History Film / DawnOfTheDead1978

* OnlySaneMan: Subverted. [[spoiler: Roger seems to start out as this. He's as skillful as Peter with a gun, and acts as a peacekeeper between Peter and Stephen, and Peter and Fran, serving as a bridge between the two of them and with Peter and working with the trio through their squabbles, especially as Peter largely views Stephen and Fran as TheLoad in the beginning. When Fran's pregnancy is revealed, he's the only one, other than Fran, to suggest that maybe the mall isn't the best place for Fran to have a child, and maybe they should get out of there. And while he's a bit reckless after they get to the mall, he keeps it in check in the early goings. But this all gets turned entirely upside down while they're moving the trucks. Roger has a near miss with a zombie and snaps, and after being set up in the earlier part of the film as the coolest and most level-headed of the group, he ends up being the first one to snap, get bitten, and eventually die.]]

* ImpromptuFortress: One of the most iconic ever to be filmed: a shopping mall, fortified with the help of built-in alarms and burglar-proof glass, combined with trucks blocking the entrances, so the zombies can't gain any momentum and thus access. [[ExactWords Zombies]]. On top of that, Peter and Stephen built a fake wall to hide the existence of the service corridor leading to the part of the mall the group took over for their apartment.

* ImpromptuFortress: One of the most iconic ever to be filmed: a shopping mall, fortified with the help of built-in alarms and burglar-proof glass, combined with trucks blocking the entrances, so the zombies can't gain any momentum and thus access. [[ExactWords Zombies]].

* ImprobableAimingSkills: Averted; Stephen misses a lone slow zombie multiple times before Roger steps in to put it down. Also during the sequence to move the trucks. Fran takes multiple shots at one zombie from the roof, and never hits the head, and then takes multiple shots at a second zombie and finally gets a head shot after multiple tries

* StrawVulcan: The government experts that appear on the two TV station segments – one during the opening credits, who harangues his interlocutor (and a hostile studio crew) about the need to address the crisis "without emotion", and one later on, who labels anybody who tries to be humane in any fashion during this situation a fool (the former expert might be excused due to how much the crowd has been ignoring his attempts at intelligent information, but the latter expert spends some time repeatedly screaming "dummies!" at the interviewer, who points out that it's understandable to be upset when it happens to one's loved one) – and advise that people just start killing zombies on sight, destroy any dead bodies that have not turned yet, follow any government directives without hesitation, and overall stop being ''human''.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The army units outside Philadelphia are seen transporting artillery cannons, which could have use against a truly clustered hoard, are rather impractical for spread out wandering zombies that only require one bullet. Past that, while even an indirect hit would neutralize a group of zombies by shredding their bodies, it wouldn't actually kill them. In many ways, it would make a sweep and clear situation much harder, as now you have piles of torn up torso's and limbs, with ankle high still functioning mouths posed to strike. Finally, if the hoard is big enough that it requires artillery to deal with, you're very much in OhCrap territory.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The army units outside Philadelphia are seen transporting artillery cannons, which are less than useless against a zombie horde. Sure, any zombie who gets hit with an artillery shell will certainly be neutralized, but artillery is far too big and slow to be of any real use, as for the most part, ''only'' a direct hit will be effective; any zombie who doesn't receive a brain-destroying shrapnel injury will just keep going.

* CrystalClearPicture: Used for every TV picture, although [[spoiler: genuine static appears at the end, after transmissions have stopped coming]].

* DeathByMaterialism: [[spoiler: Stephen's death. He easily could've survived if he hadn't started shooting at the bikers, all because they were looting the mall which he considered "his" at this point.]]

** And [[spoiler: Many of the marauding bikers. Their decision to breach the mall and steal what's inside leads to many of their number being overwhelmed and devoured by zombies, or killed by Peter]]

* BarrierBustingBlow

* DaylightHorror: The scene at the airport gas station, and then later, when Peter and Roger are moving the trucks to seal off the doors. We also get this after Peter plays tennis on the roof. After not seeing zombies for awhile, Peter knocks a tennis ball loose when he leaves, it rolls off the roof, and then bounces to the ground amidst the – oh, right – ''hundreds'' of zombies that are still milling around outside the mall trying to get in.

* BarredFromTheAfterlife: We're presented with a theory that zombies are here because Hell is full so the dead have to walk the Earth.

* GildedCage: The mall quickly becomes this, despite its relative safety and abundant supplies.

** In general, the zombies wander around the shopping mall because they vaguely remember it as an important part of their lives.