The apocalyptic thriller “Leave the World Behind,” an adaptation of Rumaan Alam’s critically acclaimed novel, the No. 1 film in the U.S. on Netflix this week. It is the first feature film from High Ground, the production company founded by former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, in 2018, and it success has predictably attracted the ire of some conservative critics who remain fixated on the Obamas and are resentful of their popularity.
In a film that has a running time of 2 hours and 21 minutes and revolves around a mysterious disaster hitting New York City, some critics have latched onto a single line Ruth Scott (Myha’la Herrold) makes to her father, George Scott (Mahershala Ali), as pandemonium breaks out in New York City: “If the world falls apart, trust should not be doled out easily, especially to white people.”
The actor James Woods tweeted, “The Obamas are two of the most influential people on the planet. Politics aside, you have to agree that their potential power to create good in the world is monumental. That’s why seeing that power used to promote racial hatred is deeply disappointing.”
Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany, a White House press secretary during Donald Trump’s administration, asked on her show, “Why isn’t the headline the former president reviewed a script embedded with this racist line, and how did it get through?”
Ruth’s statement to not be trusting of white people, which most Black viewers would recognize as sage advice, is not the point of the film. It’s not even close to being the point of the film. The film is about the possibility of overcoming mutual distrust and suspicion, however reasonable or however unfounded. The film argues that even in periods of hostility, there are still opportunities for cooperation and even common ground, however painfully and shakily they come about. The love and trust might not come easily, but the possibility is there, somewhere.
That may be the most Obama message ever.
Conservatives fixating on a character’s distrust of white people as a “gotcha” moment either misunderstand the intense or layered film, or, more likely, haven’t bothered to watch it and are looking for a reason to attack the Obamas. Even more, they are looking for an opportunity to undermine a story about how we might transcend our racial antagonisms, preferring that we stay ensnarled in them.
Ironically, they are doing to the Obamas what the former president’s administration did to Shirley Sherrod in 2009.
Ironically, they are doing to the Obamas what the former president’s administration did to Shirley Sherrod in 2010. A Breitbart News video of Sherrod, the first Black person to direct the U.S. Agriculture Department’s rural development division in Georgia, misrepresented remarks about working through her bias to help a white farmer who needed aid. The edited video only included the expression of bias. And Obama’s administration fired her without knowing those details.
“Leave the World Behind,” in the same way that Sherrod did, suggests we might learn to trust and work with others despite our deep-seated suspicions of them. The Obamas, for their part, were the executive producers and offered feedback on the characters’ evolution and, perhaps most significantly, on how a cyberattack on the U.S. might unfold.
Kayleigh: Why isn't the headline, the former president reviewed script embedded with this racist line and how did it get through? pic.twitter.com/SGFrX8edM4
— Acyn (@Acyn) December 12, 2023
In response to the unfolding disaster, the Scotts flee to their home in the Hamptons, but find it occupied by Amanda Sanford (Julia Roberts), Clay Sanford (Ethan Hawke) and their two children who are vacationing in the luxury Airbnb. The Sanfords weren’t expecting the owners to appear in the middle of the night to reclaim their house, or for the owners of the fancy home to be Black. Amanda doubts the father and daughter are telling the truth about who they are. Ruth is quick to call out her behavior, as her father is more diplomatic.
Ruth’s open distrust of the Sanfords signals a generational difference in how racism gets called out by Black people. Ruth wants the Sanfords gone, convinced she and her father would be safer by themselves. George isn’t oblivious to the prejudice and suspicion he faced as he tried to explain the situation to the Sanfords or to the dangers that Black people face as they encounter white strangers on doorsteps. He still believes though that this is a shared life, that our best hope at survival is cooperation and, conversely, as the film points out, our greatest obstacle is not hackers and bombs but each other.
In 1920, W.E.B. DuBois, the pre-eminent Black scholar of his era, wrote “The Comet,” a quasi-futuristic short story set in Manhattan about another mysterious apocalypse. In 1920, W.E.B. Du Bois, the pre-eminent Black scholar of his era, wrote “The Comet,” a quasi-futuristic short story set in Manhattan about another mysterious apocalypse that appears to leave everyone dead, except for Jim, a working-class Black man, and Julia, a pampered wealthy white woman. They approach each other with suspicion and fear. Julia, in particular, brings hostility. Even so, the pair eventually find themselves in each other’s arms, literally clinging to each other now that society has collapsed. Then the post-racial promise unravels when Julia’s white father reappears, and she realizes she’s got other options. “Leave the World Behind” isn’t that different except that there are no other options but to stay, if not in each other’s embrace, then at least in each other’s orbit. The Obamas are two of the most influential people on the planet. Politics aside, you have to agree that their potential power to create good in the world is monumental. That’s what moves the movie along: not the question about the nature of a disaster that’s never fully explained, but the question of whether the Black and white characters can coexist. Can they figure each other out before they can figure out what’s happening with power grids and satellites, deadly Teslas, ear-piercing sonic booms and, eventually, bombs? In a twist on theorist Frederic Jameson’s famous observation that “it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism,” this film suggests that that’s also easier to imagine than the end of white supremacy. That’s the hard work of the film, how to represent a way over and around the racism that costs us all so much socially. It’s telling that despite being more conciliatory, George still finds himself at gunpoint on the porch of a white friend, Danny (Kevin Bacon) who threatens to kill him in the name of protecting his family and their possessions, including medicine that might help the mysterious affliction of the Sanfords’ son. In a twist on Frederic Jameson’s observation that “it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism,” this film suggests that that’s also easier to imagine than the end of white supremacy. At a certain point, one of the youngest characters in the film happens upon an abandoned house that could serve as a bunker and save them all if they can overcome their distrust of one another to find their way to it. That’s far from certain, but it’s possible. And it’s the possibility of our working together, of us finding our way to each other when needed that threatens the fear-based message of the far-right. The Obamas are experts at their own brand or ‘inclusive populism’ premised on radical hope and ‘going high’ even in the face of bullies, guns and intentional chaos. Conservatives are fixated on trashing this film because they know the hopefulness presented by Barack and Michelle Obama is a rejection of the cynicism they promote.
Robyn Autry
Robyn Autry is a sociology professor and director of the Center for the Study of Public Life at Wesleyan University. She is the author of “Desegregating the Past: The Public Life of Memory in the U.S. and South Africa.” 
That's why seeing that power used to promote racial hatred is deeply disappointing. pic.twitter.com/HpCuyVlgbI