George A. Romero

"Years ago, I did research for a World War II movie. I came across some old Nazi documents. I couldn't believe what I was reading. Element 115, necromancers, raising from the dead, real creepy stuff. The coolest thing is? Some of that crazy shit happened right here."

- George A. Romero

George A. Romero, stars as a boss-character in the Zombies map Call of the Dead. He is also referred to as "The Director". Romero was doing research for a World War II movie when he came across Nazi documents pertaining to Element 115.

Entrance
George A. Romero appears via a lightning strike in the spawn area at the water to the front of the Quick Revive machine at the very beginning of the game and walks out of the smoke and sea foam.

Origin
George was at first human while working on a zombie movie with Danny Trejo, Robert Englund, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Michael Rooker. During one of the breaks due to a mistake by Michael, a real zombie crawls out of the window and snatches Romero away and later infecting him with Element 115.

"Calm State"
When first appearing, Romero is calmly walking around while groaning as a massive blue aura surrounds him. Sometimes when he is calmed down after attacking, he says in a scared voice "I'm okay, I'm okay", indicating he cannot control these fits of rage. He will sometimes roar, similar to his "berserk mode". This will make the zombies nearby sprint towards the player. In this state, except for the blue aura, he looks fairly human.

"Berserk State"
After being shot or touched, he transforms into his "Berserk State", which has him chasing the players swinging his movie light weapon, roaring spontaneously, and distracting the player from the other zombies until he is reverted to his usual state. In this state, his clothes are ripped, and the exposed flesh is rotten and decomposing. He also can electrify surrounding zombies in this state by striking the ground with his stagelight weapon, allowing the zombies to give off an electric charge if they get too close. One way to calm him down is to lead him into water and he will return to his calm state or by shooting him with the V-R11.

Killing Romero
Romero has very high health and it takes a lot of time and ammunition to damage him enough to retreat. A Pack-A-Punched Scavenger or M1911 works best. Whenever he is close to "dying", his blue aura will disappear and a yellow aura will surround his weapon. During this near-death state Romero's speed increases. When finally damaged enough, he will drop on death a Death Machine power-up as well as a Random Perk Bottle, then he will retreat back into the water and return to the game after two rounds have passed. Romero will drop a Lightning Bolt power-up instead of a Death Machine if the player has the Stand-in achievement and is playing a solo game or if the player has the Ensemble Cast achievement. Upgraded Ray Guns and upgraded light machine guns work well together, along with the upgraded Scavenger. Another good way of killing Romero is when the player has 15000-25000 points to go to the box and lure Romero around while shooting him with all of the weapon's ammo and then using the mystery box again and repeating. This might take a while as some weapons are better than others.

It should be noted that like the zombies, George's health increases from round to round. On higher rounds, he is near impossible to defeat.

Getting Rid of Romero
George Romero can be made to retreat into the water for several minutes. This is done by luring Romero into the pool of water into the spawning area and then shooting him with the pack-a-punched V-R11. He will still utter phrases from underneath the island that Quick-Revive is located on until he reemerges just as does at the beginning of the match, minus the lightning effect.

Weapon
George A. Romero's weapon is a stage light with exposed wires protruding out of the end causing it to glow blue. The weapon takes 3 hits to down a player. One of his main attacks is to strike the ground to temporarily disorient players and fill their screens with electricity similar to the effect of the Teleporter, he can also use it to strike the player when close enough, temporarily covering the player's screen with electricity. This effect is similar to the effect which happens after walking through an electro-shock trap or getting shot by the Wunderwaffe. Romero will only use his weapon when shot by the player or when a player comes within close range.

Achievements

 * "Quiet on the Set" - Cut the lights on the Director

Trivia

 * The scene of the trailer where George comes out of the water is a reference to his movie: Land of the Dead, in which the Zombies cross the lake and come out of the water.
 * Insta-Kill doesn't affect him.
 * When a Nuke has been activated, George will laugh.
 * George can make regular zombies go into a sprinting speed whenever he does a special type of roar and runners are near him.
 * George is the third boss to ever appear in the Zombies game mode, the first being the Pentagon Thief and the second being the Cosmic Silverback.