He encounters a character whom we simply call the Spanish Lady as it's not revealed in the film her name is Salvadora.
She knocks at his car window and breathlessly states the following in Spanish:
Thank God I found someone! I’m trying to get back to my home! I’m lost! I’ve been walking for a while! I need to use your phone! You’re the first person I’ve seen all day! We have to get out of here!
I just saw a plane that was spraying red gas in the vicinity. I saw some deer, more than 50. They were coming out of the woods. Please! I need to go home, sir. A military plane appeared and fled. There’s no one around! Is it a chemical attack?
This writer does not speak Spanish so the true meaning was lost on him, but now we know the irony - Salvadora was giving Clay some perspective and the answers he was looking for.
And then he drove off in a state of panic, abandoning the woman to her own devices.
This scene serves as a device to frame certain thematic elements of Leave the World Behind such as distrust of strangers, xenophobia, and some heavily layered racism.
Should Clay have been scared of such a woman? She did not present a threat to him - even when he couldn't understand him, he could have taken more time to help. But then, without the internet or his phone, he's not much of a man...
Salvadora was played by Vanessa Aspillaga known for her work in Hustlers and Only Murders in the Building
Salvadora was played by Vanessa Aspillaga known for her work in Hustlers and Only Murders in the Building
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