Dawn of the Dead (1978)

**Dawn of the Dead** is a zombie horror film from 1978. The film is written, directed, and edited by George A. Romero, and produced by Richard P. Rubinstein. An American-Italian international co-production, it is the second film in Romero's series of zombie films, and though it contains no characters or settings from the preceding film Night of the Living Dead (1968), it shows the larger-scale effects of a zombie apocalypse on society. In the film, a phenomenon of unidentified origin has caused the reanimation of the dead, who prey on human flesh. David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott Reiniger, and Gaylen Ross star as survivors of the outbreak who barricade themselves inside a suburban shopping mall amid mass hysteria. The film is known for its social commentary, as it satirizes consumer culture and the obsession with material possessions. The zombies in the film are depicted as mindless consumers, who wander the mall searching for something to consume, much like their human counterparts.

## Synopsis

The United States is devastated by a mysterious plague that reanimates recently-dead human beings as flesh-eating zombies. At the dawn of the crisis, it has been reported that millions of people have died and reanimated. Despite the government's best efforts, social order is collapsing. Rural communities and the National Guard have been effective in fighting the zombie hordes in open country, but urban centers descend into chaos.

Traffic reporter Stephen Andrews and his pregnant girlfriend, producer Fran Parker, are planning to steal the station's helicopter to escape the city. Across town, police SWAT officer Roger DeMarco and his team raid a low-income housing project, whose mostly African American and Latino tenants are defying the martial law of delivering their dead to the National Guard. The tenants and the officers exchange gunfire as the officers try to gain entry. Roger unsuccessfully tries to restrain Wooley, a brutal and racist officer, after he maniacally kills several unarmed civilians. Wooley is shot dead by an officer from another unit, Peter Washington. As the SWAT team dispatch the reanimated dead that have injured or killed several tenants, a disillusioned Roger suggests that he and Peter desert and join up with Stephen (who is Roger’s friend) in escaping the city. An elderly priest tells them that several zombies are confined in the basement. He also tells them that the SWAT team is stronger than the residents, but that soon the dead will be stronger than the SWAT team. The two go there and take on the grim job of eliminating all of them.

Later that night, Stephen discovers the dead body of a security operator who had been guarding a traffic helicopter belonging to his employer. Roger and Peter join Fran and Stephen at a police dock and then leave Philadelphia in the stolen helicopter. Following some close calls while stopping for fuel, the group comes across a shopping mall, and decide to remain there since there is plenty of food, medicine, and all kinds of consumables. Peter and Stephen camouflage the entrance to the stairwell which leads to their safe room, and they block the mall entrances with trucks to keep the undead from penetrating. This involves driving through crowds of zombies who are indifferent to their own injuries and attempt to enter the trucks. Roger survives a particularly dangerous encounter, and becomes reckless as a result. He is soon bitten by the zombies.

After clearing the mall's interior of zombies, the four enjoy a hedonistic lifestyle with all the goods available to them, furnishing their safe room with the mall's many commodities. Roger eventually succumbs to his wounds and dies; when he reanimates as a zombie, Peter shoots him in the head and later buries his body in the mall. Sometime later, all emergency broadcast transmissions cease, suggesting that the government has collapsed. Now isolated, the three load some supplies into the helicopter, in case they might need to leave suddenly. Fran gets Stephen to teach her how to fly in case he is killed or incapacitated.

A nomadic biker gang sees the helicopter in flight, and break into the mall, destroying the barriers and allowing hundreds of zombies back inside. Despite having a fallback plan should the mall be attacked, Stephen, consumed by territorial rage over the mall, blindly fires on the looters, beginning a protracted battle. On their way out with whatever goods they could carry, straggling bikers are eventually overwhelmed and eaten by the zombies. Stephen tries to hide in the elevator shaft, but gets shot and subsequently mauled by roaming zombies. When Stephen reanimates, he instinctively returns to the safe room and leads the undead to Fran and Peter. Peter kills the undead Stephen while Fran escapes to the roof. Peter, not wanting to leave, locks himself in a room and contemplates suicide. When the zombies burst in, he has a change of heart and fights his way up to the roof, where he joins Fran. Having escaped and low on fuel, the two then fly away in the helicopter to an uncertain future.