History Film / ZeroDay

* BigBadDuumvirate: Andre and Cal, the shooters.

* RedOniBlueOni: The two perpetrators are opposites in terms of looks and personality, with Andre being the red oni and Cal the blue one. Even their portraits are color-coded as such.

* CityWithNoName: The main character's hometown and high school remain unnamed throughout the story, possibly to give the impression that such things can happen anywhere.

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

* WellIntentionedExtremist: The main characters 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.

->'''''Andre Kriegman:''' Ready?\\

* ICallItVera: "I call it Malayna." This is a ShoutOut to Eric Harris calling his shotgun Arlene.

-->'''Cal:'''We're all animals.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Cal is portrayed as a gentle, shy and meek boy in his recorded material. The high school security cameras, however, capture a sadistic, violent, irritable and merciless teenager.

* ICallItVera: "I call it Malayna."

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: Almost every scene is dripping with symbolism. After explaining his desire to leave his (devastating) mark on the world before dying, Cal points out that the musical instrument he had been strumming the whole time is out of tune and has a broken string.
** The depressing poem that Cal reads out at the poetry slam.
** One of the most haunting scenes of the film shows Andre driving on the streets at night with his eyes closed, guided only by Cal's voice, laughing about how crazy it all is.

* {{Samurai}}: One of the main characters considers himself a kind of high school samurai.

* 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.

* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: The shooting takes place on May Day.

* NietzscheWannabe: ''We're all animals.''

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

* FoundFootageFilms: The whole film is based on the videos made by Cal and Andre, as well as the high school security cameras.

* ShoutOut: To ''UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}}''. The film itself was inspired by the famous Harris/Klebold basement tapes. It contains certain similar scenes, such as when the main characters go over their arsenal or when they go to target practice.
** During target practice, one of the minor characters says that Cal is a natural. To his comment, Andre adds the words ''natural selection'', which Eric Harris, one of the Columbine shooters, believed in a [[TheSocialDarwinist Social Darwinist]] variant of. The day of the massacre, Harris wore a white T-shirt with the words printed on it.
** When Andre and Calvin are burning all their possessions, a copy of VideoGame/HalfLife and Literature/LordOfTheFlies are prominently featured.

* {{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 [[GenreSavvy 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.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: The main characters 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 someome could do.

* HoYay: A possible interpretation on how Andre sees Cal.

* ShoutOut: To ''{{Columbine}}''. The film itself was inspired by the famous Harris/Klebold basement tapes. It contains certain similar scenes, such as when the main characters go over their arsenal or when they go to target practice.

A 2003 film directed by Ben Coccio which shares a great number of similarities with the {{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.