This article contains major spoilers for the ending of Leave the World Behind.
Leave the World Behind is a nightmarish cautionary tale about our reliance on technology; it’s also a timely story about the historical fissures in modern American society that threaten to see the nation implode. Racism. Class inequality. Intolerance. And what would happen if those stressors were pushed even further by an apocalyptic cataclysm — say, a nationwide cyberattack?
By the end of Leave the World Behind, our six main characters — mega-Karen Amanda (Julia Roberts), dithering dad Clay (Ethan Hawke), their teens Rose (Farrah Mackenzie) and Archie (Charlie Evans) plus the father-daughter duo of G.H. (Mahershala Ali) and Ruth (Myha’la) — have learned to tentatively set aside their personal differences, finding strength in unity.
The prognosis for the rest of the country is less hopeful: in one of the movie’s final damning shots, Amanda and Ruth see the New York skyline doused in smoke and flames, with peppered gunfire indicating that American society has buckled under the weight of terror and paranoia.
After all, this is only what G.H. — a financier with high-profile clients in the U.S. government — had speculated would happen. A client in the defence sector had warned G.H. of the possibility of a disruptive “three-stage manoeuvre” by harmful state actors — say Iran, China, Russia, or any one of America’s many geopolitical rivals — to destabilise the country.
The first step: cyberattacks, isolating people with power and satellite outages. Two: sowing “synchronised chaos” with misinformation campaigns, such as the leaflet drone drops observed by Clay on the road. Third: Civil war. “Because if the target nation was dysfunctional enough, it would, in essence, do the work for you,” G.H. says. “Whoever started this wants us to finish it.”
That New York has been rendered a war zone by the end of Leave the World Behind all but confirms G.H.’s suspicions. Then comes the smoking gun. When Rose comes across a rich neighbour’s bunker, she switches on the emergency broadcast system, on which a message reads: “White House and major cities under attack from rogue armed forces. Elevated radiation levels detected near multiple population centres. Seek immediate shelter.”
So, basically, the country’s fucked. Not only has the cyberattack taken out the U.S. communication systems, there’s the possibility that nukes have flown — if not, then a dirty bomb or two. And that’s where we finish. So, how accurate was G.H.’s interpretation of events?
“I think it’s as definitive as I want to get,” director Sam Esmail tells GQ of the gut-punch ending. “Ultimately, it still leaves room for a lot of questions. That was very important to me. I mean, the book ends with a question mark, and I love that. There isn’t a final period-mark in the film; the point is that it lingers, and provokes conversation, and asks a question. So I would say that [G.H.’s explanation] is an answer, but it’s an answer with a question mark.”
