Summary. The alternate ending of I Am Legend is truer to the original novel and provides a deeper understanding of the infected. The alternate ending reveals that the infected creatures are self-aware, intelligent, and have feelings, causing Neville to question his own morality.
The novel's ending, which was filmed as an alternate I Am Legend ending, actually lets Neville survive, and from there he discovers that the infected were actually sentient and only became violent after Neville captured their leader's mate in an effort to devise his cure.
He said that while the original novel had a "progressive multicultural message" where Neville became a "legend" to the new creatures and is subsequently killed by them (much like vampire were legends to humans), the 2007 film finds a cure for the Darkseekers and it is delivered by a survivor through "divine ...
The Alpha Male is the main antagonist of the 2007 live action film, I Am Legend, based on the 1954 post-apocalyptic novel of the same name by the late Richard Matheson. He is the alpha-male and leader of the Darkseekers, the mate of the alpha female and the archenemy of Dr.
Neville goes to his prison window and sees the infected staring back at him with the same hatred and fear that he once felt for them. He realizes that he, a remnant of old humanity, is now a legend to the new race born of the infection.
This Alternate Ending Could Have Saved I Am Legend
What is the message in I Am Legend?
In conclusion, Francis Lawrence's I Am Legend offers much more than the typical sci-fi film. First and foremost, it comments on humanity's need for interaction with each other. We are social beings, communicating with each other in one way or another countless times each day.
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.
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.
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.
Unfortunately, as revealed by director Francis Lawrence, the reason the I Am Legend twist ending was changed to the more heroic one seen in theaters after test audiences had intensely negative reactions to an ending that paints Robert Neville as the villain.
However, the most devastating scene of the entire movie is when Neville's dog, Sam, gets infected with the Krippin Virus and begins to turn. Smith's character does everything he can to save her, but he ultimately is forced to kill his very last companion.
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.
Why does "I Am Legend" have two different endings?
I Am Legend has an alternate ending that is preferred by many viewers and stays true to the original novel, showing a different fate for Dr. Neville. The alternate ending reveals a darker side of Neville, as he realizes he has become a monster through his experiments and decides to make amends.
Years after a plague kills most of humanity and transforms the rest into monsters, the sole survivor in New York City struggles valiantly to find a cure.
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.
Richard Matheson's 1954 book, I Am Legend, reflects the zeitgeist of post-war traditional White men and their anxieties over what is, in effect, the beginning of a sociopolitical collapse of patriarchal hegemony.
At the end of the story, he realizes that, as the only human left in a world of vampires, he is now the monster. He stalks the earth during the day and kills the vampires as they sleep. This has made him a mythical figure much like the vampires themselves once were. He is now a legend, hence the title I Am Legend.
Why did everyone turn into zombies in I Am Legend?
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 ).
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.
Will Smith's character will come alive in I Am Legend 2, after he died in the original film. The writers have made this possible by following the first film's alternate ending, in which he lives.
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.
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.”
Fearfully, Neville followed Sam in, where the two were attacked and chased through the building by the infected colony residing within it. Two Darkseekers pounced onto Neville, but he was able to escape the building and into daylight by running through a window, the sunlight killing the attacking infected.
