Netflix: Leave the World Behind
Review / analysis of foreshadowing and predictive programming
You’ve probably heard of this new film on Netflix making the rounds on social media last week. This is a brief synopsis from IMDB:
A family’s getaway to a luxurious rental home takes an ominous turn when a cyberattack knocks out their devices - and two strangers appear at their door.
The tagline is… “There’s no going back to normal” Gee, where have we heard that before?
Spoilers Ahead
If you haven’t watched the movie and would like to avoid any spoilers, save this post and come back after you’ve seen it.
If you don’t care or have already seen the film, please proceed.
This is going to be sort of a play-by-play analysis of the movie. I’m trying to highlight what I believe each of the storyline scenes represent.
There’s a lot of symbolism and hidden messages throughout the movie. You really have to re-watch (and sometimes pause) the film just to catch these things or have them stick so you can connect the dots.
Forewarning, this is going to be a long post.
I apologize ahead of time if this is too much. This just how my mind works (INTJ personality) and how I analyze things. I break them down and pick them apart. I’m a “noticer” and I don’t believe in coincidences.
Right out of the gate it’s clear the movie is very progressive in one aspect. It’s trying to teach us all a lesson about racial tensions in America which is blatant and tiresome to be honest.
This slant simply garnishes likes on social media and elevated ratings on sites like Rotten Tomatoes. In my opinion, it’s just something to keep your attention between the action scenes.
However, the second message (or messages) are the most interesting.
The movie is split up into chapters; assuming to mirror the chapters from the book.
Intro / Opening Scene
Within the first 5 minutes, we’ve established that Julie Roberts (Amanda) has been cast as an upper middle class, entitled, white woman in NYC alongside with her cuck of a husband played by Ethan Hawke (Clay.) Amanda is a marketing exec and Clay is a college professor. They have two teenage children; a dopey son and a nerdy daughter.
Before heading out for their much needed vacation at a rental home (away from the big city) we see Amanda staring out the window explaining to Clay why she decided to spring this last minute vacation on the family. She comments:
“Well, when I couldn’t fall back asleep this morning I came over here [to the window] to watch the sunrise and I saw all of these people starting their day with such tenacity. Such verve. All in an effort to make something of themselves; make something of our world. I felt so lucky to be a part of that. But then I remembered what the world is actually like. Then I came to a more accurate realization…
I fucking hate people.”
Then we’re immediately hit with the opening credits, marching along to “thrill-a, kill-a” style hip-hop music. There’s the first box checked off on the cringe list.
Strap in because here comes the symbolism. American flags upside down… the symbol of distress.
Next we have upside down buildings (assuming to mirror the NYC skyline we just saw in the opening) which quickly change to an upside down Statue of Liberty for just a split second and then back to buildings. You wouldn’t have noticed it unless you were paying close attention.
OK, so we’ve established this is a film is going to be about the collapse or downfall of America.
Part 1- The House
Fast forward a bit from the opening and the family arrives at the rental home (mansion) on Long Island, not too far from the beach and located in “Point Comfort.”
“Founded at Jamestown in 1607, the Virginia Colony was home to about 700 people by 1619. The first enslaved Africans to arrive in Virginia disembarked at Point Comfort, in what is today known as Fort Monroe.”
First enslaved Africans arrive in Jamestown, setting the stage for slavery in North America, History.com - archive.vn
See what they did there? Edgy. I know. But there’s more of this to come…
While they get settled into the house Amanda heads out by herself to a local grocery and general supply store. It’s a quick scene where we get introduced to our first antagonist (Danny) played by Kevin Bacon. He’s the stereotypical, older white male, survivalist / prepper.
There’s no dialog between the two; just a quick glance at one another. Amanda has a concerned look on her face at first then and cracks a smile. Danny notices her stare, scoffs, and continues loading his truck.
We eventually find out that Danny is a local blue collar contractor that knows the owner of the rental vacation home. More on that later.
Amanda arrives back at the house and they decide to take a trip down to the beach. Everything is going great and the daughter (Rose) notices a tanker ship out on the horizon. It’s still far out at sea so they think nothing of it.
However, just a bit later and Rose notices that it’s getting closer.
Clay comments:
“Looks like an oil tanker. Must be a port around here. I read this piece in The Atlantic that New York has one of the largest natural harbors on the planet.”
Perhaps an indication the NYC is a strategic target?
They go about their business lounging on the beach until a bit later when Amanda and other beachgoers notice that the ship is getting a bit too close for comfort.
So close that everyone grabs their belongings as they take off running down the beach just before the makes landfall.
We clearly see the name of the ship is the “White Lion.”
The White Lion was an English privateer operating under a Dutch letter of marque which brought the first Africans to the English colony of Virginia in 1619, a year before the arrival of the Mayflower in New England. Though the African captives were sold as indentured servants, the event is regarded as the start of African slavery in the colonial history of the United States.
The White Lion, Wikipedia - archive.vn
See what they did there? Let’s keep going.
The beach is evacuated by local officials. Clay asks what’s going on as they pass the gate guard and the gentleman states:
There’s been a handful of these groundings up the coast, something to do with their nav systems…
So now we have a general idea of what’s going on and that GPS systems are disrupted and / or being hacked.
On their way back to the house they roll through town and Amanda says, “Oh look, there’s a Starbucks.” Clay says, “Oh.”, and puts on the turn signal.
In the next scene we see Amanda plopping down her Starbucks cup on the counter; either ad placement or simply showing complacency. i.e. - this major event just occurred, but it really hasn’t sunk in yet.
Back at the house, Amanda comments that the internet is out as she’s looking for information. She then asks if there’s anything on the television. Clay responds, “No, I tried to check the the game, but there’s no signal.” Once again, complacency.
Right after that Amanda spots a few deer roaming the edge of the yard. This is our introduction of the next antagonist of the film; white-tailed deer.
Clay comments:
“That’s a good omen. Seeing deer. At least in Mesoamerican mythology.”
Later that evening the owner of the house shows up, a Mr. G.H. Scott (played by Mahershala Ali) with his daughter, Ruth Scott (played by Myha’la.)
Side note… why do certain actors or actresses get a special single name like “Myha’la"?” From my experience, it’s when someone new in Hollywood is trying to be pushed out into the spotlight; as if they are already so famous that they are only known by one name. It doesn’t really matter for the purpose here. It’s just an observation.
They explain there was some chaos in NYC (power blackout) and they decided to head to the house just to be safe. G.H. explains they would have called but the phones are out.
Amanda doesn’t recognize G.H. because she’s only communicated with him via email so far about the rental. G.H. comments:
See, this is why I much prefer life before the internet. We would have spoken over the phone and you’d recognize my voice and that this is our house.
This is an insinuation that society has become disconnected from one another, even through they are more connected than ever before.
We quickly find out that Amanda is not only a stuck up, entitled, white woman, she’s also… racist. Why? Because she doesn’t immediately believe or accept that the black man in the tux is the true owner of the home.
This doesn’t sit well with Ruth…
The snarky, back and forth between Amanda and Ruth comes up in several more instances throughout the film. It’s just important to realize they are trying to portray Amanda as untrusting of black people in general. Ruth is of course the woke, intelligent one here.
While they settle their differences about Amanda “allowing” the owners of the home to stay in their own basement room overnight, Rose turns on the television and a national emergency broadcast is coming across on the TV. This is a real SHTF situation but we have no idea who’s behind it all.
Some additional complacency from Amanda:
“We’re only talking about a blackout here.“
Rose replies in a condescending tone:
“A blackout is not nothing. It could be something; could be a symptom of something bigger like terrorism or a bomb like you said your son would sleep through.”
Clay suggests that G.H. and Rose stay through the night and they sort through everything in the morning.
Clay comments:
“Things always look different by the light of day. I guess some self-help clichés are rooted in truth.”
Suddenly, group is startled by the sound of Jenga blocks collapsing from the game that Amanda and Clay were playing earlier.
Perhaps symbolizing the downfall of civilization… Western that is. This entire film is centered on the United States. We never get any indication that any other countries are impacted negatively. In fact, later on we’ll see it’s implied that foreign countries are involved.
G.H. and Rose settle into the basement room and discuss the situation. Rose clearly states she wants them out of the house.
G.H. states:
“We’re not going to do that by scaring them. They need to think everything is going to be ok.”
Based on the facial expressions of G.H., it’s clear he knows more but isn’t willing to share yet.
While everyone is in bed it cuts to a scene of the television which is still turned on in the main room. The TV continues to run the loop of the national emergency broadcast (clearly stating that all TV and radio broadcasts will cease their programming) to a glitch of the signal (i.e., someone is in control) and then over to a broadcast by good ol’ trustworthy CNN.
The image stays on screen for a bit, some garbled audio is heard, and “cyberattack” is the only words that can clearly be made out.
Then the signal glitches again and is completely lost. This is the end of chapter 1.
Part II - The Curve
The opening scene is a satellite in orbit that slowly rotates into a new position. Once again, showing that someone is still in control. But who? The supposed hackers?
The next morning Amanda opens her phone and sees some notifications that came through overnight despite the phones being out. But is it trustworthy?
She notices a garbled notification at the bottom from The Washington Post
As Amanda and Ruth discuss the situation over coffee (while bantering back and forth), Amanda mentions the alerts on her phone.
Ruth states:
Hackers can get into power plants. That’s probably how they caused the outage.
So, at this point we know the power is out in NYC, yet the power is still on at the rental home in Long Island. We really don’t know if the blackout is centralized to NYC or if the house is running on a large backup generator.
While the situation is being discussed over breakfast the Sandford daughter (Rose) steps outside. The deer are back again and they’ve gathered in numbers.
Clay heads into town by himself to look for a newspaper or someone who might know more about what’s going on. While driving he attempts to pull up the navigation map but the screen shows “GPS signal not found.” Another indication that satellites have been hacked.
However, when Clay steps out of the car for a moment the AM band on the radio picks up a brief signal. It’s as if radio broadcasts are being jammed but this one managed to seep through for a few seconds.
“We’re now getting reports that the fallout from the ongoing fallout from the ongoing cyberattack has lead to a catastrophic environmental disaster in the South, impacting animal migration patterns."
Then the radio cuts out again. Clay is still outside the car so he doesn’t hear it.
G.H. heads out to the neighbor’s house a few miles down the road. The place is ransacked (or so it appears) and nobody is home. He knows there’s a satellite phone stored in the garage so he checks it, but no signal.
Meanwhile, as Clay continues heading to town he runs into something in the sky, making it’s way towards him directly over the road.
At first it appears to be a drone spraying a chemical or dropping nanobots, but after Clay turns around to avoid the deluge he sees they are red pamphlets.
The sheer volume of pamphlets far outnumber what even a large drone could carry. It’s essentially raining them down, so maybe that was for emphasis or trying to make a point?
Back to G.H. and the neighbor’s house. He heads through to the backyard, checks the beach front, and finds several dead bodies along with plane wreckage.
He hears a plane approaching, looks up, and realizes it’s heading straight for him. He takes off running towards the house as the plane dives into the beach at the same location as the previous crash.
This is an important one because either the author or the screen writer is possibly aware that commercial aircraft navigation systems can be overridden and controlled remotely. Of course, this is just a “conspiracy theory”, right?
Well, it was the plot for Season 1, Episode 1 of The Lone Gunman series. The pilot episode aptly titled, “Pilot.” The gist was that CIA was plotting to remotely take control of a commercial flight, fly it into one of the World Trade Center buildings, and pin the operation on terrorists. That episode aired on March 4th, 2001. Six months before 9/11.
Just this year a documentary was released (9/11 - The Advent of the Ninth Crusade) where commercial and military pilots came together as a group to blow the whistle on programs where these remote systems were developed and tested well before 9/11, building upon previous auto and remote pilot technologies.
You can see the parties involved below.
Of course, Wikipedia says it’s untrue.
You can find out more about this at - http://911pilots.org
Moving on….
G.H. returns to the house and is still in a state of shock. He sends Rose out of the room, confesses to Amanda what he saw, and finally starts to open up about what he knows.
I saw a plane nose dive out of the sky and into the ocean.
He also explains that he noticed a drop in the markets a few days ago, indicating something was amiss. During the discussion they hear some loud booms off in the distance and then a shrill, deafening tone is heard.
It’s powerful enough to shatter windows, there’s also the sound of thunder, leaves falling from the trees, and more booms.
Amanda runs out into the woods (searching for Rose and Archie) but falls to her knees because the noise is too much. This is the end of chapter 2.
Part III - The Noise
Everyone still at the house gathers in the kitchen after the noise stops. Clay hasn’t made it back yet. They speculate about what might be causing the noise.
Archie asks if it could be a sonic boom from an aircraft. G.H explains that the Concorde doesn’t fly anymore and that aircraft rarely break the sound barrier.
Our resident expert, Rose, chimes in:
Maybe it was a plane we don’t know about.
During these conversations, Amanda mentions seeing a man at the store yesterday; explains he was buying cases of canned goods and water.
“He knew. He knew this was going to happen.”
G.H. says, “that’s Danny, my [construction] contractor I was telling you about.”
Clay finally makes it back to the house. He’s in shock and explains that he saw no one, despite the fact that he did run across a panicked woman on the side of the road, but he left her there. Great job, professor.
Clay presents one of the pamphlets dropped by the drone for examination.
The son chimes in and says:
“Death to America... I mean, I don’t know what the rest of this means. But this part, it definitely means death to America. I remember from a game I was playing.
There is also text on the back.
That’s in Arabic and the translation is below using Google Lens. Some of text is cut off on the lower right side but you get the idea.
At this point the Sandford family is ready to bug out, even if it’s a dumb idea. G.H. tries to talk them out of it. Ruth is clearly indifferent as she states, “Dad. Let them go.”
Ruth: This is for the better.
G.H.: For who?
Ruth: For us.
Fucking Ruth and her Anglophobic, condescending attitude.
The family takes off towards Amanda’s sister’s house in Jersey. As they are driving along they hear air raid sirens going off but are oblivious to what they are. It seems like another small detail to show how unaware or unprepared they are for a disaster scenario.
Right after that they come across a line of cars blocking the road. Time for the next antagonist; white Tesla Model 3s.
It seems these self-driving wonders have been hacked and are trying to make their way to the city on their own. Lots of them.
They all have dealer tags and when Amanda steps out to investigate she notices they are all brand new.
Clay sees another vehicle approaching and says, “Hey, someone’s coming.” But they aren’t slowing down or stopping.
Amanda looks down, sees the “self-driving capability” on the window sticker and quickly realizes what’s happening.
Amanda and Clay jump back into the car and maneuver just in time to avoid getting rear-ended.
The driver-less vehicle slams into the pile-up at full speed.
Another one…
And still more…
After they avoid the line of on-coming rogue vehicles the camera pans out to a wide, sideways shot of alternating groups of black and white Teslas, piled up leading to the bridge that heads back to the city. Duality again?
The other side of the highway appears to be a mix of all sorts.
The Sandfords make it back to the house with their tails between their legs.
This is the end of chapter III.
Part IV - The Flood
Noah and the Ark reference?
The next 15 minutes or so is a lot of back and conversation between Amanda and G.H. (who stay in the house drinking) and Clay and Ruth who quietly head outside by the fire pit to puff a lil’ THC vape. These vices get them to open up to one another a bit.
After Clay and Ruth’s chat, they see flamingos landing in the pool. While it is summertime they are perplexed as to why these birds have made it this far north.
We know from the radio broadcast (that one that Clay missed in the car) that some sort of environmental disaster in the South has disrupted animal migration patterns.
Over several drinks and glasses of wine Amanda and G.H. discuss a few things.
G.H. explains to Amanda that some recent actions by his biggest financial client (a defense contractor) is cause for concern.
He goes on to say that several years ago he had a little too much to drink with this client at a party one night and the guy let something slip. He told G.H. he was preparing for his annual business trip. When G.H. asks what the trip is about the client turns to him and with a serious tone says:
Oh you know, just my annual meeting with the rest of the evil cabal that rules the world.
G.H. doesn’t think anything of it because the guy is known for making jokes like that.
However, the day before all these recent events went down the client called G.H. out of the blue, wanting to move a lot of money around; much more than usual.
G.H. asks if he would like to grab a drink, but the client declines saying that he’s going away for while. G.H. jokes back to him:
Well, yeah, you hanging with your evil cabal this weekend? I thought that was just during the winter solstice.
But he doesn’t laugh. He only says, “take care of yourself” as if he feels sorry for G.H.
G.H. plays it off, stating that the “conspiracy theory” about a shadowy group of people running the world is a far too lazy explanation when the truth is much scarier.
G.H - No one is in control. No one is pulling the strings. Sure, there are those like my friends that might have the right kind of access to the right kind of information. But when events like this happen in the world the best, even the most powerful people can hope for is a heads up.
This upsets Amanda, but G.H. convinces her to join him in another room for some music to lighten the mood. Both still drunk, they dance around for a bit, and Amanda hugs G.H. as he confesses that he misses his wife (who is away on an international business trip) and believes he may never see her again.
We finally get the tagline of the movie from G.H.:
We have to see this for what it is... There is no going back to normal.
Then suddenly, another loud boom goes off in the distance and the noise is back.
This time it’s powerful enough to shatter glass inside the house, knock out the power, and send the flamingos flying.
Afterward, things quiet down and everyone heads to bed. G.H. and Ruth have a discussion. She’s adamant that she doesn’t trust them.
Ruth:
I’m asking you to remember if the world falls apart, trust should not be doled out easily to anyone. Especially white people. Even mom would agree with me on that.
G.H. replies, “I got it.” Ruth pushes back and says, “Do you? Because we’re sleeping in the basement of our own house for the second night a row. Just what exactly was the point of letting them back in the house?” G.H. says, “because it was the right thing to do.”
To which Ruth says:
And that right there is what’s going to fuck us in the end.
Seriously Ruth?
Then it cuts to a shot from space, panning down to a dust covered American flag on the surface of the moon as the sun eerily sets across Earth. America has fallen under a new moon?
The next morning, the Sanfords wake up and Archie is spitting blood. His teeth are also falling out. Radiation poisoning?
But no one else is having symptoms or showing any signs of illness. Let’s rewind a bit here. The day before, Archie was bit by a “bug” while he was out roaming the nearby woods with his sister. It certainly doesn’t look like an insect.
During that scene, Archie swats at it and then reaches down to pull whatever it is off his leg. It leaves a small wound. Bio-attack? Nanobots?
This is the end of chapter IV.
Part V - The Last One
The Sandfords are freaking out about Archie, saying he needs to get to a hospital. G.H. explains it’s pointless since the roads are blocked. He suggests that Clay go with him down to Danny’s house because he might have some medicine on hand. They discover that Rose has gone missing so Amanda and Ruth head out to try and find her.
Clay and G.H. arrive at Danny’s house. Danny is not exactly pleased to see G.H. on his doorstep.
Danny steps out and there’s some back and forth between the two.
Danny is unwilling to help, explaining that he needs to take care of his own.
Danny: I’m locking the doors. I’m waiting, I’m watching, I’m getting out my gun. Other than that, I don’t have any answers for you.
When Clay and G.H. explain what’s happening to Archie, that he’s vomiting and his teeth fell out, Danny provides a theory.
Lost his teeth huh? It’s got to have something to do with that noise. Well, it’s not all that dissimilar to what happened in Cuba a while back, microwave weapons that can produce this kind of radiation that can be beamed out through sound. Some people lost their teeth there too.
They continue speculating, unsure of what’s really happening since not a lot of information is getting out. However, there was some chatter before all this went down indicating it was some kind of war.
There’s a lot of back and forth with Clay making a plea for help to get some medicine for his son.
Danny: I’d suggest you try your neighbors. The Thornes. The did a basement conversion on the down-low a while back, no permits or nothing. A buddy of mine worked on it. He wouldn’t even show me the plans. Now you ask me, that’s rich asshole talk for doomsday bunker.
It cuts back to Amanda and Ruth out in the woods looking for Rose. The deer are back again in even larger numbers. They surround Ruth as she steps out of a small barn they were searching in earlier.
In-between all this it cuts to G.H. and Danny where it’s escalated to a guns drawn situation. G.H. owns a gun as well. In an earlier scene we see him quietly fetching it from his locked liquor cabinet.
Back in the woods, the alpha deer shows up.
Amanda hears the commotion and runs back to help Ruth.
Back to the confrontation with G.H. and Danny. Clay gets in-between the two and makes a final plea for help.
Amanda and Ruth scream and wave their arms until finally the deer back down and run off into the woods.
Awww, gee, they made up.
Cut back to the confrontation and we don’t get to see how the situation with Danny is defused. We just know he relents and accepts a cash deal for the medicine.
Danny - “I got another tidbit for you. Free of charge if you want it. It’s the Koreans behind all this. Just trust me.”
G.H. - “Koreans. What makes you say that?”
Danny - Just trust me. It’s the Koreans or Chinese, one of them.
Clay hands Danny the red pamphlet from the day before, explaining he saw it dropped from a big drone. Danny scoffs at it…
Danny: Before the phones went out I heard from a friend of mine in San Diego about a similar event; drones dropping pamphlets. Except they were in Korean. Or Mandarin. Like I said he couldn’t tell which. But, seeing how he did four tours in Iraq, he sure as shit would have known if it looked like that.
We’ve made a lot of enemies around the world. Maybe all this means is a few of them teamed up.
Clay and G.H. get back in the car and G.H. now has something to confess.
G.H. - It would have made more sense if we were on the brink of an all out invasion. But this? I didn’t think we’d actually let something like this happen, I thought we were smarter than that.
Clay - Let what happen?
G.H. - Because my primary client works in the defense sector, I spent a lot of time studying the cost benefit analysis of military campaigns. There was one program in particular that terrified my client the most. A simple three stage maneuver that can topple a countries government from within.
The first stage isolation. Disable their communication and transportation. Make the target as 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, leaving their weapon systems vulnerable to extremists in their own military. Without a clear enemy or motive people would start turning on each other. Done successfully, the third stage would happen on it’s own.
Clay - What’s the third stage?
G.H. - A coup d'état… a civil war. Collapse. This program was considered the most cost effective way to destabilize a country. Because if the target nation was dysfunctional enough they would, in essence, do the work for you.
Whoever started this wants us to finish it.
It cuts to a scene of Amanda and Ruth in the woods; shocked by something they see off in the distance.
What are they looking at exactly? The skyline of NYC with a large explosion and an ongoing fire at one of the bridges; assumed to be the location of the EV pile up as G.H. stated earlier there’s only one bridge on and off the island.
The sound of a high-speed aircraft (reminiscent of a fighter jet) is heard a few seconds before a second explosion occurs. There is no visual on screen of the jet, but there are helicopters flying over the city.
Was this an indication that bombs were being dropped or missiles fired from aircraft? Presumably from foreign invaders or domestic extremists inside the military? i.e., the grid is down, time to launch the attack?
Automatic machine gun fire is heard off in the distance as the camera continues to pan upward and across the woods.
It pans down to a large house and we see a bicycle laying down at the front steps.
It zooms into the front door and we see it’s the Thornes’ residence. The location that Danny eluded to having a doomsday bunker. We see the pane of glass near the door handle is broken out.
It’s Rose inside the home. She rode the bicycle over to the neighbors house and is sitting inside at the dinner table, pigging out on junk food.
She gets up, makes her way downstairs, and finds an unlocked bunker door.
Switching on the power to the “Commodus” brand survival shelter, it comes to life.
Commodus (161 - 192 A.D.) was a Roman emperor serving jointly with his father Marcus Aurelius from 176 until his father's death in 180, and solely until 192. His reign is commonly thought of as marking the end of a golden period of peace in the history of the Roman Empire, known as the Pax Romana.
Commodus, Wikipedia - archive.vn
We see the place is well equipped and well supplied.
Complete with a digital, “outdoor” window with a scene of an open field that comes online as the system boots up.
The next scene is a command center in the bunker with a HAM radio and / shortwave receiver, police scanner, handheld radios, and such.
It cuts to the computer screen showing some text from the emergency alert system.
The ending scene is Rose noticing a television and an extensive DVD library.
She finds the final season of Friends and pops it into the player. She immediately goes to the last episode and plays it.
She’s happy because all she wanted to do (since the beginning of the movie) was see the final episode of Friends. She was unable to because of all the service disruptions.
And that’s it. That’s all we get.
We can assume the others make their way to the bunker. From what I understand the book goes a bit further than this ending.
Congratulations if you’re made it this far. The next section describes the Obama’s involvement of making the film, even if it’s just financial backing. Personally, I think there’s more to it than that.
Book to Film Adaptation
The movie is garnering attention (primarily) because it was produced by Higher Ground Productions, which is owned by Barack Hussein Obama. The article below insinuates that neither Barack nor Big Mike were directly involved with creation of the film.
Based on the 2020 novel of the same name by Rumaan Alam, Leave the World Behind stars Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke as a married couple on vacation, who find themselves trapped on Long Island with their rental home’s owner (Mahershala Ali), while society is on the brink of collapse.
The film was released by Netflix, and produced by the Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, which first launched in 2018. The company has a multi-year deal with Netflix, and has produced over a dozen films for the streamer like the Oscar-winning American Factory, and, most recently, the Bayard Rustin biopic, Rustin.
Naturally, folks are curious about the involvement of the former president and first lady.
The Obamas are listed as producers on the Leave the World Behind movie, because Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground Productions, came on board the film in 2022, two years after the movie had already been bought by Netflix. This was well after the movie had been cast, and after Esmail had adapted the screenplay from Rumaan Alam’s acclaimed 2020 novel. Esmail and Chad Hamilton are also producers through Esmail Corp, and Roberts produced through Red Om. But in the case of the Obamas, this is more of an “in name only” producer type of situations. Neither Barack nor Michelle were directly involved in the creation of the film.
In a statement for the official Leave the World Behind production notes, Tonia Davis, who is head of film and TV at Higher Ground, said, “What we love about Rumaan Alam’s book, and Sam Esmail’s adaptation, is that it leaves nothing behind. This is a rare story that deals with race, class, what it means to raise kids in today’s world, and how external events start to seep into our consciousness and create fears where maybe there shouldn’t be any. This is a story that doesn’t necessarily provide answers, but asks fundamental questions about how we live, how we think, and who we trust.
In an interview for those same production notes, Esmail explained that Barack Obama was a fan of Aman’s 2020 novel, and came on board in 2022 to help get the film made. “I remember back when I was working on the second season of Mr. Robot, I almost fell out of my chair because I found out President Obama was a fan of the show,” Esmail said. “So this has been a great full-circle moment. Knowing he’s a fan of the book, a fan of my work, and a friend of Julia’s — it seemed like kismet that he and Michelle, and the incredible team at Higher Ground, would come on as producers. Their involvement was invaluable in getting this movie made.”
However, the Obamas were not involved in developing the script, nor were they on set for the production of the movie. In a previous Leave the World Behind interview with Decider, Myha’la, who plays Mahershala Ali’s on-screen daughter in the movie, said that the Obamas did not visit set during production.”
What Was Barack Obama’s Role in Netflix’s “Leave the World Behind’?
The book make the list of “Barack Obama's Summer Favorites,” so he liked the book enough to get the production over the line so to speak; enough to bankroll it.
Why, perhaps? I think it’s because the Obamas despise America. At least how it was founded and even where it stands today. They want to see white people put in their place, reparations implemented, and (like typical Democrats) they advocate for poor (blacks and BIPOCs) to be lifted up into the same high-class status they’ve come to enjoy so much.
Or, perhaps it’s because Obama has something in common with the book author. This is Rumaan Alam pictured below with his partner.
He doesn’t really look like the type of guy to be into survival or prepping topics, much less doomsday scenarios.
The director / producer of the film is Sam Esmail and we need to take look into his background as well.
“Sam Esmail wrote the script for the sci-fi film. Per Variety, the adaption makes a few diversions from the original plot of Alam's book, especially with the uncertain ending of the movie. Though, Alam said it does remain "emotionally faithful" to the spirit of the story.”
Who Is Rumaan Alam? All About The Author of 'Leave The World Behind'
Women’s Health Magazine, December 14th, 2023 - https://archive.vn/w3pwL
Always good to review at the “Early Life” sections to do a little noticing, especially for Emmy Rossum; makes me wonder if his wife had any say in the film.
Sam Esmail - Wikipedia https://archive.ph/BkLT4
Emmy Rossum - Wikipedia - https://archive.ph/uCfz4
Conclusions and Connecting the Dots
I’m curious to know what inspired or spawned the story inside the mind of the author.
Was he just extrapolating the possible scenarios of where the world is headed?
Is he an environmentalist? Does he believe in the global warming / CO₂ hoax?
Has he rubbed elbows with some higher ups in the world, picked their brains a bit, and decided this is how it plays out?
Perhaps I’m speculating too much by leaning into the apocalyptic / false flag / civil war aspects here. Because honestly, the film focuses more on social conflict than any of the exterior threats. It’s entirely possible the end goal of the film was to try and convey a simple, “why can’t we all just get along” type of lesson.
Also, I don’t really know how far the film strays from the original intent of the book. Once again, the book might not even bring the social conflicts into the spotlight as much as the film does. I have a used copy of the book on order so I’ll have to make a follow-up post about that.
The ending credits include “red OM films” which is a bit ominous.
“When said aloud, Om (or Aum) actually sounds like a three-part word. "The A represents creation, U is manifestation, and M is destruction," explains Kumar.
It's basically all-encompassing—the whole universe joined into a single sound. It represents the union of the mind, body, and the spirit."
The Revelation of the Method
It’s always said that the evil doers must announce or show what they intend to do, before they do it.
“The Revelation of the Method is an occult ritual. Used casually, the implication is always the same: when the Cryptocracy commits major crimes they will broadcast their intentions in advance through popular movies and television to avoid consequences of universal law.”
fotoqueen24 - Twitter, Dec 2, 2021
Even though this is just a sci-fi film it has all the foreshadowing of events in recent news. We certainly have plenty of speculation that cyberattacks are coming.
God knows Klaus Schwab thinks it’s an extremely likely scenario. These assholes war game these things out (just like they did with Covid) so I’m sure they have something planned; they’re just waiting for the right time to pull the trigger.
While the movie certainly leaves a lot open to individual interpretation it certainly ticks all the boxes for things to be aware of and mindful of.
The soundtrack for this film has an extra TWO frequency layers….. I wouldn’t watch this if I was paid to!
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