History Film / AfterTheDark

* BunnyEarsLawyer: Once second trait of each character is revealed, many of them turn into this trope... or suddenly became [[SubvertedTrope completely useless or even a liability]].

''After The Dark'' (also known as ''The Philosophers'') is a sci-fi thriller film directed by John Huddles and released on July 7, 2013.

* PhotographicMemory: Bonnie character's second trait, and taken UpToEleven: the army has her on tape reciting the first 92 thousand decimal places of Pi[[note]]That's about 80-90 printed pages of just numbers[[/note]]. She later uses it to carry information between scenarios, "remembering" the code she saw in the end of the second experiment.

* MostCommonSuperPower: Gender-flipped. In the second scenario, Nelson, the NiceGuy cleaner, is taken in, simply because he's a man and can reproduce without issues.

* TheAce: Jack's character. His card declares that he has a [=PhD=] in Chemistry and, more importantly, "won a genetic lotto", having insanely good health and life expectancy of 103. On top of that, Jack as himself is an attractive, easy-going man. The combination of his real and scenario traits land him a spot all three times.

* DrivenToSuicide: Zimit certainly ''considers'' this, but we don't find out if he actually does it or not.

** In the final itteration of the story, ''the students'' turn table on Zimit and use every possible loophole they can get to pay back for the humiliation they were served so far. ''Then'' there is Chip and his own separate story, which outright mocks the drama everyone is indulging with, while he's busy playing it all for laughs.

* RevengeViaStorytelling: Professor Eric Zimit makes his whole class run through several social experiments, in which they pretend to be people stranded in a very dire situation (survivors in a bunker while nuclear war happens outside, for example) and they must choose [[ColdEquation who to cull to live longer]]. As he constantly derails the simulations to make the students' characters suffer brutal and humiliating deaths from consequences they didn't thought about, it becomes increasingly apparent to [[spoiler: Petra (Zimit's top student, and [[TeacherStudentRomance former girlfriend]])]] that Zimit is only making them roleplay to get even by constantly killing the characters played by [[spoiler: Petra's new boyfriend James]].

* JerkassHasAPoint: Zimit spends most of the movie being a bona fide prick, but he is correct when he points out that the students could have avoided the mass deaths suffered in the first scenario if they had not acted rashly based on their emotional responses 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.

* InsaneTrollLogic: The reasoning presented for why a gay farmer is useless to 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 for him to LieBackAndThinkOfEngland. And plant some veggies after that.

* RealityEnsues: ZigZagged with AcceptableBreaksFromReality. Numerous decisions, traits and situations have their expected, real-life results.
** The BadEnding of each simulation happens due to the composition of the group, as it's always related to the lack of a 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 while 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, audible ''atomic bombardment'' outside will ruin the mood.
** Untreatable diseases and mental disorders, even if not contagious and non-lethal, are a serious liability and won't win any favours.

* EvilCounterpart: Zimit is Petra's.

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]] (Creator/SophieLowe), tries to leave, Zimit forces her to stay by threatening to drop her boyfriend's grade (as Petra does not care about her own).

* TheRainman: Implied to be the case with Russell, the harpist, whose 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 dysfunctional liability to the group.

* RevengeViaStorytelling: Professor Eric Zimit makes his whole class run through several social experiments, in which they pretend to be people stranded in a very dire situation (survivors in a bunker while nuclear war happens outside, for example) and they must choose [[ColdEquation who to cull to live longer]]. As he constantly derails the simulations to make the students' characters suffer brutal and humiliating deaths from consequences they didn't thought about, it becomes increasingly apparent to Petra (Zimit's top student, and [[TeacherStudentRomance former girlfriend]]) that Zimit is only making them roleplay to get even by constantly killing the characters played by Petra's new boyfriend James.

* RocksFallEveryoneDies: How Zimit reacts when the students react in ways he disapproves of to the rules he sets -- he sets up a scenario where all of them die.

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

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).

* 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 carbine right back. When Zimit says he's bluffing and that he won't shoot because he's a pacifist, James pulls the charging handle and says that he'll make an exception]].

* 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 prior 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.]]

* BatmanGrabsAGun: In the final iteration, [[spoiler: Zimit tries to hold the students at gunpoint for a time 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.]]

* BatmanGrabsAGun: In the final iteration, [[spoiler: Zimit tries to hold the students at gunpoint for a time 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.]]]]