Francis Lawrence

6.3 I Am Legend (2007)

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Francis Lawrence

I Am Legend (2007), from a screenplay by Akiva Goldsman and Mark Protosevichbr, is a silly post-apocalyptic sci-fi horror movie, which became a blockbuster.

In the early 21st century, a scientist has discovered how to cure cancer by reengineering a deadly virus. Three years later, most of humankind is dead and a black man, Robert, drives around the deserted city with his dog as the only companion. They chase wild infected animals. Lions attack the wild animals before he can shoot and he leaves the lions alone. At home, Robert watches recordings of old news broadcasts. Robert locks the house like a fortress to protect from the animals outside. A flashback shows us that he was a colonel and drove his wife and son out of the sealed city while a military quarantine of New York was declared to stop the spread of the virus. In his lab Robert keeps experimenting potential vaccines. Robert broadcasts every day on his ham radio that survivors should show up at a specific place at midday, but nobody shows up. Infected humans have become Deepseekers. A bunch of them attack him in a dark warehouse. He captures one wild woman, and takes her to his lab to experiment his vaccine on her. She almost dies in extreme agony: another failure. He gets angry and falls into a trap and is almost captured by the Darkseekers. Another flashback shows his wife and child leaving on a helicopter. The dog gets infected and he has to kill it. Another flashback shows the helicopter exploding in the sky. Robert attacks group of Darkseekeers and kills as many as possible but is about to succumb when he is rescued by woman and child who heard his broadcast. They believe there is a community of saved people. He doesn't believe it. Just when Robert realizes that his vaccine is working, they are attacked by Deepseekers and almost killed, but Robert manages to let them escape with the vaccine and sacrifices himself blowing up the attackers and killing himself. Some time later the woman and the child reach the camp of survivors and she tells the legend of Robert, who discovered the vaccine to save humankind.