# what unleashes zombies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 29, 2005, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296 "2005-06-29T00:20:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![drhess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@drhess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drhess)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/1 "2005-06-29T00:20:54Z")
In zombi movies, as opposed to the Haitian folk-medicine belief/practice, what starts off the rampage? ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/2 "2005-06-29T00:22:02Z")
Satelites coverd with strange radiaton, string, or nothing. Nothing explained, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/3 "2005-06-29T01:11:23Z")
I always assumed it was their unstanchable craving for BRAAAAIIIIIINNNNS. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/4 "2005-06-29T01:30:58Z")
They show up when it’s the time of the season for loving. And if a female tempts you with her charms, tell her no. If you’re careful, you’ll find she’s not there. ---
**Author:** ![CateAyo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@CateAyo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CateAyo)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/5 "2005-06-29T01:36:15Z")
Do leash laws not apply to zombies? How about laws requiring you to pick up after them with a plastic bag covered hand? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/6 "2005-06-29T01:38:12Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > They show up when it’s the time of the season for loving. And if a female tempts you with her charms, tell her no. If you’re careful, you’ll find she’s not there. For some reason I find myself wondering if I’m the only one under 30 who will get this joke… I’ve always liked the X-Files explaination for zombie behavior: > [@](#): > > From transcript of episode 7x18 Hollywood AD > > MULDER: (on phone) You know, Scully, I was just thinking about Lazarus, Ed > Wood, and those tofurkey-eating zombies. How come when people come back from the > dead they always want to hurt the living? > SCULLY: (on phone) Well, that’s because people can’t really come back from the > dead, Mulder. I mean, ghosts and zombies are just projections of our own repressed > cannibalistic and sexual fears and desires. They are who we fear that we are at heart– > just mindless automatons who can only kill and eat. > MULDER: (on phone) Party pooper. Well, I got a new theory. I say that when > zombies try to eat people, that’s just the first stage. You see, they’ve just come back from > being dead so they’re going to do all the things they miss from when they were alive. So, > first, they’re going to eat, then they’re going to drink, then they’re going to dance and > make love. > > SCULLY: (on phone, smiling) Oh, I see. So it’s just that we never get to stay with > them long enough to see the gentler side of the undead. > > MULDER: (on phone) Exactly. So, you know, being undead makes them hungry, that’s all. ---
**Author:** ![Reepicheep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@Reepicheep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reepicheep)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/7 "2005-06-29T02:13:00Z")
Killing the parent process with a kill -9. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/8 "2005-06-29T02:16:57Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > They show up when it’s the time of the season for loving. And if a female tempts you with her charms, tell her no. If you’re careful, you’ll find she’s not there. I get it, **Chuck**. Even if none of the under 30s will. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![WilhelmGefallen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9f8e36/32.png) [@WilhelmGefallen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WilhelmGefallen)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/9 "2005-06-29T02:30:42Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > I get it, **Chuck**. Even if none of the under 30s will. 🙂 Hey some of us under 30’s like decent music. sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/10 "2005-06-29T02:32:28Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > For some reason I find myself wondering if I’m the only one under 30 who will get this joke… > > I’ve always liked the X-Files explaination for zombie behavior: > > So, you know, being undead makes them hungry, that’s all. I know Scully is the skeptic, but that script looked like it was from Season 7, and skeptic or no, after 7 years of running across aliens and the supernatural, how the hell can she say that people don’t come back from the dead? Hasn’t she seen ghosts and things even wierder then that? ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/11 "2005-06-29T06:42:55Z")
They can also be caused by the evil Umbrella Corporation experimenting with dangerous vaccines to create a super-soldier. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/12 "2005-06-29T07:51:42Z")
Or a bunch of idiotic eco-terrorists trying to free monkies infected with the rage virus. Damnit, I know you love the animals, but if the animals are infected with horrible dieases, releasing them into the wild is not going to help things at all, retards! ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/13 "2005-06-29T07:53:43Z")
> [@SolGrundy](#): > > They can also be caused by the evil Umbrella Corporation experimenting with dangerous vaccines to create a super-soldier. Not to mention the fact the Umbrella Corporation builds crappy safeguards into their bio-weapon labs. I mean, the computer was a good start, but an air system that takes the virus to the next room? That makes so much sense. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/14 "2005-06-29T08:42:59Z")
Then there’s the deliberate reanimation of the dead, either for military reasons, or out of scientific curiosity, or out of idealism. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/15 "2005-06-29T09:07:46Z")
Hell is exothermic and it has exceeded its carrying capacity. An air tanker carrying Thorazine exploded in midair. The cost of caffeine has risen past the cost of cocaine and a million geeks all have terrible headaches. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/16 "2005-06-29T09:26:42Z")
As others have said, it varies with which movie/series of movies you’re talking about. In the _Return of the Living Dead_ series, for example, it was the chemical “2-4-5 Trioxin” that reanimated the dead into brain-eating ghouls. (Not sure how it made zombies able to infect the living, though.) I’ve noticed that, in recent years, in movies and whatnot, it’s usually some kind of virus (possibly a bio-engineered one) that raises zombies. Either by reanimating the dead, or by killing and reanimating or simply mutating the living. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/17 "2005-06-29T11:11:22Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > They show up when it’s the time of the season for loving. And if a female tempts you with her charms, tell her no. If you’re careful, you’ll find she’s not there. Holy Crap! The ways she looks! The color of her hair! ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/18 "2005-06-29T11:32:07Z")
Phil Collins and Ritalin or Worchestershire sauce being used as embaling fluid. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/19 "2005-06-29T12:50:10Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > I know Scully is the skeptic, but that script looked like it was from Season 7, and skeptic or no, after 7 years of running across aliens and the supernatural, how the hell can she say that people don’t come back from the dead? Hasn’t she seen ghosts and things even wierder then that? That’s because on TV, skeptics are stupid. That’s why I hate the X-files. Re the OP: Sometimes, Death gets retired, and the dead say bugger all to the crowded waiting room. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/20 "2005-06-29T12:57:21Z")
Sometimes it’s because you didn’t say the magic words correctly. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296.md?page=2)