I Am Legend
Richard matheson, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.
Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend is a science fiction adventure and a terrifying horror story. But unlike most works of horror, I Am Legend is not a black-and-white tale of “us versus them”; in other words, a story in which a hero fights off a monstrous villain. Matheson’s novel is set in a futuristic version of Los Angeles, in which Robert Neville , the last man left on Earth, fights against a terrifying race of…
Grief, Loneliness, and Depression
I Am Legend contains a surprising amount of psychological insight about grief, loneliness, and depression. The novel’s main character, Robert Neville , is the last human being left on Earth—everyone else has been turned into a vampire . Neville thus has to deal with the psychological effects of being completely alone—a fate that is, in some ways, worse than becoming a vampire.
Without any human connection whatsoever, Neville is forced to take refuge in his…
Survival and Violence
In I Am Legend , Robert Neville spends his days traveling around Los Angeles, driving stakes into the hearts of vampires —in effect, murdering them in their sleep. Neville is sometimes sympathetic to the vampires (see Otherness theme), yet he continues to kill them, reasoning that if he doesn’t, they’ll kill him at night. In general, the novel studies the lengths to which ordinary people will go to survive in a time of crisis. In…
Another important theme of I Am Legend is the power—both benevolent and malicious—of science. Throughout the book, Robert Neville studies the science of vampirism. In the process, he empowers himself and gives himself a new purpose in life. By researching epidemiology, bacteriology, and other “ologies” at the Los Angeles Public Library, Neville comes to realize that vampires aren’t supernatural monsters—they’re just human beings suffering from a serious disease. Neville’s discovery helps him conquer his own…
Movie Reviews
Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, when you're alone and life is making you lonely, you can go downtown.
Now streaming on:
The opening scenes of "I Am Legend" have special effects so good that they just about compensate for some later special effects that are dicey. We see Manhattan three years after a deadly virus has killed every healthy human on the island, except one. The streets are overgrown with weeds, cars are abandoned, the infrastructure is beginning to collapse. Down one street, a sports car races, driven by Robert Neville ( Will Smith ), who is trying to get a good shot at one of the deer roaming the city. He has worse luck than a lioness who competes with him.
Neville has only his dog to keep him company. He lives barricaded inside a house in Greenwich Village, its doors and windows sealed every night by heavy steel shutters. That's because after dark the streets are ruled by bands of predatory zombies -- hairless creatures who were once human but have changed into savage, speechless killers with fangs for teeth. In his basement, Neville has a laboratory where he is desperately seeking a vaccine against the virus, which mutated from a cure for cancer.
The story is adapted from a 1954 sci-fi novel by Richard Matheson , which has been filmed twice before, as "The Last Man on Earth" (1964) starring Vincent Price , and " The Omega Man " (1971) starring Charlton Heston . In the original novel, which Stephen King says influenced him more than any other, Neville cultivated garlic and used mirrors, crosses and sharpened stakes against his enemies, who were like traditional vampires, not super-strong zombies. I am not sure it is an advance to make him a scientist, arm him and change the nature of the creatures; Matheson developed a kind of low-key realism that was doubly effective.
In "I Am Legend," the situation raises questions of logic. If Neville firmly believes he is the last healthy man alive, who is the vaccine for? Only himself, I guess. Fair enough, although he faces a future of despair, no matter how long his cans of Spam and Dinty Moore beef stew hold out; dogs don't live forever. And how, I always wonder, do human beings in all their infinite shapes and sizes mutate into identical pale zombies with infinite speed and strength?
Never mind. Given its setup, "I Am Legend" is well-constructed to involve us with Dr. Neville and his campaign to survive. There is, however, an event which breaks his spirit and he cracks up -- driving out at night to try to mow down as many zombies with his car as he can before they kill him. He is saved (I'm not sure how) by a young woman named Anna ( Alice Braga ), who is traveling with a boy named Ethan ( Charlie Tahan ).
He takes them home, and she explains they are trying to get to a colony of survivors in Vermont. Neville doubts that such a colony exists. I doubt that she and the boy would venture through Manhattan to get there. Yes, she has doubtless heard his nonstop taped voice on all AM frequencies, asking to be contacted by any other survivors. But we have seen every bridge into Manhattan blown up as part of a quarantine of the island, so how did they get there? Boat? Why go to the risk?
Never mind, again, because Anna and the boy import dramatic interest into the story when it needs it. And director Francis Lawrence generates suspense effectively, even though it largely comes down to the monster movie staple of creatures leaping out of the dark, gnashing their fangs and hammering at things. The special effects generating the zombies are not nearly as effective as the other effects in the film; they all look like creatures created for the sole purpose of providing the film with menace and have no logic other than serving that purpose.
"I Am Legend" does contain memorable scenes, as when the island is being evacuated, and when Neville says goodbye to his wife and daughter ( Salli Richardson and Willow Smith ), and when he confides in his dog (who is not computer-generated, most of the time, anyway). And if it is true that mankind has 100 years to live before we destroy our planet, it provides an enlightening vision of how Manhattan will look when it lives on without us. The movie works well while it's running, although it raises questions that later only mutate in our minds.
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.
Now playing
Sheila O'Malley
Force of Nature: The Dry 2
Glenn Kenny
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Clint worthington.
Evil Does Not Exist
The Strangers: Chapter 1
Brian tallerico, film credits.
I Am Legend (2007)
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence
101 minutes
Charlie Tahan as Ethan
Willow Smith as Marley
Salli Richardson as Zoe
Alice Braga as Anna
Will Smith as Robert Neville
- Mark Protosevich
- Akiva Goldsman
Based on the novel by
- Richard Matheson
Directed by
- Francis Lawrence
Latest blog posts
The Language of Horror: Ishana Night Shyamalan on The Watchers
Everybody Wants Some!! Told Us Everything We Needed to Know About Glen Powell
Cannes 2024 Video #9: Festival Wrapup
The Future of the Movies, Part 3
I Am Legend Literary Elements
By francis lawrence.
These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own.
Written by people who wish to remain anonymous
Francis Lawrence
Leading Actors/Actresses
Supporting actors/actresses.
Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Willow Smith
Drama, Sci-Fi, Horror
ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Film
Date of Release
December 14, 2007
Akiva Goldsman, David Heyman, James Lassiter, Neal H. Moritz
Setting and Context
2012 (with flashbacks to 2009) New York City after a virus has wiped out a majority of mankind.
Narrator and Point of View
The story is told from the point of view of Robert Neville, a lone survivor searching for the cure to the virus after the loss of his family 3 years prior.
Tone and Mood
Isolation, Frightening, Suspenseful
Protagonist and Antagonist
Robert Neville is the protagonist trying to find the cure for the virus, while the infected as a whole are the antagonist seeking to destroy whatever is left of mankind.
Major Conflict
Robert traps an infected female for experiments, and this causes an infected male to hunt down Robert in order to get her back. In terms of ideas, another conflict involves Anna's belief in God as the answer when Robert has lost his faith.
Robert finds clarity in the midst of the infected on the verge of killing him. He sees how the tragedies of his life are lining up in a singular moment, and ready to listen to the signs, Robert gives the cure to Anna and protects her and Ethan by giving up his own life in order that others might live.
Foreshadowing
We see posters in the opening sequence we see a poster that states, "God still loves us. Do we still love God?" This foreshadows a major choice Robert must make in order to save others.
Understatement
The affect of isolation on Robert. The movie starts out and he seemingly is doing alright for being the last man on earth, but we soon realize the tragedy that recurs in his mind of losing his family, and the damaging effects of his loneliness once he encounters a mannequin that's mysteriously moved, and then a woman and a boy in his own home. We see the serious nature of his life alone over the last 3 years.
Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques
Robert Neville is immune to the virus. We never find out how or why he is immune to it. This could be alluding to the fact that Neville, in this films version of the story, has also been a part of creating the virus that has wiped out the planet. If this is true, it deepens his need to find a cure in that he is responsible for the world becoming an isolated zombie-land.
We see a TIME Magazine article on his fridge; he's a soldier and a doctor. So, was the military trying to weaponize this virus and lost control? Or were they trying to contain the mess they've made after extorting a cancer-curing virus? These are questions we don't get answers to, but certainly make us think that Dr. Neville has had a much larger role in this than we may know.
Robert is saved by Anna and Ethan, but in being saved by them the infected are lead directly to his home where he eventually dies protecting Anna and the boy. It's paradoxical that the reason you die is because you were saved.
Parallelism
Robert, the infected male and the lion all draw on their connection to family, and what it means to be a man and to protect. When it is a matter of life and death every man, animal and creature in this film wants to protect their family.
Update this section!
You can help us out by revising, improving and updating this section.
After you claim a section you’ll have 24 hours to send in a draft. An editor will review the submission and either publish your submission or provide feedback.
I Am Legend Questions and Answers
The Question and Answer section for I Am Legend is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.
What irony is implied in the cut between the flashback and the present setting?
Are you referring to a scene in a particular chapter?
What does Robert find on the third day of his drinking binge?
On the third day of his drinking binge, Robert steps outside and finds a scrawny dog on his front lawn.
As Robert drags the female vampire's body into his station wagon, what does he discover that strikes terror in his heart? Chapter 4 I am legend
On his way out, Robert nearly trips over the comatose body of the man he had moved earlier and is startled to find that he now looks and smells like someone who has been dead for years. He realizes with a shock that the sunlight has killed the...
Study Guide for I Am Legend
I Am Legend study guide contains a biography of director Francis Lawrence, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.
- About I Am Legend
- I Am Legend Summary
- Character List
- Director's Influence
Essays for I Am Legend
I Am Legend essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of I Am Legend, directed by Francis Lawrence.
- The Challenge of Survival in The Road and I Am Legend
- The Struggle of Robert Neville to Preserve His Humanity in Isolation
Wikipedia Entries for I Am Legend
- Introduction
Home / Essay Samples / Literature / I Am Legend / I Am Legend: Comparative Analysis Of The Book And The Movie
I Am Legend: Comparative Analysis Of The Book And The Movie
- Category: Literature
- Topic: I Am Legend
Pages: 5 (2138 words)
Views: 2151
- Downloads: -->
--> ⚠️ Remember: This essay was written and uploaded by an--> click here.
Found a great essay sample but want a unique one?
are ready to help you with your essay
You won’t be charged yet!
The Lottery Essays
Things Fall Apart Essays
Antigone Essays
Brave New World Essays
A Rose For Emily Essays
Related Essays
We are glad that you like it, but you cannot copy from our website. Just insert your email and this sample will be sent to you.
By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.
Your essay sample has been sent.
In fact, there is a way to get an original essay! Turn to our writers and order a plagiarism-free paper.
samplius.com uses cookies to offer you the best service possible.By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .--> -->