Everyone’s out for themselves in Leave the World Behind’s new trailer

Most people like to think of themselves as having some sort of game plan ready in the event that apocalyptic things start going down. But in the new trailer for Netflix’s upcoming film Leave the World Behind, from director Sam Esmail, a lack of planning seems to be a big part of what has everyone running scared.

Based on Rumaan Alam’s 2020 novel by the same name, Leave the World Behind tells the story of two families who unexpectedly find their fates intertwined just as a massive blackout shuts down most of the Eastern Seaboard’s power grid. When Amanda (Julia Roberts) and her husband Clay (Ethan Hawke) rent a house in Long Island, they assume they’ll be able to get out of the city for a much-needed quiet weekend vacation with their teenage son Archie (Charlie Evans ) and daughter Rose (Farrah Mackenzie). 

At first, things seem fine in the trailer. But when a Black man named G.H. (Mahershala Ali) and his wife Ruth (Myha’la) arrive unannounced claiming that the home is theirs, the weekend renters can’t help but be suspicious — especially given all of the strange news reports about inexplicable disturbances. Leave the World Behind’s new trailer is careful not to reveal just what it is that has everyone on the East Coast scared beyond the blackout, but it does showcase how fear itself and suspicion of others are two of the most dangerous things the film’s characters are going to be up against.

Leave the World Behind hits theaters on November 22nd, 2023, and Netflix on December 8th, 2023.