'LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND' IS A TERRIFIC BLEND OF THRILLER, DISASTER AND SATIRE

Imagine that it's close to midnight and there's a knock at the door of your luxurious weekend rental home. A man is standing there, calmly apologizing.

He says it's his home and that he and his daughter need your help. He's also dressed immaculately in a tux.

What would you do?

Did the tux make a difference? Would the man's race?

That early scene is when Netflix's "Leave the World Behind" really kicks into gear and never slackens as this terrific, apocalyptic, psychological thriller races to its conclusion, exploring race, affluence and responsibility along the way.

The luxurious home becomes a castle of sorts as the outside world crumbles. The man who says he's the owner tries to explain why he's turned up. "Under the circumstances, we thought you'd understand," he says. But understanding is in short supply here.

Adapted from Rumaan Alam's acclaimed novel, the movie is set against an end-of-days disaster in which technology - Wi-Fi, TV, phones, internet - has gone silent due to a cyberattack and there's been a massive blackout.

Well-to-do Amanda (a tart Julia Roberts) and her Atlantic magazine-quoting husband Clay (a hangdog Ethan Hawke) must work with the even-more-well-off G.H. (a calmly sophisticated Mahershala Ali) and his savvy daughter Ruth, (a superb Myha'la). The racial divide easily swamps their joint class affiliation.