I’ve always been a fan of George Romero and his Dead films. I was probably around the age of eight or nine the first time I watched Night of the Living Dead. The zombie genre immediately captivated me, and I became moderately obsessed with consuming as many films as I could. This was around 1996, so Blockbuster and independent video stores became my weekend playgrounds.
Imagine my delight when, while browsing the horror section, I came across both Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead. This was right before the internet boom, so a kid my age didn’t even know these movies existed. I didn’t have horror-obsessed friends, and my older brother was more into Mustangs than movies. I remember begging my mom to let me rent both films, four dollars apiece, so I could learn how the characters from Night of the Living Dead were going to return in Dawn, and then in Day as well. I was naive. Movie rights didn’t exist in my mind, and every sequel I had seen up to that point always brought the characters back for another adventure.
Did Barbra somehow survive getting dragged out of the house by the zombies? I couldn’t wait to find out. I got home and parked myself in front of the television set. The first movie I watched was, of course, Dawn of the Dead. Dawn follows Night—I wasn’t a smart kid, but that much I knew.
If you’re reading this now, I doubt I need to go into detail about how and why that movie completely changed the zombie genre. Even to a kid, the impact of Dawn was immediate. It opened my eyes not only to the magic of filmmaking but also to how expansive the zombie genre could be. We weren’t confined to Night’s rural farmhouse anymore. Suddenly, it seemed like there were a thousand people on screen, with wide shots showing miles of zombie-infested terrain and a shopping mall just like the one fifteen minutes away.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that I had lucked out when I rented Dawn of the Dead. The small mom-and-pop store happened to stock an extended version of the film. This version, with all the extra bits that wide audiences didn’t know were missing, had been preserved and was now playing in my living room. It was the version of the film. I didn’t know anything about European cuts, music disputes, or censorship boards. I just knew that Dawn of the Dead had quickly replaced Night of the Living Dead as my favorite movie.
One of the extended scenes in my version of Dawn took place at the police dock. It showed our heroes Flyboy and Francine meeting up with Peter and Roger to escape the city. It was there that they encountered a group of Pittsburgh police who were defying martial law and fleeing on their own. One of these cops was played by Joe Pilato. His unnamed character inquired about the helicopter the group planned to use. A fellow officer quickly reminded him that if anything happened to the pilot, they’d be stranded. In the end, the police stuck to their plan of escaping by water, and our main characters lifted off into the Pittsburgh sky.
The next night, I watched Day of the Dead. Again, I won’t go into how terrific that film is, given the likely audience reading this. Day took everything Dawn had done and dialed it up to eleven. The more realistic gore and darker tone immediately hit a nerve with me in the best possible way.
Now, imagine my surprise when, about twenty minutes into the film, Joe Pilato reappeared on screen—this time as a character with a name: Captain Rhodes. Was this meant to be the same guy? He must be! It’s a sequel, right? And so began what has become a twenty-eight-year-long fan theory: that the cop from Dawn and Captain Rhodes from Day are one and the same.
How could that be? I’ve spent years thinking about it. Each rewatch of Dawn or Day would bring with it a new theory, a quick mental sketch of how that cop might have become the tyrant we meet in the bunker. And now, at thirty-eight years old, with the resources finally available to me, I’ve decided to expand on my fan theory and see if anyone else out there thinks it’s a neat little Easter egg, just like I do.
Will this be the greatest graphic novel or script ever produced? Not at all. I’m just a guy with an idea who thinks that idea deserves to exist in some form. I’m excited not only to share it with other Dead fans but also to contribute in some small way to the genre itself.
Thank you for reading and joining me on this trip. I’m very excited about what’s to come.
— Dave Cohen
