Leave the World Behind

Summary

Warning : comprise SPOILERS for Leave the World BehindThe Netflix revelatory disaster filmLeave the World Behindis packed with easter egg , obscure inside information , and reference that , if viewers are not paying close attention , they could easy miss . impart the World Behindfollows the Sandford family staying on vacation while the United States is teetering on the threshold of total collapse from an apparent cyberattack . In the process , the Sandford ’s arrive into tangency with the owner of their vacation home , and his young girl , and together they must face the impending disaster and foreign occurrences that this State of Emergency bring .

Leave the World Behindis part of Netflix’smulti - film producing spate with Barack and Michelle Obama , it is spell and directed by Sam Esmail and stars Julia Roberts , Ethan Hawke , and Mahershala Ali . Esmail is sleep with for creating the play seriesMr . RobotandLeave the World Behindeven features several references and allusions to his late show . Leave the World Behindalso references many film and television serial , such asFriends , asLeave the World Behinddelivers a subject matter about the way society aspect and consumes mass medium . lead the World Behindalso includes many instances of clever foreshadowing , interesting symbolism , and shifting imagination for observing viewer to recognize .

8Friends (1994 - 2004)

Leave the World Behind features many references to NBC sitcom Friends

Cast

The most consistent pop refinement reference throughoutLeave the World Behindis the sitcomFriends . As the United States move closer to collapse , the youngest Sandford youngster Rose , act by Farrah Mackenzie , is disturbed she can not watch the final episode ofFriendsdue to the impendent calamity unplug the internet . The character reference toFriendsact as more than a nod to the picture show ’s star Julia Roberts , whoguest - asterisk on a time of year 2 instalment ofFriends , and signal the modern era ’s obsession with escapism , nostalgia , and mass medium . Leave the World Behindends on a strangely upbeat note as Rose , confined to a doomsday bunker , discover a stockpile of DVDs , includingFriends .

7The Collapsing Jenga Game

Leave the World Behind cleverly foreshadows the film’s impending disaster

In the first 20 min ofLeave the World Behind , married man and wife Clay and Amanda Sandford , played by Ethan Hawke and Julia Roberts , are visualize work the board biz Jenga , where player must remove one wooden block from a pillar at a time until it enviably crumble . ThisJenga game smartly foreshadows the societal collapse thatLeave the World Behindis building towards . Later on , when the characters see the annunciation of a national hand brake on television , the tower at last flop as the symbolic theatrical of the danger that is about to unfold .

6The West Wing (1999 - 2006)

Leave the World Behind references an episode of The West Wing to explain Ruth’s motivations

Like many the great unwashed in today ’s engineering science - obsess era , Rose Sandford realise the man through the media she devour . It is meet then that when Rose attempts to explain her fears to her mother Amanda , she does it by reflecting on a tale she heard in an sequence ofthe political dramaThe West Wing . Rose tells the fib of a adult male in an emergency who waited too long for God to redeem him , and that she feels the clock time for her to act has come . The juxtaposition between Rose living through a real - living disaster situation and apply the lessons she learn from video highlights the movie ’s message of a metier - obsessed society .

5Donnie Darko (2001)

Leave the World Behind has Ruth compare Rose’s strange behaviour to Donnie Darko

It is not just Rose Sanford who see the earth through medium as even Ruth Scott , the young distrustful womanhood played by Myha’la whose house the Sandford ’s are staying in , line Rose as the minuscule girl who “ keeps starring into the woodwind like Donnie Darko . ” This is a reference to the 2001 science fiction thrillerDonnie Darkostarring Jake Gyllenhaal . In the film , Donnie Darko has premonitions about an impending catastrophe , and much like Ruth , appears as obsessive and strange . The fact that the young characters ’ references always follow from media made before their time foreground the disconnection the younger genesis feels to the modern world .

4Clay, Archie, And Ruth’s Clothing

Leave the World Behind gives insight into the characters through their clothing

A lot can be inferred from the clothing that various fictitious character wear out throughoutLeave the World Behind . The media professor Clay Sandford , played by Ethan Hawke , sports a band T - shirt from the1990s riot grrrl feminist hoodlum group Bikini Kill , hinting at his progressive , forward - intellection , and humanist earth outlook . The firstborn Sandford boy Archie , play by Charlie Evans , is seen wear off an Obey clothing T - shirt , itself a reference book to the 1988 John Carpenter filmThey Live , which likewise consider with smart set ’s obsession with mass media . Finally , Ruth Sandford ’s NASA shirt align well with the character ’s desire for escapism and her head - in - the - clouds obsession with television .

3Mr. Robot (2015 - 2019)

Leave the World Behind features many allusions to Sam Esmail’s previous project Mr. Robot

pass on the World Behindwas compose and channelize byMr . Robotcreator Sam Esmail and is full of reference to the hacker dramatic play series . The first allusion come in when doomsday prepper Danny , bring by Kevin Bacon , is loading his truck filled with jaundiced pail that have E - Corp labeling , the malevolent corporation fromMr . Robot , and later , Amanda ’s laptop also bears the E - Corp label . Amanda is also readingBeach Towel , a fabricated novel written byMr . Robotcharacter Irving . Eagle - eyed viewers will also know the hacking mentioned by Ruth that almost caused anuclear nuclear meltdown at a magnate works in New Jersey is also a reference toMr . Robot .

2The Deer Symbolism

Leave the World Behind uses deer as a symbol for bad omens

1The Paintings

Leave the World Behind has shifting paintings that mimic the characters' worsening situation

One obscure detail inLeave the World Behindthat could easily go unnoticed by viewing audience who are not paying close attention is related to the paintings reckon in the Scott family . As the disastrous story of the account unfolds , the paintings in the home also change to mirror the discombobulation and chaotic nature of what the character are experience . For example , the wafture mural in the bedroom is present to be unagitated and unagitated at the start ofLeave the World Behind . By the middle of the movie , the waves have grown taller . eventually , by the time they are last image , when Archie ’s tooth are falling out , the waves are quick to break apart over the Sandford kinfolk wholly .

Sources : Vulture , Literary gimmick

Leave the World Behind (2023) - Poster - Deer In Middle Of The Road

Composite image of Julia Roberts as Amanda Sandford and the rest of the family in Leave the World Behind

Headshot Of Jennifer Aniston In The Emmy FYC Event for Apple TV+’s ‘The Morning Show’

Headshot Of Courteney Cox In The Los Angeles Premiere Of Warner Bros. Television’s ‘Shining Vale’

Headshot Of Lisa Kudrow In The NBC’s ‘Carol Burnett: 90 Years Of Laughter + Love’ Birthday Special

Headshot Of Matt LeBlanc In The Showtimes Eposodes Viewing Party

The cast of Leave the World Behind look at the game of Jenga collapsing after a State of Emergency has been announced

Headshot Of Martin Sheen In The PaleyFest LA

Headshot Of Bradley Whitford

Headshot Of Allison Janney

Myha’la as Ruth Scott tells Mahershala Ali as G.H. Scott that Rose is like Donnie Darko in bed in Leave the World Behind

Headshot Of Jake Gyllenhaal

Headshot of Holmes Osborne

Headshot OF Maggie Gyllenhaal

Headshot Of Daveigh Chase

Ethan Hawke as Clay Sandford wearing a Bikini Kill t-shirt and Julia Roberts as Amanda Sandford in Netflix’s Leave the World Behind

Kevin Bacon as Danny loading water bottles onto his truck with yellow buckets that have the E-Corp label from Mr. Robot in the Netflix film Leave the World Behind

Headshot Of Christian Slater

Headshot Of Portia Doubleday

Headshot Of Rami Malek In The UK premiere of Oppenheimer

Cast Placeholder Image

Leave the World Behind