Leave the world behind - Netflix

[Bundtbake]

Just watched this, really enjoying it - then it just finished! Very disappointing ending..... 🤔

Why are you so convinced?

About what? 😀

I'm just answering the point about nuclear bombs and illustrating how they work.

..That it’s a nuclear weapon

Not sure you’d know how long it’d take for the people watching to be impacted anyway

@EasternStandard

We're told that there's been an attack, radiation exposure - several times. (Initial texts before the phones go down, then screen in the bunker at the end).

Yeah, I guess the clouds could be something else 🤷🏻‍♀️

But the impact issue is just how it works - they don't annihilate everyone at once, it's the aftermath of the radiation that is devastating.

The book is very different. The disaster is more the backdrop to the dynamics between the characters. It doesn’t really matter what’s happened- that’s not the point. The Kevin Bacon character has much more prominence in the book and the relationship between him and GH is important. The Julia/ Ethan couple have a failing marriage- he’s basically a bit of a loser. This was hinted at in the film but not as much as the book. When the other couple turn up ( in the book it’s his wife not his daughter), there are clear undertones of racism,- basically they don’t believe that a black guy could own the house. But there’s also another dynamic between GH and the handyman guy where GH thinks they’re great buddies but the handyman secretly despises him and ends up betraying him.

I enjoyed the film but I think they should have stuck to the book more faithfully as it was a bit stuck in the middle between the original plot and an action driven dystopian movie.

Is the ending the same @Sparehair?

That sounds a lot more interesting (and makes it clear why the relationships between characters matter!)

I think I'd like to read it now, out if interest.

Is the ending the same

Apparently not. It's been mentioned a number of times & in the Variety article.

(She goes back to the family, not remains in the house. There's a lot less explicit explanation too I think).

You know what, I can’t actually remember. I remember it ends with you realising there’s no happy ending - I remember thinking it was quite realistic because if the world ended you wouldn’t actually find it what happened.

www.nytimes.com/2023/12/07/movies/leave-the-world-behind-review.html

Good review, I think, explaining how the open-ended approach to the novel works, compared to the interpretation given by the movie.

One of the absolute worst films I have ever seen.
The music was trash
The plot was “How to survive the apocalypse for dummies written by dummies”
I can suspend disbelief with the best when it comes to science fiction and fantasy, but this was another level of ridiculously stupid.
So badly researched. Hideous writing. The plot had more holes in it than a sponge.
I feel really sorry for the decent actors as it is a flop.

I think you should read it and remake the film to be honest. You seem to know a lot about film production. Julia will be gutted she didn't wait for your version.

There was no nuclear blast shown in the film. I’ve seen what they look like having watched footage of nuclear blasts, including seeing the last above ground the US did in 1992 in Nevada. The view they see in the film of NYC is just a few bombs and fires. A nuclear blast that close to them would have fried all the trees and burnt them to a crisp.

@GonksAreNotJustForChristmas

What a snide comment.

Have you misunderstood the nature of an internet forum? And indeed this thread? It's a discussion including different views. Yours are as valid as mine - and vice versa.

Baffling to be so pointedly rude.

It entirely depends on their megaton yields - a bomb with 1 megaton yield will destroy 80 sq miles at impact

No. The stupid dummy premise was the use of sonic and microwave weapons.

The scene of a the sonic weapon going off and the flamingos flying away from the heated pool at night- stupid stupid. Sonic weapons stun birds. If they are midflight, they drop out of the sky and if they fall far enough it kills them. The Flamingos would have been stunned and drowned in the pool.

Julia Roberts wouldn’t be running through the woods during a sonic blast either and then at the end hear “hey mommy” and hold a conversation. You are completely incapacitated, writhing in agony and if it went on as long as the film showed, you would be unconscious and wake up with temporary deafness and permanent hearing loss.

Microwave weapons would cook birds and they’d all drop dead whether mid flight or on the ground, in a tree in around 4-5 seconds. Humans- our heads explode and we die 8 seconds for a child, 11 seconds for an adult.

Magnetic fields, those are EMP weapons and they affect IT not humans or annimals…unless you have a pacemaker.

I'm pretty sure they were not showing nuclear bombs in the end. The (conventional) bomb clouds plus the sound of random gunfire indicating societal collapse was surely the point rather than the annihilation of a nuclear bomb. They invited you to think about what might be happening in the city, not that it was annihilated.

Yeah I know. Even if it were the smallest nuclear bomb ever (which isn’t even in anyone’s arsenal), that view from Long Island to NYC as the crow flies across Long Island Sound, is only 20miles (17.1 nautical miles). They would have been just outside the total obliteration portion where not even an human shaped shadow remains and just within the fire storm burn you to ash part of a nuclear blast.

@MercanDede it was an allegory, not supposed to be realistic. The changing picture in the living room was the clue.

I enjoyed it. I thought the ending was appropriate.

Allegory of what?

The multitude of constant errors in realism was very distracting I do admit.

They don’t say radiation exposure, they mention microwaves which is not technically radiation. The attack is referred to as a cyber attack.

Our own disconnect with reality.

There was mention of radiation in the transmission to the bunker in the last few minutes, but I didn't take that to mean an atomic bomb

The emergency alert system on the screen in the bunker at the end specificaly mentions radiation. It says:

"White House and major cities under attack by rogue armed forces.

Elevated radiation levels detected near multiple population centres.

Seek Shelter."