Vampires in Space

Last night I went and saw the movie Daybreakers, the vampire movie with Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe.  The movie is set in 2019, and the majority of the world has been turned into vampires.  Humans are an endangered species.  Ethan Hawke plays a hematologist who is working on finding a blood substitute so that the humans can repopulate.

The movie was pretty good.  It had plenty of interesting ideas on how a vampire world might look.  The interesting things were catching some of the news reports and whatnot, which usually show some of the drawbacks to no one being out in the daytime.  Willem Dafoe was pretty cool as the first former vampire, an auto mechanic who specialized into customizing cars so they could be driven during the day.  He delivers this gem of line to Ethan Hawke:  “livin’ as a human in a world full of vampires is about as safe as goin’ bareback with a five dollar whore.”

If the vampires do not receive blood, they will turn into monsters called sub-siders (they live underground).  The calculations of scientists give the planet about a month before they run out of blood.  This is the backdrop for the movie, people going crazy and attacking each other for what blood is left.  Apparently this is supposed to represent human’s dependency on fossil fuels and how we are using them at such a rapid pace.  I was actually wondering when I saw the preview if the movie was going to be more of a commentary on the “is being a homosexual a choice or is it genetic”, especially with the way some vampires are against the idea of a cure.

The way the movie ended was a little bothersome.  Ethan Hawke discovers a cure to the disease that is vampirism.  He also discovers that if a vampire bites someone who has been reverted back to human, they become human as well.  Very cool idea.  In fact, they could have run with it, showing the future past the end point, where vampires live off the substitute and humans have no fear of vampires.  For a vampire, attacking a human could mean turning back, it would never be worth the chance.

Instead, it ends with the cliched driving into the sunset with a voice-over saying something like “we have a cure. blah blah blah.”

I found it hard to believe that if the plague that changed everyone happened in 2009, that the world could recover and be running smoothly and normally by 2019.  Granted almost everyone was changed, but I highly doubt that it would just be simple conversion to everyone switching over to night time.

I would have rather seen the movie set in the year 2219.  After two hundred years, new forms of government would be set up, a whole different society might emerge.  You could keep most of the plot elements, just could add some backstory about the devastating wars that were fought by different vampire governments trying to establish themselves.

Anyways, this brings me to the title of this post, “vampires in space.”  As I was leaving the theater, I realized that vampires would make the perfect astronauts.  Especially if there was some kind of blood substitute available.

So, if we use some of the more classic vampire myths out there, such as over time vampires become stronger and need blood less often.  An old vampire might get away with taking a few pints into space.  Older vampires can sleep for long periods of time.  This comes from Anne Rice, basically her way of glossing over time periods that she is uninterested in, the vampires decide to take a century or two nap.

If we developed some kind of lightspeed travel, it would still take a long time for a human to reach anywhere.  But hey, a vampire could just sleep through it.  Only drawback, sunlight.  Well I guess more importantly UV light.  I am sure the ship would have proper shielding from any UV light, make sure the spacesuits protect them from it.  We have seen in plenty of vampire movies (this one included) that vampires can go outside during the day as long as they are properly covered.

So, I propose that NASA begin working on a method of traveling close to lightspeed.  Vampires need to volunteer for the space program.  Win-win situation.

Oh, and by the way, Isabel Lucas has a small role in the movie.  She plays a hot girl.  I think she had something to do with the plot, but I could not stop thinking about how much I want to umm….

Author: Ngewo

2 thoughts on “Vampires in Space

  1. This was pretty cool, though for some reason I felt it was missing something. I can’t quite articulate it, but walking out of the theater I didn’t feel satisfied. Perhaps there were points/scenes I subconsciously thought they missed out on or should have expanded upon. No idea. I will say that your idea of an epilogue, though novel, would not have worked properly in the hollywood’s world of “always leave room for a sequel.”

    I caught the Book of Eli after this and I thought it was a lot better. Enough to levy a recommendation.

  2. I agree the the movie was missing something, and I could not tell if that was just because I expected it to be a preachy parable about the dangers of something (which I guess the fossil fuel consumption allegory was there, but not nearly as bad as it could have been).

    and yes, i completely understand (and know) that hollywood will never just allow a movie to end. There needs to be room for the sequel.

    I want to check out Book of Eli, but I kept wondering if it was going to be just a knock off of The Road…good to know that it is good.

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