Last year while in Italy, a cab driver who couldn’t speak English was trying to explain something that sounded serious. To overcome the language barrier, he spoke Italian quickly into Google translate, which spit out the English translation.
In the future this exchange will get even easier. Artificial intelligence models are working toward instant translation tools. Eventually, a Neuralink-like device could allow us to “think” our comments, and have them instantly translated for the person we’re “talking” to.
We’re headed toward an exciting, and a bit scary, time ahead. But that presumes our technology remains in our hands (or heads). The hit new Netflix movie “Leave the World Behind” brings us deep into a present-day alternate universe where technology is suddenly rendered moot. What would happen to our society next?
The answer is ominous and pessimistic, and it’s one of a few major themes in the loosely science-fiction film that draws some curiously cynical conclusions. “Leave the World Behind” is written and directed by Sam Esmail, creator of “Mr. Robot” and “Homecoming,” and adapted from the 2020 novel of the same name by Rumaan Alam.
The real eyebrow-raiser here is who produced it — former President and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama. According to Esmail, the Obamas weren’t just superficial names in the credits — Barack had “a lot of notes” for the creator.
So what does the former president want to say about America with this film — and what does the film say about America? Frankly, it has a pretty low opinion of our culture and our communities, but there are some deeper commentaries too. Julia Roberts, who stars with Ethan Hawke and Mahershala Ali, starts the movie by surprising Hawke with an impromptu vacation to a Hamptons-like town. From her tony Brooklyn apartment, she stares out at the people walking by, thinking about how they all want to “make something of themselves, make something of the world,” before correcting herself. “Then I remembered what the world is actually like. And I came to a more accurate realization: I f---ing hate people.”
This sets us off on one of the themes — a general disappointment with Americans today. And while some reviewers have noted the racial themes present in the movie, it’s even more a dissection of class. Nearly all of our characters are well-off, and see themselves, on some level, as moral. But the young Gen-Z Black daughter and the older white Amanda agree — people “use paper straws and order the free-range chicken” and think they’re actually doing some good. But ultimately, “we’re living a lie, an agreed-upon mass delusion to help us ignore and keep ignoring how awful we really are.”
It's an indictment of the sort of performative progressivism we see in our culture today — and it’s fascinating that it would receive the Obama seal of approval.
But the other major societal commentary comes from what happens when we suddenly no longer have the technology that we have become so accustomed, and addicted, to. As cellphone service ceases to exist, Wi-Fi goes away, and the TVs stop working, panic sets in for all the characters. Ethan Hawke’s Clay goes out for a drive and gets lost without the ability to use GPS. At one point, Tesla self-driving cars crash into each other while malfunctioning. The deficit of technology amps up the horror qualities of the film, but they also veer toward pathetic tragedy. At one point one character admits, “I can barely do anything without my cell phone and my GPS. I am a useless man.”
The teen kids are glued to their devices. A running thread in the film is the daughter’s obsession with “Friends,” which she was watching on her iPad until the world started to come to a standstill. She admitted to having “incredible anxiety about how they’re going to wrap up the show,” and lamented the fact that she might never “find out what happens to Ross and Rachel.” They make her happy, she said, and “if there’s any hope left in this f---ed up world, at least we’ll know how things turn out for them.”
Our cultural reliance on technology is a brilliantly perceptive social commentary in the film. It extends in other directions too, as the kids appear in some ways unfamiliar with nature, perhaps thanks to a combination of technology and the pandemic, which ruined some people’s ability to interact IRL, to their odd resilience in confronting the bizarre and unique. When a giant tanker suddenly washes ashore while the family enjoys a day at the beach, the son whips out his cell phone to document it. The parents were traumatized — for the kids, they were back playing in the pool by the afternoon.
What actually caused the blackouts and seemingly catastrophic event signaling the potential end of the world, or at least America, is never fully explained. “Death to America” flyers dropped from the sky written in some sort of Arabic. There are allusions to the mysterious, potentially real “Havana Syndrome.” It could be a foreign attack that involves isolating Americans through the lack of connectivity, leading to people turning on each other and ultimately to civil war.
And this is where the film veers into deeply cynical territory. Esmail said on The Big Picture podcast that he specifically thought about the Covid pandemic, and how even when it was such a serious time the country couldn’t come together.
But that’s a misreading of what happened. America actually did come together, for a time. At least in many areas of the country. We did lock down — “15 days to slow the spread.” But we were continuously misled by those in charge. They failed us, and they refused to admit it. They were never held accountable. It makes perfect sense for some to rebel — and subsequently break off into tribes — when that happens.
As the son in the film wears a striking “Obey” shirt, it can feel like we’re rocketing into World Economic Forum “you’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy” territory. But as one character says, while it may feel like the most powerful people in the world are at the wheel, “no one is in control, no one is pulling the strings.”
The elites are failing. The populace is failing. It’s a heavy, dour and almost nihilistic conclusion — is this really what Barack Obama thinks? The provocative film is well worth the exploration, and the cultural conversation is important. But it’s enough to make you yearn for some doom-scrolling on Instagram, and a check-in with our Friends at Central Perk.
Steve Krakauer, a NewsNation contributor, is the author of “Uncovered: How the Media Got Cozy with Power, Abandoned Its Principles, and Lost the People” and editor and host of the Fourth Watch newsletter and podcast.
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