I am Legend - Open Spoilers

Cafe Society
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For the benefit of the careless reader - - - OPEN SPOILERS.

M’Kay?

Alright then, I’m assuming that the active thread posters have read the novella. Having seen what the Movie People usually do in the process of “adapting” a story to film, what are the likely deviations from the book?

First, the obvious bits.

Of course, take the story out of the UK, and stage it in a major US city. And make the lead an American.

I’m wondering if the movie really just won’t be an over-the-top Omega Man remake, this time staged as a Will Smith vehicle.

As in Omega Man, take the engineer/working stiff lead character and make him a proper Physician/Scientist/“Doctor”.

Given the paucity of the movies in which the Will Smith character “loses” or “dies”, and given the multiple abuses heaped on the Asimov “I, Robot” story in its adaptation, do we really expect the vampires to “win” and the lead guy to “lose/die”?

Oh, and will they make this some sort of evil bio-weapon plot, as opposed to a naturally occurring pathogen? Will these be Matheson’s biological, parasitic model of vampires, or something else?

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Okay - maybe I’m crazy, but I could have sworn that the original novella took place in California, not the UK. shrugs

I have a faint bit of hope for this movie - in the trailers, there’s a scene where we see Will Smith cowering in his bathtub. He looks terrified, and pathetic - that is Neville, a broken man for whom every night is unspeakable torment. It’s not much, granted, but for that split-second it looks like the movie gets it.

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As stated before, the book was set in L.A. Not, the UK…

This is a remake of the story by Matheson, not Omega Man. The stories will share a simliar premise but no, it won’t be Omega Man.

Yes, of course he will die. How could he not? Every person who has played (Unless I’m mistaken) Robert Nevil has died. HE WILL DIE in this movie or …I don’t know, but he will die. Guarantee it. They would be fools for him to not.

He did start as a working stiff in the movie but he became EXTREMLEY knowledgeable about medicine, disease, and things of the sort. He spent YEARS studying these things. He even understood the nature of the disease that destroyed mankind pretty well. So, it isn’t THAT far of a stretch that instead of taking years in the movie to explain how he learns about this stuff, he simply be a doctor.

I don’t think it’ll be biological weapon at all. The explosion you see is of a bridge in New York where we can presume that the infection is occurring and that it was caused by our own government. Two reasons.

We are shown a giant crowd before the explosion at the same location attempting to get out of the city saying “I’m not infected. I’m not infected.” A biological attack would more than likely “infect” everyone in the area. They wouldn’t have to figure out who was and who wasn’t infected. Everyone in the area would be.

Secondly, those are fighter jets that blow up the bridge. I don’t see how two fighter jets from a foreign country could have sneaked into our air space and bombed a bridge. Those jets belong to us and they are attempted to stop the spread of a disease.

So I don’t think any of the claims you have made are likely to be correct. At least I PRAY that they aren’t. This movie looks great and seems to be following the story in spirit if not by letter.

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d’Oh!

It was US - circa Santa Monica, California. I was probably thinking of War of the Worlds.

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So LA it is.

There is a branch of bio-weapons that include modified pathogens - think in terms of weapons grade Anthrax, or the SuperFlu virus from Stephen King’s Last Stand.

As for Robert Neville’s sudden doctorate, it wasn’t in the book, but simply making him a doctor would help with the exposition.

The new movie purports to be an adaptation of Matheson’s story, but then again, so was Omega Man (just not a very faithful adaptation). And in Omega Man. the lead was a doctor.

As for the bridges, well, a basic strategy in an epidemic is containment - they were blowing the bridges to keep the NYC infected in NYC. That has nothing to do with the origin of the epidemic, or with the origin of the pathogen.

As for the ending, I’d be pleasantly surprised by a faithful ending, but not surprised if Will Smith’s Dr. Neville survives and/or wins somehow.

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yeah, it’ll be interesting. Definitely can’t wait to go see it. On a side note in your favor, I did hear that Will Smith blurted out the ending in an interview in Japan. The director got REAL angry and made the reporter and everyone in the room swear to secrecy to not reveal what happened. So…you may be right. Why on earth would they need to keep an ending secret when its been in the public domain for 50 years unless they changed it.
So, who knows. You might be right on the ending.

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In the novel (set in the near future when it was written fifty years ago), the plague starts after what sounds like a low-scale WWIII. There are persistent dust storms said to be caused by “the bombings”; Neville believes that the plague is biological warfare. We never know for sure why he’s immune; he speculates that it may be related to being bitten by a vampire bat in Panama. Neville wasn’t a doctor or scientist, but trained himself and systematically researched the disease.

Those details aren’t really important, as long as they get the core of the story. It’s still a powerful one, and it’s easy to see how influential it’s been over the years.

Y’know, Richard Matheson is still around. Hope he likes the new movie; but in any case, he’s got a hell of a resume of good stories and screenplays.

ETA: Sometimes I’m really grateful for the SDMB. I tried discussing this movie over at IMDB, and the boards are dominated by: semiliterate, abysmally ignorant teenagers who think they’re funny; semiliterate obsessive fanboys; and nearly-illiterate obsessive fanboys who are also kinda racist and don’t think the part should be played by a black man.

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As for the book, Robert Neville’s discovery of the bacterium was well-written, but did not take years and years and years. He basically myth-busted the vampire myths by testing them on actual vampires, and did some microscopy and isolated the bacterium. The narrative was nicely done, but there was no sense of years flying by.

And I seriously doubt that the lead in the movie “started out as a working stiff” - if he’s a doctor of some sort in the movie, then he had that doctorate going into the Vampire Apocalypse, unless he got that MD or PhD or whatever at State University of New York at Vampiresville. It’s much more convenient, and the viewing public prefers characters with doctorates in their Sci-Fi movies.

Maybe I’m just still hurting over the abuses of The Mist, but it seems that if you’re a market-savvy Movie Person, you might be inclined to re-make Omega Man, but with a happy ending. After all, doesn’t Will Smith tend to take over his movies? Would Will Smith actually lead in a movie where his character loses?

It would be very tempting to have a small colony of survivors escaping, as in Omega Man, and that fits in well with Will Smith’s movies.

While, Heston’s Sci-Fi efforts frequently had sad, morbid, tragic endings, where the leads typically died, with the theme of “Man is His Own Worst Enemy,” it served both the actor and the movie, as well as the depressing themes in 70’s-era apocalyptic Sci Fi.

I do wonder how much pre-Vampire Apocalyptic stuff will take up the movie, and it will be a good movie, but I expect significant departures from the original storyline.

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Preach it, Brother! I quit another MB specialized in TV for similar reasons. There we also had “huge pile-ons if a newbie dared disagree”, “super ass kissing of the reviewers” and “instant banning of any who dared to say even a word of protest”.

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Amen. I know, I’m over there as well. Those people are incomprehensible morons.

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I’d be very surprised if they kept the ending. It was bleak in a way that few stories are bleak.

But then, they changed the ending of the Mist to make it more explicitly bleak, so maybe I’m wrong.

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I think they will change the ending, having Will Smith save mankind and then they will all celebrate. Undoubtedly he will then be reunited with his wife and adorable kids.

I will then throw popcorn at the screen and shriek, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! You Hollywood ASSHATS!”

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His wife and kid better be dead. Their deaths served as the foundation for Neville’s post-apocalyptic personality. My shoes will hit the screen if they come back.

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I’d like to read the book/story before I watch the movie. Can somebody tell me where? I searched Project Gutenburg, but couldn’t find it.

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I misused the word. It isn’t in the public domain. I should have said, “It’s been public knowledge for 50 years…”

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“I Legend and Other Stories” is the title of the book in which I first read it. There are several reprints out there, most with the title “I Am Legend.” There is a new release out to go with the movie, but I would schlepp to the library and get a copy there.

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Barnes & Noble has a paperback version of I am Legend out. It has the Will Smith movie poster for a cover, but it is a collection of Richard Matheson novellas and short stories.

As for the movie:
If I recall correctly, in Omega Man, Charleton Heston was an army doctor until the apocalypse. In the trailer for I am Legend, I am fairly certain that in at least one scene, Will Smith wears an army uniform. So I suspect that the new movie may bear a stronger resemblance to Omega Man than to the novella.

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You can buy the Matheson books - they’re still in print.

As for Omega Man, yes, the Heston character was an Army Colonel / Physician, and was ferrying an experimental vaccine of some sort. There’s a crash, and Heston’s character tests it on himself. In the book, Robert Neville is neither an officer, nor an MD, and is clearly immune, as in the book, everyone is exposed via spores in the dust, or by body fluid exposure.

As for the bioweapon approach, it wouldn’t need to be deployed - in the usual Sci Fi plots, it is accidentally released. There’s a line in one of the trailers where the Will Smith character is going on about “how we did this to ourselves.”

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The impression that I got from the trailers was that he was a Colonel, and perhaps something of a bad-ass.

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I saw this at the IMAX in Chicago last night. I don’t think there should be an Open Spoilers thread about a movie that hasn’t even opened yet. How will anyone know if they want to go see it if they can’t read any reactions for fear of spoiling themselves? I hope someone opens another thread, with boxed spoilers.

Still, I can answer a few of the questions for those who have read the book/seen The Omega Man. Though, I should say that I’ve never read the book, and I haven’t seen The Omega Man for over 30 years. The only thing I really remember aobut it is Heston sitting in a movie theater, mouthing the dialogue to Woodstock.

Since I don’t know what was in the book or remember what was in the earlier movie, some of these might actually be spoilers for this movie, but since it says Open Spoilers, here you go, with some random thoughts.
Yes, Neville dies at the end.

It’s an accidental virus born from what was originally a sure-fire cure for cancer. The government or terrorists had nothing to do with it.

It’s not an action movie though there are some action elements to it (you’re on the edge of your seat).

It’s not a horror movie though there are some horror elements to it. (you’re jumping out of your seat at times).

It’s not a science fiction movie though there are some SF elements to it (it all looked very current, though just the teeniest bit futuristic such as with astronomical but believable gas prices. It’s set in 2012 btw.)

It’s very psychological and is really more focused on Neville’s efforts to keep his sanity, and is fascinating for it.

They aren’t vampires and they aren’t zombies. They’re a mutation: vicious, super-strong and fast. They can’t function in sunlight, but they don’t sleep during the day. They’re “smart” too. After Neville rigs up a way to capture one of them alive, they use that same trick on him.

Neville has a dog, that saves Neville’s life but is infected in the process. Neville kills the dog when it’s clear that the dog is turning into one of them. (really sad sad sad scene)

There’s no voice-over or narration. Neville talks aloud to his dog and to dummies he’s set up around places he visits, to make it look like there are people around. But his talk isn’t geared to tons of explanation, which I found refreshing. You pretty much figure out what’s happening inside Neville’s head by the power of Will Smith’s expressions/acting, and that’s not a joke line. He should, but won’t, be nominated for an Oscar. He’s amazing.

He meets two survivors (normal), a woman and a young boy. How they meet is the only “oh come ON” moment in the film. It’s eye-rollingly bad, though exciting, but the rest of the film was so good that I have no problems forgiving it that one lapse.

The woman and the boy stay with Neville for one day, then they leave to go to Vermont, where there is a colony of survivors. Neville decides to stay behind to continue working on a cure.

He is a doctor, and a colonel. His lab is set up in the basement of his fortified townhouse.

His wife and daughter are killed when they’re evauating, not from the virus.

Flashbacks to events before the plague are shown throughout the film.

That’s all I can think of at the moment.
It’s a DAMNED GOOD MOVIE! Highly recommended.