I Am Legend

Old movies can be so ... prophetic.  I Am Legend was all the way from back in 2007, starring a much younger-looking Will Smith.  Based on an even older book written by Richard Matheson and published in 1954, I Am Legend painted a picture of a not-too-far future then (in 2012) where a supposed cure for cancer became an air-bourn virus, killing the bulk of the world's population from its ground zero in New York City, leaving in its wake 2 groups of "people": humans immune to the virus and another group infected by the virus who became sensitive to UV light.  

Will Smith's character was the sole immune human in New York City as he went about with his experiments on the infected group, seeking a cure for the virus.

Back in 2007, the New York City depicted was surreal.  Empty of its human population, New York City became a bewildering place with overgrown grasses roaming with animals.  It was frightfully dystopian then.  But today we know better.  When governments around the world imposed lockdowns on cities in a bid to halt the advance of the Covid-19 virus, the streets pretty much resembled the set of New York City in I Am Legend, with overgrown grasses and roaming animals who were free from human disturbance.  Only that the Covid-19 virus did not turn the infected into UV light-sensitive beings with elevated respiratory rates and heartbeats and heightened aggression.

Looking back now at I Am Legend, it seems comic that a virus that was genetically re-engineering to cure caused a horrific pandemic decimating the human population and a cure to the old cure had to be found.  So much about trying to play God.  

I Am Legend's ending differed quite significantly from the book, in that Robert Neville (Will Smith's character), became a Legend as the old type of humans, when the vampires eventually became a new population themselves and viewed Neville with the same fear and hatred as he did of them.

It is interesting that in 1954, when there was no pandemic, such a concept could be found in a book.  Were the themes of the decimation of the human population and the rise of another population an oblique reference to events of the day?

I wonder if the book is still in print.  It could be an interesting read.