WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for Leave the World Behind.
Summary
- The 2020 Rumaan Alam novel that
Leave the World Behind
adapts provides additional context to the loud noise in the movie, suggesting it could be caused by highly advanced planes flying by as a part of a government secret. - The revelation in the book that Danny’s wife Karen also experiences loose teeth like Archie adds more tension and fear to the film’s ending, as it implies that the phenomenon could affect everyone.
- The cause of Archie’s symptoms in the film is unclear, as it could be either the loud noise or a mysterious tick that bit him, potentially spreading a dangerous disease. The inclusion of Danny’s wife being affected paints a more despairing picture.
One of the most unsettling and confusing scenes in Leave the World Behind is given some terrifying new insight from the information provided in the 2020 novel. Sam Esmail’s dystopian doomsday Netflix thriller has become one of the most popular movies on the streaming service, maintaining the number one spot on the Top Movies list since it premiered on December 8, 2023. Even weeks after its release, viewers still have many questions about the logic behind the events of the film, which depicts a cyberattack that ignites the collapse of American society.
There are a number of details and additional information provided in Rumaan Alam’s 2020 novel, which inspired the 2023 Netflix film, that provides some additional context. For example, the loud noise in the movie is not really explained other than the possibility that it could be targeted microwave radiation attacks that are deliberately trying to poison Americans. In the book, however, it’s explained that the loud noise is caused by highly advanced planes flying by that only the government knows are in existence. The loud noise is the most likely reason why Archie’s teeth fall out in the movie and the book.
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Leave The World Behind’s Book Reveals That Danny’s Wife Karen Also Had Loose Teeth From The Noise
Archie Isn’t The Only Character To Experience The Strange Phenomenon
Given the additional information in the Leave the World Behind book, Archie’s falling teeth situation could have been a lot worse. It is revealed that Danny, played by Kevin Bacon in the film, has a wife named Karen who is also experiencing a loose teeth phenomenon similar to Archie’s.
Danny is incredibly protective of his property and information in Leave the World Behind, which is likely why he did not share this similarity with Clay and G. H. It is strange, however, given the information from the book, that Danny would act surprised when he heard that Archie’s teeth had fallen out as well.
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Archie & Karen’s Teeth Falling Out Makes Leave The World Behind’s Ending Even Scarier
He May Simply Be The First To Experience The Fate That Awaits The Other Characters
Whether the Danny character in the Leave the World Behind movie was hiding the information about his wife from Clay and G. H., the additional information from the book makes the implications in the film more terrifying. It highlights the reality that whatever is happening to Archie could eventually happen to everyone in Clay and G.H.’s family and thousands of people across the country. If the noise did cause Archie and Karen’s teeth to fall out, then it’s likely only a matter of time before the others experience similar symptoms.
There is the possibility that what Archie is experiencing isn’t from the loud noise but is rather a result of the mysterious tick that bit him. It appears to be an unusual bug that could even be an agent of biological warfare, spreading a terrible disease through the disguise of a seemingly natural tick. Whether the source of the disease is from the loud noise or the tick, the fact that Danny’s wife Karen was also affected paints a much more hopeless picture of the ending of Leave the World Behind.
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What Else Did Leave The World Behind Cut From The Book?
The Netflix Adaptation Didn’t Remove Much – But It Also Changed A Lot
Like most adaptations of popular novels, the 2023 Netflix movie Leave the World Behind made several changes, and the scene that gave more context to Archie’s loose teeth isn’t the only thing cut from the Rumaan Alam book of the same name. Many of the removed moments in Leave the World Behind came out of necessity, however, due to significant character alterations made for the film.
The most immediate of these is the character of Ruth. G.H.’s Gen Z daughter was an incredibly important part of the 2023 Netflix movie, and the same is true in the Leave the World Behind novel. However, in Rumaan Alam’s version of the story, Ruth isn’t G.H’s daughter โ she’s his wife. Ruth and G.H. are a couple in the novel, and they are also both older than their on-screen counterparts.
Both versions of
Leave the World Behind
are notably different, though this isn’t because the novel is substantially larger.
This naturally meant that there were several moments in the book featuring Ruth that simply couldn’t be included in the movie version of Leave the World Behind because they’d have made no sense. Ruth in the books is often seen worrying about her adult daughter Maya and her grandchildren. While the Leave the World Behind movie flipped this by having Ruth worrying about her mother (also called Maya), it still meant much of the book-version of Ruth’s perspective on events was lost.
There are also further alterations. However, for the most part, the Leave the World Behind movie doesn’t remove much but instead adds or alters. It’s not an adaptation which has simply ignored huge swathes of the original text as some do (such as the Harry Potter movies omitting the character of Peeves the Poltergeist, or Tom Bombadil being absent from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy). Both versions of Leave the World Behind are notably different, though this isn’t because the novel is substantially larger.
Leave the World Behind (2023)
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
- December 8, 2023
- Director
- Sam Esmail
- Runtime
- 141 Minutes