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 the dead, real creepy stuff. The coolest thing? Some of that crazy shit happened right here."

- George A. Romero

George A. Romero stars as a special zombie 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 and orange eyes, 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 broken stage lamp, 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 stage-light 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. However, the latter one will only calm him down temporarily, and he will go berserk again after approximately 10 seconds. He will also enter berserk state if he hits a player.

Killing Romero
Romero has extremely high health and it takes a lot of time and ammunition to damage him enough to retreat. Pack-A-Punched Dragunov or L96A1 work best, as they will do 900,000 damage and 800,000 damage (if every shot hits the head) respectively, being able to neutralize him in the matter if two/three magazines. A Death Machine can work effectively as well, although it will take several machines before enough damage is done. Upgraded Ray Guns and upgraded light machine guns work well together. Another good way of killing Romero is when the player has 15000-25000 points to go to the box and lure Romero around. Once the player has exhausted their weapon's ammunition, using the mystery box again and repeating. This might take a while as some weapons are better than others. Another effective way to kill Romero is to get a Scavenger or keep the M1911 then upgrade it and use every shot they have to lower his health significantly.

As George takes more and more damage, the blue aura around his stage-light will start flicking, then if damaged more, it changes to orange. During this near-death state Romero's speed increases. (He will also begin to roar much more often). When finally damaged enough, he will retreat into the water, then return to the game after two rounds have passed, including the round when the player neutralized him.

Upon his retreat a Death Machine and a Random Perk Bottle power-up will spawn. 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.

Romero's health does not increase throughout the higher rounds. His health is based on the number of players in the game; Romero has 250,000 health for every player in the game.

Getting Rid of Romero
George Romero can be made to retreat into the water for several Rounds. This is done by luring Romero into the water 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 2 hits to down a player, or 3 hits with Juggernog, dealing a massive 90 damage per hit to the player whereas a normal zombies only does 50 damage per hit. One of his main attacks is to strike the ground to electrocute players (and zombies alike), he can also use it to strike the player when close enough.

Note: Romero will only use his weapon when shot by the player or when a player comes within close range.

Achievements / Trophies

 * 1) Quiet on the Set - Cut the lights on the Director

Quotes

 * See Call of the Dead/Quotes

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.
 * Neither Insta-Kill nor the Nuke will affect him.
 * When a Nuke has been activated, George will laugh, to mock the player since it doesn't affect him.
 * If any running zombies are near George, he may begin to roar violently, making the nearby zombies going into a "all sprint" which makes them run even faster than the player.
 * He seems to do an animation when multiple nukes are picked up, it almost seems to daze him, but he is in no way affected health wise.
 * Despite the fact that the Wunderwaffe DG-2 has infinite damage, George will not be killed by it (the weapon only does 1 health point of damage to him, but he can still be affected), this was likely put in to prevent people from simply killing George in one hit and getting the power-ups easily.
 * George appears to be much taller than zombies and players alike for some odd reason, even when human. This may be an oversight or Treyarch simply did not wish to make a second model for cinematic purposes.
 * The Pack-a-Punched assault rifles' damage on George is amplified.
 * Sometimes, when he roars, the sound of rocks scraping can be heard.
 * If George strikes nearby a zombie, that zombie will turn electric, and each time the player touches it, they will be electrocuted for a second.
 * Very rarely, Romero may 'die', and disappear, not going into the water. Samantha will laugh in the same fashion as the Mystery Box changing areas.
 * If George manages to get stuck/glitch into an area that is not accessible, he sometimes may be teleported back into the map and Samantha will laugh in the same fashion as well.
 * Rarely, George can stop if he is chasing the player. After stopping, he stands still peacefully and shakes his spotlight. He will sometimes do this when a player is downed on Solo with Quick Revive.