Leave the World Behind

Awesome really worth watching it

If you only care about an ending, maybe you should watch some other kind of cinema. There are plenty of choices for you.

If you care about a great script, superb cast and acting, beautiful camera work, intriguing plot, a tension feeling without really knowing what's happening kind of movie, well, this one is for you.

Sam Esmail has delivered a great work here. It ticks all the boxes that you could expect from him.

An ending like this one, is very subjective, but it works perfectly for me. It just feels right. We found out what was really happening, and Esmail put it in a clever and kind of funny way.

Read the synopsis and don't watch the trailer, the less you know about the plot, the better you enjoy it. I loved it.

Expected only the worst, but that was actually awesome!

Great premise, characters, story, sound design, and direction. One of my new favorite end of the world movies. 9/10.

I love reading all the fragile white men (I am a white man) cry because a black character says something negative about white people, or a white woman is portrayed as a bit racist. These characters were very true to life, and any callout of race is now “woke”. What about the thousands of movies from 1900 till now that portray white characters as black saviors, or black people as helpless/illiterate/etc. I guess those are fine because it doesn’t hurt your feelings and makes you feel good. Maybe it’s okay to show how black people feel without demonizing them? Maybe you will never understand what’s it’s like to be black in America, especially when you don’t believe there is even real racism effecting many parts of black of America to this day. If being “woke” means you can empathize with the experience of others without crying about yourself then I’ll be woke. “White” is a complete bullshit race anyway. We are from different ethnicities (Irish, Italian, German, English, Polish, etc.) Many of which groups were not even considered white until the 20th century. Even Hispanic is becoming part of the “white” in group. The only people who will never be white are black people. Stop crying that “white” people are being attacked.

Sam Esmail, take a bow. The style, pace, punch and composition of this contemporary [spoiler]cyber[/spoiler] thriller is top notch, a film that feels no where near it's 141 minute runtime. Harrowing, darkly humorous and while also being a poignant, cautionary tale, Leave The World Behind is dripping in Sam Esmails signature style while telling an equally depressing, all-too-real story that touches on many themes surrounding the human condition in the modern day, as well as environmentalism and technology reliance. Fantastic movie, I can't wait to watch this one again.

-- Spoiler-filled ramblings below --

[spoiler] I really love the topics that Sam Esmail tackles, and the lens with which he frames them. It's an interesting look at the destabilization of a country after a, worryingly plausible, large scale cyberattack. The movie critiques our over reliance on digital conveniences and champions older, more analogue technologies as a more reliable, persistent alternative. The virtues of physical media, maps, books, vinyls and even candles are pushed to the forefront here, reminding us that our devices are all useless without the power of the network behind them. It also critiques our inability to trust our fellow man due to the digital echo chambers we've built ourselves, and the prejudices these spaces create within us without ever meeting the people it warns us about. Additionally, it shows the younger generations, unheard and toothless (heh) in their protests while being actively ignored by the elders, resorting to over consumption of food, material possessions and media to escape and block out the incoming end of the world. There's also commentary on the environment and pollution, with plastic haphazardly buried under the sand on the beech, and the wildlife encroaching back onto the land we've built our overtly large accommodations on. Still trying to put my finger on why all the rooms in the movie are overly blue, it was garish how much blue was in the first apartment shot and the beach front home that G.H. owned. Great movie, I guess I should buy and read the book now. [/spoiler]

Just watch it and form your own opinion.
I had totally creepy vibes during most of it.
Could something like this really happen?
Yes.

Brilliantly suspenseful and saturated with existential dread.

Also, Esmail fans will catch some hidden references.

Really enjoyed this film. I highly recommend going in blind and letting the film reveal itself. Technology thriller? Horror? Sci-fi? It's not instantly clear. The lack of certainty where the film is going only makes it more engrossing. The pace, trying to figure out what's random and what's pertinent... there's a lot of old school tension building mixed in with paranoiia and modern geo politics. I've avoided saying much of anything about the film to give people a clean run at it but essentially it's a very good story, very well told.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this film. The story is so captivating and tense that I was glued to the screen the whole time. The performances are great as well. I already had a suspicion that by the end of the film there would not be a lot of answers. These kind of movies usually end this way and it‘s not different for this one. Still a great movie that kept me engaged and interested the whole time.

3 Thoughts After Watching ‘Leave the World Behind’:

1. Gosh, how much I’ve missed Julia Roberts.

2. I almost forgot how much I love Sam Esmail. I was enamored straight out of the gate here, hooked right away. His direction, the way he frames everything, the way he builds tension, the use of music, how all these characters had constant, quality, well-developed interactions with each other… he’s a genius. So much talking and I was never bored. Not for a minute. Now I need him to write/direct a horror film. Can you even imagine?

3. As the buildup progressed, and the story headed towards its unfathomable conclusion, I worried more and more that it wouldn’t stick the landing. But it most definitely did.

Bonus Thought: The Thornes know what’s up with that _Buffy_ collection. I’d be all set lol.