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Remember Fred from I Am Legend?

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This is the scene.

Any idea how Fred did get there in the first place?

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    Whilst this may theoretically be a question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the question here, and provide the link for reference.
    – Tablemaker
    Feb 12, 2012 at 17:35

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It's entirely plausible that Neville simply forgot that he placed Fred there in the first place. Don't forget, this is a man who has been living by himself for who knows how long (essentially trying to fool himself into thinking things are still 'normal' by playing video of morning programs, as if we were watching the normal morning shows), and although he had a regular routine, he could very easily have forgotten that he placed Fred there, especially since he forgot the trap he had set up there in the first place.

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    I always thought the zombies put up the trap (along with Fred), but your point is an interresting one, too.
    – Napoleon Wilson ♦
    Feb 13, 2012 at 12:59
  • Yes, I believe this really make sense
    – César
    Feb 13, 2012 at 14:10
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Fred was used as a bait by the zombies, evident from the trap set there. This leads me to think that it was the zombies who took Fred out of the store and placed him (or it) at the location in the scene. This is only possible explanation I can think of.

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    I thought they were vampireish, not zombies....
    – DForck42
    Feb 12, 2012 at 22:06
  • In the book, I believe they were vampires, and the movie portays them as a kind of hybrid due to their appearance.
    – Tablemaker
    Feb 13, 2012 at 3:20
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    Yes, I would agree that they were a hybrid of zombies and vampires due to their appearance and aversion to sunlight.
    – Incognito
    Feb 13, 2012 at 9:29
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    Yes. I completely agree with your answer. I just watched the film and right next to Fred, a trap is set for Neville (in which he gets caught). So the zombies were most probably observing Fred and Neville and setup the trap for him. I think this needs to be marked up as an answer.
    – saurabhj
    Jul 23, 2014 at 18:51
  • Wouldn't Neville be more like "Dafuq? What devilry is this? They must have advanced a fair bit!", instead of "Oh Fred, what are you doing up here you fool? Have some bullets"?
    – Möoz
    May 26, 2015 at 1:33
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They are not zombies, therefore who's to question their level of intellegence? It is a hybrid disease of measles and rabies, therefore I believe they set the trap in retaliation after he trapped the female "dark seeker" and left all of the evidence of his trap behind, and they just copied it to their favour.

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    To anyone that questions the vampires/zombies intelligence, read this reddit reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1izphk/… and the comment from someone who read the books. Also in the seconds just after, Robert starts shooting at random windows realizing the zombies might have setup the trap and might be watching him at the moment.
    – pandaman1234
    Aug 22, 2017 at 0:54
  • The zombies in all the other scenes in the movies give the appearance of being severely brain-damaged, far dumber than animals. This just seems far above their capabilities.
    – Chozang
    Dec 31, 2019 at 6:03
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My interpretation of this scene is that Robert did in fact place Fred there, to keep a sense of normality as someone stated above. After all, it isn't set in stone that the mannequins remain in the same place all the time. I mean, who hangs out at a Movie Store? Moreover, Robert is clearly going insane from being alone and in such a hostile environment. A normal person in their right state of mind would have seen the mannequin out of place from where they last remember leaving them, and rationalize "Okay, how the hell did it get there?" But he immediately swerved into a panic and began interrogating an inanimate object. While it's clear the mutants were changing in the movie, I doubt it's anything more than what Robert described. That circumstances have caused them to ignore their basic survival instincts. One might argue that the central male mutant we kept seeing in the film is more evolved than the rest --even sentient, but I see no reason to believe that. What we saw in the movie was basic "pack animal mentality", essentially the male was the Alpha. The natural leader. Stronger, more aggressive, dominant. As for the "meaningful eye-contact", aside from that being for movie drama it's nothing but typical animal behavior. Looking an animal in the eye is considered a challenge in the animal kingdom. Ever wonder why your dog can't stare back directly into your eyes for long?

I'm of the firm belief he's simply flipped his lid and gone bananas, so to speak. After all, there were no indications in the movie that the mutants were showing any signs of intelligence --in fact Robert himself states that their minds have completely diminished. However, there are signs left and right the whole time that Robert is simply a broken, lonely man in a hostile world that's constantly trying to kill him. He went through that upwards of a thousand days. Can anyone really testify they could last longer without snapping?

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This scene could possibly be interpreted in many ways. One possible way is if the zombies were smart enough to know where he lived at the end, they were probably smart enough to set a trap at night time.

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    The zombies didn't know where he lived, they just followed the scent of a regular human when he was brought back by people who didn't know any better. If the zombies were that smart, they would have been able to search the whole of Manhattan in the timeframe of how long Neville had been alone on the island.
    – Barry Hammer
    Feb 13, 2012 at 14:29

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