A military virologist is striving to find a treatment for a widespread virus that has turned people into vampire-like creatures in the 2007 sci-fi thriller I am Legend. It is based on Richard Matheson’s 1954 book I Am Legend, to which Warner Bros. has owned the rights since 1970. In reality, the business previously produced a film (The Omega Man) based on the novel in 1971. The 2007 movie deviates significantly from the novel and has two endings. Let’s examine the narrative and concepts first before moving on to that. Spoilers ahead for the plot and possible endings of I Am Legend as compared to the book.
I Am Legend’s Story Revealed
An off-screen voice that later turns out to be a TV introduces the film. According to the article, a successful cancer treatment developed from genetically altered measles has been found. Dr. Alice Krippin (Emma Thompson), the scientist who unwittingly leads civilization to its knees, is the woman speaking on the television. ed
Which monsters are they?
Humans with the disease are the animals. Later, as the story unfolds and we make connections, we learn that the Krippin Virus (or KV, as the protagonist refers to it) is highly contagious through contact with all bodily fluids, touch, and the air. The KV also has an impact on animals, making matters worse.
Once infected, the person (or animal) begins to lose all of its hair, and their skin develops a strong sensitivity to UV radiation, much like a vampire. We are led to believe that they socially devolve into savage, pack-living, bloodthirsty predators. They screech loudly and violently, which isn’t ideal if you’re watching the movie while wearing headphones.
Why does Robert in I Am Legend have immunity?
Despite the virus’s extreme contagiousness, some individuals—like our protagonist—are inherently immune to it. Even with a large range of viruses in real life, this is the case.
Some individuals might pose this intriguing query: “Why would it originate from measles? Given that the disease displays symptoms that are more similar to those in the film, wouldn’t it be more accurate to utilise rabies as the basis for the new virus? It’s a small point, but it can be a legitimate query for which we won’t have an answer unless we get in touch with the author.
NYC after the apocalypse
Three years later, the scenario is cut short, and we get images of the post-apocalyptic New York, which is a barren city. The streets, houses, metro stations, and squares are all deserted.
The main character, Robert Neville, a military virologist, is the only person we see. He is travelling quickly in his car with Samantha, his devoted German shepherd. They attempt to outrun a herd of deer that is moving through the city. The protagonist urgently tries to follow the herd and shoot one of the animals in this breathtaking sequence. The first effort is unsuccessful because Robert is forced to stop the pack as it reaches an abandoned traffic bottleneck.
He exits the vehicle and begins looking for a deer. As he slowly positions himself to fire, a lioness takes his kill. When Robert notices the lion and its two cubs approaching, he turns back. But the watch beeping, which is more important, sends him home empty-handed.
The watch on his wrist beeps once again as he walks back to the house to eat and clean the dog. This time, the main character briefly falls into a state of being motionless, silent, and deaf while staring into space. Fortunately, the barking jolts him back to reality. He uses special steel panels and locks to close all the windows and doors.
Why do people sleep in bathtubs?
I think Robert wanted to get a good night’s rest since he’s constantly expecting the worst. A small, chilly, firm surface like a bathtub is ideal for getting adequate slumber without oversleeping. He takes the dog and his dependable old Automatic Riffle to bed with him.
What is the purpose of the watch, and why is it so important to Robert?
The digital watch serves as an alarm to go home and barricade himself, if he hasn’t done so already. The vampires are known as “Darkseekers” because they prefer the shadows and stay away from sunlight. They therefore emerge to search for food and devour anything they can find as night falls and the last ray of day fades. Robert is therefore reminded by the clock to head to his hiding place before dusk.
Flashback #1| Loneliness, the lab, and
At this point, there is a brief flashback to when he packed up his wife, children, and dog and drove them out of New York City while the island was under quarantine. We know that Robert was working on a remedy and that the epicentre of the pandemic was NYC (“This is ground zero,” as the protagonist remarks). A Darkseeker crashed into his car as he was taking his family to safety, prompting his daughter Marley to cry.
Robert is awakened by this memory dream, and after a workout, he enters his basement laboratory. We learn that he is working on finding a treatment for this illness. The outcomes of earlier antidote attempts on rats that he is documenting are horrific. Nevertheless, chemical number 6 appears to be one antidote that works. The rat didn’t perish or stay a vampire. It simply reverted to how it was before. The next step, in Robert’s opinion, is a creature trial.
Later, he’s stepping out to return a CD at the empty record shop where there are mannequins instead of people. He proceeds to talk to them as if they were alive.
He then goes to a desk on a pier overseeing the destroyed Brooklyn Bridge, where he records a message that he airs on the radio. The transmission encourages survivors who might hear it to come to the pier and join him as he can provide food, shelter, and other necessities.
Loneliness, one of the movie’s themes, is addressed in this section. Because humans are social animals and need to be among their kin, societal breakdown is a nightmare. The entire film exudes a sense of isolation that permeates every scene’s surface.
How does the main character handle that? He converses with his very clever dog and watches news and television replays. Understanding how loneliness is destroying the protagonist’s heart is best understood through the record store scenario. For example, he bows to the mannequins and imagines scenes in which one of the female mannequins pretends to be attracted to her but is too scared to approach her.
Music is a necessary companion as well. One of Robert’s favourite songs is Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds,” which he frequently plays.
initial encounter with the Darkseekers
Sam follows the deer into a dark building as Robert goes on another deer hunt, which almost has a bad outcome. Sam hears Robert shouting out as he enters the block slowly, sweating heavily. He is aware that he is in a lion’s den. Robert locates the dog and awakens others while fending off a Darkseeker. He dashes, leaps from a window, and lands on the vampire who had just leaped him. Then Robert constructs a trap to capture a monster for his laboratory tests. While the pack’s alpha male is watching, he catches the alpha female.
Robert attempts his antidote on the material in the lab, but it is unsuccessful. He therefore revives her while filming the outcome on video. He has been living alone for 1001 days as of this point.
Second flashback and RIP, Sam
The city is still being evacuated as another flashback begins. Robert and his daughter pass the troops’ scans at the island’s border, but his wife fails. She is negative after a second scan, so they continue. They say goodbye, and Robert wakes up from his memory dream.
The animals are intelligent.
When he and Sam leave, he discovers that one of the mannequins has been moved. Robert fires at it, but when he approaches to look closer, he steps into a trap he set earlier to capture the alpha female.
He faints, awakens, is harmed, and joins Sam in fending off vampire dogs. Unfortunately, Sam contracts the infection and Robert kills her as she turns into a Darkseeker. With the antidote, he tries to save Sam, but it is unsuccessful.
Anna, Flashback #3, and Retribution
With the help of his automobile, Robert goes on a purging of dark seekers and nearly dies. The twist is that Anna, another survivor, arrived to save him after hearing his message.
How Does His Family Fare? Why does the chopper go down?
In an accident, Robert’s family members perish. The final flashback shows that Robert’s wife and daughter perished as soon as the helicopter took off from the pier due to a collision with another helicopter.
Anna and the young child she is with, Ethan, are there when Robert awakens from his memory dream, and they resemble his wife and daughter. Robert is perplexed, furious, and resentful as Anna informs him about the Vermont survivor reserve. The main character pushes her away and retreats upstairs.
Later that evening, he tells Anna that he’s working to repair the harm the virus has done. Robert, invoking Bob Marley, asserts that he is unable to take a day off while others continue to contribute to the state of the world.
I Am Legend| The Conclusion Theatrical
The dramatic conclusion of I Am Legend depicts Robert giving his life so that Anna and Ethan might escape with the cure and travel to Vermont.
Robert attempts to fend off the Darkseekers with strong lights and bombs as they approach his home after following the scent and trail of blood. As the horde of Darkseekers invades his home, he engages in combat with the dominant male and then hides in the lab.
The previously caught alpha female is badly drugged in the glass chamber where Robert, Anna, and Ethan retreated. Robert thinks it’s over when the Darkseekers attempt to breach the window. Then, though, he learns that the remedy makes the girl become a person once more. He’s located the remedy!
He draws blood from the woman and feeds it to Anna before sealing her inside a tiny iron chamber.
What occurs at the conclusion? What has become of Anna?
Robert kills himself and the approaching Darkseekers with a grenade while taking a short glance at a family photo. The following day, Anna and Ethan arrive at the reservation and hand the military personnel the vial. The world is rescued.
What is the alternative conclusion to “I Am Legend”?
The conclusion on the 2008 DVD is different; Robert enters the reserve with Anna and Ethan after the Darkseekers have taken the female specimen. In this instance, Robert is aware that these beings have established their own civilization and that he serves as their archenemy.
Now, if you’re a movie buff and spend some time on review sites, forums, and websites that offer college paper writing assistance, you could notice that some individuals claim that the book is significantly superior to the movie and that the ending is much more thought-provoking.
Why is there a butterfly there?
The tattoo on the Darkseeker woman’s arm is a butterfly, same like the one she sketches on the glass. In this scenario, Robert is revealed to be the one who has been torturing them by stealing the Darkseeker’s partner.
They live in communities and have families, so they are not mindless zombies. It represents the next phase in human evolution, which was prompted by medical mishaps. And their bogeyman has been the urban legend about Rober. This conclusion fits the novel better and also explains why the book is called I Am Legend.
The I Am Legend Movie vs. Book
The book’s plot is different from the movie’s because many adaptations alter the narrative to make it more appealing to a particular audience.
The formed gang of survivors is where the narrative begins, and the vampires aren’t as primitive as the movie suggests. In actuality, vampires are human-like and may easily pass for humans. Ruth is a character who eventually confesses that she is a vampire spy sent to annihilate humanity from inside.
Robert realises he has turned into the villain at the conclusion (which is akin to the movie’s ending 2.0). The main character realises that he has murdered and tormented many of these hemocytes’ loved ones. He says, “I am Legend,” indicating that he has been fatally wounded and that he would be remembered negatively.
Why then would the original be dramatically altered?
The 2.0 version, which was later released in 2008, was tested, and according to director Francis Lawrence, the test audience wasn’t really impressed. They really liked that the protagonist sacrifices himself for the greater good of humanity in classic Hollywood fashion, staying a decent guy right up until the very end. The Darkseekers are still the enemy group that needs to be eliminated or turned into humans in the meanwhile. Isn’t that sad?
But due to the novel’s narrative shifts, readers regarded the book’s ending to be considerably more thought-provoking. As a result, the book’s conclusion makes much more sense and may even be a psychological turning point. It may have been more intriguing to focus on the scene where the vampire sees the hero from a different angle.
Final Words and I Am Legend 2
I am Legend is undoubtedly an experience, whether you preferred the book, the film, or the 2.0 ending. Additionally, given the state of cinema in 2007, a film that encourages you to delve deep and alter your perspective is rather unique.
Last but not least, Will Smith, who is currently a producer, has a sequel to I Am Legend in the works. We might receive I am Legend 2 sooner than we anticipated, though, as a result of the “Chris Rock incident” at the Oscars and the other projects that excluded him.
Did you enjoy the movie? What did you think of the storyline and potential resolutions in the books and movie I Am Legend? Please comment below.
ALSO READ THIS : The Empty Man Movie Plot And Ending
