"Why didn't they...?" #3 (Dawn of the Dead)

[Philly_SWAT]

I always wondered, why did they put all of the dead bodies in the freezers? I mean, there are several reasons that I can see against it. Number one, it looked like there was still food containers in there. What, did they want to eat food that had been stored in a place with a bunch of rotting zombie corpses? Also, what if the power in the mall went off? Peter seemed surprised that the power was still on there, and assumed that it "could be nuclear". Maybe it wasnt, and was still just on a functioning grid. If the power went off, the mall still wouldnt be a bad place to permanently hole-up in, but with no power, the stench that would come out of the freezer would be pretty unbearable. And at that point, I doubt they would want to remove the bodies then. Seems to me it would have made more sense to take them up to the roof and throw them off. That way, the bodies would be out of their living space, and maybe would have scared off potential raiders if they saw a huge stack of bodies outside that obviously had been killed off by those inside.

[Chakobsa]

I wouldn't have fancied man hauling all those corpses up to the roof just to pitch 'em over the side. Stuffing 'em all in a walk in fridge was probably the best and safest thing to do in the circumstances, trying to get them outside would be just asking for trouble.

[Tullaryx]

Does make sense, but I would say that their plan was probably something that was a work-in-progress even as they went outside to get the trucks. Even the most prepared person could overlook even details as getting walkie-talkies for comm use in the most stressful of situations.

[axlish]

Putting the dead zombies in the walk-in cooler doesn't sound like the best plan, when considering it also houses a considerable percentage of your food supply, but upon further examination, I can't really decide what I myself would do with them. Hauling them one by one, down the hallway, up the stairs, into the loft, up a ladder, and over the side doesn't sound feasable.

So what could we do with them? Burn them? This would succeed in getting rid of the bodies, but obvious hazards to the building and your lungs make this option a no-go.

This is where my "bring a couple of trucks inside through the loading docks to help secure the doors" theory could come into play. Had they brought a truck inside, they could have loaded up the zombies into the back, moved a truck, opened the loading docks and rigged the truck to drive away by itself and crash out in the parking lot. Heck, they could have even put a propane tank on top so they could blow it up and watch it burn.

[GMAN]

^ yeah that seems like a good idea

[MaximusIncredulous]

They could've just dismembered the corpses. The mall was a mess anyway and needed cleaning. Cut the zombs up, wrap each piece in Saran Wrap or whatever, haul the pieces up to the roof and chuck 'em on the heads of their friends below.

[hseiken]

Weren't they, to some degree, wanting to conceal the fact they were in there? Freshly killed corpses littering areas nearby where they chuncked bodies (or pieces of bodies) would indicate they were killed recently and thus warrent the place getting checked out by the passers by. I personally wondered about putting them not in the fridge, but in the (i guess it's a) boiler room. They would hardly ever have to go down there, and it seems as though it was free from outside interference, so they wouldn't have to risk anything and it sure as hell beats the freezer and roof chunking plans.

As far as power going out, even without bodies in the powerless freezers, those motha's will stink regardless after a few days...I've had a 2 day power outage before and my freezer, with only a few goods in it, stunk up my whole apartment...was not pretty.

[axlish]

In stead of rigging the truck to blow up, we could have Peter drive the truck out a few hundred yards away from the mall, and then have Stepehen pick him up, after he closes the loading dock.

[Angry312]

.. a car.
.. a hardware store.
.. access to bulk cloth.

It is a simple matter to rig up a 'sled' or travois out of cloth and a car bumper; given they were moving them across a waxed floor, they could load up five to eight bodies to a load, drag them from point A to point B, lowering the time they'd need to cart the bodies, while freeing up the cart to do the assistance on another load.

Basically, put Roger behind the wheel of the car, Peter on the cart and Steve loading bodies. Maybe swap Peter and Steve, actually -- he's kind of a wuss.

They just move them to the escalators 'up' version to facilitate the upper tiers getting louded up -- sounds like a Fran job to me. They take the bodies from the different levels, then once they're loaded to the upper tier, take them to the roof. At the rate of one body every ten minutes (six bodies an hour) that's roughly sixty bodies in a single 'shift' of ten hours. Two days, tops, and they've got every body out of the mall, on the roof and then readied to be rolled right off and piled by the doors by just shoving them off.

In no time at all, they get their mall back, the bodies are an extra barricade to slow the zombies from entering and they can subsequently 'shop 'til [they] drop'.

:evil: Angry312; "... Of course, could be more than 120 indoor ones..." :evil:

[Philly_SWAT]

Stuffing 'em all in a walk in fridge was probably the best and safest thing to do in the circumstances, trying to get them outside would be just asking for trouble.
I dont think this would have been unsafe. All of the zombies had already been killed inside at this point.
Does make sense, but I would say that their plan was probably something that was a work-in-progress even as they went outside to get the trucks.They didnt start to move the zombies into the freezer until after all the trucks had been moved.
Hauling them one by one, down the hallway, up the stairs, into the loft, up a ladder, and over the side doesn't sound feasable.
At the point where all the zombies were dead, they had time to come up with a different plan than that. There should be many access points to the roof thru various stores, a pulley system could have been created, etc. Again, it is not like they had a 9-5 to go to, and palying "Night Driver" in the arcade would get pretty boring after a while.
Weren't they, to some degree, wanting to conceal the fact they were in there? Freshly killed corpses littering areas nearby where they chuncked bodies (or pieces of bodies) would indicate they were killed recently and thus warrent the place getting checked out by the passers by.Well, all the doors being blocked by trucks would be a pretty big hint that someone was in there. I figured that the piles of dead bodies outside might discourage passers by from checking it out, figuring that there were some bad dudes inside.

[jim102016]

I'd say the helicopter up on the roof give away their secret more than anything from a distance....as we see later on with the bikers and their binoculars. I agree with Philly, this mall had two floors, surely there would be a better way to get the bodies out. And, they didn't start to put the suckers in the freezers until after they started on that flimsy fake wall. So, they had time to thing of a "MacGyver" idea....and surely had an idea of what to work with in the mall.

I just had a far out thought....say they did get the bodies outside....and the skin rots off to where there is nothing but huge piles of bones.

Would the roaming masses figure out how to use the bones as tools (i.e. weapons) to smash or crack the glass? As the one zombie did with the tie iron in the begining with Roger and his truck? Just a thought on the wild side.

[I, Zombie]

The food in there always had me wondering about that too. I just assumed that that was not the only place with food in there. If it wasn't, maybe they didn't mind the bodies in there.

But to haul them up to the roof would have been too difficult. Opening a door to do it on the ground level would have been too dangerous. And if they could get them outside, having them in a pile would give them away more than the chopper would. The dead zombies would be an indication that there are people in the mall, they're alive & they defeated the zombies. The chopper alone with no dead zombies outside would leave people guessing at least.

Myself in that situation I wouldn't be sure what to do.

[MaximusIncredulous]

I'd say the helicopter up on the roof give away their secret more than anything from a distance....as we see later on with the bikers and their binoculars. I agree with Philly, this mall had two floors, surely there would be a better way to get the bodies out. And, they didn't start to put the suckers in the freezers until after they started on that flimsy fake wall. So, they had time to thing of a "MacGyver" idea....and surely had an idea of what to work with in the mall.

I just had a far out thought....say they did get the bodies outside....and the skin rots off to where there is nothing but huge piles of bones.

Would the roaming masses figure out how to use the bones as tools (i.e. weapons) to smash or crack the glass? As the one zombie did with the tie iron in the begining with Roger and his truck? Just a thought on the wild side.

They wouldn't have had enough leverage in front of the trucks to smash the glass, with or without tools.

It still would've been feasable to cut 'em up and chuck 'em over the roof. Any looters that would wander by would have to be very close to spot them and, as mentioned, by then the trucks blocking the entrances and the chopper on the roof would be more of a giveaway than anything else.

Then again they didn't have the time to worry about the long-term issues of storing corpses in the freezer, so in the end they chose the right option.

[jim102016]

From what I remeber, its debatable if they even finished the mission after Roger got bit? That mexican zombie (..."forget the truck, Mouse has the machine gun") merely shot the junction box, then slid the loading dock doors open. There wasn't a truck blocking the loading dock doors....no leverage there....sounds nuts, but perhaps the zombies could have gotten a good swing at the glass there with a thigh bone?

[kortick]

in the dawn novel
they put the corpses in the bank vault
not in the freezer

i guess the bank was gonna allow them
to film in there
but no way were they gonna let
them pile people up
in thier vault

[I, Zombie]

From what I remeber, its debatable if they even finished the mission after Roger got bit?

The movie makes it ambiguous, but the book hints more that they did finish the job after Roger is attacked. Been a while since I read it, so I'll have to refresh my memory to be 100% sure.

[jim102016]

Not a bad idea in the vault if there was enough room, but how air tight it is in those vaults? Would the vault be able to confine the stink? Are you sure about the reason for not being allowed to use the vault in the movie?

[kortick]

I dont know why they didnt use the vault in the film
but in the dawn novel pages 173-175
it details how peter and steven put the corpses in the bank vault

peter makes a joke about how the place is now a burial chamber like
the pyramids

[jim102016]

Wow, you know, I read that book years ago and I still can't remember that part. I'm usually good about those kinds of details...I think I even managed to hold on to the book, I'll have to search for it.

Zombies in a vault would be better than putting them in with the food. But, it would be hell getting them back out of the vault if they started stinking up the mall. But, if the electricity crapped out, they would have to remove all that food AND the bodies out of the icebox. Lots of extra work either way.

I think I'd try to get them out to the parking lot some how. I'm sure the mall had a smell all its own already.

[DjfunkmasterG]

The primary reason has to be because in a cool environment they won't stink or decompose as fast. Morgues are always kept cold and the bodies are stored in cold boxes. It keeps the, ahem... fresh so to speak!

I wouldn't be worried about the food being inthere with the zombies as i sure the mall had plenty of restaurants anyway.

[axlish]

Belle's Restaurant
Pup A Go Go (Hot Dog Place)
di Pomodoro (a pizza place, which is where they stashed the bodies)
Cheezeboard (a Hickory Farms type of store, cheeze and meats)
Rhea's Bakery
The Brown Derby
The Oyster House
Sweet Williams (ice cream)
Baskin Robbins (ice cream)
Daisy Donuts

On second thought, I'd have stored all of the bodies where they did, in the di Pomodoro walk in freezer, and then I'd have moved all of the food from there to another spot, perhaps The Brown Derby.