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Final “Leave the World Behind” Trailer Teases Netflix’s Tense Star-Studded Thriller

The final trailer for writer/director Sam Esmail’s Leave the World Behind is here a few days before the buzzy thriller arrives on Netflix on December 8. With Mr. Robot creator Esmail at the helm, a star-studded cast, and terrific source material in Rumaan Alam’s hit 2020 novel of the name, Leave the World Behind is feels very much like a must-see.

This last look at Esmail’s film drops us immediately into the crisis facing Amanda Sanford (Julia Roberts), her husband Clay (Ethan Hawke), and their children during their weekend getaway in the Hamptons. The Sanfords are joined by G.H. (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha’la)—G.H. is the owner of the house the Sanfords are staying in—and the five of them are thrust together as the world is falling apart right outside their door. A cyberattack on an unprecedented scale is starting to unstitch the fabric of society, and as the Sanfords, G.H., and Ruth try to figure out what to do, the catastrophe inches ever closer, and their evolving relationship has the potential to save or ruin them.

Leave the World Behind is both a techno-thriller and a tale of the fragile bonds between people that can either strengthen or snap in times of great peril. Alam’s novel dropped in the middle of the pandemic and felt disturbingly resonant at a time when we were all facing a real-life crisis, and his story about two families forced together in an unprecedented nightmare was both thrilling and distressingly relatable. 

Check out the final trailer below. Leave the World Behind arrives on Netflix on December 8.

For more on big titles on Netflix, check these out:

“May December” Director Todd Haynes on Playing With Power in His Beguiling New Film

First “Society of the Snow” Trailer Reveals J.A. Bayona’s Decade-in-the-Making Survival Epic

Netflix Acquires Kim Kardashian’s Comedy “The Fifth Wheel”

“May December” Screenwriter Samy Burch Unpacks the Unspoken in Todd Haynes’ New Film

Featured image: LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND (2023) Julia Roberts as Amanda, Ethan Hawke as Clay, Mahershala Ali as G.H. and Myha’la as Ruth. CR: Courtesy NETFLIX

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The Credits is an online magazine that tells the story behind the story to celebrate our large and diverse creative community. Focusing on profiles of below-the-line filmmakers, The Credits celebrates the often uncelebrated individuals who are indispensable to the films and TV shows we love.

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