Why DIDN'T they go? - Night of the Living Dead (1990) Discussion

[–] fatpie42 13 years ago

If you are going to wander off on foot you are best off having a gun each and they simply didn't have enough guns to go around. (Plus gunfire might end up with them accidentally hitting each other.)

Plus once you are out in the cold, where are you supposed to go? Eventually you are going to need to find somewhere to stop and sleep. Constantly watching your back will get exhausting pretty quickly. Eventually they'd need to find another house and they'd be back in the exact same situation all over again - only without boarded up windows.

The best option was the truck because they could cover a long distance quickly, collect more survivors and settle somewhere like a supermarket that is more suited to defence against a seige. If it wasn't for the hicks who'd been out killing zombies (and even that held an element of risk), wandering around on foot could be pretty much suicide.

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[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] gambitcolumbus 13 years ago

Plus they don't know how many are out there - there could be hundreds.

Too bad none of them thought of or noticed the attic earlier - clearly the safest place in the house.

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[–] ss5mmyers 13 years ago

They had an injured kid who couldn't walk. Plus Ben had said the nearest city was already engulfed by zombies and it was 5 miles away. They would have had a long walk.

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[–] xMartyMcFlyx 12 years ago

Would you really risk walking out into the unknown? Who cares if you can walk faster than them, there are hundreds and hundreds of them. They outnumber you! What if you get stuck somewhere? What if you injure yourself? What are you gooing to eat? What are you going to do at night? What if you get lost? There are so many reasons not to go outside. I would have stayed inside and boarded up all the windows too, it's the most logical thing to do. They also don't exactly have an arsenal of weaponry either. I think they had like 2 guns right? Even though they're slow, they're such a threat when in large numbers because they outnumber you so much.

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Resident Evil 6
10/2/12

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[–] novastar_6 12 years ago

And you saw what good staying in the house did them.

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[–] OsborneDFormed 12 years ago

They were skeered. Ain't you never been skeered? Hell, I bet there've been times you were skeered to go up and talk to a girl, and the worst thing she'd do is call you a chode in front of all your friends, not eat you and turn you into a zombie.

Put your money where your stumps are.

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[–] Rockhound6165 12 years ago

A town mentioned on the TV said that the closest safe zone was 15 miles away. As was said, they could drive 15 miles on freakin' fumes.

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[–] jimmyh94 12 years ago

I just had a thought. I just going to go out on a limb here and assume that the cemetery was relatively close to the house. Why not run back up to the cemetery and see if the hearse had the keys? It was big enough to where they could haul people and get away. Just a thought.

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[–] ricky_says_hi 11 years ago

Because Ben didn't want to go and he made himself the leader. The movie makes a big point that his decision are badly made and end up costing them their lives. Barbra was in the right - the house was not safe upstairs or down. Zombies break in and they're in the cellar? Nowhere to run. Zombies break in and they're in the attic? No way the attic will support the weight of seven people. They had guns and they could also bring other weapons for everyone else. Barbra and Ben did well enough with a crowbar and a fire poker. At least in the open there's plenty of places to escape to. One wonders why they didn't search for the keys straight away

http://betterwithbob.blogspot.com/

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[–] Rockhound6165 11 years ago

Unfortunately the bitten kid sort of held them back.

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[–] Pumpkinjack65 11 years ago

well you have cooper's kid with the zombie bite, and let alone they have a truck that is low on gas and a gas pump with a lock on it. in a situation of a disaster like this they would have to bug in before bugging out. they had to fortified the house and then figure out where to go that is a rescue station or shelter and considering that they are miles from anywhere and only judy rose and tom know the area they still needed to find the key to the gas pump, they still need gas and let alone they needed to transport the cooper kid and get away from the zombies, even if they tried to do ben, mr and miss cooper would of stayed behind with tom's rifle, and barbara tom and judy rose would of left with the windchester rifle and a few other weapons to defend themselves while trying to find help

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[–] namaGemo 10 years ago

An attic can't support the weight of seven people??? I guess you don't have a clue about home construction. They still run 2x12's for support. The attic could support 200 people.

As far as the key to the gas pump, one would think anyone who lived in the house might have a clue, but Tom never mentions a thing even though he was in the basement the whole time with the Cooper's.

And as far as nowhere to run in a basement, when has any home ever been built without a bulkhead or a second access door? How hard would it be while living in the attic to make a rope out of bed sheets in case you needed to climb down?

Anyone with a brain would realize they could have just nailed chairs to the deck in front of the windows to keep the zombies away from them.

Zombies being so slow and weak also couldn't have punched through a car window. Slow zombies could never take over the world. The idea is ridiculous.

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[–] jbhutt0 10 years ago

Zombies being so slow and weak also couldn't have punched through a car window.

Ummm, but they did. The zombies in this film weren't entirely weak. As we saw, Barbara and her brother didn't exactly have an easy time dealing with the single zombie they were initially attacked by.

How hard would it be while living in the attic to make a rope out of bed sheets in case you needed to climb down.

Yeah, and how easy would it be to climb down into a house infested by zombies.

Everyone's a genius until the *beep* hits the fan.

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[–] namaGemo 10 years ago

I think people need to understand car windows are part of the structural integrity of the vehicle. If you like zombie movies, try Bonesickness, made by some local guys in the Massachusetts area. In the extras, they are trying to throw a thirty pound log through the window. It just keeps bouncing off.

Also, I'll admit I used to watch wrestling, and the character known as Triple H was trying to smash a limo window out with a sledge hammer. This guy weighs about 300 lbs of steroids, and with full impact swings, the sledge bounced off the rear side window. It finally smashed on the third hit. This might be on you tube.

I don't think any human can punch through a real car window unless they are wearing special gloves designed with a sharp point which is usually required to break auto glass.

And as far as your last comment, these people understood the situation at this point. They had time to figure things out and work out plans.

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[–] woozle_wuzzle 9 years ago

Also, I'll admit I used to watch wrestling,

Yeah, "used to".

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[–] namaGemo 9 years ago

I don't think I've watched since 2002. Why, is this something that's hard to believe? I had friends I worked with who got me into comparing the nights events with WWF with WCW. Once that changed, no reason to watch if no one to talk about it with.
Hey, I used to watch Springer too. At sonnet point, the crap gets old.

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[–] cymboline 10 years ago

I've always found that moment when she suggests they just go such a lost opportunity for this remake.I think it would've been so interesting to see this remake which had pretty much followed the original to that point, take a complete unexpected left turn and have them leave the house for the last act. Have them avoid the mistakes of the original characters and refuel the truck successfully and get on the road and see what happens.

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[–] projectcyclops 10 years ago

One of the difference between this version and the original is that Ben seems much less convincing in his defense of staying put. Even Cooper actually sounds more sensible when he insists that the cellar is the safest place. Knowing from the original what happens, it's easy to retrospectively point out Ben's mistake, but as the film goes on it looks increasingly like he's just being stubborn in the face of logic. When he tells Tommy not to bother looking for the gas pump's keys, or dismisses Barbara's idea of just leaving on foot, you can't help but think he's being stupid. Barbara even says at one point, "We can just go and the others can stay in the cellar until we get back." - which would have been a perfect compromise given the injured girl.

Maybe it's something in Tony Todd's performance, but Duane Jones' Ben seemed a lot more rational.

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He left a note. He left a simple little note that said, "I've gone out the window."

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[–] novastar_6 10 years ago

Maybe it's something in Tony Todd's performance, but Duane Jones' Ben seemed a lot more rational

I think it's something to do with the fact that in the original movie EVERYBODY was a HELL of a lot more calmer and collected than here, where Barbra puts it, they're screaming at each other like a bunch of 2 year olds.

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[–] watcher101 9 years ago

Yes, they're slow, but if you get cornered by a bunch, your screwed. Say you're walking along, dodging zombies, and your suddenly run into a herd. YOu can't turn back, cause all the zombies you've been walking past for who knows how long are right behind you. Ever watch The Walking Dead?

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[–] vodka_and_caviar 9 years ago

I was seriously thinking of that when I was reading through this thread. In the first episode, Morgan says, "they may not seem like much one at a time, but in a group, all riled up and hungry –Man you watch your ass."

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