You know what the problem was with Twilight? It’s flimsy set of rules. Now I understand in most movies, comics, TV shows, etc. have their own set of rules when it comes to mythical creatures that we can either agree or disagree. But at least they elaborate the rules through narrative expositions which help fits in the story/world. Take for example the sparkling in Twilight; yeah it’s a stupid concept but it is established as a rule in the movie. But the real complaint is how the series fails to elaborate on what purpose does the sparkling serves in the film’s story/world. Does the sparkling make the vampires look intimating, is it a natural mechanism that helps the vampires lure their prey, or is it some physical reaction for the vampires to attract a suitable mate? Lack of narrative exposition is what I’m saying about Twilight. Luckily Daybreakers has no such problems with narrative expositions.
We open on a little girl who writes a suicide letter than sits outside waiting for the sunrise. As the sun slowly upon her she starts to burst into flames and dies. Apparently she was a vampire who doesn’t want to live on unable to age or die. The year is 2019 and most of the earth’s population had become vampires due to an outbreak that occurred ten years ago. Since then the vampire population has adapted to night communing and has created technological measures in adapting in the daylight. Such as the Subwalks (underground walkways) and modified cars with dark UV windshields and all directional cameras to see outside. Only 5% of the population are still human, those who have not been infected by the outbreak or refused to become vampires. Cut to Edward Dalton (played by Ethan Hawke) a chief Hematologist for the Bromley Marks Pharmaceuticals. Edward is put in charged by the company to create a blood substitute due to the massive shortage of human blood. Not only that but when a vampire has not been feeding they began to change; transforming into hideous, mindless bat-like creatures or Subsiders that will attack everyone (even other vampires) to obtain blood. After a board meeting, Edward is talking his boss Charles Bromley (played by Sam Neill). Bromley takes notice on Edward not drinking his blood-filled coffee figuring that he petties the humans. Bromley persuades Edward to test the blood substitute as the only way to preserve the human race. Cut to a lab Edward still doesn’t want to test the substitute yet, but his lab assistant Christopher Caruso (played by Vince Colosimo) is certain that the substitute is ready after animal testing. Oh yeah, apparently the outbreak turned animals into vampires. Shortly after, we cut to an experiment of the substitute on a vampire volunteer. All seems to be going well as Edward injects the substitute into the volunteer. However, after the injection is complete the volunteer begins to suffer a violent reaction to the substitute. Edward injects the volunteer with a sedative to counter the substitute which works, however, soon after the volunteer completely explodes. Eat your heart out Scanners.
After that failure Edward is driving home but takes notice of his ears looking rather pointy. Most likely because of his refusal to drink human; Edward is distracted not seeing the oncoming car until the last second and swerves off to the side. The oncoming car swerves off the road crashes to into a nearby street power generator. Edward checks on the people in the car only to turn to be humans as a woman exits the car and shoots Edward in the arm with a crossbow. These humans are about to run as they hear a police siren but Edward offers to help them by hiding them in his car, activating the Daytime Driving Protection mode. The vampire cops….never thought I say that….arrive at the scene and Edward plays dumb, managed to send the cops on a wild goose chase. The humans all make a run for it as the cops leave but not before the woman with the crossbow spots Edward’s Bromley Marks Pharmaceuticals ID. Edward returns home but soon to some company from his brother Frankie (played by Michael Dorman) who works for a division that hunts humans for farming. Apparently it’s Edward’s 35th birthday (for the tenth time) and wishes to celebrate with a bottle of human blood. Edward refuses to drink which upsets Frankie and the two start arguing. Edward hopes that the blood substitute will end human hunting but Frankie thinks that it won’t end anything. Edward then takes the bottle and pours it in the sink but Frankie stops him leaving not so much left. Frankie gets mad and throws it at a wall and was about to leave until he is stopped by a Subsider that had snuck in the house. It smells the blood in the kitchen and starts feeding on them. Frankie grabs a kitchen knife but the Subsider knocks him across to the next room. Edward tries to fend off the Subsider until Frankie gets back on his feet. The Subsider leaps and clings upside down on the celling; Frankie manages to wound it with a cut to the gut, gushing out blood. Frankie then geos Conner MacLeod by chopping the Subsider’s head off; killing it dead. Later cops are at the scene, apparently there have been Subsiders invading suburban areas as of late. One of the examiners removes a wedding ring off the Subsider’s finger and reads the names on it. Edward recognizes the name Carl who was a gardener.
Cut to morning Edward is awaken by the security alarm and goes to looking around. Soon after Edward comes face to face with the crossbow woman Audrey Bennett (played by Claudia Karvan) from last night; she asked him for help that he can provide her and the others humans to find a cure. Audrey gives Edward a note of a location to meet at Gordon Creek, Wednesday at noon. Audrey then leaves when Edward hears a door opening upstairs. After having a chat with Bromley, Edward heads to the meeting place where Audrey is waiting for him. She tells Edward that “he’s waiting” for him by a large tree. Edward parks the car under the tree to stay in from the sun; on the other side of the tree he meets up with a Lionel “Elvis” Cormac (played by Willem Dafoe). Edward is shocked when it’s revealed that Elvis used to be a vampire but no longer. The two are interrupted by Audrey who got captured by Frankie (who was following Edward apparently); Edward tries to reason with Frankie and he’s not listening. Audrey pushes Frankie near a spot where sunlight is shining through tree, mildly burning his face. Elvis uses this opportunity to knock out Frankie; more human hunters are approaching as they take out Elvis’s car with machine guns. Edward tells the two to get to his car and they comply; the three drive off as the human hunters continue they pursuit. The human hunters are catching up to Edward and the others and open fire on them. The back windshield is damaged and small proportions of sunlight enter the car; Audrey covers the bullet holes blocking the sunlight. The human hunters continuing firing and hit the directional cameras on the car rendering Edward unable to drive; Elvis switch places with Edward to drive by seeing out of the bullet holes. The car chase continues as Elvis drives onto a forest trail heading to a closed down bridge. Elvis managed to drive the car on the rails of the bridge to the other side making their escape where as one of the human hunter jeeps cause the rails to break crashing into broken rails and explode.
Cut to nighttime when Edward and the others arrived at a reservoir; since the outbreak Elvis was one of the first who specialized in daylight modifications on cars. We cut to a flashback where Elvis (back then was still a vampire) is driving while it’s daytime and apparently he has been going on without blood leaving him distracted from driving. Elvis then crashed into a rail post and is thrown through the windshield. In an instant Elvis starts burning in the sunlight but soon after splash into the reservoir. Afterwards Elvis soon recovers and steps into the sun, this time the sun doesn’t harm him as he is now human as the flashback ends. Edward is surprise to learn that Elvis is human because of the sun and Audrey wants to recreate that event safely. Back on the road Edward and the others are heading somewhere until Audrey notices Edward’s ears and ask Elvis to stop the car. She asked Edward how long has since last he drank blood but he tells her that he’s fine. Not too convinced to that answer, Audrey cuts her hand and spills blood in her cup and gives it to him. Edward refuses to drink but Audrey tells him that where they’re going she can’t afford to worry about him around the others. Edward takes the cup and finally drinks the blood; he and the others arrived at Audrey’s vineyard where other humans have made it their home for the time being. Audrey talks to Jarvis (played by Christopher Kirby) who tells her that he’s made contact with a large number of humans and heads out to bring them to the vineyard. Inside Edward meets up with Senator Wes Turner (played by Jay Laga’aia) who is a vampire working with the humans. Evidently he and other vampires in office want this cure, to rebuild the human race as it were. Back in vampire central news is going around about the escalating global blood crisis has prices skyrocketed; rendering blood unobtainable to many citizens across and may create a Subsider Epidemic.
Back at the vineyard Edward is examining Elvis’s blood asking how his blood is now human given that Edward has testing infected blood under UV before and the blood remains infected. All Elvis can answer is when the sunlight touch him it was like a bolt of lightning kick-starting his heart. Edward speculated that to treat the blood is inside the body, they need to control a daylight burn. A little bit later Audrey gets a call from Jarvis that the pick was successful and they are heading back. People are unease when Edward enters a room but Audrey insures him that they have no doubt that he’ll help them. Out of curiosity Audrey asked Edward how he became a vampire; he answers fragmentally that he was betrayed by his brother. This indicates that Frankie forcefully turned Edward into a vampire. Edward takes notice of a Fermentation tank which is airtight; he believes that it’s perfect to use to put the fire since the tank has an extraction fan. Cut to nighttime as Jarvis’s convoy is still en route to the vineyard; Jarvis’s vehicle gets which stops the convoy. Jarvis checks the tire and finds a tranq dart which indicates that the human hunters have located the convoy. Jarvis and the other humans armed themselves with crossbows and bow n’ arrows; a few humans are tranq down and Jarvis fires into darkness and hits a hunter. From the exploding hunter Jarvis can see that the convoy is surrounded and the other humans open fire. The human hunters continue tranqing the humans until all but one girl are taken out. The young girl grabs a walkie talkie and calls the vineyard asking for help but she’s tranq immediately. Elvis is on the walkie talkie trying to get a response but isn’t aware of Frankie obtaining the walkie from the girl and managed to trace the signal back to the vineyard. With that most of the humans are leaving the vineyard to the Senator’s seclude cabin. Edward wants to stay behind in order to finish the experiment so Audrey and Elvis stood behind as well.
Back at Bromley Marks Pharmaceuticals the young girl from the convoy awakes in Bromley’s office and Bromley himself enters feeling relieved that she’s safe. It’s revealed that the young girl is Bromley’s daughter Alison (played by Isabel Lucas). Alison demands her father not to have friends harm but Bromley can’t do anything about them. Alison stabs Bromley with a letter opener and leaves the office but is stopped by a human hunter. Cut to morning at the vineyard, Edward and the others are ready for the experiment as human hunters are faster approaching the vineyard. Edward and Elvis enter the modified Fermentation tank and Audrey is ready to start the experiment. Inside the tank Elvis opens a hatch that lets in the sunlight on to Edward and quickly closes it. So far no change on the heart monitor and they try again; after two more tries Audrey gets a compete heartbeat on the monitor. Indicating that Edward is human again as she and Elvis sees his eyes changing to normal. Meanwhile the human hunters have arrived at the vineyard only to find no one as Edward and the others are hiding in a large vat of wine. Cut back to Bromley Marks Pharmaceuticals as Bromley is recovering; Frankie enters the room to check up on him. Bromley asked Frankie a favor; actually more of a dick move. Cut to Alison in a holding cell as Frankie enters; he then proceeds to turn her into a vampire forcefully. Like I said, a dick move; though it doesn’t work out too well. Cut to later as Bromley checks on Alison only to see her not drinking the blood rations. Bromley tries to reason Alison but she’s rather too pissed off to listen (and frankly I sympathies) as she smears her blood on Bromley’s face and is taken away. Meanwhile the military has organized an operation to take care of the Subsider Epidemic. Meanwhile, meanwhile Edward and the others arrived at the Senator’s cabin but only to find the humans drained and the Senator dead. Elvis suggested they start over but Audrey is not so sure how; Edward knows someone who may help them (Caruso).
Back at vamp central the military has gathered most of the Subsiders and begun killing them by sunlight; Alison is among them. The Subsiders are being dragged out into the sunlight and all are burned to ashes. Later Caruso returns home only to find Edward, Audrey and Elvis waiting for him. Caruso is shocked to see Edward human again; Edward tells him that there’s a cure and he needs Caruso’s help to recreate the procedure. Caruso gets a call but is hesitant to answer; he finally does answer and takes the call to other room. Audrey goes off to check on him as Edward notice something in his jacket pocket. Audrey is in the kitchen and is tranq by a human hunter while Edward grabs a phone from Caruso’s jacket pocket seeing that it’s still on. He and Elvis are attacked but they make their retreat through the Subwalk. They managed to get away and kept going through the Subwalk all the way to Elvis’s garage. The two are spooked by a Subsider but is quickly taken out by Frankie who has followed them. Frankie is in shocked to see his brother human; Edward tells him that found a cure and he can change Frankie back. Frankie doesn’t want that and then he confesses to Edward why he turned him; basically Frankie didn’t want his brother to die, that he didn’t want to lose him. Edward asked him for help to get Audrey and Frankie agrees; Elvis approaches Frankie to disarm him but Frankie is taken in by the hunger and bites Elvis. Edward gets him off of Elvis and is about to shoot him but hesitates for some reason. Now trust me all we be explained in a minute.
Cut to Edward arrived at Bromley Marks Pharmaceuticals where he gets captured and taken to Bromley. At the office Edward finds Audrey alive but Bromley is feeding off her. Bromley tells Edward that Caruso has succeeded in creating a blood substitute and will be put in mass production. Meaning to Bromley that Edward’s so called cure is unnecessary; in other words Bromley is a greedy bastard and wants to money from the blood substitute. Shockingly even to Audrey, Edward admits that he can’t live on being human and begs Bromley to change him back along with Audrey. If doing so Edward will show him how to repopulate the human race. But since a suitable blood substitute is found, Bromley finds Edward needed no further and declines his offer. Bromley then bites Edward but something is happening to Bromley as we cut back to Elvis (surprisingly is still human) and Frankie. Here it’s revealed that Frankie too is now human; meaning when a vampire is back to being human they’re now a carrier of treated vampire blood. And when another vampire feeds on that blood they too return human; which is what’s happening to Bromley now that he fed on Edward. Bromley sets off an alarm but Edward barricades the door; meanwhile more human hunters arrive at Bromley Marks Pharmaceuticals. Most of the human hunters stopped at an elevator as it opens to reveal Bromley tied to a chair. The human hunters all feast on Bromley as he’s being torn apart like the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. “First they took my arms off and throw them over there, and then they took my head off and throw it over there”. Anyway Edward and Audrey make their way to the lobby but are stopped by more human hunters; Frankie drives through the lobby doors stopping the hunters. Frankie tries to example that there’s a cure but the hunters are taken by the bloodlust and feast on him. Audrey is taken by vamp security guard and Edward soon follows; meanwhile some of the some of the hunters have turned human leaving the remaining hunters to feed on them. Edward breaks into the security room and takes the guards saving Audrey. Cut back to the lobby where the remaining hunters are now human as Edward and Audrey reenters the lobby. As Edward hovers over the dead body of Frankie the cured hunters are gunned down by Caruso; evidently he doesn’t to be a cure. Caruso is about to shoot Edward and Audrey but gets an arrow in the chest by Elvis. The three leave as the sun rises; the movie ends with Edward saying “we have a cure….we can change you back….it’s not too late”.
My Final Verdict: This is what Twilight has been missing; a stable world building that sets up the setting more naturally and not just throwing in vampires in the hopes of making a boring story sound cool. I like how after the population became vampires they quickly adapt with certain technologies that further this world’s setting. Despite a society of organized vampires this movie does a smart job of establishing existing problems that slowly disrupts this organized society. You got the blood shortage that causes even the high class to become disorganized and desperate. And how the movie makes being a vampire deeply ironic; as if being a vampire is not all that great given how they struggle to feed themselves or they become mindless bat-like creatures. And that’s another thing Twilight is missing it doesn’t bother to establish the possible tradeoffs and consequences of being a vampire. Hell it would’ve help Bella stop being so annoyingly, selfishly enthusiastic of becoming a vampire. Remember the little girl from the beginning and how she immediately sees the downside of being a vampire and says fuck that shit when she kills herself. If that little girl can show this level of intelligence why can’t Bella Swan? Now there’s another movie before Daybreakers that features vampires and humans living/working in an established society called The Breed. And I would most likely review it someday.
So that’s over with next week its werewolf Joker as we look into Wolf, stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment