FILM · 2004 · UK
Shaun of the Dead
- Directed by
- Edgar Wright
- Runtime
- 99 min
- Studio
- WT² Productions, Big Talk Studios
168 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
Shaun lives a supremely uneventful life, which revolves around his girlfriend, his mother, and, above all, his local pub. This gentle routine is threatened when the dead return to life and make strenuous attempts to snack on ordinary Londoners.
168 Interesting Facts About Shaun of the Dead
Interesting Facts (72)
- #001
George A. Romero, the creator of the films that Shaun of the Dead pays tribute to and parodies, was so impressed by the work of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright that he asked them to appear as zombies in Land of the Dead (2005). The two appear as chained zombies used in a photo booth.
- #002
When an interviewer asked why they preferred slow-moving zombies over running ones, Simon Pegg simply replied: "Because death is not an energy drink."
- #003
The friendship between Shaun and Ed is based on the time Simon Pegg and Nick Frost shared the same flat. In fact, Shaun's line to Pete that he likes having Ed around because he always makes him laugh was the argument Pegg made to director Edgar Wright for casting Frost in Spaced (1999) despite Frost having no prior acting experience. Shaun and Ed also play games on a PlayStation 2, something Pegg and Frost's characters frequently did in Spaced.
- #004
Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright considered a sequel that would replace zombies with another monster, but they abandoned it because they were happy with the film standing alone and felt too many characters had died to continue the story. The proposed title was "From Dusk till Shaun." The idea did have an afterlife, however: a fake poster for the film can be seen in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018).
- #005
Contains a major spoiler — show
Shaun tells Liz he will take her to "The place that does all the fish." When he opens the phone book, you can see the restaurant is literally named "Fulci's Restaurant: The Place That Does All the Fish." Lucio Fulci is a director known for his Italian Giallo zombie films.
- #006
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According to the DVD commentary, when Ed tries to cheer Shaun up with plans for heavy drinking in Winchester, he is actually summarizing the events of the next day (Z day) entirely through drinking references. "Bloody Mary" — the Cash Machine Girl in the back garden, "Bite at the King's Head" — Philip, "Couple" — David and Di, "Little Princess" — Liz, "Stagger back" — turning into a zombie, "Bar for shots" — firing a rifle at Winchester.
- #007
All of the news anchors and television presenters are real people playing themselves.
- #008
Most of the zombie extras are fans of Spaced (1999), in which Simon Pegg and Nick Frost also appeared and which Edgar Wright also directed. They were recruited through the Spaced Out fan website.
- #009
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George A. Romero, director of Night of the Living Dead (1968), was given a private screening of the film near his home in Florida. During the scene where Ed (Nick Frost) shouts "We're coming to get you, Barbara" into the phone, Romero was unaware that it was a direct quote from Night of the Living Dead (1968) and only learned of it later during a phone call with Edgar Wright.
- #010
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Although the Zomb-o-meter feature states that Dianne died, the DVD's animated special feature Plot Holes: What Happened When Dianne Left Winchester? (2004) explains that Dianne managed to get through the zombie crowd, climbed a tree, passed out, woke in deep silence and stayed in the tree for days out of fear, survived on David's severed leg, and eventually went to live with an aunt. She keeps in "Christmas card contact" with Shaun and Liz.
- #011
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John and Bernie run the Winchester. These are the real names of the landlord and landlady who ran Simon Pegg's local pub, the Shepherds in Highgate. John used to make toasted sandwiches for the regulars, hence "the Breville out back." Pegg and Nick Frost were regulars at the Shepherd's Thursday night quiz, hence the line "we do the quiz" when Shaun knocks on the Winchester's door.
- #012
Because of the timing and the similarity of the names, distributors had to delay the film until two weeks after Dawn of the Dead (2004) opened in the United Kingdom.
- #013
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Almost all of the bit-part characters from the beginning can later be seen as zombies in the film.
- #014
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On the day of the zombie invasion, when Shaun walks to the corner shop and fails to notice the zombies in the streets and the bodies everywhere, the scene was shot in one long, unbroken take.
- #015
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During the Z-Day recall montage, there is a long shot of zombies walking in the park. Edgar is the figure in black who falls over. He also provides a voice as the waiter at Fulci's Italian restaurant, and is finally heard as a newsreader who says that rage-infected monkeys were dismissed as the cause of the outbreak.
- #016
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As Shaun and the group flee Liz's flat, they all carry some kind of weapon, but in fact only Shaun strikes any zombie. This was because only the cricket bat Shaun carried was a padded prop; all the other items were real and would have hurt the extras playing the zombies if they had been struck with them.
- #017
It cost £4 million to make and grossed £30 million worldwide.
- #018
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While Shaun and Ed listen to Electro, Pete tells Ed, "wants to live like an animal, he can live in a shed." Later, after Ed turns into a zombie at the end of the film, Shaun keeps him in the shed. Ed also says, "Next time I see him, he's dead." The next time Ed sees Pete, he finds him a zombie.
- #019
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In this film, Shaun's mother calls him "pickle," and it appears this was not simply invented by the producers. Edgar Wright's own mother used to call him that in his childhood, apparently while teaching him some of his lessons at school, and it embarrassed him greatly.
- #020
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Early in the film, Ed plays TimeSplitters 2 (2002) on the Playstation 2 while Shaun directs him (top left, reload, good shot, etc.). While the group is at the Winchester and Shaun is shooting zombies, Ed repeats exactly what Shaun told him to do while playing TimeSplitters 2.
- #021
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The zombie Shaun and Ed find in their garden is Mary, the checkout girl from the film's title montage. A short story detailing her transformation into one of the undead appeared in issue 1384 of the classic British science fiction comic 2000 AD. The issue went on sale on 7 April 2004. Titled "There's Something About Mary," the strip was written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright and drawn by Frazer Irving.
- #022
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The rifle they use at the Winchester is naturally a Winchester Model 66. It is the same weapon used in Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Night of the Living Dead (1990).
- #023
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The garden scenes were actually much longer; there was a hanged zombie man and a woman being eaten by her own dog (the dog was to be played by Colin from Spaced (1999)).
- #024
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While the group is at the Winchester and Shaun returns from distracting the zombies, David refers to Ed as Shaun's "boyfriend." Although Shaun replies, "he's not my boyfriend!" he responds with "Thanks, Babe" when Ed hands him a beer. A similar exchange between the pair is heard in the Art (1999) episode of Spaced (1999), directed by Edgar Wright and starring Pegg and Frost, whose zombie theme inspired this film. Shaun later offers the others some Twiglets; in 'Art,' Pegg's character hallucinated several zombies after eating "[his] body weight in Twiglets" and later said he could not eat them because they made him violent.
- #025
In 2024, Simon Pegg said that he and director Edgar Wright would be "incensed" if the film were ever remade, mainly because it is so personal to them, containing many autobiographical elements. In real life, for instance, Pegg and Nick Frost were so attached to their usual bar, the Shepherds in Highgate, that Wright had great difficulty getting them to go anywhere else for a change.
- #026
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Shaun passes a road sign pointing to Weston Park, a street in Crouch End, London — the same location as Spaced (1999) and where Simon Pegg currently lives.
- #027
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At one point a zombie in a yellow bicycle helmet and Lycra shorts appears. He is the comedian Michael Smiley, who appeared as the bicycle courier Tyres in Spaced (1999) wearing the same outfit.
- #028
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When Shaun returns home from the shop on the day of the zombie outbreak, he does not close the door completely, suggesting that he, not Ed, is the one who always leaves the front door open.
- #029
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Ed's missing patch of hair is visible in any over-the-shoulder shot or in profile, but it is never explained. According to director Edgar Wright, "It was some drunken thing where Ed and his friends had been shaving bits of their hair off."
- #030
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Throughout the film there are nods to various aspects of Capcom's original Resident Evil game series. A clear example is the scene in the pub cellar, where a key that activates the lift is only made visible by activating a lighter.
- #031
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Toward the end, as Shaun yawns, a newsreader can be heard saying that initial claims the virus came from "rage infected monkeys" have been "dismissed." This is a reference to 28 Days Later (2002), the film that was in fact the catalyst for the zombie-like apocalypse.
- #032
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Shaun's workplace is Foree Electric. Ken Foree appeared in Dawn of the Dead (1978) and had a brief role in Dawn of the Dead (2004).
- #033
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While at work, Shaun shows several people the television. As he flips through the channels, we see Trisha Goddard with a female guest and a game show. At the end of the film, the same woman and game show will be seen on television: the woman with a zombie, and zombies strapped to bungee cords.
- #034
The non-featured zombie extras were paid a grand sum of about one pound a day for their trouble. This was probably a nod to George A. Romero paying his extra zombies one dollar for Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985).
- #035
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In the bonus feature Plot Holes: What Happened to Shaun When He Escaped? (2004), included on the film's DVD release, Shaun (Simon Pegg) explains that, thanks to "contrary to modern theories, the undead are very slow," he was able to stay ahead of the undead and get out of the Winchester and back in again. This is a joke aimed at contemporary films such as 28 Days Later (2002) and Dawn of the Dead (2004), in which zombies no longer limp and stumble but can run like mad.
- #036
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The original script called for Shaun to defeat Mary and the large zombie with a girl's bicycle.
- #037
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The pajama zombie was originally written to walk along the pole it is impaled on, which is why Diane is left hanging at the end while giving zombie lessons.
- #038
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On the morning of Z-Day, as Shaun flips through the channels, a few words heard from each channel form a complete sentence explaining what is happening: "Although no one official is prepared to comment, religious groups are calling it Judgement Day. There's…" "… panic on the streets of London…" "… as an increasing number of reports of…" "… serious attacks on…" "… people who are literally being…" "… eaten alive…" "… but witness reports are sketchy. Apparently one unifying detail is that in most cases the attackers seem extremely excited to be here with us."
- #039
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Toward the end of the film, when Ed is bitten by a zombie, the sound effect of his scream is taken from the character Windows in John Carpenter's The Thing.
- #040
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The adjoining photo frames shown behind Shaun and Liz as they sit on the sofa at the end of the film belong to the late Barbara, Philip and Dianne. David's photo, however, is not shown on screen.
- #041
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The Northern Irish rock band Ash donated the three songs used in the film: "Meltdown", "Orpheus" and "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" featuring Chris Martin. The songs were donated because Edgar Wright's girlfriend, Charlotte Hatherley, was at the time playing guitar and singing backing vocals for Ash.
- #042
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Dianne tells David that she knows they are together, because after Liz rejected him at university she was the one who was "there to pick up the pieces". This foreshadows that David will be torn apart and that Dianne will escape with one of his legs.
- #043
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The voice of the "pajama zombie" was provided by Simon Pegg.
- #044
Simon Pegg jumps over a fence in every instalment of the Cornetto Trilogy, but he only manages it in Hot Fuzz (2007).
- #045
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While waiting on set for a rainstorm to pass, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost came up with a concept for their comedy sci-fi collaboration Paul (2011). They gave producer Nira Park a sketch of the main character, Paul, wearing an FBI T-shirt, surprising the viewer, with a caption reading "In the U.S., everybody is an alien." The actual drawing can be seen in Paul's end title sequence.
- #046
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The music playing over the Universal and production logos at the start of the film is "Figment's Park" from the De Wolfe Music Library. The music that also stands out while Shaun explains his plan to rescue Liz and his mother is incidental music created by the Italian group Goblin. Both pieces featured prominently in Dawn of the Dead (1978).
- #047
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When Noel calls Ed, Ed gives him the name "Noodle". Alex Noodle was a minor actor in Gone (2001). Noel also says "E-Ball says you're holding", Edgar Wright's nickname being "E-Ball".
- #048
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As the zombies advance toward the Winchester, Shaun shouts "Get behind me, get behind me!" at Ed, just as Han Solo shouts at Chewbacca as the Stormtroopers enter the cell block in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), one of Simon Pegg's favorite films.
- #049
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When the army comes out of the pub, Joe Cornish can be seen in the DVD video diary as a zombie that gets shot. He is shot in the back with his face turned toward the camera.
- #050
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Shaun's phone and answering machine are the same ones used in Spaced (1999).
- #051
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During the sequence at the Winchester, as they take turns hitting a zombie to the strains of Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now," various blows are synchronized with the music. This technique would reach its peak in Edgar Wright's Baby Driver (2017), in which much of the film's sound effects are in harmony with the music (achieved in part by playing the music on set).
- #052
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When Pete yells at Ed for keeping himself awake with his electro music, he throws in the line "You want to live like an animal? Go live in the shed, you thick fu-ck!" The last time we see Ed, he is a chained-up zombie living indefinitely in Shaun's shed. Shaun wears his tie like a bandana, and he wears it that way at the end.
- #053
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There are two possible Evil Dead references: while explaining the day's plan at the shop, Shaun mentions a coworker named Ash (the series' protagonist), and in his bathroom Shaun welcomes zombie Pete to "Join Us," as the Deadites say at the end of the first The Evil Dead (1981).
- #054
One of the Winchester's regulars, "Snakehips," is described by Ed as always being surrounded by women. On the way back to the Winchester (in his special boots), he can be seen surrounded by zombie women eating his corpse.
- #055
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A poster in Shaun's flat is an image from the video for 'The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster's "Psychosis Safari," directed by Edgar Wright. Members of the band appear as zombie extras, and one of their songs, "Mr. Mental," is included on the soundtrack album.
- #056
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The last piece of music played during the credits is a light remix of Herbert Chappell's "The Gonk." It featured prominently at the end of Dawn of the Dead (1978) when the zombies re-enter the shopping mall, and it is considered one of that film's most iconic pieces.
- #057
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At the end of the film there is a fake film trailer about a boy named Ramirez fighting his whole zombie family with a pump-action shotgun. This is a spoof of Lyle Menendez and Erik Menendez, who killed their parents with a pump-action shotgun in California in August 1989.
- #058
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The musical tones you can hear at the very start of the opening title sequence are the same as those used in the original Dawn of the Dead, particularly audible in the scene where a zombie's head meets the helicopter blades.
- #059
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Ed's friend "Noodles," who calls him to buy marijuana, is Shaun's coworker Noel (Rafe Spall). Ed tells him he only has "got a Henry" (an eighth) left. Noel later complains on the phone during Shaun's meeting that his connection only has "got a Henry" and has nothing to sell.
- #060
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A vlog by the two men who appear as zombies in the DVD special features reveals that the final military battle was the last scene shot.
- #061
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During his hungover visit, Shaun calls out to Nelson, the shop owner. As Shaun is about to leave, you can see someone carefully peering out from the back of the store; it is probably Nelson. A zombie would not be that careful. This means he took the hangover and Shaun's obvious visit as a sign that everything was fine, which accidentally resulted in Nelson being attacked. The proof is that Nelson later shuffles in comically with his hand outstretched for the change Shaun owes him.
- #062
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Shaun tells the football kid "you're dead," and Ed says Pete is dead the next time he sees him, foreshadowing that they will turn into zombies.
- #063
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At the start, while Shaun is getting on the bus, the young man in front of him is listening to music. The audible song is Zombie Nation's dance club classic "Kernkraft 400," whose melody is borrowed from "It Happened Then/Babylon Run" (by Dave Eager and Pete Baker), the theme of the "Star Dust" sub-game of the C64 game Lazy Jones.
- #064
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Most of the posters in Shaun's living room belong to artists on the Ninja Tune record label. These include Funki Porcini and The Herbaliser.
- #065
At the start, after Liz breaks up with Shaun, "If You Leave Me Now" by Chicago plays on the jukebox in the Winchester. Ed says, "Who the hell put this on?" and Shaun answers, "It's on random." Later at the Winchester, "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen plays, Shaun says, "Who the hell put this on?" and Ed answers, "It's on random." There are also several repetitions of the lines "Two seconds," "You've got red on you," "He's not my dad!" "Dogs can't look up," "We wait until this whole thing blows over," and "I'll stop doing it when you stop laughing."
- #066
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The Battle Royale (2000) poster in Shaun's living room, like the green poster featuring flowers and a girl in Liz's flat, was designed by Fred Deakin of Airside. Deakin is also a member of the band Lemon Jelly, which provided music for the soundtrack.
- #067
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When Shaun and Ed leave the flat to get Pete's car to rescue Shaun's mother, Ed accidentally sets off the alarm in Pete's car, which attracts a group of zombies. After Shaun and Ed get into the car, the zombified shop owner Nelson can be seen in the zombie crowd with his hand outstretched. This is probably because the last time Shaun went to the shop to buy a Cornetto and diet cola he did not have change and still owed Nelson 15 pence.
- #068
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After Shaun joins Ed at the Winchester and Liz breaks up with him, Ed uses his "Clyde impression" — that is, Clyde the orangutan from Every Which Way But Loose (1978) and Any Which Way You Can (1980) — to make Shaun feel better. Later in the film, when Ed is bitten by two zombies, his pained screams sound like orangutan noises.
- #069
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In Dawn of the Dead (1978), it was suggested that the undead flock to the local shopping mall because they subconsciously remember it as a place they loved to go (a veiled critique of consumerism). In this British parody, British zombies seem to be drawn to pubs more than anything else.
- #070
While trying to console Shaun over his breakup with Liz, Ed finishes with "It's not the end of the world." The World's End (2013) would become the third part of the unofficial Cornetto trilogy that began with this film.
- #071
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Pete throws an album out the window, similar to how the pair later throw one at a zombie.
- #072
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As Shaun channel-surfs with the customers, the on-screen slogan of Trisha's show is "Your nine lives are up"; later in the film, while Shaun and Liz argue, David quotes "Basically I'd say your nine lives are up Shaun."
Production Story (80)
- #073
When Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg began promoting the film, Film4 Productions showed interest. They then cut the budget significantly and left the film without a production company for a time. Because Wright still hoped to get the film made, he put off taking other directing work for television while seeking new financing and eventually had to borrow money from friends, including Pegg: "Taking a television job for me meant pushing the film back, so… I was rapidly going bankrupt. I was largely in the red." Eighteen months later, Living Title Films took over the project; Wright found it ironic that the film mocks the classic British romantic comedies Living Title produced. Wright also said that Pegg still has not let him repay the money he owed him from that difficult period.
- #074
George A. Romero, the creator of the films this movie pays homage to and satirizes, was so impressed by the work of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright that he asked them to appear as zombies in Land of the Dead (2005). They appear to be the two chained zombies used in a photo booth.
- #075
When an interviewer asked why they preferred slow-moving zombies over running zombies, Simon Pegg simply replied: "Because death is not an energy drink."
- #076
The friendship between Shaun and Ed is based on the time Simon Pegg and Nick Frost shared the same flat. In fact, Shaun's line to Pete that he likes having Ed around because he always makes him laugh was the argument Pegg presented to director Edgar Wright for casting Frost in Spaced (1999), despite Frost having no prior acting experience. Shaun and Ed also play games on a PlayStation 2, something Pegg and Frost's characters frequently did in Spaced.
- #077
Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright considered a sequel that would replace the zombies with another monster, but they abandoned it because they were happy with this film as a standalone product and felt too many characters had died to continue the story. The proposed title was "From Dusk till Shaun." The idea did have an afterlife, however; a fake poster for the film can be seen in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018).
- #078
According to the DVD commentary, when Ed tries to cheer Shaun up with plans for heavy drinking at the Winchester, he is actually summarizing the events of the next day (Z day) entirely through drinking references. "Bloody Mary" - the Cashier Girl in the back garden, "Bite at the King's Head" - Philip, "Couple" - David and Di, "Little Princess" - Liz, "Stagger back" - turning into a zombie, "Bar for shots" - shooting a rifle at the Winchester.
- #079
Most of the zombie extras are fans of Spaced (1999), in which Simon Pegg and Nick Frost also starred and which Edgar Wright also directed. They were recruited through the Spaced Out fan website.
- #080
George A. Romero, director of Night of the Living Dead (1968), was given a private screening of this film near his home in Florida. In the scene where Ed (Nick Frost) shouts "We're coming to get you, Barbara" at the phone, Romero was unaware that it was a direct quote from Night of the Living Dead (1968) and only learned of it later during a phone call with Edgar Wright.
- #081
Although the Zomb-o-meter feature states that Dianne died, the DVD's animated special feature Plot Holes: What Happened to Dianne When She Left the Winchester? (2004) explains that Dianne managed to get through the zombie crowd, climbed a tree, passed out, woke up in deep silence and stayed in the tree for days out of fear, survived on David's severed leg, and eventually went to live with an aunt. She keeps in "Christmas card contact" with Shaun and Liz.
- #082
John and Bernie run the Winchester. These are the real names of the landlord and landlady who ran Shepherds in Highgate, Simon Pegg's local pub. John used to make toasted sandwiches for the regulars, hence "the Breville out back." Pegg and Nick Frost were regulars at Shepherd's Thursday night quiz, hence the line "we do the quiz" as Shaun knocks on the Winchester's door.
- #083
When Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg began promoting this film, Film4 Productions showed interest. They then cut the budget significantly and left the film without a production company for a while. Because Wright still hoped to get the film made, he put off taking other directing work for television while seeking new financing and eventually had to borrow money from friends, including Pegg: "Taking a television job for me meant pushing the film back, so… I was rapidly going broke. I was largely in the red." Eighteen months later, Living Title Films took over the project; Wright found it ironic that the film mocks the classic British romantic comedies Living Title produced. Wright has also said he still has not let Pegg repay the money he owed him from that difficult period.
- #084
Just as Shaun leaves the corner shop, which is tuned to a radio station playing songs from Indian films, the song stops and a news anchor begins speaking in Hindi. Translated into English, the content of the news is: "People are waking up from their graves."
- #085
When Shaun first goes to the shop, a worker on the street is listening to the radio. The news programme mentions a space probe that unexpectedly entered Earth's atmosphere and broke up over Britain. This is probably a nod to Night of the Living Dead (1968), in which radiation from a satellite returning from Venus is given as a possible cause for the dead coming back to life.
- #086
When Shaun's girlfriend objects to going to the Winchester, he suggests a few more bars; one of them is Shepherds; this was in fact Simon Pegg's local pub in Highgate, until it was closed and reopened as a themed bar.
- #087
Almost all of the bit-part characters from the beginning can later be seen as zombies in this film.
- #088
According to Edgar Wright, the Cornettos appear in this film because he once ate a Cornetto to get over a hangover and thought it would be funny for Ed to do the same after a night of drinking.
- #089
On the day of the zombie invasion, when Shaun goes to the corner shop and fails to notice the zombies in the streets and the bodies everywhere, the scene was shot in one long, unbroken take.
- #090
During the Remembering Z-Day montage, there is a long shot of zombies walking in the park. Edgar is the person in black who falls over. He also does a voice-over as the waiter of Fulci's Italian restaurant and is finally heard as a newsreader, saying that rage-infected monkeys have been ruled out as the cause of the outbreak.
- #091
As Shaun and the group escape from Liz's flat, they are all carrying some kind of weapon, but in fact only Shaun hits any zombie. This was because only the cricket bat Shaun was carrying was a padded fake; all the other items were real and would have hurt the extras playing the zombies if they had been hit with them.
- #092
According to Edgar Wright, the producers approached Jim Broadbent for a role in this film, but he turned the offer down. He later regretted it and said he would not make the same mistake twice. Frank's role in Hot Fuzz (2007) was written especially for him.
- #093
The title began with what was then called "Tea Time of the Dead", which Edgar Wright described as a "one-page Word document" summarising the film's general idea. He began developing the concept after playing Resident Evil (2002) late into the night, and as he went out half-awake the next morning, he wondered how an English person would react to a zombie apocalypse without the firearms common in American zombie films (this inspired Shaun's hungover trip to the shop). Wright was also influenced by an experience in which he did not watch the news for 2 weeks, missed the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak, and was then stunned by reports of cattle being burned; he thought the end of the world could come and the last two men would find out because they had skipped the news.
- #094
In this film, Shaun's mother calls him "pickle", and apparently this is not just something the producers made up. Edgar Wright's own mother used to address him this way in his childhood, apparently while teaching him some of his lessons at school, and it embarrassed him greatly.
- #095
Near the beginning of this film, while Ed is playing TimeSplitters 2 (2002) on the Playstation 2, Shaun directs him (top left, reload, good shot, etc.). While the group is at the Winchester bar and Shaun is shooting zombies, Ed repeats the same things Shaun told him to do while he was playing Timesplitters 2.
- #096
Shaun scolds Ed for calling the creatures zombies. It may also be a nod to 28 Days Later (2002) director Danny Boyle's insistence that it is not a zombie film.
- #097
Although it is hinted at from time to time, the cause of the zombie outbreak is never fully explained. People are interrupted by something just as they are about to do it.
- #098
The zombie Shaun and Ed find in their garden is Mary, the checkout girl from the film's title sequence. A short story detailing her transformation into one of the undead appeared in issue 1384 of the classic British science fiction comic 2000 AD. The issue went on sale on 7 April 2004. Titled "There's Something About Mary", the strip was written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, with art by Frazer Irving.
- #099
Simon Pegg said he was impressed by Nicola Cunningham's audition and that her character Mary is one of his favourite zombies ever. He explained on his Instagram account: "It's easy to forget that every zombie represents a tragedy. The more they scream and run, the less the tragedy is visible. A zombie is the walking personification of a lost human life. There was a sadness and confusion that Nicola brought to Mary that I found really very touching. When Ed says, 'I think she wants a cuddle', I like to think he isn't far off the mark."
- #100
The rifle they use at the Winchester is, naturally, a Winchester Model 66. It is the same weapon used in Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Night of the Living Dead (1990).
- #101
The garden scenes were in fact much longer; there was a hanged zombie man and a woman being eaten by her own dog (the dog was to have been played by Colin from Spaced (1999)).
- #102
While the group is at the Winchester and Shaun returns from distracting the zombies, David refers to Ed as Shaun's "boyfriend". Although Shaun replies "he's not my boyfriend!", when Ed hands Shaun a beer, Shaun responds "Thanks, Babe". A similar exchange between the pair is heard in the Art (1999) episode of Spaced (1999), directed by Edgar Wright, which inspired this film with its zombie theme and also starred Pegg and Frost. Shaun later offers the others some Twiglets; in 'Art', Pegg's character hallucinated several zombies after eating "[his] body weight in Twiglets" and later said he could not eat them because they made him violent.
- #103
In 2024, Simon Pegg said that he and director Edgar Wright would be "incensed" if the film were ever remade, chiefly because it is so personal to them, containing many autobiographical elements. For example, in real life Pegg and Nick Frost were also so attached to their usual pub, the Shepherds in Highgate, that Wright would have great difficulty getting them to go anywhere else for a change.
- #104
At one point a zombie in a yellow bicycle helmet and Lycra shorts appears. He is the comedian Michael Smiley, who appeared as the bicycle courier named Tyres in Spaced (1999) and wears the same outfit.
- #105
Ed's missing tuft of hair can be seen in any over-the-shoulder shot or in profile, but it is never explained. According to director Edgar Wright, "It was some drunken thing where Ed and his friends had been shaving bits of their hair off."
- #106
Throughout the film there are nods to various aspects of Capcom's original Resident Evil game series. A vivid example is the scene in the pub cellar, where a key that activates the lift is only made visible by activating a lighter.
- #107
Towards the end, as Shaun yawns, you hear a newsreader say that initial claims the virus came from "rage infected monkeys" have been "dismissed". This is a reference to 28 Days Later (2002), in which a rage virus causes a zombie-like apocalypse.
- #108
At work, Shaun shows several people the television. Flicking through the channels, we see Trisha Goddard with a female guest and a game show. At the end of the film, the same woman and game show will also be seen on television. The woman emerging with a zombie, and zombies attached to bungee cords.
- #109
Non-prominent zombie extras were paid a princely sum of around one pound a day for their trouble. This was probably a nod to George A. Romero paying his extra zombies one dollar for Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985).
- #110
In Plot Holes: What Happened to Shaun When He Ran Off? (2004), a bonus feature on the film's DVD release, Shaun (Simon Pegg) explains that, thanks to "contrary to modern theories, the undead are very slow", he was able to leave the Winchester and get back in again by staying ahead of the undead. This is a joke aimed at contemporary films such as 28 Days Later (2002) and Dawn of the Dead (2004), in which zombies no longer limp and stumble but can run like mad.
- #111
The phrase "Fried gold" originated behind the scenes of the sitcom Spaced (1999) by Simon Pegg, Jessica Hynes and Edgar Wright, and was mentioned several times in the DVD commentaries for that series. It makes many fan-pleasing appearances in this film.
- #112
The pajama zombie was initially written to walk along the pole it is impaled on, which is why Diane remains hanging at the end while giving zombie lessons.
- #113
On the morning of Z-Day, as Shaun channel-surfs, the few words we hear from each channel form a complete sentence explaining what is happening. "Although no one official is prepared to comment, religious groups are calling it Judgement Day. There's…" "… panic on the streets of London…" "… as an increasing number of reports of…" "… serious attacks on…" "… people who are literally being…" "… eaten alive…" "… but witness reports are sketchy. Apparently a unifying detail is that in most cases the attackers seem extremely excited to be… here with us."
- #114
Zombie Mary in Shaun's back garden works at Landis Supermarket. This is a reference to John Landis, who directed An American Werewolf in London (1981) and Michael Jackson: Thriller (1983), and to the British supermarket chain Londis.
- #115
When Ed is bitten by a zombie near the end of the film, the sound effect for his scream is taken from the character Windows in John Carpenter's "The Thing".
- #116
The adjoining photo frames shown behind Shaun and Liz sitting on the sofa at the end of the film belong to the late Barbara, Philip and Dianne. However, David's photo is not shown on screen.
- #117
While Shaun is leafing through the Yellow Pages, he finds the number of an Italian restaurant called "Fulci's", a reference to Italian horror director Lucio Fulci, known for his zombie films.
- #118
After 'Art' was shot and director Edgar Wright watched a horror film with Pegg and Nick Frost, the idea for a feature-length zombie comedy (or, as they would later describe it, a 'zomromcom') was born. 'Art' also features David Walliams, who provides voice work as a newsreader in the film.
- #119
The only armed zombie killed by Shaun and Ed is in fact an amputee actor in real life. This was concealed the previous day in the shop by hiding his right side behind Shaun.
- #120
Northern Irish rock band Ash donated the three songs used in this film: "Meltdown", "Orpheus" and "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" featuring Chris Martin. These songs were donated because Edgar Wright's girlfriend, Charlotte Hatherley, was at the time playing guitar and singing backing vocals for Ash.
- #121
While Shaun is talking to his mother Barbara on the phone, Ed shouts, "We're coming to get you Barbara!" — a reference to a classic horror film line spoken in the original Night of the Living Dead (1968). "They're coming to get you Barbara! There's one now!" says Johnny, mocking Barbara as a zombie can be seen approaching them from a distance.
- #122
Dianne tells David that she knows they are together because, after Liz rejected him at university, she was "there to pick up the pieces". This foreshadows that David will be torn to pieces and that Dianne will escape with one of his legs.
- #123
WILHELM SCREAM: When the soldiers arrive to give first aid, the famous sound effect can be heard faintly in the background.
- #124
At the end of the film, the graphic of the three zombies whose heads explode in the "Zombies from Hell" advert is shown. This animation was in fact made from a clip from Dawn of the Dead (1978). The clip it is sourced from immediately follows the "redneck" scene in which hunters shoot at three zombies shuffling towards them over a hill.
- #125
While waiting on set for a rainstorm to pass, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost came up with a concept for their comedy sci-fi collaboration Paul (2011). They gave producer Nira Park a sketch of the main character Paul wearing an FBI T-shirt, surprising the viewer, with a caption reading "In the U. S., everybody is an alien." The actual drawing can be seen in Paul's end title sequence.
- #126
Near the beginning, as Shaun leaves the shop with a can of cola and a Cornetto, there is a pizza place behind him and to his left. The restaurant is called "Bub's Pizzas" and is probably a nod to the chained-up main zombie in Day of the Dead (1985) (who was taught to hold and aim a gun). In that film, the doctor named that zombie "Bub".
- #127
The music playing over the Universal and production logos at the start of this film is "Figment's Park" from the De Wolfe Music Library. Also, the music that stands out while Shaun explains his plan to rescue Liz and his mother is incidental music created by the Italian group Goblin. Both pieces featured prominently in Dawn of the Dead (1978).
- #128
As the zombies advance toward the Winchester, Shaun shouts to Ed, "Get behind me, get behind me!" — just as Han Solo shouts to Chewbacca as the Stormtroopers enter the cell block in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), one of Simon Pegg's favourite films.
- #129
When the group barricades themselves in the pub, Ed turns on a noisy gambling machine and Shaun immediately pulls the plug and switches it off. Before he does so, a few musical notes reveal the song's theme to be "Phantom of the Opera", an odd choice given that the game is clearly called "Dracula". The fruit machine was made by Barcrest and is called "OOH AH DRACULA", and it also appears in Hot Fuzz (2007) and The World's End (2013).
- #130
On the DVD (at least in the Region 2 and Region 1 versions), the Alternative Bits section has a bonus feature called 'Funky Pete' that plays an edited version of the scene in which Pete shouts at Shaun and Ed for playing their music too loudly ("I've got to go to fuc-king work in four fuc-king hours!"). It was dubbed for television broadcasts so that all the profanities were replaced: "Fuck" became "funk", and "prick" became "prink". Another feature, 'The Man Who Be Shaun' (referring to The Man Who Would Be King (1975)), shows Simon Pegg shooting a scene from the film while imitating Michael Caine's voice, while Nick Frost tries to imitate Sean Connery.
- #131
During the sequence at the Winchester, as they strike the zombies in turn to the music of Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now", the various blows are synchronized with the music. This technique would reach its peak in Edgar Wright's Baby Driver (2017), in which most of the film's sound effects are in harmony with the music (achieved in part by playing the music on set).
- #132
When Pete shouts at Ed for keeping himself awake with his electro music, he blurts out, "You want to live like an animal? Go live in the shed, you thick fu-ck!" The last time we see Ed, he is a chained-up zombie living indefinitely in Shaun's shed. Shaun wears his tie like a bandana, and he wears it that way at the climax too.
- #133
There are two possible Evil Dead references: while explaining the day's plan in the shop, Shaun mentions an employee named Ash (the series' protagonist), and in his bathroom Shaun welcomes zombie Pete with "Join Us," just as the Deadites say at the end of the first The Evil Dead (1981).
- #134
One of the Winchester's regulars, "Snakehips", is described by Ed as follows: "He's always surrounded by women." On the way back to the Winchester (in his special boots), he can be seen surrounded by zombie women eating his corpse.
- #135
A poster in Shaun's flat is an image from the video for 'The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster's Psychosis Safari, directed by Edgar Wright. Members of the band appear as zombie extras, and one of their songs, "Mr. Mental", is included on the soundtrack album.
- #136
The last piece of music played during the credits is a light remix of Herbert Chappell's "The Gonk".
- #137
At the end of the film there is a fake film trailer about a boy named Ramirez fighting his entire zombie family with a pump-action shotgun. This is a spoof of Lyle Menendez and Erik Menendez, who murdered their parents with a shotgun in California in August 1989.
- #138
When "Don't Stop Me Now" starts playing at The Winchester, Shaun tells David to "Kill the Queen", referring to the song. This foreshadows David's attempt to kill Barbara (the Queen) after it is revealed that she has been bitten. This makes sense because her husband (Philip) is referred to as "the King" when Ed breaks the news to him near the beginning of the plot.
- #139
The musical tones you can hear at the very start of the opening title sequence are the same as those used in the original Dawn of the Dead, particularly audible in the scene where the zombie's head is caught in the helicopter blades.
- #140
Ed's friend "Noodles", who calls him to buy weed, is Shaun's co-worker Noel (Rafe Spall). Ed tells him he only has "got a Henry" (an eighth) left. Noel later complains on the phone during Shaun's meeting that his connection only has "got a Henry" and has nothing to sell.
- #141
During his hungover visit, Shaun calls out to the shop owner Nelson. As Shaun is about to leave, you can see someone carefully peering out from the back of the store; presumably Nelson. A zombie wouldn't be that careful. This means he took the hungover state and Shaun's obvious visit as a sign that everything was fine, and it resulted in Nelson being attacked by mistake. The proof of this is that Nelson later comes shuffling along humorously, holding out his hand for the change Shaun owes him.
- #142
Shaun tells the football kid "you're dead", and Ed says Pete's dead the next time he sees him, foreshadowing that they will turn into zombies.
- #143
At the beginning, while Shaun is getting on the bus, the young man in front of him is listening to music. The song that can be heard is Zombie Nation's dance club classic "Kernkraft 400", whose melody is borrowed from the song "It Happened Then/Babylon Run" (by Dave Eager and Pete Baker), which is the theme of the "Star Dust" sub-game of the C64 game Lazy Jones.
- #144
When jumping over the fence doesn't go as smoothly as planned, Shaun uses a trampoline to jump over someone. This is probably a nod to the Super Nintendo game Zombies Ate My Neighbors (1993), in which the main characters use a trampoline to jump from garden to garden.
- #145
After Shaun explains his plan to rescue his mother and Liz, Ed says "perfick". This is a reference to the old popular British TV series The Darling Buds of May (1991-1993), in which Pa Larkin often said "perfick".
- #146
At the beginning, after Liz breaks up with Shaun, "If You Leave Me Now" by Chicago plays on the jukebox at the Winchester. Ed says, "Who the hell put this on?" and Shaun replies, "It's on random." Later, when Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" plays at the Winchester, Shaun says "Who the hell put this on?" and Ed replies, "It's on random." There are also several repetitions of the lines "Two seconds," "You've got red on you," "He's not my dad!" "Dogs can't look up", "We wait until this whole thing blows over," and "I'll stop doing it when you stop laughing."
- #147
The Battle Royale (2000) poster in Shaun's living room, like the green poster featuring flowers and the girl in Liz's flat, was designed by Fred Deakin of Airside. Deakin is also a member of the band Lemon Jelly, who provided music for the soundtrack.
- #148
When Shaun goes to the market at 8:30, the song Hamne Tumko Dekha, Tumne Hamko Dekha, Aise… from the Bollywood Indian film Khel Khel Mein (1975) (English meaning, Just for Fun) plays in the background.
- #149
After Shaun joins Ed at the Winchester and Liz breaks up with him, Ed does his "Clyde impression" — that is, Clyde the orangutan from Every Which Way But Loose (1978) and Any Which Way You Can (1980) — to make Shaun feel better. Later in the film, when Ed is bitten by two zombies, his cries of pain resemble orangutan sounds.
- #150
In the scene at the shop where Shaun works, we hear Noel mention "… said he's only got a Henry" on the phone. This shows that Ed (Nick Frost) is Noel's dealer/friend; "noodle" is Ed's nickname for Noel, who calls Ed at their house in the second scene.
- #151
In Dawn of the Dead (1978), it was suggested that the undead flock to the local shopping mall because subconsciously they remember it as a place they loved to go (a veiled critique of consumerism). In this British parody, British zombies seem to be drawn to pubs more than anything else.
- #152
While Shaun is flipping through the cable channels with customers, the on-screen slogan of the Trisha show is "Your nine lives are up," and later in the film, while Shaun and Liz are arguing, David quotes "Basically I'd say your nine lives are up Shaun."
Behind the Scenes (1)
- #153
Contains a major spoiler — show
The phrase "fried gold" originated behind the scenes of the sitcom Spaced (1999) with Simon Pegg, Jessica Hynes and Edgar Wright, and was mentioned several times in the DVD commentaries for that series. It makes several fan-pleasing appearances in this film.
Characters & Cast (1)
- #154
According to Edgar Wright, the producers approached Jim Broadbent for a role in this film, but he turned the offer down. He later regretted it and said he would not make the same mistake twice. Frank's role in Hot Fuzz (2007) was written specifically for him.
Easter Eggs & References (10)
- #155
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Shaun first goes to the shop, a worker on the street is listening to the radio. The news program mentions a space probe that unexpectedly entered Earth's atmosphere and broke apart over Britain. This is probably a nod to Night of the Living Dead (1968), in which radiation from a satellite returning from Venus is given as a possible cause of the dead coming back to life.
- #156
Contains a major spoiler — show
Shaun scolds Ed for calling the creatures zombies. It may also be a nod to Danny Boyle's insistence that 28 Days Later (2002) is not a zombie film.
- #157
Contains a major spoiler — show
The zombie Mary in Shaun's back garden works at Landis Supermarket. This is a reference to John Landis, who directed An American Werewolf in London (1981) and Michael Jackson: Thriller (1983), and to the British supermarket chain Londis.
- #158
While Shaun leafs through the Yellow Pages, he finds the number of an Italian restaurant called "Fulci's", a reference to the Italian horror director Lucio Fulci, known for his zombie films.
- #159
Contains a major spoiler — show
The only armed zombie that Shaun and Ed kill is in real life an amputee actor. The previous day in the shop, his right side had been hidden behind Shaun's back.
- #160
Contains a major spoiler — show
WILHELM SCREAM: When the soldiers arrive to give first aid, the famous sound effect can be faintly heard in the background.
- #161
Contains a major spoiler — show
Near the beginning, as Shaun leaves the shop with a can of cola and a Cornetto, there is a pizza place behind him and to his left. The restaurant is called "Bub's Pizzas", probably a reference to the chained-up main zombie in Day of the Dead (1985) (who was taught to hold and aim a gun). In that film, the doctor named that zombie "Bub".
- #162
Contains a major spoiler — show
When "Don't Stop Me Now" starts playing at The Winchester, Shaun tells David to "Kill the Queen," referring to the song. This foreshadows David's attempt to kill Barbara (the Queen) after it is revealed that she has been bitten. This makes sense because her husband (Philip) is referred to as "the King" when Ed breaks the news to him near the beginning of the plot.
- #163
Contains a major spoiler — show
After Shaun explains his plan to rescue his mother and Liz, Ed says "perfick." This is a reference to the old popular British TV series The Darling Buds of May (1991-1993), in which Pa Larkin often said "perfick."
- #164
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Shaun goes to the shop at 8:30, the song Hamne Tumko Dekha, Tumne Hamko Dekha, Aise… from the Bollywood Indian film Khel Khel Mein (1975) (English meaning, Just for Fun) plays in the background.
Deeper Meaning (4)
- #165
Contains a major spoiler — show
As the first installment of the unofficial Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, this film features the red wrapper (strawberry flavor). According to Edgar Wright, red represents blood and zombies, the film's central motif. His other films featured blue and vanilla for the police in Hot Fuzz (2007), and green and mint chocolate chip for the science fiction and extraterrestrial elements in the final installment, The World's End (2013).
- #166
The title began with what was then called "Tea Time of the Dead," which Edgar Wright describes as a "one-page Word document" summarizing the film's general idea. He began developing the concept after playing Resident Evil (2002) late into the night, and the next morning, half awake as he went out, he wondered how an English person would react to a zombie apocalypse without the firearms common in American zombie films (this inspired Shaun's hungover trip to the shop). Wright was also influenced by an experience in which he did not watch the news for two weeks, missed the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak, and was then stunned by reports of cattle being burned; he thought the end of the world could come and the last two men would learn of it because they had skipped the news.
- #167
Contains a major spoiler — show
At the end of the film, footage is shown of the three zombies whose heads explode in the "Zombies from Hell" advert. This animation was in fact made from a clip from Dawn of the Dead (1978). The clip it is taken from immediately follows the "redneck" scene in which hunters shoot at three zombies shuffling towards them over a hill.
- #168
Contains a major spoiler — show
When the group barricades itself in the pub, Ed turns on a noisy fruit machine and Shaun immediately pulls the plug to shut it off. Before he does, a few musical notes reveal the song's theme to be "Phantom of the Opera," an odd choice given that the game is clearly called "Dracula." The fruit machine was made by Barcrest and is called "OOH AH DRACULA," and it also appears in Hot Fuzz (2007) and The World's End (2013).
Related pages
- The Wild Robot — Shaun of the Dead comes up in the facts on that page
- Ready Player One — Shaun of the Dead comes up in the facts on that page
- Hot Fuzz — Shaun of the Dead comes up in the facts on that page
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- Wikipedia
- IMDb
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