Beware the Netflix Julia Roberts film Leave the World Behind - SPOILER

[WelshFionaThePlasticSurgeryGorgon]

if you don't want to spend 2 hours plus and not get a satisfactory ending...GRRRR!

Deers were a weird subplot but I suppose included just to show you nature was unsettled.

What were the pills Danny had that miraculously cured radiation poisoning?

Why was Danny & family not in the bunker? I expect his stockpile of toilet roll would not protect him from nuclear fallout!

I liked Roberts being ratty & she shouldn’t have apologised for it, I would have been ratty too, trying to hold it together & protect your family! She’d spent 2k on a relaxing weekend away & it had all gone to shit.

Not enough angst about food, toilet facilities & water.definitely not enough grieving & despair for the lost mother!

Good luck in the bunker with 2 teenagers and 4 adults with weird sexual chemistry between them! I think I’d stay in George’s house until the reckoning came for me!

The deer/flamingo thing is about us destroying the climate and animals turning against us. It's in the news everyday, more and more animal attacks. It's kind of literal.

What were the pills Danny had that miraculously cured radiation poisoning?

Presumably Potassium Iodide.

I enjoyed it, but were those plants in the bunker left in the dark until someone turned on the lights? how were they alive?

I knew nothing about the movie so when we started watching I thought it was a bad couple comes to stay, so that part worked well

The only part I questioned was the no ID. No papers in the car or did they have their phones, most can show who we are pretty quickly with stuff on there

But I thought the actors were great and good effects

Fair enough @Anselma - I like to use my imagination

I kind of liked it but I suspected early on it wasn't going to be nicely resolved. I think that if you focus on the journey - the mood, atmosphere, characters - and forget about the destination, I thought it was pretty well done.

According to the OED, apocalyptic is a catastrophic event, pretty sure that would cover it.. I just rewatched, The Blast from the Past,, pure co incidence, but at least entertaining.

Of course it was about an apocalypse! It was about the beginning of one and how the hackers, whoever they were, all they had to do was take out satellite comms and confuse the populace (Arabic leaflets on the East coast, Chinese leaflets on the West coast) and the US citizens would do the rest and start attacking each other (rogue armies storming the capital etc). I thought that was really clever and probably very precient. Once you're heading down into a bunker then it pretty much the apocalypse! Yeah not going to be fun with that dynamic though.

I bought some potassium iodide tablets when Russia invaded Ukraine. DH and I argue about what we would do. He thinks it's pointless and would give up whereas I unfortunately know that I would futility try and survive. Hopefully some of my neighbours have a bunker handily open without a code and would be at work.

Alstolemylunch,yes, that's why I said,"apocalyptic" and was named and shamed by another poster 🤣

Did you miss the point that it’s not an apocalyptic film.

Op your Beware title is unnecessary I have to say. As you can see many of us really liked it, so why not let people make up their own minds.

I’m thinking some didn’t understand what the film was about if they found the ending unclear. It’s not a popcorn film, you have to think for yourself.

I loved it but then I don't need to be spoon fed everything and it's just a movie. Same as the "disappointing Wonka" thread, can people not just enjoy something for what it is anymore?

i read in one review that this role was her (Julia) best ever, ! so not true ?
have not read the book so will swere the film as you all say it's pants

The cinematography was absolutely outstanding. Some of those tracking shots were insane.

I agree - pure genius. This lifted the film immensely and was fascinating to watch.

It gets top marks from me. I thought it was fabulous.

I am going to rewatch it tonight!

I quite enjoyed it but I wasn’t convinced by how most of them behaved, most of the time.

Why did it take George so long to come to the point about who he was and what he wanted?

How come one day they’re at a crowded beach and the next there is nobody around for miles?

How come there was nobody to steer the oil tanker? You don’t need the internet to keep a ship going in the right direction. Had they all been killed?

Why did they keep drinking alcohol and lying around by the pool even after it was clear there was serious shit going on?

Why didn’t they keep a closer eye on the kids?

The children are teenagers on holiday, how come they went to sleep before their parents?

How did the water and electricity stay on so long?

Why did the neighbours leave their house and bunker so open and accessible that a 13 year old could break into it?

And above all: if they didn’t know why the boy’s teeth were falling out how could they be so certain that Danny, who was also not a doctor, had magic pills to treat it? If they thought it was radiation sickness they weren’t behaving at all like you would if you thought there was radioactivity about.

The deer and flamingos were quite easy to buy compared to all of that.

Agree that Julia was brilliant.

I liked all of them but Mahershala Ali in particular

I don’t think we can. Competitively criticising, negativity and cynicism seems to be our natural state now. I blame SM to a certain extent. It opened up the world and everything that goes on in it and we all found it so badly wanting that we have no optimism or joy left. Mostly though it’s identity politics, which have divided us and made us so suspicious of one another that I don’t know if we can ever overcome it and find our way back. Which funnily enough is something I think this movie was trying to convey.

I absolutely love him. Julia Roberts was on Graham Norton last week wearing a jumper with an image of him knitted on the front 😁

how could they be so certain that Danny, who was also not a doctor, had magic pills to treat it?

He was a prepper. Of course he would have iodide pills.

@BethDuttonsTwin Spot on.

@BethDuttonsTwin couldn't agree more. It's very sad.

Potassium iodide doesn’t magically reverse the effects of radiation poisoning, all it does is protects your thyroid from damage by radioactive iodine.

I can believe the dad was dim enough not to know this and I can believe Danny would have been happy to con him but I can’t believe George wouldn’t know that.

In any case they said they didn’t know what was causing it and were speculating about microwave weapons plus they were not behaving like you would if you were concerned about irradiation.