The director behind Leave the World Behind has explained a major Friends-related ‘plot hole’ that proved to be one of the biggest talking points from the film after it dropped on Netflix.
Watch the trailer below:
The psychological thriller follows two families inadvertently thrown together after a series of unusual events threaten to spoil an idyllic Long Island holiday.
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The film's official synopsis reads: "A family vacation on Long Island is interrupted by two strangers bearing news of a mysterious blackout.
"As the threat grows more imminent, both families must decide how best to survive the potential crisis, all while grappling with their own place in this collapsing world."
After the film was released on Netflix – immediately shooting up to the no. 1 spot on the streamer’s Top 10 – many viewers were left feeling suitably unsettled.
But some people were busy focusing on a small, niggling detail about Rose (Farrah Mackenzie) and her mum Amanda (Julia Roberts).
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Rose is OBSESSED with Friends, to the point that she seems more distressed about being unable to watch the final episode of the show due to Wi-Fi issues than she is about... um, impending war.
The long-running sitcom is known for its regular celebrity cameos, from Brad Pitt to Bruce Willis - oh, and a certain Julia Roberts, who made an appearance back in season two.
“If Rose from Leave The World Behind was obsessed with Friends that means at some point during S02E12 (The One After the Superbowl) she was probably like, '…Mom?'" one person tweeted.
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Someone else agreed: "With Rose’s obsession with ‘Friends’ in ‘Leave The World Behind’, wouldn’t she have recognised her own mom was in the episode ‘The One After The Superbowl’?"
A third added: "The daughter watching Friends on her iPad in Leave the World Behind is going to have her mind blown when Julia Roberts turns up."
But the film’s director, Sam Esmail, has already addressed this point with a pretty straightforward explanation.
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Speaking to The Messenger about the Easter egg, Esmail explained in the film’s universe, Roberts isn’t actually playing herself... she’s just playing Amanda.
He said: "On a purely intellectual level, in this universe, Julia Roberts is not playing Amanda. There's just Rose's mom, Amanda Sanford.
"And on the show, she sees Julia Roberts, and maybe she has a passing resemblance to her mom, but because it's her mom, she probably doesn't think twice about it. So that's my weird, meta-convoluted explanation for it."
Esmail said he’d been curious to see how Roberts responded to the Friends connection in the movie, continuing: "When Julia read the script, of course, I was so curious about her reaction, and, ultimately, I think we all smile every time we realised the connection.
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“In that way, emotionally, it even adds to the satisfaction.”
Watch Leave the World Behind on Netflix now.
Topics: TV And Film, Netflix
Jess Hardiman