Continuity Of Dawn '04 Characters

[mcurio]

Question for those who have noticed- did the writer/director of Dawn '04 change the writing? The item in question is when Sarah Polley washes her bloody hands in the fountain, then Ving Rhames goes into the fountain with his cut arm. As the movie progresses, you notice the Ving Rhames looks made up to be sickly, but nothing comes of it. it looks like originally the that Ving Rhames was supposed to turn zombie from contamination of Sarah Polley's husband's blood in the fountain. Any thoughts??????

ps--i'm new here--so take it easy :P

[RustyHicks]

A newbie, good.
We've been looking for some fresh meat
to chow down on.
btw, welcome and have fun.

I'm not sure if Ving was suppose to turn into a zombie,
due to the blood of Sarah's husband.
Never really gave that idea any thought,
it is a good post though.

Would have been an interesting theory, course
maybe Sarah could have gotten infected too,
all it would take was a scratch from the accident she had.

[Khardis]

I don't recall him ever looking sickly in the film. Can you tell me which scene you are referring to?

[darth los]

A newbie, good.
We've been looking for some fresh meat
to chow down on.
btw, welcome and have fun.

I'm not sure if Ving was suppose to turn into a zombie,
due to the blood of Sarah's husband.
Never really gave that idea any thought,
it is a good post though.

Would have been an interesting theory, course
maybe Sarah could have gotten infected too,
all it would take was a scratch from the accident she had.


I'm never one for speculation. I like to deal with facts. What do we know for sure?

We know that bites turn people so it must be transmitted through saliva. We have no direct evidence that it is communicable through the blood but we can make the educated guess that since the saliva can carry the infection then so can the blood. Everything elese is speculation.

We can infer that it must come into contact with another person's blood either through and open wound or membrane. i say this because sarah had that blood on her hands for a good long while and didn't get infected.

Now following this line of logic we can infer that when she was tending to her husband either there wasn't enough time for the virus to travel through his system and get in the blood that was already on her hands or that diluting the blood in the fountain coupled with the minimal time ving spent in it with the open wound were not suffucient enough to transfer the infection.


I never really noticed him looking sickly. He's a big guy and i just figured that he was tired having gone through all that he just did.

[RustyHicks]

Or maybe the makeup artist screwed up :D

[darth los]

That's just it though. I saw no discernable difference in the way that he was made up. He just looked tired and sweaty.

[mcurio]

I understand what you guys are saying. The way the shot is done with Sarah Polley washing her hands in the fountain just looks like one of 'those' scenes that is supposed to mean something for later in the movie. I will also try to pin down where I saw Ving looking sick (around his eyes mostly).


We know that bites turn people so it must be transmitted through saliva. We have no direct evidence that it is communicable through the blood but we can make the educated guess that since the saliva can carry the infection then so can the blood. Everything elese is speculation.

Well, we are dealing with the remake and it does break from the original Dawn in that the dead DON'T come back if not bit.

[Philly_SWAT]

I would be willing to bet that the screenwriter had no intentions of Ving "turning" and also that he gave no thought to the blood entering into a open wound in a fountain thing either. Good bit of speculation on your part though. If anything, you would think after getting hit, taking a nasty spill in a hard bathtub, and going thru a car wreck with shattered glass would have meant that Sarah had an open wound on her somewhere, yet she didnjt get infected. So I guess you would have to assume that after all that trauma, miraculously she did not have a cut anywhere. And as for the fountain, I guess the blood cells would have been dead by the time she washed up in the fountain, therefore, no infection would have occured.

[Slain]

The water in a decorative fountain would probably have chlorine and other chemicals in it to kill bacteria and algae.

The part of the storyline for Dawn '04 that bugs me is that the zombie pandemic starts picking up steam in the early evening of Day-1. By the morning of Day-2, there’s a full blow zombie epidemic, yet people at Sarah’s housing development act like they don't have the vaguest idea of what's going on.

[darth los]

Yeah, you would think that there would be a tad more comotion. Either atleast enough chaos to wake them up or that one of the neighbors would have come over to warn them or seek help.

[Yojimbo]

I understand what you guys are saying. The way the shot is done with Sarah Polley washing her hands in the fountain just looks like one of 'those' scenes that is supposed to mean something for later in the movie. I will also try to pin down where I saw Ving looking sick (around his eyes mostly).



Well, we are dealing with the remake and it does break from the original Dawn in that the dead DON'T come back if not bit.

I have to agree: the way the scene was shot and edited implied, intentionally or otherwise, that there was something going on with that water. I expected something to come out of it thoughout the whole film and assumed at the time that they lost some part of the storyline along the way through executive decision or bad editing.

[Philly_SWAT]

The water in a decorative fountain would probably have chlorine and other chemicals in it to kill bacteria and algae.

The part of the storyline for Dawn '04 that bugs me is that the zombie pandemic starts picking up steam in the early evening of Day-1. By the morning of Day-2, there’s a full blow zombie epidemic, yet people at Sarah’s housing development act like they don't have the vaguest idea of what's going on.I would say that you cant assume that it was Day-1. Yes, it is the first "day" that we see in the movie, however, the outbreak could have started days earlier, and it was just gaining steam in the Milwalkee area when the movie starts. And as evidenced by the beginning of Dawn78, people when probably either shocked or non-believing in the early days. Although you are right in saying that Sarah and her boyfriend should have been awakened with all the chaos going on outside. Typical not-thinking-about-logic school of film making.

[axlish]

I think that the washing hands shot was meant to get the audience into a lull, so that when Ving pumps his shotgun, it is an audio scare. *It got me in the theatre :)*

[darth los]

I would say that you cant assume that it was Day-1. Yes, it is the first "day" that we see in the movie, however, the outbreak could have started days earlier, and it was just gaining steam in the Milwalkee area when the movie starts.

Also in night 68' the plague doesn't actually start when the movie does. Radio reports broadcast during the movie state that it had been going on for 2 days.

[Ivarr]

Combination of a few things ... Mall fountains have filters and are full of tons more chems than any pool. It keeps things from growing between cleanings. If in fact the blood on her hands was infected, it was effected by the chems (that could possibly kill it once outside an un-living host) and filters that are ment to strain the water. Not to mention the amount of water in the fountain would have deluted the blood to a parts per thousand or more (being conservative).

Just my thoughts ...

But as somebody else pointed out ... I don't think the director was even thinking in that direction.

[darth los]

But as somebody else pointed out ... I don't think the director was even thinking in that direction.


Unfortunately, that's a far too common occurance in cinema today.

[acealive1]

snyder used common sense. blood doesnt carry airborne viruses. if that was the case,they ALL would have been turned withing 5 minutes of being in that mall.

[sgrosse]

I did notice that as well, but just chalked it up to maybe a rewritten scene. On a different note, something similar happened in the original when roger gets sprayed in the face by zombie blood while he is in the truck trying to hot wire it.

[darth los]

it's a good thing that it wasn't 28 days later blood. :eek: That was instant infection right there.

[sandrock74]

You know, I always thought that shot of her washing her hands in the fountain seemed out of place. I never liked it. Like something was supposed to happen...then just didn't...

[acealive1]

I did notice that as well, but just chalked it up to maybe a rewritten scene. On a different note, something similar happened in the original when roger gets sprayed in the face by zombie blood while he is in the truck trying to hot wire it.



i guess it has to be through an open wound like aids or anything else which makes sense

[Yojimbo]

snyder used common sense. blood doesnt carry airborne viruses. if that was the case,they ALL would have been turned withing 5 minutes of being in that mall.

Snyder uses common sense like I use toilet paper.

Sorry, not slight meant on you, brother, I just had to say that!

[bassman]

Snyder uses common sense like I use toilet paper.

Sorry, not slight meant on you, brother, I just had to say that!

:thumbsup::lol:

[DjfunkmasterG]

You know, I always thought that shot of her washing her hands in the fountain seemed out of place. I never liked it. Like something was supposed to happen...then just didn't...


Zack has a fascination with hands in water. See 300 when the Queen waves her ahnd in the water fountain just before meeting Theron whenhe brings her child to him.

[Trin]

I recall thinking something sinister was going on with the water based on how they filmed it. I've thought that each time I watched it. I wondered if they meant to do something with that and then decided against it. My guess is they were simply throwing a red herring out there to make us feel uneasy.

I believe that Dawn '04 started Day 1, probably in the first few hours of the outbreak. Look at the situation in the hospital. They didn't appear to be on any kind of heightened alert status, nor was there any indication that they were even peripherally aware that a situation was unfolding. That doesn't make any sense if the outbreak was days old. At the first sign of a nationwide outbreak of violence and traumatic injury the hospitals would've been alerted and the current staff on duty would've been asked to remain through the next shift. I believe that would've happened in the first few hours and I believe we were seeing the first evidence of it as Sarah was leaving the hospital.

Add to that the fact that Sarah left the hospital and made it home seemingly unaware of any potential danger. She acted like nothing she'd seen or heard in the past 12 hours was any bit out of the ordinary.

I think the fact that the neighborhood remained unaware throughout the night adds to the evidence that the events began within the previous 12 hours prior to daybreak. The suburbs wouldn't have been the first places overrun. The people all went to sleep not believing anything was amiss. By morning it had spread to the suburbs, all hell was breaking loose, and the neighborhood was waking to a nightmare.