Jump to:
- Leave the World Behind ending: What happens to Rose?
- Leave the World Behind explained: What caused the apocalypse?
- How does Leave the World Behind differ from the book?
- What happened to Archie in Leave the World Behind?
- What was the point of the deer in Leave the World Behind?
- Will there be a Leave the World Behind sequel?
Leave the World Behind features plenty of elements that require some explanation and at times lots of theorising, so we're here to offer some help.
Since its release last year, Netflix's apocalyptic thriller has been leaving viewers with one big question: what does the ending of Leave the World Behind really mean?
There are also multiple smaller (and weirder) questions to be addressed. Why is the world ending in the story? Why are the deer acting all weird? And what has Friends to do with it all?
This is not the kind of movie that offers all the answers easily, or at all. Some questions can only be explained through theories, but here we try to offer everything you need to know in order to understand what it's all about.
Starring Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke and Mahershala Ali, Leave the World Behind was a huge success on Netflix, becoming one of the streaming service's most-watched movies of all time with 143.4 million views.
As we said, the movie doesn't resolve all of its major mysteries – and there are plenty of those to chew on. Whether you're wondering what that screeching noise was or what happened to Archie and Rose, we're here to help by untangling what we think the movie is all about.
So let's dig into Leave the World Behind's ending to explain what we can, and speculate over a bunch of other mysteries too, helped by quotes from writer/director Sam Esmail on the biggest moments.
Major spoilers ahead.
Leave the World Behind ending: What happens to Rose?
In the final part of the movie (which is split into five parts), Amanda and Clay's son Archie wakes up to find that his teeth start falling out, while their daughter Rose is missing.
GH and Clay go off to find help from neighbour Danny, only for him to offer zero assistance other than a warning to go back home.
As GH and Clay are trying to get help from Danny, Amanda and Ruth go out looking for Rose, but have no luck. The only thing they find is how badly affected the world has been, with explosions seen over New York and gunfire heard.
As they watch on and as GH and Clay plan to return to the house, we see Rose heading into a nearby house that caught her attention earlier.
It's abandoned so Rose takes advantage of the food and drink around, before heading downstairs to a safe room. It's the "doomsday bunker" that GH's neighbours, the Thornes, built in secret which Danny tells them about earlier.
In the bunker, there's food, water, beds and electricity but, most importantly for Rose, a well-stacked DVD library and a TV. She picks up the box set for the final season of Friends and presses play on 'The Last One' as the movie ends.
You might be wondering why Friends is included and for Esmail, it's "pure escapism" for Rose. "In moments of crisis when we've lost sight of our common humanity, when we feel isolated, we do want to escape to comfort," he told Tudum.
It's an ending that could cause some frustration as it doesn't really explain anything, but it's in keeping with the book which is equally ambiguous. The movie does offer a potential explanation though, so let's dig into it in case you missed it.
Leave the World Behind explained: What caused the apocalypse?
The morning after the blackout, Amanda sees a notification on her phone that "hackers" were behind the power failure, but is unable to read more about it. It soon becomes clear that it's not just a power outage though – and that GH might know more about what's going on.
When Clay tries to head into town to find out more information, he encounters a drone that's dropped leaflets with Arabic writing that translates to "Death to America". However, later on in their conversation with Danny, he reveals that a friend of his in San Diego got a leaflet dropping with either Korean or Chinese language on it.
This appears to be the bit of information that makes everything click for GH. Before they head back to the house, GH explains just what he's been concerned about throughout the movie and why he was keeping quiet about it to avoid scaring them.
He works in finance and one of his clients is high up in the defence sector, meaning GH has studied the "cost-benefit analysis of military campaigns". What's happening in the world reminds GH of a program that his client was "terrified".
It was a "three-stage manoeuvre" which, if utilised effectively, "could topple a country's government from within".
The first stage is "isolation", which was the power outage and hacking of satellites which stop even satellite phones from working. Once that's done, the second stage is "synchronised chaos" where the country is terrorised with "covert attacks and misinformation", such as the piercing noise, the varied leaflets and so on.
"If done successfully, the third stage would happen on its own. Coup d'etat. Civil war. Collapse. This program was considered the most cost-effective way to destabilise a country," GH explains. "Because if the target nation was dysfunctional enough, it would, in essence, do the work for you. Whoever started this wants us to finish it."
It's worth noting that even if this is the thing that ties the apocalypse together, then Leave the World Behind still doesn't reveal who is behind it. Danny notes that it could even be a combination of the US's enemies, but he is a bit of a conspiracy theorist so that's not a guaranteed fact.
What we do know though is that, whoever is behind it, it's certainly been a successful attack. When Rose gets into the bunker in the Thornes's home, we see their Emergency Alert System kick into life, revealing the state of the country:
"White House and major cities under attack from rogue armed forces. Elevated radiation levels detected near multiple population centres. Seek immediate shelter."
With Rose separated from her family and her brother severely ill as bombs fall over New York, you might think it's an unhappy ending. However, Esmail feels that it's not totally bleak.
"There's a painting that's hung up on the end of the hallway before Rose goes down into the basement that says, 'Hope begins in the dark'," he told Tudum.
"I think as much as this film is a cautionary tale and it's meant to be a warning, it's not meant to give us an answer as to what to do next – but it is meant to say, 'As dark as it could get, as bleak as it can get, we can always strive to find some hope'."
How does Leave the World Behind differ from the book?
As fans of the book will know, the biggest Leave the World Behind change is turning GH and Ruth into a father-daughter pairing, rather than an older Black couple as in the book.
However, aside from this tweak, events largely play out as they do in the book. The movie expands on the disaster elements, such as with a Tesla pile-up and a plane crash on the beach, but other moments such as the piercing noise and the blackouts come from the book – even the flamingos arrive in the book.
The Friends subplot, where Rose has been frustrated at the lack of Internet preventing her from finishing Friends, is an invention for the movie.
However, it's the only real diversion away from the book's ending which instead saw her picking up the supplies and heading back home.
The book's author Rumaan Alam is a fan of the change for the movie, calling it "so satisfying and so rewarding".
"It's sort of self-reflective because he's a filmmaker. He's also worked in television, and he's sort of asserting something about the power of that medium, and its hold over this one character," he told Variety.
"It's a reminder that art is kind of a salve. The theatrical experience of watching this movie is so powerful because I've had the chance to see audiences respond to the ending three times now, and nobody really knows what to make of it. They're like, is this funny? Is this scary? Is it really over? And I love that so much."
What happened to Archie in Leave the World Behind?
As if everybody didn't have enough to deal with, Leave the World Behind also sees the characters have to deal with a loud, piercing noise that leaves them unable to do anything while it's happening.
Like with the other mysteries, there's not a confirmed answer, but during Danny's chat with GH and Clay, Danny suggests that the noise is actually directly responsible for Archie's teeth falling out.
Danny suggests that the noise is a microwave weapon that contains radiation, which is backed up by the alert system warning of "elevated radiation levels".
However, Archie's teeth falling out is also a metaphor for what's going on too, as Esmail told Vulture: "I think it's a nightmare. I think the movie's a nightmare, and I think that, in nightmares, things happen that are inexplicable."
We assume that Archie survives his teeth falling out, even if it was caused by radiation, but like with the fate of every character, we just don't know for sure.
What was the point of the deer in Leave the World Behind?
One of the other major mysteries throughout Leave the World Behind is the growing number of deer that surround the house.
They don't specifically do anything, but when there are dozens of them staring at Amanda and Ruth's during the movie's climax, it's certainly not a happy scene and you sense that danger could be ahead.
The unnerving deer were in the book too, but again, there's no confirmed reason for just why they're acting as they do.
If you're looking for a meaning, Esmail saw the deer as a way to add more unsettling imagery into the movie: "Deer are peaceful creatures. To turn that sweet image into now this sort of ominous, menacing, almost warning – I thought was really interesting."
Will there be a Leave the World Behind sequel?
The ambiguous ending of Leave the World Behind might make you think it's a setup for a sequel, especially in an age of two-part movies like the Spider-Verse outings and fellow Netflix offering Rebel Moon.
However, there's not a book sequel so it seems unlikely that there will be a Leave the World Behind 2. The movie has been a big hit on Netflix, so you can't rule it out, but it seems unlikely right now.
And, really, that's how we like it.
Leave the World Behind is available to watch now on Netflix.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
