One of Shaun of the Dead’s more compelling aspects is Shaun’s resolute ordinaryness. His tactics are unexceptional, so he’s a useful proxy with which you share the same ideas and fears. When he reconfiguring his priceless LP collection as valuable ammunition against a growing tribe of zombies, you realize his hesitance and his intense paranoia, as well as the resultant outburst of triumph when he discovers that they’re capable of lodging in a zombie’s cranium with a proper whisk.

Simon Pegg’s Nicholas Angel is far more exceptional than Shaun. A much-heralded policeman-officer, his speech imparts stoic determination; when he speaks he’s short and to the point, saying nothing extraneous to his intent to sustain the law. And for all his responsible intentions, it is difficult to sympathize with him—he visits his ex-girlfriend prior to his relocation away from London in a scene that’s totally unnecessary, save for one of the most ingenuous cameos I’ve ever seen. Of course, he’s a caricature whose stoicism will crumble to the temptation to deliver clever puns (“Where’s the trolley boy?” “In the freezer.” “Did you say ‘cool off?’”) and dive through the air firing two pistols simultaneously, so although his extraordinariness alienates you he remains responsibly in service to good fun.

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