Day of the Dead (1985)
Trivia
All the extras who portrayed zombies in the climax received for their services: a cap that said "I Played A Zombie In 'Day of the Dead'", a copy of the newspaper from the beginning of the film (the one that says THE DEAD WALK!), and one dollar.
The alarm sound heard is the same one from The Thing (1982).
Some of the headlines from the newspaper that says "The Dead Walk" appear to be: "Vice President Declares State of Emergency," "Whereabouts of President Unknown," "Food Supply Dwindles" and "Man Bites Man."
The lowest grossing film in George A. Romero's "Dead" trilogy. Nonetheless, it's gained a cult following over the last three decades.
The original script, for which George A. Romero couldn't get budget, involved the scientists living above ground in a fortress protected by electrified fences and the military living safely underground. It also involved a small army of trained zombies, and the conclusion to the trilogy more brutal than the released version. This later became the basis of Land of the Dead (2005)
The underground facility was not on a soundstage. It was shot in the Wampum mine, a former limestone mine near Pittsburgh, that was being used for a underground storage facility. The 2,500,000 square foot mine is now operated as the Gateway Commerce Center who now called it a "subsurface storage facility".
On the special edition DVD, director George A. Romero claims this is his favorite film out of the original "dead trilogy".
During a vacation break in filming, makeup artist Greg Nicotero used the realistic and gruesome model of his own head (as seen in a laboratory scene in the film) to play a practical joke on his mother.
Most of the zombie extras in this film were Pittsburgh residents who volunteered to help in the film.
Although never confirmed, it has been rumored by fans that the character Joe Pilato played in Dawn of the Dead (1978) is in fact Rhodes as a cop. Fans believe that Rhodes started out as a cop then later joined the army and became Captain. Since no passage of time is given in the 'Dead' films it is very possible that years lapsed between 'Dawn' and 'Day', and that the Rhodes character could have went from being a cop to an army captain.
According to Lori Cardille, the first attempt to shoot the beginning dream scene where the zombie arms suddenly spring out of the wall and attack her resulted in the faux wall and many of the actors behind it toppling over on her. The wall ended up needing to be completely rebuilt, this time much more stable.
First attempts to shoot the scene where Sarah performs surgery on Miguel's arm failed when it simply bounced off the rubber, so Tom Savini remade it in wax and it worked perfectly.
In the cafeteria scene, William McDermott (Jarlath Conroy) says that "All of the shopping malls are closed." This is a clear reference to the film's predecessor Dawn of the Dead (1978), which is set in a shopping mall.
Underground scenes were filmed in a former mine shaft located near Wampum, Pennsylvania, converted into a long-term storage facility for important documents. Though the mine maintained a constant temperature of about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, its high humidity played havoc with the crew's equipment and props. Mechanical and electrical failures were a constant problem throughout filming, and caused several of Tom Savini's props to fail during the filming. Despite these failures, Savini was nominated and won the 1985 Saturn Award for best makeup effects. The remote location also complicated the transportation of crew members and equipment. Cast and crew would often sleep in the mine overnight to avoid the time-consuming travel to and from the shooting location.
Pat Logan, who played Uncle Rege in Night of the Living Dead (1990) appears as a Bald Mustachioed Zombie shot by Steel in the mines.
Right after Logan tells the zombie that it needs to sit in the dark and think about what it did, and punishes it by turning off the light, a little bit of the "The Gonk" music from Dawn of the Dead (1978) can be heard in the transition of scenes.
During Miguel's sedation, Lori Cardille told Anthony Dileo Jr. to actually slap her to make it look more authentic.
The book Dr. Logan gives to Bub is Stephen King's "Salem's Lot." George A. Romero and King have been friends for many years.
Both actors playing Cpt. Rhodes in the two versions of Day of the Dead also appeared in both versions of Dawn of the Dead as police officers. In Dawn of the Dead (1978), Joseph Pilato played Officer at Police Dock before being Rhodes in the original Day of the Dead. In Dawn of the Dead (2004), Ving Rhames played Kenneth (a cop) and in Day of the Dead (2008), he played Rhodes.
Tony Todd auditioned for the role of John. He would later play the lead role in Night of the Living Dead (1990), a color remake of the first movie in the 'Dead series', Night of the Living Dead (1968).
A total of five scripts were written as George A. Romero wrestled with the film's concepts and the budgetary constraints. The first draft was over 200 pages, which he later condensed to 122 pages. This is the true original script, and to date copies of it have not come to light. This version was likely rejected because UFDC felt it was too expensive for them to produce even with an R rating. Romero subsequently scaled down the scope of this script into a 165-page draft (often erroneously referred to as the original version), then condensed it again to a 104-page draft labeled the 'second version, second draft' in an unsuccessful final attempt to get the story within budget parameters. When this failed, he drastically altered the original story concept and ultimately produced a shooting draft that numbered only 88 pages.
The first scene (abandoned city) of the movie was filmed in Fort Myers and Sanibel Island, Florida. The theatre shown in the opening is the Edison. Thomas A. Edison used to summer in Ft. Myers and his house there is a tourist attraction.
The budget for George A. Romero's original script was estimated at $7 million, but he would only be given the money if he could film an R-rated film. He was told that if he went ahead and shot an unrated film with no limits on gore, the budget would be split in half to $3.5 million.
Sarah, John, McDermott, Miguel, Dr. Logan, Bub, and of course Captain Rhodes were the only characters from George A. Romero's original script that made it to the final version.
British band Gorillaz have sampled several audio clips from both Dawn of the Dead (1978) and "Day of the Dead (1985)": portions of the music and some dialogue ("Hello? Is there anyone there?") from the latter feature in the track, "M1 A1", on their 2001 debut album; and some of Bub the zombie's grunts appear alongside sound-clips of the news reporters from Dawn of the Dead (1978) on one of their B-sides, "Hip Albatross". Furthermore, part of the score from Dawn of the Dead (1978) is used in the intro track on the 2005 album, 'Demon Days'. This album also features a track narrated by Dennis Hopper, who portrayed Kaufman in George A. Romero's sequel that year, Land of the Dead (2005).
One of the make-up technicians criticized his manager's choice to play Michael Jackson: Thriller (1983) on set. If you look closely, there is a zombie dressed like Michael Jackson because of this.
During the opening dream sequence when zombie arms attack Sarah through the wall, one of them was Lori Cardille's husband.
The Zombies' moaning, groaning, growling, roaring, and feasting sounds happened to be played by the voice of the talented actor Mark Dodson, who played the voice of Salacious Crumb, Jabba The Hutt's Sidekick and Court Jester in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983). They were not all done by sound effects.
Much like Big Daddy in Land of the Dead (2005), Bub is never seen attacking a living human for food, and thus only kills the main human antagonist as an act of revenge. Bub did, however, consume the butcherd flesh and organs of the recently deceased Pvt. Johnson and Pvt. Miller given to him by Dr. Logan, implying he has not entirely lost his taste for human flesh.
Dr. Logan figures that the ratio of the undead to the human survivors is 400,000:1. When the film was made, in 1985, the population of the United States in our universe stood at about 240 million. If Dr. Logan is right, and the US population of this universe stood at roughly the same, and this film took place in 1985, there are 600 living human beings left in the USA. However, since the history of the universe in the "of the Dead" movies had radically diverged from real world history even before the ghouls emerged (notice the Venus probe in the first Night of the Living Dead (1968) movie), the timeline of the "Dead" movies remains unclear (the Stephen King novel 'Salem's Lot appears in this film, even though in the real world it came out in 1975; note that the first film in this series came out in 1968; Diary of the Dead (2007), set simultaneously with the events of Night of the Living Dead, features technology not available in 1968 in our world), and we do not know how long after the ghouls emerged that this film takes place, one cannot easily presume that this film takes place in 1985 or that the US population would have remained the same. This is one of many continuity series (eg. Superman, Austin Powers, etc.) affected by "timeslip" wherein more time has passed in the real world between entries which take place in less time, yet each is set in the time it was made. (This often happens in superhero comic books where the same characters experience the Iran-Contra Affair of the 1980s and the 9/11/01 massacres, but only "one year" has passed in the characters' "lives".) It is one of the suspension-of-disbelief conventions that viewers simply have to accept.
Gaylen Ross ("Francine" from Dawn of the Dead (1978)) is credited as "NYC Casting" in the end credits.
All above-ground scenes were filmed at several locations around Florida, where George A. Romero was living at the time.
George A. Romero originally intended the film to be "the Gone with the Wind (1939) of zombie films".
In an interview Joseph Pilato was asked if George A. Romero "had him in mind", Pilato stated that one of the reasons why he got the role was because of the budget being scaled down from 7 to 3.5 million.
All the military men have their beards grown, they have already given up shaving for some time. Except Captain Rhodes, who still shaves and preserves his military look. Although this could be attributed to the character's military discipline, it could also be interpreted as a sign that he refuses to face the reality of their situation (as mentioned twice by Dr. Logan): all signs indicate that they are probably the only people left, yet he still cares about looking like a proper officer.
Pvt. Johnson (Gregory Nicotero) and Pvt. Torrez wear the ERDL pattern of camouflage, the precursor to the M81 Woodland Pattern used by US forces up until about 2005. The ERDL pattern was correct for American Soldiers in Vietnam for the years after 1970. The Woodland BDU (with more brown in the color scheme) was adopted in 1981 and phased out officially in Fall of 2006. Since the film was shot in 1985, most soldiers would be issued M81 Woodland BDU, however, the film industry has a 'several year' delay in procuring and using any military uniform. This is done so that wardrobe and prop companies don't expend a lot of money investing in the latest and greatest, if a uniform change only lasts a few years before being phased out for something different. But, to the filmmaker's credit, Day of the Dead takes place a few years after a complete societal breakdown that occurs in 1978 ("Dawn of the Dead"), so it is likely that the soldiers would still have the ERDL pattern.
There was a large problem with the scenes with guns firing, as the blanks used would almost never be caught on film, due to the camera's shutter. This made director George A. Romero animate almost all of the gun's muzzle flashes in post production. Actress Lori Cardille also described using the Uzi during filming as having such a large recoil kick that it physically forced her back.
Bub is the third zombie in the series seen carrying a gun; The first was the zombie who took Roger DiMarco's assault rifle, and the second was the undead Stephen Andrews in Dawn of the Dead (1978).
Joseph Pilato was cast as Rhodes, the film's antagonist. As stated by Pilato "He pretty much just gave it to me. I don't know if he auditioned other people, but it was very quick. I came in and it was like, "You got it!."
The large columned building in the opening scene, filmed in Fort Myers, is now an art museum, and used to host an annual Zombie fest, known as Zombiecon.
The last time that George A. Romero and Richard P. Rubinstein worked together as a director/producer team. Romero wrote the scripts for Creepshow 2 (1987) and Tales from the Darkside (1990) which Rubinstein produced.
The "Day Of The Dead" love ballad song, "The World Inside Your Eyes" which appeared at the end credits of the movie was sung by Sputzy Sparacino (who was the lead singer and guitarist of the R&B/Dance/Cover band Modern Man at that time) and Gospel singer Delilah.
Among the direct references to Dawn of the Dead (1978): McDermott jokingly mentions that all the shopping malls have been closed; a bit of the score from the ending of Dawn of the Dead can be heard when the scientists go over to do some tests on Bub; John is repeatedly called 'flyboy' by the soldiers.
George A. Romero held a great appreciation for the talent community in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and utilized the same casting agency that he had used for Dawn of the Dead (1978). He specifically requested that all extras previously contracted for Dawn of the Dead be called back for casting in Day of the Dead, which is why many of the zombies that appear in this film may look familiar. This is also how Joseph Pilato, who appeared only briefly in the previous film, got his part in the main cast.
When Pvt. Steele performs the Sign of the Cross with his MGC replica M1911A1 pistol before committing suicide. The replica pistol was used for safety purposes and that the 'back of head exploding' was a squib effect and no blanks were used.
After Steele shoots the locked door to evade the cave horde a Ballerina Zombie can be seen stumbling with one foot flat and the other up on her toes.
The two revolvers that Rhodes uses are Smith and Wesson Model 629, in crossdraw shoulder holsters, Additional .44 ammunition kept in a bandolier across his chest, it can be seen that the barrels of the revolvers have received the Mag-Na-Port recoil-reducing porting.
Sputzy Sparacino and his band Modern Man appear to be uncredited as the musicians of the movie soundtrack.
The Japanese Metal replica M1911A1 built by MGC (Model Gun Corp) was extensively used in any scene where there was no firing, and even those with firing that were done with squib effects. The MGC Replica M1911A1 pistol also used a proprietary magazine that was not interchangeable with real M1911 Magazines.
The second important "Day Of The Dead" Love ballad song, "If Tomorrow Comes" performed by Modern Man and sung by balladeers Sputzy Sparacino and Delilah again, never appeared in the movie soundtrack. It could be heard through some parts of the movie soundtrack only as an instrumental piece. But you can hear the original pop version of the song with the vocals of Sputzy Sparacino and Delilah singing it on the movie soundtrack album itself. You can also find and hear "If Tomorrow Comes" on Sputzy's solo artist albums "Not Just Any Love Song" (released in June 1, 1994) and "Too Much Too Soon" (released in August 17, 1994).
During the end credits of the movie to the Love Ballad song "The World Inside Your Eyes", Sputzy Sparacino's first lead vocal part of the lyrics singing "Only you, only me. Here alone, all alone. It's our destiny. Plans were made. Now they've changed. Know what's right, know what's wrong. Life just rearranged. All we can do is to try and understand. I've given all I can. My future's in your hands. Come take my heart, my soul, my love, my life! Hold me tight, babe. Take me to the world inside your eyes. Take me to the world inside your eyes." never appeared on the end credits at the beginning of the song. It was instrumental for a minute until we heard Sputzy's band mates in Modern Man as the Chorus voices whispered singing "Eyes, Eyes, Eyes" and then co-lead Singer Delilah's vocal part of the song lyrics "Is it you? Is it me? Holding on for so long, trying desperately. Is it right or 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. Hold me tight, babe. Take me to the world inside your eyes. Take me to the world inside your eyes!" with the bandies of Modern Man singing their chorus parts "Tonight" could be heard near the very end of the song as the credits finally ended. But you can hear Sputzy's first lead vocal parts of the song on the soundtrack album itself. Then you can finally hear what the original recording sounds like.
All of the historical buildings featured in the opening sequence, filmed in Fort Myers Florida; still stand and exist preserved there today.
Gasparilla Island is named for Gasparilla Day, a "holiday" celebrated in Tampa, FL and named for the fictitious pirate "Jose Gaspar."
The music and songs for the movie soundtrack were composed by three great talented musicians. Including John Harrison (who played Bass for the late great, legendary Blues/Rock Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist Roy Buchanan), Jim Blazer (who was the original co-keyboardist of Modern Man. And who has now been popular for playing Piano, Hammond B3 Keyboards, and Organ for Spencer Davis since 1990), and the Crooner-Guitarist Sputzy Sparacino (the former Lead Singer and Guitarist of Pittsburgh R&B/Dance/Cover band Gigolo, who then was playing with Modern Man at that time). Talmadge Pearsall (who was the co-lead singer and keyboardist of Modern Man) only helped compose the song "The World Inside Your Eyes" ("Day Of The Dead" Ballad) with the three main Musicians/Music Composers of the movie.
Greg Nicotero who was both a makeup artist and actor in this movie, went on to perform multiple functions for The Walking Dead (2010) and it's companion television shows.
Although the year is not indicated, the calendar at the beginning of the movie shows October starting on a Tuesday. The year this movie was released, 1985 has October 1st landing on a Tuesday. The next previous year was 1974, four years prior to the previous movie, Day of the Dead (1985).
Cameo
Akram Midani: The former Dean of Fine Arts in Carnegie Mellon appears as a Fisherman Zombie pursuing Steel through the Mines. (You can see his wife Watfa Midani right next to him as another Zombie.)
Taso N. Stavrakis: In 2 roles: Appears as a Cave Zombie who gets bashed on the head with wood by Sarah. Referred to as Knock-On-Wood Zombie. He also appears as a Biker Zombie as the Zombie battle begins.
John Vulich: The last Zombie shot in the cave before our heroes enter the Silo.
Annie Loeffler: Female Cave Zombie (shot by John).
Everett Burrell: A Surgeon Zombie in the Cave.
Howard Berger: Spinaround Cave Zombie (shot by John).
Director Cameo
George A. Romero: As a zombie pushing a cart in the foreground during the final zombie feast, seen from the waist down and identified by his trademark plaid scarf wrapped around his waist.
Director Trademark
George A. Romero: [clown] The first film in Romero's "Dead" series to have a clown zombie, as also seen in Land of the Dead (2005) and Diary of the Dead (2007).
Spoilers
Joseph Pilato (Rhodes) line "Choke on them" as he's being ripped apart by zombies was ad-libbed by the actor.
George A. Romero had originally planned for all the zombies to perish in a massive explosion when they stumbled across explosive chemicals in the laboratory. Meanwhile, one of the crew members who had died during the attack was to have stayed dead and not come back as a zombie, thereby giving hope to the survivors.
The blood and entrails used in the disemboweling of Capt. Rhodes were real. Pig intestines and blood were procured form a nearby slaughterhouse and used to make the scene. During filming the refrigerator housing intestines and blood was unplugged by custodial staff, and the entrails started to spoil causing most of those involved to become physically sick.
The only movie in George A. Romero's "Dead" series where a zombie has a line of dialogue. Bub says, "Hello Aunt Alicia." Some viewers attribute another line to him, but this is disputed. When Sarah enters Logan's lab, she is startled when Bub emerges from the shadows behind her. After this, he moans something that some fans believe is, "I'm sorry."
In the blu-ray edition interviews, Joe Pilato (referring to his gruesome death scene, involving chicken intestines that were rotten due to the refrigerator being unplugged) says that "He can still smell them, to this day."
If one looks closely as Rhodes is torn in half, they'll see that a large section of his innards is a blood-covered rubber chicken.
The Zombies who attack and feast on Captain Rhodes are played by Hermie Granati, David Granati, Joey Granati, and Rick Granati of the Pittsburgh rock band, The Granati Brothers (otherwise known as G-Force).
In Night of the Living Dead (1968) no one survived from the house. In Dawn of the Dead (1978), Peter and Francine survive. In this film, Sarah, John and McDermott survive
In the last work of Romero, the book "The Living Dead" it is revealed the three survivors from "Day of the Dead" did not survive and became zombies on the Island.
Paul Gagne, Robert Martin, Mark Steensland, and Donald Farmer appear as Rickles' Zombie attackers in the mine.
