Adapted from 1954 Richard Matheson book of the same name, I Am Legend is a movie about a terrible virus that is unstoppable and has killed almost everyone in the world. Robert Neville (Will Smith) is a brilliant scientist, and is the last human survivor left in New York City and maybe the world as he is somehow immune to the deathly virus both airborne and immobile.
SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Initially, the movie shows a TV reporter interviewing a doctor who has found the cure for cancer and the doctor has somewhat cured 100% of the patients affected with cancer. As the movie progresses, a virus outbreak has occurred and the authority has decided to destroy Brooklyn Bridge, the only entrance to the city via land. Everyone including Robert Neville’s family, his wife, Zoe (Salli Richardson) and his daughter, Marley (played by Will Smith’s real life daughter, Willow Smith) are evacuating the city. Somehow, when Zoe and Marley have entered the awaiting rescue helicopter, Neville decides to stay back to find cure for the deathly virus.
For three years, Neville has been diligently sending out daily radio messages in desparation to find other survivors who might be out there. Neville has been living alone with his dog, Sam, a German Shepherd which is immune to the virus through airborne for years now. Once awhile, Neville will have flashback of the things that happened back then. His wife and daughter are actually killed when another helicopter crashed into theirs.
What is left in New York City are abandoned cars and buildings, and frozen humans that look like mannequins, and wild animals wandering around the city. As Neville continues his daily routine of sending out daily radio messages in the afternoon, getting DVD’s from the DVD rental shops, wandering around the city with Sam and his gun, things actually get more interesting. In fact, later in the movie, we get to know that Neville has been experimenting his blood with lab rats and infected humans who have turned into mutants. From the book, the mutants are actually vampires but the movie depicts these mutants almost like the enhanced version of zombies we can see in The Resident Evil: Extinction. Apparently, these mutants can only come out during the night as they are not able to walk in the daylight. Neville has set his alarm to remind him that dusk is coming so he knows when to go home and shut off every windows and doors in his house to prevent the mutants from tracking him.
Will Smith as Robert Neville and his dog, Sam in the movie "I Am Legend"
As Neville moves closer to finding the right cure, the mutants, also known as the Darkseekers also begin to appear more often, watching Neville’s every move, waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. Like Neville, who often sets up booby trap to capture the Darkseekers for his experiment, the Darkseekers have set up a trap during the night awaiting Neville. Neville injures his leg when he is hunting for the Darkseekers and he is almost killed by the mutant dogs, sent by the Darkseekers. His dog, Sam is bitten by those deformed dogs and even Neville’s blood cannot save Sam as Sam is not immune to the immobile virus.
It suddenly seems to be all different when Neville continues his daily routine without his faithful buddy. One day, Sam sets up a mannequin outside the Darkseekers’ hideout and when the mutants fall for his trap, thinking the mannequin is a human, Sam drives his four-wheel drive out of nowhere and runs over the mutants. Somehow, Neville’s suicidal action leads him to have his vehicle overpowered by the Darkseekers. The moment one of the Darkseekers is about to drag him out of the car, a powerful light appears and Neville is saved. Anna (Alice Braga) has saved Neville as she and her son, Ethan (Charlie Tahan) have heard Neville’s radio message. Anna tells Neville of her journey to the new societies, located in the hills where it is cold and there are people living there and that the Darkseekers could not survive the cold. But, Neville just cannot believe Anna as he believes everyone on earth are death as the Darkseekers have greatly outnumbered them.
When the day turns dark, the mutants manage to find out where Neville stay due to the blood trail he has left earlier and they begin to enter the house. As they attack and finally able to get into the house, Neville’s experiment on one of the Darkseekers earlier begins to show signs it is working. In order to save the human race, Neville acquires the blood of the cured Darkseeker and passes it to Anna, in hoping that Anna can pass it on to the new societies founders. As Anna and her son go into the hiding room, and the attacking mutants are about to shatter the glasses in the lab, Neville pulls off a grenade and kills himself and the rest of the Darkseekers.
Anna and her son manage to find the new societies and passes on the blood tube to the people there. As she says, “We are his legacy, and he’s the legend,” referring to Robert Neville’s great sacrifice in finding the cure and in killing himself to save mankind.
My ratings: 8 out of 10. You just have to love Will Smith, he is the man.
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4 comments ↓
I was excited to watch this movie, and yeah, Will Smith is just amazing!
Me and my sister’s family couldn’t stop talking about this movie on our drive home from watching it! We love how quiet the movie is, and how it gets loud unexpectedly. We love the abandoned New York! We love the girl in the DVD store! We love the part where Neville came after Sam into the dark and discovered zombies rounding up together and breathing rapidly; almost like they were moving to an invisible rap music or something. Hahaha…
@Tomas: Yeah, I love how the movie is shot as well. The solitude and the sudden noise. Maybe the camera angles sometimes are not at the right time in the right place, but the movie is all well.
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