leave the World Behind’s exhilarating, giddy momentum—even moments of quiet are punctuated by apprehension over what comes next. The score from Quayle, another Mr. Robot collaborator, is gorgeous and exciting, with a distinctly old-school feel that instills anticipation and even delight over the possibilities that the story has yet to unfold. It’s no surprise, then, that a sci-fi that doesn’t lean on nostalgia but merely draws from what made old blockbusters great, also leans on the charismatic star power of names like Ethan Hawke, Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali—watching them play off one another is like watching three experts of their craft completely in their element. Newcomer Myha’la (seen in Bodies, Bodies, Bodies and HBO’s Industry) is a strong presence up against three Hollywood juggernauts; her ability to consistently go toe-to-toe with Roberts is nothing to sneeze at.
The themes of Leave the World Behind—and the place where everything ends up, which is funny and charming but a little unfinished—aren’t as tautly composed as the body encasing them. But considering ideas of “us against them” in times of crisis, and who exactly is “us,” and who is “them,” are worth considering in our current time. They could also be handled far worse when one thinks of the way “socially conscious” themes are often handled in, say, modern horror films. The themes are not terribly overbearing and don’t overwhelm the film. Most of what Ruth and Amanda really dislike about each other goes unsaid, and speaks to Amanda’s unspoken biases—which come out in a cringe-worthy assumption that Ruth doesn’t want to go in the pool because of her hair. Is it somewhat trite and centrist-y to assert that we need to work together and accept our differences in order to survive? Yes, but if you’re going to make such commonplace assertions, it’s best to do so in a film as fun as Leave the World Behind.
Director: Sam Esmail
Writer: Sam Esmail
Starring: Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Myha’la, Kevin Bacon
Release Date: November 22, 2023 (theaters); December 8, 2023 (Netflix)
Brianna Zigler is an entertainment writer based in middle-of-nowhere Massachusetts. Her work has appeared at Little White Lies, Film School Rejects, Thrillist, Bright Wall/Dark Room and more, and she writes a bi-monthly newsletter called That’s Weird. You can follow her on Twitter, where she likes to engage in stimulating discussions on films like Movie 43, Clifford, and Watchmen.