I Am Legend

I am Legend, from the novel by the same name by Richard Matheson, has had two film versions already. Those are The Last man on Earth with Vincent Price and The Omega Man with Charlton Heston. The new version stars Will Smith as Robert Neville, apparently the last human being alive.

Three years before the main story of the film, a plague caused by a virus that was created to cure cancer wiped out most of the human race. Five billion four hundred million died outright, bleeding out. Twelve million survived, apparently immune. About five hundred million became inhuman, hairless creatures with advanced strength, agility, and aggressiveness, reduced intelligence, and with a taste for human blood. The twelve million survivors become snacks for the five hundred million vampire like creatures. As far as Robert Neville knows, he is the last true human alive.

Robert Neville has formatted his day pretty well. He and his dog scours the now empty city of New York, overgrown with weeds and grass and crawling with wildlife, for supplies and food. He talks to store mannequins as if they were living, breathing people. And he tries to find a cure for the plague, some way to restore the vampire creatures to humanity. He experiments on rats and on the occasional vampire creature he manages to catch. It is a slim hope, but if he doesn't try there would be no reason to go on living.

Robert Neville must be back at his Greenwich Village house by dusk, with steel shutters drawn. The vampire creatures are allergic to sunlight and come out only at night.

The interesting artistic choice made for I am Legend is that the film makers decided not to stuff the movie from stem to stern with action. There is action a plenty, of course, especially toward the end. But I am Legend starts as a meditation on what it is like to be a man who is utterly alone, knows why this came to pass, and knows that he will likely never see another human being again. Maintaining a modicum of sanity, something which Robert Neville has some difficulty in doing, is just as important as his physical subsistence and security.