The horse was panicking and the rider was inexperienced.
I think a lot of criticism about Rick’s behavior comes from our position as near omniscient observers who are keenly aware that he’s in a horror series. Keep in mind that people don’t always make perfect decisions when they’re under a great amount of stress. Sidling up next to the corpse in the tank might not have been the best idea but given what he just escaped combined with the fact that seeing corpses (the non shambling variety) was becoming routine his behavior in the tank didn’t seem so unreasonable to me. Honestly it would have been really lame had Rick acted like the veteran of countless zombie movies. He’s a guy who just woke up not someone like Morgan who is a veteran of the outbreak.
I think that opening was chosen to make a statement to the cable viewer. Shooting a little slipper-clad girl in the head - even living dead ones - immediately declares the tone of the show. It’s a near-instant litmus test for the average (non-comic reading) viewer.
People, please keep in mind that people in zombie films live in a world where there has never been a zombie film.
I’ve wondered about that myself. Whether you turn into a zombie or are ripped apart seems to depend mostly on how big of an asshole you were prior to your death.
I would guess that zombies only eat living flesh, not other zombies. So they will tear you apart and eat you if they can corner you. If you get bitten, don’t immediately bleed to death and manage to get away before they eat you, you will then typically get a fever, die, and then turn into a zombie which other zombies won’t eat. I think they will typically eat deanimated zombie flesh.
Can I just say that I love this style of zombie invasion. The characters are never safe, and there’s a palpable paranoia. Will the old guy die of a heart attack in his sleep, wake up dead, and attack us? At what point does a very sick child become a risk to care for? Plus there’s all the chaotic human behavior you can’t account for. Who’s going to slit their wrists? Who’ll die in the night from an eating disorder? Which is über ironic considering their resulting appetite.
Those seem like a far cry from the “see the back of a little girl only to have her turn around and be revealed as a zombie” scenario that was declared to be a zombie movie trope. The little girl from the Dawn remake had visible wounds and the adult approached her to render aid and you’ve already pointed out the difference with the original.
I think you’re exactly right. That particular gauntlet could’ve been thrown in a variety of ways, but the way they chose is a fairly standard story telling technique. It established tone and a certain amount of story tension without prematurely signalling any major plot developments. Placing the scene as the opener without directly reprising it also shows respect for the viewer in not overexplaining the situation, or overestablishing time & place.
He’s a cop - I don’t think it a stretch to believe he can hotwire a car.
Even if he can’t, there are THOUSANDS of cars on the road. You don’t think one person left their keys in the ignition? It’s unreasonable to think that you can’t find one car with keys.
Listen - this isn’t to say that the chronology was totally obvious. It was subtle - but it’s in there if you look.
It’s beside the point; as previously noted, the guy on the tank radio is a game changer. Postulating that Rick returns to the police cruiser (with almost no gas) some time after being trapped in the tank and hearing Mystery Radio Scornman opens up a whole lot more plot questions to be filled than surmising that he ran into Zombie Waif before he ever got the freakin’ horse.
I thought it was pretty easy to figure out that the zombie girl scene took place shortly before he found the horse. It fits neatly into that time period where he ditches the cruiser and finds the horse. Any other explanation is overly complicated.
That is pretty much backwards. Using a functioning hospital as a dumping ground would be a very, very bad idea. Unburied corpses which aren’t being refrigerated or even covered by anything but a sheet, are just going to attract insects, disease, and wild animals (even if they’ve been headshot so they won’t rise).
The corpses only come close to making sense once the place is forsaken.
Similarly, the active zombies chained into that one area. The fact that they were left barricaded so weakly makes it clear it was a desperate time-buying move, not anything that makes sense when trying to keep operating.
Again, this is a Romero outbreak - the hospital would be an epicentre of the outbreak. There are more dead and dying in a hospital than in any other area of a city, save for mortuaries and graveyards. The surrounding area wouldn’t be overrun until well after the hospital was.
The reason the hospital is apparently empty when Rick wakes is anyone who was alive had been evacuated, and the mobile zombies that weren’t locked in wandered off once all the food was gone. And one of them noticed that the doors opened. They’re not smart, but they’re good at follow the leader.
Which I gather is that it was ‘poor storytelling.’ You say this based on the fact that you and the folks you watched it with were confused, but this is hardly persuasive to those of us who understood the timing of things from story context.
Rick was told specifically to go to Atlanta, because Atlanta was the Land of Opportunity where everyone lived, order was restored and it was clear of zombies. Why WOULDN’T he go there?!
No, it’s not indicative of poor storytelling. As I and many others have mentioned, this was the obvious conclusion we came to - I just went back to back it up with hard evidence.
Your point was that you felt your opinion was just as valid as my opinion. That’s fine - until it’s shown that you were factually incorrect. Then it just becomes tedious.
Edit: I’ve found that the times I miss things from shows I’m watching is when I’m watching with a group of people. ESPECIALLY when that group is discussing the show/movie as we’re watching it.
Maybe because the outbound lanes were jammed with cars? That there appeared to be no human activity?
It is to me–just because it was obvious to you doesn’t mean it was to everyone.
That wasn’t my point, though I suppose it was part of it (as I imagine it would be for every opinion ever voiced…) And I admitted I was factually incorrect–at what point were you confused by my posts since?
A friend who watched it independently of me and a friend --and who had also read the comics-- also believed the same.
Fair enough. But I’ll also point out that we’re specifically told that despite all those signs, people keep going into Atlanta. Rick isn’t trying to stay alive - he’s trying to find his family.
Tell your friend who read the comics he should know better, ESPECIALLY after hearing the radio call.
