Warning! Spoilers ahead for Leave the World Behind.
Leave the World Behind director Sam Esmail comments on the “polarizing” ending to his new Netflix film. Serving as an adaptation of Rumaan Alam’s 2020 novel of the same name, Esmail’s new movie follows a family on vacation whose world is turned upside down after a series of cataclysmic events. The film stars Ethan Hawke, Julia Roberts, and Mahershala Ali, and ends on a decidedly ambiguous note. While Leave the World Behind‘s reviews are generally positive overall, the ending has proven divisive.
In a recent interview with THR, Esmail addresses Leave the World Behind‘s ending, which sees daughter Rose (Farrah Mackenzie) finding a bunker in which she can watch the Friends series finale as New York City essentially goes up in flames. No answers are provided regarding exactly what is behind the various disastrous events in the movie and, according to the director, this was a key part of his vision. Check out Esmail’s full comment below:
“We knew going into this that the ending was going to be polarizing, but we did not want to pull punches on it. I think in a traditional disaster film, a genre that I’m a huge fan of, so no knock on disaster films — I mean, Day after Tomorrow is one of my favorite movies — but the expectation is at the end of these films, your cast of characters overcomes the disaster and the world reverts back to some sane semblance of normalcy. I knew that I wasn’t going to do that.”
“As a film lover, I’m excited when I leave a movie wanting to spend hours talking about it. And when you end a film with sort of a pat answer, where the heroes do overcome something, those tend to be the movies where they kind of come and go. So we knew making this film that we wanted to go in this provocative way, and we assumed the risk that it would divide people — and hopefully in a good way, because that provokes conversation.”
Why Leave The World Behind’s Ending Is So Divisive
Does The Ending Work?
While critics generally look favorably upon Esmail’s latest work, it does seem like the more ambiguous nature of the film has left some viewers feeling frustrated. This is reflected in Leave the World Behind‘s Rotten Tomatoes scores, with the film sitting at a respectable 75% critics score, but a fairly lackluster 34% audience score. The ending is certainly part of the reason for this low score, but other common complaints include the unlikable Leave the World Behind cast of characters and character dynamics that don’t feel authentic.
Evidently, there’s a fine line to walk when it comes to ambiguous endings. Answer too many questions and the ending may not generate discussion or further critical thinking about the film, but answer too few and the events that precede the ending may feel somewhat pointless. It seems that, for many, Leave the World Behind falls more into the latter category.
Instead of being about the specific cataclysmic events that occur, Leave the World Behind is very much focused on how these events affect the dynamic of the main family. The characters, who are indeed very flawed, are used to explore themes relating to the impact that technology has on people’s lives and the fragile nature of the technological systems that dominate the modern world. In a sense, then, Leave the World Behind accomplishes what it sets out to do, but, clearly, this hasn’t resulted in a satisfying movie-watching experience for all.
