Netflix loves its apocalyptic thrillers. It feels like they have practically cornered the market on bleak science fiction thrillers about the end of the world and/or the one or two attractive movie stars left after the end of the world. I just went to look on Netflix, and was honestly surprised that there wasn’t an entire subsection of “Sci-Fi” dedicated to “The End of the World”. I did search “apocalypse” and saw so many titles: Awake, The Silence, How It Ends, The Midnight Sky, The Worthy, The Silence, IO: Last on Earth, and many more.
I would assume Netflix keeps making these movies because their customers keep watching them. Their latest is surely one of their classiest productions in this mode: Leave the World Behind, based on the acclaimed 2020 novel and starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, and Ethan Hawke in the story of a vacationing family who is staying at a remote Airbnb when the world seems to begin to fall apart. It’s not quite clear from the trailer precisely the source of the nightmare (cyber attacks maybe?) but by the end of the trailer there’s all kinds of wacky shenanigans. Take a look below:
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Here is the film’s official synopsis:
In this apocalyptic thriller from award-winning writer and director Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot), Amanda (Academy Award winner Julia Roberts) and her husband Clay (Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke), rent a luxurious home for the weekend with their kids, Archie (Charlie Evans) and Rose (Farrah Mackenzie). Their vacation is soon upended when two strangers — G.H. (Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha’la) — arrive in the night, bearing news of a mysterious cyberattack and seeking refuge in the house they claim is theirs. The two families reckon with a looming disaster that grows more terrifying by the minute, forcing everyone to come to terms with their places in a collapsing world.
Leave the World Behind will premiere in theaters on November 22 and then premieres on Netflix on December 8.
