The Night Eats the World (La Nuit a dévoré le monde in French) is a 2018 French zombie film directed by Dominique Rocher and starring Anders Danielsen Lie, Golshifteh Farahani and Denis Lavant. It is based on the book of the same name by Pit Agarman.
The film follows the story of Sam, an amateur musician living in Paris. One evening, he stops by his ex-girlfriend's apartment to pick up a box of tapes and ends up falling asleep. When he wakes the next morning, he discovers that a Zombie Apocalypse has ravaged Paris during the night, and that he is now one of the few survivors left in the city. He barricades himself inside the apartment building while wondering how long he can last in such silence, fighting off the zombies, starvation, and ultimately loneliness.
This film provides examples of:
- Accidental Murder: Sam hears a noise outside his bedroom during the night and, thinking it to be zombies, shoots through his door. It turns out to be a young woman, who he immediately begins providing first aid to. Although it appears as if she recovered, it's later revealed Sam was imagining this, and she actually died of her wounds.
- All Just a Dream: It turns out Sam was hallucinating "Sarah". She really did die on his bed.
- And the Adventure Continues: A very bleak, but also hopeful example. Sam finally escapes the apartment building by swinging across to the adjacent rooftops, and the film ends as he looks out across the city of Paris, with it being clear that his long and dangerous journey to safety is only just beginning.
- Apocalypse How: Quite possibly Class 2. Zombies suddenly appear in Paris and human civilisation seemingly collapses overnight, with no visible military intervention occuring even months after the initial outbreak. However, the film follows a single survivor as he's isolated inside an apartment building, so the true scale of the apocalypse is unknown.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Sam isn't a bad person really, but after failing to adopt a street cat and noticing the thing is perfectly happy around the zombies, decides to shoot it out of frustration and bitterness.
- Bittersweet Ending: Sam discovers that he killed "Sarah", but he realizes he needs to let go, so he sets Alfred free and burns the tapes he came to the apartment for in the first place. The fire triggers the alarm, which sends the zombies berserk and allows them to break in. Sam escapes to the roof of a nearby building thanks to "Sarah's" equipment, and he looks out at the horizon of rooftops before him, showing that this is just the beginning of his journey.
- Boring, but Practical: While Sam's plan of staying inside and basically doing bugger all may sound rather dull, he did see other people attempting to escape the city and lets just say it didn't go very well for them.
- Chekhov's Gun: It was a good thing that Sam got Alfred out of the elevator shaft near the end, as he uses it to escape the apartment when the zombies break in and block the stairs in the end.
- Death of a Child:
- Sam watches a family with a little girl attempt to make an escape by car. Unfortunately, the zombies catch up to them and swarm into the vehicle to eat them, with the obvious implication that the child is devoured alongside her parents.
- A zombie child is among the zombie family occupying one of the apartments, Sam eventually shoots her to scavenge food from their kitchen.
- Devoured by the Horde: Sam has a nightmare of zombies breaking into the apartment and devouring him alive. Earlier in the film, he sees this happen for real to a family outside the building.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Quite possibly "Sarah". Her camera reveals she had noticed Sam standing on the roof of the apartment building, and had probably decided to introduce herself to him. However, she apparently thought the best time to do this was at night, in the dark and without calling out to him first. Sam, already on edge from a nightmare he had, shoots through the door of his bedroom when he hears something, fatally wounding her as a result.
- Sam attempts to lure a cat into the apartment complex with a can of tuna, when the cat runs away Sam tries to chase it. Not only would this never have worked but he almost got himself killed for his trouble.
- At the end of the film, Sam burns the box of tapes that he originally came to the apartment to collect and which caused him to be trapped there for several months after the apocalypse began. Although intended as a noble gesture, the smoke from the fire inadvertently sets off the fire alarm, with the extremely loud noise sending the large horde of zombies outside berserk as they finally manage to bash the front door down and almost kill Sam.
- Driven to Suicide: A downstairs neighbor shoots himself in the head after having to put down his infected wife, nearly (and unknowingly) taking Sam with him in the attempt. Sam nearly commits suicide as well with the same shotgun when he thinks he has been infected.
- Due to the Dead: Sam does this twice.
- During one of the many days stuck inside of the apartment complex, Sam notices a foul smell and finds the body of a couple. He wraps their bodies up and places them on their bed to rest.
- He covers "Sarah's" body and lights candles around her after discovering she died.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After spending months trapped inside the apartment building, surviving against zombies, starvation and madness due to prolonged isolation, Sam burns the tapes that brought him there in the first place and uses the grappling hook to swing over to the adjacent buildings, where he climbs onto the roof to safety. His journey isn't over yet, but for the moment, he's still alive and finally free.
- Facial Horror: Sam's ex-girlfriend Fanny becomes a zombie with half of her face ripped off.
- Genre Savvy: Sam displays a standard knowledge of how to survive in a zombie apocalypse. He recognises what they are the moment he sees them, makes an effort to be quiet whilst he searches the apartment and prepares to commit suicide when it looks like he might have been bitten.
- Ghost City: Paris becomes deserted, deathly silent and completely devoid of any visible human life within days of the outbreak, with nobody but the zombies roaming the streets. The lack of any government response even months after the event implies that France or quite possibly the entire world has already fallen to the zombies.
- Gilded Cage: Sam barricades himself in a very nice apartment building when the zombie apocalypse happens. He has the whole building to himself and the luxury of a very spacious apartment to stay in, but he can't leave as the streets outside are swarming with flesh-hungry zombies. He also can't escape via the rooftops as the building is too far from any others to cross. Until the end that is, where after spending months in the building, he uses a grappling hook to finally escape.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: Sam descends into this. It takes Sarah, or a hallucination of her for him to realize that this is true and that the solution to this is to leave the apartment and move on.
- According to "Sarah" there are several other survivors locked up around Paris who have all gone completely nuts for the same reason. Given that she was actually a hallucination, its unknown if this is true or not.
- Gory Discretion Shot: The day after the outbreak, Sam looks out of the apartment window and sees a family attempting to escape. Despite his efforts to warn them, the family are attacked by the zombies and devoured in their car, with the roof of the vehicle obscuring most of what's happening.
- Guns Do Not Work That Way:
- In reality if Sam were to accidently discharge a shotgun right next to his ear, the sound would render him completely deaf in that ear assuming it wouldn't burst the other eardrum as well.
- Judging by the size and amount pellets Sam is shooting; he appears to be firing 12 gauge birdshot, this is even supported by the fact Sam is digging the pellets out of "Sarah's" skin, while far from a harmless round the shot would struggle to get through the door at all, let alone fatally damage a vital organ after passing through said door.
- Hero of Another Story: Sam discovers a bunch of photos in "Sarah"'s backpack, the first ones showing people who are presumably her family, later turning into photos of lone zombies that she passed by. Sam also finds grappling hook equipment in her backpack, and it is assumed that she used these to jump from building to building. These are not explained, as "Sarah" died before she could properly introduce herself to Sam.
- Hope Spot: For a moment, it looks as though Sam finally has human company in the form of Sarah, a young woman who Sam almost killed during the night. They spend some time together discussing their options and bonding, and then it's tragically revealed that Sam was merely hallucinating; "Sarah" actually died on the bed from her gunshot wound, and Sam was only imagining her existence. However, this is the moment he realises he needs to escape the apartment or descend further into madness.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: When Sam finally lets Alfred out of the elevator shaft and lets him stay in a flat, Alfred doesn't go after him and goes into the flat without trouble. It's unknown if it's because Sam bonding with Alfred has lead to the zombie getting used to Sam's presence that he no longer sees him as a target. Maybe there's still a bit of Alfred left in him even from undeath.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After hearing something outside his bedroom in the night, Sam shoots through the door with his shotgun. He then looks through the hole to find that he's just accidentally shot a young woman in the stomach. His reaction says it all as he immediately begins trying to save her life.
- Oh, Crap!: Several, all courtesy of Sam.
- After falling asleep at Fanny's party, he wakes up in the morning and discovers the apartment trashed and covered in blood, a clear sign that something terrible has happened during the night.
- When trying to adopt a stray cat, he looks up and is taken by surprise by a zombie running straight at him.
- Following a close call with some zombies, he notices that he's bleeding from a fresh wound and becomes afraid that he may have been bitten, even preparing to end his own life in case.
- Sam hears a sound outside his bedroom during the night and shoots through the door at what he believes is a zombie. He looks through the hole... and discovers he's just shot someone.
- Our Zombies Are Different: These zombies can run and are almost completely silent, allowing them to ambush their targets. And if Alfred is anything to go by, it's possible they could be "domesticated" or bonded with that they will no longer attack potential targets even if released.
- Raising the Steaks: The zombies aren't interested in a cat and the cat isn't afraid of the zombies, to the point that Sam sees the cat peacefully sitting at the leg of a zombie trying to go after him.
- Riddle for the Ages: As typical, no explanation is given for where the zombies came from nor how they spread so quickly. Sam suffers a mysterious nosebleed shortly before falling asleep, which may have had something to do with it.
- Sawn-Off Shotgun: Sam at some point hacks off the barrel and stock of his shotgun to make it easier to use in close quarters. This saves his life during the climax where a longer barrelled shotgun wouldn't have been as useful in a scuffle.
- Slept Through the Apocalypse: Sam slept through the zombie outbreak, hence the movie's title.
- Steel Eardrums: When Sam thinks he may have been bitten, he prepares to shoot himself with a shotgun in case he begins turning. After falling asleep, he accidentally discharges the weapon right next to his head. However, despite having a shotgun go off beside his ear, his hearing remains remarkably intact.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- It appears that Sarah made a surprisingly amazing recovery despite taking a point blank gunshot wound. Although unfortunately for Sam, the "Sarah" he knew was a hallucination and the real one died in bed.
- Despite Alfred being a zombie, he is still a very elderly man so he is nowhere near as fast as regular zombies.
- When Sam uses "Sarah"'s grappling hook to escape the apartment, he slams into the other building and temporarily faints because he has no experience using it.
- Sort of zig-zagged a tiny bit when it came to electricity and running water. The water systems and power do eventually fail, but they take a lot longer to break than what would realistically happen.
- Wham Shot:
- Sam hears a noise outside his bedroom in the night, and paranoid with fear, shoots through the door at what he thinks are zombies. He looks through the hole he just made, and discovers he's just shot a young woman in the stomach.
- After it looks as though Sarah made a miraculous recovery from being shot, Sam spends some time bonding with her. Later, he looks in through his bedroom door and discovers her corpse on his bed, revealing she actually died of her wounds.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Seemingly overnight, Paris is overrun by silent, flesh-eating zombies, with Sam being one of the few survivors left in the city. Because the film follows his months alone trapped inside an apartment building, its never made clear just how far the zombie outbreak has spread, though the lack of any visible government or military response implies that civilisation may have already collapsed.
