* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Despite (or perhaps because of) Randy Bachman's guitar jam going on downtown, the prize has to go Pete Seeger's "Guantanamera'". [[spoiler: The bittersweetest ever soundtrack to an apocalypse.]]
* HesJustHiding: The ambiguous nature of the disaster make it possible to hold out just a little hope for Patrick, his family, Sandra, and the others to survive what's coming.
* NightmareFuel: [[spoiler: Duncan's]] death.
* SignatureScene: The most iconic moment of the film is almost undoubtedly the final scene showing what everyone is doing to FaceDeathWithDignity during TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt while SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic plays in a melancholic way.
* StoicWoobie: The woman on the bus (a cameo by Arsinée Khanjian) who seems to be frozen with despair.
* TheWoobie:
** Everyone gets a nod in this category, if only because the world is coming to an end, but the honors have to go to Sandra. Sandra Oh established herself with this performance.
** Patrick himself. He grew up having huge problems with his family, then met a woman he fell in love with and who, in his own words, "taught me how I could love" -- and then she got sick and died, and only ''then'' did it become clear that the world was about to end.

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