Dawn of the Dead (2004 film)

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Dawn of the Dead
Title Dawn of the Dead (Hispanoamerica)
Dawn of the Dead (Spain)
Technical data
Address
Zack Snyder
Production Marc Abraham
Eric Newman
Richard P. Rubinstein
Production design Andrew Neskoromny
Screenplay by James Gunn
Based on Dawn of the Dead
by George A. Romero
Music Tree Adams
Tyler Bates
Photography by Matthew F. Leonetti
Mounting Niven Howie
Scenography Steve Shewchuk
Clothing Denise Cronenberg
Protagonists Sarah Polley
Ving Rhames
Jake Weber
Mekhi Phifer
Ty Burrell
View all credits (IMDb)
Data and figures
United States
Canada
Year 2004
Genre Terror
Duration 100 minutes
Classification United States Flag R
Flag of Argentina +16
Flag of Spain +18
Flag of Chile +14
Flag of Mexico C
Brazil Flag +18
Australian Flag MA
Language(s) English
Companies
Strike Entertainment Producer
Distribution Universal Pictures
Budget $28,000,000 (est.)1
$102,356,381.2
IMDb page
Profile on FilmAffinity
[edit data on Wikidata]
Dawn of the Dead (titled: Dawn of the Dead in Spain and The Dawn of the
Dead in Hispanoamerica is a 2004 American horror film.
directed by Zack Snyder and written by James Gunn. The film is based on the
homonymous film from 1978, which was created by George A. Romero. Just like its
predecessor, the story focuses on a group of people who take refuge in a
shopping mall in the face of a zombie plague. This version has some variations
in the plot and characters. Another change has to do with the movements of
the zombies, being faster in this version.
Index
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Major changes in relation to the 1978 version
5 Premiere
5.1 Reception
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Plot
Ana Clark, a nurse who lives in the city of Milwaukee, returns home after
finish their shift at the hospital. However, at that very moment a virus
spreads across the world, which reanimates the dead and makes them violent. To the
The next morning, Ana and her husband Louis are awakened by Vivian, their neighbor.
who attacks Louis by biting him. Louis dies, but comes back to life and attacks his
wife. Ana flees in her car, while she sees how people attack each other.
others in response to the effects of the virus. Due to a struggle with a survivor for his
car, Ana crashes into a tree, becoming unconscious.

After waking up, Ana finds herself with Kenneth, a police officer who was traveling to Fort Pastor.
a base belonging to the United States Army. However, the route
it had been blocked by zombies, so along with three other survivors
Michael, Andre, and his pregnant wife Luda burst into a shopping mall.
Inside, Michael and Luda are attacked by zombies, one of which injures Luda.
the place is encountered with three security guards -CJ, Bart and Terry- who
they decide to let them stay in exchange for their weapons. After securing the entrances
from the shopping mall, they go up to the roof where they see how the zombies slowly surround the
building. There they also meet another survivor, Andy, who is located in
a gun store across the parking lot.

The next day, Terry allies with Ana's group, disarming CJ and Bart. This
to let a truck of survivors into the shopping center, in which they were going
Norma, Steve, Tucker, Monica, Glen, Frank, Nicole, and an anonymous woman badly injured.
The newcomers inform them that Fort Pastor has been invaded by zombies.
what is impossible to receive help. Shortly after, the anonymous woman dies,
becoming a zombie and attacking other people; however, Ana the
stops. In light of what happened, they realize that the bites are the method to
through which the virus spreads, which is why they leave Frank in quarantine due to
to which he had been wounded. Shortly after, Frank becomes a zombie and is taken out.
by Kenneth.

While the characters take advantage of the possibilities offered by the center
commercial, the building is surrounded by an ever-increasing number of zombies. After a
power outage, CJ, Bart, Michael, and Kenneth go to the underground parking lot
to start the emergency generator. Down there, Bart dies after the attack of
a group of zombies, who are stopped with fire by the survivors. Andre,
foreseeing Luda's death due to her injury, he ties her to a bed so that she doesn't
attack on the other survivors. Luda dies giving birth, becoming a
zombie. Norma discovers Luda and shoots her, which infuriates Andre, who begins
a shooting. Ana arrives at the scene, discovering the three dead, as well as a lump.
in Andre's arms. Noticing that the bundle is Luda's baby - who
he was also infected - he shoots him.

The rest of the survivors decide to flee from the mall and head to the
pier, where they would use Steve's yacht to reach an island in the lake
Michigan. To achieve this, they reinforce two buses from the parking lot and load them.
with weapons. During this, Andy, who continues in the gun shop, informs him about
Kenneth who has no food, so they decide to use Nicole's dog to
send him food. The dog manages to arrive and enter the armory, but when Andy
a zombie is going to close the door, it avoids it and enters, attacking him. Nicole uses a
truck to get to the place and once inside is attacked by Andy (now turned into
zombie). The survivors reach the store through the sewer and rescue
Nicole after taking out Andy, also grabbing the weapons and ammunition that he had.
in the place. While escaping in the sewers, the zombies manage to get in and
Tucker injures his leg, leaving him unable to continue. The zombies attack him and CJ
shoots him in the head, at Tucker's request.

Upon returning to the mall, the zombies manage to get in because of Steve,
forcing an immediate evacuation. On the way to the dock, one of the buses in the
that turned over, killing Glen and Monica. Steve flees the vehicle, but is attacked
by a zombie. The rest of the survivors arrive at the dock, where CJ, to isolate
to the horde of zombies of his companions, detonates a propane tank, ending with
the zombies and with himself. The others arrive at the boat, with the exception of Michael,
who decides to stay because of the bite he suffered. After a few weeks, the ship
arrive at an island, and when the movie credits start, they begin to
intermittently appearing scenes from a home video camera they were carrying
the survivors where it is seen that when they descend from the boat several appear
zombies running against them. What is seen in the following scenes is how the
zombies violently attack everyone until the camera falls to the ground.

Cast
Character Original Actor (United States)
Flag of the United States Voice actor (Spain)
Flag of Spain Voice actor (Hispano-America)
Flag of Mexico
Ana Clark Sarah Polley Núria Mediavilla Xóchitl Ugarte
Kenneth Hall Ving Rhames Miguel Ángel Jenner Miguel Ángel Ghigliazza
Michael Jake Weber Luis Posada Rolando de Castro
Andre Mekhi Phifer José Luis Mediavilla ?
Steve Marcus Ty Burrell Ricky Coello Gisela Casillas
C.J Michael Kelly Pere Molina Luis Alfonso Padilla
Terry Kevin Zegers David Jenner Victor Ugarte
Nicole Lindy Booth Isabel Valls Gaby Ugarte
Bart Michael Barry Hernán Fernández Luis Daniel Ramírez
Norma Jayne Eastwood Marta Padován Vicky Burgoa
Tucker Boyd Banks Adriá Frías César Izaguirre
Crazy Inna Korobkina Sole Dawn Pilar Escandón
Glen R. D. Reid Claudi García Carlos Águila
Monica Kim Poirier María Moscardó Adriana Casas
Andy Bruce Bohne Juan Fernández Jorge Ornelas
Frank Matt Frewer Antonio Lara Gerardo Reyero
Luis Justin Louis Xavier Fernández Roberto Mendiola
Vivian Hannah Lochner Michelle Jenner Gaby Ugarte
Production
The script for the movie was written by James Gunn, who had worked
previously in the Scooby-Doo movie (2002), based on the same animated series
name. For this new version, Gunn decided not to repeat the same plot, but to
It uses certain central elements like the group of survivors who take refuge.
about zombies in a shopping mall and tell a new story starting from them.
history.4 This decision was also shared by director Zack Snyder, who
I was looking to film the movie from a different perspective.

The movie was filmed in the city of Toronto and in other places in Ontario such as
Ashbridge Bay. The city of Milwaukee was chosen as the setting for the
story because director Zack Snyder was born in Wisconsin, also existing
certain similarities between both locations. The filming process began on the 16th
June 2003 and ended on September 6 of the same year.
Major changes in relation to the 1978 version
Zombies can run quickly and are much more aggressive and intimidating.
concept is similar to the infected in the movie 28 Days Later. Its great
speed makes zombies more lethal whether individually or in groups,
in contrast to the 1978 version where the undead generally
they were only dangerous when they were numerous. Romero himself has said his
disapproval of this change as it, according to him, took away the essence of what
it means the concept of the zombie, arguing that they would not be able to move
quickly due to rigor mortis, both fans of the 1978 version and the
since 2004 they have pointed out several flaws in this idea (mainly that the rigor
death is only a temporary condition). However, the fact that is ignored is that
rigor mortis is an accumulation of lactic acid in the fine tissues of the
muscles, resulting in body stiffness. For example, if it opens and
close your hand quickly it will become stiff after a while and will become
It can be something painful. This is due to the fact that the blood flow cannot continue.
with the needs of the muscles and therefore, any zombie would have a
incredible difficulty to move as the muscles would still be functioning
without the flow of blood.
The infection and the process of reviving the 'dead' were accelerated.
considerably. Some characters transform into zombies in less than a minute
having been bitten. An example of this is the owner of the weapons store, Andy.
In Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead by George Romero, the
infection was a slow process that could take days. On the night of the dead
living beings, however, took only a few hours. In the original version and the
new version, the time taken for the conversion is not fixed. It varies or
contracts with dramatic purposes. (in the DVD version, a program is shown of
news demonstrating that the duration of the infection depends on how much
the distance is the bite of a blood vessel.
The cause of the zombie crisis is a blood virus, instead
of a mysterious plague that affected the entire world. In Romero's films, if
a person dies in any way once the crisis has begun, eventually they
rise from the dead. For example; the recently dead have risen.
in the cemetery in the movie Night of the Living Dead. In the version of
2004, only a person infected with the virus would become a zombie through
the bribes, for this reason, the character played by Mekhi Phifer does not become when he
They shoot him and kill him.
Animals are not attacked by the undead in the new version.
In the 'lost tape' (an extra included in the DVD) where Andy is fighting against
the zombies in their weapon shop, the date on the video camera changes. The
chronology from the beginning of the tape to the part where Andy becomes one
the zombie outbreak lasts for 29 days. In Dawn of the Dead from 1978 it was established
that the crisis lasted months.
Premiere
Dawn of the Dead was released on March 19, 2004, in the United States, on the 31st of...
March in Mexico and April 23 in Spain. The movie grossed 59 million.
dollars in the United States, with a total of 102 million dollars throughout
In its first week, the film surpassed The Passion of the Christ at the box office.
American, which had been in first place for three weeks.

Reception
In general, the movie received a favorable response from the audience and the
critique.9 The film has a 77% "fresh" rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website.
Tomatoes and an average of 58/100 on Metacritic.1011 George A. Romero, director of
the eponymous 1978 film, commented on this version:12