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* MsFanservice: TheEighties Scream Queen herself, Linnia Quigley.
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** Also, it's implied that brain-eating soothes the zombies' pain because of endorphins in brain tissue. But endorphin content in the ''spinal cord'' is usually a lot higher than it is in the brain, as that's where signals from most of the body's pain-receptors are normally blocked.
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** The paramedics and cops are immediately attacked by the large group of zombies as soon as they arrive at the barricade.
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** His name is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Kaltenbrunner Ernie Kaltenbrunner]].
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** His name is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Kaltenbrunner Ernie Kaltenbrunner]]. Kaltenbrunner.]]
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* JerkWithAHEartOfGold: Suicide, arguably, as although he is abrasive and somewhat self-absorbed he tells Trash to "show respect to the dead" and is the first to rush into the basement in response to Tina's screams.
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* JerkWithAHEartOfGold: JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Suicide, arguably, as although he is abrasive and somewhat self-absorbed he tells Trash to "show respect to the dead" and is the first to rush into the basement in response to Tina's screams.
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* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Suicide.]]
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* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Suicide.Suicide, although with a dash of JerkWithAHeartOfGold.]]
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* JerkWithAHEartOfGold: Suicide, arguably, as although he is abrasive and somewhat self-absorbed he tells Trash to "show respect to the dead" and is the first to rush into the basement in response to Tina's screams.
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* DevouredByTheHorde: MsFanservice Trash gets gnawed by a bunch of zombies and becomes a zombie herself, but unlike all the other zombies she's still reasonably hot as a zombie. And still naked.
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* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Averted. Spider, the only black member of the crew, is among the last to die at the end of the film.
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* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Averted. Spider, the only black member of the crew, is among the last to die at the end of the film.film [[spoiler:And then only because it's a DownerEnding where everyone dies]].
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* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Twofold. First, the military nukes the area, killing any main characters left by the end of the film; then, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero the nuke spreads the zombie gas further]], shortly before the president is scheduled to visit the area.]]
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** Remember that the zombies here are only interested in her brain, and so she should only have head wounds..
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** Remember that the zombies here are only interested in her brain, and so she should only have head wounds..wounds...
* BerserkBoardBarricade: Several of these are thrown up, though they don't do much good.
-->'''Spider:''' How many fucking windows you ''got'' here?
* BerserkBoardBarricade: Several of these are thrown up, though they don't do much good.
-->'''Spider:''' How many fucking windows you ''got'' here?
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* CreepyCemetery: Adjacent to the warehouse and morgue, where the punks hang out to wait for Freddy... and from where most of the zombies emerge.
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* BatterUp: Burt decapitates Tarman (The zombie in the page picture) with a baseball bat.
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* BatterUp: Burt decapitates the Tarman (The zombie in the page picture) with a baseball bat.
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* SealedEvilInACan: The corpses (and Trioxin) sealed in the Army canisters.
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* SealedEvilInACan: The corpses (and Trioxin) sealed stored in the Army canisters.
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* BarbieDollAnatomy: The actress playing Trash (LinneaQuigley) was wearing a prosthetic crotch cover, the result of [[ExecutiveMeddling meddling executives]] wishing to avoid an "X" Rating.
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* BarbieDollAnatomy: The actress playing Trash (LinneaQuigley) While doing Trash's nude scenes, Linnea Quigley was wearing a prosthetic crotch cover, the result of [[ExecutiveMeddling meddling executives]] wishing to avoid an "X" Rating.
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* ItsAllAboutMe: Suicide.
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* ItsAllAboutMe: Suicide. Frank's suicide.
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* {{Jerkass}}: Suicide.
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* MadeOfIron: Freddie's skull withstands several blows from a hunk of pipe, an 8-pound sledgehammer and a jar of nitric acid, experiencing only minor skin abrasions.
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* LoveMakesYouDumb: Tina insists on being locked in the chapel with Freddy despite knowing how dangerous it is.
* MadeOfIron:Freddie's Freddy's skull withstands several blows from a hunk of pipe, an 8-pound sledgehammer and a jar of nitric acid, experiencing only minor skin abrasions.
* MadeOfIron:
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** On the DVD commentary track, Don Calfa claims that he didn't personally see Ernie as a nazi, but rather someone just "really proud of his heritage".
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** On the DVD commentary track, Don Calfa claims that he didn't personally see Ernie as a nazi, Nazi, but rather someone just "really proud of his heritage".
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* SealedEvilInACan: The corpses (and Trioxin) sealed in the Army canisters.
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* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: We never see what Ernie did with the corpse he was working on when Burt and company first showed up at the mortuary.
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* BrickJoke[=/=]ChekhovsGunman: A spectacularly dark example: The general that appears on the opening scene and who says has been tasked to look for the missing barrels of Trioxin doesn't appers again until the very last scenes, [[spoiler:when he is contacted about the call for help of the heroes and orders the nuking of the whole area ''[[ArmchairMilitary from the comfort of his own home]]'']].
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* BrickJoke[=/=]ChekhovsGunman: A spectacularly dark example: The general that appears on the opening scene and who says has been tasked to look for the missing barrels of Trioxin doesn't appers appear again until the very last scenes, [[spoiler:when he is contacted about the call for help of the heroes and orders the nuking of the whole area ''[[ArmchairMilitary from the comfort of his own home]]'']].
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* BrickJoke /ChekhovsGunman: A spectacularly dark example: The general that appears on the opening scene and who says has been tasked to look for the missing barrels of Trioxin doesn't appers again until the very last scenes, [[spoiler:when he is contacted about the call for help of the heroes and orders the nuking of the whole area ''from the comfort of his own home'']].
to:
* BrickJoke /ChekhovsGunman: BrickJoke[=/=]ChekhovsGunman: A spectacularly dark example: The general that appears on the opening scene and who says has been tasked to look for the missing barrels of Trioxin doesn't appers again until the very last scenes, [[spoiler:when he is contacted about the call for help of the heroes and orders the nuking of the whole area ''from ''[[ArmchairMilitary from the comfort of his own home'']].home]]'']].
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Not to be confused with the 1978 novel ''Literature/ReturnOfTheLivingDead'', which was a direct sequel to ''Night of the Living Dead'' written by that film's co-writer John Russo.
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Not to be confused with the 1978 novel ''Literature/ReturnOfTheLivingDead'', which was a direct sequel to ''Night of the Living Dead'' written by that film's co-writer John Russo.
Russo (who, confusingly, also wrote a {{novelization}} of ''this'' film).
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'''''The Return of the Living Dead''''' (1985) is a horror-comedy film written by Dan O'Bannon, starring Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa, Thom Mathews, Beverly Randolph and Linnea Quigley. It spawned the ''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDead'' zombie films.
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'''''The Return of the Living Dead''''' (1985) is a horror-comedy film written and directed by Dan O'Bannon, starring Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa, Thom Mathews, Beverly Randolph and Linnea Quigley. It spawned the ''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDead'' zombie films.
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Not to be confused with the 1978 novel ''Literature/ReturnOfTheLivingDead'', which was a direct sequel to ''Night of the Living Dead'' written by John Russo (who, confusingly, also co-wrote the screenplays for both the original film and this one).
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Not to be confused with the 1978 novel ''Literature/ReturnOfTheLivingDead'', which was a direct sequel to ''Night of the Living Dead'' written by that film's co-writer John Russo (who, confusingly, also co-wrote the screenplays for both the original film and this one).
Russo.
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Not to be confused with the 1978 novel ''Literature/ReturnOfTheLivingDead'', which was a direct sequel to ''Night of the Living Dead'' written by John Russo (who, confusingly, also co-wrote the screenplays for both the original film and this one).
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''The Return of the Living Dead'' (1985) is a horror-comedy film written by Dan O'Bannon, starring Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa, Thom Mathews, Beverly Randolph and Linnea Quigley. It spawned the ''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDead'' zombie films.
to:
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** The (surviving) heroes find a contact phone number stenciled on the Trioxin barrels and call it, hoping that the military can do ''something'' to save them from the zombies. [[DeathByPragmatism The military did]] ''[[NukeEm something]]'' [[DownerEnding about the zombies, all right]].
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* BrickJoke /ChekhovsGunman: A spectacularly dark example: The general that appears on the opening scene and who says has been tasked to look for the missing barrels of Trioxin doesn't appers again until the very last scenes, [[spoiler:when he is contacted about the call for help of the heroes and orders the nuking of the whole area ''from the comfort of his own home'']].
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* DarkReprise: The song that Trash was dancing to during the graveyard party scene gets a spooky-echo remix when her zombified body hurts out of the ground that she was dragged into by the first wave of zombies.
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Split the different works off to their own pages.
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[[quoteright:299:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bbacce840d6bd47e9c2bbe5e97e81bf3.jpg]]
''The Return of the Living Dead'' (1985) is a horror-comedy film written by Dan O'Bannon, starring Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa, Thom Mathews, Beverly Randolph and Linnea Quigley. It spawned the ''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDead'' zombie films.
''Return'' is based on the premise that ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' was based on actual events, caused when a gas called 2-4-5 Trioxin was released into the morgue in the basement of a VA hospital in UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}, causing the bodies to jerk around as if they were alive. Unable to contain the undead threat, the military stored the lively corpses in sealed barrels. When the story leaked out, the government allowed ''Night of the Living Dead'' to be made, but they ordered the filmmakers to alter the story and claim it was fictional.
However, due to a clerical error, a few such Barrels of Doom were shipped to a warehouse currently employing our intrepid heroes, and stored there for years. As testament to the strength and quality of the barrels, one of them springs a leak as soon as the foreman reassures his new employee of the solid military construction by slapping the side of one of them. The Trioxin gets into the cadaver freezer, animating the contents. The shambling, hungry dead escape, craving their favorite food: Brains...
----
!!This film has the examples of:
* AdaptationExpansion: Russo's novelization adds a [=KGB=] subplot to flesh out the origin of Trioxin.
* AndIMustScream: The zombies in the canisters are still "alive" and unable to move, trapped in a constant state of rot, unable to die and unable to ease their suffering.
* ArtisticLicenceBiology: Zombies aside, rigor mortis is solely a phenomenon of muscle tissue, hence can't "start in the brain" as the first film claims. ''Livor'' mortis, yes, rigor no.
* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Suicide.]]
* BarbieDollAnatomy: The actress playing Trash (LinneaQuigley) was wearing a prosthetic crotch cover, the result of [[ExecutiveMeddling meddling executives]] wishing to avoid an "X" Rating.
* BasedOnAGreatBigLie: An in-universe example, as the military insisted that certain elements of "the original story" be changed.
* BatterUp: Burt decapitates Tarman (The zombie in the page picture) with a baseball bat.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: When Trash resurfaces as a naked zombie near the end of the first film, having been (theoretically) eaten by a bunch of zombified old men... one can't help but notice a distinct lack of bite marks.
** Remember that the zombies here are only interested in her brain, and so she should only have head wounds..
* BerserkButton: Tarman does not like having his meals interrupted, nor does Suicide like being called spooky.
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Averted. Spider, the only black member of the crew, is among the last to die at the end of the film.
* BottomlessMagazines: Averted. Ernie's Walther P38 holds 8 rounds in the magazine and 1 round in the chamber. He fires three shots at the zombie by the ambulance, then four more at the horde trying to break through the front of the mortuary. Later he's seen trying to reload it once all the windows have been boarded up.
* BurnTheUndead: Burt resorts to this when RemovingTheHeadOrDestroyingTheBrain fails to do the job. It doesn't end well.
* CoolOldGuy: Burt kicks more ass than any of the seemingly tough punks.
** Ernie has his moments as well.
* CuteMonsterGirl: Zombie!Trash.
* DeathByIrony: Earlier in the film, Trash says the worst way to die to be eaten by a bunch of old men. [[spoiler:The zombies that eat her are such.]]
* DeathByPragmatism: The characters decide that they can't handle the zombies by themselves, so they call the military. [[spoiler:Helpfully, the military nuke the town. But see DeusExNukina.]]
* DeusExNukina: [[spoiler:Instead of sterilizing the zombie outbreak, the nuclear blast only serves to distribute the Virus widely.]]
** [[{{BFG}} Heavy artillery]] ammo, nuclear or not, is never like a one-piece, round-nosed, giant rifle cartridge, it comes in either two parts or more before loading.
* DistractedByTheSexy: Inverted with Suicide. He's too self-absorbed into his BreakingTheFourthWall monologue about his self-image to notice a naked Trash doing a bump-and-gind against him. When he does notice, he shoves her away and says "Show some fucking respect for the dead!"
* DistressCall: Two of the brain-hungry zombies use a fake distress call to request more food: "Send more paramedics", followed by "send more cops" a little later.
* TheDitz: Freddy.
* DrivenToSuicide: Frank commits self-immolation while he's still in control of his own mind after Freddy becomes a zombie.
* DropTheHammer: Spider uses a sledgehammer to try and fend off the zombies.
* DyingAsYourself: Towards the end of the film, Frank immolates himself in the retort, as he has become a zombie and has no other means of ending his agony that would be certain to work.
* TheEighties: Almost a cross-section, too. You have punks, preppies, greasers, and so on all in the same group of kids - complete with EightiesHair, of course.
* {{Fanservice}}: Trash appears naked for most of the first film... and [[FanDisservice continues to be naked after she's zombified]].
* {{Foreshadowing}}: As Burt and Ernie burn the evidence of the Trioxin leaking, Frank sneers, "Some big favor. I can operate that goddamn thing." In one version, Freddy asks in reply, "But who'd want to?" [[spoiler:Frank would, later in the film, to take himself out of the equation before he can eat any brains.]]
** Also at the beginning of the film, once Frank, Freddy, and Burt release the yellow animated cadaver you can clearly see that it charges directly at Burt since [[spoiler:Burt was apparently the only living person in the room while Frank and Freddy after being exposed to Trioxin were either dying otherwise already dead.]]
** Trash's description of her ideal death is exactly how she winds up dying (albeit with ''undead'' old men rather than just the standard type). [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Turns out she doesn't enjoy it as much as she thought she would.]]
* AFriendInNeed: After escaping the chemical rain into the warehouse, the teenagers hear Tina screaming for help from the Tarman. They ''immediately'' rush to her aid [[spoiler: which results in Suicide's death]].
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Freddy. When he started out he was just a dumb, average morgue worker. When the Trioxin finally turns him, he becomes hell bent on eating his girlfriend's brain.
* GenreSavvy: Good news: Some of the men are aware that ''Night of the Living Dead'' was based on true events. Bad news: The movie was ''loosely'' based on actual events, and the "real" zombies are completely different.
* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: The voice of the "Send more paramedics!" zombie has been altered and is no longer as funny as the original version.
* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: At one point Spider starts babbling and Ernie slaps him.
* HeroicBSOD: Ernie, after encountering his first zombie.
* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: The first film begins on July 3rd, late afternoon. It's probably safe to assume that by the end, midnight eventually rolled around.
** [[DidIMentionItsChristmas Not that you would be able to tell without the date subtitle.]]
* IfYouCanReadThis: There is an eye chart in the background in the first movie that reads, "Burt is a slave driver and a cheap son of a bitch who's got you and me here."
* ImmortalityHurts:
-->'''Ernie:''' Why do you eat people?
-->'''Zombie:''' Not people. Brains.
-->'''Ernie:''' Brains only?
-->'''Zombie:''' Yes.
-->'''Ernie:''' Why?
-->'''Zombie:''' The PAIN!
-->'''Ernie:''' What about the pain?
-->'''Zombie:''' The pain of being DEAD!
-->'''Ernie:''' It hurts... to be dead?
-->'''Zombie:''' I can feel my body rot!
-->'''Ernie:''' Eating brains... How does that make you feel?
-->'''Zombie:''' It makes the pain go away!
* IncongruouslyDressedZombie: Several, including a brain-eating ''priest''. [[spoiler: Trash becomes an Incongruously-''Nude'' Zombie after her cemetery striptease and death.]]
* ItsAllAboutMe: Suicide.
* ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure: About ten blocks of Louisville are converted to radioactive slag.
** Also, as Burt and Ernie destroy the yellow cadaver:
-->'''Burt''': [Ernie,] you're absolutely certain that this is gonna get rid of everything and do the trick--I mean, nothing left?\\
'''Ernie''': Nothing but a little-bitty pile of ashes.\\
'''Burt''': We don't even want the ''ashes'', Ernie!\\
'''Ernie''': Then I'll turn it up higher, and we'll burn up the ashes, too. ''[slides the yellow cadaver into the retort]'' Dust to dust.
* {{Jerkass}}: Suicide.
* KillItWithFire: This ends very, very badly.
* LostInTranslation: The Italian dub translates the film's funniest line, "You mean the movie lied!?", as "Continua a muoversi!"[[labelnote:English translation]]"It's continuing to move!"[[/labelnote]]
* MadeOfIron: Freddie's skull withstands several blows from a hunk of pipe, an 8-pound sledgehammer and a jar of nitric acid, experiencing only minor skin abrasions.
* MercyKill: It's implied that Ernie is getting ready to do this to Tina when Freddy has them both cornered in the attic and is about to break in. He has his pistol pointed at her head, ready to kill her and spare her the pain of Freddy eating her brains. [[spoiler: Of course, the DeusExNukina arrives before he has to do it.]]
* NamesTheSame: O'Bannon swears it's a coincidence that the main heroes of the first film include a man named [[Series/SesameStreet Burt and his old friend Ernie]].
** Not to mention that Clu Gulager and Don Calfa sort of look like that other Burt and Ernie.
* NightmareFetishist: Quite literally in the first movie. When Trash is describing the worst way she can think of to die (namely, [[TemptingFate being eaten by a bunch of old men]]), she is clearly getting turned on, to the point that she tears off all her clothes and does a naked dance in the middle of a cemetery.
* NoodleIncident: "No, we can't, the cops said they'd shoot us if we went back to the park."
* NotAZombie: Averted. The first group to encounter a zombie knew about the chemical, and the first animated corpse they encountered was one they already knew to be dead. The second group encounters a zombie so horrifically rotted, and screaming for brains, that there isn't much question.
* NotUsingTheZWord: Averted. At one point Spider says, "There's zombies all over the cars outside."
* NukeEm: [[spoiler:It only spreads the virus.]]
* {{Phlegmings}}: In the first movie, when Freddy finally succumbs to the zombie hunger he starts foaming at the mouth like he's chewing on Alka-Seltzer.
* PipePain: Burt uses a pipe as a weapon when the zombies try and break into the mortuary.
* RaisingTheSteaks: Several preserved specimens are animated, including half a dog and a number of preserved butterflies.
* RealityEnsues: Inverted. Remember how the zombie infestation in ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' worked the way it would've in real life, with the ending that reveals that the infestation was stopped as easily as it had started? Well, in this movie, it doesn't work that way. "You mean the movie lied!?"
* SecondLawOfMetafictionalThermodynamics: The army has no idea how to get rid of the zombies. They bomb the whole town. This proves to be ill-advised.
* TemptingFate:
-->'''Freddy''': These things don't leak, do they?
-->'''Frank''': Leak? Hell, no! This was built by the Army Corps of Engineers!
-->''(slaps tank, which instantly leaks)''
** Trash's fantasy of being eaten by old men wouldn't have been expressed by someone more GenreSavvy.
* ThoseWackyNazis: Ernie, in the first film, is strongly implied to be one. He listens to a German march on his headphones, uses a pearl-handled Walther P38 handgun, and has an Eva Braun pinup on the wall in one scene.
** His name is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Kaltenbrunner Ernie Kaltenbrunner]].
** On the DVD commentary track, Don Calfa claims that he didn't personally see Ernie as a nazi, but rather someone just "really proud of his heritage".
* TranshumanTreachery: Freddy has an epiphany:
-->'''Freddy:''' [to Tina] See? And now you made me hurt myself again! You made me break my hand completely off this time, Tina! But I don't care, Darlin', because I love you, and you've got to let me EAT YOUR BRAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIINS!
** The workprint footage makes this even creepier as he plays on Tina's love for him.
-->'''Freddy:''' [to Tina] Tina...Tina, listen to me. We always meant so much to each other. So ''please'' open the hatch, it's wrong that you should keep me locked up like this!
* {{Understatement}}: After driving through a throng of brain-hungry zombies: "I think that something is ''not right'' outside!
* UpToEleven: "Then I'll turn [the retort] up higher, and we'll burn up the ashes, too."
* VertigoEffect: When Tina first sees the Tarman.
* WrongGenreSavvy: During the scene where Frank, Freddy, and Burt try and fail to destroy the cadaver on their own by RemovingTheHeadOrDestroyingTheBrain:
-->'''Burt''': I thought you said that if we destroyed the brain, it'd die!\\
'''Frank''': ''It worked in the movie!''\\
'''Burt''': Well, it ain't working now, Frank!\\
'''Freddy''': ''[[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments You mean the movie lied!?]]''
* ZergRush: How the zombies kill.
----
''The Return of the Living Dead'' (1985) is a horror-comedy film written by Dan O'Bannon, starring Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa, Thom Mathews, Beverly Randolph and Linnea Quigley. It spawned the ''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDead'' zombie films.
''Return'' is based on the premise that ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' was based on actual events, caused when a gas called 2-4-5 Trioxin was released into the morgue in the basement of a VA hospital in UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}, causing the bodies to jerk around as if they were alive. Unable to contain the undead threat, the military stored the lively corpses in sealed barrels. When the story leaked out, the government allowed ''Night of the Living Dead'' to be made, but they ordered the filmmakers to alter the story and claim it was fictional.
However, due to a clerical error, a few such Barrels of Doom were shipped to a warehouse currently employing our intrepid heroes, and stored there for years. As testament to the strength and quality of the barrels, one of them springs a leak as soon as the foreman reassures his new employee of the solid military construction by slapping the side of one of them. The Trioxin gets into the cadaver freezer, animating the contents. The shambling, hungry dead escape, craving their favorite food: Brains...
----
!!This film has the examples of:
* AdaptationExpansion: Russo's novelization adds a [=KGB=] subplot to flesh out the origin of Trioxin.
* AndIMustScream: The zombies in the canisters are still "alive" and unable to move, trapped in a constant state of rot, unable to die and unable to ease their suffering.
* ArtisticLicenceBiology: Zombies aside, rigor mortis is solely a phenomenon of muscle tissue, hence can't "start in the brain" as the first film claims. ''Livor'' mortis, yes, rigor no.
* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Suicide.]]
* BarbieDollAnatomy: The actress playing Trash (LinneaQuigley) was wearing a prosthetic crotch cover, the result of [[ExecutiveMeddling meddling executives]] wishing to avoid an "X" Rating.
* BasedOnAGreatBigLie: An in-universe example, as the military insisted that certain elements of "the original story" be changed.
* BatterUp: Burt decapitates Tarman (The zombie in the page picture) with a baseball bat.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: When Trash resurfaces as a naked zombie near the end of the first film, having been (theoretically) eaten by a bunch of zombified old men... one can't help but notice a distinct lack of bite marks.
** Remember that the zombies here are only interested in her brain, and so she should only have head wounds..
* BerserkButton: Tarman does not like having his meals interrupted, nor does Suicide like being called spooky.
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Averted. Spider, the only black member of the crew, is among the last to die at the end of the film.
* BottomlessMagazines: Averted. Ernie's Walther P38 holds 8 rounds in the magazine and 1 round in the chamber. He fires three shots at the zombie by the ambulance, then four more at the horde trying to break through the front of the mortuary. Later he's seen trying to reload it once all the windows have been boarded up.
* BurnTheUndead: Burt resorts to this when RemovingTheHeadOrDestroyingTheBrain fails to do the job. It doesn't end well.
* CoolOldGuy: Burt kicks more ass than any of the seemingly tough punks.
** Ernie has his moments as well.
* CuteMonsterGirl: Zombie!Trash.
* DeathByIrony: Earlier in the film, Trash says the worst way to die to be eaten by a bunch of old men. [[spoiler:The zombies that eat her are such.]]
* DeathByPragmatism: The characters decide that they can't handle the zombies by themselves, so they call the military. [[spoiler:Helpfully, the military nuke the town. But see DeusExNukina.]]
* DeusExNukina: [[spoiler:Instead of sterilizing the zombie outbreak, the nuclear blast only serves to distribute the Virus widely.]]
** [[{{BFG}} Heavy artillery]] ammo, nuclear or not, is never like a one-piece, round-nosed, giant rifle cartridge, it comes in either two parts or more before loading.
* DistractedByTheSexy: Inverted with Suicide. He's too self-absorbed into his BreakingTheFourthWall monologue about his self-image to notice a naked Trash doing a bump-and-gind against him. When he does notice, he shoves her away and says "Show some fucking respect for the dead!"
* DistressCall: Two of the brain-hungry zombies use a fake distress call to request more food: "Send more paramedics", followed by "send more cops" a little later.
* TheDitz: Freddy.
* DrivenToSuicide: Frank commits self-immolation while he's still in control of his own mind after Freddy becomes a zombie.
* DropTheHammer: Spider uses a sledgehammer to try and fend off the zombies.
* DyingAsYourself: Towards the end of the film, Frank immolates himself in the retort, as he has become a zombie and has no other means of ending his agony that would be certain to work.
* TheEighties: Almost a cross-section, too. You have punks, preppies, greasers, and so on all in the same group of kids - complete with EightiesHair, of course.
* {{Fanservice}}: Trash appears naked for most of the first film... and [[FanDisservice continues to be naked after she's zombified]].
* {{Foreshadowing}}: As Burt and Ernie burn the evidence of the Trioxin leaking, Frank sneers, "Some big favor. I can operate that goddamn thing." In one version, Freddy asks in reply, "But who'd want to?" [[spoiler:Frank would, later in the film, to take himself out of the equation before he can eat any brains.]]
** Also at the beginning of the film, once Frank, Freddy, and Burt release the yellow animated cadaver you can clearly see that it charges directly at Burt since [[spoiler:Burt was apparently the only living person in the room while Frank and Freddy after being exposed to Trioxin were either dying otherwise already dead.]]
** Trash's description of her ideal death is exactly how she winds up dying (albeit with ''undead'' old men rather than just the standard type). [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Turns out she doesn't enjoy it as much as she thought she would.]]
* AFriendInNeed: After escaping the chemical rain into the warehouse, the teenagers hear Tina screaming for help from the Tarman. They ''immediately'' rush to her aid [[spoiler: which results in Suicide's death]].
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Freddy. When he started out he was just a dumb, average morgue worker. When the Trioxin finally turns him, he becomes hell bent on eating his girlfriend's brain.
* GenreSavvy: Good news: Some of the men are aware that ''Night of the Living Dead'' was based on true events. Bad news: The movie was ''loosely'' based on actual events, and the "real" zombies are completely different.
* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: The voice of the "Send more paramedics!" zombie has been altered and is no longer as funny as the original version.
* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: At one point Spider starts babbling and Ernie slaps him.
* HeroicBSOD: Ernie, after encountering his first zombie.
* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: The first film begins on July 3rd, late afternoon. It's probably safe to assume that by the end, midnight eventually rolled around.
** [[DidIMentionItsChristmas Not that you would be able to tell without the date subtitle.]]
* IfYouCanReadThis: There is an eye chart in the background in the first movie that reads, "Burt is a slave driver and a cheap son of a bitch who's got you and me here."
* ImmortalityHurts:
-->'''Ernie:''' Why do you eat people?
-->'''Zombie:''' Not people. Brains.
-->'''Ernie:''' Brains only?
-->'''Zombie:''' Yes.
-->'''Ernie:''' Why?
-->'''Zombie:''' The PAIN!
-->'''Ernie:''' What about the pain?
-->'''Zombie:''' The pain of being DEAD!
-->'''Ernie:''' It hurts... to be dead?
-->'''Zombie:''' I can feel my body rot!
-->'''Ernie:''' Eating brains... How does that make you feel?
-->'''Zombie:''' It makes the pain go away!
* IncongruouslyDressedZombie: Several, including a brain-eating ''priest''. [[spoiler: Trash becomes an Incongruously-''Nude'' Zombie after her cemetery striptease and death.]]
* ItsAllAboutMe: Suicide.
* ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure: About ten blocks of Louisville are converted to radioactive slag.
** Also, as Burt and Ernie destroy the yellow cadaver:
-->'''Burt''': [Ernie,] you're absolutely certain that this is gonna get rid of everything and do the trick--I mean, nothing left?\\
'''Ernie''': Nothing but a little-bitty pile of ashes.\\
'''Burt''': We don't even want the ''ashes'', Ernie!\\
'''Ernie''': Then I'll turn it up higher, and we'll burn up the ashes, too. ''[slides the yellow cadaver into the retort]'' Dust to dust.
* {{Jerkass}}: Suicide.
* KillItWithFire: This ends very, very badly.
* LostInTranslation: The Italian dub translates the film's funniest line, "You mean the movie lied!?", as "Continua a muoversi!"[[labelnote:English translation]]"It's continuing to move!"[[/labelnote]]
* MadeOfIron: Freddie's skull withstands several blows from a hunk of pipe, an 8-pound sledgehammer and a jar of nitric acid, experiencing only minor skin abrasions.
* MercyKill: It's implied that Ernie is getting ready to do this to Tina when Freddy has them both cornered in the attic and is about to break in. He has his pistol pointed at her head, ready to kill her and spare her the pain of Freddy eating her brains. [[spoiler: Of course, the DeusExNukina arrives before he has to do it.]]
* NamesTheSame: O'Bannon swears it's a coincidence that the main heroes of the first film include a man named [[Series/SesameStreet Burt and his old friend Ernie]].
** Not to mention that Clu Gulager and Don Calfa sort of look like that other Burt and Ernie.
* NightmareFetishist: Quite literally in the first movie. When Trash is describing the worst way she can think of to die (namely, [[TemptingFate being eaten by a bunch of old men]]), she is clearly getting turned on, to the point that she tears off all her clothes and does a naked dance in the middle of a cemetery.
* NoodleIncident: "No, we can't, the cops said they'd shoot us if we went back to the park."
* NotAZombie: Averted. The first group to encounter a zombie knew about the chemical, and the first animated corpse they encountered was one they already knew to be dead. The second group encounters a zombie so horrifically rotted, and screaming for brains, that there isn't much question.
* NotUsingTheZWord: Averted. At one point Spider says, "There's zombies all over the cars outside."
* NukeEm: [[spoiler:It only spreads the virus.]]
* {{Phlegmings}}: In the first movie, when Freddy finally succumbs to the zombie hunger he starts foaming at the mouth like he's chewing on Alka-Seltzer.
* PipePain: Burt uses a pipe as a weapon when the zombies try and break into the mortuary.
* RaisingTheSteaks: Several preserved specimens are animated, including half a dog and a number of preserved butterflies.
* RealityEnsues: Inverted. Remember how the zombie infestation in ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' worked the way it would've in real life, with the ending that reveals that the infestation was stopped as easily as it had started? Well, in this movie, it doesn't work that way. "You mean the movie lied!?"
* SecondLawOfMetafictionalThermodynamics: The army has no idea how to get rid of the zombies. They bomb the whole town. This proves to be ill-advised.
* TemptingFate:
-->'''Freddy''': These things don't leak, do they?
-->'''Frank''': Leak? Hell, no! This was built by the Army Corps of Engineers!
-->''(slaps tank, which instantly leaks)''
** Trash's fantasy of being eaten by old men wouldn't have been expressed by someone more GenreSavvy.
* ThoseWackyNazis: Ernie, in the first film, is strongly implied to be one. He listens to a German march on his headphones, uses a pearl-handled Walther P38 handgun, and has an Eva Braun pinup on the wall in one scene.
** His name is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Kaltenbrunner Ernie Kaltenbrunner]].
** On the DVD commentary track, Don Calfa claims that he didn't personally see Ernie as a nazi, but rather someone just "really proud of his heritage".
* TranshumanTreachery: Freddy has an epiphany:
-->'''Freddy:''' [to Tina] See? And now you made me hurt myself again! You made me break my hand completely off this time, Tina! But I don't care, Darlin', because I love you, and you've got to let me EAT YOUR BRAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIINS!
** The workprint footage makes this even creepier as he plays on Tina's love for him.
-->'''Freddy:''' [to Tina] Tina...Tina, listen to me. We always meant so much to each other. So ''please'' open the hatch, it's wrong that you should keep me locked up like this!
* {{Understatement}}: After driving through a throng of brain-hungry zombies: "I think that something is ''not right'' outside!
* UpToEleven: "Then I'll turn [the retort] up higher, and we'll burn up the ashes, too."
* VertigoEffect: When Tina first sees the Tarman.
* WrongGenreSavvy: During the scene where Frank, Freddy, and Burt try and fail to destroy the cadaver on their own by RemovingTheHeadOrDestroyingTheBrain:
-->'''Burt''': I thought you said that if we destroyed the brain, it'd die!\\
'''Frank''': ''It worked in the movie!''\\
'''Burt''': Well, it ain't working now, Frank!\\
'''Freddy''': ''[[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments You mean the movie lied!?]]''
* ZergRush: How the zombies kill.
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