Dawn of the Dead follows on roughly from where Night left off – the zombie plague is continuing and has gotten a lot worse. Society is crumbling and there is still no explanation for why the dead are rising.
We begin in a chaotic television studio, where a broadcast is desperately trying to remain on the air. It is here that we meet Stephen and Fran, both employees at the T.V station WGON. Stephen, a trained helicopter pilot who does traffic reports for the station, tells his pregnant girlfriend Fran to meet him on the roof at 9pm – ‘We’ve got to survive, someone’s got to survive!'
Meanwhile, units of the Philadelphia SWAT team are battling with the tenants of a housing project who refuse to kill their loved ones, who happen to be zombies. Many of the soldiers struggle to come to terms with what is happening which, in some cases, leads to them committing suicide. Peter and Roger, who appear to be the two strongest SWAT members, retreat to the basement of the building where they talk briefly about the situation. Roger, a friend of Stephens, asks Peter if he wants to flee from the city in the WGON helicopter, who accepts.

The four-strong group leaves Philly with the intention of going to Canada which, presumably, has not been affected as badly as America. As they fly onwards, they discover a huge abandoned shopping mall. Initially stopping for a breather, Peter and Roger realise that maybe they would be better off staying their for a while. However, the goldmine that the mall is, they all succumb to its pleasures. On the second day, Peter and Roger try to block the mall entrances with four big semi trucks, although not with ease. Several near death encounters for Roger sees him begin to crack, and after parking the second vehicle, he is fatally wounded by a zombie. That isn’t enough to stop his determination though, and later he and the three others lock the mall doors and dispose of the remaining zombies inside. With the whole mall to themselves, they are treated to some much-deserved shopping time.
As time goes on, Roger’s condition becomes critical and eventually, he passes away. The remaining group stay at the mall for months, Fran’s child comes close to its birth, television broadcasts appear to have vanished and, as if there weren’t any more problems to face, a group of looters eye up the mall.

The finale of Dawn sees the group of reckless looters on motorbikes break into the shopping centre, opening the gates to hundreds of zombies. Stephen reacts badly to the situation, and instead of just letting them take what’s there, he starts shooting at them. “All right dammit, now we got a war on!” shouts Peter as the raiders retaliate to Steven’s actions.
The situation worsens as many of the bikers get eaten by the living dead. Stephen is hunted down by two thugs who proceed to shoot him in the arm, and as if that wasn’t enough, he gets bitten by a hoard of zombies. As the looters vacate the mall, Stephen begins to die, only to come back, if you catch my drift. His instincts lead a mass of ghouls upstairs to the groups hideout, and Fran realises that she and Peter have got to move on out. Peter says he doesn’t want to go and he almost puts a bullet in his head, before he comes to his senses and races up onto the roof to get into the chopper. Fran however has already taken off and in a life-or-death manoeuvre, Peter jumps onto the moving ‘whirly bird’, just as day is breaking….