Hero or villain? The final frames of I Am Legend see Dr. Robert Neville as humanity's savior,
but the alternate ending paints a completely different picture…
and it's one the film's director was hoping to show in theaters.
The alternate ending many of us first saw when the DVD was released was actually
intended to be the original ending to I Am Legend. After audiences responded poorly
to the ambiguous original ending during test screenings, however, it was scrapped
and replaced with the theatrical version. As director Francis Lawrence told Screen Rant,
"We tested it twice and it got wildly rejected,
wildly rejected, which is why we came out with the other one."
Audiences wanted an ending that painted Neville as a genuine hero, not a morally ambiguous scientist,
so they did last-minute reshoots for a more conventional and flashy Hollywood ending.
In the theatrical cut, after realizing his last experiment worked and the test
subject's condition was improving, Neville draws the Darkseeker's blood,
and gives the sample to Anna, telling her the cure is in the blood. Neville shows Anna
and Ethan a place where they can hide and tells them to leave Manhattan at sunrise.
Neville grabs a hand grenade stashed in a drawer and sacrifices himself in a blaze
of glory to protect Anna, Ethan, and the cure he worked tirelessly on for the last
three years. When Anna and Ethan arrive at the survivors' colony in Vermont, she passes the
cure to a guard dressed in military fatigues, with voiceover celebrating his discovery.
"And at age 52, he gave his life to defend it. We are his legacy."
The theatrical cut and the director's cut with the alternate ending are essentially
the same until the last five minutes of the film. The climax of both versions begins in
Neville's laboratory when Neville sees a butterfly pattern in broken glass,
which reminds him of his daughter Marley from shortly before she died.
In the theatrical version, when Neville turns to look at Anna and Ethan crouched
against the back wall, he notices a butterfly tattooed on Anna's neck as she cradles Ethan,
trying to protect him from the frightening onslaught of Darkseekers.
Neville decides this butterfly is his sign, and gives Anna the blood sample,
believing his job is to protect her so she can get it to the survivors' colony in Vermont. The
darkseekers are nothing more than mindless hunting machines driven by base instincts and blood lust.
In the alternate ending, however, Neville realizes the Alpha Male is trying to communicate with him.
He realizes that the Darkseekers have become violent and attacked his home because he
kidnapped the Alpha Male's mate. This information suggests that the Darkseekers are more than
just thoughtless creatures, but that they have familial bonds and a social structure as well.
All this information shatters Neville's perception of the world,
and he quickly realizes he needs a new approach to dealing with his former enemies.
Once Neville understands the Darkseekers are sentient beings, he puts down his
firearm and takes his test subject, the Alpha Female, out of the protected room at the back
of his subterranean laboratory and into the open lab where the Darkseekers wait.
Although the Alpha Male is menacing, roaring in Neville's ear to show his anger, the Darkseekers
allow Neville to walk into the lab while pushing the gurney the Alpha Female is lying on.
Now realizing the Darkseekers are sentient, he brings the Alpha Female out of sedation
with a shot and gives her back to the Alpha Male without drawing her blood to make a cure
for the Krippin Virus, or KV. The tender way the Alpha Male picks up the Alpha Female and
the way she nuzzles him illustrates that the Darkseekers not only have a social structure,
they have feelings. They experience love, pain, and anger like the humans they once were.
Distraught, Neville apologizes to the Darkseekers,
with an expression that clearly reveals the depths of his regrets.
"I'm sorry."
The alternate ending of I Am Legend, while different from its source material, is true to
the spirit of Richard Matheson's thought-provoking 1954 sci-fi novella of the same name.
In the alternate ending, the Darkseekers allow Neville to live,
leaving him in his destroyed laboratory to ponder his crimes. As Neville leans against
the glass door separating him from Anna and Ethan,
the camera cuts to the wall covered with pictures of Neville's test subjects in the background.
The camera focuses on Neville as we see the understanding that he
has committed atrocities settle upon his face. As a former soldier and scientist,
Neville understands just how grave his violations against the Darkseekers were.
In the theatrical cut, Neville never makes this vital realization, and he dies believing he is
a hero who found and protected the cure for KV from the monsters in their midst.
In the alternate ending, it dawns on Neville that he is effectively the Darkseekers' boogeyman,
a mad scientist who hunts and kills them, unaware their humanity is intact despite
the physical transformation the Krippin Virus elicited.
This was the point of Matheson's novella and the reason for its enigmatic title. The
theatrical ending is a severe misrepresentation of the novella's message about discrimination
and how people dehumanize "others" so they can mistreat them without
experiencing guilt for their actions, attitudes, and crimes against humanity.
The alternate ending of I Am Legend introduces an unexplored dimension to the story, offering
a twist that fundamentally shifts the audience's perception of the protagonist, Neville. It reveals
that the Darkseekers have loved ones among them, highlighting the moral ambiguity of Neville's
actions. While Neville initially sees himself as a scientist working to find a cure for the virus
that had devastated humanity, the Darkseekers certainly view him as the embodiment of their
worst nightmares. Notably, they never actively hunt Neville until he kidnaps the Alpha's mate.
Throughout the movie, Neville pursues two main objectives:
searching for other surviving humans and seeking a cure for the virus.
"If there's anybody out there, anybody, please."
Neville's character takes a darker turn when his loyal dog, Sam, gets infected. In a fit of rage,
he goes on a violent rampage, using his car to kill Darkseekers indiscriminately.
The phrase "I am legend" originates from the book, serving as Neville's last words
when he realizes how the Darkseekers will remember him for atrocities such as this.
Beyond simply being a proper representation of Richard Matheson's original story, the alternate
ending of I Am Legend is the only ending that really makes sense because there is evidence
of the Darkseekers' sentience breadcrumbed throughout the film. For instance, the Alpha
Male briefly steps into the light after Neville kidnaps his mate using a snare, suggesting the
Alpha Male wanted to rescue her from Neville but knew it could not leave the safety of darkness.
Later in the film, Neville is trapped in a similar snare baited with a mannequin
Neville placed outside the video store to simulate
life. This prevents Neville from leaving the area before sunset,
so the Alpha Male can sic infected dogs on him and Sam in a vicious but calculated act of revenge.
In the theatrical cut, we could view this interlude as evidence
of other survivors playing with Neville. However, the alternate ending makes it
clear trapping Neville and ambushing him is proof of the Alpha Male's intellect.
The theatrical ending ignores these hints in the service of creating a more conventional climax,
with an inspirational and uplifting ending about an unambiguous hero who sacrificed
himself for humanity. The nuance of the alternate ending might not be as
satisfying for audiences who want heroes and happy endings, but it was certainly
more thought-provoking and true to the mood of the first hour of the film and the novella.
In the alternate ending, Neville doesn't go out in a blaze of glory to protect the cure
he gave to Anna and Ethan, as he does in the theatrical version. Instead,
Neville leaves Manhattan with no cure in hand, his research abandoned while he stews in the knowledge
of his unethical treatment of Darkseekers during his desperate search for a cure to KV.
Neville, Anna, and Ethan drive away from Manhattan, together searching for the purported
survivor's colony in Vermont. When his wife and daughter die during the catastrophic evacuation of
Manhattan, Neville puts all of his hope and belief in a future for humanity into finding a cure.
Neville is so focused on a cure he can't see the Darkseekers clearly. For this reason, he's not
relieved to discover there are other survivors like Anna and Ethan, but instead frustrated to
discover that his belief that he is humanity's last hope has been false the whole time.
"Social de-evolution appears complete. Typical human behavior is now entirely absent."
Another important piece of the alternate ending is that it does not conclude that Neville, Anna,
and Ethan find the survivors' colony in Vermont as the theatrical version
does. Instead, as they drive out of the city, a new radio
transmission plays in the background assuring listeners they're not alone.
"I am traveling with Dr. Robert Neville and a boy
named Ethan. We are heading north on Route 17 to Bethel, Vermont."
This alternate ending is open-ended and doesn't promise a happy ending when they reach Vermont.
The future is not written. There is no cure, but Neville, Anna, and Ethan are alive. They
are together, and there is hope that there are others out there who have also survived. It's not
as definitive, flashy, or clean as the theatrical cut, but it's a lot more realistic. Much like
life, one chapter ends and another begins without the clarity of knowing what's in store.
According to a 2014 interview with Money Into Light, in an earlier version of the script,
Neville's loyal companion, Sam, met a different fate. One of the saddest moments in the film
occurs when Sam valiantly fights off the Darkseeker dogs to save Neville,
but gets bitten and infected in the process. Neville is then forced to
make the heart-wrenching decision to euthanize Sam.
However, in an earlier draft of the script,
Sam had a different storyline. In writer Mark Protosevich's early version of the script,
Sam is an unnamed male dog who also gets infected by the Darkseekers.
However, instead of Neville euthanizing his dog, he decides to release him. Later on in the climax,
Neville and his infected dog run into each other as Neville leads
human survivors to a pier. The dog initially joins the Darkseeker dogs in hunting them,
but eventually decides to return the favor once he recognizes his former master.
This earlier script version would have aligned more closely with the
original concept of the story, where the Darkseekers are not just mindless zombies,
but instead an intelligent species capable of forming emotional connections.
Like many book adaptations before it, I Am Legend is certainly guilty of not being entirely faithful
to its 1954 source material. In Matheson's book, Robert Neville is not the sole survivor,
there are a group of survivors living together. What's more, the Darkseekers aren't visually
frightening humanoid creatures, they can actually visually blend in with humans.
This contrast makes for a more nuanced exploration of bigotry and discrimination.
In the book, the new arrival in the community is named Ruth, not Anna. After getting involved
with Ruth, Robert learns she is one of the infected and she was sent as a spy to
infiltrate and undermine the survivors' colony from the inside. Robert learns he killed her
husband during his experiments. As he dies from a wound, Robert uses his last breath to mutter,
"I am legend," knowing he will be remembered for his crimes against the infected.
In hindsight, director Francis Lawrence thinks audiences may have related to the film just as
much if they'd followed the novella's plot more closely. He explained to Screen Rant,
"They would have accepted the nihilistic ending,
they would have accepted vampires instead of people with infections. We could have
literally made the book, which I would have been much happier with."
In his Screen Rant interview, director Francis Lawrence admitted that he
preferred his original ending to the theatrical cut, as it sent more of a
thoughtful message than the alternative. However, he also conceded that going with
the alternative ending wouldn't be the most strategic move for a blockbuster, saying,
"In terms of story math we're doing everything you're not supposed to do,
right? The hero doesn't find the cure, right?"
It seems that, after the openly negative reaction audiences gave at test screenings,
Lawrence made the executive decision to sacrifice his own preferences for the
sake of the public's enjoyment. Unfortunately, that's not the only regret he has about the film.
He told Den of Geek that he had originally wanted to do the Darkseekers with practical
makeup effects, but turned to CGI due to time constraints and problematic test shoots. In his
mind, the movie felt relatively unfinished by the time it screened. He explained,
"Having done a movie with so many visual effects shots, and then coming to the end, where you have
the plug pulled because you have a deadline, and you have to deliver the last reel, and you know
there's a hundred shots in the movie you're not satisfied with, was a real disappointment to me."
Thanks to the commercial success of I Am Legend, Warner Brothers contemplated a sequel to cash in
on the popularity of the film. There were a few ways this could have gone:
while the alternate ending left the door wide open for a direct sequel,
Neville's death in the theatrical cut made a prequel seem like the obvious choice.
In 2008, Will Smith confirmed this, telling Collider the studio had the idea for a prequel
that depicted "the last stand of Manhattan," presumably before humanity was all but wiped
out in a similar fashion to the Planet of the Apes reboot. By 2011, however,
Francis Lawrence told MTV that the prequel was effectively never going to happen. In 2018,
Lawrence doubled down, telling Screen Rant he had lost the urge to do another I Am Legend movie.
In 2022, however, Lawrence confirmed to Comic Book there had been talks about reviving the
sequel. Unfortunately, that's all he could say about it, as he also told the outlet
those conversations are confidential for the time being. If you take Lawrence's word for it,
it may be a while yet before serious efforts go into the sequel's production,
for in the same interview he also confirmed he's working on Constantine 2.
However, Akiva Goldsman, who co-wrote the 2007 screenplay,
had some slightly different news for Deadline. Not only did he confirm that he was working on
sequels to I Am Legend and Constantine, he said that the new I Am Legend movie
would pick up from the alternate ending. He credited the HBO hit series The Last
Of Us as the inspiration to take another look at the post-apocalyptic franchise.
Will Smith has become well-known for his meticulous selection of film projects,
especially when it comes to sequels. His involvement alone could secure financing
and audience interest in a movie. Upon the release of I Am Legend,
the film achieved the typical financial success and positive critical reception
associated with Smith's other projects from the 2000s. Consequently, discussions about a sequel
commenced despite Smith's character meeting his demise in the original.
Initially, Variety reported that the concept revolved around Game
of Thrones co-creator D. B. Weiss scripting a prequel involving the last stand that Smith
had described to Collider. However, this idea faced delays until it was ultimately scrapped.
The potential sequel that Goldsman discussed with Deadline would instead follow Neville
after his survival in the alternate climax. Goldsman explained that his vision for the film
took place several decades after the events of the original, so it will be particularly
interesting to see how Neville is holding up in the years since he stopped looking for a cure.
Much like Lawrence, Will Smith's approach to an I Am Legend sequel has evolved over
the years. In 2012, he expressed reluctance about appearing in another I Am Legend movie
during an interview with the BBC. However, the landscape of the movie industry has
significantly changed since then, with many major actors now starring in one or more franchises.
This shift makes Smith's reported involvement in the greenlit sequel
less surprising. What might have truly surprised fans, though,
is the possibility of his collaboration with a younger movie star, Michael B. Jordan.
According to Deadline, Goldsman found particular interest in The Last of Us
series' depiction of a world where humanity is no longer the planet's dominant species,
as well as in the multi-decade time jump. While Goldsman didn't divulge specific details about
the storyline for the I Am Legend sequel, he hinted at an exploration of more of the idea
presented by Richard Matheson, where humanity's reign as Earth's primary rulers had ended.
As for Michael B. Jordan's role in the film, Goldsman remained tight-lipped,
leaving the possibilities wide open. While an obvious path involves the two actors teaming up,
Jordan's versatility, demonstrated in his portrayal of an antagonist in Black Panther,
suggests the potential for him to play one of the Darkseekers as well.
"How do you think your ancestors got these? You think they paid a fair price?"
While Richard Matheson's original depiction of the Darkseekers in his novella makes them
out to be unmistakable vampires, the film opted to diminish the vampire element and
instead depict the darkseekers as victims of a virus. Neville's mission shifted from adapting
to a world overrun by the monsters to finding a cure, imbuing his story with a glimmer of hope.
Both the theatrical and alternate endings feature Neville discovering a cure. However,
when the alternate ending is considered canonical,
it alters the trajectory. In this version, Neville doesn't heroically pass on his
cure to Anna to ensure the survival of future generations. Instead, he abandons it altogether.
This raises an intriguing question about the sequel:
What happens with the cure Neville discovered in the years following
the events of the film? It's possible the writers will choose to disregard the cure,
as it may no longer be relevant to the narrative. But it would be interesting to see how this factor
complicates the relationship between humans and Darkseekers as their world continues to evolve.
Debates among fans about the superiority of books versus their movie adaptations are common,
often with each medium having its proponents. In the case of I Am Legend, however, the consensus
leaned toward the book, as the movie arguably presents the story in a more shallow manner,
favoring common Hollywood tropes like a heroic self-sacrifice for the greater good.
Interestingly, the movie initially retained the theme of change, a prominent aspect of
the book's narrative. However, test audiences reacted unfavorably to the original ending,
which revealed Neville's fundamental mistake. This reaction was understandable given the bleakness
of that conclusion. However, the studio's decision to modify the ending to align more with mainstream
audience expectations resulted in the removal of that core thematic element of the book.
Even symbolic motifs, like the recurring butterfly imagery, are meant to carry deep
meaning. Neville's daughter making a butterfly sign before her death and Anna's butterfly
tattoo were originally intended to symbolize the Darkseekers' evolution from human beings,
mirroring a butterfly's transformation from a caterpillar. The alternate ending
reinforces this theme, suggesting that future installments of the story will
delve deeper into not only change but also the acceptance of change.