If you had asked me before I saw I Am Legend (2007), now available on one of the streaming services, if I had already reviewed it, I would have said yes.  Despite Will Smith’s recent troubles, it remains a solid piece of cinema.  One could make the argument that it helped kick off a rash of zombie related films and other shows that we are still experiencing today.  I do not know about you, but I got tired of The Walking Dead (2010-2022) after about the eighth season, though maybe I will circle back one day and watch what I have missed.  We shall see.  Regardless, it is good to go back to what can relatively be called a classic by this point in I Am Legend.  I know it is not exactly about those famous devours of brains, but it might as well be.

I Am Legend, I suppose, refers to Dr. Robert Neville (Will Smith), though he is not the scientist interviewed at the beginning.  Instead, this is Dr. Alice Krippen (Emma Thompson), a biologist who has created a new virus that can attack and destroy cancer cells.  Sounds good, right?  Well, fast forward three years later and we see a New York City overgrown with foliage and devoid of human inhabitants.  Strike that, there is one person there, and that is Dr. Neville.  With his trusty dog Sam by his side, they are hunting deer.  They are robbed of this dinner by a family of lions, which Dr. Neville allows to have his kill.  With this, his watch beeps, and he and Sam return home.  While the lack of a human population on the streets is obviously strange, their interactions in the house look normal.  It is not until after they go through their nightly routine that we see Dr. Neville putting heavy barriers over the doors and windows, grabbing a submachine gun, and climbing into the tub with Sam to sleep through the night.  This is because from outside comes the sounds of inhuman yells.  As Dr. Neville gets his fitful rest, he has dreams of family from years ago.  This functions as a flashback, and one that he comes back to a few times, so I will get it all out here.  He worked for the army, and was aware that Dr. Krippen’s virus may have worked at first, but has begun spreading beyond the government’s ability to control it.  That might not be so bad if it were not for the fact that it turns humans into ravenous, blood-thirsty animals.  In Dr. Neville’s memory, he decides to stay behind in New York City, ground zero as it were for the virus’ spread, and send his wife (Salli Richardson) and daughter (Willow Smith) out of the city by helicopter.  Unfortunately, the vehicle crashes into another that had been attacked by infected humans, and Dr. Neville is forced to watch his family die in front of him.  This appears to be a recurring dream for him, which does not make his life any easier given the apocalyptic circumstances.  In order to keep insanity at bay, he has a routine.  We have already seen what he does at night, but the earlier part involves exercising and then going downstairs to his lab where he conducts experiments on a potential vaccine on mice.  There seems to have been a lot of trial and error, though one rodent appears to be normal.  For him, this is evidence that he is ready to test it on a human.  It is then to a video store where he has mannequins set up to simulate human interaction.  After this, it is to the docks where he hits golf balls off an aircraft carrier.  More importantly, he broadcasts a message for any potential survivors to meet him at this location at midday, putting it on the radio waves daily.  On the way back home, he spots another deer.  Dr. Neville is horrified, though, when it runs into a building and Sam chases it inside.  This is because most of the infected sleep during the day inside, sun light being as deadly to them as it would be to a vampire.  Luckily, man and beast are able to escape, and it gives Dr. Neville the idea for trapping one of the infected.  Unwittingly, this turns out to be the female (Joanna Numata) of the male leader (Dash Mihok) of the infected pack.  Dr. Neville administers a potential vaccine to the woman back in his lab.  It fails, almost killing her, but he revives her to keep her for further trials.  The next day, angry about losing his woman, the alpha male turns the tables on Dr. Neville, making the scientist a victim of a different trap.  It is late in the day when he is able to cut himself free, but wounds his leg in the process.  Sam has stayed dutifully by his side, but is infected trying to defend Dr. Neville.  Though they are able to escape, he is forced to kill his dog when it begins to turn.  Having lost his remaining connection to his family, Dr. Neville proceeds to go out and begin taking on the infected without caring about his life.  In the process, he flips his car and is about to be overrun when he is saved by Anna (Alice Braga) and her son, Ethan (Charlie Tahan).  They had heard Dr. Neville’s broadcast and were coming to find him.  Somehow, they manage to get him back to his residence where he is not too pleased by their appearance.  They begin telling him about a colony of uninfected people to which they plan to travel.  He believes they are crazy, citing infection rates.  However, this is not the worst development.  Because of the previous excursion, the horde outside has been able to locate Dr. Neville’s home.  Thus, that night they overwhelm his otherwise stout defenses.  They retreat to the basement where Dr. Neville’s human subject is showing signs of recovery.  Now it becomes about survival.  Giving Alice vials of blood, he directs her and Ethan on how to escape.  He then stays behind to take out as many infected as he can.  We end with Alice and Ethan driving up to the heavily fortified colony she had mentioned.

One can look at Dr. Neville’s character in I Am Legend in a couple ways.  The one that combines both of what I have in mind would be to call him a tragic hero.  This is an interesting concept from a Catholic point of view.  It is evident that he has experienced a great deal of emotional wounding from the loss of his family.  In such situations, so many turn against God.  I could only imagine what someone who is, as far as he knows, the last real person left alive in the world would feel and how that would compound his already fragile state.  It would be spiritual shorthand for me to simply chalk all this up as God’s will and move on to my next point.  I also so not wish to diminish the importance of understanding events in this context.  The problem is that so many have difficulty with dealing with their struggles, no matter their scale, and keeping the idea of a loving God in their hearts in the midst of those difficulties.  How can a God, who is love, allow something like what you see in the movie?  One day or another, the time of man will come to an end, and I doubt it will be because of what one man does.  Yet, Dr. Neville is taking a weight upon himself that he feels he must bear alone.  I get that he is upset about the loss of Sam, not to mention his family, but his reaction to the appearance of Alice and Ethan speaks to a loss of faith.  It is compounded by his struggles with the vaccine.  In short, one can make the argument that Dr. Neville is guilty of hubris.  It is defined by exaggerated pride, which would explain his savior complex.  What cures him is something that fits well with this Easter season: seeing the female come back to life.  From there, he is willing to sacrifice himself for a humanity he once thought dead.

I would have liked to have seen Dr. Neville living through I Am Legend.  I can say the same for Sam.  Still, it has a hopeful ending, and that is worth a great deal.  As such, I would tell you that there is nothing wrong with watching this one, even if you have already done so.