Ben Shapiro Compares Trump's COVID to 'I Am Legend,' People Point Out Original Book Ending

Ben Shapiro has compared President Donald Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis to the Will Smith movie I Am Legend, suggesting it could be the key to him winning the presidency.

But social media users have been left wondering if Shapiro missed one key moment in the zombie-apocalypse movie—while others pointed out the much darker ending of the original novel.

On Twitter, Shapiro said: "You think 2020 has seen its biggest twist? Wait until Trump develops the anti-covid serum using his own antibodies like Will Smith in 'I Am Legend,' and then wins 50 states."

In I Am Legend, Smith plays Robert Neville, one of the few survivors of a deadly virus that has killed the majority of the world's population and turned most of the remaining humans into zombie-like mutants.

Neville experiments on infected rats, trying to find a cure for the virus. He eventually creates a successful serum from his own blood, and manages to cure a mutant. The cure for the virus is given to a pair of survivors who take it to a survivors' camp—Neville has saved humanity.

However, one crucial scene from the movie that Shapiro seems to have missed sees Neville sacrifice himself by using a grenade to blow up a group of mutants—and himself. His sacrifice allowed the other two survivors to escape with the cure.

Twitter users were quick to point out this flaw in Shapiro's theory.

One Twitter user said: "Obviously Ben didn't watch that movie to the end," while another simply said: "Will Smith kills himself at the end of the movie."

Adam Best was a little more critical and said: "Will Smith's character sacrificed himself to save humanity. Trump is sacrificing humanity to save himself."

Additionally, social media users pointed out the ending of Richard Matheson's original I Am Legend novel, and how the character faces a much bleaker ending.

In the book, which differs greatly from the movie, Neville's character does not try to find a cure but instead seeks ways to destroy the vampires, (rather than zombies).

Neville spends his days kidnapping sleeping vampires to study them and kill them. He discovers that there are two kinds: The living vampires, who are infected humans, and the undead, who are corpses that have risen from the grave.

He is shocked to meet a woman called Ruth, who he suspects is a vampire, and during his time with her, Ruth makes him feel guilty about all his killing. Neville eventually tests her blood and finds out that she is highly infected, but she knocks him unconscious.

He wakes to find a note from Ruth explaining that she is from a "new society" of vampires that have developed medicine to ease their symptoms. She also reveals that Neville killed her husband in his sleep and that she had been sent to spy on him.

Late at night, he sees the vampires from the new society killing the infected undead before breaking into his house. Neville tries to defend himself but is overpowered and taken to the new society.

Ruth explains that the new society has to execute Neville, but gives him a suicide pill instead. As he dies, Neville realizes that although he perceived the vampires to be the monster, to them, he was the monster who had killed their loved ones. To the vampires, he was the "legend."

Social media users pointed this out to Shaprio, with one Twitter user saying: "Also, the ending of I Am Legend is the realization that the main character is the villain, and commits suicide."

Another said: "Fun fact! In the original story of I Am Legend, the Will Smith character realizes that he's the bad guy and is a legend about the way people used to be but the populace has evolved and he's the problem."

Shapiro's tweet is far from the first time that the year 2020 has been compared to a post-apocalyptic movie. But with three months to go, there's no way of knowing to what extent life will imitate art.