Shaun of the Dead Plot

The movie begins with Shaun and Liz sitting in a local pub known as the Winchester Tavern (named for the rifle which hangs above the bar). Their anniversary was last week (3 years) and this is where Shaun took her. Liz wants them to spend more time alone, away from Shaun's boorish flatmate, Ed. As it turns out, Ed is standing nearby playing one of the pub's coin-operated games. Liz's flatmates David and Dianne are also there.

Shaun promises her that things will be different. He even goes so far as to promise her that he'll book them a table at a fancy seafood restaurant for the following night.

The next morning, Shaun wakes up and finds Ed on the couch playing video games, as usual. Shaun starts to join in, but Ed reminds him that he has to be at work. Shaun runs into Pete, his flatmate, who reminds him that he and Ed left the front door open again last night. Pete doesn't really like Ed and wants him to move out. Shaun takes up for Ed since he's known his since grammar school, but Pete tells him that all Ed ever does is hold him back. At this point, we learn that Ed crashed at their place 5 years ago and never moved out. He sells some marijuana from time to time and otherwise stays on the couch.

After asking Ed to pick up around the place, Shaun leaves for work. He stops at the corner store and buys a soda from Nelson the shopkeeper. On his bus ride to work, he notices a woman collapse to the ground. Meanwhile, Liz calls the house and asks Shaun to make the dinner reservations for an hour later. Ed, of course, doesn't answer the phone.

Shaun works at Foree Electric (named after Ken Foree from the original Dawn of the Dead). The manager is out, so Shaun has to try and fill in. The other "sales advisers" don't give the 29 year old Shaun much respect. To make matters worse, his red pen bursts and leaves ink all over his shirt. While trying to sell a television, he notices that numerous news channels are reporting a strange sickness which is afflicting the London area.

Shaun's step-father, Phillip, stops by to see him at the store. It is quite obvious that the two don't get along. Phillip reminds Shaun that it's time for his bi-monthly visit and asks him to bring the flowers that he forgot on Mother's Day. Shaun agrees and Phillip leaves.

 
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Liz calls to remind him about making the dinner arrangements for later, but Shaun is only half paying attention and doesn't know what she's talking about. Since she believes that he already received her first message, she doesn't elaborate.

After work, Shaun stops off and buys his mother some flowers. Out the window of the shop, he notices a man bite the head off of a pigeon. On the ride home, many of the people around him on the bus seem to be sick.

As he walks the rest of the way home, he runs into Yvonne, an old girlfriend. They chat for a minute about their lives, not noticing a man in the background who looks to have died at the wheel of his car. An ambulance arrives to take him away, and the pair continue to talk. Shaun then realizes that he has forgotten to make the dinner reservations, so he rushes home.

 
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Ed is still on the couch and proceeds to give Shaun messages from Liz and his mom. Shaun tries to get a last minute reservation, but the restaurant is booked up. Liz calls and Shaun admits that he forgot to make the reservations. He suggests that they go to the Winchester instead, but the pub doesn't even serve food. Liz hangs up on him.

Shaun goes to apologize, taking the flowers he bought for his mom with him. David won't let him in the apartment, so Shaun climbs up onto the balcony and comes inside. He tries to apologize, but Liz is going out with David and Dianne. He gives her the flowers, but he forgets all about the "For a Wonderful Mom" card which is attached. Afraid that Shaun will never change his ways, Liz breaks up with him.

Shaun walks through the rain to the Winchester. Outside the tavern, he sees a couple making out. Disgusted, he throws the flowers in a garbage can outside the pub.

Inside the Winchester, Shaun cries and drowns his sorrows in beer and pork rinds. Ed tries to cheer him up by doing an impression of Clyde, the orangutan from Every Which Way But Loose, and by making up wild stories about the bar patrons. After numerous drinks, Shaun starts to feel a little better. Outside, a figure claws at the front door, but the bar is closed.

Ed and Shaun eventually leave. The same couple appears to still be making out in front of the pub. Ed and Shaun fail to notice the man's head fall off. Another zombie-like figure staggers down the darkened street, but they mistake him for a drunk.

Back home, they turn up the stereo, which accidentally wakes up Pete. Shaun's flatmate grabs the record from the turntable and throws it out the window. He's in a very bad mood, and he and Ed almost get in a fight. Pete mentions that everyone in his office is sick. Ed asks him about the bandage on his hand, and Pete tells them that he was mugged on the way home from work, probably by some crackheads. One of the muggers bit him. Complaining of a splitting headache, Pete goes to bed. Ed says, "The next time I see him, he's dead."

Shaun passes out in a chair in the kitchen, but not before writing out a list of things to do the next day. The list reads, "Go round Mum's. Get Liz back. Sort life out!"

The next morning, a groggy Shaun wakes and heads out to the corner store. On the way there, he fails to notice several zombies shambling down the street. All around are damaged cars, litter, bloody handprints, etc. At the store, Nelson is nowhere to be found, so Shaun leaves some change on the counter and heads back home (again failing to notice the zombies).

He turns on the television and notices reports about something strange going on, but he keeps changing the channel and doesn't get the full report. Ed informs him that there's a girl in the garden.

They go to investigate and, sure enough, there's a girl out in their backyard. She's acting strangely, so they mistakenly believe that she's drunk. She lunges at Shaun, and they both fall onto the ground. Ed runs and gets a camera. About this time, Shaun realizes that something is wrong with her. As they get to their feet, she comes at Shaun again, and he pushes her backwards. She falls and impales herself on a pipe jutting up from the ground. Much to the horror of Shaun and Ed, she doesn't die, despite a huge hole in her mid-section.

At this point, another zombie shows up in the backyard, and Ed and Shaun flee into the house. They try to call for help, but all emergency lines are busy. They sit down and start to watch television reports, but another zombie wanders in through the open front door. They pelt it with objects to no effect, but Ed downs it by hitting it in the head with a large ashtray. The news reports mention that these creatures can be stopped by removing the head or destroying the brain.

They go outside to try and kill the two backyard zombies by throwing things at their head. Ed grabs the album which Pete tossed outside the following night and sails it at a zombie. After a piece of it breaks off and impales in the zombie's face, our heroes run and get a case full of albums. They sort through the albums, throwing the Batman soundtrack and Dire Straits but sparing the works of such artists as Stone Roses.

When this plan fails, they bust into the tool shed and grab a cricket bat and a shovel. With these weapons, they make quick work of the zombies. They go back inside for coffee and ice cream. The television report mentions that anyone who has been bitten needs to be isolated from the general population. Ed and Shaun look up in unison at the upstairs room of Pete. They call to Pete and get no answer, so they assume that he has went to work.

Shaun tries to call Liz, but the line is busy. His mother calls and tells Shaun that some men tried to get into the house. After questioning her, Shaun learns that she is unharmed, but Phillip has been bitten. Shaun and Ed are both relieved, and they immediately make plans to kill Phillip before he turns into a zombie. Shaun tells his mom that they are coming over, and Ed yells to her, "We're coming to get you, Barbara" (a take on a classic line from Night of the Living Dead).

They run through several scenarios on how to rescue Liz and Barbara and kill Phillip. Ed wants to go somewhere safe where he can smoke, so they decide to seek refuge inside the Winchester.

As they prepare to leave in Pete's car, Shaun goes to take a bathroom break. In the bathroom, he runs into a zombie Pete in the shower. Shaun and Ed flee the house and hop in the car. As they speed away, Shaun sees a zombie Nelson staggering towards him.

As they drive, they see scenes of chaos all around. Arriving at Shaun's mom's house, Ed admires the Jaguar parked in the driveway. Shaun tells him that it belongs to Phillip, and that he's very protective of it (even once chasing Shaun around with a bit of wood after he tampered with it). Ed decides to wait in the car as Shaun goes inside.

Phillip is still alive, but it's obvious that he's sick. Shaun wants to leave him there, but Barbara won't go without her husband. In an attempt to make her leave him, Shaun tells her that Phillip molested him years ago, but then shamefully admits that it's a lie. He can't bring himself to kill Phillip, so all three exit the house. Outside, Ed is finishing a cigarette. He has wrecked Pete's car, and it's fairly obvious that he did so in order to ride in the Jaguar.

More zombies attack in the driveway, and Phillip is bitten again. They jump in the Jag and speed away with Ed at the wheel. They arrive at Liz's place, and Shaun fights his way through a group of zombies. Shaun climbs up on the balcony, and Liz lets him in. After some discussion, Liz, David, and Dianne all decide to go with Shaun. They fight their way outside and all crowd into the car.

As they speed along, they begin to argue about whether or not the Winchester is the best place to go. Phillip looks very bad, and begins to apologize to Shaun for being hard on him as a boy. He tells Shaun that he just wanted him to be strong and not give up after the loss of his real father. Phillip tells Shaun that he loves him and then passes away.

Shaun breaks the news to his mom, but then he realizes that Phillip has already returned as a zombie. Everyone jumps out of the car, and they find that they are surrounded by zombies. With Phillip still in the car, they decide to walk the rest of the way to the Winchester.

Along the way, they run into Yvonne and a group of her friends (who are remarkably similar to Shaun's group). After a brief conversation, the two groups part ways, and Shaun's party begins making their way through a series of backyards.

Barbara sees a zombie looking at her through a glass door, and she freezes up and falls behind the group. When Shaun hears her scream, he goes to her rescue. He fights with the zombie, eventually impaling it on a pole. Ed and David neglect to help during the fight.

They finally reach the last fence between them and the Winchester, but the street outside is crawling with zombies. Just as David begins to once again criticize his plan, Shaun comes up the idea for the group to pretend to be zombies. They enlist the aid of Dianne (who is an aspiring actress) to give them some acting tips.

They wander out onto the street and slowly make their way towards the Winchester. A few zombies start to take note of them, especially when Shaun calls for the owner to open the front door and let them in. Ed gets a call from a friend looking to buy weed, and Shaun slaps away the phone and berates Ed. Their brief argument draws the attention of the rest of the zombies, and the group finds themselves surrounded.

David picks up a trash can and smashes out one of the Winchester's windows, allowing the group to gain entry. To keep the zombies from following, Shaun decides to create a diversion and lead them away. As he lures the undead away from the pub, the others slip inside. On the way in, Barbara finds the flowers that Shaun had bought for her and then threw in the trash after his break-up with Liz.

Twenty minutes later, Shaun hasn't returned, and David wants to barricade the window shut. David tries to turn on the lights, but the power is out. As David continues to complain about Shaun's plan, some of the others decide to have a drink. Shaun returns through the back door, and David calms down.

As night falls, we find the group sitting in the dark, eating peanuts and drinking beer. The power comes on outside, so Shaun deduces that it must be a blown fuse. He goes to look for the breaker box. He flips on an outside light and sees a horde of zombies waiting. These are obviously the zombies that he tried to lead away from the pub. Somehow, they followed him back to the Winchester. As he heads back to the bar in a panic, he passes by the owner's office. Shaun fails to notice that the doorknob of the owner's office is being jiggled from the inside.

Back in the bar, Dianne is flipping through television channels, but none of them are showing programs or news. Ed starts playing a very loud coin-operated game, which quickly draws the attention of the zombies. The zombified owner of the bar appears and attacks the group. At the same time, the jukebox whirs to life and begins playing a Queen song. The group attacks the owner with pool sticks, a fire extinguisher, and even darts (which Dianne manages to throw into the head of Shaun).

Ed grabs the Winchester from over the bar and tosses it to Shaun. He uses it to force the zombie's head through the jukebox, thereby killing it. With a gun and 29 shells, the group is now ready to take on the zombies. About that time, the zombies decide that they're also ready to take on the group, as they begin to break through the barricade.

Liz moves Barbara to safety, and the two talk for a moment. Shaun's mom gives Liz a necklace that her first husband gave to her. Barbara seems very out of sorts, and Liz finds a large bite wound on her wrist. She attributes it to the zombie in the backyard which Shaun saved her from.

Shaun and the others combat the zombies, with Shaun missing most of them or simply shooting them in the shoulders. He gets one in the head, then notices something is wrong with his mom. He passes the rifle to Ed and goes to investigate.

Barbara begins to convulse. She thanks Shaun for the flowers and dies. As Shaun holds his dead mother, the others watch in silence. David raises the rifle and points it at Barbara's dead body, saying that she'll turn into a zombie at any moment. Shaun grabs a broken beer bottle and hold it to David's neck. Soon, there's a stand-off involving Shaun, Ed, David, and Dianne (a la Reservoir Dogs). Shaun accuses David of hating him because he's jealous of his relationship with Liz. David denies it, but even Dianne seems to know the truth.

Liz is able to get everyone to lower their weapons. As she tries to reason with Shaun, Barbara returns from the dead. Grief-stricken, Shaun raises the rifle and kills the zombie which was once his mother. David tells him that he did the right thing, and Shaun turns and punches David.

After falling to the ground, David picks up the rifle, points it at Shaun, and pulls the trigger. Luckily for Shaun, the gun is empty. David, ashamed, says that he's going to leave. Dianne begins yelling for him to move away from the window. Just as David begins to do so, zombies burst through the window and pull David outside, ripping him apart in the process.

Dianne loses it, and, grabbing one of David's severed legs, charges out into the mass of zombies. The undead pour into the bar, and Shaun, Liz, and Ed attempt to fight them off. Pete appears and fights with Ed. As they struggle, a zombie comes up from behind and bites Ed. Shaun shoots Pete in the head, and all three of our heroes jump behind the bar for refuge.

They set the counter-top of the bar on fire, then escape down into the cellar (where another door is supposed to lead out onto the street). However, they can't get the door open and appear to be trapped. Shaun and Liz reconcile as they discuss killing each other to keep from being turned into zombies.

As they prepare to share one last cigarette, the flame from Shaun's cigarette lighter reveals a switch which will open the doors and raise them to street level. Ed, who's in very bad shape, tells them to go on without him. Shaun and Ed share a tearful goodbye.

Liz and Shaun go outside and prepare to fight their way to freedom. Just then, a convoy of soldiers arrives and kills all the zombies. They meet Yvonne again, and she tells them that the military will take them to a safe place.

The screen goes black, and we fade in on a series of television programs (where we quickly learn that it's 6 months after Z-Day). We see zombies competing on a game show. Another show mentions that the "mobile deceased" make excellent additions to the workforce.

Shaun is back at his home, and we see Liz on the couch watching television. They are now living together. She goes to put on some tea, and Shaun informs her that he's going out to the tool shed for a few minutes.

Inside the tool shed, we find the zombie Ed chained up and playing a video game. Shaun sits down and joins in the game, just like old times. As the duo plays, the screen fades to black and the credits roll.