Warning! Spoilers ahead for Leave the World Behind.
Leave the World Behind director Sam Esmail addresses whether the recent Tesla recall had anything to do with the Tesla sequence in his film. Released last month to somewhat mixed reviews, Esmail’s new film, which is based on a novel by Rumaan Alam, follows one vacationing family as they deal with a devastating cyberattack against the U.S. Leave the World‘s tense set pieces include a cargo ship plowing into the beach, plane crashes, and, memorably, Tesla vehicles on autopilot crashing into each other on a freeway entrance ramp.
In a recent interview with Collider, Esmail makes clear that Leave the World Behind‘s Tesla sequence has nothing to do with the real-life recall of Tesla vehicles. The recent recall is specifically due to problems with the Tesla autopilot function, which is certainly quite the coincidence considering the function’s role in the film. Check out Esmail’s full comment below:
“I mean, I’m not going to take credit for that. I will say I find the timing extremely odd, but I have to think that they discovered this problem separately from the film, or at least I want to believe that… Specifically, I believe it was about the autopilot functionality, which is why there’s just that eerie coincidence or similarity to the film. But like I said, I choose to believe that it had no association, and it was just a complete coincidence.”
Why Leave The World Behind’s Tech Paranoia Resonates
Leave the World Behind‘s reviews are mostly mixed on the film overall, with audiences and critics divided over whether it is effective or not. The complaints, however, are mostly regarding the film’s characters and story ambiguity, with the technology aspects generally more effective. The movie makes clear that the Sandford’s are helplessly reliant on technology, and they can arguably be seen as stand-ins for larger society.
Ethan Hawke’s Clay, for example, has no idea where he is going without his GPS, which prevents him from going to get help. Rose, similarly, finds comfort in watching Friends, and finding a way to watch the series finale becomes her obsession. The film’s big set pieces, too, are more extreme examples of the world’s reliance on fragile technological systems, with ships and planes helpless without their navigation devices.
Although the Leave the World Behind ending provides no answers regarding why anything is happening, which has undoubtedly proven frustrating for some viewers, the downbeat ending hammers home just how crippling such a cyberattack would be. Instead of ending with all the problems solved, the fact that the U.S. remains in a state of disaster when the credits roll makes Leave the World Behind feel more like a chilling warning than a straightforward disaster flick.
