Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, And Mahershala Ali Deal With A Cyberattack In The Leave The World Behind Trailer
An unsuspecting family on vacation at a remote house encounters cryptic strangers bearing warnings of an impending apocalypse? You'd be forgiven for assuming I'm talking about M. Night Shyamalan's "Knock at the Cabin," but I'm actually referring to another 2023 movie: "Leave the World Behind." Unlike Shyamalan's latest offering, however, this one isn't a home invasion flick so much as a psychological thriller that gives rise to a survival drama. They seem to have similar vibes, though, right down to including a core character who waxes philosophical in a deliberate, solemn fashion about the end of the world.
Dave Bautista is, in that sense, to "Knock at the Cabin" what Mahershala Ali is to "Leave the World Behind." The film centers on a married couple, Amanda (Julia Roberts) and Clay (Ethan Hawke), who are enjoying a weekend getaway with their kids, Archie (Charlie Evans) and Rose (Farrah Mackenzie), when Ali's character, George "G.H." Washington, and his daughter Rue (Myha'la Herrold) drop in to ruin the mood, revealing that a calamitous cyberattack is about to turn the entire world upside-down. Elsewhere, Kevin Bacon can be seen skulking around and behaving rather paranoid in the movie's trailer. He did just get abducted by aliens, though, so that would explain his jumpiness.
It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine) in the Leave the World Behind trailer
Do you take pleasure in idling away your free time thinking about how all it would take is a substantial cyberattack to throw our technology-dependent modern world into complete and utter disarray? One presumes author Rumaan Alam does, which is how he came to write the 2020 novel that inspired "Leave the World Behind." Sam Esmail, the creator of "Mr. Robot" and the helmer of the Roberts-led first season of "Homecoming," wrote and directed the movie adaptation, which seems like a pretty perfect confluence of creatives with an inclination for dealing in timely paranoia-driven storytelling.
Netflix will premiere this one at AFI Fest on October 25, 2023, in a bid to start beating the awards drum ahead of the film's arrival later in the fall. Esmail even got an unexpected assist on his script from executive producer Barack Obama, who apparently has some prior experience in matters of national security. As Email explained to Vanity Fair:
"I am writing what I think is fiction, for the most part, I'm trying to keep it as true to life as possible, but I'm exaggerating and dramatizing. And to hear an ex-president say you're off by a few details ... I thought I was off by a lot! The fact that he said that scared the f**k out of me."
"Leave the World Behind" will open in select theaters on November 22, 2023, before streaming on Netflix two weeks later on December 8, 2023.