The Big Picture

“Leave the World Behind” is a propulsive thriller that brings a fresh take on the disaster movie genre, prioritizing character development over spectacle. Director Sam Esmail, known for his work on Netflix’s “Mr. Robot,” draws on his experience in TV to experiment with different filmmaking techniques and camera angles. Esmail received honest feedback from fellow directors Jonathan Levine, Rian Johnson, and Guillermo del Toro, who provided valuable insights and helped shape the final version of the film.

Before a one-of-a-kind early screening for Leave the World Behind, hosted by Netflix and moderated by Collider’s Steve Weintraub, writer-director Sam Esmail sat down to tease his latest film with some behind-the-scenes tidbits. The disaster movie is dominating the streamer after piquing curiosity with its A-list ensemble and its foreboding trailers, so whether you’ve had the chance to check it out or not, you don’t want to miss out on this spoiler-free conversation!

Based on the novel by Rumaan Alam, who also co-wrote the screenplay, Leave the World Behind stars Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali, and Myha’la Herrold in a propulsive thriller that hinges on the performances of its cast. Here’s how Esmail describes the film:

“This family rents a house out in Long Island to get away and one night they get a knock on the door from a couple of strangers saying that there’s been a blackout in the city, but things go very, very awry from there in a way that is not just your typical home invasion film.”

During their conversation ahead of the screening, Esmail explains why Alam’s book demanded to be adapted to screen and shares how the book was what got Julia Roberts involved in the project, as well. Having directed nearly every episode of Netflix’s series, Mr. Robot, the director also shares the skills he learned while working on the show that he carried with him to this production, how he chose his unique camera angles, and his favorite needle drops. You can watch the video above or read the interview transcript below for more on the trickiest sequence to film, the blunt advice Esmail received from Guillermo del Toro, which part of them movie he credits to Rian Johnson, and if we’ll ever get Mr. Robot on 4K.

Leave the World Behind A family’s getaway to a luxurious rental home takes an ominous turn when a cyberattack knocks out their devices, and two strangers appear at their door. Release Date November 22, 2023 Director Sam Esmail Main Genre Drama

Read Our ‘Leave the World Behind’ Review

COLLIDER: I know that you are a huge Stanley Kubrick fan.

SAM ESMAIL: That is correct.

For the people out there that have never seen a Stanley Kubrick movie, what is the one that you think they should start with?

ESMAIL: Oh, that’s such a tough one. I’m gonna go with The Killing because that’s one of his early ones and I think it’s a perfect movie. Let me just put it this way, if you’re a fan of Reservoir Dogs, which you should be if you aren’t, you should see The Killing. It’s amazing. It’s not one of the ones that’s talked about when you think of Kubrick, but it’s great. It’s a great starter.

Do you have a favorite Kubrick?

ESMAIL: Yeah, it’s 2001 [A Space Odyssey] It’s boring but it’s true. It’s 2001, it’s one of the best movies ever made. I mean, how do you top that?

‘Leave the World Behind’ Changes the Disaster Movie Formula
Image via Netflix

Jumping into why you’re actually here, what was it about this material that said, “This is gonna be the movie I make right now?”

ESMAIL: I’ve always wanted to do a disaster film. When I read this book, there was just something about how, even though it was really kind of this apocalyptic setting, it took the formula of a disaster film and brought the characters to the foreground and pushed the disaster elements to the background, and immediately that made it, for me, more relatable and therefore more terrifying. As much as I love my favorite disaster films, from The Towering Inferno, Earthquake, to The Day After Tomorrow, which I’m slightly biased by because my wife’s in it but it was still an amazing movie, those kinds of priorities, based on the spectacle, as fun as they are, I think I lose the relatability because that’s not something that you, in ordinary life, are worried about being into an action sequence like that. There is something about the book that made me realize that this was kind of an exciting way to tell a different type of disaster film.

One of the things that people might not realize is you directed 38 of the 45 episodes of Mr. Robot, I believe.

ESMAIL: That’s correct. You’re spot on.

What’s crazy is you directed whole seasons. So, I’m curious, as a director, what did you learn directing Mr. Robot that really helped you make this movie?

ESMAIL: The beauty of TV is every episode there’s a reset. You’re able to establish a different type of tone, a different point of view, and so that allowed us the luxury of experimenting in different ways. We had a whole episode that felt like a seamless oner; we had a whole episode where there’s hardly any dialogue; we had a whole episode where we were in a sitcom. It allowed us to play around with different filmmaking techniques, and I think that just gave us all these tools that we later then use on on the film.

Related Exclusive: ‘Mr. Robot’ Creator Sam Esmail on That Ending, Stanley Kubrick, and Much More In this exclusive, deep-dive interview Esmail goes long on the making of ‘Mr. Robot’ and his upcoming projects.

I don’t want to do any spoilers for this movie, but this is not a spoiler to say you have some very cool camera angles and some interesting shots. How did you figure out when you wanted to deploy certain camera techniques in the film versus, say, a static oner, or whatever it might be?

ESMAIL: Every time Tod Campbell, my DP, and I, who at this point, we just have a secondhand because we’ve worked together since the first season of Mr. Robot on everything, we always just start with who’s the scene about, what’s their point of view, their emotional state, and then more importantly, where do we want the audience to be? And that’s another big question, right? We’re trying to involve you guys into the movie and we’re trying to find that visceral way of blurring the line between where you are and the story is, and that always excites us because the camera is our way of doing that. It’s our conduit to grab you and throw you into this ride, and so it always just starts with the emotional journey that we want to put you, the audience member, in.

Image via Netflix

Who did you show this to for honest feedback and what did you learn from those screenings that impacted the finished film?

ESMAIL: I showed it to a lot of people, a lot of my friends. One of my good friends, Jonathan Levine, who’s a great director, he’s worked with Seth Rogen a lot, did The Wackness and The Night Before, and anyway, he gave lots of great feedback. I showed it to Rian Johnson, Guillermo del Toro, and the one thing I would say about all of them is they were really honest. That’s really key when you’re showing a rough cut because what you don’t want is people to just blow smoke up your ass and try and be too polite. I will say, Guillermo was the most honest. [Laughs] I mean, I’ve been friends with Levine, I hardly know Guillermo. I only met him because I showed him the movie, and man, he was so transparent and so blunt with me, had to be kind of cruel about certain things, but it never came off as insulting. It just came from a great place because he is a filmmaker’s filmmaker. He really wants to root for other filmmakers to win. Honesty is the best thing that you need when you’re cutting your movie.

With Guillermo or with any of the people that gave you feedback, was there something that they said that after they said it, you’re like, “How did I not figure this out?”

ESMAIL: Yeah, Rian Johnson. When you guys watch this, you’re gonna see chapter cards throughout the film — I guess that’s a little bit of a spoiler — and the last one I sort of will dedicate to Rian Johnson’s note. That was his idea.

One of the things about Netflix is they have a lot of data and they know when people click off. They know so much about movies. They know a lot. How much did Netflix, after they saw it, say, “We know that the movie will perform if we do this?” Or did you not get any sort of dig into those weeds?

ESMAIL: I did not. I wanted to just focus on telling a good story and making a good movie, and I kind of left that up to them.

Did you end up with a lot of deleted scenes or no?

ESMAIL: I understand it’s fashionable to have a director’s cut. Me personally, I want the thing that gets released to be the director’s cut. There are obviously deleted scenes, but I want those scenes to stay deleted.

Here’s How to Get a ‘Mr. Robot’ 4K Box Set

This is not about this movie, but I want to know anyway, is there any chance of a 4K Mr. Robot box set coming?

ESMAIL: Oh my god, I get asked this a lot. Let me just say, for the record, I would love nothing more than to make a 4K Blu-ray or UHD disc set. The problem is that the show was never finished in 4K because we were broadcast on USA, there was no need to do that, and so everything was finished in HD. However, if you find the USA Twitter handle or X handle, whatever the fuck it’s called now, hit them up. Make sure you let them know that, “Hey, let’s spend the money to go back and refinish the all the episodes in 4K,” because I would love nothing more than to do that.

You have an incredible cast, and all the performances are fantastic, but I do want to give a shoutout to Julia Roberts who is great in this. You’ve worked with her previously and I’m just curious, is it one of these things where you can text her and be like, “I have a role?”

ESMAIL: That’s literally what I did. I read the book in one sitting, I texted her, I said, “I have a book for you. I think it’s a great idea for a movie.” I may have even sent the PDF on text, weirdly, and she started reading it. She got scared because it got dark out, so she had to stop reading it until the next day during daylight hours, finished the book, loved it, called me back, and said she was in.

When she signs on or she says she wants to do something, is that pretty much an automatic green light?

ESMAIL: I mean, it’s Julia Roberts, man. Yeah, I kind of think it is. For sure. I think when you have someone who’s probably the most famous person on the planet, who’s also incredibly talented on top of it, wanting to star in your movie, I think you’re pretty good to go.

Image via Netflix

So you see the shooting schedule, your budget, you know everything, what’s the thing you have circled on the schedule that you are nervous to pull off with the time and budget you have?

ESMAIL: I don’t want to spoil it, but it has something to do with the vehicles that everyone’s inside of right now. That will probably be the trickiest sequence that we had to film. That definitely included a lot of prep time, a lot of cones in parking lots, and test cars and things like that. That we had to really nail down because there’s a lot of safety concerns, et cetera. So, that would be the most complicated sequence in the movie.

Again, I don’t want to do spoilers, but how have you actually been describing this to friends and family?

ESMAIL: It’s so weird because when I think about the elevator pitch, it feels like a home invasion movie, which is, this family rents a house out in Long Island to get away and one night they get a knock on the door from a couple of strangers saying that there’s been a blackout in the city, but things go very, very awry from there in a way that is not just your typical home invasion film.

I haven’t said this yet, but I’ve tweeted about it. Pardon my language, I fucking love this movie. I think you did such a great job with this, so I’m just gonna ask, are you already thinking about what you’re gonna direct next?

ESMAIL: Yeah, I’m thinking about it. I’m writing something. I’m dabbling. Also, I just got a new kid. He just turned eight months old. I kind of want to play with him for a little bit, and then, yes, I’ve got something lined up.

Iconic Disaster Movie Needle Drops

What do you think would actually surprise people to learn about the making of this movie?

ESMAIL: That’s a good, good question, Steve. You’re good at this. I think theme songs are really important. I’ll leave it at that.

I was gonna say the music in this is pretty good.

ESMAIL: Yeah, especially one particular needle drop. You know I love my needle drops.

Stay tuned to Collider for an in-depth spoiler conversation with Sam Esmail! Leave the World Behind is available to stream on Netflix.

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