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I am Legend (Will Smith film), any explanation for skin literally burning in sunlight?

Science Fiction & Fantasy Asked on February 6, 2021

Given the medical/biological explanation for the "darkseekers," I can see no plausible explanation for the extremely rapid burning (with something like smoke) of the creatures in sunlight. This is much more like what happens to supernatural vampires in sunlight.

The only guess I can come up with is that their paleness means they have no protection and they also have very fast metabolisms which accelerates sun burn but that is not really a very chemically plausible explanation.

I do not recall what effect sunlight had on vampires in the novel and if they indeed burnt in sun, how this was accounted for.

One Answer

If by "novelization" you mean the original novel, in Matheson's story vampirism is caused by a bacterium that is sensitive to UV light, so direct sunlight kills the bacterium, which had animated the host body, causing rapid decomposition (and staking works because it introduces air into the body, which switches the bacterias metabolism from anaerobic to oxygen-consuming).

However in the novel they do not burn up, and the connection between the Will Smith movie and the original novel is so tenuous that I am not sure if this is actually helpful.

Answered by Eike Pierstorff on February 6, 2021

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