Hacker Cinema
I Am Legend
2007 · Film · 101 min
Directed by Francis Lawrence
Robert Neville is a scientist who was unable to stop the spread of the terrible virus that was incurable and man-made. Immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City and perhaps the world. For three years, Neville has faithfully sent out daily radio messages, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. But he is not alone.
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Viral vector delivery is indeed harder to sell with PopSci, what with movies like "I am Legend".
A NOVA episode on dogs showed a Russian study where they bred the most friendly foxes with each other and did the same with the most aggressive (so extremes in both directions). The aggressive-bred animals were like that scene in I Am Legend where he checks on his infected rats. They were being fed, and they still wanted to kill their feeders. Kind of terrifying.
>> We are social creatures and need to be needed by each other.
I think this was illustrated well in the movie I Am Legend with Will Smith. He creates artificial situations where he is interacting with mannequins in order to fulfill this very basic need.
Its interesting that this part of the movie was missed by a lot of friends and family until I pointed it out to them.
It's almost exactly the premise of the movie "I am Legend," But it uses CRISPR instead of a Virus as the delivery mechanism.
Really facinating. Using Virus to cure cancer.
Just like from I Am Legend movie.
``` The movie opens with a scene of Dr. Alice Krippin, who created the virus to cure cancer, discussing her work. Krippin states that 10,009 clinical trials were completed and all of the participants were successfully cured. However, it is later discovered that the virus is lethal.
A genetically modified measles virus kills most humans and turns some people into mutant creatures.
```
I hope it wont end up like `I Am Legend` movie. How long those research are being there , the movie script is a coincidence?
Also really enjoyed What Dreams May Come despite its lack of success at the box office.
People are probably already aware of the fact, but it is based on a novel of the same name by Richard Matheson — who also wrote I Am Legend (which has had its own fair share of film adaptations).
Canopies are made of fabric and degrade; they need maintenance and replacement, which isn't going to happen in America. Instead, they'll be put up once (at great expense, with some company profiting handsomely, and it just so happens that company is owned by the brother of someone important on the city council), and then just left there. After a few years, there will be holes in the canopy and it'll look like the movie "I Am Legend" (where the city degrades quickly because all the people are gone and no one's doing maintenance), and no one will want to play there. Parents will complain, but the city will push back because fixing it requires demolishing and rebuilding the entire playground, which is very expensive and not in the city's budget.
> there aren't any real similarities between the book and the movie; they're two separate zombie stories with the same name
Funny - this is also a good description of I Am Legend.
That happened in I am Legend too
The pirated version had a different name for one of the mannequins, but people loved the quote and the acting for yelling out the name of the mannequin in the movie, so that led to people would arguing in internet comments about the name used and you could get a feel for how prevalent the piracy was by upvotes
Also
> If it looks like something from a Marvel movie, there’s a reason. The army of consultants commissioned to work on Neom, the $500bn urban region of which the Line is part, comprises not only urban planners but numerous digital artists from the special effects industry. According to a Bloomberg report, they include Olivier Pron, a designer who helped create the look of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy films; Nathan Crowley, known for his work on the brooding Dark Knight trilogy of Batman movies; and futurist Jeff Julian, who worked on the apocalyptic extravaganzas World War Z and I Am Legend.
I guess if there's a fat paycheck in it, I'd design a megalomaniac choppy-choppy prince's fantasy city too...
I Am Legend is famous for having kickstarted the modern "zombie" trope, as pioneered in cinema by George Romero. He cited I Am Legend as his major influence; he just changed vampires to... ghouls is it? Romero didn't call them zombies.
I Am Legend has been made into a film at least 3 different times. It’s influenced a lot of people even if they never read the book.
EDIT: The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Omega Man (1971), and I Am Legend (2007), 28 Days Later (2002)…
My favorite is 28 Days Later
> I don't recall the hero ever having a pet.
See TV Tropes’ Loyal Animal Companion[1] for a list of lists of examples. Like Canine Companion[2], which itself contains Post-Apocalyptic Dog[3], which links to I Am Legend[4], The Road Warrior[5], and others. I’ll stop before going too deep into this rabbit hole.
[1]: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LoyalAnimalCompanion
[2]: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CanineCompanion
[3]: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PostApocalypticDog
[4]: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/IAmLegend
[5]: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/TheRoadWarrior
This is almost exactly the premise of “I Am Legend” — the film, at least.
I think two things are going on, everyone remembers movies they watched as a kid/teen and thinks they where unusually good. It’s not that there was a golden age of movies, it’s that you personally had seen fewer movies.
That said, the ratio of original movies to sequels/franchises changed. Fast forward 20 years from Star Wars to 1997 and sure yet another Titanic, Jurassic Park 2, and a James Bond film but also, Men in Black, The Fifth Element, Liar Liar, As Good as It Gets etc so still mostly original movies.
But fast forward to 2017 and the top 10 movies included: Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Harry Potter 5, Spider-Man 3, Shrek 3, National Treasure 2, The Simpsons Movie, and Transformers. I Am Legend based on a book and 300 based on a comic. So only Ratatouille was actually new.
This is a totally amateur and non professional question. As I understand some techniques are required to ensure that the mrna reaches the cell without being destroyed. What are the chances that these techniques have side effects and we end up with the back story to the movie "I am legend"?
While popular films often depict a vaccine that’s effective enough and soon enough to stop an epidemic (Contagion, I Am Legend, World War Z) in real life many epidemics are fought without the help of vaccines (Ebola, HIV, SARS). The combination of speed, effectiveness, and new technology in COVID vaccines is “astonishing” indeed.
"I am Legend" not only portrayed surviving humans as more sympathetic toward each other, but even humanized the infected zombies (to a degree). The zombies had a leader, and he was motivated not by a desire to kill humans, but by what appeared to be desperate love of someone taken from him.
I won't give any more details, but if you haven't seen it, it's a great film.
This sounds like the Will Smiths movie - I am Legend
> things you can binge watch for a month?
this should get you through March :) ...
The Seventh Seal (1957) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050976/
The Last Man on Earth (1964) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058700/
The Omega Man (1971) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067525/
The Andromeda Strain (1971) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066769/
Dawn of the Dead (1978) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077402/
Outbreak (1995) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114069/
12 Monkeys (1995) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114746/
Cabin Fever (2002) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0303816/
Resident Evil (2002) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120804/
28 Days Later (2003) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289043/
Children of Men (2006) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0206634/
28 Weeks Later (2007) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0463854/
I Am Legend (2007) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480249/
Blindness (2008) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0861689/
Carriers (2009) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0806203/
Daybreakers (2009) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433362/
Black Death (2010) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1181791/
Contagion (2011) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1598778/
Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2011) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4500922/
World War Z (2013) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816711/
Maggie (2015) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1881002/
Train to Busan (2016) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5700672/
The Girl With All The Gifts (2016) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4547056/
93 Days (2016) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5305246/
Cargo (2017) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3860916/
It Comes At Night (2017) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4695012/
Rabid (2019) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5628902/
The Hot Zone (2019) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4131818/
edit: There is actually a Wikipedia page for the genre (duh!): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Films_about_viral_outbreaks
This is like the opening news clip for a disaster film. Then the words 'twenty years later' and a world of dead plants and people and glop. Short movie.
"If you could imagine your body as a highway, and you picture the virus as a very fast car, being driven by a very bad man... imagine the damage that car could cause. Then if you replace that man with a cop, the picture changes. That's essentially what we've done."
~Gene splicer in opening news clip from movie, 'I am Legend'
One potential risk I see would be that Crispr becomes too easy for anyone to do, and someone starts selling dodgy kits that allow for simple mistakes to turn into complex problems.
An extreme outcome might be like the fictional movie "I Am Legend", which was a horrible title for the movie. Someone gets desperate to cure a late stage cancer in a loved one and ends up creating a pathogen that can manage to spread to other people and wipe out a portion or all of the population.
Or perhaps someone starts selling kits that "make your muscles bigger", but in 0.7% of the population, that kit also makes the persons heart become oversized.
Is it safe to assume that these scenarios are too difficult to accomplish? I am asking because people will do what people can do and we will see online crispr kits before long.
I believe that was a novel by Richard Matheson, author of Twilight Zone episodes, I am Legend, The Incredible Shrinking Man etc.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Matheson
Most zombie fiction is premised on a contagious pathogen or a botched scientific response to such a pathogen (28 Days Later, The Last of Us, I am Legend, Shaun of the Dead etc.) Some use accidental exposure to radiation or extraterrestrial contamination, with unclear mechanisms (Night of the Living Dead)
Zombie movies outside of the contagious pathogen paradigm are more uncommon. Some zombie movies, particularly the older ones predating Night of the Living Dead, are premised on religious supernatural voodoo stuff (White Zombie [1932!]). In others, the condition is not strictly contagious, but exposure to a chemical substance causes a reversal of death (Re-Animator, and Return of the Living Dead (my personal favorite and the origin of zombies who desire 'Braaaaiiiiiins')) In only a few, the creature[s] are created by a mad scientist deliberately trying to reverse death using something other than a contagious pathogen (Frankenstein (should that count?), and Re-Animator.)
Mad scientist in an academic setting attempting to reverse death and accidentally creating an outbreak of non-contagious zombies is a pretty narrow list of zombie movies. Re-Animator is the only one that comes to mind. Anyway, a zombie outbreak obviously isn't going to happen, but if the public becomes generally aware of this research, now might be a good time for Hollywood to reboot Re-Animator. Gods know they hate making original movies these days. I'm aware that a zombie movie fan complaining about a lack of originality may seem ironic.
This is the premise of the film adaptation of I am Legend;
> The story is set in New York City after a virus, which was originally created to cure cancer, has wiped out most of mankind, leaving Neville as the last human in New York, other than nocturnal mutants.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Legend_(film)
Mostly, Just Another Generic Zombie Film, though.
Isn't this the basis for the movie "I Am Legend"?
In all seriousness, how likely will the gene mutations from people self experimenting lead to a contagion? There are many CRISPR kits that people can buy to do their own experimentation.
Currently https://caml.inria.fr/pub/old_caml_site/FAQ/FAQ_DEBUTANT-eng.html
I just finished Sphere, and came away a bit disappointed. Before that I read I Am Legend, which was excellent! It has nothing to do with the movie at all.
It was fantastic up until the vampires/zombies turned into cartoons. One of the scariest scenes I've ever seen was the bit where he goes in after the dog and the vamps are all huddled in a circle shivering in the dark. That was some top notch creepy. And it was brilliant acting by Smith (so much of the scariness of that scene was just because the character was scared).
But, then we got a closer look at them a bit later and they were flying through the air, bouncing off the walls, and just all around looking like cartoon monsters. I'm just not frightened by cartoons. And, it really killed the slow, calm, horror of the book for me. The things that made the book unique and scary in a way that sticks with you are just fundamentally different from the jump scares of the film.
The Vincent Price adaptation (The Last Man On Earth) remains the most faithful film version of I Am Legend, in spirit if not in specific detail. I don't really mind when a movie script changes some plot points or some character details to make it work on screen, I just dislike it when the spirit of the thing is thrown away and replaced with blockbuster tropes (which is my primary complaint about I, Robot, as well).
But, again, I thought Will Smith was excellent in the role. I just really hate what they did with the vamps.
Also I am Legend is a decent movie if you have no "great book expectations".
Gods, reading that was depressing. So many reviews called it some variant of "smart", which is not on the list of adjectives I would use.
I likely would have enjoyed it more had I not been expecting an Asimov story on film. I like Will Smith a lot, but somehow he's been in multiple films that ruined favorite books from my youth (I Am Legend is another book that I love and that had an abysmal film adaptation...I don't blame Smith, though, as he did a great job even in a very cheesy film). I, Robot was also pretty cheesy even without the weight of trying to live up to Asimov's legacy.
10 years ago I had to have my German Shepherd put down; she was suffering from cancer, and I couldn't take it any longer.
A few weeks later I was watching I Am Legend in the theater, and when (spoiler alert) I could see what looked like the inevitable demise of Will Smith's dog, I hoofed it out as quickly as I could. I was completely unprepared to deal with that, and to this day I've never finished the movie.
Not to be flippant, but isn't a "virus that cures cancer" exactly how the Will Smith movie I Am Legend starts?
I couldn't be the only one worried about an "I Am Legend" type problem with this stuff. Obviously, that movie is an extreme, but the underlying problem of unintended mutation exists.
Going to repeat a lot of what has been said so far:
- Minority Report (The TV show isn't bad either)
- Ex Machina
- District 9
- Elysium
- Oblivion
- Edge of Tomorrow
- Looper
- I am Legend
- Her
- The Martian
- The Matrix (Only 2 & 3 if you're super bored)
- Basically any of the Mad Max series
- Firefly (TV show, movies are OK)
- Dark Matter (TV show)
- Snow Piercer
- American Ultra
- Last Witch Hunter (more fantasy than SciFi)
- Riddick
- Dredd
- X Files (I mean, it's not NOT scifi...)
- Treasure Planet (Yes, the animated one)
- Atlantis: The Lost Empire (Gets a bad rap for being animated, but it has it's own language and everything)
- Serial Lain Experiments (anime)
- Watchmen
- The Dark Knight
- Inception
- The Prestige (technically SciFi)
I can go on for hours
Wasn't this the basis for the movie "I Am Legend"?
watch the will smith movie "I am Legend" where he's the last human alive because scientists made a bold decision like this, then decide if we should do a pre-emptive strike. Or will this be the 12 monkeys (wow, 2nd movie reference) tipping point.
In the I Am Legend novella (a big contributor to modern zombie), the infected are more like vampires and retain their intelligence. The book is notable for the primary theme it introduces, the otherness of the zombies (in earlier depictions they are largely undead plot devices)
Romero's Night of the Living Dead also plays with the otherness theme, but the dead are numb and more ghoulish than vampiric.
28 Days Later finally has something I would agree is rabies inspired. It probably contributed to the frantic behavior of zombies in several recent movies.
SPOILER ALERT
There is no Theranos. It's a marketing campaign for a sci-fi movie being released in 2016. (Look at Elizabeth Holmes' (an actress, btw) dress code. Look at their website. Try to find a reference to the company before 2015. It simply doesn't exist!).
After the surprising success of Soylent, MGM decided to cash in with an updated version of Soylent Green. In the future, instead of eating food, people just insert their finger into a machine which analyzes their blood chemistry and makes a delicious beverage optimized for your individual needs. Of course, it also scans your calendar (final exams? Add some ritalin. Important business presentation? Add some xanax. Hot date? Add some viagra).
I don't want to give away any more of the plot, but it stars Elizabeth Holmes and Will Smith (note this is the second remake where he replaces Charleston Heston, the first being Omega Man/I am Legend).
I'm not sure to be honest. I just thought it was a really cool idea.
It felt a bit like the film "I am Legend". All it needs now is a secret zombies and shotgun mode!
Reminds me of the start of the movie I am Legend...
"“I missed the world in general. Seeing things move, seeing cars, dogs, the sun. My colleagues were amazing, and I couldn’t have picked better people to be locked up with, but you start missing meeting new people on nights out, the social variety,” he said. “For me, that was the trickiest part.”"
This seems to be a recurring theme in isolation experiments and have shown up in movies recently. In the movie, "I Am Legend" its clear Will Smith attempts to keep himself sane by using his imagination to create some kind of human interaction. I found it to be a profound theme running through the movie.
I think above all, this is a primary factor with the human condition. It's the need for social interaction. Without it, we don't seem to do very well.
I've had several members of my family go through addiction and have dealt with clinical depression. I gave Frankl's book to one of my older sisters and it had a profound impact on her. It was no silver bullet to her recovery, but it made her look at life completely differently.
Also, in the movie, "I Am Legend" you can see what happens when we're deprived of interaction with other human beings. Will Smith's character goes through seemingly humorous interactions with mannequins in the video store at the beginning of the movie. Although people were snickering in the movie theater, it occurred to me that he was simply trying to create meaning for his own life, even if in some nonsensical way, to avoid going crazy because there were no more "humans" to interact with. It was a constant theme throughout the movie and I'm not sure too many people got that.
There's an individually owned rental store a few minutes from my house (the Blockbuster nearby closed, as well as the Hollywood Video), I always go there to get the new releases. I also have Netflix and Amazon Prime, but I actually enjoy wandering around the rental store, looking over movies. I occasionally find new releases I wasn't aware of.
There are a few perks with the store as well. The lady that runs it lets me get away with murder on returning movies late. There's a vast selection. Older movies (6 months+) are $1, and the rental lasts a week. For movies not available through Netflix and Prime, that deal kills the rental cost + term from the digital competition (as an example, I Am Legend is $1.99 on Amazon to rent for 24 hours). So in my household, I can watch the movie today, another person can watch it several days later; that nicely beats what Amazon & Co offer me.
Overall I find the store to be a positive experience, I'm glad it still exists.
That's a shame.
For those that only know I Am Legend via the film, I definitely recommend reading the book. They don't have much in common apart from zombies and the title.
The lone hero is reminiscent of the archetypical Kantian concept of Übermensch ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Cbermensch ).
Interesting article, but blockbuster posters come in a myriad of formats - I was actually expecting a "hero prominently at the center, sidekicks scattered around the background of the frame" kind of thing, much like that GI Joe: Retaliation movie (cf links). I just checked a few on the top of my head, and the only one that follows the painting style is I Am Legend for obvious reasons.
Armageddon: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0232500/
Fast and Furious: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0232500/
Avatar: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/
Transformers: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418279/
GI Joe: Retaliation: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1583421/
I Am Legend: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480249/
Here's a link to a list, by year, of how the future is portrayed in films. I'm not sure if it's listed in the infographic, but the film 'Code 46' (Tim Robbins) tells an intriguing story of where I see things heading.
http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/3199/inforn.jpg
Another image I can't locate showed how we used to see the future, from a 1980's standpoint (think: Jetsons), and how we see it today (think: "The Road", "Book of Eli" or "I am Legend").
This is basically the plot for the movie "I am Legend", starring Will Smith. In that movie, yeah, things go terribly wrong with this approach. (EDIT: And I mention the movie to say that as a thought experiment this has been done before and drew the same conclusion: This has potential to go very, very wrong.)
The most fascinating part of this whole thing to me is having the chance to see the movie after having read the 'scriptment' over 5 years ago. http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/5/8/73755/86297 provided the link, though I'm not finding the document online any longer.
(BTW, the link is worth visiting for a few other interesting scripts--for instance, a version of "I Am Legend". http://www.horrorlair.com/moviescripts_a_f.html has more)
Classic workaholic. You probably think your utopia is to have so much money that you don't feel the need to work so hard and don't feel so guilty about spending some cash, but even if you make a million you'll find another way to challenge yourself and leave yourself wanting more. Maybe your next challenge will be to make a billion. And if you achieve it like so many have these days, then so what? You'll decide you want to become famous or make a difference in the world or write a book or help the starving or all of the above. It's what driven, competitive, workaholics do.
One of my favourite examples is Will Smith. This guy went from working class family in Phillie to an A-lister as a breakthrough "rapper". Then he got offered his own TV show and decided to try being a television actor. Once he had a hit TV show, he wanted to become a blockbuster movie star. Once he became one of the most bankable leading males in Hollywood, he decided he wanted an Oscar. So he started doing "serious" performances like Ali, I Am Legend and Pursuit of Happiness. And you can see the pain in his face when he talks about how he missed out for The Pursuit of Happiness and Ali. This despite the fame, the wife and kids and the millions and millions (and millions) of dollars. He will not stop until he gets that Oscar and it will be a major regret for him if he never does. Or if he does get it? Simple, he'll do what other actors do and become a politician or a director and start all over again.
Another favourite example of mine is Donald Trump. As a billionaire in the 80s who pretty much had it all, Donald decided he wanted his own NFL team. The problem was that the people who run the NFL decided this tabloid star wasn't the guy they wanted associated with their league. Did that stop Donald? No. He wanted his NFL team so badly that he created a franchise in a league which made a point of not competing head to head with the NFL - the USFL. Once he was in the door he then moved the USFL schedule to go head to head with the NFL and then tried to slap an antitrust suit on them when that move failed big time. His goal was to get the NFL to agree to merge with the USFL and thus he would finally have his own team. This of course failed and the USFL ceased to exist and now he will NEVER own an NFL franchise and he's still bitter about the whole thing to this day, as evidenced by the recent ESPN documentary about the whole thing.
The point I'm trying to make is, you are not alone. It's not a programmer thing. It's not something restricted to people at the bottom of the ladder or only a few rungs up. It's something every ultra-competitive person has and you need to recognise it and channel it in the right ways. You seem to have realised that you're reaching the point to which hard work alone can take you. Your depression probably stems with the likelihood that any attempts to progress come with big risk. As others have mentioned, now you need to take those risks and be willing to fail. This is probably the hardest part for aggressive competitors to accept. But the real successful guys like Donald Trump don't dwell on repeated bankruptcy or lack of NFL teams or other failures. They go out and start the next challenge, like creating a successful TV show and dating a former Miss World or whatever the hell Trump's doing these days.
Long term, embrace your ambition and drive and try to achieve all that you can - maybe try and learn how to be patient. Short term, get your act together! No offense, but right now you sound like one of those guys who gets to 21 and starts reminiscing about high school, or gets to 25 and starts getting nostalgic about college. Channel your competitiveness in healthier ways so that your career is not the only outlet. Join a gym or play some sports or something, anything that you can get some wins in and feel satisfied again. Your mojo will be back in no time.
You're right on the money. Granted, it's a movie - but that's exactly what happens in I Am Legend. They modify viruses to cure cancer, and because of the perceived benefit, the risk is overlooked. The virus is tried, and it turns out to be highly contagious and deadly.
Moving back to the battery, what if there was an accident / spill, and the same genes that made the battery acids causes some infection in humans or even live-stock? Doesn't that come to the writer's mind at all?
Really? I personally found "I am Legend" to be a good movie. Sure there was suspension of disbelief, and sure, the ending was a bit hokey, but the acting was quite good, at least in my opinion.
Oddly enough, I'd rather get swine flu than watch the movie version of "I am Legend" again.
I second your choices. I love the apocalyptic zombie movies. They have a kind of Red Dawn feel to em (which I also love).
This is also why I liked I am Legend to a lesser degree.
28 Days later seems like the best to imitate. Done on a fairly low budget I believe and came out great.
I think that's what set the premise for the movie "I am Legend".
I've been a big fan of the book 'I am Legend' by Robert Matheson. I'm hoping the studios give the director of the film the same freedoms Ridley Scott now enjoys. Yet as much as I like Will Smith somehow I think this casting decision is ominous.