Headscratchers / Dawn of the Dead (1978)

• Why did the survivors put all the infected bodies in some freezers rather than shoving them off the roof? Surely the place will still be rotten if you keep the bodies inside the mall!
  • Considering that the only way back up to the roof would be through the boiler rooms and the survivor's hideout loft, I don't think they'd be prepared to lug all those bodies upstairs, through their primary living area, up a ladder and out onto a roof. The freezers were probably sealed (to keep the stock fresh), so the smell wouldn't bother them.
    • A problem with that explanation is that the freezer is visible well stocked with produce, meats, and all sorts of foodstuffs. It makes no sense to place rotting corpses right next perfectly fine food, especially given the circumstances they were in.
  • They ran out of water on large freshwater lake.
  • The novelization actually changes it so they stash all the corpses in the mall's vault instead, joking about what future archaeologists might think when they discover the vault with all the bones of the corpses inside.
• The fact that the survivors just left the helicopter completely in plain sight bugs me slightly. While covering it in tarpaulin wouldn't totally disguise it, at least it'd prevent looters from immediately identifying it. They could've gone further, too; They managed to make a fake wall to conceal the location of the hideout door with the supplies in Penney's, and I'm sure they would've had enough time to construct a fake set of walls to encircle the chopper, hiding it from view. Granted, if they had to escape in a hurry, the walls wouldn't be practical: But once they were on the roof, with the ladder retracted, they could take the time to remove the walls.
  • Or, for that matter, when they disguised the entrance to their living quarters, why did they not bother to seal it with more than a sheet of masonite and a couple strips of wood?
    • For both of those questions the answer is, so they can get away quicker. Covering up the helicopter or putting up fake walls would have hindered their ability to get away. Remember they weren't planning on fighting over the mall once the bikers turned up they just wanting to make their lives harder. As for the wall making it weak enough so you could just punch through it; if you're in a tight spot would have been handy if they couldn't get to the vents and it would have worked just fine if not for zombie-Stephen.
  • It wasn’t the helicopter sitting on the roof that atracted the raiders. It was the helicopter landing after Francine’s flying lesson. A lesson that came in very handy, I might point out. Even if they concealed the helicopter when not using it, the flying lessons would have been enough to attract attention.
    • Along with the above, we don't know how much raw material they had to create such a cover. There may have only been enough to create the fake wall, maybe even three or four, but there may have not been enough to go around the whole helicopter and landing pad to give it cover and still leave the option to take off if needed.
• What made that one biker think it would be a good idea to check his blood pressure while surrounded by flesh-eating zombies?
  • Rule of Funny and Too Dumb to Live.
• Why did the bikers bother attacking a mall that was clearly inhabited? There's being an asshole and then there's just charging blindly against an unknown force. Were there seriously no other uninhabited malls or shops to loot in relative safety?
  • The bikers aren't military strategists. They want to rove around creating rampant chaos and destruction for shits and giggles. When they saw that there were people in the mall, and that those people had a good thing going, they wanted to destroy it and loot the mall for no reason other than that it made them happy. We get to see quite clearly the results of their stupidity.
  • Why else? Supplies, goods...anything one can come across in a zombie apocalypse. Given that these were also the not-so-moral types of scavangers, their destructive and invasive behavior is to be expected.
• Granted there are reasons for breaking in the mall. But why did the biker's only take the jewels and cash as the bulk of it? Wouldn't it be useless during I don't know the END OF THE WORLD?!
  • It's instinct. Intellectually they might have accepted that the world has ended and the jewels and cash are valueless in this new world, but on the other hand they're still mature adults who have spent their entire lives having the value of money and luxury goods such as jewellery impressed upon them almost 24/7. They want a taste of being rich. Plus, they don't exactly seem to be that bright.
    • This is also brought up with the one biker who tried to steal a TV, with another biker asking, "Hey man, what do you plan on watching with that?" After realizing how stupid it was to steal a TV when there's no television station broadcasting, he proceeds to destroy it and another one just for the fun of it.
    • Besides after the zombies? Gold and diamonds have proven their worth; whats to say than in the post-apocalyptic world gold isn't just as valuable; humans do dig that colour.
    • It was rather the point though wasn't it? Our Protagonists where doing the exact same thing (only not in the middle of a fire-fight and while fighting off zombie hordes) and it took a while for the novelty of being "rich" wore off. Besides they could still barter between themselves meaning they could have some worth.
• So why didn't Peter and Stephen wait until after Roger was dead in order to set up the wall to block the stairwell? With it up the only way to bury his body would be to carry it up through the vents, and that's a lot of dead weight (no pun intended) to manage up a rope ladder.
  • You gotta keep busy, even if it doesn't really make a whole load of sense. In a middle of a crisis you've got to do something, which the characters of the film eventually figure out for themselves.
• Thing that always gets me is Francine's whole "What have we done to ourselves?" moment after Roger's death. She's been pissing and moaning the whole film granted, and does have a point about not being consulted, though she also has zero pertinent skills (Stephen is a pilot, and Roger and Peter are at least trained police). But she seems to be under the idea that there is some safe zone they can head to. ("Let's just take what we need and keep going." "It's so bright and neatly wrapped that you can't see that it's a prison too.") It's like...okay lady, according to you we've committed ourselves to a fate worse then death. Sure we are about as safe as a group can be right now, we have plenty of food, water and hell, access to a pharmacy. We have light and heat and even entertainment. No, no, you're right though. Lets just shoot ourselves off into the wild blue yonder and DIE. What have we done to ourselves? Survived. Survived when a whole lot of people have died, and done so in a position of honest to god COMFORT. Stop. Bitching.
  • Strong female protagonists weren't a big thing back in the 70s, generally women existed in movies back then to bitch, whine, and get screwed, and occasionally get backhanded by men for being hysterical in situations where being hysterical is a ground state of being, remember the rest seemed perfectly fine with their situation, so she was obviously the naysayer, designed to be as cynical and moany as possible, she moaned so much even the zombies were like "that's a bit much".
    • On the contrary, compared to most female protagonists back then, she was considered one of the strong ones; The way Romero originally wrote her character would have portrayed her the way you describe her here: screaming and hysterical. The actress on the other hand made it so that Francine wasn't a pushover; she just pointed out what Stephen didn't wanna acknowledge. You saw how she called out the owner of the News Station when he tried to send people to their deaths, how she made it clear that she needed to be in on what was going on (which even Peter agreed with), and how she eventually stepped up to the plate as the action girl of the film and even pointed out the obvious when needed. Just because she complains, doesn't make her weak or a naysayer; it just makes her a downplayed version of the the Cassandra. And given what happened in the end? She was right about the mall the entire time; Stephen became so attached and complacent with it, it ended up being his undoing...and had she said nothing, they wouldn't have been able to fly out because she wouldn't have gotten the training she needed from Stephen
  • You're not giving her the credit she deserves, nor are you taking in other factors that would have eventually undone the entire paradise they had. You really think that they would have been able to survive there forever? At some point they'd run out of supplies or suffered from cabin fever, and fact that there was a helicopter on the roof and trucks blocking the entrance would have eventually given away their position even without the flying lessons. Not to mention, they all became so complacent with the false sense of security that the mall gave them, that there was no backup plan made incase they had to haul ass if zombies got in somehow; everyone sans Francine was that sure nothing could go wrong, Stephen especially. If Francine didn't "bitch", as you so gently put it, then valid concerns would never have been made and they would have ended up doomed by the time the bikers came. Its because of her "bitching" that she brought up something that should have been evident and ended up doing herself and Peter a major favor; had she remained silent, they both would have been screwed over because of their blind optimism. Bottom line? Getting complacent in a zombie apocalypse is the worst thing you can do, and Francine knew that from the beginning.
    • And you're not actually addressing the comments I too issue with. I said nothing about Fran's reasonable request to not be left without a gun again. Nor did I complain about her idea that someone else be given training with the helicopter. Both of those issues she takes, have instant reasoning about them. It's clear why she would need a weapon, having just been attacked a zombie, and when she talks about other people being trained to fly, she explains that too. So what's her explanation for "Let's just take what we need and keep going?" Or "It's so bright and neatly wrapped that you can't see its a prison too." But let's go. Number one: Although I didn't say it, no, I don't think they would be able to live in the mall forever. But I do think they managed to live in there for close to a year with food, water, weapons, entertainment, and OH YEAH actual MEDICINE. How well do you think they would have done off in the Canadian wilderness? Remember, Fran says "I guess we forget about Canada huh?" So what's Fran's backup plan huh? Well, we don't see it, but I guess we assume she has one? Which brings us to Number two: Which just so happens to be the number one question in a zombie film. "WHERE ARE YOU GOING TO GO?" Fran wanted to keep moving....TO WHERE? Were the mall survivors complacent? Sure, they were living in actual COMFORT. False sense of security? Considering that it took a "regular" army of bikers armed with EXPLOSIVES to blow the mall open, I question how false that sense really was. But okay, let's say they take what they need and keep going. Then what? How long till they run out of fuel? Let's say they get to the Wilds of Canada...now what? Oh yeah, they DIE. They freeze to death, they starve to death, and so on. They have no survival skills, Roger and Peter are city cops only, and the Canadian wilderness is NO JOKE. So they have no abundant source of food, no source of clean, drinkable water, and NO MEDICINE. Because how many supplies can that helicopter carry? How much did the find while traveling? How much have they already consumed? Now that they are in the wilderness that Fran wanted...why should Peter and Roger hang around? With no fuel for the Helicopter, Stephen is useless, and Fran? Pregnant Fran? So yes, while having a plan of what they should do when they exhaust the Mall is wise. But Fran doesn't have one beyond "Keep moving" and "Canada" apparently. So back to the original point. What is her problem with them holding up in the mall for as long as they can? BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO OTHER OPTIONS. They have no other intel. Furthermore, getting "Complacent" wasn't their undoing. The bikers, and Stephen picking a fight were. Beyond that, Peter did have a plan for the bikers. Hide, and wait them out. Afterwards, survey the damage and go from there. They probably would have been forced to leave yes, as they couldn't have secured the mall again. It's not Peter, nor Fran's, fault that Stephen was...well Stephen. Even at the very end, Fran has no plan. She informs Peter that there isn't much fuel when asked, and that's about it. It's pretty clear the two are fairly screwed, Pregnant Fran even more. So I ask one last time, why is this Pregnant Woman bitching about them staying in the ONE PLACE they have found that she can be Pregnant, not starve to death, and not get eaten by zombies?
• So are the protagonists aware of what a bite does or not? at the start a fellow officer gets bit in the leg and instantly decided to blow his own brains out (in the extended cut this scene was trimmed to make it seem like the officer just couldn't take the strain of the world), but then Roger get bit twice in a few seconds and they seem to brush it off as an injury, then he gets bit again and they brush it off, until the point where he is clearly sick and dying from it, at least in the remake the nurse puts 2+2 together after the fat woman zombie and her own husband, and the officer at the start of the original film seemed at least aware of what was going on.
  • Peter does comment that he had not seen any previous bite victims last more than three days, so he had an understanding of Roger's eventual fate. They likely did not react immediately after Roger was bitten due to more pressing concerns (such as all of the other zombies closing in) and also a bit of denial in spite of all previous evidence.
  • They are aware. Not only does Peter react to when Roger's first bitten on the arm with "Damn!", certain edits show that Steven and Fran witnessed Roger's leg being bitten, with a shot of Peter saying, "Jesus!" and Fran's reaction, "It got him!" (Fran's reaction is still present in most edits of the film). But, at that moment, they had to finish securing the mall (which was a high priority). Even Roger himself explains it at that moment: "There's a lot more to get done before you can afford to lose me!" Everyone of them knows Roger's got a clock ticking against him now, but they need to finish securing the mall and killing the zombies inside so that they can have a place to live. Roger himself even prioritizes it over himself because he knows those who continue to live after he's gone needs the place secured. It's only after the mall is secured, cleaned up and they have a brief moment of enjoying the place that the fact that Roger's time is almost up comes back. They knew he was dying, and they wanted to have a little bit of time to enjoy things, probably giving Roger the last few happy memories he would have before he dies.
  • Peter and Roger are aware, but it doesn't seem Francine and Stephen are until after Peter tells them he's not seen anyone bitten last more than three days. Fran certainly knows that Roger's bites are serious, but she asks if they can't take him to a med unit, seemingly believing that Roger's bites can be treated. It's not until Peter shares the tidbit of what he's witnessed that, I believe, Stephen and Fran understand that Roger's wounds are terminal. After that, yes, everyone is aware, and seems to make an effort to make Roger comfortable for his final day(s).
  • Denial is a hell of a thing. As is forcible indifference. After all the adrenaline and work wore off, no one wanted to say anything until Peter forced them to confront the inevitable. Even if they know what the bite will do, there's always that dangerous spot of hope. What if the bite didn't get him enough? What if he could be immune? What if turning into a zombie doesn't happen to everyone? They do eventually face the reality, but sometimes it's easier to stick your head in the sand and wish it wasn't so until you have to face facts.
• In the movie they repeatedly cut to a bunch of what are supposed to be rednecks with guns relaxing while the rest of the world is beset with zombies, even cutting to them near the end of the movie. So... does that mean it's not really the apocalypse? Did they all survive? Is every rural person basically safe? Unless the zombies are 28 days later types rural people with plenty of guns, ammo, and space technically shouldn't have any issues with zombies at all. Far as I know this is the only movie that comes close to even alluding to this rather than obsessing over getting to an island
  • What version did you watch? In none of the three cuts of the film do they ever show the rednecks repeatedly throughout the film, let alone at the end. They're just confined to one scene when the chopper gang are flying over somewhere "pretty close to Johnstown." We watch them for a few minutes and never see them again.
    • I personally would've found it pretty funny/sad, that after everything they had been through, turns out they were in a "hot zone" and if they had flown a few miles further they would seen everything was going well.
    • Honestly, that would have been a great downer ending in the same vein as the original film.
    • Would have been just as much of a gut punch ending as the originally planned version for the film (where everyone dies) as well. It would have made Fran's plea to keep going in the Director's Cut even more potent too, that if they discover that they had abandoned the idea of securing the mall and had just continued on like Fran suggested, and then discover that they were just in a hot zone, it would have been brilliant.