History Film / ZeroDay

** Played straight with Greg; he grovels at Andre's feet, calls him "sir", and begs to have his life spared. Andre jokes about it and decides not to kill Greg because of it, calling him "too pathetic". Cal kills him instead.
** Averted twice; the first time, a student runs out of the room shouting "Fuck you!" to Andre and Cal, and lives. The second time, Andre mocks the last person alive for not having any last words or so much as a plea for help before gunning him down.

* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: Surprisingly averted, all firearms in the film are secured properly and handled safely during the target practice scenes. Andre even passes up taking an extra shotgun when he doesn't see a loaded chamber indicator on it.

** Greg is a clearer example. He goes to prom with Cal and Rachael as friends, then he gets [[spoiler:cruelly shot by Cal, after Andre promises not to kill him.]]

* CopKiller: It is only revealed on[[AllThereInTheManual the supplemental website]] made to look like a police report on the killings that Andre and Cal murdered the School Resource Officer. In the film itself this is averted when Cal talks Andre out of attacking the police and opting instead for suicide.

*** Andre was clearly inspired by Eric Harris, as he is an intense, driven, militaristic boy with anger issues and a grandiose sense of purpose who dubs his petty vandalism acts "missions". Eric was also fond of German and liked to pepper his writings with German phrases, while Andre and his father are shown to be German speakers.
*** Just like Andre was inspired by Eric, the depressive, seemingly gentle Cal was inspired by Dylan Klebold. Like Dylan, Cal outwardly appears to be the follower and sees the plan as a way to commit a meaningful suicide and is therefore more lackadaisical about it. Their roles even switch during the massacre much like Eric and Dylan's did, with Andre becoming more focused and quiet and Cal becoming vocally terrifying.

* TheGhost: Brad Huff, the JerkJock that the two shooters hate the most, never appears on screen.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Andre disparages other school shooters as sloppy attention whores with poorly thought out(or nonexistent) plans, and at one point singles out the idea of planning a specific date for a killing spree. Yet Andre and Cal's plan hinges on the risky burglary of Andre's cousin Chris, they only practice with their weapons once, plan their attack for May Day when their original plan to do it on a day that's zero degrees falls through, and bequeath their extensive collection of tapes to CNN.

* {{Jerkass}}: Andre and Cal have their moments, but one particular moment is where Cal goes to a poetry slam and purposefully antagonizes another person there, causing a fight. When Andre confronts him over how stupid and pointless this was, Cal sarcastically says "yes sir".

* PointOfNoReturn: Andre jokingly says "Shit, now we have to do it" after he and Cal burn all their games, movies, and books.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Andre and Cal make a big deal about the pipe bombs they're building, even giving a how-to guide on screen. When the massacre happens, there are no bombs, which is never explained. The [[AllThereInTheManual supplemental website]] does mention that the pipe bombs were used, however.

* PoliceAreUseless: The cops never confront the boys and the two of them kill themselves and a dozen others

* WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife: Defied. Andre and Cal preemptively reject the notion that their attack is a meaningless tragedy and believe that their actions will help people value their own lives more.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Andre and Cal make a big deal about the pipe bombs they're building, even giving a how-to guide on screen. When the massacre happens, there are no bombs, which is never explained. Assuming the extent to which this film is inspired by Columbine, if it follows the Columbine pattern, there ''are'' pipe bombs, they simply don't go off.

* FreudianExcuse: Andre and Cal indicate that the massacre is due to the bullying they've gone through at school.

* {{Samurai}}: Cal considers himself a kind of high school samurai.

** When Andre and Calvin are burning all their possessions, a copy of ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' and ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'' are prominently featured.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: The main characters portray themselves this way, though their actions [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist demonstrate that they're mostly in it just to live out their violent fantasies]] . They claim that they're going to go to their school and kill as many fellow students as they can in order to give a wake-up call to the community and to teach people what they should value. At one point, Andre defines that as the most ''respectful'' and ''caring'' thing someone could do.

* RomanticTwoGirlFriendship: Gender-flipped between Andre and Cal, with how much "romantic" and how much "friendship" is involved remains ambiguous.

** Andre brings a TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles doll to shoot during target practice.

* {{Egging}}: Andre and Cal egg house of Brad Huff, although the original plan was to egg his car.

* {{Expy}}: Andre was clearly inspired by Eric Harris: an intense, driven, militaristic boy with anger issues and a grandiose sense of purpose who dubs his petty vandalism acts "missions". Eric was also fond of German and liked to pepper his writings with German phrases, while Andre and his father are shown to be German speakers.
** Just like Andre was inspired by Eric, the depressive, seemingly gentle Cal was inspired by Dylan Klebold. Like Dylan, Cal outwardly appears to be the follower and sees the plan as a way to commit a meaningful suicide and is therefore more lackadaisical about it. Their roles even switch during the massacre much like Eric and Dylan's did, with Andre becoming more focused and quiet and Cal becoming vocally terrifying.

** The very first mission the boys do is to egg Brad Huff's car. But since his car isn't there, they change their plans and instead egg his house. This pragmatism comes back into play when the boys change the date of the massacre to May Day when they're unable to launch the attack on a day where it's zero degrees outside.

->'''Andre Kriegman:''' Ready?\\
'''Cal Gabriel:''' Aim...''
-->—The words which marked the beginning of the massacre.

A 2003 film directed by Ben Coccio which shares a great number of similarities with the UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} High School massacre. The film itself is presented in the form of video diaries recorded by the future gunmen, seniors Andre Kriegman and Calvin Gabriel. The recordings document the preparation and rather vague explanations given by the two, as well as seemingly random family scenes and events.

** Averted twice; the first time a student runs out of the room shouting "Fuck you!" to Andre and Cal, and lives. The second time Andre mocks the last person alive for not having any last words or so much as a plea for help before gunning him down.
* ArtifactTitle: An in-universe variation; Andre and Cal dub the name of their massacre "[[TitleDrop Zero Day]]" because they plan to have it occur on a day where the temperature is zero degrees. They later set the day of the massacre to be on May Day, as on the one day of the year it was zero degrees outside, Andre was sick and couldn't launch the attack. The boys keep the name regardless.

* {{Deconstruction}}: One prevalent idea about school shootings is that perpetrators are mentally unstable and abnormal freaks who did what they did because of violent music, videogames, neglectful parents, bullying or a combination of any of the aforementioned factors. The film takes this idea and tears it apart. The main characters look like perfectly normal teenage boys: they are intelligent, funny and good-looking, their regular clothes do not attract attention and their parents are loving and caring, if a little out of touch with them. The [[AllThereInTheManual official website]] even reported that they had a decent sized circle of friends and were on good terms with many other students and that they were not singled out for bullying. Before their Zero Day, the boys decide to burn their possessions (books, cds, dvds, videogames, notes) because they knew that everybody will scrutinize their belongings after their death and end up saying that they did it because they were influenced by violent music, games etc. They insist that Zero Day was their idea, and that nobody influenced them.

* DownerEnding: Considering the topic of the film, it's not surprising at all.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The teenagers drop hints that only the audience, who is aware of their plan, can comprehend. For example, in the graveyard episode, Cal [[SarcasticConfession jokingly says that he has an evil inside which he locks away and keeps from everyone]].
** The very first mission the boys do is to egg Brad Huff's car. But since his car isn't there, they change their plans and instead egg his house. This mirrors how the boys change the date of the massacre to May Day when they're unable to launch the attack on a day where it's zero degrees outside.

** When Andre and Calvin are burning all their possessions, a copy of VideoGame/HalfLife and Literature/LordOfTheFlies are prominently featured.

* AllThereInTheManual: Additional information about the setting, main characters and the shooting itself and its aftermath could be found on the now defunct official website of the film. The website was made to look like the official police report of the event and contained a step-by-step account of the attack, the name of the victims and the shooters' profiles.

** Greg is a clearer example. He goes to prom with Cal and Rachael as friends, then he gets [[spoiler:cruelly shot by Andre, after Cal promises not to kill him.]]

* AxesAtSchool: As it culminates in a school shooting, this is expected, and the ending plays it straight.
* AxCrazy: Both Calvin and Andre are violent lunatics, and as their shooting spree kicks off, it shows just how deranged both of them are.

* SuicideByCop: Averted. Andre contemplates doing this, but is talked out of it by Cal.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Cal is portrayed as a gentle, shy and meek boy in his recorded material, with just an indefinable hint of something threatening simmering underneath the surface. The high school security cameras, however, capture a sadistic, violent, irritable and merciless teenager.

* ToxicFriendInfluence: There are implications that Andre is functioning this way to Cal. Cal's friend Rachael notes that whenever Andre and him are together, Cal starts acting like Andre.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Andre and Cal make a big deal about the pipe bombs they're building, even giving a how-to guide on screen. When the massacre happens, there are no bombs, which is never explained.