The COVID-19 (also known as 'coronavirus') pandemic hasn't turned into a zombie apocalypse, but there are still some surprising parallels between it and 2007's I Am Legend.
Starring Will Smith, I Am Legend adapts the 1954 story of the same name from author Richard Matheson. In the film, Robert Neville (Smith) is one of the last men standing after a viral outbreak starts turning human being into strange, mutated creatures known as Darkseekers. Neville, a virologist, works to study the outbreak and try to see if there are any other humans left alive, as roughly 12 million people were left standing after the virus killed off the entire world's population, about 90%, and turned a smaller portion into Darkseekers.
In some ways, I Am Legend presents an interesting crossover between movies like Cast Away and couples it with Smith's performance as the standout of what could have easily been just another lackluster, zombie apocalypse movie, despite the fact that Darkseekers aren't really zombies. Over ten years later, I Am Legend has become even more harrowing for audiences as it reflects the troubling times of 2020's own global pandemic, COVID-19.
I Am Legend's Surprising Coronavirus Parallels Explained
As many are confined in social isolation due to stay at home orders from the United States government and foreign governments as well, there is an overarching feeling of loneliness that permeates the social climate of 2020 that is strongly reflected in I Am Legend. Neville is friendless, isolated from everything he once held dear about the normalcies of day-to-day life with only his German Shepherd, Sam, and some mannequins to uphold the bonds that come from human interaction. This was seen with Tom Hanks in Cast Away as well, when his character in that film befriended a volleyball whom he named "Wilson". While this particular element doesn't scratch the surface of the parallels between I Am Legend and the coronavirus outbreak, it is still noteworthy, as the psychological aspects of containment are pressing, just like the more physical dangers to a population during a pandemic.
As of March 2020, New York City is one of the United States' highest impact areas for coronavirus. In I Am Legend, the entire island of Manhattan was evacuated and quarantined; it is shown in the movie that this was where Neville was separated from his family and lost his wife and daughter. While most quarantine zones in the United States are considered voluntary, with government issuing 'stay at home' orders except for jobs and personnel that have been deemed essential - hospital staff, delivery drivers, factory workers, grocery stores, and restaurants that can provide delivery services to their customers - none of this has been enforced through the military or police, as was done in the movie.
While the majority of I Am Legend takes place years after the outbreak, the flashbacks that are shown during the early stages play out similarly to what is being seen around the world with the tension of a slow-creeping threat that is unknown as far as how far it will spread and its overall timeline. Though the film is certainly a more science-fiction based look at dramatic consequences of an outbreak, and the virus' origins are incredibly different, the basics of reality are ever-present, making it an even more terrifying watch in 2020.
