The world ends not with a bang but with a whimper in Rumaan Alam’s acclaimed book Leave the World Behind. Released at the height of the Covid pandemic, it’s a kind of literary disaster novel—what awful people call “elevated genre.” And now it’s a movie written and directed by Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail.
When is Leave the World Behind being released in New Zealand?
Leave the World Behind is now streaming in New Zealand exclusively on Netflix;
Leave the World Behind
What is Leave the World Behind about?
As the official synopsis tells us: “A family vacation on Long Island is interrupted by two strangers bearing news of a mysterious blackout. As the threat grows more imminent, both families must decide how best to survive the potential crisis, all while grappling with their own place in this collapsing world.”
The source novel can definitely be filed in the “cozy catastrophe” subgenre, being more concerned with theme and mood than your more Mad Max-inspired apocalyptic fiction.
The cast of Leave the World Behind
Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke are Amanda and Clay Sandford; Farrah Mackenzie and Charlie Evans are their kids, Rose and Archie; and Mahershala Ali and Myha’la are the intruders, G.H. and Ruth Scott, who are actually the owners of the house where much of the story takes place. This being an Airbnb-gone-wrong situation as well as a global disaster. Kevin Bacon also shows up at some point.
Leave the World Behind trailer
Why we’re excited about Leave the World Behind
It feels like we’ve seen this kind of apocalyptic character drama before, and also on Netflix. Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up and Noah Baumbach’s White Noise, itself an adaption of a Don DeLillo novel, come immediately to mind. It’s pretty obvious that this little micro-trend is reflecting our own broad anxieties about the future. The cast is top-notch, and Sam Esmail is a dab hand when it comes to taking the measure of our own dystopian moment, so we’re here for this particular armageddon.
