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.
