“Leave the World Behind,” the new movie from Sam Esmail, creator of “Mr. Robot,” will receive its world premiere at the opening of the American Film Festival. Esmail is an alumnus of the AFI Festival, graduating from the Conservatory in 2004. While this is not Esmail’s feature film debut, he has certainly been more acclaimed for his television work.
“Leave the World Behind” marks a shift in his career. Based on a novel by Rumaan Alam, it stars Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke as a wealthy couple who take their children to a remote Airbnb for a weekend getaway. The vacation is disturbed when they are awoken in the middle night by a black father (Mahershala Ali) and daughter (Myha’la Herrold) seeking refuge in what they claim is their home and bearing news of an apocalyptic cyberattack. The ugly parts of humanity are revealed as the characters are cut off from the outside world, without any wi-fi or phone service, and hunker together underneath the looming threat.
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Roberts has previously worked with Esmail on the television show “Homecoming” and the miniseries ‘Gaslit.” The film will also feature Kevin Bacon.
Here’s the official synopsis:
In this apocalyptic thriller from award-winning writer and director Sam Esmail (MR. ROBOT), Amanda (Julia Roberts) and her husband Clay (Ethan Hawke) rent a luxurious home for the weekend with their kids, Archie (Charlie Evans) and Rose (Farrah Mackenzie). Their vacation is soon upended when two strangers — G.H. (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha’la) — arrive in the night, bearing news of a mysterious cyberattack and seeking refuge in the house they claim is theirs. The two families reckon with a looming disaster that grows more terrifying by the minute, forcing everyone to come to terms with their places in a collapsing world.
After its film festival premiere, the film will be available for streaming on Netflix on December 8. Watch the trailer below.
