Line #2 Film/SubjectTwo


1	[[quoteright:233:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sub2_1002.png]]
2	''Subject Two'' is a 2006 [[SpeculativeFiction Sci-Horror]] film in the vein of ''Film/{{Frankenstein\|1931}}'' that explores the consequences and morality of bringing the dead back to life.
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4	Adam Schmidt (Christian Oliver) is a willful young medical student who is invited to take part in groundbreaking research being led by Dr. Franklin Vick (Dean Stapleton). Curious and fed up with the rigidity of medical ethics, Adam accepts and leaves his school for snowcapped mountains, where Dr. Vick has a cabin isolated from the rest of society. After having an amiable chat with a local delivery girl named Kate (Courtney Mace), Adam and the doctor have a wary first encounter, but Vick manages to win the younger man over by calling him out on his curiosity and hinting at the potential of his work. Adam agrees to become Dr. Vick’s new assistant…
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6	[[PlotTriggeringDeath And then Dr. Vick kills him so the research can]] ''[[PlotTriggeringDeath really]]'' [[PlotTriggeringDeath begin.]]
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8	Adam is subsequently revived and killed repeatedly throughout the film for the sake of the experiment. But as time passes, [[GoneHorriblyWrong complications]] arise that require drastic action.
9	----
10	!!''Subject Two'' includes examples of:
11	* AcheyScars: Adam gains a few, while he can still feel pain.
12	* AppliedPhlebotinum: Dr. Vick has developed an ambiguous serum able to resurrect the dead. Beyond the fact that it contains [[{{Nanomachines}} nanites]], the audience is given no real clue how it works.
13	* BackFromTheDead: The central premise of the film.
14	* {{Blackmail}}: Dr. Vick attempts to dissuade the Hunter from telling anyone about Adam by pointing out that he’s been hunting illegally.
15	* BloodFromTheMouth
16	* CassandraTruth: This is why Dr. Vick argues in favor of letting the Hunter go. Adam [[spoiler:[[HeKnowsTooMuch doesn’t buy it]]]].
17	* DeadPersonImpersonation: [[spoiler:The man Adam knows as Dr. Vick through the film is actually the real Dr. Vick’s assistant, Ethan]].
18	* DeathIsCheap: Over the course of the film, Adam is strangled, stabbed, bled to death from the wrists, stabbed again by himself with a ski pole, shot, stabbed ''a third time'', shot again and killed due to head trauma in a snowmobile accident. Subject One also comes back, despite being shot ''through the head''.
19	* DeathSeeker: Adam, toward the end.
20	* DidNotGetTheGirl: Just like Dr. Vick says, Adam never sees Kate (in the movie) again.
21	* DrivenToSuicide: Adam edges toward this as he spirals into depression after Vick’s surgeries.
22	* FateWorseThanDeath: Arguably Adam’s burden by the end.
23	* FeelNoPain: Adam after his nerves are severed following his SensoryOverload, causing a growing sense of depersonalization during the latter half of the movie.
24	* ForScience!: It’s implied that Adam feels this way when his professor gives him a lecture on the value of medical ethics. This also seems to be Dr. Vick’s philosophy. [[spoiler:And Ethan’s.]]
25	* FriendlessBackground: There is no mention or indication that Adam has any friends before meeting Vick, which plays a large role in why Vick chooses him in the first place. Might be a result of IntelligenceEqualsIsolation.
26	* GoodThingYouCanHeal
27	* HarmfulHealing: A major plot point, as Vick’s serum causes this in Adam over the course of the film.
28	* HealingFactor: Adam develops this during the film thanks to the serum. Counts as CursedWithAwesome, thanks to the above trope and [[FeelNoPain his inability to feel anything by the end]].
29	* HuntingAccident: A genuine one that ends with a bullet through Adam’s chest.
30	* IDidntMeanToKillHim: The Hunter who shoots Adam in the chest.
31	* {{Immortality}}: The ultimate result of the serum.
32	* ImmortalityHurts
33	* InsistentTerminology: Dr. Vick refers to Adam exclusively as “[[TitleDrop Subject Two]]” in his recordings.
34	* InMediasRes: The movie opens to two men fighting violently on a snowy mountain, ending when one shoots the other through the head.
35	* KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade: Adam kills [[spoiler: the Hunter]] to keep his condition (and the research that caused it) secret.
36	* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler:Ethan]]’s fate at the end. May double as HoistByHisOwnPetard, considering the way he dies. Though since he [[InferredSurvival drank the serum…]]
37	* LossOfIdentity: Adam claims that he “doesn’t exist” without his ability to feel.
38	* MadScientist
39	* ManipulativeBastard: Dr. Vick lures Adam to a remote cabin in the mountains to kill him for his experiment. He also lies about [[spoiler: [[SyntheticPlague Adam being contagious]]]] and ''[[spoiler: his true identity]]''.
40	* MinimalistCast: ''Six''. There’s the Professor, Adam, a girl named Kate whom he meets at the foot of the mountain, Dr. Vick, the Hunter and Subject One/[[spoiler:the real Dr. Vick]].
41	* MutilationConga: PlayedForDrama.
42	* {{Nanomachines}}: These make up part of Dr. Vick’s serum.
43	* NominalImportance: Despite thinking him bright and strong-willed, this is essentially how Dr. Vick sees, and thus chooses, Adam.
44	* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: The Hunter’s reaction after he shoots Adam and Dr. Vick claims it to be OnlyAFleshWound.
45	* NotQuiteDead: Adam. Later, Subject One.
46	* OhCrap: [[spoiler:Ethan]] completely deflates when [[spoiler:the real]] Dr. Vick reappears.
47	* PrideBeforeAFall: Adam at the start of the film. [[spoiler: Ethan]] at the end, who is implied to have a God complex. Just before he’s [[HoistByHisOwnPetard hoisted by his own petard]], he’s called him out on it;
48	-->'''[[spoiler:The Real Dr. Vick]]:''' You’re an assistant, not God.
49	* TheReveal: By the end of the film, we learn that [[spoiler:Subject One is the real Dr. Vick]] and Dr. Vick [[spoiler:is actually his assistant/the intended Subject One, Ethan]]. This is [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadowed]] from the very beginning.
50	* ScaleOfScientificSins: A solid 6.
51	* SchmuckBait: Dr. Vick’s invitation is this for Adam.
52	* ScienceIsBad: Hints of this.
53	* SenseLossSadness: Adam after Dr. Vick’s surgeries.
54	* SensoryOverload: Adam experiences this after he comes back to life the first time and it gradually increases, eventually causing him ''extreme'' pain and necessitating suicide. This motivates Vick to rework the serum’s formula and performs several surgeries to inhibit Adam’s reactions, ultimately leading to him deadening Adam’s ability to feel any physical sensations whatsoever. This comes back to haunt them both later, when it’s revealed [[spoiler: pain is a part of the process and severing Adam’s capacity for tactile sensation]] was ''completely unnecessary and permanent''.
55	* SmallNameBigEgo:
56	** Dr. Vick.
57	** [[spoiler:Ethan]], according to [[spoiler:the real]] Dr. Vick.
58	* SnowMeansDeath: Most of the film takes place in the mountains. Ironically, Dr. Vick argues snow means ''life'', as it it freezes the body and thus preserves it from cellular decay.
59	* StockholmSyndrome: Arguably happens to Adam toward Dr. Vick during their experiments.
60	* SuperSerum: In addition to [[BackFromTheDead bringing him back to life]], Vick’s serum also gives Adam [[SensoryOverload heightened physical sensitivity]], as well as [[ImplacableMan superhuman endurance]] and [[HealingFactor healing]].
61	* SyntheticPlague: Adam assumes he’s contagious after taking the serum, based on how Dr. Vick handles him. Vick agrees and advises he keep away from “the population”. [[spoiler:A later slip reveals he doesn’t really know, but lied to keep Adam from leaving.]]
62	* TrustMeImAnX: Dr. Vick tries to reassure the Hunter that he’s a doctor and knows Adam’s gunshot wound to be nothing serious.
63	* UhOhEyes: Adam’s eyes turn and remain white after he comes back to life the first time, though they aren’t particularly important aside from highlighting his undeath. Subject One also has them when he reappears.
64	* UltimateLifeForm: Vick sees Adam as this post-serum.
65	* UnwittingPawn: Adam.
66	* [[RidingIntoTheSunset Wandering Off into the Snowstorm]]: Adam abandons Vick and his research at the end of the film, aimlessly disappearing into the mountains.
67	* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Adam may well ask this, once he can’t feel anything anymore. Contrast [[LivingForeverIsAwesome Vick]].
68	* WideEyedIdealist: Adam, according to Dr. Vick

Context Film / SubjectTwo