The trailer for Netflix’s upcoming apocalyptic movie is horribly hair-raising
The trailer for Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke’s new film on Netflix, Leaving the world behind, has just dropped (see below). And it looks like it’s going to be a seriously disturbing disaster movie.
The film is based on the multi-award-winning best-selling book of the same name by Rumaan Alam, and is about the worst of all: WiFi stops working. Also telephones, TV, internet and civilization in general.
Leaving the world behind was written before Covid-19, but reviews praised its eerie parallels to the global pandemic – though things in this story are even worse than that global trauma. The Guardian described the book as “an extraordinary read, at once clever, gripping and hallucinatory”.
What can we expect from Leave The World Behind?
In addition to Roberts and Hawke as a vacationing couple traveling with their children, the film also stars Mahershala Ali and Myha’la Herrol as two mysterious strangers who seek refuge from a terrifying cyber attack. The two families unite to face an increasingly terrifying disaster, and while the trailer doesn’t give away any plot points, it’s clear we’re in for some exciting action and some serious suspense too. There seem to be clear echoes of Jordan Peele’s excellence Out here: like that movie, Leaving the world behind is not afraid to look at themes of race and class.
I’m excited about this because if it stays close to the book, it will be exceptional: the biggest book of fall 2020 could be the biggest movie on Netflix 2023. The Independent called it ‘the book of the era’, while the Irish Times praised the “atmosphere of dread so convincing and prescient” that it stays with you long after the end. The Irish Independent says: “It’s the eeriness of the unfolding apocalypse, and the protagonists’ crippling inability to help themselves, that will stay with you longest.” So probably not many LOLs.
I’ll leave the last word to the New York Times: “If the first half can hold a mirror up to you, the second half will shatter that mirror,” it says.
We will review Leaving the world behind as one of the best Netflix movies of the year? Hard to say now. But the film will be streaming from December 8.