How Leave The World Behind Proves The Unique Magic & Contemporary Relevance of The Twilight Zone
“What makes [The Twilight Zone] so engaging is it's lack of over-stimulating elements. As watchers, we're left with just a black-and-white visual, a simple story line, and a handful of twists and turns.”
When I think about my childhood, I think about the stories that kept me sane. I was an anxious child, always worried about the present, forever wondering about the future. And the stories that I had access to helped soothe some of the worries, even the worries that I didn’t have the language to understand. I have vivid memories of sitting on a scratchy brown couch in the ‘computer room’ of my parents house alongside my sister Jasmine as we watched episode after episode of The Twilight Zone on a modestly sized screen of a black Desktop computer. I can still remember the literal chills that curled down my spine as *spoiler for episode 8 of season 1, “Time Enough At Last”...Henry Beamis’s glasses fell off his face, shattering on impact. The story went something like this - Henry wanted time to read, without distraction, but everyone in his life deemed reading unimportant and chastised him for this obsessive habit. In a twist of fate, Henry, while reading on break at the bank he worked in, survived an atomic bomb attack leaving him time enough at last to read to his heart’s content…until his glasses broke. What makes this episode so engaging is its lack of over-stimulating elements. As watchers of The Twilight Zone, we’re left with just a black-and-white visual, a simple story line, and a handful of twists and turns. Its simplicity is magical, and this moment of Henry’s glasses breaking and his one true desire being circumvented once again felt unspeakably cruel. As a glasses-rocking and an avid, sometimes obsessive reader, this moment has never left me.
Currently, on my dating app profile, I have a list the things that I’m into, including the phrase “mind-fuck-y movies.” So deciding to watch Leave The World Behind a few days ago was easy. Leave The World Behind fits perfectly into that category as the entire time you’re slowly traveling through the narrative, being twisted and turned, all while waiting for the more devastating reveals to completely disorient and reorient you. And while I watched as this family tried to piece together what was happening around them, and what remaining safe would look like for them in this new world, it dawned on me that I’d seen something almost exactly like this before. I was brought back to that computer room, to that scratchy couch, to that staticky black computer screen, to that one episode, where one factor was changed and the world devolved into chaos.
“In the event of a crisis, would you be able to trust your family? Are you trusting of the people around you, or skeptical? Are you ever wary of what your neighbors do at night? Are you ever wary of the reality that you really don’t know what goes on behind closed doors?”
“Maple Street, U.S.A., late summer. A tree-lined little world of front porch gliders, barbecues, the laughter of children, and the bell of an ice cream vendor. At the sound of the roar and the flash of light, it will be precisely 6:43 P.M. on Maple Street. This is Maple Street on a late Saturday afternoon. Maple Street in the last calm and reflective moment - before the monsters came.“
- Opening Narration, Season 1, episode 22: “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street”
In episode 1 of season 22 of The Twilight Zone, “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street,” (1960) there’s a quiet block in Suburbia, with houses that all look as though they’ve been copy / pasted one by one. At random, one night, there’s a blackout that takes the power away from the entire block. The neighbors pour out of their houses and into the street in an attempt to figure out what happened, who caused it, and what this all meant in the end. What begins as friendly inquiry soon devolves into finger-pointing that only reveals true information about the character of the owner of the pointed-finger. In the event of a crisis would you be able to trust your family to react how you’d react? Do you know what your neighbors do at night? Are you trusting of the people around you, or skeptical? Are you ever wary of the reality that you really don’t know what goes on behind closed doors? All of these questions are posed and explored in this 30-minute episode, and I argue that these questions and themes are absolutely at the heart of the film, Leave The World Behind.
Leave The World Behind (Netflix, 2023) written for the screen and directed by Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot, Homecoming), is based on a novel of the same name written by Rumaan Alam. This film, while similar in its human themes, is different from the episode in the sense that it’s more reflective of the contemporary world. We see a family of four (Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Charlie Evans, Farrah Mackenzie) traveling to Buffalo, New York for a vacation away from the city. They’ve rented a sizable home that has access to the neighborhood beach while still remaining far away enough from civilization to offer isolation and relaxation. As they ease into their vacation, a series of concerning events ensue, all centering on the fact that the satellite and cellular service has been blocked. Phones can’t connect to data, TV’s are useless, and an oil-bearing tanker ship violently drifts ashore. And as the family settles into the rented home to try and wait out the outage, they’re met with the owners of the house (Mahershala Ali, Myha’la) who’ve returned to wait out the blackout away from the probable chaos of the city. The questions that come up in “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” also arise in the film, after you dig past the old, Do you trust the government? Are you prepared to hunker down in case of a crisis? And while Leave The World Behind does not particularly feature a massive horde of neighbors all pointing the finger at each other while they all collectively work to figure out what’s going on, it does feature some elements that make it hard to separate from that episode of The Twilight Zone - those of which I explore further below.
The elements, explored:
A single, focused setting. The setting of a story sets the stage for whatever conflicts or tensions will soon develop in that story. Sometimes settings shift allowing for watchers to travel through spaces and recognize how the character’s movement and engagement with a space impacts their overall experience in the story. In the case of these two texts, one featuring a suburban block, the other mainly featuring a house in Upstate New York, the setting is a main character in the developing tension.
The suburban block in an undisclosed area serves as the perfect backdrop for a developing tension. If every home and every block looks the same, what happens when someone operates outside of the norm? That sameness makes the differences, even the small ones, glaringly apparent. By setting the story in this uniform, suburban town, the creators allowed for the tension to have the perfect place to develop and simmer.
The upstate New York backdrop of the film is an almost perfect setting for a story of this nature. By placing the characters in an isolated location in upstate New York, the film’s creator has produced a setting that is perfect for building a slow and steady tension. What happens to people in isolated settings when blackouts happen? How do you communicate with the outside world? How will you know when issues are resolved if your only method of communication is clogged? With isolation comes relaxation, but also unease. And for this upper middle class family, the eventual unease of the setting nicely matches the unease of the plot.
2. A single shift of an element. Nikki Giovanni once wrote, “it’s not the crutches we decry, it’s the need to move forward, though we haven’t the strength…” Humanity is fragile and filled with patterns, one of the biggest patterns being the reliance of people on new forms of technology. New technology can quickly become beneficial, but can just as quickly become a crutch that’s hard to live without. These two shifted elements reflect the fragility of human-nature, and the tension that develops when crutches are removed.
In the 60’s, consumers were reliant on power in a way that was unique to the 20th century and not previously seen in the 19th century. Power, in many homes, was the norm, as was having appliances that relied on power to operate. By shifting this one element and removing access to power, the entire cast of characters becomes disoriented enough to jump start the developing tensions. This is just another reflection of how delicate human realities are, and how humanity’s reliance on new technologies can either benefit of inhibit the public’s safety.
In the film, the newly inescapable 21st-century norm is access to satellite data in many households, something that wouldn’t have been experienced on a large scale in the 20th century. By cutting this one element, the film’s creators further evaluate how humanity’s reliance on outside forces (power, satellite data) both empowers and has the opportunity to disable the public as a whole. Again, this serves a reminder of the delicate nature of human reality.
3. A kid who knows a lot, but is mostly ignored. When children are present in unsettling stories, they amplify the tension. Children are unpredictable, loud, sometimes wrong, and they can even cause opposing forces to draw nearer. These two kids reflect the fragility of life, but they also reflect how sometimes naïveté is really just brilliance in an unexpected form.
Tommy is the youngest apparent cast-member of the episode who is consistently overlooked, albeit in more obvious ways. As the neighbors scour to figure out what’s going on, Tommy jumps in with some suggestions that are ignored because of his age. Tommy recalls a few books he’s read before where this very scenario has happened, but the part where he’s lost everyone is when naming “aliens in human disguise” as the cause of those imaginary scenarios. This is something that the adults don’t have the time to hear, because of course there are real issues happening and real causes are needed.
Rose is the youngest daughter of the family (Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Charlie Evans, Farrah Mackenzie) who is overlooked in a very small way. Though they obviously love and care for her, the family’s passive attitude towards Rose’s interests serve as the catalyst for Rose’s character arc. In other words, Rose’s very unimportant issue of not being able to finish the finale of “Friends” and being heartbroken at having unanswered questions isn’t as pressing of a concern as questions surrounding what is happening with the blackout.
4. The same kid, clinging to a form of media. Storytelling in its various forms is compelling for a reason. Stories help people make sense of the world, and even when watching along as characters navigate experiences that are unfamiliar, one can find solace in seeing pieces of themselves in the dialogue, the actions, and experiences with other characters. The two kids featured in the episode and film cling to stories to help them make sense of the world, despite adults resisting their sense-making.
Tommy more obviously continuously references comic books in which characters experience similar events as his neighbors on Maple Street. While all he’s trying to do is offer a unique perspective, one that makes perfect sense to him, his references to media are looked at as insignificant and silly. Eventually, the finger is pointed at Tommy as the adults can’t further rationalize who’s at fault. Could Tommy, who knew the story perfectly, have been an alien in disguise all along? The creator’s of this story highlight how the fragility of human nature even impacts society’s most vulnerable age group - the children.
Rose, like Tommy, is a story lover. In the beginning she’s almost finished with the final season of Friends, and grows heartbroken at not being able to see what happens in the end. As the story continues and the conflict is revealed, Rose struggles with her parents lack of an interest in exploring the world outside of the house. Rose notices the animals’ weird patterns and is curious for more. She even goes on a tangent about an episode of The West Wing where a character tells the story of a man whose faith in God as opposed to his faith in what’s in front of him leads to his demise. And ultimately, Rose is ignored, just like Tommy, serving as another example of society’s lack of care for the true needs of it’s most vulnerable age group.
5. The lack of trust between neighbors, revealed. America is an individualistic culture where members of the American Society are socialized to look out for themselves and themselves alone. The “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality rarely leaves room for assisting others, unless someone comes from a community (typically of color) that prioritizes community care. The questions surrounding who people will see as friends or foes is evident in the episode and the film. Essentially, Lamar’s question, “When the shit hit’s the fan, are you still a fan?” is notably relevant when thinking about engaging with community members in times of crisis
A key aspect of the episode is the paranoia that the community feels and how it causes each member of the community to turn and point blame at others. Quickly, that sameness of Suburbia is interjected by the otherness of distrust that boils up when there are unanswered questions that feel threatening to the individual’s sense of safety. The neighbors who once had a lovely rapport are now ravenous in their distrust of each other, and in-fighting takes over. The creator’s of this episode drive home the reality that individualism is the community’s greatest enemy.
*Spoiler* Eventually, the primary family (Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Charlie Evans, Farrah Mackenzie) in the film and the owners of the house (Mahershala Ali, Myha’la) are in need of help as the health of the eldest son suffers as a result of the loud piercing sound that rang out hours before. The owners of the house suggest contacting their neighbor (Kevin Bacon), who is notably a sort of doomsday prepper and might have supplies to help out. As they pull up, instead of welcoming them with open arms, the doomsday prepper neighbor welcomes them with a shotgun and asks them to step off his property. The question, ‘Are you trusting of the people around you, or skeptical?’ is put on display, and the neighbor makes it clear that there’s no trust here, even with prior communal, neighborly history. The creator’s of the film are doing a lot here, mostly reflecting that individualistic nature being a threat to the community, but also digging a bit into race relations* (see below).
*a major difference featured in the film that wasn’t featured in the episode involves characters of different racial backgrounds engaging with each other. The owners of the house are a Black-American family, whereas the family visiting the house, and the surrounding neighbors, are White-American. This was a contemporary aspect only featured in the film for the purpose of building dialogue surrounding individuality v. community. Communities of color in the United States are socialized to be more communal in the sense that the development of a community is reliant on the contributions of the individual to that community. The immediate trust bestowed by the Black-American family onto the White-American family (mostly by the father) felt both understandable and like a survival tactic. The Black-American owners of the house needed the White-American family to comply in order maintain access to their property and further safety from the city. And the lack of trust immediately imparted on the Black-American family by the White-American family (mostly by the wife) is reflective of these realities faced by Americans today. The White-American family in times of crisis was split on if they should be communal or be individual and protect their family unit, and the underlying racial tensions in this county that would surely come to a head in the event of a crisis became abundantly clear. I could get more into this, but this feels like it can be a post of it 'it’s own!
6. The reveal / truth behind the chaos. America has long been tenured as an enemy of many global powers across the world, and the question surrounding retaliation simmers underneath America’s imperialist / colonialist desires and actions. What would happen if the enemies of the state decided to enact revenge on the United States? Would that revenge be soft and subtle, or would it be completely destructive like the many instances in which the United States has imposed itself on other countries? And what would the role of citizens be in the fallout of this country?
*Spoiler* In the end, a riot breaks out in the neighborhood as a result of the constant fighting and finger pointing. Someone shoots and kills a ‘suspicious’ figure as the paranoia bubbles over, and the residents resort to further violence. And as the camera pans back, it’s revealed that aliens did in fact cause the power outage as an experiment in how humans react to change: “The world is full of Maple Streets…they pick the most dangerous enemies they can find, and it’s themselves. All we need to do is sit back and watch.” The monsters, in the case of this episode, are both the aliens in human disguise, and the people living in the neighborhood themselves. And the creators of the film finally drive home the fact that the enemy toward communal progress is sometimes simply the individual.
*Spoiler* After the incident with the neighbor, the owner of the house fully lets his paranoia set in. He’s maintained a sneaking suspicion the entire time that an opposing governmental force, or enemy of the US, is likely causing the satellite blackout in an attempt to create a civil war amongst Americans. The idea is that in the event of one variable shifting, the American people will turn on themselves, and cause mass self-inflicted destruction: “Because if the target nation [America] was dysfunctional enough, it would, in essence, do the work for you.” And after experiencing that interaction with a neighbor he once fondly engaged with (Doomsday Prepper was once his contractor on his house), the owner of the house discovers that role of the American citizen in America’s own destruction might be more active then previously thought. The creator further drives home many points, including America’s likeliness to resort to racism and individualism, and how that might surely lead to its own destruction.
“The Twilight Zone, even today, is genius.”
There’s rarely anything new under the sun, especially with Western forms of storytelling. The heroes journey is taught yearly in school for that very reason. There are many instances in which patterns that tie stories together are recycled and have a hand in helping readers better understand and engage with the work in front of them. If I wasn’t a purveyor of Western Media, I likely wouldn’t have even noticed these similar patterns across these two stories.
Ultimately, I’m not here to argue about the conspiracy theories or dig into my anxieties about what a film like this, produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, implies for the future, but I am here to say this - The Twilight Zone, even today, is genius. I’m not even here to fully discuss the role that race plays in a story like this, and it’s implications. I’m here to say that as a soother of my anxiety, and a continued inspiration to contemporary forms of media, The Twilight Zone still proves that it can stand the test of time.
If you’re someone that was dissatisfied by the ending of Leave The World Behind, know that you have countless episodes of The Twilight Zone that typically end in a neat, “this was the cause/answer” resolution. And as you dig into this series and find yourself becoming an expert on all things The Twilight Zone, you’ll begin to see how nothing is new under the sun, and how black and white forms of media can and should definitely stick around.
