MovieChat Forums > Day of the Dead (1985) Discussion > Have no one ever questioned Captain Rhod...

Have no one ever questioned Captain Rhodes last words?

posted 9 years ago by caiohenrique-bs
8 replies | jump to latest

Ok, i get the ending(smart cut because of the low budget). I get the theory about Miguel being gay(makes very much sense), but i really haven't see no one talking about Rhodes last words:"Salazar!""Salazar!""Salazar!"while being torned apart by zombies. What does it means? Why were those his last words? Is there some metaphor that Romero's trying to apply like the ones he have done with the other movies(the shopping/consumist critic, the discuss about the punish of god and the violent nature of the human beign...)?

[–] BaseBallZombies 9 years ago

Actually his last words were "Choke on 'em"...

The feeling we have here — remember it, take it home and do some good with it. Please be kind

[–] Daniel11111 9 years ago

Hey, I asked this question a lot myself. I have 3 different DVD versions of the movie and I watch them with either the closed caption or subtitles on. With that said, all of them says one of two things: "Choke on 'em!" or "Salazar!" The Blu-Ray special edition has him screaming Salazar.

As far as what Salazar means, it is the name of the Hispanic guy who was in love with Sarah. His name was Miguel Salazar and with Captain Rhodes last breath he cursed his name. We learn of his name when Sarah first met Captain Rhodes and she said, "Miguel Salazar is in bad shape."

I can never understand why the closed captaion/subtitles have it differently. What I do know is that on the last scene where he's being torn apart the guts were left out overnight by accident and stunk badly. So they had only one shot. It's entirely possible that Romero meant Captain Rhodes to scream Salazar but due to the stink he mistakenly screamed Choke on 'em. Since it was a one take scene, they couldn't re-do it. Now I don't know if this is true but just a theory since they only said that scene was a one shot deal.

[–] CaptRhodes666 9 years ago

Never saw the Salazar subtitles myself but always knew the line was choke on em and joe himself has never mentioned the line as Salazar, guessing it's just been picked up wrong by whoever did the subs.

[–] roddmatsui 9 years ago

He is, actually, saying "Choke on 'em." But I'm cheating, because Pilato mentioned this fairly prominently in at least one interview at the time, claiming that this was a line that he made up on the spot. The way he viewed the character, Rhodes was not a guy who would be torn apart by zombies without at least having something to say about it--hence this improvised line. He said something to the effect of, "If the zombies were gonna drag my legs off, then I was gonna tell 'em to go choke on 'em."

[–] gsmame 9 years ago

Juat watched it, count me as being in the "choke on 'em camp"

[–] tbickle84 9 years ago

He is 1000% just saying Choke on 'em.

[–] Horror_Metal 9 years ago

"Choke on 'em" is correct.

Horror_Metal

[–] mwesley-200-580249 8 years ago

Salazar!?????
It's "Choke on them!"