Something that bugs me about the Dawn of the Dead remake...

[bassman]

I've always questioned why they stashed the bodies in the freezer. It seems like such a waste of a necessary utility. There had to have been better ways to deal with the bodies. It would be more work, but I would have maybe considered throwing them off the roof. Not keep them next to my ice cream.... I am pretty sure that when GAR was touring the mall originally, there actually was civil defense boxes in the actual mall, which is partly how he got the idea to have survivors hold up in a mall. You would probably know more about it than I would, but I believe he does mention this on the documentary. When they were giving him the tour they showed him how people could survive in the mall. When I was doing some research into getting a few of those boxes to go in my man cave, I believe I actually ran across the CD website and anyone can order them. So it's certainly possible that the mall owner could have stocked up the storage room.

[Thorn]

I've always questioned why they stashed the bodies in the freezer. It seems like such a waste of a necessary utility. There had to have been better ways to deal with the bodies. It would be more work, but I would have maybe considered throwing them off the roof. Not keep them next to my ice cream.... You would probably know more about it than I would, but I believe he does mention this on the documentary. When they were giving him the tour they showed him how people could survive in the mall. When I was doing some research into getting a few of those boxes to go in my man cave, I believe I actually ran across the CD website and anyone can order them. So it's certainly possible that the mall owner could have stocked up the storage room. Very much agree, and I like Philly's math and if it was an optimal time as far as deliveries and such and food levels a and none of this was looted before hand it does say that the food would hold out for longer than I had initially thought anyway. In this case of course there were other issues, power going out, and the zombies in the parking garage, and recent deaths. I also have to assume Andy mentioned shortage of food before off camera.

[sandrock74]

Plus when you think about it, what sounds like a better shelter from zombies? A large sealed building filled with food supplies, power, and plumbing, or a deserted island out in the ocean where you can't find food unless you know how to hunt and know which plants are OK to eat, and where you don't have a solid shelter to protect you from things like hurricanes which can completely destroy islands, not to mention that you have other dangerous critters on the island such as poisonous spiders and snakes. Even if the island is completely free of zombies, those rotten flesh-eaters aren't the only dangers out there. Well, to be fair, the Great Lakes is not the ocean. Nor do we have hurricanes here. There was a really bad tornado that went thru the Lakes back in '97...but that was mostly along the shore. Also, poisonous spiders and snakes aren't a local thing in this region to contend with. You would have to be mindful of poison ivy thou, as that pops up here and there. If you hole up on an island in the Great Lakes (and yes, there are a few), you'd actually be alright...until winter hit. The water freezes over and the zombies could easily walk on over to your island. Yikes! Of course, all this is moot, as there are no islands in the Great Lakes region that they showed in the movie. The islands are centered around Michigan, not Illinois or Wisconson. Still, all in all, not a bad place to hole up spring thru fall.

[Rancid Carcass]

I also have to assume Andy mentioned shortage of food before off camera. Don't you just hate it when characters have lengthy discussions about important plot points off camera?

[JDFP]

Don't you just hate it when characters have lengthy discussions about important plot points off camera? I've always been amused to no end at the bit of dialogue in "Day" where Rhodes yells after Steel: "Get out of there, Steel! We've got more important shit to do!" -- my thought has always been: "What, exactly?". I guess getting drunk(er) and fighting one another and playing cards counted as 'more important shit to do'. Maybe they had a movie night and Rhodes was afraid of Steel not coming because he was the only one who knew how to work the projector? EDIT: Ohhh!! I just got a fourth star! Oh boy! Zombie Flesh Eater here I come! j.p.

[MoonSylver]

I've always been amused to no end at the bit of dialogue in "Day" where Rhodes yells after Steel: "Get out of there, Steel! We've got more important shit to do!" -- my thought has always been: "What, exactly?" Tune up the golf cart in case they needed to make a quick getaway later.

[sandrock74]

Tune up the golf cart in case they needed to make a quick getaway later. Well, more like the pace of a leisurely stroll kinda getaway (to be fair).

[Wyldwraith]

Hmm things that bother me about Dawn '04, 1***) When retreating back to the Mall via the sewer/underground while being pursued by zombies, the survivors didn't even TRY to secure either of the two doors that lock they passed through, and that during the fiasco in the parking garage they cared enough about to leave 2 people to watch one of those doors. Strictly a case of making characters do something stupid and counter-intuitive in order to increase the pressure on the characters flight from the Mall. 2) The zombie that gets Andy: It was like that damned zombie was hovering at that "doggie door" just waiting to spring forward and grab that lip of the door before Andy could close it up again. Also, why in God's name didn't Andy have a GUN IN HIS HAND while opening a door to the outside swarming with zombies for the first time in weeks? I could've bought the scene if he'd immediately shot the first zombie who tried to lunge in, but could neither push the body out or pull it in before other zombies pushed their way in. As it happened it just seemed like scriptwriter fiat. Defenders of Dawn '04 make so much of the psychological effect of having zombies beating on walls and doors every hour of every day....except when that psychological effect should cause a survivor to behave in a much less complacent/careless manner. Now, some might say "Andy was physically compromised by having been starved." To this I say: Let's remember that only a couple hours earlier the man had the strength to climb stairs and continually lift and lay down an eraseboard, and a day earlier was sharp enough to be sniping celebrity lookalike undead. 3) Legless zombie gymnastics. 'Nuff said. 4) Planning and actually firing up an unsecured CHAINSAW during an extremely bumpy ride. If running with scissors is a bad idea, this is the Nobel Retard Award of an idea. 5) The girl and her stupid dog. Again, 'Nuff said. Way to remove the far and away best/most durable vehicle the survivors had at their disposal from the survivors' control. 6) Why no more shotguns than Ving's after the raid for guns/ammo? In a world of runner-zombies, a shotgun is your best damned friend. A center-mass hit with a load of 00 Buckshot won't destroy a zombie, but I'd bet good movie it'd knock it on its ass, or flat on its back....or you can aim for the legs and take the easy mobility-removal shot. All the loading up on handguns really irritated me when the walls were full of FAR better weapons. To say nothing of the fact that when a shotgun runs dry you still have a bludgeon. When a 9mm runs dry you have a medium-sized paperweight. 7) Leaving the Mall for the stated reasons. ESPECIALLY for an unknown destination with a questionable amount of fuel to reach said destination, and NO CLUE what the status of said locale is. Maybe it's just me, but when I found a boat with a zombie head in the cooler, I'd have re-thought the whole island idea. Rather a red-flag, don'tcha think?

[Thorn]

Don't you just hate it when characters have lengthy discussions about important plot points off camera? I do. But you know time restrictions and all that, if it ended up on the cutting room floor the director either assumed we would be able to infer and make the assumption or they thought it was not needed to show more than once... that we could make the leap of faith and assume if you are hungry and out of food you talk about it as you work your way down to your last buttered pickle. If you watch the lost tapes I think his discussion of food levels and such was much more of an ongoing theme than what was shown in the release of the film itself. Being able to accept that in this case especially is not all that hard given the lost tapes.

[Ragnarr]

The main characters in the DotD remake should have used a kite or a bunch of helium balloons from the mall's party store to float over a lonnnnng (300 yrds) string until it was above Andy's shop. Andy shoots the kite/balloons and grabs the falling string. The characters holding the other end of the string progressively add thicker and thicker string/cord until there's a strong enough line between the gun shop and the mall. Food and ammo/weapons could then be pulled in either direction. A remote control car from the mall hobby shop could also be used for the same concept with andy using a fishing pole to bring the car up to his balcony or window.

[rongravy]

The main characters in the DotD remake should have used a kite or a bunch of helium balloons from the mall's party store to float over a lonnnnng (300 yrds) string until it was above Andy's shop. Andy shoots the kite/balloons and grabs the falling string. The characters holding the other end of the string progressively add thicker and thicker string/cord until there's a strong enough line between the gun shop and the mall. Food and ammo/weapons could then be pulled in either direction. A remote control car from the mall hobby shop could also be used for the same concept with andy using a fishing pole to bring the car up to his balcony or window. You're really gonna need the wind to be on your side there, MacGuyver... I guess I'm going to have to watch DOTD04 again to see how far away Andy was. When it first came out on dvd I watched it nightly. Now when I watch it, I always fall asleep by the hanging in the mall montage. Guess I'm just an old fuddy duddy...

[Ragnarr]

You're really gonna need the wind to be on your side there, MacGuyver... I guess I'm going to have to watch DOTD04 again to see how far away Andy was. When it first came out on dvd I watched it nightly. Now when I watch it, I always fall asleep by the hanging in the mall montage. Guess I'm just an old fuddy duddy... Well yeah, it's a big 'IF' for the wind direction blowing towards Andy's gun shop. To get a perspective of distance from the mall to Andy's, I looked at the one scene when they first go onto the roof to paint the SOS and hear shots (it's a closer scene of Andy on his balcony and the building face). Then later, when the jazzy 'Get down with the sickness' music plays, Ken the cop holds up his dryboard sign and you the viewer are looking over his shoulder. The scene means to show you all the zombies in the parking lot, but I was looking in the distance remebering what Andy's shop looked like. That's where you can get an approximate perception of distance (I reckon it to be 200-300 meters). Think I'm gonna go to google satellite map. The mall were they filmed DotD remake was up in Canada somewhere (I'm gonna goole the locale). I should be able to see from above and get a better idead of distance. I know I'm taking this way too far, but I'm kinda whacky like that. Will post back with my findings. ~R~ Okay back from google map. Seems Thornhill Square Shopping Center in Thornhill, Ontario (where they filmed the mall scenes) was demolished shortly after the filming. The map shows the mall by that name, but it looks way small and there's some medical center attached or next to it. Cannot also see which building they used for Andy's Gunshop.

[Suicycho]

It was a no-win situation. Sooner or later the zombies would get in. As for normal people suddenly becoming fighters? Its been awhile since i saw the movie but the only real fighter/warriors I saw were the cop , the gangbanger and the security guard who kinda struck me as a gun nut.

[Ragnarr]

Not so sure it'd be a no-win situation in DotD04. If you watch the dvd extras "the lost tapes' with Andy the gunshop owner, the short is prefaced with the tapes being found at a later date after the zombie outbreak has passed. I think the characters could have survived in the mall until the outbreak subsided. Elsewhere in this forum, posters suggested that there wouldn't be enough long-term food (food that doesn't spoil after a week or so). I disagree. Vending machines alone could keep the characters going for quite some time if it's rationed. Also, restaurants have tons of canned goods in storage (if you think all restaurant food is "fresh", I have a couple of bridges in NYC I can sell ya lol). Entrances into the mall could be baracaded not to mention actually walled off (the characters get their SOS paint from a store called 'Case Hardware'. I think they could have survived long-term. As far as fighting, unless they could get ammo from Andy's (and Andy too), it'd be best not to try. -- -------- Post added at 12:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:21 AM ---------- Well, to be fair, the Great Lakes is not the ocean. Nor do we have hurricanes here. There was a really bad tornado that went thru the Lakes back in '97...but that was mostly along the shore. Also, poisonous spiders and snakes aren't a local thing in this region to contend with. You would have to be mindful of poison ivy thou, as that pops up here and there. If you hole up on an island in the Great Lakes (and yes, there are a few), you'd actually be alright...until winter hit. The water freezes over and the zombies could easily walk on over to your island. Yikes! Well now that you mention it, would not the cold that freezes water also turn the zombies into zombicles? (frozen solid?) I mean, afterall they ARE just meat with shoes on.

[rongravy]

I mean, afterall they ARE just meat with shoes on. That was more than worth a giggle. Troo, too. Well... except the ones that died without shoes on.