Loosely based on the 1954 novel of the same name by Richard Matheson, the film is set in New York City after a virus, which was originally created to cure cancer, has wiped out most of mankind, leaving Neville as the last human in New York, other than nocturnal mutants.
Background Information and Notes. In Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend, the monsters are Vampires which started off as a deadly virus released into the world by scientists. The similarities between the monsters in the novel and in the film is that they both only come out at night to hunt and they both feed on blood.
This genetically engineered measles virus is the reason for the plague and the zombie-like creatures in the fictional film. It was not a vaccination but a modified virus used to treat cancer (cancer is not caused by a virus, as can be read in more detail in a Reuters Fact Check here ).
Vampires have inherited the Earth in Richard Matheson's I Am Legend. At one time, the Vampires were normal people who were infected by a bacteria (later dubbed Vampiris, by Matheson). Unlike Neville, they had no immunity to the virus and subsequently became creatures previously known only in legend as vampires.
6,705,946,620 People on Earth - Either died of the Kripplin Virus, mauled by Darkseekers, or turned into Darkseekers. Zoe Neville - Killed when the helicopter crashed into the rescue copter.
In 2040, GOD Sends A Tier-One Angel & Demon To Earth To Protect It From The Antichrist
Why is Neville immune to the disease?
Neville explains some of his findings, including his theory that he developed immunity against the infection after being bitten by an infected vampire bat years ago. He prepares to test Ruth to determine if she is infected or immune, vowing to treat her if she is infected, but she knocks him unconscious.
The Krippin Virus was genetically engineered from the measles virus by Dr. Alice Krippin as a cure for cancer. KV at first appeared to be effective with no side-effects, but over time, the virus began to mutate and cause rabies-like symptoms in its hosts.
Eventually, the beam thinned enough for the infected dogs to cross and attack. Neville and Sam were able to fend off and eventually kill the dogs, but Sam was bitten and infected while doing so.
The original ending has Neville sacrifice himself to save the newly discovered survivors Anna and Ethan. However, with the Darkseekers reunited with their captured kin in the alternate ending, they simply leave. Neville then takes the cure and heads to Vermont a changed man, with Anna and Ethan in tow.
During the early stages of the outbreak of Vampiris, Neville was bitten by a infected vampire bat, but as the bat was not human, the Vampiris it introduced into Neville's system through that bite acted as a vaccine against the disease.
Was Will Smith immune to the virus in I Am Legend?
After a man-made plague transforms Manhattan's population (and possibly that of the whole world) into bloodthirsty mutants, military scientist Doctor Robert Neville (Will Smith), immune to both the airborne strains and contact strains of the virus, struggles to find a cure and to locate any other survivors that may ...
The Alpha Male Darkseeker is the main antagonist of I Am Legend. He is the husband of the Alpha Female Darkseeker, and was captured by Robert Neville for his experiments.
Each ending of the original movie identified a different villain, with the alternate ending following the idea of the book that Will Smith's character, Robert Neville, was the true bad guy of the story since he had been capturing, experimenting on, and killing the Darkseekers.
When Dr. Robert Neville sees the mannequin he calls "Fred" outside on the street, it looks like the mannequin moves its head a little. During that scene, a mime replaced the mannequin to try and play with people's minds when they watched that scene.
One might not remember this but in season 3, when the demon Lilith tried to attack Sam after she had unleashed hellhounds on Dean, the younger Winchester remained completely unscathed. The main explanation for this is that Sam had grown immune to Lilith's powers by chugging down all the demon blood with Ruby's help.
Sam had to drink demon blood because he needed a lot of strength to keep Lucifer under his control. But still, that didn't work. In the end, his love for his brother gave him the strength to overpower Lucifer; and in doing so, he also took Michael along with him into the cage.
As a “special child” of the yellow-eyed Demon, he was completely unaffected by the powers of other said “special children.” Before he even drank the plasma, this immunity was in effect, which is why he wasn't susceptible to mind control and the Croatoan Virus.
The ending to the Alternate Theatrical Version varies from the original ending. Instead of blowing himself and the hemocytes up with a grenade, Neville discovers that the hemocytes actually came for the female he captured earlier in the movie. He relieves her of the cure and returns her to the hemocytes.
Anna and Ethan were saved by Neville from the Darkseeker, and retreated into a reinforced plexiglass room in the basement with the specimen Darkseeker. There, they noticed that Neville's cure was in fact working and the unconscious Darkseeker was cured.
The helicopter then began to leave, but at that moment, another helicopter across the river, also leaving, was attacked by a horde of infected, causing it to crash into the other helicopter and kill Neville's family as he watched.
Thus, as the novel comes to a close, Neville seems to see the world through the eyes of a vampire: he is the monster, the antagonist, and the “legend.”
The big bad Alpha Male is the most remembered of all of the Darkseekers, and the character animation was provided by actor Dash Mihok. Of course, Mihok looks almost unrecognizable underneath the CGI Gloss and extended jaw, but he's been acting since the early 1990s.
