Lucas, get back here on this console! What happened to minor characters in "DAWN"?

[JDFP]

So, fairly straightforward thread I think we can have a bit of fun with -- what do you think happened to any/all of the secondary/minor characters in "Dawn" after the events of the film? Pick any of them or multiple ones -- Givens, Dr. Rausch, squinty-eyes ("Got any cigarettes?"), diabetic guy who left the message on the board for medicine (couldn't he have just broken into a pharmacy?) etc. etc. I'd say to try and take this thread somewhat seriously as in actually imagining more realistic things, but I know better with the fine folks of HPotD to say this. So, have fun with this but try to be thoughtful to it ("They all died" is a valid response, but I already said it so think of something else :p).

j.p.

[bassman]

Rausch was of course seen on the tv later into the outbreak, so I think he was in a secure area. Maybe one of the military support rescue stations that actually kept going for a while? Although they shortly after go off the air, I've always got the feeling that he would have made it for quite some time.

"Cigarettes" guy probably flipped their boat or something. He didn't look like the brightest crayon in the box.

The diabetic guy we actually see. He's the one that attacks Stephen at the hangars and gets his head smashed in. :p

[JDFP]

Rausch was of course seen on the tv later into the outbreak, so I think he was in a secure area. Maybe one of the military support rescue stations that actually kept going for a while? Although they shortly after go off the air, I've always got the feeling that he would have made it for quite some time.

"Cigarettes" guy probably flipped their boat or something. He didn't look like the brightest crayon in the box.

The diabetic guy we actually see. He's the one that attacks Stephen at the hangars and gets his head smashed in. :p

Was that diabetic guy at the chopper? I never put 2+2 together on that one, it would certainly make sense though. He had red hair and was probably Irish and we Irish are much more prone to high blood pressure and... anyway, I digress...

Of course, other secondary/minor characters other than these folks can be discussed as well. I was just giving examples -- feel free to discuss ANY of the secondary characters other than my examples as well.

j.p.

[bassman]

Was that diabetic guy at the chopper? I never put 2+2 together on that one, it would certainly make sense though. He had red hair and was probably Irish and we Irish are much more prone to high blood pressure and... anyway, I digress...

I was just joking that the diabetic guy didn't make it far. They're not really connected. I don't think.....

What about George and Christine? Think they stayed at the station controls until it went off the air or took off running? I don't really see how anyone else in the station could have escaped, though. With Stephen taking the helicopter and i'm assuming the tv station was in the city.....what would they do? Just walk out into the streets? Or maybe when the emergency networks took over, they sent in soldiers to escort them to another rescue station?

[JDFP]

What about George and Christine? Think they stayed at the station controls until it went off the air or took off running? I don't really see how anyone else in the station could have escaped, though. With Stephen taking the helicopter and i'm assuming the tv station was in the city.....what would they do? Just walk out into the streets? Or maybe when the emergency networks took over, they sent in soldiers to escort them to another rescue station?

Great question! I've always wondered about the people just randomly yelling at the station as to which one of them got out and which ones stayed and who lived and died and where they all dispersed to after the station shut down. There's one smoking hot chick at one moment I saw who I hope survived just because it would be a shame for her to die. :D

It's really an eerie thought to think most, if not all, of those people were dead within a matter of months to a year. I'd like to think things weren't too bad out in the countryside and in remote locations people were able to keep on fighting and continue until the corpses eventually rotted away a number of years later. Wishful thinking? Probably.

j.p.

[Doc]

I actually wonder what happene to those rednecks we see in the beginning. They seemed too be doing fine, and killing off all zeds they encountered.

And does this need be restricted to "Dawn"? I personally interested in the fate of the Sheriff from "Night" as well!

[JDFP]

I actually wonder what happene to those rednecks we see in the beginning. They seemed too be doing fine, and killing off all zeds they encountered.

And does this need be restricted to "Dawn"? I personally interested in the fate of the Sheriff from "Night" as well!

The rednecks would have probably continued to do well -- for awhile -- until they ran out of supplies. They couldn't just go into the nearest Woolworth's or K-mart (it was 1978, no Wal-Mart's) to stock up on more ammo. Safety in numbers only works in so much that the individual numbers in the group are safe -- all it would take would be one person fully loaded to completely snap and it would be a disaster for the rest of the good ol' boys.

No, doesn't have to be limited to "Dawn" it was just "Dawn" certainly has the most (living, at least) secondary characters from the trilogy. Speculation on anyone from the trilogy is good to go. I guess the second trilogy could be discussed as well -- but then again, does anyone here actually really care what happened to any of the people from "Diary", "Survival", and/or "Land?".

j.p.

[ProfessorChaos]

^

given that i shut "survival" off less than halfway through and have never had any desire to finish it, i'm gonna say, "not really" in regards to any characters at all from that one.

[AcesandEights]

I figured the elements of the military (national guard it seemed) and the local good ol' boys (Pennsyltucky Irregulars, let's call 'em ;)) would have done well for a bit and then separated/splintered as things got more desperate and long term planning for survival kicked in after topdown or external support & communications dried up. That's not to say that portions of them wouldn't have survived, though...just that they couldn't keep up their level of current activities for too long. Maybe someone in the military or some of the citizens may have eventually come up with an idea to fortify or plan for a longterm road/survival strategy...I mean you'd hope some long term planning would kick in, but that would depend on the outlook and personalities of the leading military and more influential citizens.

[SymphonicX]

"My turn for the coat" clearly spent the rest of the outbreak safe and secure under Frannies duffle jacket....Clearly figured out the best hiding place right at the beginning!

'guy who puts rabbit ears behind Dr Foster' had years of fun photobombing zombies, ended up running the "get yourself photographed with a stencher" attraction in Land of the Dead

'Woman who screams at dead bodies in locked apartment room" - had a very long career appearing in many other horror movies...

"come on, come on, you don't want to see that" black swat guy who was with Roger in the apartment block went on fly out a helicopter with a team of three others. Two of them worked for WGON's biggest competitor across the road from the WGON helipad.

"I got like 14 shells man, I'm gonna piss bricks! I gotta couple extra blocks to do as well...." (military/civilian/redneck piss up/zombie killathon) that guy was fine until shot number 13. Then shit got real.

"Ahh I got him, ahhh missed...." was unfortunately murdered whilst playing video games with a short tempered person with a headache.

Charlie: "half of those are inoperative as of now" Had a starring role after the zombie apocalypse in George and Mildred which ran on the BBC channels for a good few years!!!

http://www.britishclassiccomedy.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/george_mildred.jpg

[GRMonLI]

It would be really interesting to have a "contest" or fiction challenge...pick a secondary (or tertiary) character from any of the Romero world movies.....and write a short story about them and what they did after the movies.

We could gather them all here in the fiction section.

What do you think Neil?????

[MoonSylver]

The cops at the dock were ones I wondered about. I always kinda figured in the back of my mind they went down in a blaze of glory after being swarmed by zeds whilst raiding another dock for supplies on the way to "the island". Dr. Rausch is another. Kinda figured he'd pull a "Hitler in the bunker." Always though there'd be a good fanfic w/ him, Dr. Foster & Dr. Grimes (from Night) all in the same bunker.


And does this need be restricted to "Dawn"? I personally interested in the fate of the Sheriff from "Night" as well!

The epilogue to the NOTLD comic had a good one for Chief McClelland:
After building the huge bonfire into night, the posse attracts a huge swarm of zombies that overrun them. Vince & all the rest are killed & as McClelland runs for it, he runs into zombie Barbra & Johnny, who take him down.


""Ahh I got him, ahhh missed...." was unfortunately murdered whilst playing video games with a short tempered person with a headache.

:lol: This may be the funniest thing I've ever read. :lol:

[Brubaker]

TV Station:
My assumption was that zombies eventually break into the building of the tv station and with no apparent security force to stop them, they eventually finish off everyone still left at the station.

SWAT:
We see a group of zombies bust through the boards during the SWAT team scene and start mixing in with the SWAT guys, which puts an end to most of them. Even if some of the SWAT guys survive, you saw how much trouble they had cleaning out a single building. One or two large apartment buildings later and they would have been "done." You can safely assume the entire SWAT team (at least those who didn't flee or take a bullet to the head) would be reanimated as zombies within 24 hours from the time period we see them in the movie.

Rednecks:

Any rednecks who were actually left over after awhile would have either joined a gang like the bikers we see later in the movie or they would have eventually ended up in an outpost type of place much like we see in Land.

In fact, doesn't the Dawn novel actually address what eventually happens to the rednecks?

[dracenstein]

'Lucas, get back here' was an aspiring director and made Star Wars with zombies playing the stormtroopers.

I got the novelisation of Dawn of the Dead, as far as I remember without looking it up, the rednecks/National Guard's fate isn't mentioned.

[krakenslayer]

Although not much is shown due to budget constraints, I'm fairly sure that the centre of Philly was not supposed to be absolutely thronging with the undead at the start of Dawn. It's a couple of weeks into the outbreak, there are scattered groups of zombies here and there, random attacks are escalating and there are hotspots of extreme danger which are under semi-lockdown, albeit with police/military resources and morale stretched to the limit, but you could still drive (or even walk) from one place to another without necessarily getting piled under a thrashing mass of undead flesh. Think about it: the streets around the apartment block at the start were clear enough; despite dozens of people milling around with vehicles and fire trucks, advertising their presence by yelling into loudspeakers and discharging firearms, they showed no sign of having to fight off hordes of zombies from the outside. Peter and Roger presumably just walked out into the street and drove off casually in a squad car. And while there were signs of a recent attack at the helipad (the radio-operator's face eaten off), the area surrounding the docks was pretty quiet too. Judging by this, I think it possible that most of the people we see at the TV station were able to leave when the emergency networks took over, and returned home to live or die with their families, or at a rescue station.

I think it is worth suggesting that, from a careful examination of the events between Night and Dawn, the collapse of society was not down to an exponential explosion in zombie numbers in the three intervening weeks - in fact, the authorities seem to have been able to control their numbers to some extent, the number of zeds at the start of Dawn seem to be about the same or even slightly lower than in Night - but a relentlessly consistent level of attacks and outbreaks that gradually whittled down the morale, resources, sanity and energy of those charged with defending the public and reduced their effectiveness through sheer exhaustion and depletion. Once this happened, about the same time Peter and Roger deserted (roughly three weeks in), then zombie numbers skyrocketed. That's my take on it anyway.

Back on topic though: not a character but I would be really interesting in getting a look at one of those "rescue stations" when the shit really started hitting the fan.

[Zombie Snack]

they probably rode their horses into town for supplies and knocked off a piece while they were there..the whole end of world apocolyptic thing going on and all.

[childofgilead]

I know I'm guilty for a little bit of thread necromancy on this one, but it's not as bad as it could have been!

Anyway yeah, I always wondered this myself when I was younger and watched these things.

Nowadays all I can do is wonder why in the hell the power stayed on so long, because if there was nobody to mind the switches, even if the power in that area WAS nuclear, it would have shut off automatically.

So..apply logic to what we see in the film as it's presented. Obviously there was still an infrastructure and it was still pretty well protected. The power never went out. Luckily, nobody hit a power pole, and no breakers or substations' fuses were tripped for the entire run of the movie. Who knows, the entire undead population of the area could have been concentrated around that mall and the main characters never knew, meanwhile people are in their farmhouses and apartments disbelieving the wild stories they're hearing on the TV. Heh.

I've honestly been curious though, seriously, where some of the tertiary characters ended up. I've also wondered whether or not those "cops" at the docks were really cops or if they were part of a prison convoy being evacuated who managed to overpower their captors and figured they could make out better acting the roles out. I mean, yeah, it was the 70s, but not a single one of em had regulation haircuts! ;)

As for the people at the tv station, I've always figured that essential personnel would be forced to stay on, while others would be evacuated, willingly or no, as things went downhill.

It definitely appeared like things weren't to the point of no return early in the movie, they had surrounded the apartment building, had a perimeter and everything. I've always assumed they were on a search and destroy or forceful evacuation and had run up against Martinez before, and a larger response was required. Dunno.

The rednecks..*sigh*..yeah, I know alot of people would be that callous to the situation, but I do think they were portrayed a little heavy handed. But yeah, I don't see any serious unification, nothing keeping them together once the Iron City and hot coffee is gone. They'll just pack up and head home and be picked off by time or each other.

The Guardsmen..again..some were real, others were obviously extras. I doubt there was any sort of conscription going on, but I can definitely see them pulling anybody with ROTC or previous military experience, shoving an old uniform at them and saying "follow him and shut up". Again, external rationalization to what was depicted..I have problems. :)

I think the bikers would splinter off due to attrition and differing goals.

Now, serious question. Do you REALLY think that after the end of Day, that Sarah, John and Mcdermott stayed on that island forever? Say it with me now..HURRICANE!

[Mr.G]

Now, serious question. Do you REALLY think that after the end of Day, that Sarah, John and Mcdermott stayed on that island forever? Say it with me now..HURRICANE!

Hurricane or zombies....hmmm....I'll take my chances with a hurricane; they don't bite!

[JDFP]

I've also wondered whether or not those "cops" at the docks were really cops or if they were part of a prison convoy being evacuated who managed to overpower their captors and figured they could make out better acting the roles out. I mean, yeah, it was the 70s, but not a single one of em had regulation haircuts! ;)



Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't military and police regulations much, much more lax back in the 70's/80's as opposed to now? I recall seeing many films/shows/etc. from the 70's and 80's portraying military personnel (possibly reservists only?) with great thick moustaches and sideburns and pretty thick hair (just about everyone in the 70's had thick hair, it was a terrible recessionary period for poor barber's everywhere).

From what I understand in talking with my older cousin who is a captain in the army, the late 70's was a VERY bad time for the military in coping with the aftermath of the government forcing the military to lose the Vietnam war through not giving them the support and ability they needed to win it and thus people indirectly frowning upon the general military. From what I understand the late 70's was also a period of very low morale too. I'd be interested to know how long it took for that morale to turn around with Reagan being elected and the re-building and re-advancement of the military again (and soldiers beginning to be actually treated with the respect they deserve for protecting our nation).

j.p.

[Yojimbo]

According to Joe Pilato, the cops at the dock were real cops going rogue and preparing to run just like Peter and Roger.

Yeah, maybe the haircuts weren't up to regulations - but you have to suspend disbelief at some point to accept the premise of the film. I am not sure about the power remaining on without interruption, however.

I find it much harder to believe that they were able to get that many extras - including active duty uniformed personnel - for no money at all to show up on the day of filming.

[JDFP]

I find it much harder to believe that they were able to get that many extras - including active duty uniformed personnel - for no money at all to show up on the day of filming.

When you advertise to people: "Hey, you all want to be in a movie?" you'd be surprised what many people would do, me thinks.

Plus, you have to admit it looked like it would be a hell of a lot of fun too.

j.p.

[Yojimbo]

When you advertise to people: "Hey, you all want to be in a movie?" you'd be surprised what many people would do, me thinks.

Plus, you have to admit it looked like it would be a hell of a lot of fun too.

j.p.
Got a point there, brother JD. I would jump at the chance at being a Romero extra!

[Bad Ronald]

Lets get back to the TV studio.

What kind of bunker did Givens have since he wasn't in the studio and was phoning it in.

Seeing as all that the WGON traffic chopper had was no 118 AM MHZ links for local ATC and neither UHF links to simulcast back to the studio (we don't even have a radio!) to transmit our glorious chopper pilot Steve Andrews reports of traffic backups.

Well Mr.Givens knows them FCC licenses will be costing $

He spent the money on mre's or coke and whores :smile


Hint there are no aircraft without radios.

Did flyboy have to land at an intersection and payphone
in his traffic reports?

I challenge Mr.Absurd timeline philly swat
3 weeks power is dead: evident when chopper left the docks,.... your dear Phila. was winking out battle lost
3 weeks in.

Land of the dead is at least 8 years after Dawn.

Shit takes time and Romero doesn't know it all.

THERE ARE NO AIRCRAFT WITHOUT RADIOS

[Wrong Number]

THERE ARE NO AIRCRAFT WITHOUT RADIOS

True, but while most people can't fly a helicopter, they can all use a radio. We can assume that the helicopter was not maned or guarded at all times since we see Steven in the TV studio. We saw plenty of looting so I don't think it's that big a stretch.

WN

[sandrock74]

About the power being on at the mall (and surrounding area); I always figured that the nuclear power plant was something secured and under heavy guard. Think about it...with all the chaos going around, the last thing anyone would want is a meltdown at a nuclear plant! I'm sure that would be a high priority to keep maintained and secure.

As for no knuckleheads crashing into powerline poles and such....its a suspension of disbelief. If I can "believe" in zombies shuffling about, then I have no problem in assuming all the power lines are up and operating in the surrounding area!

[krakenslayer]

True, but while most people can't fly a helicopter, they can all use a radio. We can assume that the helicopter was not maned or guarded at all times since we see Steven in the TV studio. We saw plenty of looting so I don't think it's that big a stretch.

WN

Or it's possible that Francine didn't know what she was talking about. Or maybe the radio was broken or they couldn't use it for some other reason. Maybe she was talking about Air Traffic Control, whom they could not contact for assistance due to their helicopter being registered stolen.

Most likely, though, it's just an oversight and we should disregard it.

[dracenstein]

I always thought it meant an ordinary radio, so they could listen to situation reports from the emergency stations that were taking over.

[Yojimbo]

I always thought it meant an ordinary radio, so they could listen to situation reports from the emergency stations that were taking over.

Exactly - the chopper did not have an am/fm radio (why would there be one in a traffic helicopter?) but I assume it had the ability to speak to local air traffic control (which likely had gone down by this time) and directly to the studio (which would do them no good since they had stolen the helicopter and things were pretty far gone there when they split)

What Fran was referring to was their inability to listen to local emergency broadcasts as they were flying across Pennsylvania so that they could figure out what was happening on the ground and in the towns they were flying over.

Also, when I work really late in Downtown Los Angeles, it is common to see the lights in the skyscrapers shut off floor by floor. I think many buildings are set up to do this automatically in order to save power. This does not mean that the power is going off throughout the whole building, just that the circuit that the overhead lights are on is powering down. Whatever the case might be, it is neither proof that all the electricity across the whole city is down, nor is it proof that Romero doesn't know his shit.

[Bad Ronald]

Not sure looked like more than 1 building to me.