Daybreakers
| Daybreakers | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | The Spierig Brothers |
| Produced by | Chris Brown Sean Furst Bryan Furst |
| Written by | The Spierig Brothers |
| Starring |
Ethan Hawke Willem Dafoe Claudia Karvan Michael Dorman Sam Neill Vince Colosimo Isabel Lucas |
| Music by | Christopher Gordon |
| Cinematography | Ben Nott |
| Edited by | Matt Villa |
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Production
company |
Lionsgate
Screen Australia Pictures in Paradise Film Finance Corporation Australia Pacific Film & Television Commission Furst Films |
| Distributed by | Lionsgate |
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Release date
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Running time
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98 minutes |
| Country | Australia United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20 million |
| Box office | $51.4 million |
Daybreakers is a 2009 Australian-American science fiction horror film written and directed by Australian filmmakers Michael and Peter Spierig. The film takes place in a futuristic world overrun by 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 mixed critical reception.
It is 2019. A plague in 2009 caused by a mutant vampire bat has transformed most of the world's population into vampires, so that the world is no longer controlled by humans. Vampires do not age or die from natural causes, but are susceptible to sunlight or any ultraviolet light. The vampire world is active at night, and various innovations are made to adapt technology and architecture to their night-based cycle (such as UV-proof cars, underground railways and paths across the cities, and UV warnings).
The human population has plummeted, and the need for blood becomes desperate. Vampires deprived of blood for long periods degenerate into "subsiders," psychotic bat-like creatures with no memories whose only thought is the craving for blood. The few remaining humans are captured and harvested in laboratory farms while scientists research a synthetic blood substitute to satisfy vampires' blood hunger world-wide, while animal blood is also widely used.
Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) is the head hematologist for the pharmaceutical company Bromley Marks, the largest supplier of human blood in the US. He and colleague Christopher Caruso (Vince Colosimo) are developing a blood substitute that can be generated as required. The urgency is underscored when Dalton's boss, company owner Charles Bromley (Sam Neill), reveals that the estimated human population is down to 5%, and national blood supplies will not last more than a month. Edward and Chris carry out a hurried clinical trial of the latest revision on a soldier volunteer, which spectacularly and gruesomely fails when the soldier suffers painful side-effects and explodes.
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