Robert Neville is the main character in I am Legend and some can argue that he is the only character in the film. But this portrays the storyline well as he is the last human being standing after a infection wiping out the population by the pandemic of bacteria, which are similar to vampirism. He spends every day doing the same specific thing, repairing his house, boarding up windows, and gathering supplies for hunting and killing. This in some way can be represented in a obsessive complosive way, which is similar to my character as he suffers from the disorder and could relate to the same ethnics and morals of Neville. What Neville does is excellently portray the loneliness and keeps the sanity of it, by becoming insepreable with his dog Sam and having the company of a unusual group of mannequins. From what we see he is a doctor, and spends a lot of his time in his research laboratory, where he is trying to find a cure for this disease. This is where we can see that he is still a determined person even when things are going wrong.
We can see that overtime in the film that his loneliness causes him to lose all social abilities. Though being the last man on earth gives him the determination to bring back the human race, as he sees hope. He gets inspiration from his dog and listening to music, specifically Bob Marley, which takes him away from reality for a while as the song tells him "don't worry, be happy". We are shown flash backs of his memories as the disease had just broke out and he is with his wife and young daughter, as he is trying to get them off New York island to safety. The flash backs are shown in stages throughout, leaving the audience questioning in an enigma of where his family are. Later on in a flash back we see his family are killed in a helicopter crash and he is left with his dog as a puppy in his arms, so this tells us that his is not only battling against this virus but also getting over the loss of his family.
Later on Neville comes along a trap that the 'vampires' made during the night, where he is lifted upside down, and his dog Sam stays with him all day as he dangles, showing his companionship and the loyalty his dog has for him. Shortly after his dog gets bit by a infected dog, and Neville has to kill Sam in order to not get bitten, which shows that he would risk his last friend to eventually save the world, which was a selfless thing to do. And he goes to carry on with his day to day life and routines to find a cure for the disease, listening to Bob Marley in his car next to his empty passenger seat. He conveys emotion well through his loneliness, making the audience feel sympathetic. To follow on two other characters are introduced [Anna and Ethan], they are to look similar to his original family, as he questions seeing them alive again. Neville doesn't respond well to these people as he becomes aggressive and pushes his food to the edge.
In the last scene, the 'vampires' break into Neville's house trapping him, Anna and Ethan in his laboratory, and this is where his morals are physically shown, as he takes his own life to save them. Taking Anna's blood which contained the cure, sending them into a safe where they will survive. As the vampires are nearing to killing him, he looks at a picture of his wife and daughter and then pulls a grenade, showing the audience he doesn't have anyone left, so soon he will be with them and took his life to save the world and bring back the human race. Robert Neville is a true hero in this thriller, as he fought through the entirety of the film, battling deaths and vampires, to then taking his own life to save and regain the human race.
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