A New Dominant Species
Figure II
"Humans were offered a chance to assimilate but they refused. Therefore, they are enemies of the state and will be captured and farmed for blood supply."
-Senator on Television
Written and directed by the Spierig Brothers, Daybreakers was released in the height of the vampire media craze but stood out with a more unique storyline.
---------------------------------------------------------
According to the film, in 2009 a plague-like disease swept through the world. The sickness gave the human subject a clean bill of health and ceases natural aging in turn for a dependence on blood, lack of reflection, sensitivity to UV radiation, and a tendency to explode when speared in a vital area. Due to the majority of the world needing to feed on the minority, humanity is all but abolished ten years later where the movie opens.
Bromely Marks, the leading pharmaceutical company, is attempting to synthesize a blood substitute with the hematologist Dr. Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) at the head of the research. The experiments are not only failing but causing the subjects to explode during rejection. Experts estimate there is only enough blood left to sustain the population for another month.
Edward is heavily conflicted with his life as a vampire and vows never to drink human blood again, making his search for a synthetic all the more personal. However, blood-deprived vampires begin to transform into the more gruesome and monstrous "subsiders". It is a gradual change, usually starting with the pointing of the ears--a symptom the doctor is examining on himself when he crashes into the car of a small number of humans. He hides them and misdirects the police who respond to the accident gaining some amount of the humans' trust.
They leave and Ed returns home where his brother, Frankie (Michael Dorman), is there to surprise him with a bottle of blood for his birthday. They get into an argument in the midst of which the glass is broken an blood is spilled over Ed's kitchen which invites a starving subsider into his house. The subsider is as strong as it is ugly and despite Frankie being a soldier, they barely take the monster out before it kills them. The police cut a wedding ring off of the subsider's winged hand and it is revealed that the monster was Ed's gardener--the starvation is getting closer to home.
Shortly after the attack, the human woman Ed helped appears at his backdoor. She requests his help to solve the world's dilemma if he meets her at Gordon's Creek. This, of course, is illegal and he has understandable reservations--until another soldier explodes after testing his synthetic blood.
Ed travels to Gordon Creek and here he meets Lionel "Elvis" Cormac (Willem Dafoe) and is officially introduced to Audrey Bennett (Claudia Karvan). Elvis was once a vampire like Ed, a mechanic who's garage made some of the first daylight driving modifications on cars. While enjoying a drive, Elvis was struck with disorientation of hunger and crashed into a rail. He was thrown from the windshield and into the sunlight for a split second before falling into the river. When he came to, he was able to walk back into the sunlight again without the immediate combustion--he was human again.
Then the human catchers arrive, lead by Frankie who followed Ed to the meeting. Ed and the humans escape and flee to Audrey's parents' vineyard where the rest of the nest of humans are waiting. The three manage to recreate Elvis's experience for Ed in a modified fermination tank and escape before Frankie's crew ambushes them.
Meanwhile, another convoy of humans is attacked and Alison Bromley (Isabel Lucas) is captured. She is the daughter of Ed's former boss and head of Bromley Marks, Charles Bromley (Sam Neill). Mr. Bromley pleads with his daughter to accept the change into vampirism and when she declines--by stabbing him--he turns to Frankie to force it upon her. She refuses to eat and quickly starts to deteriorate into a subsider and is dragged out into the sunlight in a government sponsored purge of all those who have succumbed to the inner monster.
It is only after seeing this that Frankie starts to fully understand why his brother is against the status quo. He seeks out Ed and offers to help--only his own lack of feeding starts to get him and he looses control and feeds on Elvis. They then discover that the blood of cured vampires is enough to cure others when Frankie looses his immortality.
Ed finally confronts Charles Bromley and goads him into feeding from him, taking away Mr. Bromley's precious vampirism before offering him as a sacrificial lamb to a squad of soldiers. Frankie offers himself up to more of his former brothers in arms to give his brother and Audrey time to escape.
Nearly everyone dies but now the truth is out there. There is a cure and the movie closes with this hope and the three heads of the resistance driving off into the sunlight.
-Senator on Television
Written and directed by the Spierig Brothers, Daybreakers was released in the height of the vampire media craze but stood out with a more unique storyline.
---------------------------------------------------------
According to the film, in 2009 a plague-like disease swept through the world. The sickness gave the human subject a clean bill of health and ceases natural aging in turn for a dependence on blood, lack of reflection, sensitivity to UV radiation, and a tendency to explode when speared in a vital area. Due to the majority of the world needing to feed on the minority, humanity is all but abolished ten years later where the movie opens.
Bromely Marks, the leading pharmaceutical company, is attempting to synthesize a blood substitute with the hematologist Dr. Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) at the head of the research. The experiments are not only failing but causing the subjects to explode during rejection. Experts estimate there is only enough blood left to sustain the population for another month.
Edward is heavily conflicted with his life as a vampire and vows never to drink human blood again, making his search for a synthetic all the more personal. However, blood-deprived vampires begin to transform into the more gruesome and monstrous "subsiders". It is a gradual change, usually starting with the pointing of the ears--a symptom the doctor is examining on himself when he crashes into the car of a small number of humans. He hides them and misdirects the police who respond to the accident gaining some amount of the humans' trust.
They leave and Ed returns home where his brother, Frankie (Michael Dorman), is there to surprise him with a bottle of blood for his birthday. They get into an argument in the midst of which the glass is broken an blood is spilled over Ed's kitchen which invites a starving subsider into his house. The subsider is as strong as it is ugly and despite Frankie being a soldier, they barely take the monster out before it kills them. The police cut a wedding ring off of the subsider's winged hand and it is revealed that the monster was Ed's gardener--the starvation is getting closer to home.
Shortly after the attack, the human woman Ed helped appears at his backdoor. She requests his help to solve the world's dilemma if he meets her at Gordon's Creek. This, of course, is illegal and he has understandable reservations--until another soldier explodes after testing his synthetic blood.
Ed travels to Gordon Creek and here he meets Lionel "Elvis" Cormac (Willem Dafoe) and is officially introduced to Audrey Bennett (Claudia Karvan). Elvis was once a vampire like Ed, a mechanic who's garage made some of the first daylight driving modifications on cars. While enjoying a drive, Elvis was struck with disorientation of hunger and crashed into a rail. He was thrown from the windshield and into the sunlight for a split second before falling into the river. When he came to, he was able to walk back into the sunlight again without the immediate combustion--he was human again.
Then the human catchers arrive, lead by Frankie who followed Ed to the meeting. Ed and the humans escape and flee to Audrey's parents' vineyard where the rest of the nest of humans are waiting. The three manage to recreate Elvis's experience for Ed in a modified fermination tank and escape before Frankie's crew ambushes them.
Meanwhile, another convoy of humans is attacked and Alison Bromley (Isabel Lucas) is captured. She is the daughter of Ed's former boss and head of Bromley Marks, Charles Bromley (Sam Neill). Mr. Bromley pleads with his daughter to accept the change into vampirism and when she declines--by stabbing him--he turns to Frankie to force it upon her. She refuses to eat and quickly starts to deteriorate into a subsider and is dragged out into the sunlight in a government sponsored purge of all those who have succumbed to the inner monster.
It is only after seeing this that Frankie starts to fully understand why his brother is against the status quo. He seeks out Ed and offers to help--only his own lack of feeding starts to get him and he looses control and feeds on Elvis. They then discover that the blood of cured vampires is enough to cure others when Frankie looses his immortality.
Ed finally confronts Charles Bromley and goads him into feeding from him, taking away Mr. Bromley's precious vampirism before offering him as a sacrificial lamb to a squad of soldiers. Frankie offers himself up to more of his former brothers in arms to give his brother and Audrey time to escape.
Nearly everyone dies but now the truth is out there. There is a cure and the movie closes with this hope and the three heads of the resistance driving off into the sunlight.