Character Relationship Map: Daybreakers

Characters

• Edward Dalton (played by Ethan Hawke) — protagonist

  Head hematologist at Bromley Marks, a vampire who refuses to drink human blood and works on a synthetic substitute. After accidentally encountering humans, he meets Audrey and cured vampire Elvis, hel...

• Charles Bromley (played by Sam Neill) — protagonist

  Powerful CEO of Bromley Marks who eagerly awaits a blood substitute to sell while secretly keeping pure human blood for wealthy vampires. His daughter is turned but dies, and Edward later taunts him i...

• Lionel 'Elvis' Cormac (played by Willem Dafoe) — supporting

  A human who was cured of vampirism after a car crash exposed him to sunlight and river water. He theorizes the cure, works with Edward and Audrey to recreate it, and later kills Christopher to save Ed...

• Alison Bromley (played by Isabel Lucas) — supporting

  Daughter of Charles Bromley and one of the captured humans. She is forcibly turned by Frankie, refuses to drink human blood, degenerates into a subsider, and is executed by being dragged into sunlight...

• Christopher Caruso (played by Vince Colosimo) — supporting

  Edward's colleague at Bromley Marks, involved in blood substitute trials. After finally creating a viable substitute, he rejects the cure, captures Audrey, and is killed by Cormac.

Canonical Relationships

Family, romantic, and professional connections based on plot evidence.

• Christopher Caruso → Charles Bromley (Professional Corporate Associate) — Christopher's research serves the corporate system controlled by Charles.

  Christopher works at Bromley Marks, the company led by Charles, and develops the substitute Charles wants to commercialize.

• Edward Dalton → Charles Bromley (Professional Employee) — Edward works within Charles's corporate organization while opposing its blood-based system.

  Edward is the head hematologist at Bromley Marks, whose powerful CEO is Charles Bromley.

• Charles Bromley → Alison Bromley (Family Father) — Charles is Alison's father, but his authoritarian decisions contribute to her tragic fate.

  The plot explicitly reveals that Alison Bromley is Charles Bromley's beloved daughter.

• Edward Dalton → Christopher Caruso (Professional Colleague) — They share a scientific workplace and initially cooperate on the substitute.

  The plot identifies Christopher as Edward's colleague at Bromley Marks and places them together on blood-substitute research.

Story Dynamics

Alliances, conflicts, and narrative interactions that evolve throughout the story.

• Edward Dalton → Alison Bromley (Narrative Cure Beneficiary) — Alison's fate illustrates the human population Edward is trying to save.

  Edward's cure research is intended to prevent humans from being wiped out, while Alison is one of the humans endangered by forced vampirism.

• Lionel 'Elvis' Cormac → Christopher Caruso (Conflict Mortal Opponent) — Their conflict ends with Cormac protecting the cure's surviving carriers.

  After Christopher attempts to shoot Edward and Audrey, Cormac kills Christopher to save them.

• Edward Dalton → Lionel 'Elvis' Cormac (Alliance Cure Partner) — They become the central scientific and survival partnership in the film.

  Edward agrees to help Cormac recreate the sunlight cure and prevent humans from being wiped out.

Story Analysis

A vampire-controlled civilization collapses under a blood shortage until a discovered cure offers humanity a path to restoration.

Plot Progression

1. A Civilization Without Humans — The plague has made vampires the dominant population, while blood shortages create subsiders and threaten social stability. Edward works inside the system but refuses to consume human blood.
2. The Survivor With A Cure — Edward encounters hidden humans and learns from Cormac, a former vampire who became human after brief sunlight exposure. Edward accepts the mission of recreating the cure.
3. Experiments And Loss — Military pressure drives the human refuge into hiding, while Edward and Cormac conduct painful cure trials. Edward becomes human, but the remaining human refuge is later massacred.
4. The Cost Of Refusal — Alison is forcibly turned and dies as a subsider after refusing human blood. Christopher completes the substitute but rejects the cure, deepening the conflict over humanity's future.
5. Blood That Restores Humanity — Edward discovers that cured blood can transform vampires and surrenders to Charles to use that fact against him. Christopher dies, and the survivors carry the cure into sunrise.