287. I Am Legend

Title: I Am Legend

Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Year: 2007

Summary: In September 2012, military virologist Lieutenant Colonel Robert Neville (Will Smith) is the last human in New York City, and maybe the last human on Earth. A genetically-engineered variant of the measles virus created by Dr. Alice Krippin (Emma Thompson), meant as a cure for cancer, had mutated into a lethal strain. It spread throughout the world, killing 90% of humanity. The remaining 588 million survivors became predatory and vampiric^[4] beings^[5] called "Darkseekers", that emerge after dusk to prey on those immune to the virus. In December 2009, Robert had lost his wife Zoe (Salli Richardson) and daughter Marley (Willow Smith) in a helicopter accident during a chaotic quarantine of Manhattan. He is forced to watch helpless from the ground and survives along with the family dog, a German shepherd named Samantha ("Sam").

Robert's daily routine includes experimenting on infected rats to find a cure for the virus and trips through a decaying Manhattan to collect food and medical supplies or hunt for deer that have wandered into the city from other regions. Lions and possibly other animals have escaped from the Central Park Zoo and are thriving as wild animals seem unaffected by the virus and if bitten or scratched by infected people, can only recover or die normally. He keeps vigil each day for a response to his recorded AM radio broadcasts, which instruct any survivors to meet him at midday at the South Street Seaport, where he carefully sits on a bench and waits every day. Neville's isolation is broken only by the companionship of Sam and interaction with mannequins he has set up as patrons of a video store.

He lives in a Washington Square Park townhouse,^[6] which he has shielded with UV projectors and iron shutters inside the windows. He has also set up several generators in the house to provide electricity.

One day, he is hunting deer with Sam, who chases a deer to an abandoned dark building. He finds the deer dead and discovers the dog hiding and realizes the building is full of infected Darkseekers. He then flees with Sam. To test a treatment, Robert sets a snare trap and captures an infected woman. As he is inspecting the captured woman, a male Darkseeker briefly emerges from the building, screaming in agony as he exposes himself to sunlight; Neville assumes this is due to increased hunger and notes that the loss of all human characteristics in the Darkseekers is complete. In his laboratory in the basement, Neville tries the new serum on the infected woman, seemingly without success.

The next day, after finding one of his mannequins moved out in the street in front of Grand Central Terminal, Robert is caught in a snare trap and passes out. He regains consciousness at dusk and frees himself, but a pack of infected dogs attack Robert and Sam. During the fight, one of the infected dogs bites Sam. Domestic animals or animals adapted for a human setting seem to be infected and suffer just like humans as dogs and urban rats can be infected. Robert brings Sam home and attempts to save the dog by injecting a strain of his serum, but it is too late. Sam starts to mutate, forcing Robert to strangle her to death.

Overwhelmed by grief and rage, Robert attacks a group of Darkseekers in the Seaport the following night with his Ford Expedition equipped with UV lights. He kills many, but they overwhelm and nearly kill him before he is rescued by a pair of immune humans, a woman named Anna (Alice Braga) and a boy named Ethan (Charlie Tahan), who followed his radio broadcasts from Maryland. Anna and Ethan take Robert back to his home. Anna explains that they are making their way to a survivors' camp in Bethel, Vermont. Robert does not believe such a camp exists and expresses doubt when Anna says God told her about it.

The following night, an alpha male leads an infected mob in an attack on Robert's house. Anna, who was unaware of Robert's precautions in covering his scent outside the house, had inadvertently allowed the Darkseekers to follow their trail. As the Darkseekers charge the house, Robert stops the first wave with UV light projectors, which others destroy. Robert also destroys the second wave with mines planted in the yard, but he finds himself defenseless against the third wave. As Robert tries to find Anna and Ethan, the alpha male and another Darkseeker enter the house, and the alpha male attacks him. As Robert fends off the alpha male, the other Darkseeker rushes upstairs and begins tearing a hole in the roof so others can get in.

After Robert saves Anna and Ethan, they retreat into the laboratory. They seal themselves in a glass-walled room with the infected woman and discover that Neville's treatment is working; the subject looks much more human. The Darkseekers break in and the alpha male begins to throw himself against the glass, cracking it into the shape of a butterfly. Robert then sees Anna's butterfly tattoo and thinks of his daughter Marley, who used to make a butterfly shape with her hands (a brief voiceover of Marley mentioning butterflies plays). Robert then draws a vial of the infected woman's blood and gives it to Anna, before shutting her and Ethan inside a coal chute in the back of the lab. He then detonates an M67 grenade to destroy the attackers at the cost of his own life.

Anna and Ethan arrive at the survivors' colony, where Anna hands over the antidote. Anna later states that the survivors are Robert's legacy, as his fight for a cure became legend.