Quotes
 [while the Dark Seekers try to break through a plexiglass door in Neville`s laboratory]
Neville: [screaming] I can help. I can save you. I can save everybody. Anna: The world is quieter now. We just have to listen. If we listen, we can hear God`s plan.
Neville: God`s plan.
Anna: Yeah.
Neville: All right, let me tell you about your "God`s plan". Six billion people on Earth when the infection hit. KV had a ninety-percent kill rate, that`s five point four billion people dead. Crashed and bled out. Dead. Less than one-percent immunity. That left twelve million healthy people, like you, me, and Ethan. The other five hundred and eighty-eight million turned into your dark seekers, and then they got hungry and they killed and fed on everybody. Everybody! Every *single* person that you or I has ever known is dead! Dead! There is no god!
Neville: My name is Robert Neville. I am a survivor living in New York City. I am broadcasting on all AM frequencies. I will be at the South Street Seaport everyday at mid-day, when the sun is highest in the sky. If you are out there... if anyone is out there... I can provide food, I can provide shelter, I can provide security. If there`s anybody out there... anybody... please. You are not alone.
Neville: God didn`t do this. We did!
Neville: Come on, Sam. We gotta go.
Neville: Day one thousand and one. We came in close contact with a hive today. Blood tests confirm that I remain immune to both the airborne and contact strains. Canines remain immune to airborne strain only. The vaccine trials continue. I`m still unable to transfer my immunity to infected hosts. The Krippen Virus is... elegant.
[mind wanders]
Neville: Just fishin` in the dark, son.
[after a long pause, going back to his train of thought]
Neville: Behavioral note - an infected male exposed himself to sunlight today. Now it`s possible decreased brain function or growing scarcity of food is causing them to... ignore their basic survival instincts. Social de-evolution appears complete. Typical human behavior is now entirely absent.
[from trailer]
Neville: I`m not gonna let this happen.
Neville: [talking to Anna about Bob Marley] He had this idea. It was kind of a virologist idea. He believed that you could cure racism and hate... literally cure it, by injecting music and love into people`s lives. When he was scheduled to perform at a peace rally, a gunman came to his house and shot him down. Two days later he walked out on that stage and sang. When they asked him why - He said, "The people, who were trying to make this world worse... are not taking a day off. How can I? Light up the darkness."
Neville: Eat your vegetables. Don`t just push `em around, eat `em. I ain`t playin`!
Neville: I like Shrek.
Neville: [after his outburst scares Anna and Ethan] It`s just... I was saving that bacon!
Neville: [to a pretty mannequin in the video store] I... I promised a friend I would say hello to you today.
[begins to cry]
Neville: Please say hello to me.
[sobs]
Neville: Please say hello to me.
Neville: [to Sam] Just how you like it... disgusting!
[speaking of the mannequin at the DVD store]
Neville: What should I say? You wanna see some infected rats?
[pauses]
Neville: I`ll say hello tommorrow.
Neville: [to mannequin in video store] Morning, Hank. I`m halfway through the "G`s".
Neville: I`m listening.
Neville: This is Ground Zero. This is my site. I can fix. I can fix this.
Neville: Nothin` happened the way it was supposed to happen.
Neville: [to Sam] You can`t go running into the dark.
[first lines]
TV Personality: The world of medicine has seen its share of miracle cures, from the polio vaccine to heart transplants. But all past achievements may pale in comparison to the work of Dr. Alice Krippin. Thank you so much for joining us this morning.
Dr. Alice Krippin: Not at all.
TV Personality: So, Dr. Krippin, give it to me in a nutshell.
Dr. Alice Krippin: Well, the premise is quite simple - um, take something designed by nature and reprogram it to make it work for the body rather than against it.
TV Personality: You`re talking about a virus?
Dr. Alice Krippin: Indeed, yes. In this case the measles, um, virus which has been engineered at a genetic level to be helpful rather than harmful. Um, I find the best way to describe it is if you can... if you can imagine your body as a highway, and you picture the virus as a very fast car, um, being driven by a very bad man. Imagine the damage that car can cause. Then if you replace that man with a cop... the picture changes. And that`s essentially what we`ve done.
TV Personality: And how many people have you treated so far?
Dr. Alice Krippin: Well, we`ve had ten thousand and nine clinical trials in humans so far.
TV Personality: And how many are cancer-free?
Dr. Alice Krippin: Ten thousand and nine.
TV Personality: So you have actually cured cancer.
Dr. Alice Krippin: Yes, yes... yes, we have.
[cuts to post-apocalyptic New York three years later]
Neville: What the hell are you doing out here, Fred? Fred, if you`re real, you better tell me right now!
Woman Evacuee: [repeated] I`m not infected!
[last lines]
Anna: In 2009, a deadly virus burned through our civilization, pushing humankind to the edge of extinction. Dr. Robert Neville dedicated his life to the discovery of a cure and the restoration of humanity. On September 9th, 2012, at approximately 8:49 P.M., he discovered that cure. And at 8:52, he gave his life to defend it. We are his legacy. This is his legend. Light up the darkness.
Marley: Look, Daddy, it`s a butterfly!
[makes a butterfly with her hands]
Trivia
Cameron Monaghan auditioned for the part of Ethan.
Will Smith left the production for a couple of days to attend Tom Cruise`s wedding to Katie Holmes in Rome, Italy.
Guillermo del Toro, Will Smith`s first choice, turned down the offer to direct this film so he could make Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008).
Warner Bros. Pictures has owned the rights to the book since the 1970s. The studio first attempted adapting it as The Omega Man (1971) with director Boris Sagal, starring Charlton Heston. Then as `I Am Legend` with director Ridley Scott, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, which fell through when the production went over-budget. And then in 2002, Michael Bay was set to direct Will Smith, but they decided to make Bad Boys II (2003) instead.
The scenes at the Brooklyn Bridge involved over 1000 extras and various military vehicles and aircraft.
Much of this film was shot on location in New York City`s Washington Square Park during fall and winter 2006-2007, causing holiday decorations to be taken down and replaced tumultuously for over three months.
The film was green-lit without a script.
Warner Brothers initially opposed filming in New York because of costs and logistical challenges. However, Michael Tadross, a veteran New York production manager got the city to approve closing the Grand Central viaduct, several blocks of Fifth Avenue and Washington Square Park, albeit at night and on weekends, between September 2006 and April 2007.
Plants were transported via trucks from Florida to dress up the city streets as if weeds had overtaken them.
The noise from the special effects explosions used in the scenes along the East River interrupted voice recording on the Nickelodeon children`s show, "The Wonder Pets" (2006), which has its production offices one block from where shooting of ‘I Am Legend’ took place.
All of the paintings in Dr. Neville`s house were provided by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Release prints were delivered to theaters with the fake title `Blood Allies`.
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# Will Smith grew so enamored of his canine co-star, Abby, that he tried to adopt her when the shooting was finished, but the dog`s trainer could not be persuaded to give her up.
While doing a press conference in Japan for the release of the movie, Will Smith accidentally revealed the ending to a collection of entertainment reporters. Warner Brothers asked the reporters and all those present to withhold the ending and the reporters all obliged without any payoff or consideration.
Ted Levine and Tom Cruise were also considered for the role of Robert Neville.
Although the creatures are referred to as Dark Seekers, during the film, if watched with the subtitles on (DVD) they are called Hemocytes.
In the film, Will Smith (I)``s character holds up a CD, calling it "the best album ever made." The album is Bob Marley`s "Legend." It is a greatest hits compilation that was released after Marley`s death.
#
# Nicolas Cage was considered for the role of Robert Neville back in 1998 along with director Rob Bowman, who was eventually moved on to direct The X Files (1998).
Warner Bros. gained the rights to the novel by Richard Matheson in the 1970s and produced a version of it, called The Omega Man (1971), in 1971. Previous to that, Associated Producers did an adaptation in 1964 called The Last Man on Earth (1964) with Vincent Price, shot in Italy and directed by Italian Ubaldo Ragona and American Sidney Salkow. Although Matheson did not contribute to the screenplay of the 1964 film--which took a critical drubbing--he did contribute to the screenplay for this film.
The studio spent an estimated $5 million for a six-night shoot in New York City involving the Brooklyn Bridge. To film in this location, the producers needed the approval of as many as 14 government agencies. The shooting required a crew of 250, plus 1,000 extras, including 160 National Guard troops in full combat gear.
In the scene in Times Square, there is a billboard for the Justice League: Mortal movie set to open May 10th, 2010. Also in the video store, posters for the live action adaptations of Teen Titans and Green Lantern.
At the New York premiere, Will Smith apologized for the disruption shooting the movie caused to the city residents. He said, "I would like to issue a public apology to the citizens of New York. There were a couple of streets we had to close off during the filming of `I Am Legend`. I am very sorry. People were kind of upset with me."
In the last scene of the movie, Anna and Ethan are driving through the autumn countryside. This scene was filmed in East Amwell, New Jersey because in the original filming place, the leaves on the trees had already fallen off.
In one scene in the deserted street a billboard in the background can be seen. It is the Superman logo over the Batman logo, insinuating a movie tie-in or face-off has been filmed.
SPOILER: All vehicles driven by the main characters are Fords. There is the Ford/Shelby GT500 Mustang that Neville drives in the beginning, the Ford Expedition he drives throughout the film, and the Ford Escape used to depart New York at the end.
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Will Smith
(as Robert Neville)
with Salli Richardson
(as Zoe)
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