Every time I watch this I can't stop thinking about how that jerk Harry Cooper was right all along. Ben kept saying the cellar was a death trap and then that is EXACTLY where he ends up and that is what temporarily saved his life. This makes me uncomfortable and it just lingers in me. I really think this is one of the most thought provoking movies of all time.
shareHarry was right, but it was still a huge gamble that could have backfired the other way.
Given the same set of choices all over again, I probably would still stay out of the cellar. All it takes is for one zombie to breach the door and it's game over. Too big a risk.
Sure, it looks good when the risk pays off, but that doesn't make it a wiser choice over all the other options.
None of this is saying that Ben's plan was wrong either....
The Ghouls could not get into the cellar and the movie shows this at the end, so it would have been a gamble that would have paid off. If the whole group went into the cellar when Harry told them too, I have to believe that most of them would have survived. Now Karen Cooper is another part of this whole thing. She still would have died and she still would have come back as a Ghoul and wanted to eat somebody and my guess is Ben would have shot her, that would have been awful right in front of her parents but I don't see any other way this would have gone. Harry might have tried to grab the gun and all hell would have broke loose, but I still think if they all went in the cellar most of them would have survived.
I don't get your logic, it turns out Ben's plan was wrong, the way I know this is because EVERYBODY IN THE MOVIE THAT LISTENED TO BEN, DIED at the end. Why would you not say his plan was wrong?
shareYeah, we get that Harry's plan turned out to work in the end, but it was not a wise plan.
If you were in the same situation, would you have chosen the basement? Most people would not have, because it doesn't leave a Plan B, Plan C, etc in case Plan A goes wrong (i.e. zombies breaching the only exit).
It was a huge gamble to lock yourself in a place with no exit, no chance for retreat.
That it paid off is not really depressing, nor an affirmation of Harry's logic. It's more a testament to how Lady Luck plays favorably, even in the face of bad odds.
Sometimes, a stupid man looks very smart as he's the one holding the winning lottery ticket.
It's not depressing, it's the luck of the draw.
Precisely Jstover07
shareIt really all comes down to one very simple fact. The basement door was stronger than any of the other boarded up windows and doors upstairs. Ben was such a good guy, you can see why they all followed except for that jerk Harry Cooper. The problem was Harry Cooper was right, and if any time in the near future you are trapped in a house with zombies outside, I am gonna bet you will be headed for the basement. Problem is most houses don't really have a basement so maybe hide in the bathroom and hope there is a really strong door.
shareAgain, what was gonna be plan B if A didnt work? Because the only way out was where they came in..
You hide in the basement and then what? How long you gonna stay there? And you cant predict when the zombies leaves because you'll never know..
I agree. Harry was right.
I Honor the dead with Easter-Egg's! "The Walker" / www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EIsv6QmEHk
Sure, all of them locked in the cellar together, with the zombie girl who eats her parents, safest thing in the world.
shareI brought this up, the daughter would have maybe eaten one parent and Ben would have shot her, but even with that terrible incident most of them still would have survived instead of none of them.
shareExcept it'd be like the remake, if Ben kills the girl, Cooper will try and kill Ben, and that won't be resolved until one of them's dead.
shareCome on, they could have easily taken that little girl down with the rifle.
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Cooper was right but after the situation and Cooper wasnt thinking of the possible backlash of his idea. He just wanted to hide down the cellar out of desperation and fear of the zombies.
Like Ben said, the celler is a death-trap and its true because what if they had boxed themselves down the cellar (with no back way out) and the zombies gets in the house and wait for them? And even if the zombies had left they would've not known. It wasnt worth taking that risk..
Think about it.
Of course it would have worked, it was proven that the ghouls could not get into the basement, so I can't figure out why anybody would not think it would have worked had they all hid down there. The end of the film proves this theory. Why would they all have been boxed in if the ghouls could not even get the basement door open?
shareTrue, Harry was right. However, if they had all gone into the basement and waited it out, it would've made for one very dull film...lol
shareThere was no way to know when/if help would arrive. So unless there was a sink and food stored in the basement, they'd be dead in a few days if zombies were roaming the house upstairs.
shareWhat I would have done was take the stairs apart and made a ladder. The women could stay upstairs and when they broke in the men could go up the ladder and pull it up with them.
shareWhat I would have done was take the stairs apart and made a ladder. The women could stay upstairs and when they broke in the men could go up the ladder and pull it up with them.