The Way I Am Legend (The Book) Should Have Ended

My good friend Ryan has been razzing me for sometime over my absolute hatred of the ending I Am Legend (the book, not the movie). In the comments of a recent post where I named I Am Legend, the worst read of 2007 he wrote:

“I would speculate that this novelette written over 50 years ago, holds up better than 95% of the genre written in its time…. You said yourself that you enjoyed the read, but hated the ending. I think you really need to revisit the story. This is speculative fiction at its finest.”

Well, I don't think it’s bad speculative fiction though I don’t know if it’s the finest example that speculative fiction has to offer. It is, however, a very good one.

In any case, I’m going to detail my problem with the ending of the book and contrast it with the ending of the movie and explain why I listed it as the worst read last year.

Warning: Spoilers for both the book and the movie follow.

The general plot of the book centers on a character named Robert Neville who is the last human on the planet. The rest of humanity has been afflicted by a virus that has changed them all into vampire/zombie creatures. Neville spends his nights inside his vampire-proof house while the undead creatures roam around his house attempting to find a way in. During the day scavenges for supplies, repairs damage to his house, and looks for any other human survivors.

During the course of the novel we learn about Neville and start to care about him. He’s lost a wife and a child to this virus, hasn’t had any human contact for years, and at night tries to drown out the sounds of the vampire/zombie creatures that lurk outside.

One of the things he does to pass the time is hunt for these creatures during daylight hours. Unlike the movie, these creatures are languid and passive during the day so Neville never encounters a problem when he goes into homes or buildings to kill them with a stake through the heart. During the course of the novel he racks up an impressive kill count.

Then after an afternoon of creature killing, he spots a woman walking through a field in broad daylight. He chases her down and takes her back to his place. Later we find out that this woman is an anvanced type of vampire creature sent to spy on him. Through their own scientific inquiries, some of these vampires have found a way to be active and alive during daylight hours and are starting a new society and Neville is a threat to that society.

One night they arrive at his place, break down the door and take him captive. At the end of the book, Neville sits in prison and learns that he’s going to be executed. However, the vampire creature that was sent to spy on him takes pity and gives him some pills to end his life. He looks out the window at a street full of vampire/zombie creates. They are first are startled when they see him then stare at him silently.

And this is how the book ends:

Robert Neville looked out over the new people of the earth. He knew he did not belong to them; he knew that, like the vampires, he was anathema and black terror to be destroyed. And, abruptly, the concept came, amusing to him even in pain.

A coughing chuckle filled his throat. He turned and leaned against the wall while he swallowed the pills. Full circle, he thought while final lethargy crept into his limbs. Full circle. A new terror born in death, a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever.

I am legend.

Is that a great ending or what? Our hero turns out to be the bad guy in this new world. Because he’s killed so many of these vampire creatures, he’s going to be the monster that these new creatures tell their children stories about. Neville is going to be the creature that gives vampire children nightmares. His legend is going to be one of death and terror.

Sure, it’s a creative ending and it’s not the imagination of Richard Matheson I have a problem with. The reason I hated the ending is because he took a character I somewhat cared about and gave him an ignominious death.

Death by suicide just as he realizes how these vampire/zombie creatures view him? Oh, please. That’ s no way for our hero or a monstrous “legend” to go. What’s the point in creating a character that the reader just might care about only to have him go out with a whimper? That’s what I call a big letdown.

At least in the movie when Neville dies, he dies for a cause and there’s a hope – albeit a small one – that humanity might continue and that these creatures might be turned back into humans. And the Neville character takes out as many of the creatures as he can when he dies in a fiery explosion. Now that’s the way to make an exit and the way the book should have ended as well.

I Am Legend

 

Marathon Girl and I had a wonderful night out this weekend and weren’t going to miss the opportunity to see I Am Legend. And we’re both glad that we did. We both thought it was a movie that kept us our hearts pounding from the start to the closing credits.

Warning: Minor spoilers follow.

Will Smith stars at Robert Neville who is the last person on earth – or at least the last person in the New York City area. The rest of the population has been turned into monsters that are a mix between vampires and zombies thanks to a cancer vaccine gone awry. Neville spends his day, scavenging for food and other supplies, trying to find a cure for the virus, and, most importantly, trying to stay sane. At night he sleeps in a bathtub with his dog and tries to shut out the noise the monsters make as they roam the city looking for food.

Smith is perfect for this roll – one in which he get 90 percent of the screen time. Unlike Tom Hanks in Cast Away, Smith does an excellent job of portraying a man who hasn’t had any human contact in years.  He actually makes us feel the loneliness he’s feeling and how day after day of just surviving is driving him crazy.  And when he finally finds himself in another person’s presence…well, let’s just say he acts like just about anyone else would under those circumstances.

To help round out Neville’s character and make him someone we care about instead of some guy who’s slowly losing it, the movie includes Lost-type flashbacks where we learn more about Neville’s family and the events leading up the virus that turned most people into ravenous monsters. It makes him someone we care enough about that we understand why he starts taking out monsters by the dozen and are truly terrified for him when he finds himself caught in one of their traps. This movie easily could have turned into a monster/slasher/blood-fest type of film. But the writers wisely bring us in contact with the monsters only when necessary which adds tension to the film. (Are you striking writers paying attention? It’s not tons of blood and gore that make movies scary but the anticipation that something’s bad going to happen that truly scare people.) There are scenes – all in broad daylight – when Neville’s driving through New York, “renting” DVDs, or scavenging through empty apartment buildings but you’re still on the edge of your seat thinking that that monsters are going to jump out of a closet or from some dark tunnel any minute. And when we finally get out first glimpse of the monsters well in to the film, it pulse pounding, scary, and soooo fun to watch.

The best part about the film is that, unlike the book that was based on, it has very satisfying ending (more on this in my next post) and will leave with a feeling of hope instead of one where they feel cheated and let down. I Am Legend is a must see move for anyone who wants a 90-minute thrill ride.

Warning: Be careful about taking kids to this movie. Though it’s rated PG-13 it would easily terrify most kids younger than 12.

I Am Legend *** ½ out of 4 stars

I Am Legend and Mystic River

Back in college I had a friend who would reference Richard Matheson's I Am Legend whenever the topic of vampire and other horror books would come up. Through him I learned about the plot and character of the book and, since I wasn't into vampire books then, I never got around to reading it. Nine years later, I'm still not into vampire books but since I'e seen the trailer for the new I Am Legend move staring Will Smith -- something I really want to see -- I decided to pick up a copy of the book at the store.

The story itself is only 160 some odd pages -- much shorter than I thought it would be. The writing is crisp and clear and took only about two hours to read. Since Matheson was one of the early science fiction/horror pioneers it reads like something from an earlier generation. But it's still a wildly imaginative story and one that had me going all the way until the last page.

For those who don't know the general plot of the book, it centers on a character named Robert Neville who is apparently the last human on the planet. The rest of humanity has been consumed by a virus that has changed them all into vampires. Neville spends his nights inside his vampire-proof house while the undead creatures roam around his house attempting to find a way in. During the day scavenges for supplies, hunts and kills sleeping vampires, and looks for any other human survivors.

The most interesting part of the story for me was watching how Neville adapts to being the last man on earth and how he learns to cope with being alone so that he won't go insane and then what happens when sitting on the porch of an empty house he sees a beautiful young woman running through an empty field in his direction.

I'm curious to see what adaptations they'll make to the movie. The most obvious change from the promos is that the story takes place in New York instead of Los Angeles and it looks like they've spiced up the action scenes with the vampires quite a bit so it certainly looks like a very fun movie to watch.

My only request is that they have a better ending than the books. You know, one where Neville comes out on top. Those who have read the book will know what I'm talking about.

***

It's rare that I read a book a second time only to enjoy it more than I did the first time around. This week I picked up Mystic River after not having read it in about four years. (It was the best book I read back in 2003.) Part of the reason it took me so long to pick it up again was that I thought the Clint Eastwood movie version of the book was plain awful. I thought that the screenwriter and Eastwood failed to capture the relationship that the three main characters -- Jimmy Marcus, Sean Devine, and Dave Boyle -- had as kids and how that affected their actions 20 years later. Thankfully instead of watching Eastwood inept adaptation, I can always return to the novel and get that experience again.

Dennis Lehane is a good writer. I'm three books into his Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro detective book and have liked what I've read so far. However, I think Mystic River beats the pants off the other books I've read so far because the characters are so much more real and compelling.

Jimmy Marcus is an ex-convict who's spent the last 15 years trying live within the law. Then his daughter, Katie, is murdered the night before her sister's first communion and his world that he's built up so carefully suddenly falls apart and he finds himself being torn between building it up again or going down the wrong side of the tracks again.

Sean Devine is a homicide detective for the state police and Katie's murder happens to land on his desk. Despite a decent upbringing and being a top-notch cop, His life is in shambles. His wife had and affair and left him but still calls on occasion even though she says nothing to him when he answers. He feels the weight of the world on his shoulders and all he really wants is his wife to come home.

And then there's Dave Boyle who's just a shell of a human being after being abducted by child molesters right in front of Jimmy and Sean when they were kids. He's married and manages to eek out a decent life for himself and his family until he comes home one night unexpectedly with blood all over his clothes and the rage and anger of what happened to him all those years ago is finally boiling to the surface.

Mystic River isn't a make your day brighter book. The neighborhoods and general atmosphere of the book isn't pretty. Everyone and everything in the book seems to have the crapped kicked out of them at one point or another. But therein lies what makes Mystic River such a good read is that it's really a story about how characters react to the different tragedies that shape their lives. Some make good decisions, other bad ones but all the characters have things we like about them and things we don't. The're very human, very believable, and very compelling -- even more so the second time around.

Add those characters to a sad but intriguing plot and you have one heck of a book.