I Am Legend is a post-apocalyptic action sci-fi thriller based on a novel written in 1954 by Richard Matheson. Matheson’s story first came to the big screen in 1964’s The Last Man on Earth starring Vincent Price and then again in 1971’s The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston before Will Smith played the role of the protagonist, Robert Neville, in 2007. 

I Am Legend has withstood the test of time. It has been around for over 60 years and it earned $585 million at the box office in 2007, but why? What makes this story so appealing to audiences? To find the answer, we explore what the world was like each time the story has been told and retold over the years. 

In 1954, when Matheson’s book was published, the first two parts of JRR Tolkien’s fantasy epic, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers were released, the Supreme Court held in Brown v. Board of Education that laws segregating blacks from whites in schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment, and the American Communist party was outlawed in the United States. 

In 1964, when The Last Man on Earth was released, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize, a race riot broke out in Philadelphia after allegations of police brutality surfaced, the Warren Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman in John F. Kennedy’s assassination, and Ronald Reagan delivered a historical speech for the Barry Goldwater campaign which became the cornerstone of his own political career and launched modern political conservatism. 

In 1971, when The Omega Man was released, NASA launched Apollo 14 and 15, the eighth and ninth manned missions to the Moon, Joe Frazier fought Muhammad Ali for the first time, the Supreme Court decided Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education which dealt with the issue of integrating blacks and whites in schools, and the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 at a time when young men were being drafted to fight the war in Vietnam.

In 2007, when Will Smith’s I Am Legend was released, the iPhone was unveiled by Apple, Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global warming, multiple suicide bombs were detonated by insurgents in Iraq during the Second Gulf War, and the subprime mortgage and financial crisis of 2008, which resulted at least partly because banks made loans to unqualified borrowers to avoid allegations of racism in their lending practices, loomed on the horizon. 

Looking back, we find that I Am Legend, a story about the lonely survivor of a killer pandemic living amongst swarms of monsters in an unthinkable world gone crazy, has been told in the midst of war (Vietnam in 1964 and 1971 and Iraq in 2007) and political and social unrest exacerbated by instances and allegations of racism and radical political and religious ideologies. 

Though the United States is not currently involved in any major wars, we find ourselves living in a time of global pandemic, deep political polarization, and mass social unrest. There are definite similarities between our real-life circumstances today and Neville’s life in Matheson’s story and also the realities that have existed over the last six decades as Matheson’s story has been told and retold. 

I Am Legend persists because it gives us an idea about how our own situation might turn out, so what does this story have to teach us? 

Strong and smart

In 2007’s I Am Legend, Robert Neville is a Colonel in the United States army where he works as a virologist. He is a soldier and a scientist. A physical force (his ripped physique and combat prowess are demonstrated throughout the movie) and an intellectual. Neville is a weird combination of weapons and demolitions expert, science nerd, and fan of Bob Marley and Shrek. 

Neville is just as comfortable scavenging for supplies in the ruins of Manhattan armed with an assault rifle as he is when he’s dressed in a white lab coat, working to find the cure to the virus in his basement laboratory. Though Neville is in an extremely difficult situation, his physical and intellectual abilities have enabled him to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. 

Neville shows us that people who survive in a harsh world must be well-rounded. They must be both strong and smart. Those who are lacking in one or the other are not likely to survive. This is a reminder to us, especially those who are still in lockdown, of how important it is for us to work to maintain and develop ourselves physically and intellectually. 

Faith, hope and charity

In Neville’s world, the virus has already killed 90% of the population and turned another 9% of people into vampiric zombie monsters called Darkseekers. Neville is one of the estimated 12 million people in the world who were naturally immune to the virus when it swept the planet. Out of those 12 million people, Neville believes there are virtually no human beings left because most if not all of them have been devoured by the Darkseekers. Nevertheless, Neville is hopeful. 

Each day he broadcasts a radio message offering to provide other survivors with food, shelter and security. He dutifully waits beneath the ruins of the Brooklyn Bridge at noon each day, waiting for anyone who might respond to his message. Neville also works tirelessly to produce a vaccine in his basement laboratory. Though he could simply hunker down in his home fortress and live cautiously, he chooses to engage in dangerous encounters with the Darkseekers to find a cure, even though he is immune to the virus and will not personally benefit from a cure.

Though Neville is charitable and he possesses hope, his hope is misplaced. Rather than hope in God’s plan, like Anna does, who he meets when she saves him from a group of Darkseekers, Neville seems to hope only in his own abilities. He also lacks faith in God, though he seems to have had faith earlier (we see Neville graciously accept his wife’s prayer for his safety before her helicopter departs from the Manhattan pier). 

We can also see pride in Neville’s personality. When the virus first spreads in New York, he tells his wife “I can still fix this” and “I’m not gonna let this happen.” His wife replies incredulously, “Let? This isn’t up to you!” Perhaps, though, Neville isn’t the only one responsible for puffing up his pride. In one scene, as he prepares dinner for himself and his dog, Sam, we see a Time magazine cover stuck to his refrigerator door bearing a portrait of a serious Neville dressed in his military uniform along with the caption, “Savior?” 

Later in the film, Anna tells Neville that God has a plan, that God told her to turn on the radio the day she heard his transmission, and also that God told her to come to Manhattan to find him. Neville becomes agitated and screams at her, “There is no God! There is no God!” In the final few minutes of the movie, the Darkseekers corner Neville in his laboratory and he screams, “I can save you! Let me save you! I can fix this! I can save everybody! I can fix everything! Let me save you!” 

Neville is basically good and we can see he possesses the virtue of charity, but he is nevertheless a flawed human being. He relies too much on his own gifts and when his faith is tested, he fails. Pride can get the best of Neville causing him to become too focused on himself and blinding him to God’s providence and the roles he and the other people around him are meant to play in God’s plan. 

A monotonous and strange routine

Neville follows the same strict routine every day. First he exercises, strength and cardio, and then he spends time working in his laboratory. After that, he leaves his apartment to scour the city for supplies and conduct field research in his quest to produce a vaccine.  

Everything Neville does is carefully planned. He maps his travel routes and uses his watch alarm to remind himself to get home before the Sun goes down. His day is monotonous, but a strict regimen is necessary for his survival and he seems well-adapted to it, probably due in part to his military training. However, Neville’s lack of contact with other people and the oppressive horror of the world outside his apartment, especially after the Sun goes down, have led Neville to adopt some strange hobbies and habits. 

Along with his daily scavenging and research and the occasional urban deer hunt, Neville entertains himself by visiting his favorite bookstore each morning where he engages in pretend conversations with the mannequins he has set up there. He practices his golf swing from atop the tail wing of a Blackbird spy plane parked on the deck of Intrepid, an aircraft carrier museum docked at Pier 86 on the west side of Manhattan. Neville also seems to enjoy reading (we see large stacks of books in the background during his morning exercise routine) and watching movies like Shrek, perhaps one of his deceased daughter’s favorite movies, which he has memorized word for word. 

As Neville drives through Manhattan, he plays Bob Marley’s famous Three Little Birds. The lyrics go, “Don’t worry about a thing, ‘cause every little thing gonna be alright.” This is ironic since everything is not alright in Neville’s world. 

As strange as some of Neville’s behaviors are, he shows us that human beings can persevere in extremely harsh situations and that our psychological health can be managed by controlling our environment and choosing what to believe about ourselves and the world. Neville maintains some normalcy by manipulating his environment, but there is also a danger in this. If we become hypnotized by our routines, ignore the real world, and become immersed in our own imagined worlds, then we can become disconnected from reality and experience emotional and psychological breakdowns. 

We see this happen to Neville when the Darkseekers move one of the mannequins from the bookstore to another location in the city. Neville doesn’t react well. He becomes angry and distraught. This brings him to the edge of a psychotic break. His emotions cloud his judgment and this leads him to fall into a trap set by the Darkseekers. His mistake ultimately results in Sam’s death. If not for Anna saving Neville’s life, the simple act of moving the mannequin, which disrupted Neville’s carefully manufactured reality, could have ultimately resulted in Neville’s death as well. 

Good or evil?

We know Neville is generous based on his offer to help survivors in his daily radio transmission and also based on his willingness to engage with the Darkseekers in his effort to produce a vaccine for the virus which will not benefit him due to his immunity to the virus. We also glimpse the love in his heart when he speaks about Bob Marley’s belief that racism and hate can be cured by injecting love and music into people’s lives. 

Neville loves, yet, he captures Darkseekers, infected human beings, in traps like animals and conducts experiments on them in his laboratory in the same way he experiments on caged rats. When Anna sees a female Darkseeker lying on a table in Neville’s laboratory she asks him if the drugs he is administering to the unconscious Darkseeker will cure her. Sipping a cup of coffee, he casually answers, “No, this will almost certainly kill it,” but the process will increase the compound’s effectiveness. 

Neville has no apprehension about killing defenseless Darkseekers to advance science. This is ironic since earlier in the movie he allows a lioness to take the deer he was hunting when he could have easily shot into the air to scare the lioness away or shot and killed the lioness to recover the deer for himself, but he didn’t do that. Instead, he let the lioness take the deer and went without meat for himself and Sam. Perhaps he was concerned for the lioness’ safety and that of her cubs who he realized needed a meal just as much as he did. Yet he shows no remorse for capturing and killing Darkseekers, sick human beings, in his search for a cure for the virus. When Anna learns that the dozens of Darkseekers Neville has captured have died in his experiments she is shocked and says, “My God.” 

It seems Neville is morally culpable for his actions because when the Darkseekers invade his laboratory at the end of the film he yells, “Stop! I can help you! You are sick and I can help!” In this plea, he acknowledges that Darkseekers are really sick human beings. Though he understands what Darkseekers are, he was nevertheless willing to capture, experiment upon, and kill them to find a cure for the virus (which was unleashed upon the world as a result of other scientists experimenting with viruses in their quest to cure cancer). 

Neville wants to do what he believes is right, but he has the potential to do great evil and in fact it seems he may have done great evil in the name of science when he treated the lives of lions with more deference than he treated the lives of the infected people he experimented on in his laboratory. One might argue that a lion is just an animal behaving like it is supposed to and shouldn’t be disturbed because it doesn’t know any better, but doesn’t that argument apply to Darkseekers as well? 

That Neville’s world is a difficult place to live doesn’t excuse his bad behavior. The same goes for us today. All of us. 

We just have to listen

What would Neville have done differently if he hadn’t lost his faith? Would he have been more careful about capturing and releasing Darkseekers? Would he have quit looking for a cure and decided that the virus was just a consequence of human arrogance or part of God’s greater plan? Would he have done everything the same, seeing the virus as an attack on man who is made in God’s image? Is it possible to unravel all of Neville’s decisions and all of the potential effects of those decisions to decide which of his actions were good and which of his actions were evil? 

Neville’s statements about being able to save everyone during the last moments of his life in the laboratory seem to indicate that he never regained his faith. But then, in a moment of clarity, he sees the butterfly shaped cracks in the glass door separating him from the Darkseekers; he sees the butterfly tattoo on Anna’s neck; and he hears his daughter’s voice saying, “Daddy, look at the butterfly!” And everything comes together. 

Neville realizes that he only has to save one person, Anna, so she can deliver the vaccine that will save humanity. Neville’s role in God’s plan has been fulfilled. He is unable to leave his post at “ground zero,” which he calls “my site.” He is somehow tethered to the doomed island and can’t bring himself to leave it, so he has to rely on someone else to bring the vaccine to the world – Anna. 

He tells Anna, “I think this is why you’re here” as he hands her the vial of Darkseeker blood which contains the cure for the virus. Anna asks, “What are you doing?” Neville replies, “I’m listening.” This is a reference to what Anna said to him a little while earlier when she was talking about God’s plan. She told him then, “The world is quieter now. We just have to listen.” 

After his moment of clarity, like a butterfly’s metamorphosis, Neville hides Anna in the coal chute, closes the door, and detonates a grenade as the Darkseekers break through the glass door killing himself and presumably all of the Darkseekers in the basement. In the final scene, we see Anna arriving at a safe zone in Vermont. This is the colony God told her about. 

Light up the darkness

Our world is complex. People are complex. When I look back at the historical timeline showing the different events that have shaped our world over the past 60 years, my head spins. 

It is hard to know for sure whether the decisions we make are what God wants or how those decisions ultimately affect the world around us, but, if we have faith in God and we hope in him and we choose to live joyfully no matter what our circumstances are and we work to develop the gifts he has given us, then even when we make mistakes we can be confident that we will receive his mercy and resolve to do better next time in the Sacrament of Confession. 

At one point in the film, when talking about Bob Marley’s music, Neville says “Light up the darkness.” Isn’t that what Jesus calls us to do (Mt 5:14-16; Lk 8:16-17, 11:35, 16:8; Jn 1:4-5, 3:19, 8:12, 9:5, 12:35-36, 12:46)? 

Sources of light are different in their brilliance. God gives some of us the ability to light up a room, others an entire building, others a large city, and still others the entire world. The point is, what we are supposed to do, how much of the darkness we are called to light up, is determined solely by God who has a plan. 

It is our mission to find a quiet place in this noisy world and listen to God’s voice and then do his will. Though we may have dreams of lighting up the world, perhaps God’s plan is only for us to use our gifts to light up one person. Things may not go the way we thought they would, but we must accept that we cannot save everyone right here and right now on our terms and trust that when our story ends, there will be someone else there, like Anna, to carry the light and spread it throughout the world. 

Note, Neville’s detonation of the grenade at the end of the movie and whether it constituted suicide or self-defense is beyond the scope of this article, though this author believes it was self-defense.