Edgar Wright is one of the most beloved and inventive filmmakers working today. His films have a kinetic visual style, filled with smash cuts and crash zooms, and his scripts are airtight, utilizing literary techniques like intertextual references and, in particular, foreshadowing.
Foreshadowing is a device used by writers to hint at upcoming events in a story, and it can be used for a variety of reasons. In broad strokes, it ties a movie together as a complete piece, and makes rewatching it as fun as it was the first time. So, here are the 10 Best Moments Of Foreshadowing In Shaun Of The Dead.
“It’s Not The End Of The World.”
When Ed takes Shaun to the pub to help him get over his breakup with Liz, he gives him a supportive speech that ends by foreshadowing the movie’s premise: “Can I just say one thing? I’m not gonna say there’s plenty more fish in the sea. I’m not gonna say, if you love her, let her go. And I’m not gonna bombard you with clichés. But what I will say is this...It’s not the end of the world.”
In that exact moment, a zombie slams into the window, although no one realizes it.
“Next Time I See Him, He’s Dead.”
Shaun and Ed crack out Shaun’s vinyl collection when they get home from a night at the pub, much to the chagrin of their housemate, Pete. He explains that he has to go to work in the morning because everyone else in his department is sick (hinting at the outbreak of the zombie virus), and he was bitten by some muggers on the way home (hinting that he’ll turn into a zombie before too long).
When he leaves the room, a drunken Ed says, “Next time I see him, he’s dead.” The next time Ed sees Pete, he is literally dead.
“How Are You Doing?” “Surviving.”
This exchange appears three times throughout Shaun of the Dead. In the first instance, Shaun bumps into his old friend Yvonne, and “surviving” is used as an ironic euphemism for modern life. Later, after the zombie invasion has begun, Shaun bumps into Yvonne again. This time, they each have a group of survivors with them, and each member of their group mirrors a member from the other group.
Then, they’re “surviving” in the literal sense. The line comes back again with grave overtones when Yvonne arrives with the military to contain the undead and save Shaun and Liz.
“A Number Of Reports Of...Serious Attacks On...People Who Are Being...Eaten Alive.”
As Shaun flicks through TV channels early in the movie, the soundbites from each channel are strung together to describe the zombie uprising: “...no official comment, but religious groups are calling it Judgment Day. There’s...panic on the streets of London...a number of reports of...serious attacks on...people who are being...eaten alive.
“Witness reports are sketchy. One unifying detail seems to be that the attackers appear to be...” before Vernon Kay ends the trail with: “...dead excited to have with us...”
Pool Knockout Comp.
When the first zombie tries to get into the Winchester after closing time, and John tells them, “Sorry, we’re closed!,” a poster can be seen on the wall advertising a “Pool Knockout Comp.”
Later in the movie, when Shaun and the survivors are holed up in the Winchester, a zombified John emerges from the back and they fight him off with pool cues. This sequence also repeats the line “It’s on random,” in reference to the jukebox from an earlier scene.
The Bathroom Mirror
This shot is a staple of horror cinema: an over-the-shoulder shot of a character looking at themselves in a bathroom mirror on the door of a cabinet. They close the cabinet, revealing a killer or a ghost or whatever it may be standing behind them. It’s gotten to the point where it’s more shocking if there isn’t a monster lurking behind the character.
The first time this shot appears in Shaun of the Dead, Pete is revealed behind Shaun, ready to complain about Ed. The second time, Pete’s silhouette can be seen behind the shower curtain — and he’s turned.
“You’ve Got Red On You.”
At work, Shaun is tormented by a new 17-year-old employee named Noel who makes him feel old and doesn’t respect his authority. Noel says, “You’ve got red on you,” pointing out red ink that has leaked from Shaun’s pen onto his shirt pocket.
This line is repeated later when Shaun’s shirt is covered in blood from beating zombies with a cricket bat.
“Nice Shot!”
At the beginning of Shaun of the Dead, Shaun comes into the living room to find Ed playing a first-person shooter. In quick succession, he tells Ed, “Top left,” to point out an enemy on the top-left corner of the screen. Then, when he shoots that guy, he tells him, “Reload.” Then, when he gets a perfect shot of an enemy, Shaun says, “Nice shot!”
All three of these lines are repeated later in the movie as Shaun is using the Winchester rifle to shoot the zombies as they come through the broken windows of the pub.
“You Wanna Live Like An Animal? Go And Live In The Shed!”
When Shaun and Ed’s partying wakes up Pete and he comes in to yell at them, he says to Ed, “If you wanna live like an animal, go and live in the shed, you thick f*ck!”
At the end of the movie, we see that Shaun has chained up a zombified Ed in the shed, where he spends his days eating meat and playing video games. In the final scene, Shaun goes out there to join him.
“We’ll Have A Bloody Mary First Thing...”
After Liz has dumped Shaun and he’s drowning his sorrows at the Winchester, Ed outlines a plan for the following day. Since the zombie apocalypse happens, they don’t get to fulfill this plan, but the way Ed words it, it foreshadows the day’s actual events:
“We’ll have a Bloody Mary first thing [they kill a zombie named Mary in the backyard], a bite at the King’s Head [Shaun’s stepdad Phillip gets bitten in the head], couple at the Little Princess [they pick up Liz, David, and Dianne], stagger back here [they imitate zombies to get through a horde of the undead to the Winchester], and bang, back at the bar for shots [they use the pub’s Winchester rifle to shoot the zombies].”