"Days Gone Bye" (titled "Pilot" on DVD and Blu-ray releases) is the pilot episode of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead. It originally aired on AMC in the United States on October 31, 2010. The episode's teleplay was written and directed by Frank Darabont.
Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead comic books, had considered the idea of creating a television show based on the comic series, but did not move forward. Darabont expressed interest in developing the series for television. In January 2010, AMC formally announced that it had ordered a pilot for a possible series adapted from The Walking Dead comic book. In the announcement, the executives stated that Darabont would serve as writer, director, and an executive producer alongside Gale Anne Hurd.
Principal photography for the pilot commenced in May 2010 in Atlanta, Georgia. It was wholly shot on 16 mm film and edited using computer-generated imagery. "Days Gone Bye" was heavily promoted in the months preceding its release; as part of an expansive advertising campaign, zombie invasion events were coordinated in selected locations including New York City, Washington, D.C., London, and Madrid. The episode premiered in 120 countries worldwide.
"Days Gone Bye" was critically well received, praising Andrew Lincoln's performance and Darabont's direction. Several critics compared it to Lost. In the United States, the episode achieved a viewership of 5.35 million, making it the most-watched series premiere in AMC history. The episode garnered a Nielsen rating of 2.7 in the 18–49 demographic, translating to 3.6 million viewers.
Plot The episode opens in medias res as former Sheriff's Deputy Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) scavenges for gas and supplies at an abandoned convenience store on a deserted highway in rural Georgia. He spots a little girl (Addy Miller) holding a teddy bear as he assures her, not to be afraid of him, but she turns out to be a zombie. When she shambles towards him, Rick shoots her in the head.
Returning to several weeks prior, Rick is seriously injured while chasing down criminals alongside his partner and childhood friend Shane Walsh (Jon Bernthal); he is shot in the side and goes into a coma. Hospitalized after the injury, Rick experiences a series of dreamlike encounters with friends and family.
When he regains consciousness, he finds the hospital abandoned and horrifically ransacked: the walls are sprayed with blood, destroyed equipment is everywhere, and dead bodies litter the hallway. He walks past a set of double doors secured with heavy chains and spray-painted with the ominous warning "Don't Open Dead Inside". From the far side of the secured doors, Rick hears growling while an unknown menace pushes against the locked doors. Outside, he finds scores of dead bodies, some covered in makeshift body bags, others strewn about randomly. As he makes his way home, he sees a zombified woman dragging her legless body towards him. He ignores her and returns home, but his family has fled.
Rick encounters Morgan Jones (Lennie James) and his son Duane (Adrian Kali Turner), and they explain the zombie apocalypse that occurred while Rick was in a coma. Morgan warns that the only way to stop the zombies is to destroy the brain, and cautions that the zombies are attracted to noise. Rick decides to head to Atlanta where a refugee camp is rumored to exist, though Morgan would rather stay behind. Rick, Morgan, and Duane go to the Sheriff's Department headquarters where Rick was assigned and take weapons, radios, ammunition and a patrol car. While there, Rick encounters a zombified former colleague whom he shoots in the head. Rick splits the stash of weapons and supplies from the police station with Morgan and promises to stay in touch with a walkie-talkie. Morgan and Duane return to their home where Morgan, armed with a sniper rifle and perched in a second-story window, shoots at the zombies wandering in the street below. While Duane sits nervously downstairs, unsure why Morgan is shooting out the window, it becomes clear that Morgan is trying to attract his zombified wife. When she appears, Morgan gets her head in sight but is unable to shoot her.
On his way out of town, Rick stops by the legless zombie. He apologizes for what had happened to her then shoots her. Continuing toward Atlanta in the police car, Rick radios for help on an emergency channel; his signal is picked up at the survivors' camp where Shane, Rick's wife Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies), and their son Carl (Chandler Riggs) are safe. Unaware that it is Rick on the radio, the survivors lose the signal and can't warn him of the dangers in Atlanta. Shane and Lori kiss, but are interrupted by Carl. Later, Rick abandons his car when it runs out of gas, then finds a nearby farmhouse and its dead owners. He takes their horse and continues toward Atlanta on horseback. In the seemingly empty city, Rick follows a helicopter flying overhead right into a horde of zombies. They attack, killing his horse and forcing him to drop his bag of weapons and crawl under a tank, and as they follow him under it Rick contemplates suicide before noticing a trapdoor in the bottom of the vehicle. After he shoots a walker inside, he hears a voice from the tank's radio sarcastically ask if he is comfortable, before the scene exits with a top-down view of Atlanta overrun by walkers.
Production
Conception Robert Kirkman claimed that he had considered the idea of a television series, but never actively pursued it. When Frank Darabont became interested, Kirkman called it "extremely flattering" and went on to say that "he definitely cares about the original source material, and you can tell that in the way he's adapting it." In his interview, Kirkman exclaimed that it was "an extreme validation of the work", and continued by expressing that "never in a million years could [he] have thought that if Walking Dead were to ever be adapted that everything would be going this well."
The Walking Dead institutes elements from George A. Romero's horror film Night of the Living Dead (1968). Darabont admitted to becoming a fan of the film at age fourteen. He insisted that the film has a "weird vibe", comparing it to that of pornography. He continued: "It had this marvelously attractive, disreputable draw [...] I loved it immediately." Darabont recalled walking into a comic book store in Burbank, California and seeing The Walking Dead on the shelf in 2005.
Frank Darabont described the process of developing the series and setting it up at a network as "four years of frustration". He first initiated a deal with NBC to own copyrights to The Walking Dead, but was later declined. "They were very excited about the idea of doing a zombie show until I handed them a zombie script where zombies were actually doing zombie shit," he stated. Darabont credited Gale Anne Hurd with finally getting the series on AMC. "Gale was tremendously instrumental in jump-starting it at a point where it felt like it was languishing," he asserted. "I'd gotten turned down enough times, which is no reflection on the material, but no matter what you're trying to sell in Hollywood, you're Willy Loman and it's Death of a Salesman. You're out there trying to sell shit that nobody wants. Even if it's good shit."
Hurd recalled that she had heard of the comic before, and upon reading it, felt that it would be great for film. She stated: "When I first read the book, I thought, 'This would be a great film,' and boy was I wrong. It's a much better TV series. Fast forward, I knew that Frank had initially developed it for NBC, which to me seemed like an odd pairing for this. Then I heard it wasn't going forward at NBC so I talked to Frank." On January 20, 2010, AMC officially announced that it had ordered a pilot with Darabont and Hurd acting as executive producers; the former wrote the script and directed the episode. The entire series was pre-ordered based on the strength of the source material, the television scripts, and Darabont's involvement.
Writing Frank Darabont wrote a 60-page pilot script for "Days Gone Bye". His initial script for the episode was split in half and embellished. Darabont explained that he did this to "slow the narrative down and dig into the characters more deeply, so it's not just plot-driven, event-driven stuff. You really want to drag these characters into the equation." Darabont felt that instituting visual maneuvers would increase the surreal atmosphere of a scene. Upon reading the script, Robert Kirkman thought that producers were consistent with his comic, adding that they could possibly improve his initial work. "Reading that pilot was just a revelation. It's extremely faithful. There are things that are so much like the comic, I can't really remember the nuance of what's different and what's not from the comic. He's definitely being more faithful than I expected, and everything that he's changing is brilliant. I couldn't be happier. I think the fans of the book are going to just love it." The episode shares its name with volume one of the comic book series.
The principal photography produced a high demand for extras as zombies. In an interview with MTV News, special effects artist Greg Nicotero stated that while anyone was welcome to audition, the producers of the show were looking specifically for people who possessed exceptional height and thin features. Casting for extras took approximately three days. Once accepted, the extras would be sent to "zombie school" for training and preparing for filming. Nicotero stated that "it was interesting because I initially thought my experience with zombie movies is you just let them do whatever they want to do. George [Romero] always said, 'You show 50 people one movement, then you have 50 people doing all the same thing.' So we sort of just lined them up and said, 'Let's see what your zombie walk would look like,' and then they would do it and we would say, 'Try this or try that.' You know, sort of fine tuning everybody." Alongside with Frank Darabont, Nicotero had previously collaborated with Romero on several occasions, and looked at the structure of the zombies in his films for inspiration. "It's not that I'm against [fast zombies]. It's just not what I grew up with. It's interesting, too, because a couple takes we did, where a couple of the zombies kind of broke into a run, and after one take Frank's like, 'Did they run too fast? They shouldn't be running. Slow them down.' This is trying to be creepy and moody and, you know, you're building up all this kind of scary tension."