Ben

• Now get the hell down in the cellar. You can be the boss down there, but I'm boss up here!

• Don't you know what's goin' on out there? This is no Sunday School picnic!

• You know a place back down the road called Beekman's? Beekman's Diner? Anyhow, that's where I found that truck I have out there. There's a radio in the truck. I jumped in to listen, when a big gasoline truck came screaming right across the road! There must've been ten, fifteen of those things chasing after it, grabbing and holding on. Now, I didn't see them at first. I could just see that the truck was moving in a funny way. Those things were catching up to it. Truck went right across the road. I slammed on my breaks to keep from hitting it myself. It went right through the guard rail! I guess - guess the driver must've cut off the road into that gas station by Beekman's Diner. It went right through the billboard, ripped over a gas pump, and never stopped moving! By now it was like a moving bonfire! Didn't know if the truck was going to explode or what. I still hear the man... screaming. These things, just backing away from it! I looked back at the diner to see if - if there was anyone there who could help me. That's when I noticed that the entire place had been encircled. There wasn't a sign of life left, except... by now, there were no more screams. I realized that I was alone, with fifty or sixty of those things just... standing there, staring at me! I started to drive, I - I just plowed right through them! They didn't move! They didn't run, or... they just stood there, staring at me! I just wanted to crush them! And they scattered through the air, like bugs.

Helen Cooper

• We may not enjoy living together, but dying together isn't going to solve anything.

Dialogue

Johnny: Do you remember one time when we were small, we were out here? It was from right over there, I jumped out at you from behind the tree, and Grandpa got all excited, shook his fist at me and said "boy you'll be damned to hell!" [laughs] Remember that? Right over there. Boy, you used to really be scared here.

Barbara: Johnny!

Johnny: Hey, you're still afraid aren't ya?

Barbara: Stop it, now! I mean it!

Johnny: [in a creepy voice] They're coming to get you, Barbara!

Barbara: Stop it! You're ignorant!

Johnny: They're coming for you, Barbara!

Barbara: Stop it! You're acting like a child!

Johnny: They're coming for you!

[points to the cemetery zombie]

Johnny: Look, there comes one of them now!

Barbara: He'll hear you!

Johnny: Here he comes now! I'm getting out of here!

[looking at the burned bodies of Tom and Judy]

Sheriff McClelland: Boy, somebody had a cookout here.

Vince, Posse gunman: Yeah, it sure looks like it.

Cooper: Did you hear me when I told you they turned over our car?

Ben: Oh, hell! Any good five men could do that!

Cooper: That's my point! There's not going to be five, or even ten! There's going to be twenty, thirty, maybe a hundred of those things, and as soon as they find out we're here, this place'll be crawling with them!

Ben: Well, if there's that much, they'll probably get us wherever we are.

Cooper: [to Barbara] Now you'd better watch this and try to understand what's going on.

Cooper: I don't want anyone's life on my hands.

Helen: Is there anything I can do...?

Ben: I don't wanna hear any more from you, Mister! If you stay up here, you take orders from ME! And that includes leaving the girl alone!

Cooper: Look! You two can do whatever you like! I'm going back down to the cellar, and you'd better decide! 'Cause I'm gonna board up that door, and I'm not going to unlock it again no matter what happens!

Tom: Now wait a minute, Mr. Cooper.

Cooper: No, I'm not going to wait! I've made my decision, now you make yours!

Tom: Now wait a minute! Let's think about this! We can make it to the cellar if we have to! And if we do decide to stay down there, we'll need some things from up here! So let's at least consider this a while!

Newscaster: Reports, incredible as they may seem, are not the results of mass hysteria.

Cooper: "Mass hysteria?" What do they think, we're imagining all this?

Ben: Shut up!

Field Reporter: Are they slow-moving, chief?

Sheriff McClelland: Yeah, they're dead. They're all messed up.

Ben: How long have guys you been down there? I could have used some help up here!

Cooper: That's the cellar. It's the safest place.

Ben: You mean you didn't hear the racket I was making up here?

Cooper: How were we supposed to know what was going on? Could have been those things for all we knew!

Ben: That girl was screaming. Surely you know what a girl screaming sounds like. Those things don't make any noise. Anybody would know somebody needed help!

Tom: Look, it's kind of hard to know what's going on from down there.

Harry Cooper: We thought we could hear screams, but for all we knew, that have meant those things were in the house after her.

Ben: And you wouldn't come up here and help?

Tom: Well, if there were more of us...

Harry Cooper: That racket sounded like the place was being ripped apart. How were we supposed to know what was going on?

Ben: Now wait a minute. You just got finished saying you couldn't hear anything down there. Now you say it sounded like the place was being ripped apart. It would be nice if you get your story straight, man.

Harry Cooper: All right, now you tell me! I'm not gonna take that kind of a chance when we've got a safe place! We lock into a safe place, and you're telling us we gotta risk our lives just because somebody might need help, huh?

Ben: Yeah, something like that.

Field Reporter: Chief, if I were surrounded by eight or ten of these things, would I stand a chance?

Sheriff McClelland: Well, that's no problem, if you got a gun shoot 'em in the head. That's the sure way to kill 'em. If you don't get yourself a club, beat 'em or burn 'em. They go up pretty easy.

Sheriff McClelland: Aim between the eyes.

[Gunman shoots and kills Ben]

Sheriff McClelland: Good shot! OK, he's dead; let's go get 'im. That's another one for the fire.

Cast

• Duane Jones .... Ben
• Judith O'Dea .... Barbra
• Karl Hardman .... Harry Cooper
• Marilyn Eastman .... Helen Cooper/Bug-eating zombie
• Keith Wayne .... Tom
• Judith Ridley .... Judy
• Kyra Schon .... Karen Cooper/Upstairs body
• Charles Craig .... Newscaster/Zombie
• S. William Hinzman .... Cemetery Zombie
• George Kosana .... Sheriff McClelland