History Film / Daybreakers

** Dalton looks at a vast PeopleFarm with horror; it seems to inform both his personal aversion to human blood and his urge to find another solution.

* HeelRealization: [[spoiler: Frankie finally grows a conscience as he watches the subsiders executed. One hideously mutated girl recognizes him and snarls in rage. He recognizes her: Alison Bromley, who he recently turned. Frankie can't do anything but watch as she is dragged into the sunlight. She stares back, shrieking furiously as she burns to death and crumbles into ash. Meanwhile his fellow soldiers cheer, despite the fact that they are showing signs of withdrawal and beginning to mutated themselves.]] His ThousandYardStare indicates he just got a clear look at the evil he's done.

* MorePredatorsThanPrey: The vampires have spread so rapidly that they by now massively outnumber the humans.. and as such are starving to death for lack of sufficient blood.

** You don't have to be a math prodigy to figure this out: what happens when vampires multiply their ranks to the point that they rule the world and have drunk humanity down to the brink of extinction? [[PyrrhicVictory They starve.]]

* CureForCancer: When a human is turned into a vampire, it cures all of their ailments, including cancer. It also freezes their bodies at the age they were when they turned. Too bad they can only drink human blood which is in very short supply. [[spoiler:That is, until a working substitute is found near the end]]

* HeroOfAnotherStory: Audrey, with her resistance movement, and InternalReformer Senator Turner feel like examples of this.

* SceneryBasedSocietalBarometer: The subway is used no less than three times to gauge the current state of [[TerminallyDependentSociety vampire society]]. At the beginning of the film, when blood stocks are still relatively plentiful, the platform is calm and orderly, with commuters casual, the refreshments stand still selling coffee with 20% blood, and apart from the "[[UncleSamWantsYou CAPTURE HUMANS]]" advert in the background, it could be any train station... but a quick pan down reveals that two Subsiders are hiding under the platform. Towards the middle of the film, the train station is in shambles as global blood supplies run low: the commuters are beginning to visibly degenerate, exhibiting pointed ears and junkie-like shivering fits; soldiers can be seen hauling people away in the background, and actually have to suppress a riot at the coffee stand; worse still, an entire pack of Subsiders is hiding under the platform. By the end, the train station is filthy and deserted except for the huge group of Subsiders living under it - and the troops sent in to wipe them out; fittingly, the "Capture Humans" sign has been vandalized to read "CAPTURE''D ALL'' HUMANS. ''[[SoWhatDoWeDoNow NOW WHAT?]]''"

** Surprisingly averted. For all the "viral outbreak" talk and Edward's very empirical scientific approach to vampirism as a disease, the vampires in this story display all the classic supernatural attributes from more traditional stories: they must feed on blood regularly, do not have reflections in a mirror (however they do appear on camera), will burn at the slightest touch of sunlight, and will explode in a spectacular ball of flame when staked. [[Creator/BobChipman Moviebob]] himself dubbed this film "the anti-''Literature/{{Twilight}}''" of movies.

-->'''Senator Turner''': Hey, being a vampire ''and'' [[AcceptableProfessionalTargets a politician]], it can be hard to make friends.

* OffscreenTeleportation: Put to humorous use at one point when a human pops up behind Edward, spooking him. Occurs from time to time during the rest of the movie, too.

* OhCrap: [[spoiler: When Bromley is made human again after drinking Edward's blood, he's tied to a chair and sent down in an elevator to a squadron of waiting vampire soldiers...who are all starving. Bromley has a clear moment of panic when he sees them, before they pounce on him and tear him apart.]]

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Frankie spends the majority of the film as a lapdog of the government, intent on hunting down humans and reining in his own brother. Towards the end of the film he repents, becomes human, and dies in his very next scene.]]
** Also, the [[spoiler: initial cure for vampirism plays with this trope, as in order to become human again both Elvis and Edward have to absorb (in controlled doses) enough sunlight to kill a vampire]].

* VampireFiction

* OhCrap: [[spoiler: When Bromley is made human again after drinking Edward's blood, he's tied to a chair and sent down in an elevator to a squadron of waiting vampire soldiers...who are all starving. Bromley has a clear moment of panic when he sees them and realises what's about to happen before they pounce on him and tear apart.]]