DAY
OF
THE
DEAD

(The original script)
by George A. Romero

     FADE IN:

1    EXT. THE EMPTY STREET OF A CITY - DAY

No people. A FEW CARS AND TRUCKS are parked at odd angles, abandoned. A TITLE FADES IN, one phrase at a time.

FIVE YEARS...

SINCE THE DEAD FIRST WALKED.

2    EXT. THE CITY - DAY

We hear THE SOUND OF A STRONG WIND. DEBRIS flutters through the streets. A LARGE ALLIGATOR slithers into frame, stops and looks around.

MONTAGE: as MORE GATORS explore the empty streets, knocking over GARBAGE CANS, upsetting the MANNEQUINS in A DEPARTMENT STORE WINDOW. A GATOR crawls out through the open doors of AN ABANDONED BANK. LOOSE BILLS are dragged along under the animal’s tail. They flutter away on the WIND.

3    EXT. THE CITY - DAY

GATORS crawl over A ’79 CADELLIC. A FEMALE SKELETON sits slumped over the steering wheel. In the back a BABY’S BONES are strapped into AN INFANT’S SAFETY SEAT. One of the gators THUMPS its tail maddeningly against the windshield. ANOTHER TITLE APPEAR:

FLORIDA - 1987

4    EXT. THE CITY - DAY

CLOSE ON A SECTION OF PAVEMENT as we hear THE SOUND OF SLUGGISH FOOTSTEPS approaching. A SHADOW appears at the bottom of the frame. It gets longer and takes on the shape of a man.

TIGHT ON THE AFTERNOON SUN, blinding us. Into the FOREGROUND lurches THE FIGURE which cast the shadow. Glare obscures all facial detail until the head jogs into position directly in front of the fiery ball in the sky. Then we see its hideous, dead eyes, its blue-grey colour, the blackened wound where a large portion of jaw has been ripped away. This is a ZOMBIE! A MUSIC CHORD SOUNDS and THE MAIN TITLE APPEARS:

DAY OF THE DEAD

5    EXT. THE CITY - DAY

HEAD CREDITS ROLL over A MONTAGE: the CITY STREETS are now populated by the WALKING DEAD. In every shape, size and colour they wander, without purpose, up and down the avenues, in and out of buildings. The city is theirs, they have inherited the place. Man, in his human form, seems to be gone.

As the CREDITS END, we CUT TO:

6    EXT. A MAIN STREET - DAY

We are looking down from a HIGH ANGLE. The corner of A TALL BUILDING is in the FOREGROUND. A CORPSE is dangling from A NOOSE. It’s been dead for some time. It’s mostly bone now, its blackened flesh picked clean by scavenger birds and harbour rats. A SIGN flaps against its chest cavity. Its hurriedly scrawled message reads: TAKE ME, LORD! I LOVE YOU!

THE ROPE BREAKS suddenly and THE CORPSE FALLS out of frame.

7    EXT. THE STREET - DAY

We’re at GROUND LEVEL now...SMACK!!! THE CORPSE HITS THE PAVEMENT and SHATTERS as though made of potter’s clay. BONES bounce over a wide area. THE SIGN is carried off by the WIND.

8    EXT. AN ABANDONED MARINA - DAY

THE SIGN gallops across the grass of A HARBOUR PARK towards the water where A FEW DERELICT BOATS sway in the WIND.

Slowly, THE SOUND OF A MOTOR FADES IN.

9    EXT. THE MARINA (CLOSER ANGLE) - DAY

A FISHING BOATS, old and sea-worn, chugs into the harbour.

10   EXT. THE MARINA (CLOSE ON THE FISHING BOAT) - DAY

There are people on board, THREE MEN AND TWO WOMEN. They look like guerilleros from somewhere in Latin America. They’re heavily armed, unshaven, covered with months worth of jungle crud. They are obviously exhausted. They gaze up to the city. Their deep-sunken eyes are too war-weary to show much emotion but we can read their despair.

TONY

Another dead place. I tol’ you. Let’s get out to the islands.

MIGUEL

The radio signals were coming from this area.

TONY