8 Easter Eggs & Hidden Details In Leave The World Behind

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Leave the World BehindThe Netflix apocalyptic disaster film Leave the World Behind is packed with easter eggs, hidden details, and references that, if viewers are not paying close attention, they could easily miss. Leave the World Behind follows the Sandford family staying on vacation while the United States is teetering on the brink of total collapse from an apparent cyberattack. In the process, the Sandford’s come into contact with the owner of their vacation home, and his young daughter, and together they must face the impending disaster and strange occurrences that this State of Emergency brings.

Leave the World Behind is part of Netflix’s multi-picture producing deal with Barack and Michelle Obama, it is written and directed by Sam Esmail and stars Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, and Mahershala Ali. Esmail is known for creating the drama series Mr. Robot and Leave the World Behind even features several references and allusions to his previous show. Leave the World Behind also references many movies and television series, such as Friends, as Leave the World Behind delivers a message about the way society views and consumes media. Leave the World Behind also includes many instances of clever foreshadowing, interesting symbolism, and shifting imagery for observant viewers to recognize.

8 Friends (1994 – 2004)

Leave the World Behind features many references to NBC sitcom Friends

The most consistent pop culture reference throughout Leave the World Behind is the sitcom Friends. As the United States moves closer to collapse, the youngest Sandford child Rose, played by Farrah Mackenzie, is upset she cannot watch the final episode of Friends due to the impending disaster disconnecting the internet. The references to Friends act as more than a nod to the movie’s star Julia Roberts, who guest-starred on a season 2 episode of Friends, and signal the modern era’s obsession with escapism, nostalgia, and media. Leave the World Behind ends on a strangely upbeat note as Rose, confined to a doomsday bunker, finds a stockpile of DVDs, including Friends.

7 The Collapsing Jenga Game

Leave the World Behind cleverly foreshadows the film’s impending disaster

In the first 20 minutes of Leave the World Behind, husband and wife Clay and Amanda Sandford, played by Ethan Hawke and Julia Roberts, are seen playing the board game Jenga, where participants must remove one wooden block from a tower at a time until it enviably collapses. This Jenga game cleverly foreshadows the societal collapse that Leave the World Behind is building towards. Later on, when the characters witness the announcement of a national emergency on television, the tower at last collapses as the symbolic representation of the danger that is about to unfold.

6 The West Wing (1999 – 2006)

Leave the World Behind references an episode of The West Wing to explain Ruth’s motivations

Like many people in today’s technology-obsessed era, Rose Sandford understands the world through the media she consumes. It is fitting then that when Rose attempts to explain her fears to her mother Amanda, she does it by reflecting on a story she heard in an episode of the political drama The West Wing. Rose tells the story of a man in an emergency who waited too long for God to save him, and that she feels the time for her to act has come. The juxtaposition between Rose living through a real-life disaster situation and utilizing the lessons she learned from television highlights the movie’s message of a media-obsessed society.

5 Donnie Darko (2001)

Leave the World Behind has Ruth compare Rose’s strange behaviour to Donnie Darko

It is not just Rose Sanford who sees the world through media as even Ruth Scott, the young distrustful woman played by Myha’la whose house the Sandford’s are staying in, describes Rose as the little girl who “keeps starring into the woods like Donnie Darko.” This is a reference to the 2001 science fiction thriller Donnie Darko starring Jake Gyllenhaal. In the film, Donnie Darko has premonitions about an impending disaster, and much like Ruth, appears as obsessive and strange. The fact that the younger characters’ references always come from media made before their time highlights the disconnect the younger generation feels to the modern world.

4 Clay, Archie, And Ruth’s Clothing

Leave the World Behind gives insight into the characters through their clothing

A lot can be inferred from the clothing that various characters wear throughout Leave the World Behind. The media professor Clay Sandford, played by Ethan Hawke, sports a band T-shirt from the 1990s riot grrrl feminist punk group Bikini Kill, hinting at his progressive, forward-thinking, and humanist world outlook. The eldest Sandford son Archie, played by Charlie Evans, is seen wearing an Obey clothing T-shirt, itself a reference to the 1988 John Carpenter film They Live, which similarly deals with society’s obsession with mass media. Finally, Ruth Sandford’s NASA shirt aligns well with the character’s desire for escapism and her head-in-the-clouds obsession with television.

3 Mr. Robot (2015 – 2019)

Leave the World Behind features many allusions to Sam Esmail’s previous project Mr. Robot

Leave the World Behind was written and directed by Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail and is full of references to the hacker drama series. The first allusion comes when doomsday prepper Danny, played by Kevin Bacon, is loading his truck filled with yellow buckets that have E-Corp labeling, the evil corporation from Mr. Robot, and later, Amanda’s laptop also bears the E-Corp label. Amanda is also reading Beach Towel, a fictitious novel written by Mr. Robot character Irving. Eagle-eyed viewers will also know the hacking mentioned by Ruth that almost caused a nuclear meltdown at a power plant in New Jersey is also a reference to Mr. Robot.

2 The Deer Symbolism

Leave the World Behind uses deer as a symbol for bad omens

One major symbol that reappears throughout Leave the World Behind is that of the deer. While Amanda first comments on their appearance, Clay is quick to assert that seeing deer is a good omen before clarifying “at least according to Mesoamerican mythology.” This clarification is necessary as in Greek mythology a deer is associated with death due to Greek leader Agamemnon killing one in sacrifice to the goddess Artemis (via Vulture) or in Kurdish culture the deer represents bad luck (via Literary Devices.) As society’s plight continues to worsen throughout Leave the World Behind, and more deer start to appear, it is confirmed these deer are in fact not a good omen.

1 The Paintings

Leave the World Behind has shifting paintings that mimic the characters’ worsening situation

One hidden detail in Leave the World Behind that could easily go unnoticed by viewers who are not paying close attention is related to the paintings seen in the Scott household. As the disastrous narrative of the story unfolds, the paintings in the home also change to mirror the confusion and chaotic nature of what the characters are experiencing. For example, the wave mural in the bedroom is shown to be calm and serene at the start of Leave the World Behind. By the middle of the film, the waves have grown taller. Finally, by the time they are last seen, when Archie’s teeth are falling out, the waves are ready to crash over the Sandford family entirely.

Sources: Vulture, Literary Devices