Heat on Armored Vehicles

[SRP76]

Looking through countless threads for and against the Dawn remake, one thing stands out: The part where our heroes cobble together supplies and refit the parking shuttles in preparation for running the zombie gauntlet is almost universally hated, bth by people who like and dislike the movie. My big question is: why? This never made a lot of sense to me. Put yourself in the situation: you are going to charge across a city filled with ghouls. You have both a vehicle, and the means to armor it. Why the hell wouldn't you reinforce the vehicle?! It just makes no sense not to. Failing to do it would be suicidal. So, why the problem with it?

[Mike70]

i have always wondered why people had a problem with this too. seems to me that it one of the few parts of this movie that make sense. if you choose to attempt a breakout from the mall, it seems perfectly reasonable that you would take every measure and use every means in protecting yourself. armoring/reinforcing the vehicles that you intend to use makes perfect sense. you would at least have to prevent the zombies from getting at the windows. lowering their center of gravity would make sense too (i don't think they did this in the movie though) to make it harder to flip the vehicle over. the real thing i wonder about is why they didn't firebomb the whole area in front of their point of exit before they opened the doors to make getting out and building up some speed easier.

[Zombill]

the real thing i wonder about is why they didn't firebomb the whole area in front of their point of exit before they opened the doors to make getting out and building up some speed easier. Well if Andy hadn't gotten bit, and stupid nicole hadn't raced over there to save the dog that would've been ok to begin with, the group wouldn't have run over then to save nicole and load up they would have had more time to have planned leaving better and that firebomb idea of yours probably would have come up from CJ the security dude, but needless to say when they got back from their suicidal rescue operation they couldn't keep the ghouls from getting in the mall cause there was to many at that dam staircase door, so basically out of options they had to leave then

[Choas]

I don't like the bues becuse,I think they'll a cheap rip off of Dead Reckoning from land.

[Legion2213]

I don't like the bues becuse,I think they'll a cheap rip off of Dead Reckoning from land. Even though Dawn 04 was released over 12 months before Land....right? If you are being sarcastic, I apologise.

[Choas]

Even though Dawn 04 was released over 12 months before Land....right? If you are being sarcastic, I apologise. But the script for land was out long before the dawn remake was ever made.

[Legion2213]

But the script for land was out long before the dawn remake was ever made. It still doesn't make sense, you are saying (in effect) that the last 2/3rds of Dawn 04 was entirely written or re-written to accomodate a few minutes of cheap Dead Reckoning footage. I mean seriously, how do you think the makers of 04 originally immagined their group escaping the mall to get to the boat? by hand glider, push bike maybe? As others have said, if you, me or anybody else was in that situation with only shuttles available to escape, but some hardware to beef them up, the logical and rational thing to do would be to put as much armour on them as possible wouldn't it?

[Choas]

It still doesn't make sense, you are saying (in effect) that the last 2/3rds of Dawn 04 was entirely written or re-written to accomodate a few minutes of cheap Dead Reckoning footage. I mean seriously, how do you think the makers of 04 originally immagined their group escaping the mall to get to the boat? by hand glider, push bike maybe? As others have said, if you, me or anybody else was in that situation with only shuttles available to escape, but some hardware to beef them up, the logical and rational thing to do would be to put as much armour on them as possible wouldn't it? I'am not saying I wouldn't reinforce the buses.I'am just saying I think the buses themself are rip offs.

[Legion2213]

Possibly, and maybe "Dead Reckoning" was a rip off of the "Landmaster" vehicle from the 1977 movie "Damnation Alley..." Anyways, I disagree, as I have seen no evidence of this...it's all about opinions I suppose.

[Choas]

If you watch the extras on the dvd,Gar himself talks about writing the script for land just after 9/11.

[Mike70]

Possibly, and maybe "Dead Reckoning" was a rip off of the "Landmaster" vehicle from the 1977 movie "Damnation Alley..." Anyways, I disagree, as I have seen no evidence of this...it's all about opinions I suppose. damnation alley - word dude. loved that movie as a kid. i see no real connection between the buses and dead reckoning. just because a script was written for land after 9/11, it doesn't logically follow that the makers of the dawn remake either saw it or consciously modeled the buses after dead reckoning. i think this might be case of making a connection where one really doesn't exist. legion is right - if you follow this line of arguement, then you could make the assertion romero ripped off the idea for dead reckoning from damnation alley. a movie that is about 30 years old and one that romero is probably familiar with. oh and legion - a hang glider escape from the mall would've been the most boss escape in any movie ever. Well if Andy hadn't gotten bit, and stupid nicole hadn't raced over there to save the dog that would've been ok to begin with, the group wouldn't have run over then to save nicole and load up they would have had more time to have planned leaving better and that firebomb idea of yours probably would have come up from CJ the security dude, but needless to say when they got back from their suicidal rescue operation they couldn't keep the ghouls from getting in the mall cause there was to many at that dam staircase door, so basically out of options they had to leave then you are correct. i will be the first to admit that the dawn remake isn't one of my fav dead movies and is one that, while i've seen it a couple of times, isn't one that i go back to on a regular basis. the zombie rampage through the mall would've made it kinda hard to get up on the roof.

[clanglee]

Well, I never had a problem with the bus escape. I think most people really just disliked the kinda goofy montage scene.

[Trin]

I think it was a bit too A-Team for some, but personally the idea of the armored busses was fine with me. My bigger problem was the whole idea behind leaving the mall to go find a boat in the first place. I also hated the whole chainsaw out the side side idea. Anyone who has used a chainsaw knows you'd be better just chopping your own leg off and getting it over with than trying to fight a zombie with one.

[p2501]

i dunno. like scip said it's one of the few bits of that movie that worked. and was perhaps the only real intelligent thing that the script gave us in it's latter half.

[bassman]

The reason for leaving the mall never sat right wiht me. Also the montage of them getting the buses ready was pretty cheap. BTW, I've never seen a mall carry some of the supplies that they use on those buses....