Image claiming Obama-produced film predicted Key Bridge collapse was altered
The image is altered and has no connection to the film Leave the World Behind
CLAIM
An image widely circulated on social media in the days after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore, Maryland, claims the incident was predicted in the 2023 Netflix movie Leave the World Behind.
BACKGROUND
On March 26, a container ship named MV Dali hit a pier beneath the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, leading to the total collapse of the structure and the deaths of several people who were working on the bridge at the time.
In the hours and days after the collapse, dozens of accounts shared an image of a man’s back as he sat on a bed looking out a window at a collapsed bridge. The posts claimed the bridge was the Francis Scott Key Bridge and that the image was a scene from Leave the World Behind, a dystopian thriller released by Netflix in 2023. The film features a commercial ship crashing onto a beach where people are sunbathing.
Many of the posts featuring the image had the following accompanying text: “For those of you that don’t know, the Francis Scott Key bridge is the same bridge event that took place in the Netflix movie Leave the World Behind. The production company is owned by the Obamas.”
One of the production companies that made the film is Higher Ground Productions, which was indeed founded by Barack and Michelle Obama in 2018. The Obamas are credited as executive producers of the film.
In the early hours of March 27 (local), hours after the incident took place, Derrick Evans, a politician and former member of the West Virginia House of Delegates who has more than 37,000 followers on the platform, shared the image to X. He wrote, “Can someone confirm? Is this true?”
This version of the post on Facebook, which had over 500 shares, urged users to “Open Your Eyes People”.
Another post on X by Republican commentator Dr Jan Halper-Hayes, which was viewed close to 120,000 times, featured the same image with the caption: “Coincidence?”
An earlier post to X directly after the bridge collapse by prominent right-wing influencer Matt Wallace, who has more than 1.7 million followers on the platform, used a different composite image that showed Barack Obama in front of two ships — on the left, a still of a ship that crashed into a beach in the film Leave the World Behind, and on the right, the vessel that hit the bridge in Baltimore.
The post, which had 22 million views, alluded to similarities between the plot of the movie and the real-life collision that caused the Francis Scott Key Bridge to collapse.
METHOD
A reverse image search of the scene outside the window brings us to multiple news outlets using the below image, which had been posted to the Facebook page of the Harford County Volunteer Fire and EMS Association. It was distributed via photo agencies and widely used in the press in the aftermath of the collapse.
A further search of the foreground of the image, in which a man is seen facing out a window, showed the original version of this was an AI-generated image of a man sitting in a hospital bed looking out at a city skyline.
From this analysis, we can conclude that the image was edited and was not a still from the film Leave the World Behind. The scene outside the window showed a real picture of the Key Bridge collapse, but it was altered with an AI-generated stock image.
RATING
The image is altered and has no connection to the film Leave the World Behind.
SOURCES
X (formerly Twitter). (2024). Available at: Can someone confirm? Is this true?[Accessed 10 Apr. 2024].
Facebook.com. (2023). Available at: Makaylan Anders – For those of you that don’t know…. The Francis… [online] [Accessed 10 Apr. 2024].
X (formerly Twitter). (2024). Available at: Coincidence? [Accessed 10 Apr. 2024].
X (formerly Twitter). (2024). Available at: In 2023, the Obamas produced a movie called Leave the World Behind, where a cyberattack causes a massive container ship to lose power & crash [Accessed 10 Apr. 2024].
Facebook.com. (2023). Available at: The Volunteer… – Harford County Md Fire & EMS PIO Media Page. [online] [Accessed 10 Apr. 2024].
Adobe Stock. Available at: in (2024). person, sitting up in hospital bed, looking out the window at urban skyline, created with generative ai Stock-Illustration. [online] [Accessed 10 Apr. 2024].