FILM · 2023 · USA
Leave the World Behind
27 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (27)
- #001
The image of the waves in the upstairs bedroom changes throughout the film as the tide rises. The same is true of the black-and-white painting in the living room that resembles a changing Rorschach test.
- #002
The dead pilot on the beach wears a name tag reading "Capt. Esmail"; he is director Sam Esmail.
- #003
The three-stage war strategy theory described by G. H. is the same theory used in The Twilight Zone episode "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" (1960) for destabilizing a country and its infrastructure, and the three-step theory is identical.
- #004
Kevin Bacon's character is a very meticulous prepper. A willow tree grows in his garden, and acetylsalicylic acid (ASA/aspirin) is synthesized from willow bark.
- #005
While trying to work out both the cause of the piercing sound heard during the film and the source of Archie's illness, a character mentions a microwave weapon and states that it was used in Havana, Cuba. This is a reference to the series of "Havana Syndrome" illnesses that have affected certain US and Canadian diplomats, military personnel and other government employees in Havana (and later elsewhere) since 2016. Numerous people reported various symptoms (from nausea, headaches and other pains to tinnitus and cognitive impairment); some reported hearing a piercing sound that triggered and accelerated the symptoms. Press outlets seized on the idea that a foreign adversary of the US might have used some kind of sonic or microwave weapon and reported these speculations so widely that many members of the public still believe it and present it as fact. However, investigations conducted by seven different US intelligence agencies in 2022 and 2023 reported that no reliable evidence was found that a foreign adversary such as Cuba, Russia or China was responsible or even possessed such a weapon, and that the cause of only about two dozen of the more than a thousand alleged cases remains unknown.
- #006
Amanda's laptop and the emergency kits Danny buys from the store were made by E-Corp, the fictional company at the center of writer/director Sam Esmail's previous project, the series Mr. Robot (2015). The book "Beach Towel," written by another Mr. Robot character, Irving, also appears.
- #007
According to artist Adam Hall, the wall art in the master bedroom changes whenever the mood intensifies.
- #008
The oil tanker is named White Lion. The White Lion was the first ship to bring African slaves to the colonies.
- #009
When Julia Roberts's character (Amanda) wants to find out in the kitchen what G. H. knows, the painting behind her resembles the moment when the red leaflets drift from the drone toward Clay's car.
- #010
Denzel Washington was cast but was removed and replaced by Mahershala Ali.
- #011
Actress Julia Roberts (Amanda) and her on-screen daughter Farrah Mackenzie (Rose) genuinely formed a very close bond while making the film. Roberts, who is known in real life for being a "barefoot girl," spent much of the film barefoot, and Mackenzie made a point of doing the same, appearing barefoot in front of the camera whenever she had the chance. She insisted on going barefoot in the scene where Rose first encounters the herd of deer in the garden of the living room. (She even suggested the shot showing a close-up of her bare feet walking on the grass.) Mackenzie did this because she thought Roberts would be filming that way.
- #012
The 1619 radio frequency in Clay's car is another reference to the White Lion ship, alongside the oil tanker's name. The White Lion was the first ship to bring African slaves to the English colonies in 1619.
- #013
The beach scene was shot at Sunken Meadow State Park in Suffolk County, New York. In reality you can see Connecticut across Long Island Sound.
- #014
His son Archie wears an "Obey" T-shirt featuring an image of Andre the Giant. It is a work by Shepard Fairey, known for the Barack Obama "Hope" artwork. Barack and Michelle Obama serve as Executive Producers on this film.
- #015
In July 2020, Netflix won a bidding war for the rights to Rumaan Alam's novel, to be written and directed by Sam Esmail. Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington were to star in and produce the film.
- #016
The use of a row of white Teslas in a particularly unsettling scene is probably another Mr. Robot (2015) reference, alongside Amanda's E-Corp laptop and Irving's novel. In the last three episodes before the finale of the Mr. Robot series, the main character Elliot experiences a dream sequence, and every car shown in those scenes was a white Tesla.
- #017
Both Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali are Oscar winners — one award for Julia and two for Mahershala — while Ethan Hawke was nominated four times but never won.
- #018
In this film, Julia Roberts's character's daughter Rose has an obsession with Friends (1994). Julia not only appeared as a guest star in a single episode of Friends (1994), she also briefly dated Matthew Perry (who played the role of Chandler Bing).
- #019
While Amanda dances with G. H., she does Elaine Benes's "little kicks" dance.
- #020
This is Sam Esmail and Julia Roberts's third collaboration after Gaslit (2022) and the first season of Homecoming (2018).
- #021
The color blue appears prominently throughout Leave the World Behind, especially in the Sanford family. The Sanfords' bedroom, the clothes Amanda wears, their cars and other small details are all blue.
- #022
Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington were set to star in and produce Leave the World Behind. Former US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama served as executive producers through Higher Ground Productions. Obama included the novel on his 2021 summer reading list.
- #023
Leave the World Behind is Charlie Evans's first film.
- #024
Julia Roberts and Kevin Bacon had previously appeared together in the film Flatliners (1990).
- #025
Among those named in the Special Thanks are Guillermo del Toro and Emmy Rossum.
- #026
Amanda picks the R&B trio Next's 1997 debut studio album "Rated Next" and dances to its graphically suggestive song "Too Close."
- #027
Leave the World Behind had its world premiere at AFI Fest on October 25, 2023. It premiered in select theaters on November 22, 2023, before being released by Netflix on December 8, 2023. It received generally positive reviews from critics.
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