''Dawn Of The Dead'' is the second movie in the "Living Dead" series written and directed by George A. Romero.

There are two versions of the film, the original 1978 Romero version and a remake in 2004 directed by Zack Snyder. Both feature a small group of humans holed up inside a shopping mall during a ZombieApocalypse, but beyond that the details vary a great deal. There is ongoing and violent [[BrokenBase disagreement]] in zombie-film fandom about which one is "[[YourMileageMayVary better]]".

'''1978 Version'''

The movie opens during an ongoing ZombieApocalypse: law enforcement and government are rapidly losing control of the situation and zombies are overrunning the country, or at least the cities. TV-station employees Stephen and his pregnant girlfriend Francine steal the station's traffic helicopter in an attempt to get to Canada; they are joined by Roger and Peter, deserters from a SWAT team. After an unpleasant episode at a small airport, the group sets down on the roof of a large shopping mall (a structure which, at the time of filming, was something of new development on the American cultural scene).

Once inside they realize if they could block the doors and clear out the few zombies inside the mall they could "be onto a good thing." They block the mall doors using large delivery trucks but in the process cocky Roger gets bitten by a zombie. While they proceed to enjoy all the material goods available to them, Roger slowly wastes away, dies, and revives as a zombie. He is immediately shot and then buried by Peter.

Francine demands to be taught how to fly the helicopter in case of emergency. A passing group of survivalist/bikers notice the practice lessons and decide to "share" the mall with the group. Peter urges Stephen to just let the bikers do their thing and go, but their looting of the mall and letting the zombies in angers Stephen so much that he opens fire on the bikers.[[spoiler: In the battle that ensues, hordes of bikers and zombies are both let loose inside, and Stephen is killed and becomes a zombie. Francine and Peter (re-)kill him, escape to the helicopter and fly off to an unknown future.]]

'''2004 Version'''

Ana, a Milwaukee nurse, finishes a long shift at her hospital where, along with other bits of {{Foreshadowing}} she discusses a patient who [[ZombieInfectee got bitten]] in a bar fight. After work, she chats briefly with a cute neighbor child, then returns to her suburban home and her waiting husband. The next morning, she wakes up to find her zombified young neighbor in her house; the girl kills her husband, who then rises a zombie and comes after Ana. Ana escapes in her car, only to learn that her whole town has overnight fallen into [[ZombieApocalypse chaos]]. A living human attempts to carjack her vehicle, causing her to panic, drive off the road, crash into a tree, and knock herself unconscious. When she wakes, she meets up with Kenneth, a cop, and then a small group of survivors more-or-less led by jack-of-all-trades Michael. They all break into a nearby shopping mall, where they are confronted by a trio of mall security guards led by surly C.J. Via binoculars and dry-erase boards, they also "meet" gun-store owner Andy, who is stranded alone in his shop across the mall's zombie-infested parking lot. The guards are eventually disarmed, and some more survivors are let into the mall, among them teenaged Nicole.

For a while, the group wallows in the mall's materialism, and Ana and Michael edge into a romance, but due both to general stupidity (Thanks Andre!), and the collapse of the power grid, the situation finally deteriorates to the point where the group decides to reinforce a pair of parking shuttles, drive to the local marina and escape out to an island on Lake Michigan. An attempt to get some food to starving Andy ends in general disaster (Thanks Nicole! Thanks Steve!), with the besieging zombies breaking into the mall and forcing a [[AccidentalInnuendo premature evacuation]]. [[spoiler: The only ones to survive the chaotic trip to the marina are Ana, Kenneth, one of the guards and Nicole. Setting sail, they manage to reach an island, only to be immediately attacked by a new zombie swarm; their ultimate fate is unknown.]]
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[[folder: Contains examples of the following tropes: ]]


* AHouseDivided
* AllBikersAreHellsAngels
* {{Anvilicious}}: A hallmark of Romero's work. The original was released just as large shopping malls were becoming commonplace. When asked why the zombies have flocked here, of all places, Steven replies, "Instinct. Memory. This was an important place in their lives."
* ApocalypticLog: Andy's video-recording in the DVD extras
* AssholeVictim: Wooley and later the bikers in the original, Steve in the remake.
* ATeamMontage: The reinforcement of the shuttle buses.
* AxCrazy: Wooley in the original.
* {{Backstory}}
* BadAss: Peter and Roger in the original.
* BarrierBustingBlow
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Averted with the black leads in both movies; Andre dies about 2/3rd of the way through the remake.
* BolivianArmyEnding
* BoomHeadshot: Both feature impressive shotgun-blast-to-the-head scenes.
* BreakTheCutie: Nicole
* ChainsawGood: Brutally subverted in the remake.
** Also a source of NauseaFuel.
* CrazySurvivalist: Several cast members.
* CrowningMomentOfAwesome
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: Using Johnny Cash's "The Man Comes Around" over the title credits.
** The soundtrack by ''Goblin'' and "The Gonk" from the original.
**This troper would like to second Goblin's main theme for the original Dawn of the Dead. It's one of the most unsettling, disturbing pieces of music ever - it really fills you with this terror that some slow, relentless horror is getting closer and closer.
** What, no love for Richard Cheese's version of "Down With The Sickness"?
* CuriosityKilledTheCast
* DamselScrappy: Nicole. [[spoiler: And she survives right to the end.]]
* DeathByMaterialism: The point of the original.
* DeathByPragmatism: C.J. is a jerk, but his original plan to stay firmly buttoned up inside the mall ''was'' much safer. He finally executes a HeelFaceTurn and goes along with a escape plan; maybe the lack of power and all the dead bodies were influencing factors.
* DeathBySex: At least two characters in the remake
* DistressedDamsel: Subverted in both films by the female lead.
* DrivenToSuicide: Michael
* EnclosedSpace
* FaceRevealingTurn
* FetusTerrible: In the remake, a baby is born already zombified.
* TheGenericGuy: Terry the security guard.
* GoryDiscretionShot: Some things are shown, like arms being cut off, some not, like shooting an undead baby. You never know what in the movie will and won't be shown.
* GunsAkimbo - Tucker in the remake, after he breaks his leg in the sewer. Not like he has much of a choice.
* HeroicSacrifice
* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: The original is actually ''worse'' with this with {{Gorn}} levels of violence.
* InfernalRetaliation: Fire/explosives used against zombies several times in the sequel; it usually works.
* InferredHolocaust
* JerkAss: Steve, who even maintains this, right up to the moment he [[spoiler: gets zombified and has a bullet planted in his brain]].
* JustBeforeTheEnd
* [[spoiler: KillEmAll]] - The original ending of the 1978 version, before test audiences complained; the new ending of the remake, after test audiences complained.
* KillItWithFire - See Infernal Retaliation above.
* LetMeGetThisStraight: C.J.'s classic summing-up of the shuttle-bus "escape" plan.
* LeisureSuitLarry: Bart the security guard is possibly an example of this
* TheLoad: Stephen in the original. He's a little bit better by the end.
* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent
* NeutralFemale: The actress playing Francine famously refused to be just another ScreamingWoman; however during the first confrontation at the airport she just stands there while her boyfriend is fighting with a zombie, neither running nor helping. She [[TookALevelInBadass does get better though]].
* NotUsingTheZWord: For the most part, both films deliberately avoid using the word "zombie." Save for one line in the original ("With those bay doors open, there's going to be a ''thousand'' zombies in here...")
* NotWithTheSafetyOnYouWont
--> Kenneth: "You ever used one of those things?"
--> Michael: (holding a shotgun) "This is the dangerous end, right?"
--> Kenneth reaches over, *click*: "Now it is."

* OneSceneWonder: Matt Frewer and his character's early death scene in the remake.
* OrIsIt: Used for the characters at the end of both films.
* PaintingTheFourthWall: Nicole literally does this at one point.
* PhonyNewscast - The 2004 remake's special edition contains a newscaster reporting continously on the outbreak. [[RuleOfScary - It goes to Hell in what appears to be a day, and ends with him leaving the station to get his family.]]
* RegretEatingMe
* RuleOfScary
* RussianGuySuffersMost: Luda is infected, but Andre hides it from the others, denying her the chance for a mercy kill. After she dies and turns, she gives birth to a [[IncrediblyLamePun Zombaby]].
* SequelHook: The remake, though since it's 2009 now, a sequel seems unlikely. The remake of DayOfTheDead (whose only returning actor is Ving Rhames) is '''not''' a sequel, despite it being the case for the Romero movies.
* SoundtrackDissonance
* ShoutOut: The remake contains numerous nods to both the original version and the original ''Night Of The Living Dead.''
* SnicketWarningLabel: In the remake, turn off the TV once [[spoiler: the boat leaves the dock.]] Trust us.
* TheStinger: In the remake, footage was belatedly added to the closing credits. (See Snicket Warning Label above.)
* TaughtByExperience
* ThrowItIn: Many of Tom Savini's brilliant makeup effects were improvised. And they look great.
* TooDumbToLive: Several characters in both films. Most of them do in fact die. The most [[TVTropesWikiDrinkingGame egregious]] example being the Mexican bandito biker ''taking his blood pressure while his friends are getting shot at, eaten, or otherwise leaving the mall and zombies are visibly surrounding him.'' Also serves as a great BrickJoke.
* TwentyMinutesWithJerks: The remake is one of the best aversions out there. The zombies are literally bursting into the heroine's bedroom only a few minutes in.
* UndeadChild
*{{Wallbanger}}: In the remake, the survivors decide to leave their safe hold-up in the mall to travel to an island in Lake Michigan, despite not knowing if Steve's boat is still in the marina, if the island even exists (or is free of infection), and needing to drive through a city full of zombies, all because ... they just don't want to stay at the mall anymore. At the end? [[spoiler: The island is covered in zombies.]] Smart move, guys.
* WhileRomeBurns - Both films; the survivors are shown prancing about in the mall as the zombie numbers outside grow bigger.
* YourHeadASplode: The sequel contains an blackly humorous scene which is a cross between this Trope and HollywoodSquares.
* ZombieApocalypse: Sorta the whole point.
* ZombieGait: Subverted in the remake, with zombies who sprint. And then played straight, because the more decayed ones did slow down.
* ZombieInfectee - Semi-averted in both movies. The SWAT officer and Michael do not bother to hide their wounds, and the fat lady that came in the truck can't. Played straight with [[spoiler:Luda.]]

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