Back to the Mall: Zombies, Survival, and One Suspicious Salad — Dawn of the Dead (1978)

0:01 They're still here. They're after us. They know we're still in here. They're after the place. They don't know why. They just remember. Remember that they want to be in here. What the hell are they? They're us, that's all. Hey, thanks for coming back with us today as we had a little bit more to say on Dawn of the Dead. We actually came back and did some additional recording for this because Amanda had a couple of really fun ideas, but she asked a pretty legitimate question. She asked, where did Peter get the lettuce for the salad that he gave to Stephen and Fran during their dinner scene? You know, these are things that fans will look at and maybe not think too much about, but sometimes... You see something and you focus on it. But we ended up talking a lot. And I thought it was interesting enough that we should probably put this together as a supplemental episode for our Dawn of the Dead. So I'm calling this one Back to the Mall because a lot of our conversation handles around how would you survive in the mall if this was for real. So I hope you enjoy it. We're going to go ahead and start mid-sentence with Matt telling us just a little bit about what he remembers about going to the mall.

1:24 Part of the allure for this movie was the mall that this was filmed at had the exact architecture of Springfield Mall, which is the mall that we went to in Northern Virginia. So when we were watching the movie, it was like this was taking place in our mall. We spent a ton of time in the mall as kids. You know, I remember going to see Star Wars. We went to Farrell's Ice Cream. We went to Orange Julius. We went to Time Out where the video games were. We spent so much time in the mall. And that's what my son was just like, you did what? I'm like, I hung out in the mall. I think that's one of the appeals of this movie is that you would just go to the mall to go to the mall, right? There wasn't anything else really to do. So the idea of a mall being like a fortress in a zombie apocalypse, that was kind of appealing.

2:14 Because boy, if you could do what they did and take it over, you should be pretty good. While we're on the subject, it's a good thing to point out the mall's developer, Mark Mason. Romero gets an early look at this mall. It's not even open yet, and they're allowing him inside to check out, kind of do some scouting locations. And he's watching all these trucks roll in and just dump thousands of boxes of merchandise. It's a literal consumer paradise, right? But it's Mason that grants Romero access to the mall's civil defense area, right? above the retail floors, and Mason shared his thoughts on, you know what, someone could live up here undetected forever, and they would have everything they need to virtually survive anything right at their feet. Well, apparently that's what his friend told him.

2:56 If we ever suffer some major disaster, this mall is where you want to be because it will survive the apocalypse. How long do you think these people could actually realistically survive inside a mall? Have you ever thought about that? More than we want to admit. I thought about it a lot over the last week, Chuck. Oh, really? detail. So I did a little deep dive for those of you who listened to the Dudley Friend episode and your deep dive into how hard you have to throw a basketball and what speed. I thought I'd bring a little excitement to this, some facts and stuff. So here's what I was able to dig up. And I know that this isn't completely accurate, but this is what I was able to dig up. For food and water supply, you could technically last about five years. Now, this is all according to Gemini.

3:46 Okay, so pick your AI. Okay. I pick J-I for Jeff Johnson AI. Thank you. Thank you. There you go. A lot of that Shirley Fest 3. So for non-perishables between the dried goods, canned food, condiments, vacuum sealed, pantry stock, et cetera. It also mentions candy, which I think is funny because man cannot sustain himself on candy alone. But four adults could easily survive five to 10 years on those calories, okay? Okay. Drinking water, bottled water, sodas, canned beverages alone would last a few years, depending on how quickly you drank them, obviously. Beyond that, the water heaters, plumbing reserves, and HVAC and cooling towers inside them all contain tons of thousands of gallons of untreated fresh water that could be boiled or filtered to be drinkable. So that's the perspective that I'm getting on food and water supply. Where is the panel sitting with the food and water supply? Do you think that's accurate?

4:48 Now, I don't know about the three of you, but I actually worked in a mall for years at the Suncoast Motion Picture Company. And we were we were training for this scenario previously. back then, because we're all movie buffs. We're working in a movie store. So we were moving through those hallways, those connecting hallways throughout the mall that customers just don't get access to. Amanda, I'm going to tell you right now, while my feelings on AI are pretty much concrete and have been validated by several people, the GI here says, yeah, what you're saying is accurate. I would say you're at least five years, minimum five years in a mall, provided that you keep it fortified. way, way more than five years. If you just start rationing on day one, most people are going to be like, ah, we're good. We're out of here in a couple of days and they're eating, you know, and you got to go to the food court for the perishables. So there's only so long you have, there's a, the clock's ticking on that stuff because the fridges are going to go out or the compressors are going to go out. So you got to eat the perishables first. So it's a real strategic thing you got to do here. So for people, you better be working together and you better be marshalling Your rations, I would say.

5:58 And I'll tell you, you touched on an interesting point because that's exactly why my brain started wondering about this. The scene in the. Movie where Peter serves Stephen and Fran a meal after they have to say goodbye to Roger. Oh, yes. I'm telling you, my brain works in mysterious ways, you guys. Now, having paid more attention to the movie this time, these viewings, because I knew we were going to be covering it, It occurred to me that Peter serves them salad. At this point, they have been in the mall for probably, what do we say, two to three months at least because Fran's showing. I couldn't get it out of my head.

6:39 Where is this salad coming from? Not where did the zombie outbreak start. Nope, that's not on my brain. It's where are they getting this salad? So that's what started the rabbit hole. Have you ever gotten one of those salads in a bag from Walmart? All the time. I've always wondered how long those things have been in the bag. I can tell you that Sam's Club lettuce in the bag only lasts. Me two to three days, and that's a huge bag. But if I get it from. Walmart or our local supermarket, which is called Metro Mart, I can get a week out of it. I don't know what they're putting on it.

7:20 Well, they've been bagged many weeks before, and then they're in transport and under good condition, so you can last a long time. By the way, I will tell you a little bit of trivia. Those bag salads came out just about the same time my mom and dad retired. My mom was required by my grandmother to make my father a salad each and every meal. For 50 years they were married, my mom made a salad every night. And right when they retired, the bag salads came out. And my mom named them retirement salad. There you go. She's like, I'm not making salad anymore. I'm just opening the bag and dumping it in a bowl. I love that. That's hilarious. It would last for a while. There's no way it would last several months. And I would put up that you could. If you had the forethought and you didn't bury your dead in the little mall greenery areas, you could have grown lettuce. It grows in absolutely no time.

8:15 Leaf lettuce will sprout in about 11 days, and it's edible just to leaf lettuce, not heading lettuce. Heading lettuce takes a long time, but just to leaves. You can get them and start eating on them easily within 20 days. Like arugula, you can get it in 15 days. I only know this because I grew arugula and other types of leaf lettuce in our backyard. Now, we know that they did not spend any time doing that. So, yes, it is like, where did the fresh lettuce come from? I 100% agree about the preserved food because we know that you can open an MRE now from early World War II. And it's still, I mean, it's terrible, tastes terrible, but it's still edible. There's some really interesting engineering that went into some of those foods for World War Two.

9:01 You know, the preservation of food and even the advent of canned food made exploration of the South Pole possible. Even found some of the canned food still there. So. So, yeah, I don't think the timeline on that is hard. I think the issue is everybody who's not a zombie. is looking around for every store where this type of thing is. It's a target. You're going to be overrun. I just don't believe that the mall would have sat there unmolested until the biker gang showed up. There would have been armies of people coming in to clean it out. I think that's one of the things that you have to suspend your disbelief on when you watch this movie.

9:46 You know, just like having salad for dinner. The one thing... would be concerned about is fresh potable water yeah because the number one thing is cardio okay you got to keep cardio up up. Number two is double tap. Number three has to be hydrate. You've got to hydrate. Got to stretch. It's either hydrate or beware of bathrooms. I love that movie. That movie makes me laugh. Oh, that's a good one. Have any of you guys read the book? I think it's called The Stand.

10:26 Way back in the day. Oh, yeah. Never heard of this book. Who wrote it? Well, one of the interesting, you know, what's his name? Bachman. Richard Bachman. Yeah. Overdrive. Overdrive. Anyway, in the stand, the one thing I would pull out from it, I mean, the book is a long, long book and somewhat interesting. But the one thing he does at the very beginning, he does a really great calculation based on how many people are left and how many people will die in these weeks. Just because there wasn't enough people around, they make the example, a guy trips, falls, breaks his leg. He's going to die. There's nobody there to help him.

11:07 Right. He's he falls into a pit and he can't get out and there's nobody else to throw a rope down. It's a really amazing calculation at the beginning is if if this if 98 percent of the people die, you just have these people spattered here and there and everywhere. What do you do? You know, one thing about the the mall like Matt makes a good point. You know, if everyone's running, how long does that stuff last? I think if you look at this situation happening now. Yeah, everyone's running to Target and everyone's running to Walmart. But in 1978, that probably wasn't much of an opportunity. So I'm still going. I'm still going to the mall because the hordes of living people are probably going for Walmart and Target and those places, you know, they're hitting Kroger. And I'll go to the mall where it's the underrated pick. You know, it's the hidden gem. And I'll just I'll live off of restaurant food and supplies.

12:03 And apparently, well, there's candies, which will apparently last for forever, at least according to the supply in my father-in-law's house. Amanda, I agree with the candy. All right. So next. OK, we got the. Oh, go ahead. I'm probably the only one here that that absolutely will not eat salad. Test it. There you go. Amanda's giving me a look, but I'll tell you right now. Oh, I'll eat all the salad. The important thing for, for in my world, salad exists like greenery. My food eats salad. So I, I, you know, I need, I need my food to have something to eat. So that's, that's the only reason it's important to me.

12:44 So if the four of us are, are in a dilapidated mall, you guys can have all the salad you want and I'll just, you can ration me. I'll take like three gummy bears to your whole plates of salad and You know, and I'll survive off Haribo and my body fat for as long as I need to because I'm not touching salad. And I don't know what you're all thinking. Like, wasn't like a month ago we had like diarrhea lettuce outbreak? Oh, yeah. So you want to talk about how the zombies come. Like, we just keep eating the greens, people, because— Every time there's a massive outbreak. Jeff's going to take all the meat and cheese and the Ducalax that's left after the apocalypse. Matt, all I know is I've never seen a tiger or a lion track down a head of lettuce and devour it.

13:28 I am 100% with you on that, Jeff, because it always drives me crazy when they have these dog food commercials where it's like, Bits of real meat, carrots, and potatoes. And you're like, what coyote in the wild ever ate a potato? No. Well, both my dogs love carrots. Yeah, I know. They like the crunch, I think. I think they like the crunch. Okay, so the next scenario, okay, we got five to 10 years on food, right? So what about fuel and power? How long is that going to last? Well, according to The Walking Dead, at least 10 or 11 seasons, right? Gemini is telling me weeks to months. Generator fuel. This is the immediate breaking point. Emergency generators run on diesel fuel stored in underground tanks. Even a massive commercial generator running continuously consumes hundreds of gallons a day. The timeline is if they ran generators nonstop, fuel would likely run out in a few weeks to a month. To stretch it across three to four months, we'd have to ration it, I guess it would be if we were in this scenario.

14:33 Electricity strictly, keeping most lights off, running only essential appliances. Within six months to a year, the fuel degrades anyways, making it unusable. Do you remember why they said there was still power on at the mall? Nuclear power. Right. And I only remember that because I just turned on while I was working. I got halfway through Argento's cut. And that line stuck out. I don't know why I never really picked up on that in the other watches, but that's why. But you know, there's no way that a nuclear power plant would run unattended because there are certain checks that have to be done. And if they're not done, it starts to go through a shutdown.

15:14 We hope. We do hope. We hope it goes through an orderly And not a China syndrome. Yeah. But until that happens, you got power. But all of that aside, Amanda, your point is well taken. At some point, fuel is a consumable, right? Right. Unless you drive a French fry car. Have you ever seen a French fry car? No. No. This is where somebody takes a diesel vehicle and they convert it so that they can run the car on fuel that they've taken from vegetable oil. Isn't that what Doc does in Back to the Future? No, he has Fusion Boy where he throws trash into the back of it. He throws a banana peel.

15:56 Trash, but I would assume there's probably some french fries and grease in there. No, this is a thing they have now. People run their diesel cars on fry oil. That's so crazy. And when the car runs, it smells like french fries or whatever it was cooked in. Because I had a friend of mine who did this to his vehicle and he would go to local restaurants to collect their oil. And then he would put it through the process and then dump it in his car. It seemed like a lot of work. Wow. So there's another book I'll reference because we talked about nuclear called Lucifer's Hammer by Jerry Pernelli. I think it's a classic sci-fi. You could remember Jeffrey Pernelli, but you couldn't remember Stephen King. I am disappointed.

16:36 I have a thing about Stephen King. And ever since I watched that, what is the Pet Sematary? I can't remember his name because it traumatized me so much. I was young. Anyway, I remember Jerry Pernelli and he wrote that book, Lucifer's Hammer, which basically a asteroid or parts of an asteroid hit the world. But one of the things that happens is the San Joaquin Valley gets flooded and there's a nuclear power plant there and they build a berm around it and they continue to keep this nuclear power running all the way through the end times. They're able to keep all the bad people out because they have unlimited amounts of electric power. So they wire up electric fences and they're able to live in this little enclave with proper person being there, the nuclear power plant could continue to run. We just have to make sure that nobody gets bit.

17:25 It's just a wealth of knowledge. I know. It's annoying. No, it's not at all. I want Matt on my zombie survival team. No kidding. I want to be the guy at The Walking Dead where he's like, I have the cure. So you have to save me. Turns out he doesn't have the cure. And I knew it from the right off the bat. He doesn't have the cure. This is a guy who's definitely going to get eaten by zombies. And this is his one play. Anyway, I totally agree with the power going out, the fuel going bad. And we see that in all sorts of fiction and even comics. I think, civil defense planning because they know the fuel will go bad. I mean, it's only a few years you can pull it out of those underground tanks because the rainwater will ultimately get into it. It'll be no good.

18:06 So that's why you see even in crazy movies like Bad Max and stuff, you know, they have these engines that they've converted to burn gas that's generated from heating up wood. So they're basically burning on wood gas. The last of the V8 interceptors. I hope you guys do Mad Max next season. It's on there. I love Mad Max. Okay, good. Okay. We have food. We have fuel. All right. Indoor environment and health. Oh, gosh. See, I think that's where it all falls down. Well, really? Yes, absolutely. This is what gives me the heebie-jeebies, okay, when I start thinking about this. So without constant refrigeration, obviously, we know all the meats, the perishables, everything are going to spoil.

18:50 The smell. I can't even imagine what that's going to smell like because no human can eat all of that before it goes bad. And if you freeze it, you're using power, depleting those resources. So everything would rot completely within. A few weeks, creating that massive black mold, severe pest infestations, rats, flies, and an unbearable stench throughout the unventilated buildings. So you're basically saying that the mall would become just this one giant funky smelling place with lots of black mold and rotting food. Yep. Rats and vermin. What if the rats become zombies? Shut up. Don't even go there. That's like my nightmare. That would be the end.

19:35 As the guy that runs on about 220 to 230 grams of protein every day. Challenge accepted, Amanda. I'm going after that meat. I run on about. 150, so I'll fight you for it a little bit. okay but even you and i the two of us built like wrestlers could not eat all of that there's no way there's no way i just the thinking about the stench you know and on top of that what yeah. There is things they could have done. Yes, yes. They could have gotten out on the roof. They could have taken all that meat and dried it, smoked it. And you'd have to. You have to do something with it. I mean, I think that's just part of your survival instinct, you know, why that sense of smell is so strong.

20:17 I do believe that that's, you know, a survival tool that's innate. A hundred percent. The meat, though, Amanda, like, we're not going to eat all of it, but I'm using some of that to hopefully trap some. some predators outside the mall. And I'm not talking about the zombies. I'm talking fox, coyote, anything that's coming around because people have not scared them off. I'm making bait. I got fresh food to kill and eat. But could you also move some of those foxes and mountain lions and lynx or something into the mall and have them keep the vermin down? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. We got an ecosystem going on here. Hey, Matt, I'm on the roof with a bullhorn going, and I'm getting all the cats I can, all the barn cats to come into the mall. They can go after mice and little critters and all that kind of stuff. It's a nice little ecosystem.

21:02 I sense a small independent picture coming with a very small budget from the four of us. Wow. Wow. Okay, so moving on, kids. Structural wear. This is interesting as well. Without heating in a Pennsylvania winter, pipes would freeze and burst, which I never thought about. Okay, because you're probably not running that heat at full blast. All those freezing pipes would and exploding bursting pipes would flood the lower levels. Without air circulation, humidity and mold would then rapidly ruin the air quality indoors. So you're breathing, you're breathing it all in too. Can I, can I help here? Yeah. I will say that Amanda, you're absolutely right. Something we do at work as the garden season ends, we have to flush pipes. We have to, there's this whole, there's a whole system and, I would have to believe that it's pretty much the same, any big box retailer or any mall. It's just a matter of venting the pipes one time and then turning them off. So they're protected.

22:03 You bleed the water and then your pipes are safe. So right before the first frost in this mall, we got some work to do because we're going to bleed the water. We're going to, you know, we're going to shut it down. And yeah, it's going to be cold, but we've got plenty to burn. So we're fine. But we would have to protect the pipes for that very reason. And then come spring, we're back in business. Mm-hmm. We would definitely protect the pipes right after we set up all the Claymore mines, other perimeter defenses. Yes. And no one says anything. I'm like, is there a PX in this mall? First of all, we're wondering, where's the Claymores coming from? Yeah. Oh, right down the road. If you have a helicopter, you fly down to the National Guard and pick up all their Claymore. Oh. Remember, this side towards enemy.

22:44 Yeah. So you guys keep saying, Amanda, you're totally right. You're totally right. I agree with you, Amanda. I didn't come up with any of this. It's just the salad. The salad sent me down this rabbit hole wondering how long you. Could really last. And with all those factors that we just talked about, it says that humans theoretically could last six to 12 months. I think we could do better than that. Yeah. But seriously, I think six to 12 months is about a season of Walking Dead. And they were always in a different location every season. So maybe you're onto something, Amanda. Honestly, I don't think you need to be looking at where you're at as the final destination, unless it's nuclear winter.

23:26 And we got to stay indoors for a couple of years because of fallout. But that's not the case here. We're just trying to defeat zombies. So I think six to 12 months is a very good timeline to build, strategize, prepare to get to the next destination once you've used up the resources. At the mall. So we'll eat all the meat and we'll grab the candy and we'll do what we need to do. But we've got 12 months to figure out how to get from the mall to the next spot. And the next spot is down in Florida for Day of the Dead. Not ideal, I don't think, if you've seen Day of the Dead. Take that helicopter down there. One question. Do these zombies, can they live underwater? Do we know? Yes.

24:09 We learned in Land of the Dead that he can. What a movie. Oh, God. Of all the disappointments in my life, that's right up there, man. Yeah, there's very few movies that I... Stood up at the end and shouted shame, shame, shame at the screen. That was definitely a disappointment. Well, I think I missed that one. No, you didn't. No, you didn't. No, you didn't. All right. So here's what I would say. In summary, if we had a team of people who truly understood what was in front of them going forward, which I don't believe anybody would have been able to do. Right. Because it's so beyond the concept that no one is coming to save them. They would all go on as if things are going to return to normal in days.

24:58 And then almost all the stuff that Amanda points out will probably happen. They won't drain the pipes. They won't get rid of all the dead bodies. They won't sort of understand that the meat's going to go bad and we need to have food for the winter. And all we have to do is get it on the roof and dry it. make some smoky fires and stuff. They won't understand that till possibly it's too late unless they had someone amongst them that really was aware of the situation. I will also talk to what Jeff said about nuclear fallout. I can tell you without a doubt that when this stuff is hitting the fan, the politicians are going to go, we'll solve the problem. We'll drop a nuke on Texas. That'll save us. You know that's going to happen.

25:40 Well, Matt, all I know is in this hypothetical, I'm calling you the mall manager and I'm just going to be your enforcer. You call the shots. I'll just... I'll be the muscle and I'll enforce them for you. Cause you've got, you know, no, we're not going to wait around on the meat and we're not going to wait around this. You're going to, you're going to work or you're going to, you're going to bounce, you know, tell your story walking. That's how you work or the road work or the road is what it's going to be. I have a neighbor who's a Navy SEAL and he, he always has to say, he's like, well, in the apocalypse, I know I don't have all this stuff, but I do have all the guns. So after the apocalypse, I'll have all the guns and all the stuff. Yeah. Amanda, was there anything else in the lettuce road trip?

26:21 No, no, that's and Matt really hit the nail on the head there with the we're going into this with the cinematic knowledge. We know what happens in this movie. We know way more than these characters do in a real life situation like this. We can talk all we want, but, you know, we don't have that inside information already. So, you know, we can say we would do this. We would do that. We would do that. Would we do it quick enough? To even survive that six to 12 month who knows who knows it's something i hope we never have. To worry about knock on wood.

27:02 And then there's the endings you know that obviously the endings and i know amanda uh we were we were all kind of talking because matt's like wait what what's what's going on here So the endings are going to vary a little bit because we all know the hopeful ending, right? Peter and Fran, they get in the helicopter, they escape. And it's not meant to be a happily ever after because it's more like, hey, they're moving on. They're not thriving, but they're just surviving because we don't know how much fuel they're going to get. They don't even know where they're going, right? But you got to remember. The main difference between some of these cuts is where Peter kind of has that sacrificial moment and then decides, Nope, I'm going to live. I'm going to, I'm going to fight through it. Um, that's not the case in, in all of it. And I don't, I don't want to, I'd like, I'd love to, uh, cue Amanda up for that. But, um, they are the Argento cut. I can tell you this. Um, it's, there's almost no trace of him having that sacrificial moment because it's, again, Argento's cut is fast.

28:06 It's slick. He wants to keep the tension up and he doesn't want to, he cut, he cuts out a lot of, exposition with the characters and reflection type type uh scenery so but he wasn't always supposed to you know he wasn't always supposed to survive but actually both of them weren't supposed you know amanda do you want to talk about what could have could have happened. So the alternate ending was actually the original scripted ending. And it was it was partially shot, never fully edited, though. So the fate, as Chuck had mentioned, of the characters, completely different. Peter ends up committing suicide by shooting himself.

28:48 He doesn't break away at the final, you know, final moment. and run for the helicopter. And Fran, because she's desperate, and obviously out of options at that point, or at least she feels she is, she steps directly into the spinning blades of the main roof, or the helicopter that's on the main roof, decapitating herself. Yeah, known as the head explosion helicopter. Exactly. Exactly. Because never, never wanting to, you know, put anything to waste at all. They ended up using that effect and that the head that they had cast for that for the exploding head in the beginning when they're in the apartments. So that was where Wooly, I think, shoots. Is it Miguel Lato?

29:32 I think. Yeah. And yeah. And like his head just kind of goes. So they just painted it like, you know, like an African-American put a wig on it. But the head molding was from Galen, correct? Yep, correct. Oh. Correct. And here's the, in looking more into this, so I had heard about the alternate ending. I knew what happened in the alternate ending. What I didn't realize was the final shot of this alternate ending, the helicopter engine actually sputters and dies because it's out of gas. That even if they had fled- they would have run out of fuel midair or wherever and had to make an emergency landing crash, who.

30:14 Knows, whatever. So absolute pitch black, just ending there, just devastating, horrendous, um, The reason that they ended up changing it, and there's this horror lore that goes around that the producers and the people that were actually distributing the film wanted a change because they didn't think that that bleak ending... You know, in the same vein as Night of the Living Dead was going to do well, they wanted a more optimistic, upbeat ending. Apparently, that's not true at all. It was Romero's pivot from the start because he ended up through filming grew to love those characters so much that he couldn't see either of them doing the scripted ending.

30:59 And he didn't want them to suffer that fate. So he himself is the one who changed it. Because out of love for the characters and the tone that the entire movie took, in his words, kind of a comic book energy. And that ending did not fit the tone of the rest of that, you know, the rest. Of the movie. Well, and I think it's hard for Romero, after he spent all the time with these characters, how do you end it with the death of a pregnant woman who's basically the last one standing? Correct. You just can't, you know? Right. Well, you know, he would also kind of be repeating himself a little bit from, as you were saying, Night of the Living Dead, which is a downer of a flick because not only do you have a child killing the mother and, you know, Dwayne getting shot and thrown on the pile of zombies at the end, it's a very down ending because you survived the night only to be killed by humans. So, you know, I... I'm really glad he didn't do that to these two characters.

32:05 No matter what happens, their fate is kind of sealed anyways. I mean, the end of man is there. Maybe they make it to Florida and make it into a Day of the Dead scenario. Who knows? But it's bleak no matter what, but at least you don't have to witness them giving up. They still have hope. Yeah. It's the live to fight another day mentality. I hope the best for them. What was the ending? Okay, to talk about the sequel just a little bit. If I remember, because I only saw it one time, I remember that they were, is this the one where they're on a boat at the end and then they get to an island and then they all. Get attacked by zombies? So yeah, the remake is they make it to the harbor, they get on the boat, the found footage tells us they ran out of gas, they find an island, they dock, and it's already overrun with zombies. So their escape is just No escape at all.

32:58 Yeah. Okay. But as is true with a lot of remakes, you don't give it about anybody in that movie anyways. So who cares? Who cares? Well, hold on. You don't, well, you don't like being rhymes or what about, what about our lead, our lead guy? Who's like, I sell television sets at best spot. You don't the unlikely hero. You're not a fan. No, no, I don't feel the connection. I just don't. I think that's where Romero shines. So this is the part where Matt says something about why, he doesn't like sequels because they always, they always are just bad. And if it, and it's not only a sequel, it's a remake. So the other reason you want to save your, your people is you've made a significant financial investment and it's really hard to make a sequel with that.

33:45 If you killed everybody off in the last one, you have to have somebody holding the torch, even if you're not going to use them ultimately. But the thing about Zack Snyder's remake, which which I'm a fan, I like it. I like it. I just I think I think what we're missing. And Chuck, you mentioned like that Star Wars for 77 4K. I would love I don't know what the connective tissue would be, but I would love I always look at these movies as this is a group of survivors that made their way to a mall in Pittsburgh. And this is a group of survivors that made their way to a mall in Los Angeles. They're in Milwaukee. It was a big, big deal.

34:29 That's right. Milwaukee. Thank you. Yeah. But so it's like I like the idea that it's it's two different groups. And I'd love to see like a supercut where we're kind of going back and forth. And, you know, I don't know. Again, you need some kind of connective tissue like like a radio or someone's talking to someone somehow. But I love the idea that there's two groups of people out there that have the same idea and trying to survive. I think there's enough creative energy on this podcast that we could all get together and just record some dialogue. It would be like a radio, like someone's listening to the radio and we can crossfade it back and forth. Some of this was done in The Walking Dead, right?

35:11 So there's sequels and the spinoffs from The Walking Dead. Oh, that's right. Good point, Matt. I stopped watching it after a while because, again, I think I covered this in the podcast before. One of the most successful series on television viewed by literally hundreds of millions of people raking in cash and they couldn't afford to spend money on a hundred extras. I was so angry about it. It's like they're paying some star $ 20 million an episode for a stupid rom-com series. They're paying a million dollars an episode for four people to hang around on a couch. And they can't spend twenty five dollars a person to have a bunch of people walking around in a in a borrow pit because it would be too expensive.

35:56 Twenty five dollars. Give them T-shirt. Well, exactly. And they'd be happily be in it. But they could they wouldn't do it. They were so cheap. And those showrunners, they just disgusted me. They were just ridiculous. It was such a money grab. I really, really soured me on that. television production in general how how cheesy it was when you have this untold million spent on a bunch of nimrods on a couch you're not going to spend a a sandwich in a t-shirt for a thousand people to mill around in the bottom of a of a quarry you know it just drove me crazy. But matt if someone can get a bow back together and we can have like a friends undead Like, what's that fun-loving group at Central Park doing when the zombies hit New York?

36:44 And they're trapped in that apartment building? They're done for. I'll be there for you? Not really. It's survival of the fittest. Are you done yet? Because I'm going to go ahead and cannibalize you. How you doing? A question in poor taste. Where's Matthew Perry? Is he with the friends in Central Park or is he undead? He's walking around. Oh, Amanda. Where's the call with Matthew Perry? Too soon. Too soon. I know. That's why I'm like, hmm. Amanda basically is like, we were just talking about Romero's darker ending. How can I get back to that? How can I take that and go up one more notch?

37:25 Yeah. Okay. Okay. It was just a question. I like the idea of zombie Ross trying to take out zombie Rachel and just being like, we were on a break. Very funny. It's a cinematic flashback. Let the show begin. All right, guys. So we're closing out the pod here and I want to do something a little bit fun. Yeah, we know the mall's infrastructure will give out. We all agreed probably six to 12 months we've got. But let's be real. The actual biggest threat in the apocalypse is sitting across from me on my iPad screen right now. So to close out the show, let's play a quick round of how well do you know? Your host and co-host. We're going to play a little game of rapid fire. Most likely two scenarios if we were in Dawn of the Dead.

38:23 No explanations. Just shout out the first person's name you can think of. Okay. On this panel. Okay. Only on this panel, though. Okay. First question, and we're going to go through this quick. Most likely to pull a full MacGyver and solve a total crisis with a coat hanger, a car battery, and pure brain power. Matt. I'm going Matt. Matt. All right. Most likely to pause mid-crisis to cite a famous auteur director and solve our problems with high cinema. Chuck. Jeff. One of the two of us. Most likely to stare at a real zombie and unironically compliment Tom Savini's makeup work. Amanda. Jeff. I would say Amanda. Amanda, the slasher girl. Okay, okay.

39:03 Most likely to identify an obscure 70s character actor in a horde and start delivering director's commentary. Jeff. Wait a minute. Are you are you calling people? Wait, are you? Are you? Yeah, I did. Are you saying it's Jeff? Are you saying Jeff answer? Yep. I'm saying Jeff is going to look at one of those zombies in the back and deliver a whole commentary on what he thinks that character is about. Okay. Yeah, I can see that. I concur. Yeah, I'm thinking it's Chuck. Wait, because we're going to see someone that looks like a 70s actor, right? Absolutely. It's got to be someone from the cinematic flashback. Sure. That's true. Okay. Most likely to treat our actual survivor scenario like a lost 80s cult classic.

39:44 Jeff. Me. Jeff. Okay. Most likely to start recording daily podcast recaps, even though literally no one is left alive to listen. Hmm. Chuck. Chuck. That's Chuck. Yeah, Chuck. I'd say Jeff. I'm getting a text message from Chuck. We're recording on Saturday. I'm like, Chuck, the apocalypse this year. We're not recording. Guys, guys, for posterity. Someone's going to find this sometime. Someone's going to find this lost tape here. Yeah. Yeah. Most likely to lose their mind from isolation first and start talking to Nordstrom mannequins. I'm going to say Amanda. Matt's holding his hand up. Maybe it's Matt. I love solitude. I feel like Matt, not because he's going to lose his mind, but because he's going to have all this knowledge up there.

40:25 He's going to want to talk to somebody. He's going to talk it out. Yeah, he just needs an audience. Most likely to treat the zombie invasion like a sport and keep a running scoreboard on the wall. Right here. Is there any doubt? I'm your guy. Most likely to get bitten in the first 24 hours trying to pet a zombie animal. Amanda, that's come on. 100%. That's me. Amanda's like, the dogs are fine, guys. 100%. You've seen that meme that's going around like, you know, my last words are going to be, you know, hold my beer while I pet this bear. That's me. No, Matt's going, hey, I saw Pet Sematary. Don't pet that thing. It's dead. Look at him. He's so cute. He's so cute, though. He just needs a brushing. Most likely to raid high-end boutiques just to wear immaculate outfits around the empty food court.

41:09 That goes to me. There's no debate there. If you follow Amanda the Slasher Girl on Instagram, you know she's all about fashion. Yeah. I love it. You're like Peter with that mink coat. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, yeah, totally. Amanda in the Peter mink coat. Yes. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Most likely to hoard and aggressively defend a secret stash of Cinnabons. And I think we established in the podcast that that would be Jeff. Hey, sugar, glucose, I'm giving you all the salad, though. I'll take it. Most likely to hijack a department store intercom to act as the group's personal DJ. Wouldn't be me.

41:50 Chuck, can we, well, it's only people on this pod. Yeah, because I would say that, too. But that's Deaf Dave. But yeah, if it's not Deaf Dave, it's Chuck Bryan. Only a couple more here. Most likely to blow our cover on a stealth mission because they can't stop laughing. All of us? I know, right? Well, all I can say is my jaws hurt right here now. I really wanted to end because my mouth hurts from smiling. Most likely to raid Dick's Sporting Goods to build ridiculously elaborate zombie traps. Matt. Matt. Matt. That's me. Most likely to forget where we parked the getaway helicopter. Me. If I couldn't take a picture of where it's at.

42:33 We're screwed. Most likely to turn the atrium into a CrossFit box and challenge everyone to protein-fueled squat-offs. It's between Amanda and Jeff. We'll be correcting each other's form even though we're being chased by zombies. Yeah. Most likely to ditch the emergency plan 10 minutes before because they had a better idea. That might be me. Matt, pivot. I can see Matt going, hold on, guys. Although I'm typically pretty, I'm pretty hard on a plan. I pretty much stick to a plan. Chuck can tell you. I'll have to go down with a ship on the plan. No, no. We said we were going to deliver on Tuesday. That is what we're going to do. But none of the tests succeeded. Don't care. We're delivering. Stick to the plan, man.

43:19 Stick to the plan. Amanda, thank you for putting that together. You bet. Yeah, that was hilarious. Thank you all for coming back tonight. And I appreciate everybody there. So this is this was fun. Thank you.