The End of the World That Feels Most Likely to Happen

The End of the World That Feels Most Likely to Happen

Yesterday was Sunday.

For the first time in a while, I had a quiet day off.

The recent torrential rain caused serious damage throughout this area.

Yet when I walked around the neighborhood, I saw hardly any homes that appeared to have suffered major damage.

Perhaps even the slightest difference in elevation determined what happened.

I heard that the area around a supermarket I sometimes visit was temporarily flooded.

Some of the affected businesses are reopening today.

Little by little, everyday life is beginning to return.

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I stayed home all day without going anywhere.

That evening, I was reading a book when my wife started watching something on Netflix.

At first, I was not particularly interested.

But when a film is playing right in front of you, it is difficult to ignore the images and sounds.

Before I knew it, I was watching it with her.

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The film was Leave the World Behind, starring Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, and others.

I knew nothing about it beforehand.

At first, I thought it was an ordinary human drama about a family leaving the city for a vacation.

Then, little by little, things began to feel strange.

Their phones stopped working.

The internet went down.

A massive oil tanker continued toward the shore without stopping.

Planes crashed.

Self-driving Teslas began behaving unpredictably.

Herds of deer appeared, while flamingos swam gracefully in the backyard pool.

When I list everything that happened, the film contained quite a few disturbing events.

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And yet, it did not feel like a spectacular disaster movie.

If the filmmakers had wanted to portray the end of the world in conventional terms, they could have shown cities collapsing and crowds fleeing in panic.

Instead, the film barely shows us the wider world.

It never fully explains what is happening.

All we see is a single house cut off from communication and isolated from the outside world, together with the two families gathered there.

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One family has rented the house for a vacation.

Then two strangers suddenly arrive, claiming to be its owners.

They are different in age.

They are of different races.

They see the world differently.

Under ordinary circumstances, they probably would never have become deeply involved in one another’s lives.

But with no clear idea of what is happening in the world, they are forced to remain in the same house.

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Can they trust one another?

What must they do to protect their families?

How much of what they know should they reveal?

With whom should they share their food and shelter?

The film uses the extreme circumstances of the end of the world to explore the suspicion and trust that exist between people.

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Rather than presenting one dramatic incident after another, much of the story unfolds through conversations inside a confined space.

At times, it felt almost like watching a play.

Something catastrophic was clearly unfolding in the outside world.

But neither the characters nor the audience could see the whole picture.

All they received were fragments of information.

That uncertainty allowed the tension to build gradually.

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Julia Roberts has aged beautifully.

Naturally, she is entirely different from the young woman we remember from Pretty Woman.

Here, she plays a woman who makes no attempt to hide her irritation or suspicion.

She can be selfish, yet she is also desperate to protect her family.

She is not a protagonist everyone will like.

That is precisely what makes her behavior feel so real.

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When the film ended, my wife said,

“That may have been the most realistic portrayal of the end of the world I’ve ever seen.”

Then she added,

“It’s the one that feels most likely to happen.”

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The end of the world may not begin with a massive explosion.

During the recent torrential rain, a small difference in timing or location determined whether someone made it home or became stranded for hours.

The road we normally use becomes impassable.

The shop we normally visit cannot open.

That alone is enough to destabilize our lives.

Even if the world is not ending, the boundary between everyday life and what lies beyond it may be closer than we think.

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This is not a film filled with spectacular action.

Nor does it provide every answer by the end.

Yet it leaves behind a quiet sense of unease.

If something truly catastrophic were to happen, perhaps we would be just like the people in the film, going through the day without ever fully understanding what was happening.

The end of the world that feels most likely to happen.

My wife’s words may be the best description of this film.