Daybreakers presents a 2019 where the global status quo has been inverted; vampires are no longer hidden monsters but the dominant middle-class citizenry. The world is a hyper-efficient, nocturnal mirror of the 2000s, featuring suburban sprawl adapted for the undead, including specialized "subwalk" tunnels and cars equipped with UV-shielding and external cameras for daytime travel.

The film’s core dynamic is an environmental allegory where human blood serves as a finite natural resource. Society faces a "peak blood" crisis that mirrors real-world concerns over fossil fuel dependency. As the supply dwindles, the socioeconomic divide sharpens: the wealthy elite hoard the remaining supply, while the impoverished "subsidize" or transform into feral, bat-like creatures—a literal manifestation of neoliberalism's underclass. The corporate entity Bromley-Marks functions as both a pharmaceutical giant and a utility provider, controlling the population through its monopoly on the blood supply and the pursuit of a synthetic substitute.

From a predictive standpoint, the film’s 2009 release was unwittingly accurate regarding zoonotic infections, depicting a world transformed by a virus originating from a single bat. While its 2019 timeline lacked the predicted underground walkways, the film’s depiction of video-based car mirrors and digital displays replacing reflective surfaces aligns with the modern automotive shift toward camera-based side-view systems. Furthermore, its focus on Big Pharma’s role in managing a global health crisis and the ethics of resource redistribution remains a highly relevant critique of early 21st-century capitalist structures.