The new Netflix thriller Leave the World Behind has been sitting comfortably on Netflix’s top 10 movies since it was released on December 8, 2023. The movie stars Julia Roberts (Amanda Sandford), Mahershala Ali (George Washington), Ethan Hawke (Clay Sandford) , Myha’la (Ruth Washington), Farah Mckenzie (Rosie) and Kevin Bacon (Danny). 

Controversy has surrounded the movie. Many think that this movie is foreshadowing something in the near future; others also argue that the movie wasn’t that good. 

If the conspiracy is true, then this wouldn’t be the first time a film has predicted the future. The biggest, and most talked about, show predicting the future in 2020 was The Simpsons. They predicted Donald Trump’s presidency four years prior, a global pandemic, murder hornets, riots, and more. 

Leave the World Behind is about America’s enemies joining together to take down the country. They do it in a three step process. First is isolation, where they disable all communications and transportation, making people: ¨deaf, dumb, and paralyzed.¨ The second step is synchronized chaos. People are  terrorized with covert attacks and disinformation showing no clear enemy. Leading to the last step, a civil war and collapse. 

Barack and Michelle Obama (along with Daniel M. Stillman, Tonia Davis and Nick Krishnamurthy) are the executive producers for Leave the World Behind. Viewers have questioned the Obama’s role in this movie for obvious reasons –  they were the former President and First Lady of the U.S and they are involved in a movie about the country’s collapse. Conspiracy theorists believe that the Obamas are using their resources from when they were in office to warn Americans through the movie. 

The first bizarre event that took place in Leave the World Behind was a container ship coming straight onto land. The Sandford family was resting on the beach when their daughter (Rosie) saw a big ship off in the distance. The family thought the boat was closer than it was supposed to be but dismissed it. 

Later in the same scene the ship got really close to shore. The family started to run from it because there wasn’t any sign of it stopping. The ship stopped on shore and that was the first sign of disaster. In reality, videos of boats seeming to have no control of where they are going have been circulating the internet. People believe that the movie is slowly but surely starting to come true. 

At the end of the movie, Rosie wanders into a bunker stocked with DVD movies, food, water and other supplies needed to live underground. Deep in the ground would be the safest place to be in case the world comes to an end. Many people find it strange that 15 billionaires built bunkers in the last week. Billionaires including Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, and Peter Thiel are rapidly constructing their own bunkers. 

Conspiracy theorists argue that these swift actions cannot be a coincidence and must carry a deeper meaning given the heightened global tensions we currently face. What do they know that we don’t? 

Sophomore at Oakdale, Audra Mikalauskas watched the movie and felt on edge because something was always going wrong: ¨As soon as things were going remotely well, they would take a turn for the worst.¨  

¨We can see some of theses things already happening…The advanced technology that we have created could malfunction somehow and cause lots of problems,¨ Mikalauskas believes that in some aspects the movie foreshadow future events.

Riley Johnson, a sophomore in North Carolina, enjoyed the movie: “It made you think that something like this could become a scary reality.” 

Throughout the movie she felt uneasy because she started to question a lot of things, not just in the movie, but in the real world. 

Although these are just conspiracy theories now, many things that took place in the movie Leave the World Behind are happening in reality. It is easy to take down a society that is digital, there would be no oil in the pipelines, no calling or texting, airlines wouldn’t work and more. 

A society with everything online is so vulnerable to disaster. Anything could happen at any time and people should be prepared. Maybe it wouldn’t be a cyber attack against the nation, but something different that will wipe out the internet.