History Film / AfterTheDark

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: If Zimit had just accepted [[spoiler:his breakup with Petra]], he could have walked away with nothing but a bruised ego. Instead, he tries to fight her decision and ends up even more broken than before, knowing that the egotism he justifies his entire life by has been decisively shattered and that [[spoiler:Petra will live a happy, fulfilling life without him]].

* FatalFlaw: For Petra, it's her tendency to act on emotion rather than think things through. This is best seen in the first scenario, when her ploy to exclude Zimit from the bunker (because she was horrified by him shooting the students who'd been voted out) results the remaining survivors dying when they run out of food and oxygen. For Zimit, it's his ego and his inability to grasp that intelligence isn't the only valuable quality that a person can have.

* EvilCounterpart: Zimit is Petra's.

* StrawVulcan: Zimit proclaims himself a logician, and uses his twisted, sadistic 'logic' to browbeat his students into compliance.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Zimit undoubtedly spends a majority of the movie being a jerk (particularly when his VillainousBreakdown starts), but he is kind of justified in reducing Petra's grade when she insists on her scenario. While his motivations are selfish, her solution defies the original question posed in the exercise Zimit asked the students: "How do you survive in a post-apocalyptic situation?" Petra's solution basically amounts to "Forego any attempt at survival and focus on being happy until it's time for us to die." Instead of trying to keep herself and her compatriots alive, she essentially sentences them to an inevitable death.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Zimit undoubtedly spends a majority of the movie being a jerk (particularly when his VillainousBreakdown starts), but he is kind of justified in reducing Petra's grade when she insists on her scenario. While his motivations are selfish, her solution defies the original intent of the exercise. One of the original questions Zimit posed when introducing the exercise was "how do you survive in a post-apocalyptic situation?" Petra's solution basically amounts to "Forego any attempt at survival and focus on being happy until it's time for us to die." Instead of trying to keep herself and her compatriots alive, she essentially sentences them to an inevitable death.

* TruthinTelevision: The CriticalResearchFailure mentioned above is a conclusion many, especially students at this level, would make. Another obvious thing they ignore (same character actually who says both are irrelevant) is that the fashion designer works with bamboo to make fabric. This means said character would be familiar with the treatment and processing of plants to make fiber, a huge deal, especially when you factor in that with a structural engineer, they could easily have built a boat in the last scenario.

* VillainousBSOD: As Petra continually disproves Zimit's philosophy, showing that traits other than pure intelligence are important, he becomes and more disillusioned.

* AmbiguousSituation: The ending. After Petra and Zimit talk, Zimit goes home and considers killing himself, but it's never shown whether he does or not.

* AmbiguousSituation: The ending. After Petra and Zimit talk, he goes home and considers killing himself, but it's never shown whether he does or not.

* CriticalResearchFailure: One of the students is designated an astronaut, a profession which ''everyone'' else considers irrelevant in the event of an apocalypse. However, astronauts are expected to be highly qualified in either engineering, biological science, physical science, or mathematics, in addition to being in peak physical condition. Given that Petra, an engineer, is allowed in because of her job, this mistake is glaring.
* Foreshadowing: The thought experiments mentioned at the beginning all inform later actions. [[spoiler: The Ignorance Bliss experiment represents Petra finding out about James' irrational fears and actions, the Train dilemma is the choice of shooting or leaving out certain people, the Infinite Monkeys experiment is Chips with the girls on his island, the Cave is Zimit finding out how Petra really feels.]]
* FridgeLogic: In the first iteration, [[spoiler:why didn't they have the electrician bypass the door look?]]
* GayPercentage: Jack references this in a way when he says in a group of 20 students, there should be one other gay person. This implies that 1 in 10 men(the Kinsey estimate) are gay.

* FrideLogic: In the first iteration, [[spoiler:why didn't they have the electrician bypass the door look?]]

- In the first iteration, why didn't the [[spoiler:Electrician bypass the door lock?]]

* NoPartyLikeADonnorParty: In the first iteration.

* Foreshadowing: The thought experiments mentioned at the beginning all inform later actions. The Ignorance Bliss experiment represents Petra finding out about James' irrational fears and actions, the Train dilemma is the choice of shooting or leaving out certain people, the Infinite Monkeys experiment is Chips with the girls on his island, the Cave is Zimit finding out how Petra really feels.

* AttemptedRape: Zimit tries to force himself on Bonnie in the second scenario. {{Jack saves her, but loses the bunker.}}

Its FramingStory depicts a class of philosophy students on their final day at college. Their teacher, Eric Zimit, assigns them a thought experiment, the exploration of which forms the movie's main plot.