Question about "Day of the Dead" ending

[jdog]

i have probably seen this movie over a hundred times and absoulutly love it, but the ending has always made me wonder.
when sara opens the door to the choper and the zombies grab her by the head, they never show what happens next.
we see sara waking up on a island like it was all a dream.
I have had alot of friends ask me if it was a dream and say that they don't get the ending when i show them this film.
i have always just figured GAR did it that way so that we could draw our own conclusion to the ending. myself i like the mystery that the ending of "day" leaves with me after i see it. thats one of the reasons i love it so much.:D

let me know what your thoughts are about the ending. i would like to hear what the different takes are.

[MinionZombie]

It's just Sarah dreaming about escaping from the camp the previous day (or a couple of days ago I'd imagine) and dreaming that it didn't pan out. It also dupes us momentarily, and harks back to the beginning of the movie with Sarah's other nightmare - but this time things are going to be alright...soaking up some sunshine on an island.

I think it's a pretty straight forward ending personally.

[Craig]

It's just a dream she has once she gets to the island.

[Deadman_Deluxe]

Well i think that is a bunch of bull TBH ...

The way i always interpreted the ending is as follows ... they make it out of the compound and get to the chopper at the landing pad, which if you remember was low on fuel/had not been refueled.

Sarah opens the door to find a zed inside which makes a sudden lunge for her ... she passes out, falling to the floor.

The guys arrive just seconds later, take the zed inside the chopper down and dump the body outside, pick sarah up and put her in the chopper and then take off at speed in an upwards direction.

The island scene that follows is there to let us all know that they DID actually have enough fuel to make it to the island in one piece.

[axlish]

Deadman's or Minion's, one or the other is the answer. I am leaning towards Minion's because why the hell would a couple of zombies be hanging out in a helicopter with the doors closed?

[jdog]

It's just Sarah dreaming about escaping from the camp the previous day (or a couple of days ago I'd imagine) and dreaming that it didn't pan out. It also dupes us momentarily, and harks back to the beginning of the movie with Sarah's other nightmare - but this time things are going to be alright...soaking up some sunshine on an island.

I think it's a pretty straight forward ending personally.
i also think that when sara is waking up on the island she was dreaming about the escape the previous day or whatever. this is always what i thought, but i just wanted to see what others thought about it, and what there take was on the ending.

[deadpunk]

wasn't there a post sometime back concerning a different 'audio' ending? Or was that Dawn?

[jdog]

wasn't there a post sometime back concerning a different 'audio' ending? Or was that Dawn?
i belive it was on the dawn sound track. when suposidly in the end credits you can hear the hellicopter sputer and run out of gas just as the credits end.
i think thats what it was if i remember right.

[MinionZombie]

:D

Indeed, I hadn't thought of that - why would there be a couple of zombies - in the real world, not a dream world - be chilling out Florida style in the chopper itself. The zombie hoard was quite far away ... guess two could have gotten over there...but why would they go and sit in a chopper? lol.

Yeh I think I'll stick with where I was going, but it's interesting, I'd always thought everybody else thought the same as me, or just understood it as a straight forward ending...hmmm.

[Philly_SWAT]

This is the answer.

The ..."confusion" that exists with the interpretation of the ending of Day is easily explained by common movie making techniques. Ever notice how in a horror movie that at an intense moment, with the music getting eerie, with the hero slowly searching about in the dark SCREECH!! a cat jumps out of nowhere, creating a false scare. Now think, in your whole life, have you ever seen a cat just jump out across you like that, screeching like they are on fire, for no particular reason? Of course not. It is actually quite rediculous if you think about it. Even seen that drawing on the staircase that is in the shape of a square, and it appears to keep going up into itself, even though that is impossible? It is one of those optical illusion drawings. Taking a mixture of the two things I have just said, that is what happens at the end of Day. GAR fools us, the audience, with that last scene. We just saw them the three of them meet up in the cave, fight their way to the end, climb out, unlock the gate, and make their way to the chopper. That was in "real time" all one long stretch of time. For it all of a sudden to be a dream, wel you would have to go all the way back to before John Amplas gets shot to where someone could legitimatlly be asleep to be having a dream. And that would make the last third of the movie one big dream, which is of course rediculous as well. So like the cat which jumps out for no reason, you have to accept that GAR just did it as a clever way to get from the escape scene to the beach scene, throwing in the "zombie dream" scene even though it makes no logical sense within the framework of the movie at the time.

Does that make sense?

[MinionZombie]

Orrrrr...

I believe there is a momentary pause in the tempo of the sequence between unlocking the gates and then proceeding to the helicopter - at that point Sarah could conceivably 'cut in' with her dream...or she's essentially just recollected the whole ordeal again in her sleep (I don't mean we saw her nightmare)...hmmm.

[tju1973]

Day is the perfect Dead movie so far-- to me anyway... I liked the music, the atmosphere, and all it tried to be. While it was short of the original script, it still is tops in my book.

:)

[Philly_SWAT]

I dont think that the pause is any different than the pause between any two shots in any move.

[Dawg]

I don't think it was the next day anyway. She was marking off the last days of October I believe at the beginning and at the end, she was well into the beginning of November. Is that right? That leads me to believe that they were on the island for maybe a week or so, because I don't think the entire movie took place over a week, but a day or two.

:dead: Dawg :skull:

[general tbag]

why the hell would a couple of zombies be hanging out in a helicopter with the doors closed?

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

that made me laugh so hard.

[DeadCentral]

I think it's simple, the movie started with a dream sequence, why not end it with one???
It seemed to be part of the whole scheme of the film, dream in the beginning, dream about miguel, then a dream once the terror has passed...

[wiltsu16]

She gets to that island and thats it! a happy ending :)

[creepntom]

i always figured it was a dream

the beginning tho, wicked, very moving

sorta gives ya chills seeing how bad it became

[Bubdotd]

ok this is what i think happend.

every thing in the movie happend but when they escape to get to the helicopter i think that there was no zombie inside i think they just escaped in the helicopter and went to the island and im sure they stayed at the island for awhile and i guess one night she had a dream about what happend when she was at the silo.

remember at the beginning what date the calander was and then what date the calander was on the island. i think the movie was like 3-5 days and when she woke up on the island maybe they were there for a day or too. it looked nice on the island i would love to go there even if all that wasent goin on.

so yeah the whole movie it really happend just except for the zombie in the helicopter and they just went to the island from there. see its simple.:D

[Mikey]

Romero put three of them in DAY (three is the magic number).

The first one when she is dreaming about the hands coming through the wall.

The second is of Miguel spilling his guts.

The third is the zombies in the chopper at the end.

It's just her mind messing with her constantly. It's her nightmare she can't get away from.

[Dommm]

Deadman's or Minion's, one or the other is the answer. I am leaning towards Minion's because why the hell would a couple of zombies be hanging out in a helicopter with the doors closed?

Probs hoping to catch a ride

[Rottedfreak]

that island they landed on, was it one of the leper ones?

[OddDNA]

She WAS dreaming...

You never cut scenes quickly in a movie to someone suddenly waking up unless you are trying to tell the audience, "what you just saw was a dream"

I think everyone can agree so far.


How much of the movie was her dream?

I think it could be the whole movie just about....she could have dreamt of the days leading up to the escape.

Or it could have been just the final few mins of the movie...

I have no idea on this one.



Another thing...I dont remmeber how many days are 'X'ed off on her homemade calendar, that would tell you at least how long they have been there.

[axlish]

Also...

Romero would have rather cut in a good scare than show the three of them

a)find the chopper, crank her up and fly away
b)search and find the island
c)land the chopper, set up camp and start fishing

You tell me what is easier. Cutting in a scare and jump cutting to several days later, or using options a, b & c?

[MinionZombie]

I think Day of the Dead takes place over about 5 days, if I'm not mistaken she was crossing off November 4th at the end of the movie and at the beginning she was crossing off October 31st (albeit in a dream, but let's assume she was dreaming about the same day she was living in reality).

Aye, I'd say Day is set over a handful of days.

[MaximusIncredulous]

How much of the movie was her dream?

I think it could be the whole movie just about....she could have dreamt of the days leading up to the escape.

Or it could have been just the final few mins of the movie...

I have no idea on this one.



Another thing...I dont remmeber how many days are 'X'ed off on her homemade calendar, that would tell you at least how long they have been there.

I always felt the dream sequence began when the film cuts in a sort of dreamy way from the feast scene in the cave to when you see the three of them running towards the locked fence. The look of the zombies approaching the helicopter, in an unusually organized fashion, also looked like something from a dream.

[MinionZombie]

I always felt the dream sequence began when the film cuts in a sort of dreamy way from the feast scene in the cave to when you see the three of them running towards the locked fence. The look of the zombies approaching the helicopter, in an unusually organized fashion, also looked like something from a dream.

I have the exact same sentiments regarding the transition from the dream sequence (which is somewhat dreamy in itself ... a bridge if you will for Sarah's dream) to the chopper bit was quite dreamy. I feel that the events during the film are "as it happened", but with the escape to the chopper being in Sarah's dream it feels to me that she'd also been dreaming about the events we'd seen in the movie ... as if she was watching the movie with us. But what we saw wasn't a dreamed recreation, but "as is". The segway into her final dream is where we join her version of events in her sleep...

[DVW5150]

" I was told Sarah Conner is here , I need to speak wif' her "... " You cant speak with her , shes' making a statement ." Pencil scratches ... Day Begins with a dream seaquence , ends with one , simple , brilliant . George A. Romero master of non-intrusive story telling ...Hello ? Is some one there ? Hello ? Hey stop!! Hey AAAAARRRRRGGGHHH!!!!!