Netflix’s Daybreak is a series about a post-apocalyptic world where everyone under the age of 18 rules, and adults are all puddles of drool thanks to global biological annihilation. There are unmistakable commonalities between Daybreak and other dystopian fares such as The Walking Dead or the Mad Max movies, but Daybreak puts its own meta spin on the end of times. The result is as if John Hughes and George Romero had a lovechild.
The hero of this mashup is Josh, “Just Josh,” Wheeler (Colin Ford) who resides in what’s left of Glendale, CA. Josh is looking for the love of his life Samaira, “Sam,” Dean (Sophie Simnett) who he hasn’t seen since the bombs dropped. This new world is fraught with peril as the remaining adults are flesh-hungry “Ghoulies,” and the kids have split into murderous cliques who each occupy their own turf.
Daybreak is stuffed with pop culture references and while some slap viewers in the face, others are more subtle. Here are 10 pop culture references in Daybreak you probably missed.
The Shining
Daybreak pays homage to a multitude of films, particularly any horror movie that includes zombies any variations of the undead excluding the supernatural. Wesley Fists (Austin Crute), a self-appointed rõnin, gives shout outs to Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, along with Gymkata. His backstory is narrated by Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA who composed the music for both Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill films.
When Wesley, Josh and the tween Walter White Angelica (Alvia Alyn Lind) find themselves cornered in Josh’s apartment facing a credible threat from Turbo Bro Jock (Cody Kearsley) and his steroid-enhanced followers, another horror movie should spring to mind. Someone taunts Josh and his crew with a violent variation on a phrase made famous by the folk-fairy tale The Three Little Pigs also used and slightly modified to be far more frightening by The Shining’s Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson).
Famous Swords
Josh happens upon a useful weapon - a Katana sword. Josh understands the importance of two things 1) the need to protect oneself in the coolest way possible and 2) that every sword needs a name. He proceeds to rattle off famous swords from Game of Thrones (Needle, Longclaw), Lord of the Rings (Sting), the fictional kingdom of Camelot and its ruler King Arthur (Excalibur) and Vorpal (Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky” and Dungeons and Dragons).
Wesley possesses a replica of a sword featured in another Kurosawa classic, Throne of Blood. Only the most well-versed fans of fictional warrior culture could match those swords’ names to their proper owners/origins.
Schmuck Bait
During one of Josh’s many fourth wall moments, he uses the term “schmuck bait.” This is when the creative minds behind a movie or TV show mess with viewers’ minds to make people watch. He describes this type of manipulation as “at the end of a season when they kill a main character, but it’s actually another dude’s guts getting eaten by zombies.”
Josh is referring to The WalkingDead, season 6, episode 3, “Thank You,” when Glenn’s (Steven Yeun) fate is up in the air for several episodes after he falls from atop a dumpster into a mob of walkers. The Walking Dead may still have some diehard fans, but when it comes to the long-running AMC series, many jumped ship by season 6, and there’s plenty of non-horror fans who were never on board in the first place.
Dian Fossey
Dian Fossey’s claims to fame are her work studying mountain gorillas, her subsequent murder due to her conservation efforts and the fact Sigourney Weaver plays her in the Oscar-nominated Gorillas In the Mist (1988).
This reference is more Gen X territory and thanks to the FX series Fosse, likely to cause some confusion. It’s Angelica who goes old school when she describes her attempts to spy on Ms. Crumble, aka “the Witch” to figure out what this adult survivor is all about.
The Breakfast Club
Every reviewer on the planet is commenting on the obvious comparisons to Daybreak and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but another Hughes’ movie pops up at multiple times. When Angelica encounters Demi, head of the feminist tribe known as Cheermazons, they invite her to pledge. Torn between saving Josh or finally being accepted, Angelica chooses Josh. But before parting ways, Demi gives Angelica one of her earrings in the same way that popular princess Claire (Molly Ringwald) hands over one of her diamond studs to criminal John Bender (Judd Nelson) in The Breakfast Club.
Other Breakfast Club Easter eggs include Ms. Crumble (Krysta Rodriguez) dumping out the contents of her big, black bag Ally Sheedy style, and Eli Cardashyan (Gregory Kasyan) protecting his Dungeons and Dragons playing cards with a mini guillotine in his locker (as one stoner at Shermer High School does with his stash).
Warning Beacons Of Gondor
As Josh and Wesley leave the relative security of the mall in search of the evil child-eating Principal Michael Burr, aka"Baron Triumph" (Matthew Broderick), a member of the Jock tribe sends a signal that is unmistakably a copycat of the beacons of Gondor from The Lord of Rings: Return of the King. This antiquated but very effective warning system lets the entire kingdom of Gondor know if there’s some kind of impending attack.
In Daybreak, it’s the only effective means of communication to alert the mentally-deranged Turbo that his arch-nemesis Josh along with former tribe member Wesley is on the move.
Song Puns
Depending on your musical tastes, you may have caught the play on words of these popular song titles, or they may have gone right over your head. There’s the confrontation between Eli and Wesley that takes outside the mall. Using a boombox to prevent anyone from overhearing their highly-sensitive convo, the sweet musical stylings attract the Ghoulies. A nervous Eli warns Wesley to turn it off before “your milkshake brings all the ghouls to the yard.” Thanks, Kelis (“Milkshake” circa 2004).
As the big homecoming game and the end of the world looms, Sam and Wesley discuss his superior weed: Sam’s favorite is Get Out of My Dreams and Into My Pipe, a play on Billy Ocean’s 1985 hit, “Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car.” The most distasteful of the trio is tainting Naughty by Nature’s O.P.P. with Glendale High’s immunization drive slogan “You Down with HPV?”
Love Actually
After Principal Burr sets off an explosive to set the final steps of his plan to demolish Glendale in action, the heroes find themselves temporarily unable to hear (proximity to blast with no earplugs). This leads to a lot of scribbling on walls, Post-its, and in the case of Turbo, sizable notecards resembling those used by Kiera Knightley’s charmingly creepy stalker, Andrew Lincoln in Love Actually.
Among more pertinent information regarding the future of their dysfunctional relationship one card simply reads “say it’s carol singers.” This is a nod to the rom-com taken completely out of context. Turbo is so dim, it’s unclear if this is on purpose or just neurons miscellaneously firing in his damaged brain. He’s definitely as obsessed with Wesley as that poor guy in love with his best friend’s wife in the holiday favorite.
Star Wars
Is it even possible not to refer to the expansive and epic Star Wars franchise when dealing with pop culture? Apparently not, because it does show up in Daybreak. As Eli prepares to deliver fake prisoner Josh to Baron Triumph (his Vader-esque mask is not likely a detail you missed) nor does Eli’s comparison of himself and Josh to Han Solo and Chewbacca.
Josh holds a dying Eli. who is clad partially in Vader garb, in his arms much like Luke does Vader. Josh also has a ton of daddy issues. Josh is also tapped to save the world, so there’s that.
Cootie Catcher
Unless you were ever a middle school girl with time to kill in class, it’s not likely you’re unfamiliar with the cootie catcher. This paper fortune-telling contraption tells the future using numbers and colors. Usually reserved for such important intel as which boy a girl will marry, the cootie catcher gets an upgrade in Daybreaker.
The fact that Ms. Crumble figures out it’s the Cheermazons’ secret code to finding their hidden lair demonstrates just how girly a cootie catcher is. Even when used by women determined to kill all men and rule the world.
