History Film / Daybreakers

* SuicideBySunlight: Played straight in the opening sequence.

* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Discussed; Bromley explains that he's actually grateful for the change since he was dying of cancer as a human. However, some characters, including Edward, are rather weary of never being able to grow old.

* IdiotBall: Put mildly, it says a lot about the vampire society's corruption and inefficiency that it's relying solely on the efforts of ''one'' joint corporate-government project to solve all of its problems. Even if Charles Bromley weren't so predictably corrupt and self-serving, numerous private corporations competing with each other in the free market would do a far better job of finding various economic and scientific solutions to the vampires' supply problem than any monopolistic military-industrial complex possibly could.
** Also, for the group of humans that get ambushed; It only makes sense to travel under cover of darkness when you are NOT fighting vampires.

* HumansAreBastards: In some of the images/videos which briefly explain [[HowWeGotHere how the world came to be vampire-dominated]] at the start of the film, one sees indications that the vampires initially attempted diplomacy with humanity, but their envoys were rejected.

* EyesOfGold: This is played completely straight as one symptom of vampirism.

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Surprisingly averted. For all the "viral outbreak" talk and Edward's very empirical scientific approach to vampirism as a disease, the vampires in this story display all the classic supernatural attributes from more traditional stories: they must feed on blood regularly, do not have reflections in a mirror, will burn at the slightest touch of sunlight, and will explode in a spectacular ball of flame when staked. {{Moviebob}} himself dubbed this film "the anti-''Literature/{{Twilight}}''" of movies.

* YouAreWhoYouEat: If a vampire is deprived of blood, he turns into a subsider.
** If a vampire drinks vampire blood, whether others' or her own, she'll mutate much faster.

** EarnYourHappyEnding: Everything needed to solve the problems is present by the end; we just aren't shown the more tedious business of actually doing this. It may also qualify as an AndTheAdventureContinues ending.

** The scene where the artificial blood is tested ''does'' indicate they have vital signs and a need to breathe, suggesting they're not wholly undead despite their classic vulnerabilities.

* TranshumanTreachery: Most of the Vampires seem to consider Humans to be a seperate species and lesser form of life. This is despite the fact that TheVirus only appeared in the last ''ten'' years and some of them have only turned in the last ''five''.

* CrucifiedHeroShot: The last shot of [[spoiler: Frankie is of him lying on the floor, his legs straight and arms outstretched after sacrificing himself holding back his former comrades so that Allison and Edward could get away.]]

[[caption-width-right:223:At least ''TheMatrix'' [[LotusEaterMachine let you dream]] in [[PeopleJars your little tube]]...]]

!!Tropes this film follows:

* SuicideBySunlight: Played brutally straight in the opening sequence.

As captured humans are tapped out and the supply of free-ranging fugitives is dwindling, the blood supply is running dry. Ethan Hawke plays a man made a vampire against his will who's researching a means for synthesizing blood out of sympathy for the humans' plight, and finds himself falling in with a band of fugitives who claim to have found a cure for vampirism. Sam Neill plays his boss, a [[AffablyEvil deliciously evil]] vampire ([[EventHorizon does this remind you of anything?]]) [[spoiler: who insists on developing a blood substitute instead of a cure so he can retain and expand his market share]].

* [[CatScare Bat Scare]]: Very subtly riffed and subverted. The movie pulls the "loud noise and rushing object from offscreen scare" precisely three times, always with an infection-free bat. In contrast, the first time we get a good look at one of the subsiders, it emerges slowly, silently, and somewhat solemnly from the shadows.

** Then [[spoiler: the surviving ex-vampires are shown clutching their stomachs and looking seriously nauseated at realizing what they've just done a few moments before a much less hungry vampire bursts in and mows them all down with a submachine gun]].

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Surprisingly averted. For all the "viral outbreak" talk and Edward's very empirical scientific approach to vampirism as a diseas, the vampires in this story display all the classic supernatural attributes from more traditional stories: they must feed on blood regularly, do not have reflections in a mirror, will burn at the slightest touch of sunlight, and will explode in a spectacular ball of flame when staked. {{Moviebob}} himself dubbed this film "the anti-''Literature/{{Twilight}}''" of movies.

* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Discussed; Bromley explains that he's actully grateful for the change since he was dying of cancer as a human. However, some characters, including Edward, are rather weary of never being able to grow old.

** The forced march of the Subsiders was... [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_marches_(Holocaust) quite disturbing]].

* HumansAreBastards: In some of the images/videos that start the film briefly explain [[HowWeGotHere how the world came to be vampire-dominated]], one sees indications that the vampires initially attempted diplomacy with humanity, but their envoys were rejected.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The Subsiders.

In the year 2019, the Vampire plague has overtaken the world. Vampires rule and make up 95% of the population, the humans hide in the wilds where they're hunted like animals.

The first quarter of the movie sets up an all vampire world with minimal dialogue. To survive the sun, they drive special shaded cars and walk on underground streets during the day. Blood [[IndustrializedEvil is harvested from humans]] in Matrix-like collection farms, sold to the people at coffee bars. The art direction and atmospherics sell the reality of the world.

As the last humans die out, the blood supply runs dry. Ethan Hawke plays a reluctant, liberal vampire who must team up with a band of human rebels to find a cure for the vampire plague. Sam Neill plays a [[AffablyEvil deliciously evil]] vampire ([[EventHorizon does this remind you of anything?]]) [[spoiler: who wants to find a substitute instead, so he can keep making money]].

* AutomaticCrossbows: Pump-action crossbows (with flick-out bow section) are used by the humans against the vampire military.

* BatOutOfHell: Blood starved vampires degenerate into "subsiders," werebat-like, mindless creatures that scare the regular vampires.
* [[CatScare Bat Scare]]: Parodied very subtly. The movie pulls the "loud noise and rushing object from offscreen scare" precisely three times, always with an infection free bat. For contrast, the first time we fully see a subsider it comes out slowly, silently and somewhat solemnly from the shadows.
* BeingEvilSucks: Or at least it does once your food starts to run out.
* BerserkButton: Apparently, [[spoiler:Bromley was not only upset that he had to kill his daughter because she refused to live as a vampire, but Edward calls him a coward for sending Frankie to bite her instead of doing it himself]].
* BittersweetEnding: Yes they [[spoiler:found a cure]] but with all the Subsiders out there there's no way casualties aren't going to be enormous.
* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler: Frankie and Elvis in the lobby with the car.]]
* BloodyHilarious: The truly [[LudicrousGibs epic failure]] of [[spoiler:the first test subject for the blood substitute]] is so brutally abrupt , the only proper reaction is a sort of horrified breath of laughter.
* CoolCar: Vampire cars are very sleek, with a wide variety of gadgets to make them suitable for daytime driving (cameras, blacked-out windows, etc.)
** Cormac owns a couple very awesome muscle cars.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Sam Neil's character, Charles Bromley.
* CrucifiedHeroShot: The last shot you see of [[spoiler: Frankie is him laying on the floor, legs straight, arms outstretched, after sacrificing himself so that Allison and Edward could get away.]]
* DefiantToTheEnd: Even after [[spoiler: transforming into a subsider, Alison is still able to recognize and lash out at Frankie, even staring him down as she's pulled into the sunlight.]]
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Society running out of a resource that it needs to keep functioning... this resource being controlled by a greedy, powerful corporation... a search for an alternative, easily renewable resource (without changing the wasteful lifestyle that made this resource necessary in the first place)... the last hope for humanity (and unhumanity) being a liberal scientist who has stopped using this resource... are you sure the writers weren't trying to sneak in a GreenAesop about peak oil?
** The forced march of the Subsiders was... [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_marches_(Holocaust) unsettling]].
** While it works for gasoline, it also works for any number of scarcity issues, corporate ethics issues, and so on.
** Getting Frankie to turn Alison into a vampire smacked strongly of [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil correctional rape]].
* EyesOfGold: A symptom of the vampire virus.

* FauxActionGirl: Audrey. Honestly, she gets captured no less than three times, and requires rescuing by the men-folk every time.
* FoodChainOfEvil: Subsiders -> Vampires -> Humans. Though subsiders are just as happy to chow down on human. Interestingly, feeding off other vampires (even oneself) accelerates mutation into an subsider.
* AGlassOfChianti: Played absolutely straight when [[spoiler:Bromley kidnaps Audrey and drains her blood into a wine glass.]]
* {{Gorn}}: The army-feeding scene.
* GrossUpCloseUp: So many....

* HighConcept: What if vampires really did take over our society and began to run out of human blood to drink due to their numbers?
* HorrorHunger: The need for blood isn't so bad... until you realize that eventually you'll turn into a vampire mutate if you don't feed enough.
* HumansAreBastards: In some of the images / videos that start the film to briefly explain [[HowWeGotHere how things came to be in the world]], it makes mention that the Vampire race attempted to work together with existing humanity, but said envoys were rejected.
* HumanResources: The vampires use "farms" of humans as their food supply.
* HumanityEnsues: [[spoiler: What Edward Dalton ultimately does to Charles Bromley. Then he sends him down the elevator, to where an army of starving vampires are waiting. HilarityEnsues, albeit very bloody hilarity.]]

** First, between Frankie and Edward. Edward admits to Audrey that his brother turned him, and he bears a bit of dislike without completely hating his brother. Frankie tells him that even though he turned him, he bitterly regrets it know.
** Second, Bromley and his daughter Alison. [[spoiler: After most of the humans are captured and she stabs him in his own office when he extends a hand to her, he puts her in isolation and has Frankie turn her. To spite him, she starts feeding from herself to hasten her descent into being a Subsider, and Bromley is forced to let the Army execute her. Oh, and when he finds out she's done so, she attempts to force Bromley to drink her blood.]]
* IdiotBall - The Vampires almost seem like they are trying to exhaust their blood supply on purpose. Do you mean to tell me that they couldn't pace the blood harvesting to not kill the blood cows, or you know, just BUY blood from the humans and let good old fashioned Capitalism take its course?
** It may have been that the human population was largely eliminated during the first months of the outbreak. Every vampire turned was a human lost, and the remaining humans would have been an open buffet before a vampire bureaucracy could be instated.
** Not to mention that they might have even more short-sightedly reduced the human population intentionally, realizing that humans have a much more... proactive attitude towards their predators than other prey species do (just ask the saber-tooths about that... oh wait, you can't, 'cause we ''killed'' all those mofos, [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch BEYOTCH!!!]]).
** It's also strongly implied that animal blood just doesn't cut it. [[spoiler: Edward is shown to be mutating slightly in spite of regularly drinking pig blood. It's very possible that, in spite of his firm protests to the contrary, he drank small amounts of human blood in a cocktail. In any event, he's starting to mutate slightly by the time the humans pick him up (when he's given a small amount of human blood to cut off the mutations), implying that at least some human blood is necessary.]]
* TheImmune: [[spoiler:Anyone cured of vampirism is immune to the change ''and'' cures the feeder. Surviving being fed on is another matter.]]
* KarmicDeath: The vampire bureaucracy had been treating humans like cattle, in the end [[spoiler: Charles Bromley, the leader of that bureaucracy, winds up being slaughtered like one]].
** Also, the Vampires who [[spoiler:eat Frankie immediately become human. Unfortunately for them, they do so within sight of a small army of starving vampires who rip them apart in the exact same way they ripped frankie apart.]]
*** There's a bit of FridgeLogic involved here: [[spoiler:There are several dozen soldiers in the room at the time. By the time the killing is done only three or four are left. However, exponentially speaking if five fed on one and then five more on one of those and so on, eventually there should have been enough humans turned to overpower and kill the remaining vampires, even with their half-mutated strength.]]
**** Only if [[spoiler: the vampires are attacking the humans in waves. It's likely that the cure worked on some faster than others, and they were attacked by the same vampires they were attacking with seconds before.]]
* KarmicTransformation: [[spoiler:after years of farming humans for profit, Bromley gets tricked into taking the cure (Edward's blood) and turning human]]
* KillAllHumans: Vampire!Uncle Sam wants you to capture humans!
* KissOfTheVampire: Averted pretty damn hard.
* KryptoniteProofSuit: What their daytime society uses to move around, including sun-proof cars and armored suits.
* [[spoiler: KillTheCutie:]] [[spoiler: Alison Bromley. See the IHateYouVampireDad entry above. This ultimately causes Frankie to switch sides out of guilt.]]

* LudicrousGibs: [[spoiler:Blood substitute]]. The truly efficient way to repaint a room, as long as you like the color red...
** Not to mention the fact that vampires will ''explode'' [[IncendiaryExponent into flaming chunks]] when staked.
* LooksLikeOrlok: The Subsiders were definitely designed with this in mind.
* MadeOfExplodium: Staked vampires. For some reason, decapitation doesn't provoke the same reaction.
* MugglesDoItBetter: Sort of. Vampires hunt humans for their blood, and thus are forced use tranquilizer darts to capture them alive. HUMANS, on the other hand, use stake-loaded crossbows with impressive accuracy, which make vampires violently explode after a single direct hit to the torso.
* MurderIsTheBestSolution
* NiceHat: Most of the fashion is '30s retro. When sun can burn or kill you, a fedora makes a lot of sense.
** Also possibly a prediction of how fashion trends tend to move in cycles, and it was predicted such fashions might come back by 2019.

** And sunshine is lethal to vampires, and children can't grow up. Whether vampires can reproduce is never addressed. Either way, immortality comes with complications. Besides, no one ever suggested making a cure mandatory, just available.
*** Also Bromley makes it clear that he has no intention of letting the captive humans go. Instead, he plans to only sell genuine human blood to high-paying clients who prefer the real thing to the substitute, similar to how many people prefer the taste of real meat to a substitute.
* NotGrowingUpSucks: What happens to every child turned into a vampire, even leading to the very disturbing opening with a [[spoiler:"preteen" committing suicide by dawn.]]
** Which seemed to be thrown in purely to get as early a start on the attempts at deliberate NightmareFuel as possible, having no other relation to the story and not addressed at any other point.
** It ''does'' establish that, psychologically, the film's vampires are still very much human, well aware of their moral failings and limitations, rather than AlwaysChaoticEvil monsters that revel in their predatory nature.
* OffscreenTeleportation: Notably (and humorously) used when a human pops up behind Edward, spooking him. Occurs from time to time during the rest of the movie, too.
** Frankie sneaks up behind Audrey while she's in the middle an open field. Of course, he's a trained soldier, and the fact that it was broad daylight means her guard was down.
* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Surprisingly averted. Despite talk about a "viral outbreak", vampirism is ''explicitly'' supernatural in this film and they display all the classic attributes. They must feed on blood regularly, do not have reflections, will burn at the slightest touch of sunlight and will gorily explode when staked. {{Moviebob}} himself dubbed this film "the anti-''Literature/{{Twilight}}''".
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Frankie spends the majority of the film as a lapdog of the government, intent on hunting down humans and his own brother. Towards the end of the film he repents, becomes human, and dies in his very next scene. Also, the cure for vampirism plays with this trope, as in order to become human again both Elvis and Edward go through something that logically should kill them.]]
** [[spoiler:Also, let's not forget that Frankie and Bromley both converted safely given that there were no other vampires in the room when they bit post-cure Elvis and Edward (respectively). Its only when they're in a room full of vampires that they're in any danger.]]
* ScarsAreForever: Almost all vampires have a scar on their neck from when they themselves were turned. It's also how Elvis proves that he was cured of vampirism.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney!
* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem!
* SuicideBySunlight
* [[TestedOnHumans Tested On Vampires]]: A military volunteer is used to test the blood substitute. [[spoiler:The results aren't pretty.]] Edward tests the cure [[ProfessorGuineaPig on himself]].
* TerminallyDependentSociety: Vampire civilization and blood. Apparently, they didn't realize just how dangerously dependent they were.
* VampireBitesSuck: Bites look painful.
* VegetarianVampire: Played with in regards to Edward. [[spoiler: He typically drinks animal blood but was on the beginning stages of deprivation and was starting to become a Subsider. It is unclear whether this was because the type of blood he was drinking was less effective or simply because of the shortage, as both human and animal blood is scarce. When the human resistance members notice his condition, they immediately have him drink (willingly given) human blood before working with him, but its clear that he hates doing so]].
* VillainBall: [[spoiler: By the end of the film, nearly every vampire is starving to death. So obviously, when Bennett is taken to Charles Bromley's office you'd think he'd want to ration her limited supply of blood. Wrong. He's going to let her bleed out all over his upholstery. In case you didn't notice that he's been evil the entire time, this is definitely the KickTheDog moment that cues you in.]]
** [[spoiler: As he'd brought her there mainly to interrogate her, he may have done this to prevent her from using a "You don't dare ''really'' hurt me, my blood's too valuable!" approach to stonewall him. He also had a working blood substitute at that point, so he could afford to be wasteful.]]
* VillainWorld: The setting is basically this from the point of view of the humans. Vampires have taken over the world and are hunting you down to put you in a farm and slowly suck you dry.
* TheVirus: Vampirism, naturally. [[spoiler:Turns out the cure is too.]]
* VomitIndiscretionShot: The first vampire they test the blood substitute on has a particularly [[{{Squick}} nasty]] one, [[spoiler: right before he dies]].
* {{Who Wants To Live Forever}}: Touched upon in the film. Bromley is actully grateful for the change since he was dying of cancer as a human. But some characters, Edward included, are rather weary of never being able to grow old.
* YouAreWhoYouEat: If a vampire doesn't drink blood, he turns into a subsider.
** If a vampire drinks vampire blood, whether others' or their own, they mutate much faster.
** And in a much more [[LiteralMinded literal]] sense, [[spoiler: cured human blood turns vampires human again.]]

* ZombieApocalypse: Certainly doesn't look like one at first, but as the blood supply dwindles and the effects of deprivation grow ever more widespread and pronounced, the population gradually devolves into this territory. [[spoiler: Fortunately, the cure is as contagious as the original vampirism was.]]
** [[spoiler: Even more so actually: Vampirism is spread one feed at a time (assuming the victim lives), from feeder to victim. Humanity is spread in bursts to everyone who feeds from the re-turned-human, which considering the feeding frenzies we see, seems to indicate that it will have a much faster chain reaction.]]
----

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: You never find out what happened to [[spoiler: the rest of Alison's convoy, but they were almost certainly stuck into the harvesting room given what Bromley said.]]

[[caption-width-right:223:At least ''TheMatrix'' let you dream in your little tube...]]

The first quarter of the movie sets up an all vampire world with minimal dialogue. To survive the sun, they drive special shaded cars and walk on underground streets during the day. Blood is harvested from humans in Matrix-like collection farms, sold to the people at coffee bars. The art direction and atmospherics sell the reality of the world.