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
Zombie Apocalypse, but beyond that the details vary a great deal. There is ongoing and violent
disagreement in zombie-film fandom about which one is "
better".
1978 Version
The movie opens during an ongoing
Zombie Apocalypse: 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.
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
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
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
premature evacuation.
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.
Contains examples of the following tropes:
- A House Divided
- All Bikers Are Hells Angels
- 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."
- Apocalyptic Log: Andy's video-recording in the DVD extras
- Asshole Victim: Wooley and later the bikers in the original, Steve in the remake.
- A Team Montage: The reinforcement of the shuttle buses.
- Ax Crazy: Wooley in the original.
- Backstory
- Bad Ass: Peter and Roger in the original.
- Barrier Busting Blow
- Black Dude Dies First: Averted with the black leads in both movies; Andre dies about 2/3rd of the way through the remake.
- Bolivian Army Ending
- Boom Headshot: Both feature impressive shotgun-blast-to-the-head scenes.
- Break The Cutie: Nicole
- Chainsaw Good: Brutally subverted in the remake.
- Crazy Survivalist: Several cast members.
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome
- Crowning Music Of Awesome: 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"?
- Curiosity Killed The Cast
- Damsel Scrappy: Nicole. And she survives right to the end.
- Death By Materialism: The point of the original.
- Death By Pragmatism: C.J. is a jerk, but his original plan to stay firmly buttoned up inside the mall was much safer. He finally executes a Heel Face Turn and goes along with a escape plan; maybe the lack of power and all the dead bodies were influencing factors.
- Death By Sex: At least two characters in the remake
- Distressed Damsel: Subverted in both films by the female lead.
- Driven To Suicide: Michael
- Enclosed Space
- Face Revealing Turn
- Fetus Terrible: In the remake, a baby is born already zombified.
- The Generic Guy: Terry the security guard.
- Gory Discretion Shot: 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.
- Guns Akimbo - Tucker in the remake, after he breaks his leg in the sewer. Not like he has much of a choice.
- Heroic Sacrifice
- High Octane Nightmare Fuel: The original is actually worse with this with Gorn levels of violence.
- Infernal Retaliation: Fire/explosives used against zombies several times in the sequel; it usually works.
- Inferred Holocaust
- Jerk Ass: Steve, who even maintains this, right up to the moment he gets zombified and has a bullet planted in his brain.
- Just Before The End
- Kill Em All - The original ending of the 1978 version, before test audiences complained; the new ending of the remake, after test audiences complained.
- Kill It With Fire - See Infernal Retaliation above.
- Let Me Get This Straight: C.J.'s classic summing-up of the shuttle-bus "escape" plan.
- Leisure Suit Larry: Bart the security guard is possibly an example of this
- The Load: Stephen in the original. He's a little bit better by the end.
- Meaningful Background Event
- Neutral Female: The actress playing Francine famously refused to be just another Screaming Woman; 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 does get better though.
- Not Using The Z Word: 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...")
- Not With The Safety On You Wont
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."
- One Scene Wonder: Matt Frewer and his character's early death scene in the remake.
- Or Is It: Used for the characters at the end of both films.
- Painting The Fourth Wall: Nicole literally does this at one point.
- Phony Newscast - The 2004 remake's special edition contains a newscaster reporting continously on the outbreak. - It goes to Hell in what appears to be a day, and ends with him leaving the station to get his family.
- Regret Eating Me
- Rule Of Scary
- Russian Guy Suffers Most: 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 Zombaby.
- Sequel Hook: The remake, though since it's 2009 now, a sequel seems unlikely. The remake of Day Of The Dead (whose only returning actor is Ving Rhames) is not a sequel, despite it being the case for the Romero movies.
- Soundtrack Dissonance
- Shout Out: The remake contains numerous nods to both the original version and the original Night Of The Living Dead.
- Snicket Warning Label: In the remake, turn off the TV once the boat leaves the dock. Trust us.
- The Stinger: In the remake, footage was belatedly added to the closing credits. (See Snicket Warning Label above.)
- Taught By Experience
- Throw It In: Many of Tom Savini's brilliant makeup effects were improvised. And they look great.
- Too Dumb To Live: Several characters in both films. Most of them do in fact die. The most 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 Brick Joke.
- Twenty Minutes With Jerks: 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.
- Undead Child
- 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? The island is covered in zombies. Smart move, guys.
- While Rome Burns - Both films; the survivors are shown prancing about in the mall as the zombie numbers outside grow bigger.
- Your Head A Splode: The sequel contains an blackly humorous scene which is a cross between this Trope and Hollywood Squares.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Sorta the whole point.
- Zombie Gait: Subverted in the remake, with zombies who sprint. And then played straight, because the more decayed ones did slow down.
- Zombie Infectee - 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 Luda.
