History Film / AfterTheDark

* RomanticismVsEnlightenment: The third scenario pits the students' idea that it is better to live short lives filled with aesthetic beauty against the teacher's suggestion that it is best to live long lives trying to use practical skills to survive efficiently.

* ConspicuousCG: Intentionally so. Since it's all a mental exercise, the explosions look fake, because that's how the students are imagining them.

* CosyCatastrophe: The third scenario. Justified, since [[spoiler: no bombs fell at all in the end]]. Also, even without that part, they've intentionally organised their stay in the bunker as the most enjoyable experience possible, rather than stressing over long-term survival or maintaining the human race.

** Students who specialise in music, literature, and other liberal arts are deemed less fit for survival compared to the students who specialize in STEM. [[spoiler: Until the third iteration, where Petra specifically chooses those who weren't selected for the other runs and points out their short lives were filled with fun and creativity.]]

* WithThisHerring: The randomised traits given to the various characters work like this -- they can only select 10 out of 21 and they aren't made equal at all. With each scenario, more and more "useless" people get inside the bunker due to circumstances, secondary traits or just thanks to their gender, regardless of their basic "value".

** Students who specialize in music, literature, and other liberal arts are deemed less unfit for survival compared to the students who specialize in STEM. [[spoiler: Until the third iteration, where Petra specifically chooses those who weren't selected for the other runs and points out their short lives were filled with fun and creativity.]]

* CosyCatastrophe: The third scenario. Justified, since [[spoiler: no bombs fell at all in the end]]. Also, even without that part, they've intentionally organized their stay in the bunker as the most enjoyable experience possible, rather than stressing over long-term survival or maintaining the human race.

It posits that an atomic apocalypse is approaching, and there's a safety bunker that can support exactly ten people for a year- long enough to escape the disaster. Handing out cards with a different job written on each one, Zimit challenges his students to decides who lives and who dies. When the protagonist, [[GuileHero Petra]], tries to leave, Zimit forces her to stay by threatening to drop her boyfriend's grade (as Petra does not care about her own).

** Each three scenarios have different degrees of those, since they are just abstracted mental exercise. And then there is [[spoiler: Chips own story]], which goes into comedic spectrum of such breaks.
* AdamAndEvePlot: The second scenario explicitly expects from the survivors to get at least one pregnancy early on and deliver the baby before they leave the bunker. This turns out to be far more problematic than it sounds.

* AmbiguousEnding: In regards to Zimit at least: Petra comforts him about [[spoiler: their breakup]] and thanks him for being a good teacher and it seems like there's still hope for him, but then he goes up to his home and contemplates shooting himself. We never see if he does it or not.

* BadassBureaucrat: Omosedé's US Senator as her secondary trait is this - she would have become first female chief justice of the Supreme Court and the greatest jurist of her generation, world-wide, if the apocalypse didn't happen. This further adds to her value of leadership and negotiation skills.
* BatmanGrabsAGun: In the final iteration, [[spoiler: Zimit tries to hold the students at gunpoint for a spot in the bunker, only for James to point a machine gun right back. When Zimit says he's bluffing and that he won't shoot since because he's a pacifist, James [[OhCrap cocks it and says that he'll make an exception.]]]]
* BecauseISaidSo: The way how the experiment goes is rather... peculiar. Originally, Zimit is in full control, because nobody fully realises their creative input into the scenarios and he [[{{Railroading}} railroads]] them as he pleases. Eventually more and more students start playing along, actively rewriting the reality of the scenario. This culminates with things like Bonnie "remembering" events from previous scenario or the group summining the rocket.

* BirdsOfAFeather: Petra and Zimit are both gifted intellectuals with a talent for manipulating people- and because of this, [[spoiler:they are attracted to each other]]. This is why Zimit is unable to understand her motivations for [[spoiler:breaking up with him]].

* BookEnds: The first "useless" candidate for the bunkers, the poet, is shot in the head by Zimit in the first thought experiement. By the end, when he [[spoiler:threatens to shoot James and Petra]], all of the bunker survivors line up in their defense, and at the very end, right in front of Zimit, is the poet again.
* BrickJoke: "[[ItMakesSenseInContext Is philosohpy to life what masturbation is to sex?]]"

* ButtMonkey: Andy's character is basically in-universe chew toy for anything bad happening. And his secondary trait (a rare genetic disorder) only further cements it.
* CabinFever: Both in first and second scenario survivors suffer from this. In case of second iteration, it's made worse by the stressful conditions and non-stop hail of bombs. Third scenario is intentionally designed to avoid this problem, but in turn has its own issues.

* CosyCatastrophe: The third scenario. Justified, since [[spoiler: no bombs fell at all in the end]]. Also, even without that part, they've intentionally organised their stay in the bunker as the most enjoyable experience possible, rather than stressing over long-term survival or maintaining the human race.
* CrazySurvivalist: In the third scenario, Zimit surives outside of the bunker and turns into one of those over the year.

** Vivian's Zoologist is made into this by circumstances - with no animal life surviving around, her skills are utterly useless. She's left out of the bunker group in all three scenarios.

* FlatCharacter: Large section of the students are left with barely any screen time and even less spoken lines. They end up underdeveloped both as students ''and'' their in-scenario characters. This heavily undermines the emotional impact of the third scenario, as most of those people never were picked prior, so there is no attatchment to them.

* {{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]]. Also, the existence of the code as a real thing is shown early on.
* {{GMPC}}: Zinit's character during each scenario has various traits and powers that greatly exceed everyone's else, all while in the same time he's narrating the whole thing and decides about outcomes.
* GameBreakingInjury: Handful of secondary traits given to characters in second scenario reduce their chances of being voted in or outright makes them a threat.
** Georgina's Doctor was exposed to ebola virus a week earlier and might or might not get infected. Nobody is willing to take the chance.

** Chips' Carpenter is sterile - not that big of a problem, unless you remember their job is to produce a baby. [[spoiler: In the third scenario, he decides to see for himself if that's complete sterility, or he's just sub-sterile. With six smoking hot girls on a tropical island]].
** Poppie's Psychotherapist is a more severe case - she definitely can't have children, as she had a hysterectomy.
** Utami's Opera Singer might be a CunningLinguist, but will also develop a non-lethal throat cancer, which will turn her mute. [[spoiler: This is a fake liability, since she can still write and communicate in other manner than verbally]].
* TheGenericGuy: James has no personality beyond being nice and no defining characteristics whatsoever. In fact, his appointed character, with just two simple traits, has more going than the student himself.

* GranolaGirl: Vivian, the zoologist, is given this as her secondary trait. It makes her even more useless for the group.
* TheHedonist: What the third scenario boils down into - rather than trying to survive, it's better to [[TheLastDance go out with a bang]] and enjoying it.

* AHouseDivided: Second scenario adds a lot of additional, highly-stressful elements, which mounts up tention in no time. Eventually, a fight breaks in and leads to everyone dying.

* IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure: Zimit outright treatens Petra to lower ''James''' grade if she's going to leave the class.

* ImagineSpot: The entire premise of the movie is studends doing ColdEquation exercise and imagining going through it.

* InsaneTrollLogic: The reasoning presented on how a gay farmer is useless for the population of the bunker. Instantly called out by everyone in the room, as they point out he still has a functional organ, so all it takes is LieBackAndThinkOfEngland. And plant some veggies after that.
* InsistentTerminology: Everyone keeps calling it "bunker". Bunker is a defensive military fortification. What it really is is a fallout shelter.

* ItWorksBetterWithBullets: In third scenario, not only [[spoiler: Petra steals the gun from Zimit, she pre-emptively unloaded it, knowing he would start to fire the moment he's given the gun back]].
* JerkassHasAPoint: Zimit spends most of the movie being an bona fide prick, but he is correct when he points out that the students could have avoided the mass death suffered in the first scenario if they had not acted rashly based on their emotional response to him executing the students who were voted out. Him pointing out various flaws of their choices and decisions later on is also to the point, as far as set parameters (survive apocalypse, repopulate the world and rebuild civilisation) are concerned.

* LetMeGetThisStraight: When in second scenario Zimit starts to talk about increasing chances for pregnancy, Bonnie calls him back on this by explaining just how insane the whole plan is and why she's not going to participate in his harem.

* MacGyvering: When you are a structural engineer with a secondary degree in electrics, there is nothing really preventing you from collecting spare parts around the bunker and [[spoiler: building a harp from them]].

* MoodWhiplash: After emotionally drenching three different itterations, a lot of bitterness between characters and general sour mood for most of the movie, Chips own experiment is revealed and it involves [[spoiler: imagining himself as the last male on Earth on a tropical island with six willing females]], all sold as pure comedy.

* MsFanservice: In [[spoiler: Chips' separate experiment]], all the ladies get this treatment, being the whole point of it.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: In the first scenario, Petra is constantly tormented over the fact she talked the group into leaving Zimit behind and regularly walks to the front doors to check over his body. She's even more beat down when one day a wild dog starts to mangle the carcass.

** The inhabitants of the bunker in the third scenario are at first glance picked by purely emotional reasons. However, the group still ends up consisting of a construction and electric engineer, a chemist with superb genes and absurd life expectancy, an orthopedic surgeon ([[spoiler: who didn't contain Ebola before being locked inside]]), a literal genius with IQ of 200, a talented linguist and someone who can craft clothes from just about anything, including bamboo. Not bad at all.

** [[spoiler: The switcheroo]] with the magic box is shown again, this time with a nice cut inside the box to see what really happend.

** ZigZagged when Jack recalls how Chips [[spoiler: tricked Petra into the bunker]]. First we are given that scene, from [[UnreliableNarrator Jack's retelling]], following what Jack is saying. Only to cut to Chips explaining this is not what really happend... ''and the scene plays once more'', this time from Chips perspective.
* PlatonicCave: Discussed. Zimit compares James to the observer-of-shadows, as a way of insulting James' intelligence. [[spoiler:The ending depicts Zimit as equally blind, because his egoistical disdain for emotions means he cannot understand James and Petra's love- or [[GreenEyedMonster the reason why]] it angers him so much.]]

* TheRainman: Implied to be the case with Russell, the harpist, who's second trait is being autistic. As the scenario plays out, it just means he's really focused on playing the harp, rather than being a disfunctional liability to the group.

** The BadEnding of each simulation happens due to the composition of the group, as it's always related with lack of specific person to guarantee survival: first they don't have a code to get out, then they don't have a therapist to help with the mounting tension and ultimately they have nobody to provide food once their supply is gone.
** You are a ruthless pragmatist that guns down people and quoting MercyKill? Congrats, you won't be let inside, you psycho. [[spoiler: This was an intentional bait on Zimit side]].
** Being forced to produce a baby with a random partner while locked inside a small space and having a constant, audiable ''atomic bombardment'' outside will ruin the mood.

* RomanticismVsEnlightenment: The third scenario pits the students' idea that it is better to live short lives filled with aesthetic beauty than the teacher's suggestion that it is best to live long lives trying to use practical skills to survive efficiently.

* RunningGag: Toby, "the poet", gets repeatively gunned down in each scenario without even finishing reading his card. [[spoiler: Eventually becomes predictable in-universe and used against Zimit]].
* SceneryPorn: Indonesia is beautiful and the film keeps reminding about it in each out-doors shot.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Plum's Hedge-Fund Manager gets a spot in the second scenario based on the fact she's carrying around bullion and precious stones worth few millions and within the conditions of the scenario, they will retain their value once they leave the bunker. Oh, and she can have babies.

* SuperBreedingProgram: Discussed and ultimately subverted. In the second scenario their goal is to simply deliver a healthy baby, not dabble in eugenics or any other sillyness.

* TakingYouWithMe: The final result of the second scenario is dying Zimit getting to the doors and opening them, instantly killing rest of the survivors.
* ThouShaltNotKill: Despite fatally wounding Zimit in the second scenario during a struggle, nobody is eager to actually kill him. Which leads to him reaching the entrance and opening the doors out of spite, wiping everyone inside the bunker.
* TimePassesMontage: Used during all three scenarios to compress the year inside
** In the first scenario, it consists of various activities the characters take, while Petra keeps walking to the door and watch progressively more decomposed body of Zimit outside and the camera lingers on it at fast-forward.

** In the third scenario, it's everyone having a good time and finding applications to their skills and traits.

* {{Troll}}: Possible interpretation of Petra's decisions in the third scenario. Rather than playing along the rules, she breaks almost all of them, bends remaining out of shape and does everything she can to rub Zimit the wrong way and derail his entire exercise into a complete wreck.
* TyrantTakesTheHelm: When he's let into the bunker, Zimit slowly pushes the group into doing his will and when they protest or go against it, he's not above gunning them down and intimidate the rest.
* UndyingLoyalty: James to Petra. Even in the experiment's second iteration- where he's assigned the detail of being gay- he insists that he still loves her emotionally.

* WithThisHerring: The randomised traits given to the various characters work like this - they can only select 10 out of 21 and they aren't made equal at all. With each scenario, more and more "useless" people get inside the bunker due to circumstances, secondary traits or just thanks to their gender, regardless of their basic "value".
* WorthyOpponent: This trope drives Zimit's conflict with Petra- he wants to hurt her for [[spoiler:leaving him]], but he also wants her validation, because he considers her an intellectual equal.

->"You know what "apocalypse" actually means? To uncover what you haven't seen before - the way out of the dark."

* ADegreeInUseless: Students who specialize in music, literature, and other liberal arts are deemed less unfit for survival compared to the students who specialize in STEM. [[spoiler: Until the third iteration, where Petra specifically chooses those who weren't selected for the other runs and points out their short lives were filled with fun and creativity.]]

* AcceptableBreaksFromReality: In real life, there are ''several'' institutions that would frown upon a high school teacher committing academic extortion (as Zimit does in the opening). Why isn't this acknowledged? Because then there'd be no plot, that's why.

* BecauseISaidSo: The way how the experiment goes is rather... peculiar. Originally, Zimit is in full control, because nobody fully realises their creative input into the scenarios and he [[{{Railroading}} railroads]] them as he pleases. Eventually various students start playing along, actively rewriting the reality of the scenario. This culminates with things like Bonnie "remembering" events from previous scenario or summining the rocket.

* BlandNameProduct: The labels of the various containers inside the bunker are either blank or covered in gibberish.

* TeacherStudentRomance: When Kavi pairs off the survivors in the second scenario (with the specific goal of at least one girl conceiving), Petra ends up paired with Zimit. [[spoiler: Zimit and Petra had one in real life, but she broke it off. Zimit took it personally and used the exercise as retaliation.]]

* CrazySurvivalist: In the third scenario, Zimis surives outside of the bunker and turns into one of those over the year.

* EvilMentor: Invoked toward Zimis, as James eventually calls him out on the exercise not being in philosophical matters, but rather about being a ruthless jerk.

* GoThroughMe: As Zimis has only one bullet left, ''the entire group'' stands between him and James to protect the latter. With Toby the Poet at the front.

* IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure: Zimis outright treatens Petra to lower ''James''' grade if she's going to leave the class.

* ItWorksBetterWithBullets: In third scenario, not only [[spoiler: Petra steals the gun from Zimis, she pre-emptively unloaded it, knowing he would start to fire the moment he's given the gun back]].

** [[spoiler: Petra stealing the gun from Zimis in third scenario]], which at first looked like just a simple meeting with him.

* {{Troll}}: Possible interpretation of Petra's decisions in the third scenario. Rather than playing along the rules, she breaks almost all of them, bends remaining out of shape and does everything she can to rub Zimis the wrong way and derail his entire exercise into a complete wreck.
* TyrantTakesTheHelm: When he's let into the bunker, Zimis slowly pushes the group into doing his will and when they protest or go against it, he's not above gunning them down and intimidate the rest.

* InformedAbility: Petra is repeatedly stated to be the best logical thinker of the
student body and has the highest grade possible. Throughout the film, she does little
to demonstrate exactly why this is, instead preferring to completely disregard logic
in favour of emotional thinking and thus completely negating the purpose of the
thought-experiments being presented. [[spoiler:Of course, the fact that she and Zimit
had a relationship PreCanon might have something to do with him flattering her in such a way, as well as giving the potential explanation that she's ''deliberately'' being illogical throughout the film to get back at him.]]

* ClosetKey: Could also be a ComingOutStory when Parker comes out so Jack won't be the only gay man in the third scenario.

* {{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.]]

* JerkassHasAPoint: Zimit spends most of the movie being an bona fide prick, but he is correct when he points out that the students could have avoided the mass death suffered in the first scenario if they had not acted rashly based on their emotional response to him executing the students who were voted out.

* BatmanGrabsAGun: In the final iteration, [[spoiler: Zimit tries to hold the students at gunpoint for a spot in the bunker, only for James to point a machine gun right back. When Zimit says he's bluffing and that he won't shoot since because he's a pacifist, James cocks it and says that he'll make an exception.]]

* BookEnds: The first "useless" candidate for the bunkers, the poet, is shot in the head by Zimit in the first thought experiement. By the end, when he [[spoiler:threatens to shoot James and Petra]], all of the bunker survivors line up in their defense, and at the very end, facing Zimit, is the poet again.

* BookDumb: James is not that bright, which is why Zimit looks down on him.

* BatmanGrabsAGun: In the final iteration, [[spoiler: Zimit tries to hold the students at gunpoint for a spot in the bunker, only for James to point a machine gun right back. When Zimit says he's bluffing and that he won't shoot him because he's a pacifist, James cocks it and says he'll make an exception.]]

* BatmanGrabsAGun: In the final iteration, Zimit tries to hold the students at gunpoint for a spot in the bunker, only for James to point a machine gun right back. When Zimit points out that he won't shoot him because he's a pacifist, James cocks it and says he'll make an exception.

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

* BookEnds: The first "useless" candidate for the bunkers, the poet, is shot in the head by Zimit in the first thought experiement. By the end, when he [[spoiler:threatens to shoot James and Petra]], all of the bunker survivors line up in their defense, and at the very end, facing him, is the poet again.

* ApocalypseHow: [[ApocalypseHow/Class2 The apocalypse in the thought experiment]] is atomic in nature, with a Planetary scope [[note]] two locations far away from each other are affected, the bombs don't reach the third location [[/note]] and a Societal Collapse-level severity.

* AcceptableBreaksFromReality: In real life, there are ''several'' institutions that would frown upon a college teacher committing academic extortion (as Zimit does in the opening). Why isn't this acknowledged? Because then there'd be no plot, that's why.

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Zimit seems genuinely confused as to why Petra, intelligent as she is, would choose to act on anything other than pure logic. [[spoiler: Hence his failure to understand why she would choose to be with James rather than him.]] He also seems to have trouble grasping that she didn't mean it as a criticism of him.
** He also doesn't understand the concept of equality between people. Petra's actions in the third scenario are a concerted effort to teach him humility.

* TeacherStudentRomance: [[spoiler: Zimit and Petra had one, but she broke it off. Zimit took it personally and used the exercise as retaliation.]]

A battle of wits begins, between Zimit and the class...

* AcceptableBreaksFromReality: In real life, there are ''several'' institutions that would frown upon a college teacher committing academic exortion (as Zimit does in the opening). Why isn't this acknowledged? Because then there'd be no plot, that's why.

* ADegreeInUseless: Students who specialize in music, literature, and other liberal arts are deemed less unfit for survival compared to the students who specialize in STEM. [[spoiler: Until the third iteration, where Petra specifically chooses those who weren't selected for the other runs and points out their lives were filled with fun and creativity.]]

* FridgeLogic: In the first iteration, [[spoiler:why didn't they have the electrician bypass the door lock?]]
** [[{{Railroading}} Because Zimit said they couldn't]]. He openly says that the experiment is not realistic and therefore, the students cannot bypass it. He ''wants'' them to do it, so they will.

* 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.

* NoPartyLikeADonnerParty: In the first iteration.

* TruthInTelevision: The CriticalResearchFailure mentioned above is a conclusion many, especially students at this level, would make. Another obvious thing they ignore (the same character actually 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.

* TruthinTelevision: The CriticalResearchFailure mentioned above is a conclusion many, especially students at this level, would make. Another obvious thing they ignore (the same character actually 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.

* AmbiguousEnding: In regards to Zimit at least: Petra comforts him about their breakup and thanks him for being a good teacher and it seems like there's still hope for him, but then he goes up to his home and contemplates shooting himself. We never see if he does it or not.