Faith and Science in ‘I Am Legend’

And I thought Will Smith was reason enough. Smith, undoubtedly one of the most successful actors in Hollywood nowadays, never disappoints, no matter the overall turnout of the film. Watching his movies, I’ve been left thinking the story could have been executed better, or the director didn’t do his job well, or that some of the lines were pretty sappy, but never have I ever wanted my money back—and it’s because Smith is always worth every centavo that went into my movie ticket.

Still, Smith isn’t the new “Most Powerful Actor” on the planet—at least according to the latest Newsweek survey—for nothing. Watching his movies, you don’t expect bursts of enlightenment just yet; you only expect the kind of escapist entertainment that draws in the big money and pulls your real-life-weary feet into the cool, dark, movie theater in the first place. Uncannily enough, I got both after watching “I Am Legend.”

Teasers, trailers, and early press releases made “I Am Legend” out to be yet another one of those big-budget sci-fi flicks in which Smith and his cohorts (like a certain Mr. Cruise) already have proven track records. Even the premise sounds like something they’ve already been in: a virus wipes out the rest of the human race; only one man is left alive. Surprise, surprise, then, that it turned out to be something more.

It has been three years since what was initially lauded as a man-made cancer cure turned out to have terrible side effects on humans: to cut the long story short, it turned them into light-fearing monsters—contagious ones at that. However, military scientist Robert Neville (Smith) is immune to the contagion, and it seems like he’s the only human alive.

Accompanied by his German shepherd Sam, he holes up in New York City—Ground Zero as he calls it—living a routine that’s both hopeful and, something that will be much clearer as the film progresses, hauntingly bleak. The monsters come out to hunt and eat at night, so he’s pretty safe during the day. In fact, he has his life down to a science. As soon as he wakes up in the morning, he eats healthy food, exercises, listens to Bob Marley, goes hunting or foraging for more supplies, and even goes to the nearby video store to borrow some DVDs.

He also continues to work on a cure and a vaccine, trapping infected animals and the occasional monster to test his concoctions on them. Meanwhile, he faithfully sends out a message on the radio, hopeful that some other survivor will hear it and meet him at the spot he goes to regularly “when the sun is highest in the sky.” He’s both going somewhere and nowhere with his life, a hero and a fool.

This goes on, until one day, when Neville is at his lowest point because he had just put Sam down and he’s finally surrendering to the futility of it all, someone does turn up: a child and a woman (Alice Braga), who says she was there because, God told her to come—God had told her to switch on the radio, she had heard his message, and she had come from Maryland to meet him at his daily mid-day stop at the South Street Seaport.

For a few seconds you get a glimpse of Religious “If we listen, we can hear God’s plan.” Fanatic vs. Mad “There is no God! God didn’t do this, we did it!” Scientist, and you’re at a loss who to side with. But you don’t have to ponder on this for long, because the action starts rolling: the monsters start attacking, Neville discovers he had found a cure, humanity’s last hope tries to defend their lives, and Neville makes the ultimate sacrifice. “What are you doing?” Anna, poised to escape, asks him, as he pauses calmly in the face of the attack. “Listening,” he replies. The he commits the faithful act that makes him legend.

The film starts off with the supposed success of man playing God: A doctor (an uncredited Emma Thompson) has cured cancer through the genetic engineering of a virus. It then unfolds into a pandemic caused by a mutation of this virus, about which Neville, himself a scientist, insists, “I can fix this!” Scientific hubris? Perhaps. But he does fix it—when the woman who says God told her to come steps in.

The ending puts faith and science together, pushing forward the idea that both need each other. When Neville takes the time to listen, he begins to understand God’s plan and sees his role in it. And, if he was able to save the world by sharing his science, it was through Anna’s faith.

Man creates problem. God has a plan. Man saves himself. It’s all part of God’s plan.

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