It’s been a while since we’ve seen a film on Netflix make good use of visual storytelling to convey its themes, but Leave the World Behind is a great example of how to do it well, in fact many are saying it’s one of the best films on Netflix at the moment.
Right from the get-go, as we’re shown the sun rising over the world and then the city, something about it just feels eerie — it seems too quiet when there should be that morning hustle and bustle. The film is full of moments like this, but one thing in particular that’s leaving fans stumped are the deer. Obviously they mean something, but what were the filmmakers trying to tell us by putting them in the movie?
The deer are important, they appear in the original book, and they appear in the film too — in fact, you can spot them in that glitchy, animated opening credits sequence. However, the first proper sighting of the deer happens just after Amanda (Julia Roberts), Clay (Ethan Hawke), and their children narrowly avoid being flattened by an oil tanker. Back at the house, Amanda spots a deer and its fawn, Clay notes that it’s supposed to be a good omen. It’s almost funny how wrong this statement turns out to be.
Subverting expectations
Whilst deer are usually portrayed as peaceful creatures, the way they are presented in Leave the World Behind flips that friendly image. This was completely intentional, as Sam Esmail, the film’s director, revealed to Tudum.
“To turn that sweet image into now this sort of ominous, menacing, almost warning — I thought was really interesting. […] We always tried to take the things that we never really considered a threat and then turn it around on them.”
As things begin to spiral out of control, the deer grow in numbers, completely surrounding the house and the family. Something that was cute and considered a good omen at first now becomes horrifying. The deer represent a shift; as our characters’ lives are flipped upside down, so too are our perceptions of nature, the world, and humanity.
The end of society
The story provides commentary on humanity’s over-reliance on technology. It is technology (or its failure) that ultimately brings about the end of society in this film. Over time, the deer become less timid and more aggressive, whilst the human characters become more and more helpless, and this definitely reinforces the idea that society is collapsing and nature is taking over.
At the end of the day, movies are art, and as with all pieces of art, it’s kind of up to individual interpretation. We know what the director was trying to say with the deer, and we can link this to the film’s themes surrounding technology and society, but there’s always more to say, or another way to look at it.