Leave the World Behind (2023) – Digital 9/11?

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Director: Sam Esmail

Cast:  Julia Roberts. Mahershala Ali. Ethan Hawke. Myha’la. Kevin Bacon. Farrah Mackenzie. Charlie Evans.

Duration: 2 hours 18 minutes

Platform: Netflix.

You are reading this probably on your mobile or on your laptop browser. Everything is fine. Your network is good.  Your Internet Plan is fantastic that gives you terrific speeds during downloads and watching movies online. Suddenly your screen freezes and you see things going round and round and then you get the famous “404” error. You shrug it off as a temporary problem.

hen your electricity goes off. Your mobile displays no signal wherever you go.

Soon things start going south. You cannot talk to anyone or get any information at all.

What if this really happened?

What if our current way of “connected life’ as we know it, suddenly goes haywire? In short, what will you do when everything in the world as you know it goes downhill and out of control? What if there is a Digital 9/11 followed by a Digital Apocalypse leading to a chain reaction in every other aspect of life?

This film builds on this premise slowly and steadily.

Plot: A family is on holiday at a luxury residence turned hotel. Husband Clay Sanford (Ethan Hawke) is a teacher. Wife Amanda Sanford (Julia Roberts) works in advertising, leaving her with a low cynical view of human nature. Daughter Rose (Farrah McKenzie) is obsessed with watching the TV serial Friends since ‘everything in that world works’. Son Archie (Charlie Evans) is typical for his age.

While relaxing at the beach, a giant tanker heads straight for their spot. They and others at the beach run for their lives when the tanker runs aground at the beach (some of them take videos while running away from the tanker).

They return to their luxury mansion and continue trying to contact through their dead mobile networks.  At night two black strangers enter the home, claiming they are the owners. Soft spoken Scott (Mahershala Ali) roams around the house as if he knows each and every corner. Amanda is immensely suspicious of them. Scott’s daughter Ruth (Myha’la) returns the bad vibes. The family of four and the two strangers spend an uncomfortable night. There are strange high pitched shrieking sounds that shatter glass.

Curious deer from the nearby forest enter the property. In the morning Amanda sees some garbled messages on her mobile about a terrorist attack that has shut down internet services and electricity. Their ordeal is just beginning.

A film with just six characters and it turns out almost like a filmed play; however, the scope of the action and the story goes far beyond a ‘stage’. Its back to basics for every character – do you trust each other to survive or do you continue to be as suspicious as you were when the two black interlopers entered the world of the white family? Is it a home invasion? Or a far bigger invasion by forces you and your government have no clue about? Why are the deer from the nearby forest area nosing around the property?

This is an excellent slow burn  thriller that forces us to think what life would be if we didn’t have “modern conveniences’ like the Internet and uninterrupted electricity.  Simple things which we take for granted may be soon a thing of “the past’ as we see more and more the characters being reduced to really think beyond their ‘digital way of thinking” to a “back to basics” approach to life.   Like most good thrillers and ‘mystery’ movies, the large scale events like the cyber-attack, happen “off camera”. It’s the characters reacting to the events, that forms the interesting drama.

The ’science’ angle of the events is explained well by “survivalist” Danny (Kevin Bacon) who has seen it all and ‘stocked up’ accordingly.  The explanation seems shockingly possible. No one needs to nuke your enemy. The ‘digital 9/11‘ will guarantee the chaos that will follow.

The lesson for us to get connected back to people is forced down on us a little too ‘conveniently’ and somewhat ‘filmi manner’. Black people and White people must live together to survive eh? Sounds very 1960s preachy.   Apart from this ‘silent’ preaching , the film is extremely absorbing; if some ten to fifteen minutes had been cut, this film would have been even more riveting.  This type of future is possible. Very much possible. Check out this link which says that a Cyber Pearl Harbor has already happened in various forms

And be afraid. very afraid!

The film is available on  Netflix

Script – 4 out of 5

Story – 5 out of 5

Direction – 4 out of 5

Photography – 4 out of 5

Total – 4.3 out of 5