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justintcc · 10 days ago

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ZERO DAY: A Story Told Through The Lense of Bloodthirst.

[ a full character analysis conducted by fleshclots. ]

- OBSERVATION #1: There is a stark contrast between Cal and Andre’s family dynamics. -

The very first cutscenes of the film are representations of Calvin and Andre’s separate childhoods.

The clip chosen for Cal, a celebration, is extremely indicative of the later scenes we see with him and his family. Seemingly, he has a beautiful relationship with his family. He’s seen joking with his father, teasing his little brother, and watching his mother gush over his braces (or lack thereof) at the orthodontist’s. He’s had people to tell them this is wrong. He’s had positive influence. He’s had loving arms to come home to, always.

Andre’s dynamics are presented very different. The very first clip of Andre growing up is a mugging of sorts. Andre, 12, surrounded by teenage punks that are hurling insults at him and holding him against a set of cabinets. His parents? Nowhere to be seen. Yet, when we first meet Mr. and Mrs. Kriegman, Andre seemingly has a decent relationship with them. Unfortunately, Andre’s greater relationship with his parents is largely left up for interpretation.

On Andre’s 18th birthday, he’s gifted a camera. This camera is NOT the model he asked for. Though, he does not communicate this frustration to his parents. Instead, he lies, telling them he loves the camera, only to later complain about it to Cal at Chris’s party. Also on Andre’s 18th birthday, Andre can be seen brushing off his father’s sentimental advice as a joke. His mother encourages this behavior. Cal does not have any explicitly negative scenes like that with his family.

Hence, one can infer that Andre’s hesitance to express his feelings comes from that of his family dynamics. His mom laughs when Andre turns a lovey-dovey moment into a good chuckle. He isn’t just like that, or traumatized by his treatment. This is how he was taught to behave.

- OBSERVATION #2: Cal and Andre have a very unique relationship, one that is often perceived at a surface level. -

Right off the bat, Cal and Andre are presented as two extremely different personalities. Andre, claiming “we should be quick about this” as he exits his car and sets up the tripod for the camera, is much more calculated throughout the entirety of the film. Cal, however, is more impulsive and funny. This can be seen not only in their behavioral patterns, but also in the simple way that they introduce themselves: “My name is Andre Kriegman.” “.. and I am Cal Gabriel!”

The July 4th tape reinforces this dynamic. Here, Andre is seemingly unresponsive to Cal’s many attempts at sarcasm. More than likely, Andre understands that he’s trying to be funny, but he just doesn’t care enough to entertain it. Andre is immediately presented as the left-brain of the Army of Two, Cal being the right.

Going back to Andre’s discomfort with expressing how he truly feels, we very quickly learn that Andre is fully comfortable with communicating to Cal. Example A: On the steps at Chris’s party, Andre tells Cal about his feelings surrounding his camcorder. To his parents, he is grateful, but to Cal, he’s disgruntled. He’s more comfortable with Cal than he is with his own flesh and blood. This is the first taste of their extremely intimate and personal relationship.

When Andre and Cal put the first set of tapes in their safety deposit box, they’re seen joking with one another (“You wanna touch it, big boy?”). They cannot be seen joking like this with any other character throughout the entirety of the film. When it comes to bouncing off of another person and riffing off of jokes that aren’t their own, they’re seemingly only capable of doing this with each other. They’re only able to truly laugh and feel with one another. Even when Cal is joking with Rachel, he can’t really be seen laughing. He’s just… joking. He’s joking for HER sake. Whereas, when Cal jokes with Andre, they’re laughing WITH and AT each other. It’s a very simple way the writers can reinforce their unique dynamic.

Though, the two aren’t in a constant state of comedic equilibrium. In the face of chaos, Andre snaps right back into his calculated nature. The tape from September 28th, Cal’s poetry scene, Andre freaks the fuck out in the car. He’s overthinking everything. He’s shouting, he’s condemning Cal, and he’s angry. Calvin, however, keeps his unserious attitude. He tells Andre to close his eyes and drive, and he will give him the directions. This, again, reinforces the exact dynamic we were fed from the beginning, but in a somewhat new light. In the midst of anger and frustration, a simple act of impulsiveness and trust calms Andre in an instant. You can see the anger drain from his voice. Nobody else is able to calm Andre in that sense. Or, at least, we don’t SEE anybody else (remember: everything we see/don’t see is purposeful).

The final tape, the Zero Day pre-shooting tape, is also very indicative of the intimacy between the two boys. Just minutes before they, hand in hand, begin a massacre on innocent teenagers, they’re confessing their feelings of solitude. They’re solemn and gentle, letting us in on something much deeper than friendship.

And when Andre leaves the car, running up to the school, he looks back to make sure Cal is following. If Cal dropped the plan, it never would’ve happened. If Andre dropped the plan, it never would’ve happened. Zero Day was not only built on years of trauma. It was built on a deep connection the boys couldn’t fathom otherwise.

- OBSERVATION #3: The boys have an overall air of likability surrounding their personalities. -

Despite their difference in character, Andre and Cal are consistently boyish. They’re relatable and normal. They aren’t the poster children of insanity like how most perpetrators are portrayed in media. Instead, they’re just teenagers with a shitload of baggage, and that can strike a chord in many, many people.

The tape right after the Suicide Tape shows Cal and Andre breaking into Chris Kriegman’s house. This was the final course of action before progressing into Zero Day. Needless to say, this scene is insanely heavy. The tension around stealing the guns, the fear of getting caught, the implications of Zero Day in and of itself — it’s definitely not the easiest tape to consume.

Despite that, Cal and Andre are seen joking. When writing the note to Chris, they make a “yo mamma” joke. This lightens the scene, reminding us that they’re not cold-blooded killers. They’re teenagers. People. Kids.

- OBSERVATION #4: Calvin and Andre have somewhat of a god complex that progresses throughout the film’s duration. -

The first taste of the infamous god complex is through Cal’s first video diary. Alone in the Kriegman Family Summer Home, the night of July 4th. Cal is speaking to the camera as if it’s another person. As if we’re actually there with him.

Yet, he’s talking DOWN to us. He doesn’t hide this, either. He says things such as, “Staring right at you.”, “Just sticks in the mud that Andre and I have made.”, and “We see more than you do.” This all puts Andre and Cal on a pedestal. They see themselves as inherently above everyone else.

This is reiterated for the first time in the car on the way to the bank. Here, Andre is laying out their reasonings behind Zero Day. Andre is clear about the fact that he perceives Cal and Andre to be morally and physically superior to their peers. They even go as far as to compare themselves to perpetrators that came before them, painting their procedures as more effective and authentic. They don’t want infamy. They don’t want attention. They want to make a mark.

This is not the first time throughout the film that the boys have criticized prior perpetrators. In the Invasion Plan layout tape, they criticize the plans of other killers. More specifically, the choosing of a certain date. Andre states that “circling” a date in “big red ink” will draw more attention to that specific date and might get them found out before it is convenient. This hightens their pedestal, now giving them the high ground in regards to knowledge, too.

In Cal’s fourth video diary, he very briefly brings up Andre’s initial plan of shooting Iroquois, then escaping and travelling the country to shoot other high schools. Andre wanted Zero Day to occur not only locally, but on a national level. This implies that revenge on who hurt them isn’t enough. They needed to feel godlike everywhere.

Looking back on Andre’s 18th birthday, the character Brad Huff is officially introduced. Wrestling team captain, drunk driver, popular jock, richie rich — everything Cal and Andre “hated”. Though, we see in the way they behave while egging his home, as well as the way they speak about him, that they do not hate Brad at all. No, no. Andre specifically tells his parents that Brad is “like a god”. They do not hate this about Brad. They’re jealous. They believe that they deserve the godlike status more than he does.

The egging itself also holds a lot of weight in regards to their history with Brad. Egging Brad Huff’s house gave Andre and Cal that power trip they had seemingly been craving. However, we quickly learn that they didn’t plan Zero Day to feel powerful. They didn’t do it to “live fully”. They did it to be God. Capital G. They wanted to be creators, controlling all around them. They strived for the power of the God.

The Jewish/Christian God is viewed as a vengeful yet forgiving entity. In the Bible, God kills thousands. He floods a city. He sends his own son to Earth, only to die via torture. That’s the power Andre and Cal crave. They want revenge. They want to be worshipped.

- OBSERVATION #5: They’re kids. -

The first glimpse into the boys’ lives is through their childhood.

Throughout the film, the writers seem to really emphasize the dependency these characters have on not only each other, but the adults around them. It seems as though you can’t go more than twenty minutes without getting another reminder that these boys are just that. Boys.

They got their guns from Chris. They learned how to shoot from Chris. They set up a safety deposit box so their parents don’t find the tapes (“… so mommy doesn’t find them under the bed.). Cal cannot drive. Andre works at his family’s pizza place.

They aren’t adults. They’re traumatized teenagers. They needed help, yet they were convinced that they were beyond help. TL;DR - it was too late. They were not only immature teens, but also lost causes. There is no fixing Cal and Andre. If it wasn’t Zero Day, it would’ve been violence beyond that.

- OBSERVATION #6: Andre is avoidant, short-tempered, and accustomed to violence. -

Returning to Andre’s childhood cutscene, we’re introduced to violence in the Kriegman home very early on.

The Home Gun Review tape reinforces this idea. Andre states that he was taught how to operate automatic machinery at a very young age. It isn’t detailed whether or not these guns he had at his disposal were used for violence, though it is widely assumed that they were hunting guns only. Still, the point stands that Andre has been exposed to “gun culture” for an extremely long time.

I personally view Andre’s comfortability and familiarity with his guns is representative of his lifelong issues with violent outbursts. Cal mentions “anger management” on July 4th, and even Andre cracks a joke about taking Prozac on his birthday. This tells us that Andre may or may not have a history with psychological diagnoses. This is indicative of his deep-rooted mental illness — the thought of Zero Day wasn’t spontaneous. It’s been brewing within him for years.

Andre did not want to die on Zero Day. In the July 4th tape, we see him introducing a fake passport, a fake social security card, false identification, and foreign currency. He did not want to die. He did not want to commit suicide. He wanted to run away with Cal, reflecting on what he did, and proceed to do it again nationally. Andre had an entire plan that backfired on him, despite the calculated nature he maintains throughout the duration of the film.

In the Suicide Tape, Andre details his extensive history with bullying. This is also where he makes the infamous statement, “We will be God.”. He seemingly lets his anger unleash, proclaiming “Fuck you, Fuck that, Fuck the reasons, there are none.” In reference to the potential question of why they did what they did.

Though, on Zero Day itself, Andre confesses to Cal that he doesn’t know what he would’ve done if he hadn’t met Cal. This sudden change in tone, a stark contrast to the previous anger in the Suicide Tape and the breaking in at Chris’s, is extremely indicative of Andre’s avoidance of his own emotions. He pushes himself to the very edge, and then unleashed. He’s thought this way about Calvin for a long time. Months, maybe. Years, more than likely. Yet, he’s only saying it now, not even an hour before their inevitable demise.

- OBSERVATION #7: Calvin is deeply insecure, and his own self-loathing more than likely motivated his behavioral patterns leading up to Zero Day. -

Cal’s first video diary is SO vital to analysis of his character. Up until this point in the film, we’re made to see Cal as a playful soul. A gentle, kind, goofy boy with a close relationship to Andre. That’s all he is. Until we hit this short tape, jampacked with his true personality.

For a reminder of what was detailed in this tape, see OBSERVATION #4. Not only is this the first glimpse into Cal’s poetic side, but it’s also our first introduction to Cal’s true sinister nature.

Cal is an extremely insecure person. Many fans speculate that he is suicidal (we’ll touch on that in a moment). These two claims go hand in hand.

Cal’s behavior at Chris’s party really stuck out to me as a major pillar in Cal’s self image problems. He covers up his mannerisms as him “not being good at parties”. Though, he isn’t just being shy. He’s making himself smaller. He’s latched onto Andre, only speaking to him, and watching everyone else’s conversations from the sidelines.

This is reinforced in the graveyard with Rachel. Rachel referring to him as “Andre #2” says two things — one, Rachel sees him as pure. She thinks he’s something with the potential to be corrupted, as if he isn’t corrupted already. This highlights his hidden mental unrest and the layers of falsified personality caked onto his true self for him to present to Rachel. And two, Cal sees Andre as a better version of himself. He picks up on Andre’s mannerisms and claims them as his own because of this.

For example: When Rachel asked why he tapes everything, he initially says that he tapes because he personally enjoys it. Then, he shifts and says he doesn’t know the exact reason why. Finally, he admits that he does it for Andre’s sake.

While his final reasoning is framed as a joke, we need to remember that everything we see and hear is for a reason. Every element of every script is purposeful. Every joke made holds hints of truth in them.

Cal’s second video diary entails Cal’s suicidal tendencies. He’s completely ready to die. He’s clearly thought about it before (i.e his rant about how suicide is a waste). If anything can be taken from this tape, it’s that he WANTS to die — he’d just prefer to make a mark first. This same ideology is repeated in his fourth video diary, when he proclaims that “I’m [Cal] coming out in a black plastic bag.”

Cal is also seen getting more and more reckless as Zero Day nears. At Prom, he commands that he needs to go see Andre, even though this new friend group could’ve been his gateway into popularity. On September 28th, months before, he heckles a poetry night at some rickety old bar and even recites a deeply personal poem himself.

His poem also points towards that second video diary. “What a wasted life” can be a jab at his previous point of suicide being a waste of potential.

DOT SPEAKS!

HIII HELLO HIHI

this took 6 hours to complete (notes, formatting, + the actual writing). this hyperfixation is taking over my life

please leave insight in the comments!! i’d love to hear your personal thoughts. <3

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