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15th December 2023
07:31am GMT
Leave the World behind viewers reckon they've worked out why there are no subtitles for one particular scene in the Netflix film.
The acclaimed 2020 apocalyptic novel by Rumaan Alam has been turned into a film for Netflix and was released on the platform earlier this month. The movie and features an ace ensemble cast of Ethan Hawke, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, Mahershala Ali and Myha’la, and Alam was an executive producer on the project.
The plot synopsis reads: “Amanda (Roberts) and her husband Clay (Hawke) rent a luxurious home for the weekend with their kids, Archie (Charlie Evans) and Rose (Farrah Mackenzie). Their vacation is soon upended when two strangers — G.H. (Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha’la) — arrive in the night, bearing news of a mysterious cyberattack and seeking refuge in the house they claim is theirs.
“The two families reckon with a looming disaster that grows more terrifying by the minute, forcing everyone to come to terms with their places in a collapsing world.”
Weird things start to happens such as a giant ship crashing into a beach, hundreds of deer roaming around their rental property and the property's owners returning in the middle of the night.
The internet and TV then both go out, leaving them all cut off from the outside world whilst it collapses around them.
To try and work out what's going on, Clay gets in his car and drives into town.
During this, he comes across a panicked woman calling for help on the side of the road.
After pulling up, Clay rolls down his window and tries to find out what's going on but it turns out the woman is Spanish and can't speak English.
The language barrier means that the pair just shout over each other in Spanish and English, with Clay eventually giving up and driving off.
Anyone who had the subtitles on whilst watching Leave the World Behind will have noticed that none appear to translate what the woman's saying, and one person reckons this was a very deliberate move from producers.
Taking to TikTok, they explained: "In the scene where the lady is speaking Spanish to Clay, they purposely didn't put subtitles to symbolise that we'd be lost without technology."
Someone else said: "I didn’t even think of another small message of the movie is how language is such a barrier that weakens us too"
And a third added: "It makes sense why they didn't add the subtitles in English."
However, if you watch the movie in Spanish, the subtitles do appear, so it seems the film's makers are being particularly critical of Clay and English speakers for the breakdown in communication.
The full translation of what the woman says is this: "Thank God I found someone.
"I’m trying to get back to my home! I’m lost! I’ve been walking for a while! I need to use your phone! You’re the first person I’ve seen all day! We have to get out of here!
"I just saw a plane that was spraying red gas in the vicinity. I saw some deer, more than 50. They were coming out of the woods. Please! I need to go home, sir. A military plane appeared and fled. There’s no one around! Is it a chemical attack?”
So if Clay has known a little bit of Spanish, he may have been able to work out much earlier the scale of the disaster going on around them.
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