Shaun of the Dead (2004) - 16 questions

Question: Is the outbreak supposed to be all over Britain or is it just in London?

Answer: The TV at the end of the film (showing clips from various channels) seem to suggest that it's a world wide outbreak (a japanese gameshow using zombies and the news story of an American kid who killed his zombie family are shown).

Question: How does the zombie infection start?

Answer: It is deliberately never revealed, though when Shaun first goes to the shop we hear on the radio something about a satellite unexpectedly re-entering the Earth's orbit. This is a tribute to George Romero's zombie films, in which the cause of the infection was also never discussed.

Question: When Ed and Shaun are at the Winchester before the zombies break out, Shaun tries to shoot down Ed's high opinion of the Winchester's owner by saying "he says dogs can't look up." Ed says this is true. This bit of trivia comes up several times in the movie and is never answered. So can dogs really look up?

Answer: Of course they can, everything is up when you are the size of the average dog. They wouldn't have survived long as a species if they were unaware of anything more than a couple of feet off the ground.

Question: In the scene where Shaun gave all the zombies 'the slip', David asks Shaun how he lost them. My question is, why does David act so suspicious towards Shaun when he asks him that?

Answer: Given that Shaun's plan to go to the pub has so far managed to expose them to a considerable degree of risk, it's not unreasonable that David might be rather skeptical when Shaun claims to have simply given the zombies the slip.

Question: Why does the film involve two Queen songs, one in the pub ("Don't Stop Me Now") and one in the credits?

Answer: Is there some reason why it shouldn't? They presumably chose them because they liked them and thought that they fitted well.

Question: In the 'Remembering Z-day' scene near the film's end, where Shaun is watching clips of the zombie-outbreak aftermath where soldiers run in and shoot all the zombies, one soldier can be seen taking cover behind a tree as if in a firefight. Why would he need to take cover when he's battling slow-moving, melee-only zombies?

Answer: Soldiers tend to fight like they train. It becomes almost instinctive to find cover before firing your weapon.

Question: The trivia section mentions Ed saying something about a man called Snakehips, my question is who is Snakehips?

Answer: When they are in the Winchester after Shaun splits up with his girlfriend. Ed is talking about the others in the pub. Snakehips is the guy smoking at the bar.

Question: When Shaun asks Dave and Diane about tranport, Diane says she's only past her test. Shaun then looks at Dave, but I can't make out what Dave says, and my DVD deosn't have subtitles. Can someone please tell me what he says?

Answer: He says "I don't see the point of owning a car in London".

Question: I was wondering if there were any plans to bring out a special edition DVD of Shaun Of The Dead, or should I just buy the normal version rather than wait?

Answer: The regular DVD has four commentaries, outtakes, deleted scenes, assorted featurettes and a number of other extras ranging from the mundane to the utterly bizarre. Hard to imagine that they've got anything left that could be added to a future special edition. I'd just go for it, if I was you. And I did. Even though I'm not you. Just in case you were worried.

Question: What is Shaun's last name? Do we find out?

Answer: It's never stated.

Question: In the answer to another question, this DVD was supposed to be coming out on September 6th. But I still can't find it at my local video store. Is my town just to small to have bothered ordering it in (I live way out in the sticks) or is it not being released for general hire in Australia? (PLEASE answer, I missed this at the cinema and, as a devoted fan of Simon Pegg, Dylan Moran and British comedy in general, am desperate to get a hold of it).

Answer: September 6th was the release for it on DVD in the U.K. not Australia. Its release in Australia for DVD is scheduled for the 9th of March. An Australian online rental company can be found here: http://webflicks.com.au/user/movieDisplay.php?movie_id=17716.

Question: I noticed that Ed's description of Snakehips (surrounded by women) turned out to be pretty accurate and I was wondering if his descriptions of the other two people at the Winchester turned out to be of significance, I didn't spot it myself.

Answer: I don't know if those two descriptions have any significance, but on the DVD commentary Pegg and Wright point some other instances where descriptions come true. For instance, (grumpy flatmate) Pete tells Ed to 'go and live in the shed' which he ends up doing, and after the 'electro' argument, Ed says of Pete 'the next time I see him, he's dead', which of course he is.

Question: What is this reference to "Fried Gold" mean? I'm sorta late on UK slang.

Answer: According to IMDB : The phrase "fried gold" originated behind the scenes of Simon Pegg, Jessica Stevenson and Edgar Wright's sitcom "Spaced" (1999) and was mentioned several times on the DVD commentaries for that series. It makes several fan-pleasing appearances in the film.

Question: I seem to remember there was an episode of 'Spaced' where Tim (Pegg's character) plays 'Resident Evil 2' for too long and starts seeing zombies everywhere as a result. Did that influence this film in any way or is it just an interesting coincidence?

Answer: In an interview I saw recently they stated that the Resident Evil scene in Spaced was the beginning point of the film but not the inspiration. They decided to use the idea of zombies in a full length film.

Question: Does anyone know if they are releasing a DVD of this film? It's been 6 months or so since the film was originally released, and usually, the film is on video 2 months or so after.

Answer: Yes! It is released on September the 6th.

Question: When Shaun says that it's ridiculous to say the word zombie, is it a joke to the fact that no one seem to use the word in other zombie movies?

Answer: Possibly, but maybe they just have that line because it's funny in itself.