I Am Legend
The book, published in 1957, is about Robert Neville who is immune to a virus resembling vampirism which has infected most of the country. He spends his days alone trying to find a cure, while the vampires hide in the darkness. At night, they crawl all over the city streets looking for humans to infect. They are violent and aggressive. Robert Neville spends his time searching for a cure in order to save the human race.The first movie adaptation was called The Last Man On Earth and was released in 1964. In it Dr. Robert Morgan wakes up every morning and goes hunting for the vampires that have taken over the world. He believes he is the sole survivor and spends his days killing off the vampires. At night, they try to break into his home which he has boarded up to try to turn him into a vampire. As in the book, Morgan discovers that he is not alone, and he meets a woman named Ruth who was in fact infected but is undergoing treatment along with many others like her. The movie ends violently when Ruth’s people kill Morgan and he truly then realizes that he was the last man on earth. The next cinematic version was The Omega Man in 1971. This movie is about biological warfare having destroyed most of the world population. The war has not killed everyone though. Dr. Robert Neville is immune to the plague that has turned all other survivors into mutants. Neville is constantly fighting against the mutants, and is nearly killed at one point until he is rescued by another survivor. Neville believes it is possible to create a vaccine or serum made from his blood that can save the human race. He is betrayed by the one who saved him, and later is killed. He does however create the serum that will hopefully save humanity and gives its to the other survivors as he dies at the end of the movie. The latest incarnation is I Am Legend, featuring Will Smith, from 2007. This movie is about Lieutenant Robert Neville who believes he is the last surviving human in the country after all the inhabitants of New York City began mutating because of a virus created early in the movie. The movie begins with a news broadcast featuring Dr. Krippen who claims to have created the cure for cancer. She, along with many other scientists have been testing a new method where they alter the measles virus in order to destroy cancerous cells. At first it looks as if it is a complete success and it is truly a great victory in medicine, but later it shows that there are severe side effects which begin turning people into blood thirsty mutants. The city is sealed off and quarantined, but the virus does indeed make it out of the city. Neville spends his days testing possible cures for the virus, while also fighting against the mutants that are slowly devolving and becoming more animal-like. They want Neville, and will not stop hunting him until they have him. He finally finds another survivor, and they decide to head to a colony where there are many other survivors. He finds a cure, but the mutants nearly capture him. He gives the cure to the other survivor and tells her she needs to get to the colony so they can use the cure to save the human race. He then sends her off and sacrifices himself in order to save humanity.
In the most recent reincarnation, I Am Legend takes place in present day United States. Advances in the field of medicine are becoming more and more realistic, and breakthroughs are occurring more frequently. We live in a country where vaccinations are given to our kids in order to prevent diseases that plagued earlier generations. In the movie, a scientist has claimed to have cured cancer, and her results have shown her to be correct, for the time being. In our world today, most scientists are optimistic about finding a cure for cancer. Many believe it is only a matter of time before we breakthrough that barrier, which in turn will save thousands of lives. Recently, we have made medical breakthroughs, not as important as the cure for cancer, but important non-the-less. In 2007, scientists created the first successful and safe human vaccine for the bird flu. While the bird flu has not taken as many human lives as cancer has, we no longer have to worry about any more human fatalities linked to the bird flu.
Same as time depicted
All of these stories differ slightly, but they all have to do with science and medicine. I believe that the movie produced in 2007 has the best connection to our class because it is a great example of how a scientist/doctor can create something and unleash it into the world way before they know all the possible ramifications that can come of it. In our fast paced society, we are constantly searching for cures to our problems, whether it be medical or social, and many scientists devote their entire lives to searching for the cure. But in Dr. Krippens case, she unleashed a virus that nearly destroyed the human race. While her intentions were good, she was a bad scientist in that she did not think ahead and realize what could come of her work.
MovieI Am Legend. Dir. Francis Lawrence. Perf. Will Smith. Film. 2007.The Omega Man. Dir. Boris Sagal. Perf. Charlton Heston. Film. 1971.The Last Man On Earth. Dir. Ubaldo Ragona. Perf. Vincent Price. Film. 1964.Book Matheson, Richard. I Am Legend. Walker and Company, 1954.Guthrie, Catherine. "Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs." Time. Time. 21 Apr. 2009 http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/top10/article/0,30583"I Am Legend." IMDB. IMDB. 21 Apr. 2009 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480249/.O'Ehley, James. "The Omega man." Scifimoviepage. Scifimoviepage. 21 Apr. 2009 <http://www.scifimoviepage.com/omega.html>.
Our class focuses on mad, bad, and evil scientists, and what characteristics specifically make them mad, bad or evil. This movie depicts what can happen when we get ahead of ourselves in science.