History Film / WakeInFright

* NoAnimalsWereHarmed: ''Ruthlessly'' averted. The film features a violent kangaroo hunt about halfway through, and there's some controversy over whether the kangaroos were actually killed for the movie, or whether the filmmakers merely shot footage of a professional cull.

John Grant (Gary Bond) is a middle-class school teacher from UsefulNotes/{{Sydney}} who is forced to teach in a remote Australian Outback outpost to pay off tertiary education. It is the Christmas holidays and John is traveling to Sydney to visit his girlfriend Robyn, but must first travel through the nearby mining town of Bundanyabba (known as "The Yabba") in order to catch a Sydney-bound flight.

* TheAlcoholic: Everybody.

* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:Fed up with the town and its inhabitants, and unable to take the train out of there, John instead decides he has to leave through any means necessary, and goes on an arduous journey through the Outback, mostly on foot and staying alive by hunting for food. He eventually happens upon a truck stop, and manages to score a lift with a truck driver who he assumes is heading for Sydney. It turns out he misunderstood the man, who actually ends up returning John returning to the Yabba instead.]]

* OneDialogueTwoConversations: [[spoiler:After escaping the the Yabba by walking through the Outback on foot over several days, John attempts to convince a trucker to take him to Sydney by telling him he needs a lift to "the city". The trucker agrees to take him to "the city", but only after sleeping through the night does John realize that the trucker has brought him back to the Yabba. John is understandably dismayed as the trucker just shrugs and says that Bundanyabba is "kinda a city".]]

* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:Fed up with the town and its inhabitants, and unable to take the train out of there, John instead decides he has to leave through any means necessary, and goes on an arduous journey through the Outback, mostly on foot and staying alive by hunting for food. He eventually happens upon a truck stop, and manages to score a lift with a truck driver who he assumes is heading for Sydney. It turns out he misunderstood the man, who actually ends up returning John returning to The Yabba instead.]]

* FauxAffablyEvil: Doc is one of the only educated people in the Yabba and he initially seems like a kindred spirit to Grant. It doesn't take much to bring out his sadistic side, though, and alcohol only notches it UpToEleven.

* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:Fed up with the town and its inhabitants, and unable to take the train out of there, John instead decides he has to leave through any means necessary, and goes on an audious journey through the Outback, mostly on foot and staying alive by hunting for food. He eventually happens upon a truck stop, and manages to score a lift with a truck driver who he assumes is heading for Sydney. It turns out he misunderstood the man, who actually ends up returning John returning to The Yabba instead.]]

* AmbiguouslyBi: Doc Tydon. He and John have an AlmostKiss while drunk. In the book, it's implied that [[spoiler:Doc Tydon sexually assaulted Grant while Grant was drunk]].

* AmbiguouslyBi: Doc Tydon. He and John have an AlmostKiss while drunk.

* AmbiguouslyBi: Doc Tydon.

* TwistedChristmas: The movie begins at Christmas.