Romero's Dawn Novelization Explains Roger's Mental Break

[deadhead412]

I noticed a good amount of threads over the years questioning Roger's arc in Dawn with some viewing it out of character from his behavior in the movie's first half. While I think the movie sets up his fall during Roger and Peter's first raid into the mall. Yes in this scene Roger dispatches zombies left and right with well placed gunshots but I think his attempt to hang onto his rifle the dead had grabbed through the sliding doors set him up as getting pretty reckless. But Romero also provided an in text answer for why Roger lost it. In Dawn's official novel when Roger is introduced he is said to be a combat veteran(presumably Vietnam). He's also said to have multiple medals and accommodations suggesting he saw some serious fighting. One could imagine three weeks of fighting the dead and violent living people in the streets of Philadelphia could trigger his reaction. In the book version Peter makes this direct connection during the trucks sequence as well.

[Neil]

I noticed a good amount of threads over the years questioning Roger's arc in Dawn with some viewing it out of character from his behavior in the movie's first half. While I think the movie sets up his fall during Roger and Peter's first raid into the mall. Yes in this scene Roger dispatches zombies left and right with well placed gunshots but I think his attempt to hang onto his rifle the dead had grabbed through the sliding doors set him up as getting pretty reckless. But Romero also provided an in text answer for why Roger lost it. In Dawn's official novel when Roger is introduced he is said to be a combat veteran(presumably Vietnam). He's also said to have multiple medals and accommodations suggesting he saw some serious fighting. One could imagine three weeks of fighting the dead and violent living people in the streets of Philadelphia could trigger his reaction. In the book version Peter makes this direct connection during the trucks sequence as well. So he's having a bit of a break down...

[deadhead412]

So he's having a bit of a break down... I mean he definitely has a breakdown. In the novelization it looks like Romero was trying to set it up as a kind of PTSD episode. Roger's just seen some shit.