The plant: At the Winchester pub, after Liz breaks up with Shaun, Ed attempts to cheer him up by inventing stories about some of the pub’s regular patrons. Shaun asks about a man seated at the bar and Ed says his name is “Snakehips” and he is “always surrounded by women.” The shot changes to a close-up (planning code) of a smug Snakehips while Ed’s description (linguistic code) continues, allowing the audience to see his long thin face and grey mullet. This is followed by a toe to head tilt shot (mobility code) that focuses on his steel-toed red snakeskin boots (iconographic code), black trousers and leather jacket.

The payoff: Much later, after the zombie outbreak, as Shaun and the group make their way through fenced back alleys to the Winchester, Shaun notices a group of zombies devouring a body. A tracking shot (mobility code) through the fence slats shows us the body surrounded by female zombies. The camera zooms in on the scene (planning code), still tracking right to left, but pans in the opposite direction (mobility code) to focus on the body through the slats, starting from the head and lingering upon the feet which are encased in the red boots we were shown earlier (iconographic code). The long track shows us that the zombies surrounding the body are all female, and the pan and focus allows us to identify the body as Snakehips,’ thus creating (and subverting by showing us a dead Snakehips surrounded by female zombies) a visual reiteration of Ed’s earlier description.

At the pub, Ed is ostensibly referring to the fact that the man he calls “Snakehips” has multiple female lovers, reinforced by his next sentence “he’s a bigamist.” By focusing on the boots, the audience is cued to associate Snakehips with his particular type of footwear and the suggestion is made that a man thus outfitted might be going after encounters with multiple women, possibly at the same time. In spite of a duration of nearly 10 seconds, the Spanish subtitled version omits the “always,” opting for “rodeado de mujeres” [surrounded by women], while the dubbed version follows a literal translation of the original verbal text: “siempre está rodeado de mujeres” [he’s always surrounded by women]. This seems to be a more or less straightforward plant and payoff, and the absence of any restrictions, either verbal or visual, allows the Spanish audience to grasp the humorous foreshadowing encoded in these two sequences.

The plant: “The next time I see him, he’s dead.” Ed mutters this line as a quasi–threat (linguistic code) to Pete when the latter shouts at Shaun and Ed for playing loud music at 4 in the morning. Before leaving the house to carry out their plan to save Shaun’s mother and Liz, Shaun has to go to the bathroom, where we see Pete, who is now a zombie, in the shower (planning code). While backing away from him and attempting to act normal, Shaun mentions (linguistic code) that they’re heading for the Winchester pub and that Pete is welcome to join them. During the course of the movie, he never explicitly tells Ed that Pete has become a zombie.

The payoff: During the final standoff at the Winchester, a group of zombies manage to break in through the back door. They attempt to grab Ed, who breaks away from them. Saying “Shaun, ’ere, look who it is,” a surprised Ed advances to the foreground of the shot, looking behind him (mobility code) and the camera racks focus (planning code) to zombie Pete entering the pub in the background. This is the first time Ed has seen Pete, since their earlier argument.

Zombies are usually portrayed as reanimated corpses, therefore zombie Pete, although mobile, is clinically dead by the time he comes to the pub. Both the subtitled and dubbed versions opt for an equivalent colloquial phrasing in the target culture, however the subtitled version makes the implicit threat more explicit “The next time I see him, I’ll kill him.” In doing so, it eliminates the polysemiotic nature of the original phrase arising from the verbal-visual ties between the two sequences. It therefore renders this literal foreshadowing inaccessible to Spanish viewers.[8] Interestingly, Wright and Pegg’s subtitled commentary track in the same DVD offers an alternative translation “La próxima vez que lo vea, será hombre muerto” [The next time I see him, he’s a dead man], which succeeds in maintaining both meanings and works well in both sequences. It also indicates that when such instances of visual-verbal polysemy are noticed or pointed out, as Wright and Pegg do in the commentary track, translators may be able to adjust the translation to account for foreshadowing, provided they do not break synchrony or interfere with the visual elements on screen.

The plant: In the first part of the film, Pete is shown to be noticeably irritated by Ed’s presence in their house. Ed is slovenly, unorganised and all he seems to be doing is playing videogames.

During the argument mentioned in the previous example, Pete tells Ed to go live in the shed like an animal (linguistic code). The next morning, the audience sees the shed when, looking for improvised weapons to defend themselves against zombies, Ed gestures to the shed in the background of the shot (mobility and planning codes) and asks what is inside it. Shaun does not know and appears to have never used it. As it is locked and he does not have the key, Shaun breaks down the door (mobility code), and they enter the shed (planning code).

The payoff: In the final sequence of the film, we see a morning that plays out much like the beginning of the film. Shaun enters the living room yawning, only now it is Liz instead of Ed who is sitting on the sofa. Shaun heads to the shed, an interior shot of the door (planning code) as it opens reveals that it has been repaired (possibly indicating that it is now in use) and Shaun enters. He picks up a gamepad and as he sits down, we see Ed, now a zombie, chained in the shed. The two proceed to play videogames together. It is implied that Shaun now keeps Ed, whose behaviour is more animalistic (paralinguistic code), chained up in the shed much like a domesticated animal (mobility code).

The Spanish subtitled version of Pete’s dialogue uses “vete al cobertizo” [go to the shed] while the dubbed version translates it as “vive en un establo, cerdo de mierda” [live in a stable, you shitty pig], possibly due to Pete’s earlier likening of Ed to an animal and thereby making it more specific in translation. Both the subtitled and the dubbed versions use “cobertizo” in the later sequence where Shaun and Ed encounter zombies in their garden. The dubbed version, therefore, removes the initial mention of the shed as well as its verbal repetition which anchors the plant and the visual payoff. This reduces the line to more of a throwaway insult rather than an early reference to the garden shed on their property, which Ed will be occupying at the end of the movie.

The plant: This sequence has multiple plants leading to the payoff, of which we will focus primarily on the verbal ones.

There is an establishing crane shot (planning code) of the church steeple and spires (the bell tower), moving down to the church fete, with a large banner (graphic code) saying “Save the Church Roof” in the foreground, hinting at its state of poor maintenance. Off-screen (sound arrangement code), we can hear the Reverend Shooter (a Neighbourhood Watch Alliance member) on the mike: “Testing, testing. Someone’s in for a surprise at 3 o’clock, ladies and gentlemen. It’s the church raffle with a very special guest presenter” (linguistic code).

“Village Green”[15] (musical and sound arrangement codes) by the Kinks plays in the background, with the lyrics:

Out in the country,

Far from all the soot and noise of the city,

There’s a village green.

It’s been a long time

Since I last set eyes on the church with the steeple…

The local supermarket owner, Simon Skinner, shouts “Splat the rat” (linguistic code), and the camera cuts to a shot of him standing next to a poster (graphic code) advertising the game “Splat the Rat” (the UK version of Whack-a-Mole) and slapping his palm with a toy truncheon (mobility code), while glaring at the journalist Tim Messenger. A little later, Tim Messenger comes to Sgt. Angel and tells him that he wants to talk to him about one of the people recently killed, George Merchant.

While announcing the winners of the raffle, when Angel picks Tim Messenger’s name, Reverend Shooter calls out jokingly: “Tim, your number’s up” (linguistic code).

The payoff: Later, as the clock nears 3 (iconographic code), and Sgt. Angel is onstage to announce the raffle winners, shots of a cloaked and hooded figure running up the bell tower are crosscut with rapid shots of Angel, the large clock, Tim Messenger glancing at his wristwatch, gloved hands grasping the broken spire, and the attending public’s laughter. As Angel jumps off the stage and runs to the churchyard, the spire topples and splats (planning and sound effects codes) Tim Messenger’s head moments after he spots Angel and says “Hi Hi!.”

There are multiple verbal hints to Tim Messenger’s death throughout this sequence. Rev. Shooter’s off-screen announcement may be interpreted in several ways:

1. The winners of the raffle will be announced at 3 o’clock,

2. Sgt. Angel does not know that he will be invited to announce the winners, and

3. Tim Messenger will be murdered at 3 o’clock.

The third meaning is only apparent in hindsight, i.e., when the murder takes place. This line of dialogue is replaced by “Contribuid vuestra aportación a la salvación del techo de la iglesia” [Contribute your share to the salvation of the church roof] in the dubbed version while the subtitle only translates the banner “Salvar el techo de la iglesia,” thereby prioritizing the graphic code over the earlier off-screen dialogue in the background. The subtitle also eliminates another important bit of foreshadowing, that Rev. Shooter is a co-conspirator and, therefore, aware of the plot to murder Tim Messenger.

Songs that make up the background score and are non-diegetic, are usually not translated, either in the subtitled or the dubbed versions of the films, and such is the case here with the Kink’s “Village Green,” which foreshadows the instrument of murder[16] and is therefore lost to non-English speaking audiences in both translated versions.

The two Spanish versions translate the funfair game “Splat the Rat” as “Aplasta la rata.” A “rat” in English can also mean an informer; “to rat” is to reveal confidential information. In Spanish, “rata” [rat] can be used to refer pejoratively to a person as well, but usually in the sense of a miser or an unpleasant person, rather than a tattle-tale. Whack-a-mole is relatively unknown in Spain, and its canonical name according to toy manufacturer Mattel’s tabletop version is confusingly “Guacamole,” a phonetic adaptation of the American name. An alternative translation to be found in some places[17] is “Dale al topo” [Let the mole have it]. This alternative would have foreshadowed the ostensible motive, “topo” being a Spanish colloquialism for a spy or an informer, but in turn, would eliminate the reference to the gory nature of Tim Messenger’s death. “Aplasta la rata” eliminates the motive but preserves the rhyme and onomatopoeic nature of the original English term, making it a plausible name for a funfair game.

Rev. Shooter’s joking announcement, “Tim, your number’s up,” is translated in both versions as “Tim, te ha tocado,” a colloquial Spanish expression meaning either “you’ve won (a lottery or a competition)” or “it’s your turn.” Where the English expression generally has a more negative connotation, it is the Spanish translation that, by virtue of being a perfectly acceptable phrase in either situation, lends itself to wordplay in this context. However, this does eliminate the reason for the public’s laughter at Rev. Shooter’s relexicalised pronouncement (a rather weak pun) which repurposes a set phrase with negative connotations to refer to a positive outcome involving an actual raffle number.

The plant: On their first lunch break at the pub, the dialogue between DC Cartwright and Sgt. Angel (linguistic code), taken at face value, appears to be just a colloquial form of saying that many people in the countryside possess firearms.

Later, at the NWA meeting, Sgt. Angel is introduced to James Reaper, owner of Brannigan Farm. Reaper invites him to go hunting (linguistic code), thus establishing that Reaper (among others) possesses firearms. The close-up of Reaper (planning code) shows him wearing his characteristic tweed flat cap, red sweater and green jacket, which he wears all through the film.

The payoff: The establishing shot shows Reaper alone in the countryside. Sgt. Angel deliberately collides with Reaper’s car in order to prevent him from notifying the NWA members of Angel’s return to Sandford. A long shot of Reaper (planning code) shows his car moving out of frame, leaving him standing against an empty background of fields. Reaper shouts “Mum!” as Angel storms out of his car and heads towards him. He punches him and Reaper lurches out of the frame (mobility code), exposing a blurry figure in the background. The camera racks focus (planning code) to show a diminutive old woman with a rifle who shoots (mobility code) but misses Angel. An additional payoff is also derived from the fact that later in the film, most of the senior citizens of the village, who are members of the NWA, all turn out to have concealed weapons on their person, which they use in the final shootout.

The humour is derived from what turns out to be very literal foreshadowing in context, the farmer calls for his mother (Mum!) and we see the sudden image of a frail old woman cocking and shooting a hunting rifle, i.e., it is revealed that farmers’ mums do carry firearms in Sandford. Apart from the visuals, the plant and payoff are linked by the use of the word “mum.”

The Spanish translation of Sgt. Cartwright’s dialogue opts for substituting “mums” with “abuelas” [grandmothers] and is somewhat more specific; “Even the grandmothers of the farmers carry guns,” as opposed to “everybody and their mums.” However Reaper still shouts “¡Mamá!,” thus eliminating the repetition of the key word and the visual reiteration of an earlier dialogue. The choice of the expression “hasta las abuelas” [even the grandmothers] may have been motivated by the subsequent visuals, given that we see a very frail old woman, thus perhaps prompting the translator to emphasize the humorous incongruity inherent in the image of an elderly person facing off against the young and fit Sgt. Angel.

The plant: In the same pub sequence, DS Wainwright says to Sgt. Angel, “I bet you can’t wait to jump into Sgt. Popwell’s grave” (linguistic code). To which Angel replies, “I’m not jumping into anyone’s grave.”

Earlier in the film, during Sgt. Angel’s first meeting with his new Chief Inspector, Frank Butterman talks about Angel’s predecessor, Sgt. Popwell, and mentions that he had “a great big, bushy beard” or “una barba enorme” in Spanish.

The payoff: Fleeing the NWA members, who are armed with scythes, knives, and staffs, through the castle grounds, Sgt. Angel falls through a hole (mobility code) and lands in the catacombs (photographic and planning codes), where he encounters the cadavers of several people murdered by the NWA. As Angel stumbles through the bodies, each point-of-view shot is accompanied by disembodied voices, repeating earlier lines spoken by different NWA members detailing their supposed offences. As his flashlight falls on the bearded face of Sgt. Popwell’s decomposed cadaver (iconographic code), Frank Butterman’s line “A great big, bushy beard!” (linguistic code) is heard off-screen. Presented ostensibly as Sgt. Angel’s recollections, this voice also helps the audience to identify the bodies, especially that of Sgt. Popwell, and thus creates a link between DS Wainwright’s dialogue and Angel’s falling into the catacombs.

The payoff here lies in both the figurative and literal interpretations of the expression “to jump into someone’s grave,” i.e., to occupy someone’s place or position with undue haste. As Sgt. Popwell’s zealous successor, Angel takes up the investigation previously attempted by him and, when fleeing the NWA, accidentally jumps into the catacombs where Sgt. Popwell’s body lies. The subtitled and dubbed texts use the Spanish expression “meterse en la piel del sargento Popwell” [get into Sergeant Popwell’s skin] to maintain the colloquial register of the original conversation. This does however eliminate the literal foreshadowing inherent in the statement as at no point does Angel actually have anything to do with the dead body’s skin. Another point to note is that in the subtitled version, while most of the off-screen dialogue when Angel runs through the catacombs is translated, the phrase “A great big bushy beard!” is not translated in this sequence. This would also have led viewers who did not remember this defining characteristic of Sgt. Popwell to miss the reference to the earlier conversation at the pub, even if the translator had opted for a more neutral translation such as “ocupar el lugar del sargento Popwell” [to occupy the place of Sgt. Popwell], for instance.

The plant: DC Cartwright’s dialogue “you want to be a big cop in a small town, fuck off up the model village” (linguistic code) refers to Angel’s insistence on treating all the deaths as murders, which his colleagues think is due to his service in the London Metropolitan Police Service. They also resent his transfer to the village of Sandford and his know-it-all attitude as compared to the more lackadaisical approach of the village constabulary. Cartwright and Wainwright tell him to go away (fuck off up) to the scale model of Sandford if he wants to play at being a big London-style police officer, and stop bothering them.

The payoff: The showdown between Simon Skinner and Nicholas Angel (mobility code) takes place within the miniature replica of Sandford. While most of the sequence is shot in a series of rapid cuts from low angles and medium close-ups of the two men (planning code), the shot of Angel walking away after leaving Skinner stunned is a crane shot that ends in a high angle perspective (planning code), emphasizing the dollhouse nature of the village model against Angel’s full height, as he walks up the replica of the main street (mobility code). Here, Angel literally is a big cop in a small town. Also note that the shootout in Sandford took place in the main street, and so does the fight between Skinner and Sgt. Angel in its miniature version.

The film in general plays with the idea that Sandford aspires to be a model (ideal) village, but also has an actual scale model. A theme of the film is that Angel has to fuck off up the village of Sandford where, after unmasking the NWA, he is promoted to Inspector, thus becoming a big cop. But as an explicit payoff we are given the scene where Angel is the last man standing in the Sandford miniature after defeating Simon Skinner, thus making him literally a big cop in a small town.

The plant is translated as “You want to be a super cop in a little village? Fuck up our model [idyllic] village?” While the English compound noun may mean either an exemplary village or a model or miniature version of a village, the Spanish translations use the term “pueblo modélico” [ideal village], but it does not possess the paronomastic nature of the original, although “modélico” shares the same root as “modelo” or model. A scale model or miniature village would usually be translated as “pueblo (en) miniatura” or even “pueblo modelo.” Perhaps influenced by the overall theme of the film, the translation instead switches the plant and payoff to Angel playing super-cop in the actual full-sized Sandford. The foreshadowing therefore is of a different kind in the translation; where in the original, the planting pays off in Sgt. Angel’s presence at the site of the miniature, the translation foreshadows Angel’s standoff against the NWA, who will go to any lengths to preserve Sandford’s Village of the Year status, and the consequent destruction of (the myth of) Sandford as the ideal picturesque British village.

The plant: “Take a moment to look upon it in its original colours boys, for tonight we paint it red.” Gary’s remark (linguistic code), heard over a long tracking shot (planning code) of Newton Haven while in the car before entering the town, at first appears to be an off the cuff statement about the group going out drinking.[20] Although there are several theories about the origins of the phrase,[21] variously attributed to the red glares of bonfires or drunken sprees in red light districts, most sources agree upon its being related to revelry and possible consequent mayhem.

The payoff: At the end of the film, after the remaining members of the group, along with Sam (played by Rosamund Pike), attempt to flee Newton Haven, the spreading EMP pulse catches up with their car and leaves them stranded at the exact spot where 10 years ago their younger selves had looked upon the town after their first attempt at completing the Golden Mile. The closing shot (planning code) of older Gary is a near-graphic match (syntactic code) of the earlier shot of young Gary upon the hill (shown in a pre-opening title flashback montage). In the background, Newton Haven is encircled in flames with a huge column of smoke rising into the sky. From the moment the Network (as the alien collective is named) disconnects itself in The World’s End bar until the fading to black, the entire sequence is tinted red (photographic code), as is the fiery EMP pulse with a blue-tinted lens flare that chases the car and finally engulfs it. (Note that blue has been used throughout the film to signify the Network and the Blanks who are part of it). Gary and his mates, who are responsible for pulling the plug on the Network’s presence on Earth, burning down Newton Haven and returning the world to a pre-industrial age, have effectively “painted the town red.”

The Spanish translation uses an alternative phrasing that has the same original connotation: “quemarla” [to burn it]. The fact that the flames are clearly visible throughout this later sequence and in the long shot of a burning Newton Haven may have prompted this choice of phrasing. By basing the translation on the iconographic code instead of the photographic code (the flames and smoke, instead of the colour red), it maintains the reiterative relation between the original plant and payoff, where Gary’s early offhand remark acquires a prophetic nature in hindsight.

The plant: In the pre-opening montage, we are shown a close-up shot of a young Oliver flipping his friends the bird (iconographic code) as they mock him for ostentatiously talking on his mobile phone. The visuals are accompanied by Gary’s voice-over narration: “but really, he was all mouth” (linguistic code). As the letters on the title sequence against a black background disappear, a tracking and wipe sequence follows, contrasting older Gary’s life with that of his mates,’ where we again see Oliver loudly talking in a queue, this time on Bluetooth.

The payoff: When the Network leaves, in the ensuing collapse of the building, a falling beam strikes Blank Oliver and breaks the top half of his head. After the Blanks awaken the next day, and presumably gain autonomy after having been disconnected from the Network, a nearly headless Blank Oliver is shown flipping the bird to a mocking human (iconographic code), who throws a coin into his broken head, thus reiterating the image (syntactic code) of young Oliver doing the same. As Andy relates what became of everybody after the apocalypse, we see Blank Oliver has gone back to his old profession as realtor, with a football taped to the exposed part of his head.

Again, this is an example of an expression that is visually taken to its literal conclusion. At the beginning of the film, the close-up describes a characteristic of Oliver, that he is a talker (“all mouth”), and it links a particular sign (the middle finger) to him. At the end of the film, Blank Oliver repeats the action, thus making the shot a near-graphic match to the earlier frame. We also see that his mouth is all that remains of his head, which enables him to continue working as a real-estate agent in the post-apocalypse. The Spanish translations use the expression “era un bocazas” [he was a big-mouth], thus preserving both the original function as well as the subtext.