Hi, Movie Recaps here.
Today I will show you an action, adventure, fantasy film from 2009, titled Daybreakers.
Spoilers ahead!
Watch out and take care.
In the year 2019, a little girl writes a letter where she describes how she will never change
or grow up, which she can't take anymore.
She leaves the house to watch the sunrise, and when she looks up, we see her yellow eyes:
she's a vampire.
As soon as the sun comes up, her entire body burns.
Then we're shown how the world is empty during the day.
Because of a plague caused by an infected bat in 2009, most of mankind has become vampires.
The human population is plummeting, and researchers are starting to look for blood substitutes
to keep the vampire population fed while a small group of them fight for human rights,
since they're being hunted and farmed.
When night falls, the world comes alive again.
We see vampires go on their normal lives as humans used to do, hanging out or going to
work.
There's even a hobo vampire begging for blood that threatens a random citizen, the police
electrocute him for it.
Meanwhile, taking his car and then the subway for work is our protagonist, Edward Dalton.
He works as a hematologist for Bromley Marks, a pharmaceutical company and important blood
supplier.
After going through security at the building entrance, Edward passes by the rooms with
the machines that farm humans, which he hates, before going to his lab.
He's working on trying to find a blood substitute, but his latest try is also a failure.
Afterward, he has a meeting with his boss, Charles Bromley, his lab partner Christopher
Caruso, a commissioner, and an army officer.
The commissioner informs them of the results of an experiment they've conducted on a death
row inmate: he was selected for a study on the effects of blood deprivation.
The lack of blood caused complete degeneration of the brain's frontal lobe, the first signs
of it were his ears getting longer.
He quickly deteriorated into a Nosferatu-like creature with no rationality or emotions.
They call these creatures "subsiders" and they're becoming a problem on the streets.
Only 5% of the human population is left, and if they don't find a substitute soon, they
will all become subsiders.
Bromley cuts in then and takes Edward to his office for a private meeting, where Edward
ignores the coffee with blood he's served while Bromley tells him his story: he used
to have cancer, but vampirism cured him.
His daughter refused to turn, though, and she ran away.
He knows Edward pities humans and so does he, that's why they need to begin the testing
as soon as possible to save the human race.
Edward goes to his lab and discusses this with Christopher, who after some hesitation,
he points out the substitute is working on a monkey so it's time to move beyond animal
testing.
Moments later, the researchers begin the test while Bromley and some officers watch through
a window.
Edward slowly injects the substitute into a private's body, who at first feels fine,
but once the whole dose is in, he pukes and starts convulsing as nasty blisters appear
all over his body.
The researchers immediately move to hold him down and inject him with epimone, which does
stop his shaking and makes the blisters disappear, but a second later, his whole body explodes.
Later that night, Edward leaves the office and drives home.
He's watching the news on his car, which talks about riots related to blood-rationing schemes.
When he notices something wrong while scratching his ear, he opens his camera-mirror and checks:
his ears are starting to grow long.
This distraction causes him not to see a car coming from the opposite direction - he manages
to dodge at the last second and stop his vehicle, but the other car crashes against a fence.
Edward comes out to help and takes an arrow to the arm: the people getting out of the
other car are humans and their leader, Audrey Bennett, has a crossbow to defend themselves
from vampires.
Suddenly, police cars can be heard approaching them, so Edward swears he just wants to help
and asks the humans to get in his car, which they accept after some hesitation.
Edward activates the car's daytime protection driving mode, which turns all the windows
black, then takes out the arrow from his arm as the police arrive.
While he lies to them and tells them which direction the humans ran to, Audrey finds
Edward's ID badge and learns his occupation.
After the police are gone, the humans get out of the car and Audrey wishes Edward a
happy birthday as they all leave.
Moments later, Edward is arriving home, where a community announcement is warning everyone
of the oncoming sunrise.
Once he makes it to his house, he has dinner and starts taking care of his plants when
he suddenly receives a visit from his brother Frankie Dalton, who he hasn't seen in months
because he joined the army.
Frankie comments on the lack of birthday party, to which Edward replies that he's turned 35
ten times already, but Frankie doesn't care: he thinks they must celebrate, and for that,
he's brought an expensive bottle of 100% pure human blood.
He pours two glasses as he teases his brother for drinking pig blood, but Edward turns it
down.
This enrages Frankie, who starts an old argument of theirs: Edward doesn't touch human blood
but still works for a company that farms people, which he sees as a necessary evil to be able
to find the substitute, yet he also looks down on Frankie for hunting humans for the
army.
Edward suddenly grabs the blood bottle and starts pouring it down the rain, but Frankie
takes it from him and smashes it against the wall before trying to leave.
He can't, however, because a subsider gets in his way.
The creature enters the kitchen and starts licking the blood off the walls then moves
onto the glass on the table.
Frankie grabs a knife from the holder, which startles the subsider and makes it push him
against the wall, he falls on a glass table and loses consciousness for a few seconds.
The subsider moves towards Edward next, and he keeps it a bay with a stool while calling
out his brother's name.
Frankie wakes up and retrieves the knife, together the brothers try to attack the subsider,
but it jumps away to hang from the ceiling.
This allows Frankie to slash it a few times before decapitating it.
Moments later, the police arrive to take the case, commenting on the fact the subsiders
are in the suburbs now.
One of the officers finds a ring on the creature which makes Edward realize it was the local
gardener, she also finds self-inflicted wounds.
Feeding on themselves speeds up the mutation.
The next morning, Edward is woken up by a security alert.
He goes to check and, when turning on the lights, he finds Audrey pointing a crossbow
at him.
She tells him they've been looking for vampires they can trust and that they need his help
to find another way besides the substitute, she also gives him a sheet of paper with a
map on it.
Edward is suddenly distracted by a noise and turns around, allowing Audrey to silently
leave.
When he checks on the noise, it turns out to be Frankie, who asks Edward about the woman.
Edward replies it's nothing.
Later at night, the news shows investors are pulling their human supplies from Bromley's.
Edward goes to work and meets with his boss to ask for a guarantee that the substitute
would replace the need for human supply.
Bromley replies that the majority of the population will be happy with it, but a small sector
will always demand the real thing.
Edward reminds him that would include Bromley's daughter before going back to his lab to stare
at the map.
When morning comes, Edward doesn't return home.
He puts up the light protection on the car and follows the map into the countryside,
where Audrey is already waiting for him and tells him to approach a big tree.
He parks under the shadow of that tree and, after putting on a hat and sunglasses, he
leaves the car.
Always being careful not to step into the light, he approaches an old man, Lionel "Elvis"
Cormac.
This man used to be a vampire yet he's human now.
Edward wants to know how but they're interrupted by Audrey coming closer, held at gunpoint
by Frankie.
Edward wants to stop him but Frankie won't listen, and army backup is already arriving.
Audrey pushes Frankie into the sunlight and joins the men, they take Edward's car because
the soldiers have already opened fire and destroyed Lionel's vehicle.
They are chased and shot as they drive away, which creates holes in the car's dark protection.
At first, Audrey manages to cover them with her hands, but they become too many, and the
camera is shot as well, so Edward can't see ahead.
Lionel takes over the wheel so he can see the road through a hole and Edward can hide
from the light.
When they reach a dingy bridge, Lionel drives as fast as possible to cross it safely, but
the military truck is too heavy and the bridge breaks under it, causing the truck to explode.
The rest of the backup is left behind without a way to follow.
After night falls, they park next to a river, and Lionel tells Edward his story.
He used to work on daylight modifications for cars and had one of the first shops in
town that made them.
Daylight driving is amazing because there are no other people around, but it can also
be dangerous for the driver.
That's what happened to Edward: he wasn't feeling well because he hadn't fed, so he
accidentally crashed the car against the river fence.
The crash ejected him from the car, and he caught on fire before falling into the river.
When he came out of the river, he was human again.
Lionel and Audrey want Edward to recreate these conditions safely.
Back at the company, Bromley's staring at some pictures of his daughter when Frankie
arrives to see him.
Bromley congratulates him on having reported what happened and tells him that if Edward
returns immediately, no formal charges will be laid.
Frankie accepts to do anything Bromley asks of him.
Meanwhile, Edward and the humans are back in his car, driving to their safehouse.
Edward can't stop staring at Audrey's neck - when she notices this and his pointy ears,
she cuts her hand and pours some blood in a cup for him to drink.
He refuses at first, but Audrey needs to know the other humans will be safe around him,
so he accepts the cup and drinks it.
A few hours later, they make it to an old vineyard, where Edward meets other humans
including Jarvis, who is leading a group of rescuers to find more humans.
After entering the house, he also meets Senator Wes Turner, a vampire politician in favor
of protecting human rights and finding a cure.
After briefly cutting to Bromley watching how one of his machines has lost all its humans
and his researchers taking out a body, we are shown a coffee stand at the subway station,
where a man complains about his coffee not having enough blood.
The employee tells him that 5% is as much as she's allowed to serve, but the man won't
take no for answer.
He steals a blood bag and when breaking it, he splashes everyone around him, sending them
into a frenzy.
The people riot and attack the coffee stand to steal more blood, causing the police to
arrive to electrocute them into submission.
The next morning, at the vineyard, Edward takes some blood from Lionel to run some tests
while he asks him some questions about how he felt the day he became human.
Edward thinks maybe the only way to treat the blood is inside the body, controlling
the daylight burn.
Some hours later, when he leaves the lab to take a break, most humans move away from him.
Audrey comes and tells him they may fear him but still think he can help.
Edward confesses he didn't want to turn, but Frankie betrayed him and turned him anyway.
It's then that Edward notices the fermentation tanks, and after Audrey confirms they're air-tight,
they go to look at them from inside.
The tanks have air extractors that would allow them to put out the fire and Edward decides
to use them for their experiment, so they start working on the necessary modifications.
Later, in the middle of the night, we see Jarvis' group on the road taking a convoy
of rescued humans to the vineyard, including Bromley's daughter Alison.
When a shot gets them a flat tire, they're forced to stop their cars.
They get out with their weapons ready, but the army is surrounding them and after a short
shooting exchange, all humans are knocked out.
Alison manages to contact the vineyard before she falls unconscious too, so when Frankie
takes the walkie-talkie from her hands, they use it to track the call and find the location
of the vineyard.
At the vineyard, all the humans are grabbing their things and getting into their cars,
ready to follow Tuner to his safehouse.
But Edward wants to stay behind because there won't be another chance to recreate the experiment,
so Lionel and Audrey decide to stay behind as well and help.
Back at Bromley's, Alison wakes up in her father's office and grabs a knife as he arrives
to see her.
Alison begs for her friends' lives, Bromley says he is happy to see her but, as he hugs
her, admits he can't do anything for her friends.
Alison pushes him away and runs to the door but she's knocked out by a soldier as Bromley
realizes his daughter has stabbed him.
When morning comes to the vineyard, the experiment is ready to start.
Audrey will watch the monitors while Lionel will stay in the tank with Edward, who has
the heart monitor connected to his chest and is covered by a wet blanket.
The process is simple: they open a hole in the tank to let the sunlight burn Edward,
then they use the air extractor to turn off the fire.
The first two tries are a failure, but they let Edward burn longer for the third, and
this time it works: Edward manages to become human again.
Their happiness is interrupted by the army arriving to raid the place, but they avoid
getting caught by hiding in a wine barrel.
We cut to the company again, where Frankie is visiting Bromley, who is being treated
for his wound.
Bromley asks Frankie to do something for him, and Frankie leaves the room to see Alison
in her cell.
She still doesn't want to be turned, but Frankie goes ahead and bites her anyway.
Back in the vineyard, the trio leaves their hiding spot after making sure it's safe.
Edward goes outside and is amazed by the sunlight touching his skin without burning while Lionel
retrieves an old car of his.
Meanwhile, in the company, Bromley sees how all of his machines are empty now before checking
on his daughter, who is not drinking her blood rations.
Bromley enters the cell and discovers she's biting herself, which will mutate her.
She attacks her dad and blames him for everything before she's taken away.
After the military imposes martial law so they can freely fight the subsiders on the
streets, we cut to Edward, Audrey and Lionel, who are arriving at Tuner's cabin, only to
find all the humans dead.
Audrey is starting to lose hope, but Edward says he knows someone that can help.
After briefly cutting to Christoper achieving a breakout at the lab, we're shown how the
military is dragging the subsiders out in the sunlight for execution.
Alison is among them, and watching her die makes Franki re-consider his position.
Later at night, Christopher returns to his house, where he finds the trio waiting for
him.
Edward tells him he has a cure, which is better than a substitute, and asks for his help to
recreate the experiment.
Their talk is interrupted by the phone ringing, so Christopher leaves the room to take the
call.
When he takes too long to come back, they get suspicious, so Audrey goes after him while
Edward and Lionel check his coat: turns out Christopher has left his cellphone open on
a call all this time, and now everyone at the company knows where they are.
The army suddenly arrives and Audrey is knocked out and captured, but Lionel and Edward manage
to escape using the subwalk tunnels.
They decide to hide in an old abandoned garage, where they're attacked by a subsider.
Frankie arrives then and shoots the creature before noticing his brother has become human,
making him confess he only turned him because he didn't want to see him die.
He admits he made a mistake and now he wants to help, but when Lionel comes closer, his
thirst gets the better of him and he jumps on the human to bite him.
Edward grabs him and pushes him off Lionel, he's ready to shoot his brother but stops
himself when he notices something.
Moments later, we see Edward willingly entering the company building, setting off the alarms
with his human condition.
Security catches him and takes him to Bromley's office, who currently has Audrey bleeding
on a chair and is drinking her blood.
Edward tells him he regrets everything and wants to be a vampire again, upsetting Audrey
with his betrayal.
Bromley shows him they've finally found a substitute so he doesn't need Edward anymore
and calls him a coward, Edward says Bromley is a coward too because he couldn't turn his
own daughter.
Furious, Bromley bites Edward, but Edward doesn't mind - in fact, this has been his
plan all along.
Bromley starts transforming into a human and, as Edward remembers how Frankie turned as
well, he explains drinking treated vampire blood is the cure.
Bromley presses an alarm to call for security, and we cut to see a bunch of army trucks arriving
at the parking lot.
When the soldiers leave their vehicles and approach the elevator, the doors open to reveal
Bromley tied to a chair, causing the vampires to go into a frenzy and feed on him.
Meanwhile, Aubrey and Edward -now armed with weapons he's found around- go downstairs and
are about to leave the building when more soldiers arrive to block their way.
The glass doors suddenly shatter when Frankie drives Lionel's car inside, hitting all the
soldiers to save his brother.
But backup immediately arrives and now they're surrounded.
Frankie tells Edward to go before sacrificing himself, allowing all the soldiers to jump
on him and eat him.
Edward doesn't have time to grieve his death because a security guard has taken Audrey
and he must rescue her.
He follows them to the security room, where after some struggling, Edward manages to kill
two vampire guards and helps Audrey kill the third.
Then they watch on the security cameras how the soldiers that fed on Frankie became human,
and the other vampire soldiers are now attacking them as well.
A feeding massacre occurs, and by the time Edward and Audrey come back to the lobby,
only a handful of human soldiers are left standing.
Christopher shows up then and shoots a couple of soldiers, claiming there can't be a cure.
He's about to shoot them too when an arrow hits his chest and kills him, it came from
Lionel who's arrived to help.
Audrey gives him a hug while Edward watches his brother's body and the light of the rising
sun slowly makes its way inside.
The movie ends with the trio leaving on Lionel's car while Edward tells us that now they have
the cure, they can change everyone back.
It's not too late.