George Romero and His Research

[RadZakpak]

So this topic is probably my all-time favorite to discuss because there is a lot of room for speculation and fun connections to be made. Today I want to document all we know about George Romero in Aether, and speculate as the purpose of his work.

 

Intro

 

Let's set the stage: The year is 1968. Broken Arrow is in disarray as their founder, Cornelius Pernell, has been slowly losing his mind and diverting resources towards his ultimate goal of ascending to Agartha. In March, Pernell finally becomes Avogadro, before being locked up inside the APD and Camp Edward is abandoned.

 

Fast-forward to October 1st, 1968: up-and-coming film director George Romero releases Night of the Living Dead with a budget of a measly $114,000 (so close.) The movie depicted the first iteration of the modern fictional zombie: The slow, shambling hordes that rose from the dead and feast on the living. One interesting facet of the story not often brought up is the origin of the zombies within the film. Rather than arising due to a virus like most of the following zombies stories, the zombies in Night of the Living Dead are believed to have been created after a NASA probe on its way back to Earth from Venus exploded in the atmosphere, spreading alien radiation in the air and reviving the dead. It's not too hard to draw parallels between the radiation of 115 meteors and the radiation from the Venus probe, especially considering the strange cipher from Revelations about a "source" on Venus.

 

Like in the real world, George Romero's first film outing in the zombies story was a big hit, launching his career as a film-maker. Over the next few decades, his association with zombies in pop-culture only grew. Sometime before 2011, Romero began research for a "World War II Movie," coming across old Nazi documents related to Group 935, 115, and experiments in raising the dead. This is at least all he would reveal in a public interview. In reality, there's much more to his research.

 

Diving Deep

 

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Sally: I started going through his research and good fucking Lord this is a confusing mess. So much shit about time travel, different dimensions. Honestly I'm not even sure (Static) knew was getting into... You couldn't make this stuff up! A mad German scientist, a foul-mouthed American, a drunk Soviet, and a warrior Japanese soldier, all working together?

 

Romero had actually been interested in time travel and inter-dimensional travel, and in addition, he was aware of Ultimis' existence after their departure from Der Riese. How could this be? Ultimis was constantly jumping through time and space, appearing in a new place and departing shortly after, and these places were all under close watch by the US Government as seen in Classified. But even then, McNamara never seems to bring up Ultimis, only the outbreaks left in their wake.

 

Further than this, Romero was aware of some of the most secretive 935 bases: the Siberian Facility and Shangri-La included.

 

What is interesting about Romero's claim to be researching for a World War II movie is that he is a director of pretty much exclusively horror films. Perhaps he could mean a zombie film set in WW2, which would make sense if he was researching 935.

 

However, he ended up working on a project called Call of the Dead: A zombie film set in Siberia.

 

Call of the Dead

 

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A story of four lone survivors, one forsaken crew, and a shipload of the undead! It's anchors away for brain-splattering action!

 

We don't know a whole lot about the plot or production of the film. We can assume it is not the WW2 movie that Romero was originally researching for as the outfits worn by the cast do not seem particularly of that era. Also a very cheeky tidbit, the distributor of the film is none other than Treyarch Pictures International, which stands out since in-universe Treyarch is referenced constantly, and may very well be an extension of the Illuminati (another thread, another day.):

 

 

So of course, we all know the story from here. George Romero and the cast and crew of Call of the Dead set out to film in Siberia, before real zombies arrive on the scene and attack. The four protagonists of the film fight for their lives, and Romero is captured and turned into a hulking, invincible zombie.

 

Something is a bit off about this whole picture, however. Why is it that they had to film on location when a set of the scene we see would work just as well? Why did the actors have real weapons with live rounds? Why was George chosen to be turned into a special zombie? Why did this day just so happen to correlate with Ultimis' arrival? I think the answer is that Romero knew what would happen on that day, to some extent.

 

Corruption

 

One possibility I see for Romero choosing this day and location is that he somehow knew that Ultimis would be there and wanted to catch them in action on film. He was knowledgeable enough to know about their nationalities and parts of their personalities (knew Nikolai was drunk, Richtofen was mad, Takeo was a warrior.) Consider also that the line from the trailer about the story mentions specifically four lone survivors. If you want to get even more meta with it, the version of Call of the Dead found in the Black Ops Zombies app for mobile is actually called Call of the Dead: Director's Cut and features Ultimis rather than the four actors, who fight a hulking zombie that does not have Romero's likeness. It's possible that Romero somehow knew that Ultimis would arrive there that day and there would be a large, hulking zombie. He just did not know that they would end up in a closet, and that he himself would be turned. 

 

 

This brings up another question: What was his motivation for putting his cast and crew as well as himself in danger? I think there was some influence from, of course, the Apothicons. In the same way that Pernell and Richtofen were corrupted before him, Romero may have been influenced in his actions. But there are two end goals that I can foresee:

 

1. He wants ultimate power and wants to ascend to Agartha. This lines up with previous people corrupted by the Apothicons and would further explain why he was researching Brock and Gary's search for Agartha in the Himalayas.

 

2. He just wants to make the best film possible. It's a bit cheesy, but I like the idea that he was not as concerned with power but more with catching Ultimis on film and making the best movie possible in his own twisted way. I'd say it's a nice way to honor the legend.

 

And there's yet another question, how did he become corrupted? This, I think, could tie back to the beginning of his career. Night of the Living Dead was written and filmed in 1967, and as I said, Broken Arrow was in a strange place at this point. Pernell was ordering everyone to keep secrets from the DOD, and was performing all kinds of unauthorized experiments. It's possible that there were leaks within the organization, and Romero happened upon information about 115. Rather than reveal this information to the public directly, he instead made a low-budget film adapting his own vision of a zombie outbreak based on his limited information. Maybe the leaker was even the disillusioned Peter McCain?

 

If we don't buy this influence on Night of the Living Dead, there still could be leaks from within Broken Arrow or other areas of the US government that he happened upon and used as influence before eventually arriving on Call of the Dead. One thing is for certain, and it is that much of the information he has is definitely not public. The detailed information about Ultimis and the location of Shangri-La must be top-level secrets, so I'm forced to believe there is some form of whistleblowing going on. He even had copies of the documents used by Group 935. I'd even say it is possible that he viewed a copy of Richtofen's diary. This would explain his knowledge of dimensions and time travel, and it could even be the reason that he knew about the future, as Richtofen also seemed to be aware of the journey ahead, even if it was skewed. Both Yuri and Dr. Lehman experienced the same delusions and committed horrible actions after reading the diary.

 

Time and Fate

The reason and science behind Romero's transformation in Call of the Dead have been a discussion for a while now. Given all that we know now about what occurred at the Siberia Facility, we can say things a little more concretely. Tag der Toten seems to take place in a pocket dimension where Pablo was trapped for decades. It occurs in parallel to the "real" world as things like the crashed ship and Apothicon Blood appear there. Something else worth noting is a small nod to the director, George Romero, in Tag in the form of his glasses on a table. We also see weapons used by the Call of the Dead crew around the facility. While probably just a small easter egg, there are some implications we can extrapolate. If Pablo's pocket dimension is separate from the regular time continuum, it wouldn't be out of the question that items from the Call of the Dead set could be sent into the pocket dimension from 2011.

 

But, is Call of the Dead in its own pocket dimension? This is certainly a possibility, as Romero's assistant Sally notes that the entire production simply "vanished" without a trace. Also, the Vril Rod is acquired not from the facility itself, but through a green light that might signify a crossing of dimensions (see thread). Lastly, and I think most important of all, Romero's appearance as a boss is very, very similar to the Warden's in the Alcatraz pocket dimension. A scream that Romero makes was literally reused for the Warden in Mob, Romero is much larger than normal and the Warden is able to change size as seen in Blood of the Dead, and he is able to speak in coherent sentences just like the Warden. He is also unkillable, having domain over the zombies in the area and always returning after being damaged. Was he endowed with power over this pocket dimension by the Shadowman like the Warden, or did he gain this ability after coming into contact with the Apothicon Blood (if it still remains on site at all)?

 

 

So I just laid out a ton of different ideas that maybe aren't entirely coherent, but I want to hear everyone's thoughts on Romero within Aether. Also, go watch Night of the Living Dead! It's a piece of history, and it's free to watch on Youtube!

[anonymous]

I want you to know I had a lot of joy reading this one, well done! Typically Zombies mode, messing around and having some fun with a seemingly unserious thing (a film of George becomes the setting for a map) while when you look further than what meets the eye, there is a massive mysterious backstory. I think the importance of this location was espessially highlighted in Tag der Toten, and they didn't chose this location as Aether's ending for no reason.

 

Upon reading this thread, I am inclined that Romero indeed seems to have acquired the American copy of Richtofen's journal. For as far as we know was Shangri-La's location something only Richtofen's splinter knew of. Although the mention of "a mad German scientist, a foul-mouthed American, a drunk Soviet, and a warrior Japanese soldier, all working together" sounds more like it was a notion of someone external. Therefore I'd like to throw up another possibility. There are Illuminati's telegrams found in Der Riese, Kino, Five and even Call of the Dead. The Kino and Five one mention that the Doctor is capable of travelling through time (meaning that the Illuminati has witnessed Ultimis' journey). This is the telegram found in Call of the Dead, clearly being different than the Der Riese (kill Maxis) and Kino/Five (timetravelling Doctor) ones:

It seems to read something like "we are running out of time". Now of course, the most logical explanation for it to be here in the Siberian facility is that it was intended for Richtofen. Another possibility is that it was written for, you guessed it, George Romero. The Illuminati, disguised under 'Treyarch pictures international', funded his expedition to Siberia. This would also explain his knowledge about dimensions and such. His inspiration for the typical zombies infected by something from outer space may also originate from the Illuminati's knowledge about 115.

 

Really like your connection with the Warden and I could see that being totally true. I am really confused by the Mobile version. Maybe indeed this was how the events of CotD were originally intended to go, but Romero came between and got involved in the events himself as well? Considering we see the glasses and weapons of Romero and the actors in Tag, I think that indeed they may have travelled to the pocketdimension at some point. Maybe even meet with Pablo?

 

3 hours ago, RadZakpak said:

Also, go watch Night of the Living Dead! It's a piece of history, and it's free to watch on Youtube!

I've added it on my list