What do Netflix and the cult sitcom have to do with the apocalypse?

The sci-fi thriller Leave the World Behind has been available on Netflix since Friday. An ensemble around Julia Roberts finds itself in an apocalypse. But what exactly happened remains unclear until the end. We’ll give you these best possible explanation. Following spoiler.

Leave the World Behind ends suddenly and with many unanswered questions.
Why does the sitcom Friends play such a big role?
We navigate our way along the secure knowledge that the film provides us. We have also collected additional statements from the director Sam Esmail (Sam Esmail) and the original author Rumaan Alam. But our explanation is not the only one that exists. We interpret what we see from our perspective.

What is the disaster in Leave the World Behind?

The Sandford family goes on a spontaneous vacation to a beach area near New York. The Airbnb idyll is disturbed by GH Scott (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha’la Herrold). They pose as the actual residents of the house that Amanda Sandford (Julia Roberts) has rented. The two families have to come to terms. Then the internet goes down, the television doesn’t work and a government announcement declares a national emergency.

What happened in Leave the World Behind? Global society (perhaps just the USA) fell victim to a coordinated cyber attack. All areas that are even remotely connected to the Internet have been disabled (smartphones) or are turning against humanity (electric cars). Wild animals suddenly appear in the garden and behave threateningly. Planes crash. A shrill, unbearable sound torments the two families for minutes. Amanda’s son Archie (Charlie Evans) then becomes ill: his teeth fall out and the shrill sound is supposedly the cause. Or was it an insect bite?

Who is behind the attack?
A disinformation campaign further unsettles Amanda and the others: Clay Sandford (Ethan Hawke) finds leaflets declaring war on the USA in Arabic. The same notes are said to have appeared elsewhere in a different language: Korean or Mandarin. This is explained by the prepper neighbor Danny (Kevin Bacon), who supplies Archie with medication after an aggressive negotiation.

GH Scott sees his worst fears confirmed after this conversation. The investment banker observes patterns in world movements. As a result, he heard about one three-stage maneuver experience that is intended to bring societies down from within:

This maneuver, Scott said, was seen as the cheapest way to shake a country. And: “Whoever started it wanted us to finish it”. At this point the film ends: Amanda and Ruth see New York burning from a distance. We learn: Guerrilla armies are attacking major cities and the White House. Increased radiation levels are detected. The war has actually begun.

The meaning and significance of Leave the World Behind explained

Author Rumaan Alam says about the meaning of Leave the World Behind: “In the book, this and that happens, and [der Text] refuses to summarize everything in one statement. There is no real explanation in either version.”. We don’t have to be satisfied with that.

The main message of the film is: We are helpless without technology – and at the same time its existence is our curse. The Internet is eroding the cohesion of society with its out-of-control information flows. A statement from director Sam Esmail to Entertainment Weekly supports this interpretation: “I grew up with technology and that’s why I’m so dependent on it. I feel like a useless person without my technology”.

Without digital technology there is no information, and without information in Leave the World Behind there is uncertainty and ultimately panic and aggressiveness: all it takes is a small push for the increasing mistrust between the population particles to spark a civil war. Leave the World Behind therefore attaches great importance to this Relationship between Ruth and Amanda: The young African-American woman and the white mother only trust each other when solidarity is really the last resort. The neighbor Danny helps his desperate fellow human beings, but only after great resistance.

Esmail sees his film as a conversation starter about these topics: “It’s about getting inside your own thoughts and deciphering the fears you have about our world […] and to be moved by it enough to talk to someone about it.”

Esmail’s vision is quite optimistic: Archie, Clay and GH Scott have overcome the levels of violence and together decide to flee to a nearby bunker. But what are they wearing? confusing last minutes of the film and the Friends bracket contribute to the message of the film?

The Friends ending and the meaning of Netflix

We haven’t touched on one character’s fate yet: that of Rose Sandford (Farrah Mackenzie). Amanda and Clay’s daughter is obsessed with the sitcom Friends. On the drive to the holiday home she watches the last episode. But when the internet goes down, her stream also stops. Rose is desperate. Without the internet, she will never know how Rachel and Co.’s story ends.

Rose disappears in the last act. We meet her again in the villa under which the modernly equipped nuclear bunker is located. The girl enters the bunker and there she finds a huge one DVD shelf. Season boxes from Buffy and Grey’s Anatomy are there. And of course the final season of Friends: Netflix, but as an analogue entertainment supply.

It’s Rose’s salvation: she inserts the DVD and selects the last Friends episode from the menu. The famous song by The Rembrandts, “I’ll be there for you”, starts and with that the film ends, the song plays during the end credits. What does that mean? Two things:

Meaning 1. The Friends ending illustrates the fragility of digital media technologies and our dependence on them on a harmless but immediately understandable level. Simple example: You can only watch Leave the World Behind on Netflix. A DVD alternative like Friends is unlikely. A DVD player also cannot be hacked and offers additional analogue shelter in the bunker.

Meaning 2. Why Friends of all people? If Sam Esmail had only wanted to show how painful it is to miss the end of a series, the final episodes of Game of Thrones or Lost would probably have been more appropriate examples. The sitcom brings something different: warmth.

At the beginning, Archie accuses his sister of saying that Friends is a nostalgic celebration of a time that never existed. You can look at it differently, but the group of friends in Friends embodies an ideal of social cohesion. Just the loving lyric of the intro song “I’ll be there for you” is enough to make you happy bitter contrast: Outside the bunker and Rose’s refuge, civilization collapses and with it values ​​such as solidarity and friendship.

Leave the World Behind has been available on Netflix since December 8, 2023.