Original subtitles

-Well, we started the season with Italian zombies

in the Dominican Republic.

We had some New Orleans zombies,

some Mexican zombies, some Serbian zombies,

some Spanish zombies inhabiting northern England.

We even waltzed over to AMC

and looked in on some New York City zombies.

So we thought we needed to get back to basics

on our final night of the season

and our final night of our fifth year at Shudder

with a tribute to the man who started it all.

And George Romero didn't even use the word "zombie."

He said he didn't think his creatures were zombies,

since zombies were part of the Haitian voodoo tradition,

and he was more interested in suggesting

that ghouls were created by the arrogance

and stupidity of American mainstream culture.

So "Night of the Living Dead" in 1968 is,

to me, the foundation film of modern horror,

and "Dawn of the Dead," 10 years later,

is the kind of spectacular pinnacle of that genre.

And with those two movies, this shy, retiring filmmaker

from Pittsburgh pretty much defined the Living Dead genre

for everybody who came afterwards.

And the most elaborate version of that,

the 13-year run of "Walking Dead" on AMC,

took its entire arsenal of themes from George Romero,

as did all the 500 or so zombie movies

made in countries all over the world.

So what do you think of "Day of the Dead," Darcy?

-Well, I like it a lot, but just not as much as the other two.

-You know, And I think 90% of Romero fans

would probably say the same thing

if they had to rank them,

because "Night of the Living Dead" is iconic,

"Dawn of the Dead" is a brilliant tour de force.

It's a party movie.

-Yeah.

-"Day of the Dead" in 1985 is strange for Romero.

It's talky. It's anticlimactic.

In fact, "Day of the Dead,"

I don't understand the ending, really.

But "Day of the Dead" was -- and it was a box-office bust.

You know, you don't have to look far for the reasons, though,

because people were expecting one thing, they got another.

Two of the most successful horror movies of 1985

were Living Dead satirical comedies.

So you had Stuart Gordon's "Re-Animator."

It's based on an H.P. Lovecraft story,

but it obviously derivative of Romero's zombies.

And Dan O'Bannon's "Return of the Living Dead,"

which was a brilliant satirical send-up

of the whole zombie phenomenon.

So the creations of George Romero

had already entered the period of parody and satire

before he'd even finished

making his final statement in his trilogy.

So he was made obsolete by movies that he inspired.

Romero always thought of his Living Dead movies

as reflective of the decade that they came out in.

So the original movie

was a hippie indictment of an America

set in its outdated ways.

"Dawn of the Dead" was an attack on consumerism and greed.

The zombies returned to the only place

they love -- the shopping mall.

And then "Day of the Dead" was intended to be an indictment

of the military-industrial complex in the Reagan era,

a time when it seemed people just gave up

on solving the chronic problems of poverty and race

and a government out of touch with its citizens,

a time when apathy took over.

And in Romero's opinion,

everybody ended up deserving whatever they got.

His original idea for "Day of the Dead"

is not the film that we're going to see tonight.

His original script was 204 pages long.

Now, to give you a rule of thumb,

one page usually equals one minute on screen.

Even when he cut that script down to 122 minutes,

it was going to take $7 million to bring that story to life.

So, nothing for a Hollywood studio,

But Romero was never backed by a Hollywood studio.

He always had to raise money one investor at a time.

So the 122-page version of "Day of the Dead"

featured all these encampments

that were attempting to reestablish civilization

while military compounds underground

ran scientific experiments attempting to train

the zombies really to be slaves to the living,

equipping them ultimately with actual weapons

in order to keep order.

I think we can guess where that was leading

and just how apocalyptic that was like likely to become.

But Romero's producers presented him with a dilemma.

They told him, "George,

we'll give you the 7 million under one condition.

You have to deliver an R-rated film.

If you can't deliver an R-rated film --

if the movie gets an X and we have to take it out unrated,

then we'll still make the movie,

but you can only have half that money."

So Romero took the short money. Now I think that was a mistake.

I think he should have finessed it.

Yes, we all love the gore effects in "Day of the Dead."

I think it's Tom Savini's masterpiece.

as a practical effects guy.

Savini's assistant on the movie,

by the way, was 19-year-old Greg Nicotero,

who would become the principal effects master

on "The Walking Dead" and a partner in one

of the most successful effects studios in Hollywood.

But what suffered was the epic scale

that was needed for Romero

to finish out the trilogy with the powerful scenario

that he had envisioned.

Romero, he was a shy man,

and he had a deep distrust of the Hollywood system.

And so he thought that any time he had to fight with producers,

sell an idea in a meeting,

he thought that he always lost the fight.

So he always chose artistic independence

over bigger budgets.

So he was given 3.5 million

and he was told, you can do whatever you want,

But he had to throw out that 122-page script and start over.

So he did a page-one rewrite in three weeks.

And that 88-page result is -- it's odd.

It was so odd, in fact, that when it first came out,

his fans were furious.

Now, it took 20 to 30 years for a cadre of support

to grow up around "Day of the Dead."

And it's a strong support now.

And today it's considered -- it's considered

his most troubling movie, mainly because of the ending

and because of the alternating moods of hope and hopelessness.

Some people say it's a picture of the end of humankind.

Others say it's a triumph of optimism,

it's humankind barely scraping by and starting anew.

So you're going to have to decide for yourself

because I don't know.

Do you know, Darcy?

Do you know what the...

-No, I'm not sure, but, honestly, this is the most

I've ever heard you talk about the movie in the intro.

-Well, it's our last show.

I wanted to do something that mattered

instead of our usual hijinks, and so...

-So we're going to be serious tonight?

-No, we're not gonna be serious. We're gonna be normal.

But we're going to go deep, deep, deep into this movie

because it's a classic.

-I love the kills.

-Well, who doesn't love the Kills?

That's what -- I mean...

-So did the kills cause an X rating?

-Yes, they did. The producers were right.

The kills caused an X rating.

It had to go out unrated, which meant many newspapers

wouldn't accept the advertising,

and many theater chains wouldn't play the movie at all.

-And ratings are insane. -Yes, they are.

But Romero wasn't even that interested in the --

he wasn't that personally invested

in the special-effects techniques.

He just left all that to Tom Savini.

So this is really just letting Tom Savini go wild

and do anything he wanted because Romero would just say,

"Tom, start thinking up new ways to kill people."

And Tom would say, "Hell yeah!"

You know, we've had Tom on the show.

He was like a kid in a candy store on this movie.

But let's let the movie speak for itself.

"Day of the Dead" is the sensitive story

of some scientists, soldiers, and civilians

all trapped together in an underground facility

dedicated to containing, studying and training the undead

so that the few remaining humans might be able to survive.

The apocalypse has been going on for a while.

There are now 400,000 zombies for every normal human being,

and these people might be the last hope for the world.

Their only problem is that they are human beings

full of the same petty jealousies and grievances

and selfishness that people have when they're not threatened

with mass destruction.

And normally when you have a story like this,

you have a John Wayne figure

and he comes in and takes charge, right?

But George Romero was not a John Wayne kind of guy.

He didn't believe in John Wayne.

He believed that 12 people --

that's how many people are left --

should be able to change the world

if they have a common goal and they work together.

I don't think the number 12 was an accident, by the way.

And I don't think the name of one of the characters, John,

like the disciple who wrote the apocalyptic Gospel,

the one that uses 15 different names for Jesus,

I don't think that's an accident either.

This is a Romero at his most Catholic,

but he's showing us a world where there's no savior,

or if there is a savior,

he's a weak substitute for the kind of guy we need.

George Romero was an old hippie,

and there was an old hippie slogan

that came back again and again --

"The revolution will not be televised."

And here we have the result of what that meant.

The old arrogant system is going to eat itself alive.

So let's look at those Drive-In Totals and get started.

We have...

Drive-In Academy Award nominations for...

Jarlath Conroy as McDermott,

the Irish radio operator with a hip flask.

Joseph Pilato as Rhodes,

the Nazi military commander who says,

"All you've given us is a mouthful of Greek salad."

Lori Cardille as Sarah,

the battle-hardened, pill-popping scientist

who says, "If he dies, I'll destroy him myself."

Terry Alexander as John the Jamaican helicopter pilot

who thinks the answer is ganja

and says, "It ain't mankind's job to figure that stuff out."

Anthony Dileo as the PTSD boyfriend for saying,

"Look! it's a miracle! He doesn't see us as lunch."

Richard Liberty as Dr. Logan,

the half-crazed, blood-stained scientist,

on his way to domesticating the zombies,

who says, "He's been responding so well lately

that I let him continue to exist."

Howard Sherman as Bub the zombie,

the most lovable on-screen dead person

since Bo Derek made "Tarzan."

Tom Savini, the special-effects master,

for reaching new heights in slime glopola.

And George Romero,

the writer-director for doing things the "Drive-In" way

despite budget limitations.

Four stars. Joe Bob says check it out.

And the place they filmed most of this

was the old Wampum Mine in Wampum, Pennsylvania.

And isn't that a great name?

It sounds like a name they would make up

for a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

-It does. -You know?

But anyway, it's an old limestone mine

where they store government records and old films.

One of those temperature-controlled underground facilities.

And the creepy thing about it is that

the only place to stay around there

was this run-down Holiday Inn.

And so the crew would get up at 5:30 every day

and catch this 10-minute ride to the mine,

and they would enter the mine

under this ominous logo of Medusa

with snakes coming out of her head.

And then they would be picked up in golf carts

and driven deep into the bowels of the mine

to do the day's shooting.

And the reason you had to take a golf cart

is that the mine was full of lakes,

and if you didn't know exactly where you were going,

you could slip off into one of the lakes and drown.

-Sounds like a really cool place for a horror film.

-But what freaks me out is that, you know,

I would imagine there's absolutely no light down there.

I'm sure they wore the hats, you know, with the lights on.

But if you're suddenly treading water in the dark,

you don't know which direction to swim to get to the shore.

So you just swim off the wrong way

until you lost strength and go under.

And it gives me the creeps to die that way.

Anyway, the crew got up at 5:30 when it was still dark.

They went to the mine. They worked all day.

They came back at 7:00 or 8:00 or 9:00 at night

when it was already dark.

And so for at least a month, some of them never saw the sun.

-I consider that a good thing.

-I know you hate the sun, Darcy. Most people don't hate the sun.

-I don't "hate" the sun. I just take care of my skin.

-Well, if you lived in the Wampum mine,

you would never have to worry about your skin.

-That sounds wonderful.

-You would have to worry about your sanity.

-I already do. -All right, well, then, great.

I'll get you some real estate listings

for Wampum, Pennsylvania.

Population 557, by the way.

-I'm ready. -[Chuckles]

"I'm Darcy. I live in Wampum. We party in caves."

-Hell yeah, we do.

[Laughter]

♪♪

[Ominous music plays]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Aah!

[Helicopter blades whirring]

♪♪

♪♪

-Nothing. Nothing at all.

-Send again.

-I've been sending it up and down the coast

from Sarasota to the Everglades

and still getting back the same dead air.

There's nothing.

There's nobody, or at least nobody with a radio.

-All right, then. Let's set down.

We'll use the bullhorn. -Set down?

Wait a minute. That's not in our contract.

-It's the biggest city within 150 miles.

We're gonna give it every chance.

-Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. -Set down, John.

-[Jamaican accent] I'll set us down.

But I won't leave my seat,

and I'll keep the engine running.

Now, the first sign of trouble, I'm going up.

If you ain't on board when that happens,

you're likely to have a lousy afternoon.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Calling anybody on this frequency.

This is helicopter 4-0-Alpha.

If you can hear me, please listen carefully.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Hello?!

Hello?!

Is anyone there?

Hello?

Hello?!

Is anyone there?

♪♪

Hello?!

Is anyone there?!

♪♪

Is anyone there?

♪♪

Hello?!

Is there anyone there?!

[Footsteps]

-[Groaning]

-Hello?!

-[Groaning]

♪♪

-Hello?!

Is there anyone there?

[Zombies groaning] Hello?

Hello?!

Is anyone there?

♪♪

Hello?!

♪♪

♪♪

[Zombies groaning and wailing]

♪♪

-We can lift you out to safety.

Please answer my call if you can hear me.

-Forget it, Billy boy.

It's a dead place.

Like all the others, you know?

Listen.

[Zombies groaning and wailing]

You can hear it over the engine.

-Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Helicopter blades whirring]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Zombies groaning]

♪♪

-Hey, you find anything?

-Yeah, a bunch of real estate for sale

at closeout prices, man.

Gas up the machine. She's down to fumes.

-No! Wait till it's dark.

There are too many of them out there.

-Hey, hey, it's no good to leave the gas tank empty.

Suppose we need to get out of here in a hurry.

-Then we're shit out of luck. They're getting too riled up.

Do it tonight when they can't see you.

-They know we're in here even if they can't see us.

What good is it to leave the gas tank emp--

-The activity excites them. There are too many of them.

-There's more and more every day.

-If we get a lot more, come out and shoot some of them.

Otherwise, stay inside the building.

Stay out of sight.

-Be thankful you live in the suburbs, Johnson.

You ought to see how congested the city's getting to be.

-Miguel, come on. Let's get below.

Miguel, what can I do?

You... -What?

-Let me help. -No, I don't need help.

I don't need help. -Come on. Give me this.

-I'm all right. I'm just tired. -You're not all right.

You're collapsing from stress.

Now, let me help. -Collapsing from stress?

We're all collapsing.

This whole fucking unit is collapsing,

everybody except you.

I know you're strong, all right? So what?

Stronger than me.

Stronger than everyone. So what?

So fucking what?

[Zombies groaning in distance]

♪♪

-That's a new grave. -Major Cooper.

He died this morning.

-And then there were 12.

-A burial this morning.

That's why there's so many of them.

-What's gonna bring them tomorrow, Sarah?

And the next day and the next day after that?

There are hundreds of 'em over there.

Thousands. A million of them!

You stick your head in the sand,

they're gonna come up behind you and bite off your ass!

This is bullshit, what we're doing here, it's crazy!

-If you've got an alternative to what we're doing,

we'd be happy to listen to it.

-I got an alternative.

Yeah, yeah, I got an alternative.

Let's get in that whirlybird there,

find us an island someplace, get juiced up

and spend what time we got left soaking up some sunshine.

How's that?

-You could do that, couldn't you?

With all that's going on, you could do that

without a second thought.

-Shit.

I could do that even if all this wasn't going on.

♪♪

♪♪

[Alarm blaring]

♪♪

♪♪

-Another waste of time, right? -Got that right, man.

♪♪

♪♪

-What'd you find? -Nothing.

-Nothing?

How far up the coast did you go? -100 miles each way.

-Jump in here, soldier.

We gotta bring in two more dumb fucks.

Let's go. -Two more?

What's Logan doing to them in there?

-Get in here, soldier.

-He's been awake for 24 hours.

Can't you get anyone else? -What "anyone else"?

There isn't anyone else. We're it.

-The two of you can't go in there alone.

It's too dangerous.

Christ.

I'll go!

-What's the matter with your friend there?

-There's nothing the matter.

All right. Let's go.

-You guys ready to get us

some of those pus-brained bags of shit, right, Rickles?

-You got it, Steel.

We gonna get us some dumb fuck on a stick.

[Laughter]

Got any kind of special locations you'd like to look at?

[Indistinct conversation]

[Men cackling]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Let's kick it off! Come on, dickwads!

Whoo-hoo!

♪♪

[Generator whirring]

♪♪

♪♪

-[Hawks]

♪♪

-Christ!

This shows the 15th as the last time you took any out.

That can't be right. -Oh, yeah.

We forget to write 'em up sometimes, you know?

-You've got to write them up. It's essential.

Can't you get that through your thick skull?

How the hell are we supposed to keep track

of how many we got left?

-[Screeching]

[Zombies groaning]

[Whistle echoes]

[Echoing] Let's go, you dumb fucks! Get over here!

Hey!

Here we are!

Come on!

[Zombies groaning]

[Chuckles] Come on, you dumb fucks.

Come on, come on.

[Wood banging]

Come on, you fish brains!

What the hell's the matter with ya?!

-They're scared. -Huh?

-They know what'll happen when Frankenstein gets 'em.

-If you're right, Rickles, then they're learning.

They're actually learning.

-Come on! Come and see what I got for ya!

Come on, you dick faces! Here's a nice one hanging!

Come on. Come and get it.

Come and try to bite it off!

-That's it, Steel. Whip it out.

That'll bring 'em on. -Fucking A.

Biggest piece of meat in the cave.

I don't want to excite the lady, though.

Not with her boyfriend around.

-You're incapable of exciting me, Steel,

except as an anthropological curiosity.

-What the hell's that mean, Rickles?

-It means you're a caveman, asshole.

You're a fucking throwback!

You've been spending too much time underground, huh?

[Laughs] It's okay, Steel.

Throwbacks all got big dicks. [Laughs]

-Oh! [Laughs]

All right, you dumb fucks!

Get over here, you scumbags!

Your old pal Steel wants to see ya.

Come on!

[Clattering]

Shit. -I'm coming up.

-You're not strong enough for up here.

Send up the pole.

I'll watch out for lover boy. Don't worry.

-What do you mean I'm not strong enough?

I've done it dozens of times.

-I don't want you up here, lady.

Send up the pole. They're getting closer.

-He's collapsing, for Christ's sake.

Look at him. -Let go of the pole.

-Listen to me. -Let go of the goddamn pole.

-Here they come! Let's go!

[Zombies groaning]

Dumb fucks.

Pus-brained bags of shit.

You dumb fucking bags of shit, I'll kick your fucking asses.

Come on! [Zombies groaning]

Try to get up here.

[Laughing]

Come here, scumbag.

[Zombies groaning]

Hook her up, will ya? -[Groans]

Hook her.

-[Giggles]

-Hey, nice hat, asshole.

-[Groaning]

-Come on! Get the other one out of there!

[Zombies groaning]

♪♪

♪♪

Come on. Get in there.

-[Groaning]

♪♪

-[Groaning]

-Steel, Steel, Steel, cover!

Cover! -I got it.

-Cover! -Jesus!

-That's it. That's it. That's it.

I got it. I got it, come on.

Come on. Come here. Come here.

[Zombies groaning]

♪♪

-You almost killed Rickles.

Yeah.

You almost fucking killed Rickles.

-[Groaning]

-Let him go, Steel.

He shouldn't have been up there in the first place.

-You almost fucking killed Rickles!

-Steel, stop it! -You spic bastard!

You dirty yellow spic bastard!

-Let him go!

Let him go, goddamn it, or I'll cut you in half.

♪♪

-[Spits] Arrgh!

♪♪

♪♪

-[Groaning] -[Indistinct shouting]

-Shut up, you dumb fucks.

I hope they chop you up for dog food.

Come on, Rickles. Let's get out of here.

-I hope you fucking rot!

Fuck you!

[Zombies groaning]

♪♪

♪♪

-I am not gonna let you dope me up.

-You need a sedative.

You're behaving dangerously.

I'm just trying to help you, Miguel.

-Well, I don't need your help or anyone else's.

You made me look like an asshole out there.

You made me feel like a piece of shit.

You stay away from me with that, Sarah.

You stay away from me.

-Oh!

-Aah!

You bitch.

♪♪

♪♪

-[Groans]

♪♪

-We've got to have sterile conditions.

Half the work we do goes down the toilet

due to contamination.

-You'll work with what you got, Fisher.

-But it's madness!

Can't you understand --

-I understand this -- You and your playmates,

you're running out of friends fast around here.

-[Sighs]

Look, Major Cooper promised that we --

-Major Cooper is dead.

I'm in command now,

and I'm telling you that you work with what you got.

And you'd better start showing me some results

or you won't have that very much longer.

-How can we show you results

when we don't have the proper working conditions?

-We're in a desperate situation here.

We need each other. Can't we just get along?

-You need us, the way I see it, lady.

I'm not so sure we need you at all.

-Fucking A.

-I'm not even sure just what

the hell it is you're doing in there.

Just what the hell it is my men are risking their asses for.

-Well, maybe if there was more cooperation around here,

your men wouldn't have to risk their asses quite as often.

[Gun clicks]

Miguel Salazar's in bad shape.

-No shit. [Laughs]

-I want him pulled off active duty for a while

until we can evaluate his condition.

-Can't spare him. -He's over the edge.

He's turning into Jell-O. -Jell-O?

That's the way the spics say "yellow" -- "jellow"!

[Laughs]

-Miguel is seriously disturbed.

He's close to the breaking point,

and that's dangerous for all of us.

He can't handle any more stress right now.

-Well, maybe I should cut off his extracurricular activities.

Maybe you're keeping him too busy at night.

-We're talking about a man's life here, you son of a bitch.

And the lives of others he might put in jeopardy.

-Maybe I should put him in quarantine.

How 'bout it, Steel?

-You call it, Captain. I'll build him a cage.

[Laughs] -Yeah, might not be a bad idea.

Give some of the rest of us a shot at some loving.

-Hey, it's gonna be a long winter.

[Cackling]

-Come on, Ted. Let's get out of here.

-I'm calling a meeting for 7:00 tonight.

I want everybody present.

Everybody, lady.

Including Dr. Frankenstein and including your boyfriend.

-I gave him a sedative. He won't be awake.

-Look here, woman. I'm short on manpower.

I won't have you going around doping up

any of my men without orders from me.

Is that clear? -Yes, sir!

Fuck you, sir!

[Door closes]

-Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

I thought Cooper was an asshole,

but he was a sweetheart next to Rhodes.

We could be in real trouble.

You'd better watch yourself.

I mean physically watch yourself.

-I can handle it.

Don't worry. It's not going to come to that.

We've just got to pound some logic into their heads.

-Impossible.

[Sighs] Where's Dr. Logan?

-Frankenstein?

He's in his laboratory. Where else?

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-[Gasps]

[Gasps] -So here's the thing about --

-I don't have a good feeling about this show.

-What do you mean? You can't go wrong with Romero.

-I just -- I feel like something's going to happen.

-Like what? You can't fight the Twitter trolls, Darcy.

-Much worse. -Have a mushroom, Darcy, okay?

So, obviously, everything is getting worse.

The guys in the rescue copter can't find any living beings.

That's downtown Fort Myers, Florida, by the way,

that was uglied up to be the zombie wasteland.

At the time the movie was made,

George Romero was living on nearby Sanibel Island

in Florida.

The soldiers in the underground compound

are starting to look at Sarah, the only woman, as a target

instead of somebody they're sworn to protect.

Because Sarah's boyfriend, Salazar,

seems to be falling apart mentally

and they're in a "survival of the fittest" mode.

And John, the Jamaican helicopter pilot,

is so devoid of empathy that he encourages her to just fly away

and leave everybody since she controls the only way out.

And McDermott, his Irish radio operator,

is seeking stress relief in a whiskey flask.

So the one woman left, possibly the only woman left on Earth,

is the only person we've seen so far

who seems to be sticking to the original mission.

She's studying the zombies and possibly figuring out

the source of their transformation.

But she's surrounded by people with their own agendas,

including the Army captain who just became the commander

because Major Cooper died this morning.

So stress, sexual tension,

violence between the soldiers and the scientists.

The head of transportation thinking about fleeing.

This is 12 people we know from the beginning

who aren't going to reach a unanimous verdict.

So would you want to be the only woman on earth,

Darcy, if it was you?

-I mean, yeah, I think it'd be fun.

-Well, I think it would be required

to have as many babies as possible

if you were the last woman on earth.

At least one baby.

-Nobody can make me do anything.

-[Laughing] Okay.

Movies that take place mostly underground,

like this one, they usually do it for a budgetary reason,

but they always make me crazy

because it's claustrophobic.

And I know, I know it's supposed to be claustrophobic.

It's supposed to make you feel anxious.

But I think part of the reason this movie

didn't do so well at the box office

is that people go into a dark theater

expecting the images to sort of spirit them away

to an exotic location.

And this movie just takes them to a place that's even darker

than the theater that they're sitting in.

And so, all right,

before I bring out our very special guests,

we have not one, not two,

but three people who are in that bunker.

Let's review.

So in 1968, the zombies eat Pittsburgh.

All right, in 1978 they take over

every shopping mall in America.

So George Romero used to say the 1968 movie was for the purists,

the 1978 continuation was the party movie,

and the movie we're watching

that one, he said, was for the trolls.

And he didn't mean that in a bad way.

By trolls, he meant mutants. He meant us.

So roll the film.

[Both laugh]

Zombies were paid $1 a day

and a "Day of the Dead" baseball cap.

[Laughter]

But you know, that baseball cap,

that's probably worth a lot of money today.

But one problem the producers had is that they were

used to Pittsburgh,

where people begged to be zombies in Pittsburgh.

Everybody wanted to be a zombie in Pittsburgh.

They took it really seriously.

Now they're an hour north of Pittsburgh.

They have to get their zombies from Beaver Falls,

and people are less reverential.

And so sometimes the zombies would break into laughter

and ruin the takes.

So, yes, they had to actually fire zombies

that were working for a dollar a day.

-Those poor zombies.

-They were not following directions.

-I mean, there could totally be laughing zombies.

-No, not in a Romero --

I don't think Romero's zombies are ever doing stand-up

in any situation in his script.

They just want food. For nourishment, though.

They don't need the food. They just want the food.

-Tell me about it.

-[Laughs] Are you...

-What?

-Are you identifying with the zombies?

-A little bit.

Didn't the scientist say, "They're just like us"?

-Yes, he said that. But he's also crazy.

-Is he, now?

-Darcy, come on.

-Just sayin'.

[Laughter]

♪♪

-There was a loss of initiative, caution.

Many of the human cognitive functions.

Apparently the result of decay in the frontal,

parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes.

On revival,

the rate of decomposition has slowed substantially.

Indications are that these beings could function

over a period of years.

In cases of early revival, 10 to 12 before

decay would threaten their mobility.

-Aah!

-[Groaning]

-The brain is the engine, Sarah.

The motor that drives them. They don't need any blood flow.

Don't need any of their internal organs.

I've severed all the vital organs in this one.

There's nothing left of the corpse but brain and limbs,

and still it functions.

Look, Sarah, look.

-[Groaning]

-See, it wants me.

It wants food, but it has no stomach.

It can take no nourishment from what it ingests.

It's working on instinct,

a deep, dark primordial instinct.

Decomposition occurs first in the frontal lobes,

the neocortex.

And next in the limbic system, the middle brain.

But the core.

The core is the last thing to be attacked by the decay,

It's the R-complex, Sarah,

that central bit of prehistoric jelly

that we inherited from the reptiles.

Here, I've gone into the center here

and attacked R-complex discreetly.

I've removed it from the equation in this course.

I believe this creature would be benign,

even if it had its eyesight and its other senses.

Its primitive instincts have been erased.

[Electricity crackles]

[Electricity crackles]

[Electricity crackles]

It still has motor function.

Probably still has powers of deliberation.

It can be domesticated, Sarah. Don't you see?

It can be conditioned to behave the way we want it to behave.

-And all that's required is 15 hours of fancy surgery

that only a handful of people are trained to do.

I thought we were going to stop work on the neurophysical

and concentrate on something more practical.

-These finds are central to the condition.

I will not stop any work that might lead to an answer,

let alone on an area that is central to the condition.

-But you're just proving theories

that were advanced months ago,

and you're not even proving them correctly.

You're making a lot of assumptions here.

You're wasting time trying to define what's happening

instead of looking for what's making it happen.

And just slicing up too many specimens.

It's extremely dangerous to go up on top

and round them up in the wild where we can't control them.

What happened to this one?

-It was too unruly. I couldn't handle it.

I had to destroy it.

We can still get information from it.

-Dr. Logan, we are losing the cooperation of the men.

I'm not even sure they'll go up top

when we run out of the specimens we already have.

I'm not sure they won't just try to shut us down completely.

-I'll show them results. I'll show them results.

I'll show them that these creatures can be domesticated

even without the surgery.

Knowing what they are,

we can begin to approach them properly,

condition them, control them.

You've got to do this, Sarah. It's our only hope.

♪♪

♪♪

Yes, this is Major Cooper.

I needed him, Sarah.

He's helping us more now than he ever did when he was alive.

-But I saw the grave.

-They buried one of the specimens.

-Jesus God, Logan.

Do you know what they'll do to you if they find out about this?

Do you know what they'll do to all of us?

-They'll never find out.

He can't be recognized.

♪♪

-[Groaning]

♪♪

-[Gasps]

♪♪

[Whirring]

♪♪

-Not a peep.

Long range or short, high band or low,

I can't raise anybody.

-How can that be, McDermott?

There must be other groups like us.

Somebody else must be trying to radio.

-Yeah, what the hell is this, man?

-Maybe we are the only ones left.

-I'm sure there's others.

This is not the best place to be sending from.

And a lot of the equipment I'm using has been

rotting down here since the Second World War.

-Well, it's up to you to get it working right.

Lay off the fucking booze for a while, why don't you?

And get somebody on that fucking horn, pronto!

-If we stay down here long enough,

I'll have to lay off the fucking booze, Steel,

because they won't fucking be any of it fucking left.

In the meanwhile, I will continue to indulge myself

and I will continue doing my best

in the good fight against dry rot and rust.

-Yeah? Well, your best ain't good enough, asshole.

-You think I'm not aware of our situation?

Do you think I want to stay isolated down here?

You know, I'd make a desperate effort to raise somebody

just in the hope of getting away from your nasty mouth, Steel.

The fact is...

The fact is...

either we are the only ones left,

or there's nobody within range of my puny little

Second World War signals. We used to.

-We used to talk to Washington all the time.

They could hear us then.

-We were on relays then. We weren't over the air.

The power's off in the mainland now,

in case you haven't heard.

And all the shopping malls are closed.

-We don't appreciate your fucking jokes, old man.

Keep it up, and I'll shove that bottle of yours

right up your wise ass.

-I've got better things to do than listen

to this kindergarten.

Are we finished here?

-No, we ain't finished here, lady. Sit down.

-What else do you want?

We've given you the reports for this week.

We've given you everything --

-You've given us a mouthful of Greek salad.

Formulas, equations,

a lot of fancy terms that don't mean a thing.

I want to know if you're doing something

that's going to help us out of this deep shit we're in.

Or if you're all in there just jerking each other off.

-She don't have to jerk off like the rest of us, Captain.

She got herself an honest-to-God dick to get off on her.

[Laughter]

-It may be yellow, but it's still a dick, huh?!

Aaah!

[Laughter]

-I said we ain't finished here, lady.

Sit down.

Sit down, or so help me God, I'll have you shot.

♪♪

-You'll what?

-I said I'll have you shot.

-Have you lost your mind?

-No, ma'am.

Have you?

I just told you I was willing to kill you

if you didn't get back in your chair.

You didn't get back in your chair.

-God damn it, You can't shove us around like this.

Since when did this become a military operation?

-Since I took over.

Steel, shoot that woman.

-Bang! You're dead.

[Laughter]

♪♪

Shoot that woman, or you'redead.

You think I'm fucking around, Steel?

You're wrong.

Now, you've got till a count of five,

and that's two you wasted.

That's three.

Four.

-Sit down, Sarah. -What is this?

-Shut up and sit down.

-That's five, Steel.

-All right. All right.

♪♪

[Gun cocks]

-No!

♪♪

♪♪

-Anybody else have any questions about the way

things are going to run around here from now on?

♪♪

♪♪

This ain't a goddamn field trip, people.

This is a fucking war!

I'm not down in this cave for my health.

I'm down here on orders.

-Your orders are to facilitate the job of this scientific team.

This is a civilian team, Captain,

and we don't have to be subjected to your tyranny.

-Who's being subjected to what, Fisher?

You've lost one man. -Right.

-We've lost five.

[Soldiers speaking indistinctly]

Where does it say we got to keep those dumb fucks

next door to where we sleep?

Where does it say we should do any one thing

but shoot the mothers in the head?

-Let's do it.

-We don't have enough ammunition, Captain,

to shoot them all in the head.

Time to have done that would have been at the beginning.

No, we let them overrun us.

They have overrun us, you know?

We're in the minority now.

Something like 400,000 to 1, by my calculations.

I haven't eaten. Is there food?

-You were supposed to be here at 7:00 sharp, mister.

-I know. Sarah told me. I'm sorry.

I couldn't break away. Is there food?

-Listen, egghead,

let me bring you up to date on what's been --

Let me -- -Excuse me!

Is there food?

-I'm running this monkey farm now, Frankenstein,

and I want to know what the fuck you're doing with my time!

Because if we're just jerking off here,

I'm going to have my men blow the piss

out of those precious specimens of yours,

and we're going to get the hell out of here

and leave you and your highfalutin asshole friends

to rot in this stinking sewer.

Is that food enough for ya?

-Where will you go, Captain?

You can destroy my specimens, but what about the millions more

that are waiting to greet you outside?

Do you really think you can "blow the piss" out of them?

All of them?

They have you in a hopeless situation, strategically.

You're lost. Well, you're lost unless...

-Unless what?

Unless what, Frankenstein?

-Unless you can make them behave.

-This is a fucking loony bin!

I ain't being paid enough to work in a fucking loony bin.

-I ain't being paid at all. [Laughs]

-Paid? What the hell's this "paid" bullshit?

-All right, shut up. Just shut up.

-What the hell are you talking about, Frankenstein?

-I'll be able to show you soon enough.

Sarah knows. She's seen the progress I've been making.

Isn't that right, Sarah?

-Yes. There's been some progress.

-What kind of progress?

What are you talking about, make them behave?

What does that mean?

-It means keeping them from wanting to eat us,

for one thing.

It means keeping them in check.

It means controlling them.

Controlling them.

-When are you gonna show us something

that we can understand?

-Very close. Very close. I think in a matter of weeks --

-I don't think there's any way you can tell how long anything

is going to take.

It could be months, it could be years

before we know exactly what we're dealing with here.

[Indistinct conversations]

-Sarah's research -- [Loudly] Sarah's research...

[Conversations stop]

...is more esoteric than mine.

She's looking for a way to reverse the process,

a way to eradicate the problem.

It could take a long time. A very long time.

She may never find what she's looking for.

We have a limited supply of chemical agents.

Our equipment is hopelessly inadequate.

-McDermott doesn't have decent radio gear.

Now you're telling me that you don't have the shit you need?

We're running low on ammunition.

We're running low on men, for Christ's sake!

-It was very rushed.

This operation was put together in a matter of days.

-Yeah, well, it can all be taken apart

in a matter of minutes, lady.

And I'm here to tell you

that I'm ready to do that little thing.

I'm ready to take the next train out of here.

-I'll ask you again, Captain -- Where will you go?

You have no choices.

You'll have to give us the weeks that we've asked for.

-You have to give us however long it takes.

Look, there have to be survivors in Washington.

They have more sophisticated shelters than this one.

There have to be people in those shelters who know about us,

who know where we are.

With no radio contact, they'll come looking for us.

[Indistinct conversations] -I said shut up!

[Conversations stop]

[Can clatters]

You got a little more time.

A little more. I ain't saying how much.

But you better start showing me some results,

and you better not piss me off.

You understand?

Nothing happens around here without my knowing about it.

And anybody fucks with my command,

they get court-martialed,

they get executed.

♪♪

You better know I mean it too, people.

♪♪

♪♪

[Indistinct conversations]

-He wouldn't have done it.

I can't believe he would have done it.

-No. He wouldn't have done it.

He would have had Steel do it.

-He can't be that inhuman.

-No. He's human.

That's what scares me, you know?

He won't shoot Billy because he doesn't have anybody else

who knows electronics.

He won't shoot me 'cause I'm his ride.

He probably won't shoot old Frankenstein

'cause the old doc can talk him silly.

But the rest of you better start worrying, you know?

♪♪

-Maybe if we tried working together,

we could ease some of the tensions.

We're all pulling in different directions.

-Well, that's the trouble with the world, Sarah darling.

People got different ideas concerning

what they want out of life.

♪♪

-Whenever Captain Rhodes appears,

the whole mood of the movie changes

and the tension ramps up 9,000%.

That's Joseph Pilato, who plays Captain Rhodes.

He was from the Italian part of Boston,

and his dad played trombone

for Les Brown and his Band of Renown.

if anybody remembers that.

It was a traveling orchestra.

And anyway, Joseph Pilato, he was an altar boy.

He studied to be a lawyer.

He decided he didn't like that line of work,

so he went back to school for acting at Emerson College

and Suffolk University.

And like most people in a Romero cast,

he became a hardcore theater guy.

Romero had a great respect for serious theater actors,

and Joe Pilato did a lot of Boston theater.

Then he moved to New York and he was an original member

of the Working Theater in the early '80s.

They're still around.

And then he was also part of

Jerzy Grotowski's Polish Laboratory Theatre

during the brief period

when Grotowski was working in New York.

So, bottom line, serious method actor.

He worked at the Pittsburgh Public Theater,

the Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival,

and then because of his memorable performance

in this movie,

he went on to work for Ron Howard, Quentin Tarantino,

and at least 12 horror directors.

He was also a singer, and he was very proud

of founding the Dickens carolers,

who were the carolers who sing at department stores

in Pittsburgh every Christmas.

Joe Pilato died in 2019.

They say the alcohol got him.

But right now we're watching him

in one of the most memorable performances in horror history.

And one thing that's clear from the angry words

that he spits out is that he has the hots for Sarah.

So let's find out how that made Sarah feel

because she's with us tonight.

Please welcome Lori Cardille.

-Yeah! Yeah! Whoo! [Applause]

-Thank you. Thank you. -Thank you for being here, Lori.

We are delighted to have you at the Last Drive-In.

Have a seat. -Happy to be here.

-Your performance in this movie is famous for a lot of reasons,

but the main one is that you're the last woman in a man's world

and you're possibly the last woman on earth.

We don't know.

And you're dealing with it aggressively and impressively,

and it's a great role and you deliver the goods in that role.

-Well, thanks. I appreciate that. Yeah. I do.

-And before we talk about your character,

I want to back up to "Night of the Living Dead,"

the movie that started all this,

because your dad was the reporter

in "Night of the Living Dead,"

because he was Chilly Billy, the horror host in Pittsburgh,

"Chiller Theater," Channel 11.

Did you feel like a movie-star kid

growing up with Chilly Billy?

-No, because of circumstances in their marriage,

we lived in Erie, Pennsylvania, for a while

and I came back to Pittsburgh

and he was like Elvis in Pittsburgh

because he was a local hero.

-When you were how old?

-I was going into the seventh grade.

So like 14, something like that.

-Okay.

You went to the actual premiere

of "Night of the Living Dead"?

-I did. I did.

But I was so afraid of horror movies

that I would get anxiety.

I had so much anxiety as a kid.

I was always afraid, and I couldn't imagine

why people would like to be scared.

So I went, but I stood --

I kept on running to the lobby the whole movie.

-Really? -Yeah, yeah.

-But your father was quite a celebrity

in Pittsburgh, though, right?

-Oh, he was. He was a wonderful man, too.

He just -- you know, he loved people.

He was kind.

He was just so great to the fans.

-And he was a close friend of George Romero.

-Yes, but George would watch my dad's show,

because George was doing, like, sports films

around then also.

And so he watched my dad's show, and he went up to the station

and they met and he said, "I love your show.

I'd like you to be a reporter in this movie I'm making,

this little movie I'm making."

And he said, "Of course, George, I'll do that."

You know, they became very close friends.

-Yeah. Okay.

And then you went to Carnegie Mellon drama school,

a famous drama school.

And of course, George Romero loved

anybody who came out of Carnegie Mellon

because he went to Carnegie Mellon.

-Right, right.

-And you loved it there, right?

-I did, yeah. It was a great training.

Great training.

-But you moved away from Pittsburgh,

and you became a real hotshot young actress in New York City.

-Well, thank you.

-You. I mean, you were on "The Edge of Night"

and "Ryan's Hope."

-Right. -Yeah.

-Yes, I started -- yes, it was a great thing to get.

I mean, I just got out of college and I did those gigs.

It was great. In fact, being in a studio

is so reminiscent not only of my dad,

you know, but his studio and the smell of a studio,

the electric smell.

And when I walked on set for the soap opera,

it was just like I was home.

-Yeah, but then it was your acting in New York

that got you the part in this movie, right?

-Yes, yeah. Well, George saw me in a play.

It was called "Reckless," by Craig Lucas, who who's now a

great American, you know...

-Yeah, I think he won a -- he's won a lot of big prizes.

Let's talk about "Reckless" for a minute

because Craig Lucas came out of the musical theater.

He's probably best known for "Prelude to a Kiss."

-Right.

-As far as I know, he's still working today, right?

-Yes.

-Do you ever see him? You ever see Craig Lucas?

-Well, I did see him.

You know, it was a maybe 10 years ago.

And he did a play at the Lincoln Center.

And I'm blanking the name. It was an opera.

And it was just so good to see him.

-So you've stayed in touch with him?

-Oh, yeah.

-Craig Lucas is known for writing plays

that are used over and over again by acting teachers

because they're show-off pieces.

They have, like, great monologues.

And "Reckless" is kind of a show-off role.

So that's what you were doing

when George Romero first saw you.

What would you call it?

It was like zany adventures of a runaway wife, you know?

-Yeah.

-And Mia Farrow did it in the movie.

And -- but I think there was an off-off-Broadway version.

There was an off-Broadway version.

There was a Broadway version.

I think Mary-Louise Parker did it on Broadway.

-I was the first one to do it.

-You were the very first one to do it.

That's what I thought.

But I'm surprised it would be on George Romero's list

of must-see theater, though.

-Well, I think he maybe came

because Richard Rubenstein was a friend

of like my husband's father, and they said,

"Oh, Lori -- Bill's daughter -- is in a play. Let's go see her."

So that's why, you know, he came and he ended up --

you know, the character is on stage the whole time,

and she's talking nonstop.

And it's very complicated, back and forth,

back and forth, crazy.

And yeah, he offered me the role there, yeah.

-So he came because you were -- because he knew your father.

-Yeah.

-Well, anyway, you get the part.

You show up at the Wampum Mine in Wampum, Pennsylvania.

Or did you do the Florida part first?

-No, no, we did that last. -Okay.

So the first thing I want to ask you is,

what is the backstory between --

because we don't see all of it --

between you and Miguel Salazar,

the man who's literally losing his mind.

But meanwhile, he falls into your arms, weeping like a baby.

and then the next moment

he tells you how much he hates you.

And you know, what's the backstory with you two?

-I think that at one time maybe he was a strong person,

but he just obviously wasn't.

I mean, he broke down in a way that he couldn't gather himself,

and she felt obligated

and felt an obligation to take care of him.

-But you two are still a couple,

and that's causing resentment with the other men, right?

-Well, yeah, it's causing that, but it's also he was --

it was more sort of feeling that he was pathetic,

I think, Sarah felt, you know, that's what it -- more.

-So she had a lot of pity for him.

-Yeah, she had a lot of pity for him.

And she was like a mother to him.

-Okay.

Now, is there sexual chemistry

between you and Captain Rhodes

because you hate each other so much?

-Well, isn't that how love happens?

[Both laugh]

Tell my husband.

-Did you feel that when you were doing the part?

-Yeah, kind of, yeah. -Yeah.

-So in those scenes where it's like,

I mean, you literally are about to kill each other

in two or three scenes in the movie,

but you have to think,

why would he push it to that level?

-Right Well, I know why, but...

[Laughter]

-Okay.

-I have a question. -Yeah.

-In the scene where the arms

come out of the wall and molest you,

was that fun or was that scary?

-No, it was fun.

Yeah, we went into a room that really was,

you know, was cement wall.

But when they made the wall that the hands came out of,

it was just a, you know, a thing with plastic

that you could punch through.

And the first time we did it --

and it took a long time to make that --

they pushed through, and the whole thing fell on top of me.

It wasn't held down.

It wasn't heavy, but it was just all these -- you know?

And yeah, so the next time, of course, it worked.

And my husband was one of the hands.

He always says he was protecting my breasts.

-Aw. -[Laughs]

-So your husband was in the A position

as far as the hands coming...

-He said, "That's my hand."

And he saved the prosthesis that was on top of his hand.

He had it in his office for a long time

until it just crumbled apart.

-Okay.

Well, that's a great, iconic scene

to start the movie.

All right, well, stick around,

because we're going to go back to the movie,

but we want you to stay with us while we watch the movie.

So roll the film.

Did you have a sense that this was an important movie?

Did the cast think they were making history with this movie?

-Not necessarily that, but we took such pride in it

and we thought it was really good.

And it was George's favorite film

for a long time, of the three, believe it or not.

We had such a good time on it.

And he let us work with him,

and he knew our training and all, so it was great.

-And it's kind of an actor's movie, isn't it?

-It is. It's very much of a character-driven...

-He wrote a lot of sort of fun dialogue,

and that there was a lot of conflict in it.

-Oh, it was lucky for us.

I mean, but the first time George approached me,

he had the old script.

I mean, it was the old script, the first script.

-So you were going to do the big $7 million version?

-Yeah, and I was just afraid about walking through the swamps.

I said, "Are there going to be, like, people

with guns killing the snakes?"

Because I would have to walk through the swamps.

-Oh, my God. -But, no, it was great.

-So I've heard a lot about that Holiday Inn

in Wampum or Beaver Falls or wherever.

Everyone talks about,

"Yeah, we stayed at this Holiday Inn,"

and they're like...

I mean, did they at least have a bar or something?

-Oh, definitely they had a bar.

-[Laughing] Okay.

-So everybody would just go to the Holiday Inn bar

and then go back to work?

-Yeah. But I had a little baby on set.

-You had a baby?

-Well, I didn't have the baby on set,

but I had -- she was my daughter

and she was about six months old, yeah.

-Six months old?

-And my husband had like a sabbatical from his work,

so he was there with her.

-At the Holiday Inn. -Yeah.

There was this Putt-Putt or what do you call,

miniature golf in the middle of the atrium.

And she would just run around there.

And Tina Romero, George's daughter,

so they were the same age,

and they're good friends now to this day.

And they would play, and these monsters were walking around,

you know, the zombies with the makeup.

Yeah. -Okay.

-Katie learned to walk on the set.

-Really? Did you let her go down in the mine?

-Oh, yeah. Yeah. She would come.

-Oh, okay. -Yeah, yeah.

-It just sounded scary to me,

like, you know, you got to be in the golf carts.

You got to stay in the golf cart or you might drown.

-Truly. -Is that true?

-Oh, it is true. That was really scary.

-It's like, whoa! -And it was so cold there.

We all got so sick. It was really cold.

And you could see in the some of the scenes,

you know, our mouth, the steam that was coming through.

It was very uncomfortable.

But we had big jackets we would wear

before we would shoot a scene.

But it was great for the atmosphere of the piece.

-Yeah. It seems like something you could just build a set for.

[Laughter]

It's a cave. There's not that many --

there's not that many features inside it, you know?

-Well, the corral that was built by Cletus Anderson,

he was the set designer -- professor at CMU,

and his wife did the costumes.

Yeah, so he made that corral, you know,

that wooden thing where they would get the zombies.

-And that was in the -- he built that in the mine?

-They built it in the mine. Yeah.

-Okay, I guess George wanted everybody

to be in that mine, obviously.

-We were all in the mine.

But there was a part where you would sit,

if you weren't shooting for a couple of hours or whatever,

that was like in an office.

There was an office space in the mine.

Right. -But you're still underground.

-Oh, we're still underground, yeah.

Anything for art, though, right?

-Anything for art. [Laughter]

Anything.

You bet.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-[Gasps]

♪♪

♪♪

-You areafraid.

Aren't you?

Just as afraid as I am.

Why don't you take a sedative, Sarah, so you can sleep?

You're full of shit, Sarah. You know that?

You're really full of shit.

I'm through with you.

-Fine, then.

Get out.

Just get out!

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Zombie growling]

[Men grunting and shouting indistinctly]

-I'm all right.

Thanks, Bill. I'm all right.

-Here.

Just filled it up. Got a refill as well.

-No, thanks. I'm all right. Really.

-It's just brandy. Good for the heart.

-It's shit for the heart, and it eats up your liver.

♪♪

[Coughs]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-We don't get a lot of visitors out here,

and we like it that way.

-Here it is.

The Ritz. Madam.

John's probably out the back.

♪♪

-[Laughs ] -Hey!

Well, what do you know?

Welcome to civilization, Sarah. The last holdout.

-It's pretty nice.

Better than we got inside.

Not a bad idea.

-It's a little safer where you are.

But we like to live dangerously, Billy boy and me, you know?

-That's a laugh.

I haven't seen you do anything dangerous since we got here.

-We're sticking around.

That's getting a bit dangerous.

As I hope you noticed this evening.

-You're a mystery to me.

You really are.

Not like those other goons in there.

You have a sense of...

Mm.

-Of what?

-Never mind.

-No, no, no. Come on, let's talk about it.

-I came down here to get drunk. I don't have the energy.

-Hey, hey, it takes more energy to keep quiet

than it does to speak the mind.

Go ahead. Let go of what you got now.

-You were sent down here to do a job.

-My job is to fly the whirlybird.

I've been doing that job just fine.

-You have the protection. of this facility.

You eat our food, you drink our water,

and you don't lift a finger to help.

Neither one of you.

-[Laughing]

We don't believe in what you're doing here, Sarah.

Hey.

You know what all they keep down here in this cave?

Man, they got the books and the records

of the top 500 companies.

They got a Defense Department budget down here.

And they got the negatives for all your favorite movies.

They got microfilm with tax return and newspaper stories.

They got immigration records and census reports,

and they got official accounts of all the wars

and plane crashes and volcano eruptions and earthquakes

and fires and floods

and all the other disasters that interrupted the flow of things.

in the good old U.S. of A.

Now, what does it matter, Sarah darling?

All this filing and record keeping.

We ever gonna give a shit?

We even gonna get a chance to see it all?

[Echoing] This is a great big 14-mile tombstone!

[Zombies groaning in distance]

With an epitaph on it

that nobody gonna bother to read.

Now here you come.

Here you come with a whole new set of charts

and graphs and records.

What you gonna do?

Bury them down here with all the other relics of what once was?

I'mma tell you what else. Yeah, I'mma tell you what else.

You ain't never gonna figure it out.

Just like they never figured out

why the stars are where they're at.

It ain't mankind's job to figure that stuff out.

So what you're doing is a waste of time, Sarah.

And time is all we got left, you know?

-What I'm doing...

it's all there's left to do.

-Shame on you. There's plenty to do.

Plenty to do.

So as long as it's you and me and maybe some other people,

we could start over,

start fresh, get some babies, and teach 'em, Sarah.

Teach 'em never to come over here

and dig these records out.

[Zombies groaning in distance]

Hey.

You want to put some kind of explanation

down here before you leave?

Here's one as good as any you're likely to find.

We've been punished by the Creator.

He visited a curse on us

so we might get a look at...

...what hell was like.

Maybe he didn't want to see us blow ourselves up

and put a big hole in his sky.

Maybe just wanted to show us he was still the boss man.

Maybe he figure

we was getting too big for our britches

trying to figure his shit out.

♪♪

♪♪

-So, Sarah -- I mean, Lori...

[Laughter]

What are those pills you're grabbing

out of the first-aid kit?

It's never referred to in the movie,

but maybe Sarah is not as strong as she seems to be at first.

-Well, you know, I never --

honest to God, George never said anything

about that part of the character,

or I didn't even think that

because I thought it was just aspirin, you know?

But I think that would have been a great theme

to have played, honestly.

-Well, he makes a big deal out of it because there's twice

where you don't just, like,

you know, reach into a desk drawer and pop a pill.

-Right.

-You actually have to get up

from wherever you are,

walk down a hallway, find the first-aid kit,

you know, look in there, and get the pills.

-I know. It's so obvious. -You're going for the pills.

-I feel so dumb because, honestly,

that's such a great -- I mean, I don't know.

I just never thought of it.

-You would have incorporated it if you'd thought about it?

-Yes, of course.

I think it would have been great to incorporate.

-You're under a lot of stress. -Yeah.

-I don't know what's in an underground-mine

military first-aid kit.

Probably a lot of good stuff, though.

-Yeah.

-You got combat-wound stuff in there.

-Yeah. Definitely opioids, right?

I mean, come on. Why not? -Yeah.

So, now, when you go to the Ritz,

which is the trailer shared by John and McDermott,

it's as though you're escaping the violence

and the chaos of the mind,

because they've created a little oasis there.

And it's neat and it's well decorated

and has a patio with cute little wicker chairs

where they can have umbrella drinks or whatever they do.

Smoke weed. -Kind of like this.

-It's a little bit like this, yeah.

And so my question is, are they a gay couple?

-Oh, I didn't think so, no.

-You didn't think so? -No.

I thought Sarah and John actually had something going.

-Well, I thought that, too.

I mean, because you have those meaningful glances with John.

So sexual tension there too.

But John could be, you know, both ways.

-That would be okay with Sarah.

-Okay. Well, let's... [Laughter]

Let's ask him because we have the man himself with us tonight.

We have Terry Alexander. Come on out, Terry.

[Cheers and applause]

-Yay!

-Thank you for being here, Terry.

-Welcome to civilization, Joe Bob and Darcy.

-Oh, you are from Kingston.

-Oh, no. -Okay.

-Motown. -Motown?

-Motown. -A Motown Jamaican.

[Laughter]

Well, you know, I got to say this first.

You nailed that speech.

And you know what speech I'm talking about.

The speech about all the crap that's stored down in the mine

and maybe it's all meaningless

and maybe everything the scientists are doing

is meaningless because the creator is angry

and the creator is teaching us a lesson.

You just nailed that. And that is not an easy speech.

And it's kind of the thinking that lies

at the heart of the movie.

It's the George Romero takeaway

on what he's trying to get across.

And so I just recently found out, I didn't know this,

that that was the speech you did in your audition, right?

-Yes, it was. I saw this -- I came to the audition.

I saw this -- read this wonderful piece of literature,

this wonderful speech.

And I just couldn't do it at that time.

And I went in and I saw George and I said,

"George, this is brilliant stuff, man."

Can I just have the overnight to play with it and work with it

and sleep with it and sleep on it.

And he said, "Okay," which directors really never do.

-I have never heard of somebody doing that

in an audition saying, "Hey, can I have an extra day?"

"Can I come back tomorrow?" -Yeah. But I had to say

it was so good. -And he said okay?

-He said okay.

And I came back the next day, and I kind of nailed it.

And he said, "Well, hm, let me call your agent.

And I said, "[Sighs] Okay.

I'd love it if you call my agent."

And I hadn't read any of the script other than that.

-Other than that one speech? -Yeah.

-You know, you heard the question that I asked Lori.

Is there a little gay subtext there between you and McDermott?

-Well, we were once at a convention in Texas,

me and George and Jarlath,

we were talking about it, and he said, "You haven't heard?

I'm going to make a movie called 'Gay of the Dead.'"

I said, "What?!"

[Laughter]

-We want that. -No, we just tried to escape

the military, and the mess that was inside the cave.

-Okay. Well, you had cute decorating tastes.

I'll say that.

I thought there might have been a love story

developing between you and Lori, too.

And, I mean, and there was, right?

-Yeah, I think so. If we did a sequel, definitely.

-I don't want to do any spoilers,

but that could create a triangle situation later

if there was any gay subtext.

-Anyway. -Yeah. That would be okay, too.

-Yeah.

-So, Terry, you also have had a distinguished

New York acting career, and you were in

"No Place To Be Somebody",

Charles Garden's play at the Public Theater about --

It's about many things, but very important play

in the civil rights movement. -Yeah.

Won a Pulitzer in 1970.

First African-American play to win a Pulitzer.

And it was a great character.

And the writer directed me in it.

And one of the best auditions I've ever had was a speech,

just like George, I had to do the speech,

and I held the book in my hand, and I took this gun,

and "You see this, Sweets?"

And I lost my place.

And he said, "Hire him, hire him, he's the one we want."

And I said, "Oh, ooh. Blew my mind."

-Oh, wow. -He hired you at the moment

that you lost your place in the script?

-Yes! -Oh, wow.

That's how good you were.

That's how that's how convincing you were.

He saw it on your face.

-But it's a great play.

And we ran in and out of that play for almost two years,

making a national tour all around the country.

-You know, that was a time in the theater when there was

a belief that the theater could really change the world.

-Yes. -Absolutely.

-And, oh, Ron O'Neal was in that play, right?

Super Fly was in the play.

You know, that's like -- that's the kind of world it was.

You know, one day, he's doing the Pulitzer Prize

winning civil rights play.

The next day, he's doing "Super Fly."

[Laughter]

So, the two of you, Sarah and John,

you both believe the only way out of the cave

is for everybody to work together.

But the difference between you, I think, is that,

Sarah, you think it's possible to work together

and get out of the cave, and, John,

you think it's probably not possible, right?

-It's a waste of time, man. You don't...

You don't want to waste time with figures

and facts and things like that.

Time to go to the beach and have fun.

-Yeah. -That's all I wanted to do

in the movie -- get out of there.

-I mean, did you have a lot of rehearsal time on these scenes?

-Well, I came in two weeks into the shoot,

so I had those two weeks, and then I had one line.

"That's right, man."

And then it was another two weeks before

I got back on the set, so I had plenty of time

to work all my lines and get them right.

-So you guys would get together and --

-Yeah, that's the thing.

I think we were all generous --

-At the Holiday Inn Bar.

-Yeah, right. -[Laughter]

-Did you like the Holiday Inn bar?

-Yes, I did.

[Laughter]

-Oh, I think there are

going to be some stories from the Holiday Inn bar.

I've been looking in the wrong places.

So one of the criticisms of the movie is that it is talky,

but as actors, you probably like that, right?

You know, there's a lot to do, right?

-Yeah. -Yeah, the dialogue

was wonderful.

I mean, I get fans coming and repeating all my lines to me.

-Yeah. -So they were very important

to them.

I have some of the most wonderful lines,

so I reveled in it. I really did.

-So, Terry, eventually, did you leave New York

and go to California and do all those cop shows?

You did a bunch of TV at one time, right?

-Yeah, I went a little bit in New York, but mostly in L.A.,

a lot of cop shows.

Then I came back to New York to do a soap opera,

and I was a police commissioner there, too,

so that was two, almost three years of that.

-You were the police commissioner

in what soap opera?

-"One Life to Live."

-"One Life to Live." Okay.

-I love you in "House III."

-Oh, no!

[Laughter]

-Yeah, what was "House III" like?

-What was it like working on "House III"?

-Oh, I didn't last long in that film.

The director got fired and this and that.

It was a lot of problems,

and they ripped off my arms and hung me up.

-Greg Nicotero... -Yes.

-...did the special effects.

-He did your kill scene? -Yeah.

And he reminded me years later that he got me.

He said he was going to get me, and he got me.

[Laughter]

-And you've done all the East Coast cop shows, right?

Like "NYPD Blue" and "Homicide: Life on the Street"

and "Law and Order."

Did you get typed as a --

-Different characters.

It was a street character on "Homicide"

who tried to kill somebody.

On "Law and Order", I was a neighbor.

A neighbor who gave testimony as to what was happening.

And all those little parts on "Law and Order"

made the difference in the show.

That's why it lasted 20 years. All these parts were great.

-Has there ever been a New York actor

who has notdone an episode of "Law and Order"?

-Exactly. -No.

-I think there are people who have done 16 different

characters on "Law and Order."

-Yes. -"Law and Order",

you know, they ran out of actors a long time ago.

All right. We're going to go back to the movie now.

And Sarah has just told John that -- she just told you

you're a slacker, John.

And John has just told Sarah

that you are a hopelessly self-deluded dreamer.

And maybe you're both right. So roll the film.

And how cold was it down there in the cave?

Do you know, what was the temperature?

-Oh, like -- -40s, 50s, 40s mostly.

-In the 40s?

-Yeah, because we you could see the smoke

coming out of our mouth, the steam.

-And so, would they like have to edit that out of the scenes?

-No, you can see some scenes, it's in there.

-Oh, okay. -Yeah.

-Because they advertise -- if you go to their website

today, they advertise, "Keep your car down here,

Keep your RV down here.

-Yeah, because the temperature is even.

-Why would you need to keep a car in a cold cave?

What is that about?

-I think it's because the temperature

is always the same and something about that.

But they did have all kinds of records there.

They had the Beatles first, you know,

"The Master Tapes" and all these.

There were a lot of records down there.

-Really? -I bet there still are.

-So, that's where they kept all the old films.

-Yeah, because of the temperature.

-And just like every day before we got in the cave,

we had to don masks,

just like the past three years of living.

-That's right.

-Because there was limestone dust

and all kinds to make you sick.

-So you had to wear the mask all the time

you weren't performing. -That's right.

-Oh, yeah. -Wow.

-Yeah, I forgot all about that.

That's why I have such bad lungs now.

-I have another question for Lori, if that's okay.

-Okay, go for it.

-You played a character on "The Edge of Night"

named Winter Austin,

and she was an ex porn star with a heart of gold.

-Right. She was.

I think it was my low voice.

[Laughter]

-I like it. -Yeah. No. Yeah, she was.

And on "Ryan's Hope", I played an ex --

Let's see, an ex hooker with a heart of gold.

-Love it. -So I just --

-Love the typecasting.

-Yeah, that's what it was. Yeah.

But I didn't want to get stuck in the soaps, honestly,

because it was a great experience for a young actor.

But I wanted to do different things, you know,

And so I did different things.

-Have you ever met an ex porn star

with a heart of gold in real life?

-Yeah.

-Okay, well, now you've met another one.

-Oh, great, Darcy. [Laughs]

-Joe Bob, you stuck.

[Laughter]

[Static crackles]

[Whirring]

[Rattling]

[Whirring stops]

[Door closes]

-You son of a bitch!

[Zombie groaning]

Damn it!

Damn it!

It's no good.

It's no fuckin' good.

-What is that stuff?

-It's something called beef treats, which the army

provides us with so generously.

He won't touch it.

-[Sniffs] Shit. I wouldn't either.

-Sorry. We're fresh out of filet mignon.

-What is this?

Part of Logan's plan to try and socialize these things?

He told me himself they don't eat for nourishment.

What are we hoping for here?

-Hoping to satisfy the urge.

You see, Sarah, they're -- they are us.

They are the extensions of us.

They are the same animal, simply functioning less perfectly.

They can be fooled, don't you see?

They can be tricked into being good little girls and boys,

the same way we were tricked into it

on the promise of some reward to come.

They have to be rewarded. Reward is the key.

I'm convinced of that now.

Come. I've got something to show you.

[Zombie growling]

[Table thudding]

That wasn't very nice, you know.

That wasn't very nice at all.

Let's go.

And you can just sit there in the dark

and think about what you've done.

Think about it.

Think.

♪♪

♪♪

[Feedback screeches]

I call him Bub.

That's what the club fellas used to call my father.

Can you imagine a surgeon called Bub?

Nobody seemed to mind, though.

He was rich.

My father was rich.

He used to say that I'd never be rich doing pure research.

I'd never be rich.

Bub's been responding so well lately, I've let him live.

Well, is he alive or dead?

Well, that's the question these days, isn't it?

Well, let's say that I let him continue to exist.

Hello, Bub!

Here are some toys for you.

Some nice things for you to play with.

You remember them from before?

From before.

[Laughs]

Well, he's seen the other things before, but the book is new.

[Clatters]

Look, look, look.

I thought he'd do that.

[Bub moaning]

Open it up.

He remembers.

He remembers everything that he used to.

Bub, I'm very pleased. Very pleased.

-What's he trying to prove?

I saw one of those things sitting in a car in D.C.

trying to drive down Independence Avenue.

It didn't make me want to be its friend.

-No. It's amazing.

It's not what this one does, but what he doesn't do.

-What do you mean? -He doesn't get excited

and doesn't get agitated when Logan walks in the room.

He doesn't see Logan as...

-Lunch. -Dinner.

-Breakfast. -[Both laughing]

-Maybe breakfast.

-Having fun?

What's he doing in there?

-No need for that, Captain. He's quite docile.

Come in.

You can all come in.

Bub won't mind.

[Bub moaning]

-[Groans]

-Extraordinary, isn't it?

That's right, Bub.

Say hello.

-Come on, Captain. Give me a break, will ya?

-Say hello to your aunt Alicia.

Say, "Hello, Aunt Alicia."

"Hello, Aunt Alicia."

Hello.

-[Mumbling]

[Thuds]

[Phone clangs]

-[Laughs]

-Apparently, he was in the military.

Return the salute, see what he does.

-You want me to salute that pile of walking pus?

Salute my ass.

-Your ignorance is exceeded only by your charm, Captain.

How are we going to set an example for them

if we behave barbarically ourselves?

Take the bullets out, please,

and let me have your pistol, Sarah.

[Bub growling]

[Steel laughs]

[Bub moaning]

[Gun clicks]

♪♪

It's empty, Captain.

We saw the bullets come out. Let's see what he does.

Let's see what Bub does in this situation.

[Gun clicks]

[Bub moaning]

-Jesus Christ.

[Bub whimpering]

[Gun clatters]

-[Gasps]

-What are we supposed to do?

Teach 'em tricks?

What the fuck is wrong with you people?

They're dead!

They're fucking dead, and you want to teach 'em tricks?

-They have to be rewarded, Captain.

Why else will they do what we want them to do?

-I don't want 'em to do anything but drop over!

-Yes, well, apparently they're not inclined

to do that for you, Captain.

-Is this your progress?

Is this the shit that's supposed to knock our socks off?

-It's the beginning, yes.

It's the bare beginning of social behavior.

Of civilized behavior.

Civil behavior is what distinguishes us

from the lower forms.

It's what enables us to communicate,

to go about things in an orderly fashion

without attacking each other like beasts in the wild.

Civility must be rewarded, Captain.

If it isn't rewarded,

there's no use for it.

There's just no use for it at all.

♪♪

[Static crackles]

-That is Howard Sherman as Bub the zombie,

and a great performance.

Some say that performance is worthy of comparison

to Boris Karloff because he had the similar

kind of challenges of how to do it.

And of course, a portion of credit for that performance

has to go to Tom Savini,

who designed the makeup and the prosthetic appliances

that conform to Howard Sherman's face.

And then the crazed doctor Logan is played by Richard Liberty

in what would turn out to be his most famous role.

You know, some evidence of how crazy he is at this point

that the doctor expects Bob --

Bob? Bub.

He expects Bub to read "Salem's Lot"

by Stephen King, you know?

So what was it like working with these two actors, Lori?

-Oh, my goodness. You can imagine.

I mean, he was, well,

Richard would make me laugh on set all the time.

That was hard because he had that blood

and it would be sticking all over his gloves, you know?

But he was a really good actor. I mean, obviously, right?

And Howard was tremendous

because he really worked that character.

I mean, every aspect of that character was thought out well

and, you know, he brought a lot to it as an actor.

And George was always open to his actors.

He was great that way.

-That's like those wordless roles

sometimes are the greatest, you know, scene stealers.

-Right. -Like, you know, we had that guy

who played the baby in "The Baby."

You know, same thing.

You know, it's like he had nothing to say.

But, okay, well, we have one more guest with us tonight,

the radio operator and the roommate of John,

the whiskey guzzling Irishman McDermott,

played by Jarlath Conroy, originally from Galway, Ireland.

Come on out, Jarlath.

[Cheers and applause]

-Oh!

[Laughter]

-Okay! Okay, he answered. -"Gay of the Dead!"

-He answered that question. It is "Gay of the Dead."

[Laughter]

-Oh, Jarlath, thank you for being here.

-Welcome. -Oh, thank you.

-Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

[Laughter]

-But he says something about Teresa.

[Laughter]

-You still do. Oh, man.

You know, I don't want to say

that they ask you to be a little stereotypical, Jarlath,

but, you know, they said "You're an Irishman,

and here's a whiskey flask, right?"

[Laughter] -Yeah.

I guess so. Yeah.

-You still -- but you do the Irish pub crawl

in New York City, right?

That annual thing where the actors go from

bar to bar reading passages from James Joyce.

Who does that?

How can you be drunk and read a passage from James Joyce?

-It's a long time ago since I took part in,

what was it called? Bloomsday?

-Yeah. -It's June 16, I think.

But we did that up at the Symphony Space.

But the pub crawl I never did.

I don't have the constitution for it.

-Oh, okay. I just thought --

I mean, only Irishman would do this.

We're going to drink all day long,

and we're going to read James Joyce.

-Well... -[Laughter]

-...there are worse ways to go.

-So, Jarlath, you've done everything on stage

that it is possible to do.

You have done Broadway, off-Broadway,

the London Stage, The Old Vic?

-Yeah. -All the classics like

"The Seagull" and "The Iceman Cometh"

and "The Homecoming" and "On the Waterfront."

You did that one. I think --

You did Scrooge one year, didn't you?

-I did Scrooge at Ford's Theater in Washington, DC,

for two seasons.

And the third Christmas, I was going to do it again,

but I got cast in "Day of the Dead."

-"Day of the Dead." Okay. Really? Okay.

So, and you've done lots of Shakespeare, obviously.

Now, how many times have you been asked to play

an alcoholic Irishman?

-Uh...

once.

-Just once?! Really?

-Yes. -Okay.

-This is the only time? -Yeah.

-So what was Romero going for with that?

I mean, it's kind of on the nose.

I mean, he's Irish, and he drinks too much.

Why would he go with that?

-You know, I didn't even notice

that stereotype at the time.

But then a lot of stuff goes over my head.

But I didn't plug into that.

It's just he was a character, and he wasn't really a boozer,

but he liked to have a little flask.

-Yeah. -I met George Romero

because an actor who has passed on now,

Ken Ryan, auditioned for Romero and said,

"If you're not going to use me, you should see Jarlath Conroy."

-Okay. -And I mean,

I was an out of work.

-And so George Romero said,

"Okay, I'm not going to use you. Where's Jarlath?"

-Allen? -Is that what happened?

-That's what happened. Well, I don't know --

-He thought it was a weak audition or something?

-He just wanted to get another -- Who knows?

-Oh, thank you for giving me a reference.

-Who knows? Absolutely.

I've always thank him because without him,

I wouldn't have met George.

-Okay.

You tell me. What were you going for with that role?

How did you prepare for that particular role,

the McDermott character?

-Well, I didn't do a lot of preparation.

I had to kind of do it on the spot

because it really depended on the rhythm of the scene.

And McDermott has some funny placements, you know,

funny lines or just even statements

that are funny in context. -Right.

-And you really have to wait to see what's being set up

before you can do that,

before you can deliver it, and it succeeded fairly well.

-Okay. Do your two worlds cross very often?

Does anybody come backstage after you do

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" in the West End or something

and ask you about "Day of the Dead"?

-No.

[Laughter]

They seem to be two separate worlds altogether.

I don't think I have -- I don't think...

In Whole Foods.

[Laughter]

In the vegetable department, one of the workers there,

Marco I think his name was, he says,

"I know who you are."

Because he had seen "Day of the Dead."

-Oh, that's great. -Yes, Marco!

-So did you -- when you did meet George Romero,

it was just a straight up audition?

-Straight up audition.

I couldn't even tell you what pages I auditioned on.

-Okay. And so I'm taking -- I'm assuming

from the way you came out that you're you're not buying

into the gay subtext in this movie?

-Never crossed my mind until you mentioned it.

[Laughter]

-Okay. -Just like the pills.

-May have been the last opportunity.

-There's something that's happened

in the last 30 years or so,

which is we look for gay subtext everywhere now.

You know, it's like it's a thing.

So, all right, well, I hope all three of you

can stick around for one more segment

because it's going to start to get nasty

and gnarly in "Day of the Dead."

This last 30 minutes of the movie is pretty intense.

So roll the movie.

Do you do you love whiskey in real life, by the way?

-I do.

Far more than I can...

-Only Irish whiskey?

-No, I like a good scotch. -Okay.

-Bourbon, it's so chuggable,

you don't want to... I don't want to --

-You don't like American Burger?

-Oh, I love it. -You do?

-Drink it like lemonade.

-[Laughter] -Okay.

Oh, I see. So it's like it's not --

Not aged enough. Too much corn.

-Too much sugar. Yeah. Whatever it is.

-Okay. -Sweet.

-Well, we're wild turkey people here.

-Oh, well, that's the one.

-Speak for yourself, sir.

-Well, those of us who are not vegan are wild turkey people.

Although I think bourbon is vegan.

-Yes. -Bourbon is vegan.

-It's made from corn. -Yes. It's just nasty.

-All right.

-Russell's Reserve, small batch wild turkey. Yummy.

-Nasty. -Yeah.

-Nasty.

[Static crackles]

[Door scraping]

[Zombies groaning]

♪♪

-'Possum ready?

Come on, grab it. Come on.

You got it?

Hey.

You got it?

♪♪

[Zombies groaning]

-No!

[Groans]

-No! No!

Miller! Miller!

-[Screaming] -[Gun firing]

-I didn't do it!

I didn't do it!

[Screams]

I didn't do it!

[Zombies groaning]

[Miguel screaming]

[Gun fires]

[Screams]

[Miguel screaming]

♪♪

-[Gasps] Don't let this happen.

Don't let this happen to me.

I don't want to be one of them.

Take me.

Please, take me.

[Gurgling]

♪♪

[Gun fires]

[Thuds]

♪♪

[Miguel screaming]

[Screams]

[Rock thuds]

[Sarah groans]

[Knife thuds]

-I need fire.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Flesh sizzling]

-[Screams]

♪♪

[Screams]

♪♪

[Men shouting]

-Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

[Gun cocks]

-Get out of the way, lady.

-No. I amputated the infected area.

I think I caught it in time.

-Yeah? But what if you didn't?

-If I didn't, I'll shoot him myself.

-It's the spic. The yellow son of a bitch.

It's his fault this happened.

It's his yellow fuckin' fault.

Get out of the way, bitch,

or I'll go right through you with this.

[Guns clicking]

-We're getting to make this a habit, man,

pointing guns at each other, you know.

-We just lost two men 'cause of this motherfucker.

-Well that kind of evens the odds between us then.

-The spic's been bit, Captain.

We got to blast him. He's been bit!

-I got the infection in time. -That's bullshit, lady.

I seen a thousand of 'em.

He's gonna die.

-If he dies, I'll destroy him myself.

-Unless he gets you first.

You may still want to sleep with him.

I don't want him inside the complex.

-We'll keep him out here, with us.

-We got to blast him, Captain.

[Gun clicks]

-That'd be doing him a favor, Steel.

You think he wants to walk around after he's dead?

You think he wants to be one of those things?

Think about it, lady.

And think about this, all of ya.

From now on, you ain't getting shit from me and my men.

Tomorrow morning, we're going inside that corral,

and we ain't coming out till every one of those rotten

piles of garbage has been wasted.

Come on, Steel.

Get out of there, Steel! We got better things to do!

-You're on my shit list, flyboy.

[Gun clicks]

-Thank you.

-Let's take him inside, clean him up.

Think you can move him?

-I think so.

♪♪

♪♪

[Sobbing]

♪♪

-It's all right.

-[Sobs]

-Shh, shh, shh.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

It's a man's sweater. Try it on.

-Thanks.

I have to go to the lab.

He's going to need some morphine along with some other supplies.

-I'd better go along.

I'm sure those boys haven't calmed themselves down yet.

-I'm sorry I said those things about you.

-I'm sorry, too. Really.

-Well, what do you know?

We are heroes after all.

What a relief.

♪♪

♪♪

-Sarah.

He might not make it, you know?

-I know it.

At least we gave him a chance.

-I'll keep an eye on him.

Hey.

You guys be careful.

You're not back in half an hour, I'm coming out to look for you.

-They'll leave us alone.

-Half an hour.

-We'll be back.

♪♪

♪♪

Jesus God almighty.

-The resident surgeon has been burning the midnight oils.

-What the hell has he been doin' down here,

slaughtering cattle?

-In his mind, that's probably not far from the truth.

♪♪

[Tape recorder whirring]

♪♪

♪♪

-Grandfather's talking. His mind's talking.

There. I've put it away. I've put it away, mother.

I've put it away.

Bastard. Be civilized!

-[Zombie groaning] -Be civilized!

Take that! Take that!

Take that!

Five minutes, mother.

Just five minutes.

-My God.

Oh, my God.

-Father's talking. I wouldn't wear one of father's --

[Clatters, tape recording stops]

-No, Sarah! Don't!

It'll just bring out Rhodes and the men.

Leave it be, leave it be.

Let's go.

Let's get out of here.

I'm beginning to think we should take that helicopter

before somebody else does.

♪♪

♪♪

[Keys jingling]

[Lock clicking]

-Hello, Bub!

[Bub growling]

Mother is very proud of you.

Very, very proud indeed.

You did quite nicely today.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Choir singing in foreign language]

[Bub groaning]

[Choir singing in foreign language]

[Bub groaning]

[Clicks]

[Groans]

[Choir faintly singing in foreign language]

-I don't believe it.

-Logan's star pupil.

-Now, tomorrow, we can play with these things again.

Now it's time for your reward.

I brought you something good.

[Bub groaning]

♪♪

-What is that?

Is that...?

♪♪

-It can't be.

Oh, God.

Oh, Jesus. It can't -- [Gasps]

-Good night, Bub.

-What are you giving him in there, Frankenstein?

-What?

-What is it, huh?

What do you give him?

♪♪

-Scum!

-No, you, you must listen to me, Captain.

You must listen!

-Listen to this.

[Gun firing]

-Hold it, Fisher.

Torrez, get his gun.

-Take all the guns.

All of 'em.

All their fucking guns!

Take all their guns.

All their guns!

Those are my men in there.

My men.

Those are my men in there!

♪♪

[Gun clicking]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[People chattering]

-Hey, hey, hey! -Watch it.

-What's up? -Hey, hey, hey.

-Hold it right there, Rhodes.

-Frankenstein's dead.

This scum gets it next

unless you throw your weapons out right now.

-He means it, Johnny. He killed Logan in cold blood.

-I killed Logan because he was a butcher.

I'll kill the rest of them one at a time,

unless you get your black ass out here, fly boy.

-Let him go, Rhodes.

-Torrez, get his machete.

We're getting out of here right now.

You give me any shit about it, I blow his head off.

-Whirlybird can't hold us all.

-Us all ain't going.

Me, my men, you.

That's it.

-You'll never get me to do that, Rhodes.

[Gun fires]

-No!

-Rickles, open the gate.

Steel, shove 'em in there.

-Stop it!

♪♪

-Have a nice visit with McDermott, huh?

[Zombies groaning]

♪♪

-Rhodes, don't do this, please.

-You gonna give us a ride, flyboy?

-I'll do whatever you say, man.

Let 'em go now.

♪♪

Rhodes.

Let 'em off.

I'll take you wherever you want to go.

-Like you said, chopper can't hold us all.

[Zombies groaning]

-Rhodes, don't do it.

You do it, and I won't fly.

I swear, you got to kill me before I fly.

Let 'em out.

That's the deal.

I make the deals around here, not you.

Now you get your shit together, whatever you need.

-Isn't there an old silo back there?

-No. We can't go back there without guns.

-We can't stay here. They'll tear us apart.

-Oh, Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

-Don't shoot him!

We need his ass.

Steel, kick him around a little bit.

Might knock some sense into that jungle-bunny head.

♪♪

-Captain!

[Blow thudding]

-[Zombies groaning] -That's it.

Run, you fuckin' lunatics.

-[Groans]

[Blows thudding]

♪♪

♪♪

-They're gone, flyboy.

Let's go.

-Not a chance.

[Metal rattling]

Jesus Christ. That's the elevator.

-Check it out.

[Thuds]

♪♪

[Elevator whirring]

♪♪

♪♪

[Slurping]

♪♪

[Chain rattles]

♪♪

[Bub moaning]

♪♪

[Static crackles]

-So when all hell breaks loose in the underground,

you Sarah, Lori,

you have two moments that are

sort of the yin and the yang of your character.

You grab your bitten boyfriend, and you hack off his arm,

and you do it very quickly, you do it very decisively.

And then a few minutes later, though,

you collapse in tears into the arms of John, actually.

So you have a breaking point.

But even when you're at your breaking point,

you're able to step in and take the needed action.

So, now my so my question is, was that shot in sequence?

-Let's see.

-Because it's really close together.

-Yes, it was. -So from the time you hack

to the time you fall into John's arms.

-Yeah, that was all shot -- Well, it wasn't the same day

because the first time we did the hack of the arm,

the machete went down and it bounced right off the arm

because it was made out of something that didn't sink in.

So we had to do it the next day,

and, yeah, it was in sequence, yeah.

I thought that character was trying to be strong,

trying to be strong the whole way,

and this was an opportunity to show her softer side,

and she did break down, but then her softer side came through.

-Okay.

So I'm thinking, like, if any of the three of you

went to an audition and they said,

"Do you know martial arts," you would have said yes

because you would have lied about it, right?

So are any of you trained in fighting?

You are? Okay.

Because there was a lot of fighting

that looked like it was not doubles.

It was not doubles when you were

when you were fighting your way out of the cave, right?

-No, no. -You did some physical.

-Oh, yeah. I studied with B.H. Barry.

-Demanding physical stuff. -Yeah. Mm-hmm.

-I mean, because, Lori, you you still want to,

at the end of this whole thing,

you still want to, like, try to work together

and preserve the research and all that stuff.

You two just want to get out.

And you, Jarlath, want to get out without the aid

of your whiskey flask because you run out of whiskey, right?

-Right, right, right. Throw it away.

-So it's the right wingers against the left wingers.

You know, there's the right winger army guys

and the left winger sort of scientist people,

and they wipe each other out.

And then the conflicted people in the middle,

which would be you two guys, are the ones escaping.

So there's very weird anti-hero stuff going on here.

You know, it's like, I'm not on that side.

I'm not on this side either, I'm just going to get --

get the hell out of here.

So you guys have any idea about what it all means?

-Sociologically, George put us together,

the dregs of society, the Irish and the black man.

They don't want to be bothered with that.

So that's what made us partners kind of.

George was very specific about his symbols.

-Oh, okay.

So he said he wanted you to be outsiders...

-We were -...from American society,

so that --

-Maybe we could become heroes.

-So maybe that was the answer.

Maybe the outsiders are the ones that could save civilization.

-Yeah. -Mm-hmm. Yeah.

-So that's a good message. -Yeah.

-That's a good meaning.

During the past 38 years, have you often thought about

"Day of the Dead"?

-Well, yeah.

-Quite often, because we meet at conventions.

-Right. -Yeah.

-And we managed to stay in touch.

-And you do a lot of conventions?

-Some. -They have reunions?

-Yeah. Sometimes.

-Because for much of that time,

especially in the early time, the '80s and '90s,

it was considered kind of a failed movie.

-Yeah, we felt that way, too. I mean, we felt bad about that.

-Really? But when did you start to feel like,

"Oh, wow, there's a huge audience for this movie"?

-When we started doing the conventions

and the fans came to us

and told us what the movie meant to them,

and it was very, very humbling.

And it was also just a great, you know, it felt great

because we were the poor people of the zombies, you know?

-Yeah. -There was great enthusiasm

from the fans.

Just very impressive. Impressive.

-Yeah. -It's still growing.

-Yeah, it's still growing. I mean...

-Jarlath, you got to tell that story about killing

the guy with the shovel, killing the zombie with a shovel.

-In the corral, at the end when we're fighting to get out

to go up on the ladders, there was an actor in a kimono,

and I can't remember his name, but he was in a kimono.

And he was an Asian actor, and he was a black belt,

black belt in karate.

And I used to hang out with him at the hotel,

and we became pals, and we hung out a bit.

But he was so trained that every time I moved

at the bar or at the table,

his position would change automatically.

Just unconsciously, he would do it.

So I had to hit him on the side of the head with a shovel,

and I had to explain to him, I said,

"Please, I'm going to hit you on the side of the head.

It's a rubber shovel, so when I hit you,

don't attack me," basically.

-You thought his instincts would take over?

-I thought, yes, I thought they might,

What he actually did was a somersault.

And I don't know if they caught it on camera.

-Really? -But I hit him with the shovel,

and he did a somersault.

-Oh, wow. That's like one of those Filipino movies,

you know, where they machine gun the guys

and they they somersault out of the foxholes.

[Laughter]

-You know, so... -That's right.

-Well, I want to thank all of you for being with us tonight.

This was great.

We're about to watch one of the all time gross out

paint the walls red, intestine feast extravaganzas

of horror.

And with a conclusion like that,

Romero definitely was not going to get his "R" rating that,

you know, his producers wanted him to get.

But I think we have voted all three of you in as the owners

of some of the most important moments in horror.

-Thank you. -You know, so congratulations

for that.

It's part of history now.

And I guess roll the film.

What's your favorite kill, Darcy?

-I mean, it has to be Captain Rhodes, right?

-Yeah, that's pretty intense. -Joe Pilato.

-Yes. -Yeah.

-And I think Tom Savini and Greg Nicotero

would agree.

I think they consider that one of their proudest moments.

But we can't forget the Granati brothers.

Did you guys meet the Granati brothers?

-Yeah.

-You didn't meet the Granati brothers?

-The musicians? -There were four brothers,

all playing zombies,

and those are the ones pulling Captain Rhodes apart.

It's four brothers making Captain Rhodes have that

really, really bad day.

-Dude, don't do spoilers.

-Oh, I forgot. All right, all right.

I'm not saying what they do. I'm just...

I'm just giving credit to the Granati family of Pittsburgh.

-That's nice.

-And they have a rock band called G-force.

-Yes, they did. They played for us.

-Oh, so you met the Granati brothers?

-Yeah, we danced at the wrap party.

They were playing the music.

-Oh, okay. All right. -They were nice guys.

-So they're the rock band zombies.

-Right. That's awesome. -All right.

Okay.

-You're right. We definitely needed to know that.

-All right. So thank you.

-You're welcome.

-The Joe Pilato kill, I wasn't in it, but I was

next to George when they were tearing his stomach out.

So I looked at George and I said, "You know,

where's this coming from?"

[Laughter]

And he goes...

[Laughter]

-I hope you all got that.

[Static crackles]

[Footsteps thudding]

[Zombies groaning]

-Aw, Jesus.

-Rock slide. We can't get through.

-This way. We can try and get around.

[Sarah screams]

[Zombies groaning]

[Screams]

[Blow thuds]

[Zombies groaning]

[Sarah screams]

[Zombies groaning]

[Sarah screams]

-[Screams] Oh, it's you. This way.

♪♪

[Birds squawking]

-Let's go, Torrez. Get up.

[Gun firing]

[Blow thuds]

♪♪

[Guns click]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Electricity crackling]

♪♪

-Shit! Somebody took this apart.

The only other control's up on the platform with a hand box.

-Oh, Jesus.

Rickles, we can't get out of here.

-Fix it. Can't you fix it?

-It's that fuckin' spic that did this!

-Fix it!

Come on, man!

-Fix what? -Fix -- fix the box, man!

Come on, fix it! -Fix what?

He tore the fucking guts out of it, Rickles!

I can't fix it!

-We got the book here, man! We can fix it!

♪♪

♪♪

-Bastard.

♪♪

[Birds squawking]

-Sarah!

[Echoing] Sarah, Sarah!

Billy!

[Echoing] Billy, Billy!

-John!

[Echoing] John! John!

[Zombies groaning]

[Gun fires]

[Gunfire]

[Zombies groaning]

[Clangs]

-[Grunts]

-Let's keep moving.

♪♪

[Zombies growling]

[Gun fires]

♪♪

[Zombies groaning]

[Gun fires]

♪♪

[Zombie groaning]

♪♪

[Gun fires]

[Zombie moaning]

♪♪

[Zombies growling]

♪♪

♪♪

[Zombies groaning]

♪♪

[Zombies groaning]

-Hold it on.

-[Electricity crackling] -Fuck!

-What's going on? -That spic.

He ripped these controls out, the little yellow bastard.

-The little shit.

The little fuckin' shit.

He tried to make a run for it.

[Zombies groaning]

[Flesh squelching]

-[Screams]

[Alarm blaring]

[Zombies groaning]

-Holy shit!

-Holy fuckin' shit.

♪♪

[Zombies groaning]

[Zombies groaning]

-Rhodes!

Rhodes, you bastard!

[Zombies groaning]

♪♪

♪♪

[Thuds]

♪♪

[Panting]

♪♪

♪♪

[Bub moaning]

[Chain rattling]

♪♪

[Bub moaning]

♪♪

♪♪

[Groans]

♪♪

[Wails]

[Grunting]

[Chain clanking]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Zombies growling]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Zombies groaning]

-[Screams]

[Flesh squelching]

[Screams]

♪♪

♪♪

[Zombies groaning]

♪♪

-Oh, shit!

[Gun firing]

[Yells]

Shit!

[Zombies growling]

Fuck!

[Gun fires]

[Zombies groaning]

♪♪

-[Gun firing] -[Screams]

Holy shit!

[Cackling]

[Gun firing]

[Laughing]

[Screaming]

[Flesh squelching]

[Screaming]

♪♪

♪♪

[Gun firing]

[Gun fires]

[Gun clicks]

[Gun firing]

♪♪

-Shit!

[Fist thuds]

Rhodes!

Goddamn, Rhodes!

Open the door, you son of a bitch!

[Zombies groaning]

Rhodes!

[Gun firing]

♪♪

[Zombies groaning]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Gun clicking]

Shit!

[Gun fires]

♪♪

[Chain rattling]

[Gun clicks]

Come on, Bub.

Come on, you pus-brained bag of shit.

You want to learn how to shoot, Bub?

I'll teach you how to shoot.

Come on, you bag of --

[Zombies groaning]

♪♪

[Screams]

[Zombies groaning]

♪♪

[Zombies groaning]

♪♪

[Zombies groaning]

♪♪

[Gun fires]

[Zombies groaning]

[Zombies groaning]

-Oh!

[Gun firing]

[Guns firing]

-Let's go. Follow the red lights.

♪♪

♪♪

-It's temporarily out of service.

-The ladder! Go ahead. Up, up. Up!

♪♪

[Zombie groaning]

[Gun fires]

♪♪

[Zombie growling]

[Gun clicking]

[Gun fires]

-Come along, Johnny.

We're countin' on ya to fly us to the promised land.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Come on, come on.

Come on!

-[Gun fires] -Shit!

Ah!

[Groans]

You fuck.

[Screams]

[Bub groans]

You pus fuck!

You fuck!

[Gun fires]

You pus fuck!

You pus fuck!

[Groans]

[Screams]

You -- [Groans]

[Chains rattling]

Come on!

Come on! Come on!

Come on!

Come on!

[Door rattling]

Come on!

Come on!

[Zombies groaning]

[Screams]

[Gun fires]

[Zombies groaning]

[Gasps]

[Zombies groaning]

♪♪

♪♪

[Gasping]

Choke on 'em!

Choke on 'em!

[Zombies groaning]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Zombies moaning]

[Zombies snarling]

[Door thuds]

[Zombies groaning]

♪♪

♪♪

-Let's hope they filled up the gas tank

from the other night.

-Oh, my God.

-Come on, come on!

[Gate rattling]

[Zombies groaning]

Get in, get in!

-[Screams]

[Birds chirping]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Seagulls crying]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-♪ Eyes ♪

♪ Eyes, eyes ♪

♪ Is it you ♪

♪ Is it me ♪

♪ Holding on for so long ♪

♪ Trying desperately ♪

♪ Is it right ♪

♪ Oh, oh, oh, is it fair ♪

♪ Wanting more, so much more ♪

♪ And it's never there ♪

♪ I am with you when ♪

♪ I feel like I'm alone ♪

♪ It's easy to pretend ♪

♪ This world could never end ♪

♪ Come take my heart, my soul, my love ♪

♪ My life ♪

♪ Tonight ♪

♪ Love me ♪

♪ Tonight, babe ♪

♪ Take me to the world inside ♪

♪ Your eyes ♪

♪ Tonight ♪

♪♪

[Static crackles]

-So our three guests tonight are the only survivors,

and they end up on that Caribbean island

fishing and sunbathing.

So everything John said is right?

The world is ending.

There's nothing we can do about it

except smoke weed and have sex.

You know, what am I missing here?

What happened to that angry young flamethrower of 1968

who wrote "Night of the Living Dead"?

What do you think, Darcy?

Darcy?

Are you out there?

[Soft growling]

Well...

We know from "Zombie", the movie we started the season

with, that there are underwater zombies

so that beach could be crawling with them at any moment.

So how safe are those people, really?

I guess Romero was determined to be anti-Hollywood

right up to the end.

There are no John Waynes, and even the people you think of

as John Waynes are going to lose.

Struggle is noble, though.

Even when you've got no chance of winning,

even if you're outnumbered, outgunned, out everything.

The struggle, that's what we do.

I don't know. Maybe -- Maybe it's that ending

or the fact that the season is over.

But it's got me feeling like I just discovered

the skull of Yorick.

You know, he was the funniest guy. Remember him?

He was the funniest guy in Denmark, right?

He was the life of the party.

He was full of vigor, strength.

He was famous, and they couldn't even bury him right.

I'm sure the people at his funeral said

he would never be forgotten.

And they were lying.

They were lying to themselves.

[Soft growling]

Maybe we're dead already.

Maybe we have no right to be here.

Maybe life was never here at all.

[Zombies growling]

♪♪

♪♪

♪ Sometimes life is so sublime ♪

♪ Enjoy it in your prime ♪

♪ Other times, life's full of strife ♪

♪ And cuts you with a knife ♪

♪ But we all must ramble on ♪

♪ Learn to love and shamble on ♪

♪ This is not the end ♪

♪ Oh, not goodbye ♪

♪ See you on the other side ♪

-♪ You have to ramble on and shamble on ♪

[Flesh tearing]

-♪ See you on the other side ♪

-♪ We'll get along and sing a song ♪

-♪ See you on the other side ♪

-♪ You have to ramble on and shamble on ♪

-♪ See you on the other side ♪

-♪ We'll get along and sing a song ♪

-♪ See you on the other side ♪

♪ See you on the other side ♪

♪ At the drive-in the sky ♪

♪♪

[Zombies snarling]

-♪ We are drive-in mutants ♪

-♪ Drive-in mutants ♪

-♪ We are not like other people ♪

♪ We are sick ♪ -♪ Sick ♪

-♪ We are disgusting ♪ -♪ Disgusting ♪

-♪ We believe in, yeah, we believe in ♪

-♪ Blood ♪

♪ And breasts ♪

♪ And beasts ♪

-♪ Yeah, we believe in ♪

-♪ Blood ♪

♪ And breasts ♪

♪ And beasts ♪

-♪ If life had a vomit meter ♪

♪ We'd be off the scale ♪ -♪ Off the scale ♪

-♪ As long as one drive-in remains on the planet Earth ♪

♪ We will party like jungle animals ♪

♪ We will boogie till we puke ♪

-♪ Boogie till we puke ♪

-♪ The drive-in will never die ♪

♪ We will boogie till we puke ♪

-♪ Boogie till we puke ♪

-♪ The drive-in will never die ♪

-♪ We believe in ♪

♪ Blood ♪

♪ And breasts ♪

♪ And beasts ♪

-♪ We believe in ♪

-♪ Blood ♪

♪ And breasts ♪

♪ And beasts ♪