# World War Z adaption will be a typical action movie

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-adaption-will-be-a-typical-action-movie/592494>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [August 12, 2011, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-adaption-will-be-a-typical-action-movie/592494 "2011-08-12T19:37:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

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**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:** [August 17, 2011, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-adaption-will-be-a-typical-action-movie/592494/41 "2011-08-17T23:12:41Z")

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> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> No, the book takes place years after the war ended. So really there’s no action in it at all. A guy is traveling around the planet collecting oral records of the survivors of the war against the zombies.
> 
> Most zombie books take place during the attacks. The main plot is everyone trying to survive. This book is different because it’s about the people who have survived but now have to deal with the cost of surviving.

I don’t think that’s a particularly accurate description of the book. Sure, the stories are told in the past tense, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t plenty of action. The guy collecting stories is basically a bookend on each chapter and some occasional interjections. It’s an effective storytelling technique, but the meat of the book is in the stories themselves. And the vast majority of the stories are stories of individual high-energy action sequences. You’ve got the doctor dealing with an early outbreak, the pilot cut off from support and fleeing through the woods, the combat vet in the midst of a battle gone wrong, etc. Only a few of the stories (the one about the SAfrican guy comes to mind) are really about the aftermath.

Saying that “really there’s no action in it at all” is like saying that _The Princess Bride_ doesn’t really have any action in it; it’s just a movie about a guy reading a book to his grandson.

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