WARNING! This article contains spoilers for Leave the World Behind.
The ending of Leave the World Behind left out some crucial details from the book about what happens to the world in the future. Leave the World Behind is an adaptation of the 2020 best-selling novel of the same name by Rumaan Alam, which paints a picture of how the world would end. The film’s ending left plenty of questions unanswered that the book cleared up, including what caused Archie’s illness, where the glass-shattering sound came from, who was behind the attacks, and why they were happening — thus inspiring numerous theories from audiences.
While it makes sense considering the movie lacks narration or future insight by the characters, Netflix’s Leave the World Behind does omit some answers to big questions that were included in the book. The book frequently featured explanations of what happened after the events of the main narrative, as well as what was occurring outside the town in which the families were trapped. By not including these book details, audiences are kept guessing and just as much in the dark as Leave the World Behind‘s characters.
8 A Huge Number Of People Died In Leave The World Behind
The Main Characters Were Lucky, But Many Others Died In Gruesome Ways
The specific cause of the apocalypse in Leave the World Behind is deliberately left ambiguous, though it’s clear it’s one that left an incredible amount of destruction and suffering in its wake. Leave the World Behind‘s ending did not show the number of people who died. While the Scotts and the Sandfords were safe in their vacation home, other people were not so lucky. The book reveals that some people died by suicide, whereas others died while driving into New York City, which had many unclaimed corpses rotting in the streets.
When the hospitals lost power, all the babies in the neonatal care unit died hours after the blackout. Shockingly, a mother in Maryland did the unimaginable and killed her two daughters to save them from whatever was out there that was causing the end of the world as they knew it. It’s entirely possible that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people were killed during the events of the movie.
7 Deer Turned Unicorn White
Deer From The Next Generation Became White Because Of Intergenerational Trauma
Leave the World Behind manages to stand out from other movies about the end of the world due to some incredibly unique visual moments, though some of these also create questions for the audience despite how memorable they are. One of the biggest mysteries in Leave the World Behind is the creepy deer. In Leave the World Behind, the appearance of the deer is a warning sign from nature that the world is about to change.
The uncharacteristic appearance of so many deer resulted from a cyberattack that changed their migration patterns.
The movie doesn’t fully explain why the deer turn white in Leave the World Behind, but the book provides some answers. The uncharacteristic appearance of so many deer resulted from a cyberattack that changed their migration patterns. The book reveals that years after Rose’s family dies, the next generation of deer is born as white as unicorns. A geneticist would discover that the deer turned white because of intergenerational trauma that came from them losing their home.
6 Nadine Thorne Dies In A Military Camp
The Thornes Couldn’t Get Back Home
The ending of the Leave the World Behind book was notably bleaker than the movie, and traded the ambiguity the film rested on for harrowing and upsetting revelations about what happens to the characters — and Nadine’s eventual fate is tragic. While Rose concluded Leave the World Behind by watching Friends at the Thornes’ house, she had no idea that the family was at a San Diego airport trying to find their way back home.
Since there was a nationwide emergency that meant that no domestic flights were operating, the Thornes would never see their home on Long Island again. Nadine, the matriarch of the Thorne family, would get cancer and subsequently die at the tent camp the army had built. Her body, like so many others, would be burned, before the bodies started outnumbering the people who had to burn them.
5 Incarcerated Men Were Left To Die
Prisoners In Waycross, Georgia Died In The Correctional Facility
The tragic story of Leave the World Behind is essential to today’s world because it paints the story of how humanity would react when faced with impending doom. The less fortunate people in society are usually the ones who suffer the most. While this was of course implied in the movie, the book went into greater detail about some of the distressing fates that befell some of them, including prisoners who remained locked in their cells during Armageddon.
After
Leave the World Behind
‘s story, the wind and rain eventually killed the prisoners.
In Waycross, Georgia at a correctional facility, the 40 people who were part of the staff of the prison left 1500 men to face the elements alone. After Leave the World Behind‘s story, the wind and rain eventually killed the prisoners, and the staff justified their death by claiming that the prisoners were bad people, so their deaths were not something to mourn over.
4 Even More Deer Appeared After Leave The World Behind
Herds Of Deer Began Migrating To A Safer Place
The deer were one of the most unique aspects of Leave the World Behind, and in the book they feature much more prominently than the movie. In Leave the World Behind, Rose had only seen a few deer before their herd grew to an astonishing number. A few miles from the Scotts’ house, more herds of deer joined each other and began migrating to a place where their animal instincts told them they would be safe.
No one knew why there was such a large number of deer or where they were going, but with everything that was happening, the deer migration was not surprising. Seeing as the deer survived, and their next generation turned white, it’s safe to say that they knew what they were doing since, unlike most humans, they managed to survive the end of the world.
3 Other Towns In The Country Had No Idea What Was Happening
People In New Mexico And Idaho Did Not Know The Danger They Were In
One of the most chilling aspects of the story of Leave the World Behind is that, without the use of electronic communication, an apocalypse could slowly creep across a vulnerable world that would otherwise have had plenty of time to prepare. Leave the World Behind mostly focused on New York, because it seemed like it was the most affected part of the country. While there was a blackout in the city and corpses started piling up, towns in more remote states like Idaho and New Mexico remained ignorant of what was happening in other parts of the country.
Eventually, however, the whole country would be affected, and they would know why the governors had declared a state of emergency.
People in these towns continued living their lives as though nothing was amiss, as they had far less reliance on mass communication and transportation. They went to work and attended to their businesses even though they did not fully understand why the satellites were down. Eventually, however, the whole country would be affected, and they would know why the governors had declared a state of emergency.
2 The President Was Safe
The President Of The Free World Was In His Bunker
Since there was a blackout and all satellite communication was cut down, the people in the country had no idea what was going on. No one knew if it was a terrorist attack or something much worse because there was no one to tell them. While all this was happening, a state of emergency was declared and the president of the free world was hidden away in a bunker beneath the White House for his safety.
With former U.S. President Barack Obama producing Leave the World Behind and assisting with the script, his insight into how the government would react makes the movie simultaneously more realistic and terrifying. Seeing as the world was ending in Leave the World Behind, no one outside the White House gave the president a second thought because everyone was too busy trying to stay alive and keep their families safe.
The movie doesn’t even reveal the president’s identity within its fictional world, and the only direct mention of a president by the characters is by Rose, when she describes a scene from The West Wing series.
1 Rose Went Back To Her Family
Rose Gathered Supplies For Her Family From The Thorne House
One of the most touching moments in Leave the World Behind was mysteriously absent from the movie. While many of the characters had tragic fates (even after the events of the story), there was at least some happiness for Amanda and Rose. When Archie got sick, Rose left the Scotts’ house to look for supplies in neighboring houses because, unlike her family, she understood the signs that the world was ending and took heed.
Amanda, who thought she would never see her daughter again, cries with joy when they are reunited.
In the movie adaptation of Leave the World Behind, Rose, who is obsessed with Friends, is shown in the Thornes’ house watching the final episode of the show. However, the movie leaves out that Rose goes back to her family after ransacking the house and taking medication, batteries, and band-aids. In the book, Amanda, who thought she would never see her daughter again, cries with joy when they are reunited.
How Fans Felt About Leave The World Behind’s Abrupt Ending
Given the ambiguity and abrupt nature of the Leave the World Behind ending, it is perhaps not surprising that it has received a mixed response from fans. However, it seems like a lot of the criticisms towards the ending could be related to all of the material that the movie left out from the original story. Redditor EnderCN felt that Leave the World Behind having such an ambiguous ending did not work because the rest of the movie wasn’t fulfilling either:
The movie itself was kind of empty so having such a non ending didn’t work at all for me. It needed something to bring the movie together in some way.
Others felt that the movie and its mysterious tone was building to something that never actually happened, as Redditor Ultravvviolettt complained:
I kept feeling like there was going to be this huge twist – or big reveal, and it kind of just didn’t happen. Kind of anti climactic.
The movie was clearly aiming to be a more mysterious story and wanted to avoid giving too much context to what was actually happening. This was partially achieved by cutting a lot of the aspects from the original story out of the movie. However, without having the context or knowing the stakes of the reality, the audience has a hard time getting invested in the story beyond just wanting to know what is happening. As a result, many felt that the ending of Leave the World Behind was building to a payoff that never came.
