DAWN OF THE DEAD SYNOPSIS CONT'D

With his wounded friend carted in their trusty wheelbarrow, Peter and the others load up firearms from a gun shop, preparing to destroy every zombie inside the shopping floors. They have to lock the entrances from the inside and activate the burglar alarms if possible. This would be to dangerous to do on foot so Fran suggests that the new display car be hotwired. Roger, trying to remain in good spirits, is up to the task, though unable to walk. Meanwhile Peter and Stephen pick off every zombie in sight. The plan works without injuries and upon their return to their hideout Peter devises a fake wall to hide the entrance to the storage room stairwell. And the next day, it’s cleanup time: every rotting corpse is picked up, piled on carts and placed in one of the cafeteria cold lockers.

Relieving the stress and boredom during the next few weeks, the group enjoy gourmet food, leisure time in the arcade, Fran goes skating and clothes shopping. Steve and Peter visit the bank and remove cash stacks as Peter says "you never know…" Later that evening, the zombies shaking the entrance doors outside remind them they are not alone in this paradise. As they stand in their fur coats, Peter recalls something his Grandfather (a priest in Trinidad) told him once. "When there’s no room in Hell the Dead will walk the Earth."

 

Up in the storage room turned plush apartment, Roger dies slowly from the mysterious infection, violently thrashing in bed. "I’m gonna try not to come back…" Roger tells Peter, staying close by his side. That night, Stephen watches the latest broadcast of the coldly rational Dr. Roush studio discussion. "Why don’t we drop bombs in all big cities?" he asks the commentator, as the stunned audience listen. Roger has fallen asleep, hidden under the sheets. Peter drinks vodka, pistol in hand ready for Roger’s awakening. Finally he does, the sheets fall down to reveal his pruny, mummifying face. Peter is still there to put him out of his misery before he can fully rise.

Roger’s final resting place is a mall garden where Peter buries him. At a restaurant, Steve presents his fiancee with a choice of wedding rings, over a dinner (prepared by Peter). Fran declines the choices – telling a dejected Stephen "it wouldn’t be real." Their lives go on with such activities as target practice at posed mannequins on the ice of the skating rink and a poker game with the bank’s stolen cash.

Fran takes her final flying lessons, attracting the attention of two motorcycle raiders checking them out through binoculars. Later that night they attempt to communicate with them via radio but when its met by silence, they decide to pay a visit. Stephen and Peter rush to the roof and realize they are outnumbered by the motorcycle gang. Peter observes "That’s a professional army…looks like they’ve been surviving on the road all through this thing." Hurrying into the mall floors to roll down as many store gates as possible, the raiders outside move the trucks from the entrances, and fully armed, they destroy the mall entrance doors – storming the lower floor and bringing in the mobs of living dead with them. Annoyed by the undead pests, the looters steal wallets and jewelry from them and throw pies from the bakery into their faces.

During the raid, Steve hides, but is unable to resist the urge to take a potshot at a raider. Peter tells Steve via walk-talkie "Now we’ve got a war!" Peter takes some shots of his own in defense as he runs back to the crawlspace. When Steve runs back to the elevator shaft to escape, he is followed by two raiders and shot while climbing up. Peter picks off a few of the bikers as they try to flee. The ravenous zombies close in on the stranded bikers and proceed to rip their abdomens open and bite chunks out of their necks. One bandit insists on checking his blood pressure gets his arm ripped off.

 

Still stranded in the elevator, Stephen tries to climb, bleeding profusely. When the doors open again, a group of zombies enter and savagely attack his leg. Returning back to the storage room through the air ducts, Peter hears his Steve’s cries from the elevator. When he gets back Fran can see in his facial expression that something has happened to her fiancee.

The dead reclaim their kingdom and a few hours later, Stephen returns. Emerging from the elevator as a grotesquely contorted walking corpse, he joins the dead army, instinctively walking back to the corridor with the fake wall – as if unaware he is undead. Accompanying him is a gathering parade of zombies, their numbers aiding in the caving in of the rather flimsy fake wall. Stephen enters his former hideout and slams the door behind him. Waiting for him with his trusty M-16, Peter blows Fran’s fiance’s brains out right in front of her. Peter encourages Fran to take the chopper and leave him behind. "I don’t want to go" he tells her as the door opens again. The living dead made it up the stairwell and are now in the same room.

Fran gets her duffle bag and climbs the ladder to the roof. Peter puts a gun to his temple. When the zombies get near he decides to not commit suicide after all, and shoot one last zombie. He fights his way to the roof and catches hold of the chopper Fran is piloting. And they fly off into the dawn.