Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke watch as the world collapses into the apocalypse in the Leave the World Behind trailer. Starring Hawke, Roberts, and Mahershala Ali, Leave the World Behind is based on the 2020 novel of the same name. The film is set for release in select theaters in November and on Netflix on December 8.

Netflix has now released the trailer for the upcoming Leave the World Behind.

In the trailer, Ali’s character unexpectedly arrives at the doorstep of Clay (Hawke) and Amanda (Roberts) Sandford’s home to reveal a scary truth. Featuring the salient line, “if you’re not paranoid by now it's too late,” the trailer makes visual and verbal reference to multiple apocalyptic happenings, including cybersecurity breaches and massive flooding.

What To Expect from Leave the World Behind

Leave the World Behind’s source material, the Rumaan Alam-authored novel, became a near-instant New York Times Bestseller upon its release in 2020. Its plot focuses on a long weekend vacation gone horribly wrong when a couple vacationing in a remote Airbnb with their teenage children is visited by another couple who claim that “something happened” in the city. Said happening is something mysterious and terrible. The novel Leave the World Behind has been widely praised for its complex depictions of race within its apocalyptic setting.

Prior to the trailer’s release, the Leave the World Behind film adaptation made news due to the unexpected involvement of former president Barack Obama. Leave the World Behind writer-director Sam Esmail felt that the former president, who is a film lover and crisis management expert, would help “keep it as true to life as possible.” Obama spoke with Esmail about Leave the World Behind and had “a lot of notes about the characters and the empathy we would have for them,” helping Esmail improve the script.

With a former president’s seal of approval and a promising first trailer, Leave the World Behind is a welcome addition to the fall film slate. Esmail himself is a reason to be excited about the film, as his work as the creator of Mr. Robot well-equips him to take on an apocalypse film that eerily mirrors real life. As its late 2023 release date approaches, Leave the World Behind could be the sci-fi film to look out for this fall.

Source: Netflix