This apocalyptic thriller has quickly climbed to the top of the charts, becoming the No. 1 movie in the U.S. on Netflix.
Written and directed by Sam Esmail and executive-produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, "Leave the World Behind" delves into the lives of a family whose vacation on Long Island is interrupted by two strangers warning of a blackout. Both families must then come up with a plan on how best to survive as the crisis escalates to a monumental scale.
The plot was heavily influenced by former President Barack Obama based on his real-life expertise regarding how a widespread crisis scenario might actually unfold.
It starts when satellites are attacked, effectively ending cell communication, internet, and broadcasting, along with disrupting navigational instruments. A cargo ship crashes into the beach. Planes begin falling from the sky. Auto-piloted Tesla cars crash at high speeds on the highways, blocking the roads.
The movie ends with the characters realizing that the United States has come under attack and the only thing they can do to survive it, is get to the neighbors underground bunker.
As the movie depicts, the most cost effective way to destabilize a country is to paralyze it. Mahershala Ali's character says that it's part of a:
"... three-stage manuever that can topple a country's government from within. First stage is isolation. Disable communication and transportation. Make the target as deaf, dumb, and paralyzed as possible, setting them up for the second stage. Synchronized chaos. Terrorize them with covert attacks and misinformation, overwhelming their defense capabilities and leaving their weapons systems vulnerable to extremists and their own military. Without a clear enemy or motive, people would start turning on each other. If done successfully, the third stage would happen on it's own. Civil war. Collapse."
Unlike a lot of other movies which depict characters with deeply entrenched differences learning to come together to survive a disaster, Leave the World Behind is intentionally vague in its ending, and does not include any clear moral or message. That was director Sam Esmail's—and by extension, the Obamas'—design.
"We shouldn’t wait around until the catastrophe happens—the work begins now. I think [Obama] would say the same thing," Esmail said. "Again, a trope of the disaster genre is that you’re set up with a few characters who are divided and then they come together and defeat or overcome or get through what’s occurring. But that is just not true to real life. So the work begins now. It’s not really a message film, it’s more of a reflection on where we’re at as a society. But if there is a message, it’s a warning."
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