# Waking up in a hospital to the zombie apocalypse -- why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 29, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waking-up-in-a-hospital-to-the-zombie-apocalypse-why/607693 "2011-12-29T02:27:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waking-up-in-a-hospital-to-the-zombie-apocalypse-why/607693/21 "2011-12-29T18:13:03Z")
Or how about those people practising for the three year trip to Mars in a mockup spaceship. After a while the direction staff stop communicating with them, they figure its part of the experiment or maybe a test, so carry on until the locks automatically open to indicate that the “mission” is over and then they find that the outside world… ! Oh NO, the HORROR ! ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waking-up-in-a-hospital-to-the-zombie-apocalypse-why/607693/22 "2011-12-29T20:07:40Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > I read differently somewhere, that the Walking Dead creator independently started the series the same way as “28 Days Later” and when he saw the movie he had a moment of “oh crap crap” but decided not to change it. Yep, I’m pretty sure Robert Kirkman (Walking Dead creator/writer) addressed it that way in one of the lengthy letters columns at the end of one of the comic books. I’m not going to go searching through my copies for it, but that is my memory of it. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waking-up-in-a-hospital-to-the-zombie-apocalypse-why/607693/23 "2011-12-29T20:21:53Z")
> [@Suil\_Dubh](#): > > A recluse coming into town to buy supplies might be another way to kick-start a zombie story. Waitaminute I GET DIBS ON THIS! It’s harder to empathize with someone who has voluntarily cut himself off from human society long enough for this to occur. Not impossible, just harder. A few other ideas: A submarine crew resurfacing after being disconnected. Or any boat, really, on a reasonably long trip that gets its communications knocked out. Someone camping or hiking for a week or more somewhere remote. Somewhere where a storm takes out power and roads. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waking-up-in-a-hospital-to-the-zombie-apocalypse-why/607693/24 "2011-12-30T00:23:58Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > It’s harder to empathize with someone who has voluntarily cut himself off from human society long enough for this to occur. Not impossible, just harder. > > A few other ideas:… I once had an idea for a zombie film set in Quebec involving a group of Cegep students who were just coming back from a week-long field trip at a remote Huron reserveration. I got this idea on my way home from a HS field to Quebec that incolved a day visit to a Huron reservation. > [@Suil\_Dubh](#): > > Just plain waking up from sleep, as in the remake of “Dawn of the Dead”… Yeah, but society collapsed _alot_ sooner in the Dawn remake than in either **28 Days Later** or **The Walking Dead** , basically overnight (at least in Milwaukee). Anna never encountered anyone who had more than a few hours worth of experiance dealing with zombies. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waking-up-in-a-hospital-to-the-zombie-apocalypse-why/607693/25 "2011-12-30T01:01:45Z")
Bottom line is so they don’t have to explain how the entire world went under BEFORE someone figured out that you kill zombies by shooting them in the head. Because in the real world that problem would be resolved within an hour. _Shoot the Zombies! They’re not going down! Oh wait, the ones shot in the head don’t get up! Shoot them all in the head!_ ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waking-up-in-a-hospital-to-the-zombie-apocalypse-why/607693/26 "2011-12-30T01:11:54Z")
Hospitals are a good shorthand for “clinical isolation” so it gives plausibility to why they were not infected whilst it all kicked off off-camera. ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waking-up-in-a-hospital-to-the-zombie-apocalypse-why/607693/27 "2011-12-30T02:50:45Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > A submarine crew resurfacing after being disconnected. Or any boat, really, on a reasonably long trip that gets its communications knocked out. Ooh, good idea. That’s vaguely, vaguely, vaguely similar to the Nevel Shute novel “On the Beach”. (I believe the submarine crew begins their journey already knowing the world has ended.) > **[On the Beach (novel)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beach_(novel))** > > On the Beach is an apocalyptic novel published in 1957, written by British author Nevil Shute after he emigrated to Australia. The novel details the experiences of a mixed group of people in Melbourne as they await the arrival of deadly radiation spreading towards them from the Northern Hemisphere, following a nuclear war some years previous. As the radiation approaches, each person deals with impending death differently. > Shute's initial story was published as a four-part series, The Last Days... ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waking-up-in-a-hospital-to-the-zombie-apocalypse-why/607693/28 "2011-12-30T08:42:01Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Waking up in a hospital does open up the possibility that it’s all in their heads, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that option exercised in a zombie film. It makes me think of coma fantasies or possibly Owl’s Creek Bridge style plots, in fact in The Walking Dead comic I do believe this might be the ending(personal feeling). ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waking-up-in-a-hospital-to-the-zombie-apocalypse-why/607693/29 "2011-12-30T12:32:21Z")
I do understand the part about letting the audience empathize. I meant the question more along the lines of how **shijinn** phrased it – why not use another plot device that accomplishes the same result? The possible homages are cool, though. I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff and it’d be great to see more alternative openers in the future. PS I didn’t know Walking Dead was a comic. Just finished Season 1 and would love to get the books. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waking-up-in-a-hospital-to-the-zombie-apocalypse-why/607693/30 "2011-12-30T13:32:09Z")
It was used in another Apocalyptic (literally) film- the low-budget but rather decent Christian production TRIBULATION- Police officer Gary Busey investigates crimes connected to an occult secret society. When he gets too close, they arrange a accident that puts him into a coma. Several years later, he awakens into a world absent of his Christian loved ones (the Rapture) & with the AntiChrist in charge. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waking-up-in-a-hospital-to-the-zombie-apocalypse-why/607693/31 "2011-12-30T16:15:06Z")
Here’s the [waking-in-a-hospital scene](http://youtu.be/F8YN8RuibhI#t=03m20s) from the film version of **Day of the Triffids** (1962). ---
**Author:** ![jk1245](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jk1245](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jk1245)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waking-up-in-a-hospital-to-the-zombie-apocalypse-why/607693/32 "2011-12-30T17:51:09Z")
In addition to what others have said, it’s also a good way to set tone; an empty hospital is creepy because hospitals are _never_ empty. There’s always a significant number of people there, nights, weekends, holidays, whatever. In fact, a hospital would be especially busy during a time of crisis. A completely deserted (though obviously not old and decrepit enough to no longer be in use) hospital is unsettling because it’s so alien. Something has obviously gone seriously wrong across a wide swath of society fro that to happen. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waking-up-in-a-hospital-to-the-zombie-apocalypse-why/607693/33 "2011-12-30T17:53:58Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > Or how about those people practising for the three year trip to Mars in a mockup spaceship. > > After a while the direction staff stop communicating with them, they figure its part of the experiment or maybe a test, so carry on until the locks automatically open to indicate that the “mission” is over and then they find that the outside world… ! > > Oh NO, the HORROR ! I’d buy a ticket to this. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waking-up-in-a-hospital-to-the-zombie-apocalypse-why/607693/34 "2011-12-30T18:11:19Z")
Zombieland riffs on this by having the main character be a World of Warcraft-style shut-in. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waking-up-in-a-hospital-to-the-zombie-apocalypse-why/607693/35 "2011-12-30T18:42:16Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > Zombieland riffs on this by having the main character be a World of Warcraft-style shut-in. Well, that’s a flashback, though. Which brings us to another way to open a zombie movie. Begin the movie with the zombie apocalypse already in full swing, drop in on our protagonist as they deal with the undead in a by-now-customary way, then use flashbacks to tell the story of how they got there. [The Last Man on Earth](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058700/) uses the same technique. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waking-up-in-a-hospital-to-the-zombie-apocalypse-why/607693.md?page=1)