The Corporeal New York City of I Am Legend (2007)

Abstract

The image of the city in ruins is a fundamental part of post-apocalyptic fantasies, providing a tangible manifestation of the encounter between the cataclysm and urban, man-made spaces. This article examines this relation through the depiction of New York City in Francis Lawrence’s post-apocalyptic action thriller I Am Legend (2007). The film is one of the first motion pictures to revive the image of the ruined cityscape post-9/11, offering an examination of the tragic and contentious event through memory politics. The cataclysmic iconography of I Am Legend demonstrates the wrecked city as a horizontal, demolished body. Verticality is replaced by natural and posthuman forces that have conquered the entire metropolis, highlighting the ways through which previously marginal sites become dominant in post-apocalyptic urban spaces. These sites, where the urban is linked to the corporeal, also question the very notion of the human—I Am Legend offers two alternate endings in response.