Sunday Matinee #136 Leave the World Behind
In Jaws, they needed a bigger boat. In this movie, a bigger boat is big trouble.
Leave the World Behind | 2023
IMDb | Letterboxd | RRMC
Context: Clay (Ethan Hawke) and Amanda (Julia Roberts) take their children, Archie (Charlie Evans) and Rose (Farrah Mackenzie) out to a rented home for an extended, relaxing vacation. While on the beach, Rose looks up and sees something eerie: a large tanker ship, slowly but surely, heading straight for them. It’s way off, but she can’t shake the feeling.
ROSE: Look at that boat. It’s so big…
Later, Rose sees the ship continue to approach. She gets a little nervous.
ROSE: It’s getting closer.
AMANDA: What is?
ROSE: The ship.
Clay and Amanda look up. It’s a big boat, but that’s all they see.
CLAY: Oh, yeah. She’s a beaut. Looks like an oil tanker. Must be a port around here. I read this piece in The Atlantic that says New York has one of the largest natural harbors on the planet.
Still later, the ship gets closer. Rose can’t stop staring. Mom takes notice.
AMANDA: You okay, Rose?
ROSE: I think that ship is heading towards us.
AMANDA: What was that, sweetie?
Mom looks up. Rose is absolutely right.
Luke 12:49-56 | EnterTheBible.org
Tenth Sunday After Pentecost | 08.17.2025
Context: Jesus gives stark warning that his teachings will divide people because not everyone is ready. He uses a metaphor of observing your surroundings now – particularly with the weather – to gauge the likely future.
54 He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain,’ and so it happens. 55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. 56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
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Commentary:
I don’t know any vacation that goes according to plan, but this is ridiculous.
The Sandford family finds themselves trapped in isolation – physically, they’re far away from most people and figuratively, they lose both cell phone signal and trust in one another – as the world unravels. They get some clues from the Scotts, who return to their home and offer to let the Sandfords remain during this crisis, but even the Scotts don’t have all of the answers. The divisions in the home are just as stark as the alliances.
One of the aspects that makes this film a challenging watch for me goes along with its theme: the mystery of trajectory. There’s no definitive Act 1, Act 2, Act 3. It’s scene after scene of “Uh-oh, things are getting weirder out there. What are we gonna do?” I find I get restless in movies that don’t have a clear path to the next scene. Perhaps that works to this one’s advantage, because it puts me in the mindset of this small band of survivors. They don’t know what’s going to happen next, either. Life will always keep you guessing. But the apocalypse plays that game like it invented it.
The warnings from Jesus in this passage from the Gospel of Luke are wow, really stark. While this is the same Jesus who says things like “Peace be with you” and “Let the children come to me,” at this moment he reminds the reader he has a lot to say. Sometimes life will be challenging, and what is more challenging than familial division? When the people who are supposed to love you no matter what are against you, your world collapses. Certainly, their world collapses when we sever our loving bond with them, too.
You’ll get lots and lots of interpretations about this passage, no doubt. What I’ve always wondered about this is whether people who read it automatically believe that when Jesus says his way will divide people, if they think that obviously they are the people who understand Jesus and his way. It’s those other people who get it wrong.
It’s hard to admit when we’re wrong.
How, then, shall we respond? If there is division, will we respond with the love of Jesus or as, well, jerks? Or like in the film, will we spar back and forth with barbs of mistrust, or will we embrace one another as support, as community? I don’t know anyone with 100% perfect relationships. I do know everyone has at least one relationship status they regret. What does this warning have to say about how we respond to brokenness?
As the big picture unfolds piece by piece in Leave the World Behind, the characters dread the reality of the situation. Is it too late to stop it? Are they too late to save themselves? And if they are safe, what kind of future will they inherit? In this stark passage from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus teaches to stop your blindness. If it seems like people are trying to destroy the world, news flash: they are! Is it too late to stop it? I hope not…
I haven’t read the novel Leave the World Behind but I’ve heard good things. Like all dystopian science fiction, I’m sure it’s just as much as cautionary tale as the film adaptation. The only challenge left for those of us living in the reality that creative work like this comments on is whether we will take the warning signs seriously. This is not me being a doomsday sayer. This is me saying I know we’re tired and I know the struggle seems at times insurmountable. But there’s too much at stake to let it all go away. If we do, we won’t be leaving the world behind. We’ll be letting them burn it down. And for whose profit? Not for that of the poor and marginalized.
Not a very cheery scripture passage, nor a very cheery movie! And yet, every once in a while, life hands us a moment that isn’t very cheerful and asks an important question: how will you respond? Will it be in love?
God's peace and good movies to you!
Nate,
I have not watched this movie yet, but I wanted to say that I find your idea of dystopian literature and movies to be a call for action in these present times to be fully compelling. There's something strangely comforting about such stories. Things might be bad here, BUT they're not that bad. Yet. As the passage of scripture reminds us, it's difficult to understand fully all that is happening around us right now. What isn't complicated? Our calling as Christians remains the same no matter the troubles of our times. Awhile ago the Times published this piece exploring the attractions of darkness in YA fiction. https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/12/26/the-dark-side-of-young-adult-fiction/the-comfort-of-darkness
This thought from Lisa Fraustino stuck with me: "And so we read again and again about the child of dystopia who makes us feel hope for humankind, even if, in the case of M.T. Anderson’s futuristic “Feed,” it turns out that the society is beyond repair. All the protagonist can do in that failed world is begin to understand and care about where we went wrong — which is exactly what the reader needs to do now to prevent a dystopian future."
Thank you for your work here, Nate.