Future Shock Film: I Am Legend (2007)

In a world where society suffers the consequences of global biological contamination, one individual survives as the bridge between our recognizable past and an undetermined future. Box office superstar Will Smith stretches his action-comedy comfort zone to anchor I Am Legend, which was released in 2007 and directed by Francis Lawrence. Smith stars as Robert Neville, a U.S. veteran and military scientist struggling to maintain sanity and normalcy in a near-future NYC ravaged by a mysterious biological plague. I Am Legend updates the Richard Matheson novel of the same name, itself an adaptation of Mary Shelley's lesser read 1826 follow-up to Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus, aptly titled The Last Man. In film history, I Am Legend represents the third effort to adapt these source materials, following The Last Man on Earth in 1964, and the Chuck Heston vehicle The Omega Man in 1971. Whereas the former features draw upon mythos linked to  American Cold War concerns, Legend clearly rests within the shadow of 9/11 and serves as a meditation on unexpected consequences in medical and technological innovation.   

Host Garret Castleberry welcomes Scott McMurry into the dystopian discourse that foregrounds this "Future Shock Film" season of Special Topic in Media. The dialogic duo explore the dystopian spaces that haunt sci-fi film and the fears and anxieties of storytellers and their audiences. The pair organize their analysis around genre themes concerning presence versus absence, imitation versus innovation, and make a case for what moments situate I Am Legend as future shock.

"Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media. Season 3 collides with its altered future as we converge into a new season (and NEW university film course!) of future shock analyses.

Host: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film":
Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction. Bloomsbury, 2011.

Michael Harris. In Come With Me If You Want to Live: The Future as Foretold in Classic Sci-Fi Films. Roman & Littlefield, 2024.

Alvin Toffler. Future Shock. Ballantine Books, 2022.

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