The Washington Bunkers

[LoneCrusader]

I know I ask a lot of hypothetical questions and questions that sometimes are impossible to answer and such, and I'm sorry, but it usually gets an interesting thread going anyway. So I'll ask this one. Okay, in Day of the Dead, Sarah says something about Washington having "more sophisticated shelters" and that they'd send people to look for them. Well, do you think that's true? Do you think that DC had shelters with people in them? It's true that they had more sophisticated shelters, and it seems like they'd be much more protected and stock-piled. That'd also be the place they'd first send the high-up gov't folk and high-up military folk. What do you think about the chances of any of those shelters surviving? Or do you think Sarah was just "hoping against hope" which is the theme many times with GAR?

[FoodFight]

Probably a reference to the Greenbriar (?) in W. Va.

[sandrock74]

Oh, I'm sure government higher ups were hiding their butts in there as soon as things got scary. Sarah was probably "hoping against hope" that anyone was still there. Personally, I think the president would have been shuffled aboard Air Force-1 and flown to someplace roomier or more secure, like NORAD. The Bunkers in Washington, DC were mentioned in the comic book Marvel Zombies. The zombified superheroes forced their way into them and ate everyone hiding inside. Neat.

[SRP76]

When did she mention anything about shelters? I thought she said something about the research labs (where they worked before being forced to run for their lives) being more advanced, or something. Don't remember anything about bunkers.

[Mike70]

When did she mention anything about shelters? I thought she said something about the research labs (where they worked before being forced to run for their lives) being more advanced, or something. Don't remember anything about bunkers. she does. i can't remember her exact words but it's something along the lines of "there have to be people left in (or from) washington, they have more sophisticated shelters than us. there have to people left in those shelters." though i agree with sandrock, NORAD would be the more logical place to take the president and senior members of the govt. that place can survive a small nuke hitting within a mile or two of it, it can certainly keep out zombies.

[Zombill]

lets not forget that vip shelter that john conner ends up at the end of t3

[Philly_SWAT]

I think it is safe to assume that the President would not be in Washington, he would be at Norad or some other such safe location. I think it is also safe to assume that a great portion of the power structure of the country would in fact still be in Washington, military people, scientific people, and political people. That is the hub of power in this country, so it stands to reason they wouldnt ALL leave. It brings to mind Logan's question "where would you go?" Sarah's exact words were these: There have to be survivors in Washington. They have more sophisticated shelters than this one. There have to be people in those shelters who know about us, who know where we are. With no radio contact they'll come looking for us". Either by pure common sense or by direct knowledge, Sarah knows that at least there WERE some shelters in Washington. Whether or not they still exist, or if there are any survivors there, is pure speculation on her part. As they have had no communications from Washington in some time, she would have no way to know one way or the other. It could be a case of "hoping against hope", or a case of thinking about how fucked up their little group was, and 12 of them were still alive, so if they could survive than others must be able to as well.

[Thorn]

Well said all. I agree that there would be people around other than those in the bunker in Day, I am certain that the President would no longer be in Washington. For those not familiar with the place it is a cesspool and there is a large population center there, despite the added security you would not want to be there very long during a dead rising scenario in my opinion. Any good military tactician would have to want pull out of there to a more easily fortified location.

[MoonSylver]

I've always thought there probably ARE other shelters out there, with survivors in them. And they're probably all in the exact same situation as Sarah & crew. Cut off & isolated from each other & playing the survival game. As for the Pres & all the other Washington types? Yeah, they've hightailed it outta town & are in whatever types of shelters they have set up in the event of a nuclear war, etc. ( slightly off topic, but IIRC isn't there a quick cut in Dawn '04 of the zombies storming over the fence of the White House & rushing the chopper on the pad & being shot at by the millitary?)

[zombiekiller]

When did she mention anything about shelters? I thought she said something about the research labs (where they worked before being forced to run for their lives) being more advanced, or something. Don't remember anything about bunkers. she mentioned it when they was having the meeting and billy said he could not reach anyone on his w.w.2 radio.

[rightwing401]

The speculation's interesting. In fact, I'd recomend reading the revised script for day of the dead in the fiction section. It mentions that the last contact any of them had with Washington was that rouge elements of the military had launched a coup because they were not satisfied with how the civilian leadership was handling the situation and that there was heavy fighting between them and the forces still loyal to the government. Were there bunkers in Washington that still worked. Surely. People inside, that depends how many and who. Would someone come looking for them? I very much doubt it.

[krakenslayer]

There'd be lots of bunkers, bases, hideaways, fortresses, submarines and whatever else all over the place where people could be surviving, all over the world. The question is, would the inevitable cabin fever that set in once they were safely sealed up together cause them to wipe each other out like the Day crew? Of course, we now know that while the bunker-dwellers in Day were agonising over whether they were indeed the last humans on Earth or not, a guy (Governor? CEO? Politician? Gang lord?) called Kaufman was busy rallying survivors to build himself a safe haven in a skyscraper, and thousands of survivors were banding together in the ruins of Pittsburgh, Cleveland and probably most other big cities. The problem was that the "relays were out" (and presumably they had lost their links to comms satellites) and the Day gang were isolated on a peninsula full of dead grannies and grandpas. However, we have to put this out of our minds when we watch Day and try to believe that they really might be the last people, because it kills a lot of the desperation and claustrophobia otherwise. Incidentally, how long after the fall of civilisation do you guys think Day and Land take place? I've heard people say three months and three years, respectively, but I think longer. If Day really was set three months after the outbreak, that probably places it around the time of the latter stages of Dawn, and I get the feeling the people have been in the bunkers a lot longer than that. Not only that, but the city we see at the start looks very weathered. I'd say a year minimum. The original script was set very specifically five years after the outbreak, but that's probably too long in the case of the final movie - I think three years would be a sensible maximum. Three years wouldn't be enough for Kaufman to build a stable (ish) mini-nation from scratch with its own currency - which it is hinted is shared with other settlements - and military. I'd guess it would take at least five to ten years to get to that stage. Also, the overgrowth of plants and dilapidated nature of the abandoned towns suggests a period of several years of neglect.

[MoonSylver]

Geez Kracken, are you my lost Scottish twin brother or something? Every time you post something, I find myself in 100% agreement! You better say something I can disagree about, or I'm gonna think you're reading my mind while I'm asleep or something....

[Yojimbo]

Geez Kracken, are you my lost Scottish twin brother or something? Every time you post something, I find myself in 100% agreement! You better say something I can disagree about, or I'm gonna think you're reading my mind while I'm asleep or something.... Funny thing is, I was just about to post the same thing -- that is that I once again agree with Kraken, but you beat me to it Moon. If Day really was set three months after the outbreak, that probably places it around the time of the latter stages of Dawn, and I get the feeling the people have been in the bunkers a lot longer than that. Not only that, but the city we see at the start looks very weathered. I'd say a year minimum. The original script was set very specifically five years after the outbreak, but that's probably too long in the case of the final movie - I think three years would be a sensible maximum. Three years wouldn't be enough for Kaufman to build a stable (ish) mini-nation from scratch with its own currency - which it is hinted is shared with other settlements - and military. I'd guess it would take at least five to ten years to get to that stage. Also, the overgrowth of plants and dilapidated nature of the abandoned towns suggests a period of several years of neglect. Yeah, I know this was discussed before, but again I agree that DAY had to have been much more than three months in, and Land had to be several years after the fall.

[Mike70]

Three years wouldn't be enough for Kaufman to build a stable (ish) mini-nation from scratch with its own currency - which it is hinted is shared with other settlements - and military. actually kraken, the currency being used in land is old style (before the zombie outbreak) US dollars. i put up a screen shot in a shitstorm thread about the use of money in land that clearly shows that they are US dollars. in fact you can find said screen shot in post #50 in this thread: http://forum.homepageofthedead.com/s...referrerid=286