

So in sum, we have three potential endings to the original film that will drive the sequel: Neville's demise and legacy as the legend who cured the mutants' virus Neville's demise and legacy as the monster who tried to eradicate the mutants just because they were different from him and Neville's survival and lifelong guilt for having attempted to eradicate the mutants just because they were different from him. He is left to live alone with his cruelty and regrets. This alternate ending saw Neville coming to these same realizations but not being killed. Will Smith's movie, meanwhile, released an alternative ending to appease fans of the novel who were angered by the movie painting Neville as a sacrificial hero. After this realization, Neville accepts that he will be killed by the mutants and dies without any further desire to destroy them, only himself. In the book, because the mutants are now the dominant species, and Neville has emphatically turned himself into their mortal enemy, he will become the symbolic legend of violence and annihilation to their people.

Related: It Seems the Vampire Craze Is Back in Full Swing It has turned him into an outsider, as opposed to how his ultimate cure for their disease will turn him into an icon, as posited by the movie. This includes barbaric experiments and the goal of exterminating them however possible. In the source material, Richard Matheson's novel of the same title, the term "legend" itself speaks more to how Neville's inhumane treatment of the mutants. Still, he is too disgusted by them because their existence threatens the resurgence of anything like what he once called humanity to care about. In both the book and movie, throughout his study of the mutants, Neville discovers that despite trying to slaughter all non-infected humans, they have their own organized society, rules, and relationships.

He plows himself into the glass, detonating a grenade after the mother and daughter escape with the cure, and this is seemingly the end of his story. Neville's young, late daughter always had a habit of pointing out butterflies, so Neville takes this as a sign that this is the end.
