Set on Long Island, it revolves around two families as they try to make sense of a rapid breakdown in phones, television, and other common technology which points to a potential cataclysm.

Misanthrope Amanda Sandford arranges an impromptu weekend getaway at a vacation rental with her husband Clay and their kids, Archie and Rose.

Clay gets lost and exits his car to look around, missing a few seconds of clear reception on the radio broadcasting news of the cyber attack having catastrophic environmental effects in the South.

He finds a Spanish-speaking woman seeking help, but abandons her and eventually encounters a drone dropping leaflets written in Arabic.

Danny informs them that another neighbor may be equipped with an underground bunker and suggests that the shrill noises which have most likely led to Archie's teeth falling out result from use of microwave weapons.

tells Clay and Archie that on the basis of his work with military contractors that the country is in a three-stage campaign leading first to breakdown of social order and resulting in a coup d'état or civil war.

Inside, a computer message warns of attacks by rogue military elements and elevated radiation levels in many U.S. cities.

Netflix won a bidding war for the rights to the novel by Rumaan Alam in July 2020, with Sam Esmail attached to write and direct.

For example, Esmail chose "Too Close" by Next, a song that he felt was "really funny and sweet at the same time" and had not been overused in film, for a scene that "goes from lighthearted and playful to sad and dark within a matter of a minute".

The website's consensus reads: "An exceptionally well-acted apocalyptic thriller, Leave the World Behind steadily draws the viewer in despite its leisurely pace and somewhat simplistic messaging.

"[14] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 68 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

[15] In a positive review for The Washington Post, Michael O'Sullivan wrote, "It plays like an M. Night Shyamalan movie, but without the supernatural element and with a thick vein of social critique running throughout.

"[16] Wenlei Ma writing for The Sunday Times called the film "jittery and suspenseful", and that some overhead cinematography "emphasises that we're all puppets in someone's else [sic] marionette theatre ... we're not in control, but Esmail is of his startling, character-driven doomsday story".

[17] Bilge Ebiri for Vulture compared the film unfavorably to Alam's book: "every change made for the adaptation happens to be for the worse.

"[18] Alissa Wilkinson for The New York Times wrote, "After a while, the movie plays like a bulleted list of everything wrong with America ... the narrative tension dulls into passivity, both for us and for the characters", and that the "ending seems like a punchline.

[24] The plot of the film Leave the World Behind is an apocalyptic scenario in which external threats and internal strife break down societal order.

[28] As the white parents prepare for bed at a vacation rental, the property owner, a black father and his daughter unexpectedly arrive at their doorstep, fleeing from a dire situation unfolding in Manhattan, potentially affecting the entire United States.

America's enemies have launched a three-stage attack: first, they disable communication networks and infrastructure; second, they spread misinformation; and finally, they rely on Americans to descend into a kind of survival-of-the-fittest chaos.

[28] The oil tanker named White Lion running aground helps set the stage for the apocalyptic turn, immediately creating a sense of mystery and impending doom.

The White Lion is a reference to the ship attributed to beginning slavery in America, symbolizing the arrival of the first African slaves to Virginia in 1619.

[29] In the novel, Amanda's character is "more alarmed by the fact that the [Scotts] are Black—'those people didn't look the sort to own such a beautiful house,'[30] she and husband Clay question how their Airbnb landlords could be wealthy and black, and they were described as arriving in a car that was "not so new as to be luxurious or so old as to be bohemian".

[31] Narrative techniques frame the contemporary disaster throughout the film within a broader context of the enduring moral reckoning around racism and poverty in the United States.