Streaming might be bad for Hollywood in general terms, as evidenced by the recent prolonged writers and actors’ strike, but there is a lot of good that comes out of streaming. One such good thing is the production and subsequent release of films that would probably not secure financing otherwise.
Netflix and HBO productions are a good example in this sense, as the two streaming giants are able to bankroll, greenlight, and bring to the small screen huge productions, with all A-list casts and excellent source material, over a period of time that’s literally a fraction of the production timeline of a feature film.
And they’re always, without exception, conversation starters.
As of earlier this month, Netflix is streaming Leave the World Behind, a slow-burn apocalyptic thriller based on the novel of the same name by Rumaan Alam, with the kind of cast studios would give an arm and a leg to put together: Mahershala Ali, Myha’la Herrold, Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, and Kevin Bacon.
If you’re not new to the genre, the premise is standard fare. Seemingly out of nowhere, things go from bad to worse, and humanity is suddenly plunged into chaos, forcing the main characters to face the reality of losing even the most basic functionality of everyday objects.
In one poignant scene in the film, those everyday objects are Tesla Model 3s – all of them “brand new,” as Julia Roberts’ Amanda remarks when she sees the sticker. The pileup scene itself is not shocking for its novelty; after all, we’ve seen pileups in anything from The Last of Us to Bird Box and Resident Evil, and every zombie, post-apocalyptic movie and series in between.
What’s shocking about the scene is that it plays out like a very contemporary commentary on the dangers of full autonomy, as all those Teslas crashed there while on Autopilot. Not only that, but they’d crash into anything and everything else they find on the way there, such as Amanda and her nice family’s truck, which she must maneuver out of the proverbial pickle.
As the film opened on Netflix at the end of last week, it became a trending topic on social media. That particular pileup scene made its way through X (former Twitter) to Elon Musk himself, and he seems to be saying that we’re looking at it wrong. That is to say, it’s not a comment on the dangers of self-driving capabilities, even though those cars were hacked and turned into killer machines, but rather proof that Tesla is the future.
“Teslas can charge from solar panels even if the world goes fully Mad Max and there is no more gasoline!” Musk says in a reply to the video, a statement that was welcomed with the usual wave of virtual amens from his supporters.
He’s not wrong, of course. Again, as we’ve seen in post-apocalyptic films, pileups and zombies are the least of problems for vehicular traffic in such a scenario. Getting to a pump doesn’t mean you get instant additional range because you still need electricity to pump, and gasoline has a limited shelf life even when stored properly.
But he’s also not entirely right, either. This is one of those rare times when both things can be true at the same time, and Musk’s attempt to deflect from the one to the other isn’t exactly successful.
The Tesla pileup scene is a sign of the future in the sense that Teslas will still be able to drive even after the proverbial number two hits the fan because they can run on solar. But they can also be a sign of the future for their susceptibility to hacking.
