This Divisive $585 Million Sci-Fi Film Is a Secret Remake of One of the Greatest Post-Apocalyptic Movies Ever

🚨 This $585 Million Sci-Fi Film Is a Secret Remake of One of the Greatest Post-Apocalyptic Movies Ever 🚨
👀 A divisive $585 million sci-fi film that made waves recently? Turns out, it’s not as original as you think! It’s actually a secret remake of one of the greatest post-apocalyptic films of all time—and fans are just realizing it! 😱

I Am Legend (2007) is a post-apocalyptic action-horror film that stars Will Smith as Dr. Robert Neville. The film was divisive when it first came out. Some fans absolutely loved the heart-pounding action and the heart-wrenching narrative. Others, however, felt like the questionable special effects limited the film, with many moviegoers pointing out that the film’s “zombie vampires” just weren’t scary enough to be effective. Despite the split response, the film did make $585.4 million worldwide.

For a few years, it held the title of highest December opening weekend, dethroning the previous film to hold that title, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). I Am Legend lost that position in 2012, when Peter Jackson reclaimed the title with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012). I Am Legend is loosely based on a 1954 post-apocalyptic novel of the same name by Richard Matheson, but what many fans might not know is that it’s also technically a remake of not one, but two movies.

A blended image of Will Smith and an infected in I Am Legend

I Am Legend is a Surprisingly Deep Story for an Action Film

Will Smith’s Performance is Effortless & Incredible

I Am Legend is an action-horror film that falls into the “zombie” subgenre. Technically speaking, the Infected in I Am Legend are not traditional zombies, but they do share a lot of similarities with traditional zombie media. This is a relatively common trope for the genre, as other movies, like 28 Days Later, also feature Infected that aren’t zombies, but share some key attributes with the classic Walking Dead.

Will Smith plays Dr. Robert Neville, a US Army virologist, and seemingly the only man left in New York City after a deadly virus wiped out 90% of humanity. He lives with his dog, a German Shepard named Sam, who helps him hunt and alerts him to Infected in the area. The virus was originally supposed to be a cure for cancer. This miracle cure was a genetically modified version of the measles virus, which inevitably mutated into a highly pathogenic strain of a deadly virus that became known as the Krippin Virus (KV).

KV killed most people who were unfortunate enough to be infected, but some people survived the infection. The Infected who lived became nocturnal, vampire-like creatures known as Darkseekers. Darkseekers, as the name suggests, almost exclusively come out at night, as they are highly sensitive to UV rays from the sun. Darkseekers hunt and feed on uninfected humans like Neville. According to the film, about 1% of humanity developed a natural immunity to KV. While that assured they were safe from becoming infected, that didn’t save them from becoming food for the Darkseekers. Very few immune humans survived the outbreak, but Neville managed to survive in Manhattan for three years after the outbreak. The film takes place in 2012, so the outbreak happened in 2009.

A lot of the movie’s running time is dedicated to Neville living in seclusion in Manhattan and how he, someone immune to KV, has survived for several years on his own. In addition to Sam’s companionship and help, Neville also fortified his home in Washington Square Park, giving him a secure base of operations that was designed to keep Infected out. In addition to expected things like searching for food and supplies, and trying to find other survivors via a radio broadcast, Neville also fills his days with infected rats. As a virologist, Neville hasn’t given up hope that there is a cure for KV. So, with his limited resources, he continues experimenting with infected rats to, hopefully, develop one.

“My name is Robert Neville. I am a survivor living in New York City. I am broadcasting on all AM frequencies. I will be at the South Street Seaport everyday at mid-day, when the sun is highest in the sky. If you are out there… if anyone is out there… I can provide food, I can provide shelter, I can provide security. If there’s anybody out there… anybody… please. You are not alone.”

Robert Neville’s radio broadcast message

 The Alpha Male (Dash Mihok) Darkseeker holds the Alpha Female (Joanna Numata) in the alternate ending of I Am Legend.

Eventually, Neville believes he has developed a potential cure by using his own immune blood. To test it, he does the unimaginable and captures a Darkseeker to test his findings further. Interestingly enough, the ending of the film that was shown in theaters is not the actual canonical ending. The canon ending is more compliant with the novel, but it allegedly didn’t test well with audiences, so it was scrapped. In theaters, the audience saw an ending where Neville succeeds in creating a cure and gives it to two survivors he came across during the film, Anna and Ethan. He then kills himself and the attacking Darkseekers to protect Anna, Ethan, and the cure.

Custom image combining a closeup of a Darkseeker and a shot of one ready to jump in I Am Legend

In the canonical ending, which was included in I Am Legend’s 2008 DVD release, a Darkseeker alpha brings his pack to Neville’s home to retrieve the female Darkseeker Neville kidnapped. The alpha is her mate and just wants to see her returned to him. Neville realizes that the Infected are still human and still have their own communities, emotions, and bonds. To the Infected, Neville is a monster who is trying to wipe them out by creating a cure. This changes Neville’s perspective on everything, including himself. Neville decides to abandon his research and experiments and leaves New York with Anna and Ethan.

After the monetary success of I Am Legend, a prequel was announced in 2008. This film, however, never saw the light of day. There have been a few attempts to continue the franchise over the years, but nothing has come to fruition. At least, until recently. I Am Legend 2 is in development, with Will Smith returning to reprise his role and Michael B. Jordan joining the cast. Allegedly, I Am Legend 2 will actually follow the canonical ending, not the ending that was released in theaters.

I Am Legend Isn’t the First Movie Adaptation of Richard Matheson’s Novel

The Original Adaptation is Flawless from Beginning to End

Vincent Price looking terridied in The Last Man on EarthImage via American International Pictures

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson has proven to be quite a popular novel. The 1956 novel was well-received when it was first published, and it became a main source of inspiration for Hollywood. George A. Romero actually cited the novel as a source of inspiration for Night of the Living Dead (1968). While Romero was inspired by I Am Legend, Matheson’s book actually got three separate film adaptations of its own, with I Am Legend (2007) being the newest of the bunch. The first adaptation, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi horror movie called The Last Man on Earth, was released in 1964.

Every I Am Legend Film Adaptation:

    The Last Man on Earth (1964)
    The Omega Man (1971)
    I Am Legend (2007)

The Last Man on Earth stars horror legend Vincent Price as Dr. Robert Morgan. Richard Matheson actually worked on the script alongside William F. Leicester, but he wasn’t entirely satisfied with the final result, so he appeared in the credits under the pen name “Logan Swanson” instead. Despite Matheson’s uncertainty about the script, The Last Man on Earth is still one of the best post-apocalyptic movies ever made.

In this version of Matheson’s story, Vincent Price plays Dr. Robert Morgan, The Last Man on Earth’s version of Will Smith’s character. Morgan lives in a world overrun by creatures that are often described as “undead vampires.” The Infected even follow some of the more stereotypical vampire tropes, like being repelled by garlic and being unable to go out in the sun. Morgan’s routine is vastly different from Neville’s. He goes out during the day to hunt down as many Infected as he can. He then burns their bodies to ensure that they don’t come back from the dead again.

Three years have passed with Morgan in complete isolation. When the outbreak first happened, he lost his wife and child to the virus. Not knowing that the dead would come back, he buried his wife, who came back after crawling out of her grave. That’s when he learned you needed to burn or stake the bodies. Morgan, like Neville, is immune to the plague and is slowly losing his sanity due to isolation and loneliness. Eventually, Morgan comes across a woman named Ruth. He’s suspicious that Ruth is infected, and Ruth confesses that she is, but she is part of a group of people who have figured out how to stave off the infection with a special injection. Ruth also informs Morgan that the vampires he killed weren’t dead. They had always been alive; they were just sick people.

Morgan realizes that his immunity is capable of curing infected individuals when he injects Ruth with a dose of his blood. For three years, Morgan had dedicated his life to hunting down and killing the Infected, but the answer to the plague was pumping through his veins the whole time. Morgan must face the reality that he has been killing sick people for years when he didn’t need to be, but for the first time in years, he also sees hope for humanity’s future. That hope is short-lived, though, because Ruth’s people come to save her from Morgan, which inevitably results in Morgan’s death.

Like I Am Legend’s canonical ending, The Last Man on Earth actually portrays Morgan as the monster of the world, the way it is now. He denounces the people pursuing him, claims they’re freaks, announces that he’s the last true man to live, and is ultimately killed. Once Morgan is dead, Ruth comforts a crying child by insisting that everyone is safe now, making it clear that the Infected see Morgan as a villain, not a survivor or a hero.

This ending, like I Am Legend’s ending, might be controversial, but it has a much bigger impact than a more traditional ending to such stories. It has a lot to say about the human race and how civilization can collapse but still adapt and move forward. It also has an interesting perspective on what actually makes someone a monster or a villain and how the refusal to change one’s perspective can sometimes be the biggest problem of them all. The Last Man on Earth commits to the “we are the monsters of this world” narrative that was ultimately cut from the theatrical release of I Am Legend.

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