Daybreakers is a 2009 science-fiction horror film written and directed by Australian filmmakers Michael and Peter Spierig. The film takes place in 2019, where a plague has turned most of the planet's human population into vampires. A vampiric corporation sets out to capture and farm the remaining humans while researching a blood substitute. Lead vampire hematologist Edward Dalton's (Ethan Hawke) work is interrupted by human survivors led by former vampire "Elvis" (Willem Dafoe), who has a cure that can save the human species.

Daybreakers premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the United Kingdom on 6 January 2010 and in North America on 8 January 2010. The film grossed over $US50 million and received a mixed to positive critical reception.

Plot[link]

In 2009, a plague caused by a vampire bat has transformed 95% of the world's human population into vampires. As the vampires are incapable of aging or dying, but are unprotected against the UV lights or the sunlight, the whole vampire world is active at night. Human numbers dwindle and the need for blood becomes desperate while an all-out war rages around the world between the surviving humans and vampires despite their efforts. When deprived of blood for extended periods, vampires degenerate into subsiders: aggressive bat-like creatures. Humans are captured and harvested in laboratory farms while scientists research a synthetic blood substitute to satisfy vampires' blood hunger.

In 2019, the main supplier of animal and human blood in the United States is the pharmaceutical company Bromley Marks, run by Charles Bromley (Sam Neill). Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) and Chris Caruso (Vince Colosimo) are the main company hematologists working on the blood substitute. Under pressure from Charles, they try multiple versions in a series of failing clinical trials, due to the fact that the human race is inhabitating only 5% of the world and that the vampire race has only enough blood to supply the population until the end of the month. In personal life, Edward is single, living in the suburbia specially designed for the main employers of the Bromley Marks, and he secretly refuses to drink human blood, and also faces a strained relationship with his brother, Frankie (Michael Dorman), a human-hunting soldier who joined the army.

Due to his refusal to drink human blood, Edward begins to notice signs that he is becoming a subsider. While driving home from work he notices his ears are becoming pointed (a key indicator) by looking at himself in his vanity view screen. Distracted, he almost collides with another car, which swerves to avoid him and hits a power substation. Edward exits his car to check on the passengers of the other vehicle, who are revealed to be a group of humans led by Audrey (Claudia Karvan). Edward rescues and hides humans from vampire patrols while they attempt to win allies amongst the vampires. Edward lets the group to go in his car, and activates the UV sun protection to hide them inside as the police arrive, and tells the officers that they ran off in another direction. Audrey then leads the group of humans away, but not before stealing Edward's ID badge in the car.

Later, Audrey appears at Edward's home and asks for his help, presumably because of his human sympathies and scientific specialty. He meets Lionel "Elvis" Cornack (Willem Dafoe), a mechanic who was specialized in upgrading cars with UV light protections. He talks to him, but Frankie arrives and they are forced to run against the soldiers. They manage to escape them, and they arrive at the old road near the river. Elvis sits back and tells Ed his story; One day, he was driving in the middle of the noon on a old curved road, but he noticed his hand slowly drying (he wasn't taking blood for a few days), and he didn't notice a fence near the river. He crashed and fell down, burning on the exposed sunlight, and fell into the river, and suddenly, he was turned into a human again, and he was found by Audrey short after.

That night, Ed arrives with Elvis and Audrey at the old wineyard, which is turned out to be the last human colony hiding in the world. Ed meets with the other human survivors, but he also meets Senator Turner (Jay Laga'aia), a vampire who secretly helps the colony to find a cure. While a convoy of humans is heading to Audrey's group, they are ambushed by vampire soldiers, although they affect heavy casualties, all were tranquilized and captured by Bromley soldiers. One soldier finds the radio and the soldiers track the position of the wineyard- and the rest of the group is forced to flee the wineyard. Audrey, Elvis and Ed stay behind so Ed can be turned back. After some experimentation, Edward is able to reverse the vampire effect and he is cured himself.

Meanwhile, one of the convoy inhabitants is Alison (Isabel Lucas), who wakes up in Charles' office. She is revealed to be his daughter, who ran away after the outbreak of the plague, not accepting her father as a vampire, and running away from home. Charles, wanting to have his daughter back, has her Frankie forcibly turned her. She refuses to drink human blood, but feeds on her own instead - and thus begins to turn into a subsider. She is killed when a group of the creatures are rounded up and executed. Witnessing Alison's death upsets Frankie and he seeks out his brother. Meanwhile, Bromley Marks has exhausted their reserves of blood, and the army arrives in the cities, destroying subsiders to control the population.

Meanwhile, Edward, Elvis, and Audrey break into Chris' home and speak to him, asking to help spread the cure. However, Chris has finally discovered a viable blood substitute and does not want a cure to become widespread. He calls in vampire soldiers, who capture Audrey while Elvis and Edward escape into hiding. They are finally found by Frankie, who agrees to help but is gradually becoming a subsider. He attacks Elvis and they discover that feeding on a former vampire is another cure for vampires to turn back to humans.

Edward, trying to save Audrey, turns himself in and goads Charles into attacking him. Edward uses the now-cured Charles to cure a group of soldiers experiencing the beginning of subsider aggression. Edward and Audrey, cornered by more soldiers, are rescued when Frankie sacrifices himself to the soldiers. This sparks a feeding frenzy that leaves all of the soldiers dead or cured. They are confronted by Chris, who kills the few remaining cured soldiers to hide the evidence of the cure. Just as Chris points his gun at him, Elvis arrives and rescues Edward and Audrey by shooting him in the chest with a crossbow, killing him. Edward looks sadly to his dead brother, and Audrey, Edward and Elvis turn back and brightly watch as the sunrise brights at the window.

The three survivors then drive away into the sunrise with a voice-over by Edward stating that they have a cure and can change others back.

Cast[link]

• Ethan Hawke as Edward Dalton
• Willem Dafoe as Lionel "Elvis" Cormac
• Sam Neill as Charles Bromley
• Claudia Karvan as Audrey Bennett
• Michael Dorman as Frankie Dalton
• Isabel Lucas as Alison Bromley
• Vince Colosimo as Christopher Caruso
• Robyn Moore as Forensic Investigator Simms
• Jay Laga'aia as Senator Turner

Production[link]

In November 2004, Lionsgate acquired the script to Daybreakers, written by Peter and Michael Spierig. The brothers, who directed Undead (2003), were attached to direct Daybreakers.^[2] In September 2006, the brothers received financing from Film Finance Corporation Australia, with production set to take place in Queensland.^[3] In May 2007, actor Ethan Hawke was cast into the lead role.^[4] Later in the month, actor Sam Neill joined the cast as the main antagonist. Daybreakers began filming on the Gold Coast at Warner Bros. Movie World studios and in Brisbane on 16 July 2007.^[5] The production budget was $US21 million, with the State Government contributing $US1 million to the filmmakers.^[6] Principal photography was completed on schedule in September 2007, with reshoots following to extend key sequences.^[7]

Weta Workshop created the creature effects for Daybreakers.^[4] The Spierig brothers wanted the vampires in the film to have a classical aesthetic to them while feeling like a more contemporary interpretation. After experimenting with complex makeup designs, they decided that a more minimalistic approach to makeup had a more powerful effect.^[8]

Hawke was initially hesitant to join the production as he was "not a big fan" of genre films. He ultimately accepted the role as Edward after deciding the story felt "different" to that of a typical B movie.^[8] Hawke described the film as an allegory of man's pacing with natural resources, "We're eating our own resources so people are trying to come up with blood substitutes, trying to get us off of foreign humans."^[9] The actor also said that despite the serious allegory, the film was "low art" and "completely unpretentious and silly".^[9]

Release[link]

Daybreakers premiered on 11 September 2009 at the 34th Annual Toronto International Film Festival. The film was released on 6 January 2010 in the UK and Ireland, 8 January 2010 in North America, and 4 February 2010 in Australia.

Critical reception[link]

The film currently holds a 67% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 132 reviews,^[10] as well as a weighted average score of 57 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 31 reviews.^[11] Variety gave the film a mixed to positive review stating the film had a "cold, steely blue, black and gray 'Matrix'-y look" going on to say Daybreakers "emerges as a competent but routine chase thriller that lacks attention-getting dialogue, unique characters or memorable setpieces that might make it a genre keeper rather than a polished time-filler."^[12] Rolling Stone gave the film two and a half out of four stars and called the film a B movie and a "nifty genre piece".^[13] Roger Ebert also gave the film two and a half stars stating the "intriguing premise ... ends as so many movies do these days, with fierce fights and bloodshed."^[14] Richard Roeper gave the film a B+ and called it "a bloody good time."^[15]

Box office[link]

As of October 2010, the box gross was $US51,416,464.^[1] In its opening weekend in the United States, Daybreakers opened at #4 behind Avatar, Sherlock Holmes and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel with $US15,146,692 in 2,523 theaters, averaging $US6,003 per theater.^[16]

Home media[link]

Daybreakers was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States on May 11, 2010 and in the United Kingdom on May 31, 2010.^[17] The UK DVD copy was rated as an 18 instead of the original 15 rating that was used for cinema release. It has been announced that the film will be converted to 3D and 3D Blu-ray will be released in November 2011.^{[dated info][18]}

References[link]

External links[link]

• Daybreakers at the Internet Movie Database
• Daybreakers at Rotten Tomatoes
• Daybreakers at Box Office Mojo

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2012)

"The Man" is a slang phrase that may refer to the government or to some other authority in a position of power. In addition to this derogatory connotation, it may also serve as a term of respect and praise.

The phrase "the Man is keeping me down" is commonly used to describe oppression. The phrase "stick it to the Man" encourages resistance to authority, and essentially means "fight back" or "resist", either openly or via sabotage.^[1]

History[link]

The earliest recorded use^{[citation needed]} of the term "the Man" in the American sense dates back to a letter written by a young Alexander Hamilton in September 1772, when he was 15. In a letter to his father James Hamilton, published in the Royal Dutch-American Gazette, he described the response of the Dutch governor of St. Croix to a hurricane that raked that island on August 31, 1772. "Our General has issued several very salutary and humane regulations and both in his publick and private measures, has shewn himself the Man." ^{[2][dubious – discuss]} In the Southern U.S. states, the phrase came to be applied to any man or any group in a position of authority, or to authority in the abstract. From about the 1950s the phrase was also an underworld code word for police, the warden of a prison or other law enforcement or penal authorities.

It was also used as a term for a drug dealer in the 1950s and 1960s and can be seen in such media as Curtis Mayfield's "No Thing On Me", William Burroughs's novel Naked Lunch, and in the Velvet Underground song "I'm Waiting for the Man", in which Lou Reed sings about going to Uptown Manhattan, specifically Lexington Avenue and 125th Street, to buy heroin.

The use of this term was expanded to counterculture groups and their battles against authority, such as the Yippies, which, according to a May 19, 1969 article in U.S. News and World Report, had the "avowed aim ... to destroy 'The Man', their term for the present system of government". The term eventually found its way into humorous usage, such as in a December 1979 motorcycle ad from the magazine Easyriders which featured the tagline, "California residents: Add 6% sales tax for The Man."

In present day, the phrase has been popularized in commercials and cinema, featuring particularly prominently as a recurring motif in the 2003 film School of Rock.^[3][4][5][6]

Use as praise[link]

The term has also been used as an approbation or form of praise. This may refer to the recipient's status as the leader or authority within a particular context, or it might be assumed to be a shortened form of a phrase like "He is the man (who is in charge)." One example of this usage dates to 1879 when Otto von Bismarck commented, referring to Benjamin Disraeli's pre-eminent position at the Congress of Berlin, "The old Jew, he is the man."^{[7][dubious – discuss]}

In more modern usage, it can be a superlative compliment ("you da man!") indicating that the subject is currently standing out amongst his peers even though they have no special designation or rank, such as a basketball player who is performing better than the other players on the court. It can also be used as a genuine compliment with an implied, slightly exaggerated or sarcastic tone, usually indicating that the person has indeed impressed the speaker but by doing something relatively trivial.

See also[link]

• Absentee landlord
• Big Brother (Nineteen Eighty-Four)
• New World Order (conspiracy theory)
• Ruling class
• The Establishment
• Power elite
• Corrections officer
• YTMND

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Lighter, J.E. (Ed.). (1997). Random House Dictionary of American Slang. New York: Random House.