What We Become is a 2016 Danish horror movie centered on an average family living in the idyllic suburb of Sorgenfri at the cusp of a zombie apocolypse.
What We Become contains examples of:
- Better to Die than Be Killed: Dino, upon witnessing the deaths of his wife and young daughter, and aware that the house is being overrun, turns the rifle on himself. Unfortunately for him, he’s run out of bullets by that point, and he’s ultimately done in by a reanimated Maj.
- Bungled Suicide: Dino turns his gun on himself, only to find it out of bullets.
- Chekhov's Gun: The box of fireworks Gustav keeps in his room. He's seen setting them off in a fit of boredom during the month-long quarantine, and uses them in the climax to distract the zombie horde so he and Sonja can escape.
- Also, the zombies' fascination with light is introduced early in the film and, combined with said fireworks, facilitates the escape.
- Coitus Interruptus: Gustav's mother interrupts him and Sonja to go looking for the missing Maj.
- Death of a Child: When Gustav and his mother are exploring an abandoned house, the decomposing remains of a baby in a crib can be partially seen, surrounded by swarming flies. Additionally, a bloody stuffed animal can be seen in the car seat of an abandoned and bullet-riddled vehicle.
- Diabolus ex Machina: See Bungled Suicide.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Maj dies cradled in her mother's arms. Unfortunately, she resurrects there as well, and immediately kills her mother.
- Inverted with Sonja's mother, who died sometime in the night cradling Sonja.
- Downer Ending: Everyone but Gustav and Sonja are dead, and it's implied the whole world fared no better than their neighborhood did.
- Eye Scream: Sonja stabs her zombie mother in the eye repeatedly to finally put it down, showed clearly on screen.
- Averted a second time with Maj.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: While investigating the so-called field hospital, Gustav witnesses the guards killing the infected. Unaware that they are zombies, Gustav attempts to save people by letting them free from the trucks they were being transported in, causing the base to be overrun and all hell to break loose in the neighborhood.
- Our Zombies Are Different: The infected here are more-or-less standard walkers, being slow-moving walking corpses that will violently maul and devour anything or anybody unlucky enough to be caught by them, can transfer the infection that made them so via bites and requiring head trauma to kill. However, they also possess a few behavioural quirks: they’re aggressive enough to scream and yell when spotting their prey and are extremely fascinated by bright lights. The second one ends up helping Gustav and Sonja escape when cornered outside their window by the horde besieging the house, becoming entranced by Gustav’s lobbed firework to the point where they straight-up ignore him even when he’s right next to them.
- Quarantine with Extreme Prejudice: After the outbreak gets into full swing, the military show up and confine everyone to their houses, shooting anyone who tries to leave. When their original plan for dealing with the infection goes awry thanks to Gustav, the military is eventually forced to pull out and quarantine the entire area, shooting anyone, infected or otherwise, attempting to escape. By the end, it’s implied that they’re going to nuke the quarantine zone to stop the outbreak.
- Not a Zombie: Gustav mistakes zombies for sick people from a distance. Later, Maj doesn't realize something is wrong with their old lady neighbor until it's too late.
- Not Using the "Z" Word
- Self-Made Orphan: Sonja is eventually forced to re-kill her mother in self defence after she succumbs to her infection and eventually turns. Shortly after that, after Maj is bitten by her infected neighbour and dies, she ends up killing both her mother and father after turning in the arms of the former.
- Sole Survivor: By the end of the film, Sonja and Gustav are the last surviving members of both their families.
- Spoiler Cover: The cover gives away Maj's death and zombification.
- Undead Child: As Maj dying and reanimating in her mother’s arms shows, not even children are safe from the plague ravaging Sorgenfri.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Though the action is focused on a small neighborhood, it is implied to be happening everywhere.
- Zombie Advocate: Maj's mother refuses to let her husband Dino perform a headshot after Maj is bitten.
- Zombie Infectee: Sonja's mother
