17 years have passed since Will Smith‘s highly acclaimed film “I Am Legend” premiered in cinemas, based on Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel of the same name. The movie follows Robert Neville (Smith), a lone survivor in an apocalypse that transformed humans into vampire-like creatures. Despite its box office success and critical praise for Smith’s performance, the film’s cinematic ending deviates significantly from Matheson’s original work, seemingly missing the essence of its source material.
On Film, A Hero’s Ending. In The Book, Something Else
In the film, Neville is a solitary Army scientist, living in isolation as he tirelessly works on a vaccine for a virus transforming humans into vampire-like creatures known as Darkseekers. He conducts experiments on a female subject. When his dog, Sam, gets bitten and infected, Neville tries to save him using a serum he developed, but unfortunately fails and is forced to euthanize him. This tragic event pushes Neville out of his seclusion, leading him to encounter two other survivors who are headed towards a refuge for humans. Neville eventually figures out how to make his treatment effective, but his sanctuary is overrun by Darkseekers, causing him to leave behind a vial containing the blood of the cured woman with the survivors before he makes the ultimate sacrifice to protect the cure. The movie concludes with Anna and Ethan, the two survivors, reaching the camp and transferring the life-saving cure to them, while a voiceover shares that Neville’s actions saved mankind and his memory became legendary.
The film adaptation of the book deviates significantly from its original ending, straying too far from the core message. In the novel, Neville is the sole human survivor, and his actions towards the vampires are harsh as he’s killed hundreds in self-defense and to understand them. There are distinct types of vampires introduced, including a new species that are more human-like due to mutations, forming their own society. They do not view Neville favorably because of his history with killing vampires. Eventually, Neville is captured by them for execution. As he waits for his fate, Neville comes to understand that his actions have made him deserving of the vampire’s condemnation and that, as humanity’s last vestige, he will become a new myth or legend to the vampires, just as vampires were once seen as mythical by humans.
The moment in question serves to highlight how one’s viewpoint can dramatically alter everything, even shifting your own role within an event, and it carries significant weight. Transforming Neville’s “sacrifice” into a heroic act significantly alters the story’s essence, losing much of its original depth. This issue is compounded by the film’s deliberate portrayal of vampires as monstrous, which reduces their human-like qualities in the book (where they pose minimal threat to Neville). This modification distances the narrative from its intended meaning even further. It’s important to mention that the third act of the movie adaptation of I Am Legend, particularly, has been subject to heavy criticism. Additionally, the film’s ending, which conveys themes of a self-sacrificing savior (Neville and his role in preserving the cure), resonating with Christ-like imagery, is entirely absent from the book.
The Alternate Ending is Closer But Still Not Right
It’s intriguing to note that the movie actually had an alternative ending, initially marketed as faithful to the book – but it isn’t. This alternate ending portrays Neville being attacked by Darkseekers, only to discover one of them is trying to save a female he’s been experimenting on because she’s his mate. In this moment, Neville recognizes his transformation into a monster and apologizes before leaving with Anna and Ethan in search of the survivor’s colony. This ending, while aligning more with the book’s theme of self-realization about actions and their consequences, doesn’t capture the full weight of the novel’s message. Although Neville acknowledges his monstrous behavior towards Darkseekers, he fails to grasp that the world has fundamentally changed and his place in it. The upcoming sequel film is expected to adopt this ending as its canonical version, but it still falls short of reflecting the original book’s profound impact.
From a movie enthusiast’s standpoint, I can’t help but emphasize that when movies are made from written works, they seldom resemble their original form entirely. Some elements are more effective in books than they are on screen, and vice versa. However, when it comes to the essence and message of a story, that’s something every adaptation should strive to preserve. Unfortunately, in the case of “I Am Legend,” both its theatrical and alternate endings seem to have strayed from the mark. A tale rich in themes like perspective, otherness, and the very nature of legends on paper transforms into a narrative of heroics and human supremacy on screen, which unfortunately misses the intended message. Here’s to hoping the sequel manages to bring us closer to the original source material.
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2025-01-06 02:10