- "JOHNNY! HELP ME, OH HELP ME!"
- —Barbara
Barbara Jones is a character from George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead and its 1990 remake.
Night of the Living Dead (1968)[]
In the 1968 film, Barbara and her brother arrive within the rural areas of Pennsylvania to visit their father's grave. As they place flowers at the grave, Johnny begins scaring his sister saying "They're coming to get you Barbara". She was then attacked by a zombie in the cemetery, causing Johnny to spring into action, only to die after hitting his head on a tombstone. She attempted to flee in the car, only to realize her brother had the keys, but the zombies were also attempting to get her in the car. She released the parking break and the car ended up rolling into a tree. With no way out of there now, Barbara decided to get out of the car and run from the zombies, finding a farmhouse and entered it.
She found herself trying the phone, which was dead and even the remains of a person upstairs, partially devoured. She ran out of the house, finding a truck approaching and meeting Ben, who took her into the house.
Night of the Living Dead (1990)[]
In the 1990 remake of the film, Barbara heads for her mother's grave in Pennsylvania, located in a remote cemetery. She is accompanied by her brother, who pokes fun at her throughout their trip. Once at the cemetery however, things go from funny to down right nasty when Barbara is attacked by a zombie. Her brother is killed when he hits his head and Barbara runs for her life, attempting to leave with the car, but ultimately hiding out in a nearby farmhouse. There, she crosses paths with Ben who arrived in a truck nearly out of gas.
That night, both she and Ben look around the house and Barbara screams when the door to the basement opens, alarming Ben. They meet up with Judy Rose, Tommy, Harry and Helen Cooper. They begin boarding up the house as well. Though several attempt to get in, Barbara helps in killing off a few while the others find the keys to the lock on the gas pump. She remained in the house with the repeater, while Judy, Tommy and Ben go to the gas pump. Following the deaths of Judy and Tommy however, Cooper began fighting with Barbara over the rifle and he managed to pry it from her, only to be grabbed by several zombies through the makeshift barricades. Ben returned and Cooper's daughter Sarah had become a zombie, having already killed her mother. Ben told Cooper to shoot her, only for Cooper to retaliate and shoot Ben, protecting his now zombified daughter. Sarah was making her way towards Barbara, who pried a revolver loose from a zombified cop's belt and killing the zombified girl. Cooper went to shoot her, only to be shot by Ben. Ben told Barbara to go and leave him there, which she did and walked right passed the zombies outside, pointing her gun at the ones coming at her, ready to fire. She eventually crossed paths with a bunch of rednecks, who were having a good time taking out zombies and nearly shot her, believing her to be one of the undead.
She remained with them into the next morning, where they arrived at the house she was in the night before. Barbara sadly discovered that Ben had become a zombie and was immediately dispatched. She would then be startled by a still alive, but wounded Cooper, who was happy to see her, only for her to flat out shoot him in the head.
Night of the Living Dead: Barbara's Zombie Chronicles (2004)[]
In the comic book, published by Dead Dog, written and illustrated by Mark Kidwell, Barbara had indeed survived the night at the farmhouse, despite being ambushed by incoming undead. She isn't eaten or bitten, however is capable of getting out of there, even taking out several zombies along the way. She is capable of finding the keys to the car she came in with Johnny, making her way to finding other survivors. This is where she learns of the fates of the others who were in the house with her, following her escape.
For the next 5 years, Barbara becomes a member of the salvage team within a small and well defended town of resistance fighters in Pennsylvania, suffering from nightmares of the tragic event that turned her life upside down. Despite that, Barbara remained focused on both her own survival and the survival of the family she's come to know, consisting of Rufus Porter, Laura Martin, Derek Moran and Alexander Quinn. She also befriended a little girl named Sara, as well as suffering from PTSD. She ventures forth into the zombie infested wasteland with her crew in a heavily modified school bus, where they head for the west side and towards a local S-Mart. She ordered for Derek and Laura to set up a perimeter, while the others raided the store. She, Alex and Rufus entered to gather supplies and she nearly was attacked by a zombie, only to be rescued by survivor Peter Cooke.
Despite being saved by Cooke, she confiscates his revolver, as he nearly took her out in the process of rescuing her. They learn that Cooke is from D.C., apart of a research team, looking into irradiated debris from a crashed satellite sometime before the dead began returning to life. It was then that the .50 caliber machine gun on the bus began going off, leading to Barbara and the others taking Cooke with them on the way back home. While on the way, Cooke explains that the satellite and some other things were brought from a bunker in Arizona. The other things from the bunker were from Area 51, where it crash landed and they had experimented with what they had for years. Despite all their experiments, they had no idea why the dead were coming back, what they learned that the reanimated had a severe depletion of serotonin, which they attempted to remedy via the reintroduction of serotonin in a gaseous form. This however caused them to become more aggressive and they decided to introduce the remaining subjects into a chamber of the gas, believing that they could eat each other. This however didn't happen and no back up plan was in place, leading to the zombies breaking out and killing all in sight.
Upon arriving at their home, they find that the place is not only on fire, but the zombies outside have made a ladder made of their own bodies. Barbara is able to order her team to burn the bodies outside the perimeter, as well as take out zombies inside the town and search for survivors. Sadly, Barbara finds that any others who survived were holed up in a mess hall, where they took their own lives with what ammo they had left. Barbara then heads outside and goes to end herself as well, finding that Sara has survived by climbing up a nearby statue, however finds the she is bitten. Despite objections from her team, Barbara assures them that if the time comes to kill Sara, she would do it herself. There is a chance that, according to Cooke, there is a compound in DC with experimental drugs that could save Sara. They travel until they can't with the bus and find themselves at a nearby marina, where they find a working boat. Laura, however, dies due to being impaled by a zombie armed with a harpoon. Barbara kills the zombie, too late to save her and kills her so she doesn't come back. On the way there, Barbara asks Cooke about the compound, explaining a serum was nearly completed, but most resources went into the serotonin gas.
The group eventually find themselves crossing paths with a massive ship, infested with zombies, who begin falling into the water and moving towards the little boat. As they go to increase speed, the motor of the boat gets damaged, leading to Barbara to investigate it. She is grabbed by a zombie out of the water, only to be saved by Rufus, who ends up in the water and torn apart by zombies. He then tries to board the vessel again, only to be met with failure and ambushing Barbara. They soon find themselves in Arlington National Cemetery, where a secret entrance is located in one of the crypts. Once inside, they find that the laboratory houses a crashed alien ship and continue to make their way further into the lab, where they clear out the halls, find the serum needed to save Sara and Cooke administers it.
Derek and Alex however find something off about Cooke, talking that he looks at Barbara in a way, insisting that they learn more about him. They inquire about a door, which Cooke says leads to a radioactive area, which they don't believe, as they wouldn't have a radioactive area that close to an infirmary. Despite Cooke's protest, he relents, leaving Barbara with Sara. Cooke then returns after without Alex or Derek and she explains the drug didn't work. Cooke attempted to comfort Barbara and even going as far as licking her cheek, saying "he needed her". This resulted in her shoving him away, but he managed to grab onto one of her guns, explaining to her Alex and Derek are dead and demanding to her to remove her clothes, crazily referring to her as "Eve". Barbara learns Cooke had another lady, but she fell for another man, resulting in Cooke releasing the gas on the zombie subjects in the lab and leaving his former girl and her lover for dead. Removing her tank top, Barbara found she still had a 2 shot pistol in her bracelets, which she needed to make count. She turns and is able to hit him in the leg, at the same time, the alien creature Cooke unleashed upon Derek and Alex breaks in behind her. Ordering Cooke to toss him her pistol, she makes short work of the alien, but ends up empty.
Just as Cooke reaches for her second, fully loaded pistol, a zombie attacks him, biting into his flesh, giving Barbara enough time to find a brown jacket and make her escape. Finding a fire axe left behind, she takes it up and finds a nearby train in working order, taking it and fleeing the lab. Barbara finds herself exiting a toolshed outside the White House on the front lawn, encountering survivors, led by none other than Charles Manson.
Night of the Living Dead 3D (2006)[]
In the 2006 remake of the film, Barb and Johnny are on their way to their aunt's funeral, for which they are late. When they arrive, they find that their family isn't even there, but that soon changes when they find it's overrun with zombies, many of which are their family members. Johnny then leaves Barbara at the cemetery to fend for herself. She's able to flee from the cemetery, coming upon a funeral home, run by Gerald Tovar Jr. who is in the midst of taking down zombies. That night, she calls Johnny angrily, receiving a text from him, saying he's coming to get her. She is then ambushed by a couple of zombies, only to be saved by Ben and brought to the Cooper residence nearby.
Once there, Barbara is introduced to Henry and his family, consisting of Hellie Cooper and his daughter Karen Cooper, as well as a farmhand named Owen before Ben explains her situation to Henry. Barbara wants to call the cops, but because the family is growing weed, they decide against it. At some point, Owen opens the door and is bitten by a zombie, which Barbara ends up killing and while the other 2 farmhands, Tom and Judy are outside in the barn having sex, the sound they are making is causing the zombies to go after them. They are both attacked and killed by the ghouls, leading to Henry getting out his firearms. They soon realize Karen is missing and Henry plans to go out looking for her, only to be stopped by Ben, who takes his gun from him. It's then revealed that Karen is now infected and in the house the whole time, approaching her father and biting him. Ben is successfully able to kill Karen and soon after, Tovar arrives to the house.
Once there, Tovar explains that the reason there's zombies on the loose was the fact that because of his pyrophobia, he had refused to cremate them, ever since his father passed away 2 years prior. Not only did cadavers not get cremated, but there were also items of experimental value, which were also not cremated as well. Owen then succumbs to his bite and Gerald kills him with his shovel and it's then decided that they head to the funeral home, but Henry and Hellie decide to hold up upstairs. Barbara and Ben accompany Gerald to the funeral home on foot, only for Ben to be knocked out by Gerald and Barbara to be chased by him. She ends up into the house, where he found Gerald Tovar Sr, who came back through his son and is fed by his son through his blood. She then sets the zombie on fire and runs out to try and escape in a car, only to be caught and knocked out by Gerald.
She is brought to the funeral home, where he plans to make her a zombie as well. This however, backfires and Gerald is attacked by zombies behind him, who devour him. Both she and Ben escaped while the locking the zombies behind a nearby gate, however a tire iron has impaled Ben and he gives her the gun, with only one bullet left, she uses it on Ben, who turns right in front of her. She then takes the gun and shoots him, which following this, the zombies escape the funeral home, approaching Barbara, indicating that they likely killed her.
George Romero's Empire of the Dead (2014)[]
In the 2014 comic book, Penny Jones, Barbara's younger sister, tells Paul Barnum the story about what happened to her sister and brother. How she survived a night with 6 other people, but their defenses were taken down and she was hauled away by a now zombified Johnny. She also reveals that Johnny didn't harm her, nor let her be harmed by the others and protected her from incoming fire from search party arms.
Personality[]
1968[]
In the original film, Barbara was one who could easily be scared and has been all her life. Her brother however would always scare her, even as an adult, she was still terrified and easily too. When it came to the living dead however, Barbara became even more so terrified, if not, traumatized by what was transpiring. She showed to be slowly breaking down over the course of the film, which is partially why she ended up killed.
1990[]
The remake film of the 1990s introduced a whole new Barbara, though this one was a bit jittery still, she was not as powerless as before. In fact, Barbara showed that despite the situation she was in, Barbara managed to keep a cool head with Ben's advice. She also showed great efficiency when utilizing firearms such as handguns and rifles, as well as showing serious back bone when speaking up.
2004[]
In the 2004 comic books, Barbara was shown to be initially terrified of the event that turned her entire life upside down. This event caused her to have nightmares and suffer from PTSD. Despite this, she had become a strong survivor and leader of her salvage crew, even when her entire home in Pennsylvania was destroyed by the living dead.
2006[]
Skills & Abilities[]
As the story has been told and retold time and again, Barbara, despite being portrayed as initially weak, retellings show her to be much more resilient and has since learned ways of which to survive in the world with living and the dead.
- Marksmanship: In many later iterations like the 1990s film, the 2006 film and even the comics, Barbara demonstrated to be a crack shot in terms of firearms. This is proven, mostly with the use of handguns, but some iterations also show here wielding rifles as well.
- Leadership: In the comics, Barbara demonstrated that after 5 years, she had become a strong leader, despite her traumatic experience at the house the night the dead began to come back to life.
Trivia[]
- In the 1968 version, many feminists complain about Barbara being portrayed as powerless.
- The most famous line in the movie is "They are coming to get you, Barbara", said by her brother.