# "World War Z" the Movie Thread (Open Spoilers!) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 18, 2013, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244 "2013-06-18T03:49:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244/21 "2013-06-20T23:07:33Z")
> [@XT](#): > > I was thinking about getting [this one on audible.com](http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=wl_1_6?asin=B00BIKAVHS) (though, like seeming all the audio versions, it’s abridged). I read the original, and could tell by the previews that it wasn’t going to be anything like the book, but I’ll probably go see it anyway. It sucks that it’s abridged but other than that, it’s a really well done audio production. They got a whole cast to do all the characters rather than having one person reading the book. Brook’s writing works well as spoken dialogue. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244/22 "2013-06-20T23:15:00Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Probably stupid question belaying my zombie ignorance, but from the previews showing those masses of zombies I kept wondering, what would the zombies eat after they killed the last human? Would they then “die out”? Do zombies need to eat in order to continue their undead existence? This point was addressed in the book. The zombies did decompose albeit slowly. Once the surviving humans had established safe zones, they could have just remained inside of them and waited a few years for the zombies to decay down to harmlessness. A lot of people in the book argued this was the best plan - we should stay safe. Others argued against this - they said that if humanity just hid away from the danger until it went away on its own, we would never feel secure again. They argued that we needed to go out and defeat the zombies in order to prove to ourselves that we could control our own destiny. The latter group won the debate in the book. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244/23 "2013-06-20T23:28:16Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > This point was addressed in the book. The zombies did decompose albeit slowly. Once the surviving humans had established safe zones, they could have just remained inside of them and waited a few years for the zombies to decay down to harmlessness. > > A lot of people in the book argued this was the best plan - we should stay safe. Others argued against this - they said that if humanity just hid away from the danger until it went away on its own, we would never feel secure again. They argued that we needed to go out and defeat the zombies in order to prove to ourselves that we could control our own destiny. The latter group won the debate in the book. Ah. The idiots won. They usually do… ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244/24 "2013-06-20T23:36:05Z")
Eh, my answer to Zombies, being in Minnesota, is simply "Wait for winter’. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244/25 "2013-06-20T23:40:28Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Eh, my answer to Zombies, being in Minnesota, is simply "Wait for winter’. You didn’t read the book, eh? ---
**Author:** ![dogbutler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogbutler/32/428_2.png) [@dogbutler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dogbutler)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244/26 "2013-06-21T01:31:57Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > You didn’t read the book, eh? yeah, but they were easy picking when frozen solid. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244/27 "2013-06-21T01:44:25Z")
> [@Phoebestar](#): > > Add me to the list of people that is disappointed that the movie will not be like the book. > > When I read the book, I envisioned an awesome movie in documentary style, and thought it could be pretty chilling done that way. I was excited about the movie, until I saw a preview. > > Then I was very sad. > > (I’ll see the movie regardless, though. Sigh.) What follows is not judgment, just a statement of fact. Hollywood gets away with shit like this because people sigh and go see it anyway. They think Bradd Pitt; Action Hero volume 7 is what we want them to turn our books into. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244/28 "2013-06-21T02:05:42Z")
And generally they are right. I DO want to see this movie, i AM upset the title of the movie is “World War Z”, that doesn’t make it a BAD movie. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244/29 "2013-06-21T02:13:31Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > You didn’t read the book, eh? > [@dogbutler](#): > > yeah, but they were easy picking when frozen solid. Yeah, I know Zombies are ‘magic’ and violate the laws of physics, but I would think repeated freeze/thaw cycles would work wonders on breaking them down. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244/30 "2013-06-21T04:58:01Z")
> [@Mosier](#): > > What follows is not judgment, just a statement of fact. > > Hollywood gets away with shit like this because people sigh and go see it anyway. They think Bradd Pitt; Action Hero volume 7 is what we want them to turn our books into. I think Hollywood is so far out of touch with average people that they don’t have the faintest clue what we actually _want_ to see. Someone takes a chance with a movie that’s not totally typical, and it becomes a huge “sleeper” hit, then everyone in Hollywood goes haring off after _that_ kind of movie (except taking all the magic out of it and substituting all their boring old clichés and wondering why it didn’t work for them). Part of the excuses they make for their mediocre output these days is that everything costs so much; well, it costs so much because they insist on using the same old tired formulas - hire big stars for mucho bucks, then substitute blowing shit up and chase scenes for plot and character development. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244/31 "2013-06-21T05:44:10Z")
Did they keep any of the “US government is sort of sinister and cover-up-ish” that was in the early script? I read a copy online and it was interesting, if not terribly much like the book. My favorite thing from the early script involved narrator being told to stop pushing into how badly Yonkers was mismanaged, then ignoring it, then on a chopper trip with the AF, they had ‘technical difficulties’ in zombie country and had to set down for repairs. This lead to the narrator being nearly killed by zombies (who were possibly being deliberately kept in the area for just that purpose), only to be rescued in the nick of time by the now good chopper crew, who made it clear just how easy it was to ‘disappear’ and to stop asking questions. Might not have fit the book, but was a not bad scene for a movie that was kinda close. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244/32 "2013-06-21T05:56:30Z")
The summary of the movie sounds a lot like the spirit of the book. WWZ was about investigating how the zombie outbreak occured, how society dealt with it, how it affected governments and how governments reacted to it. The way that the story was told was unique and interesting, as a sort of false history. But the synopsis provided of the movie actually sounds a lot like the book. I haven’t seen it yet but as long as it covers investigating the phenomenon and how society at large, the military, and various governments are dealing with the zombie menace, then I’d say the book and the movie share a LOT in common. Obviously they differ in form, but in substance it sounds quite similar. In other words, this really doesn’t sound like any other zombie movie, which almost always exclusively focus on a small group of people trying to survive in a limited setting. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244/33 "2013-06-21T12:16:26Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I think the zombies were to be likened to a virus - it only wants to reproduce, and isn’t really interested in what happens to the human host afterwards. \*\*Dread Pirate Jimbo \*\*and I were undecided about this - if the zombies were actually eating humans, or if they were just biting and infecting. My question was sorta based on something I remember reading about germ theory - I think it was cholera in **The Ghost Map**. And they talked about the tension between an infection’s need to multiply rapidly, but not so rapidly that it kills its host before being able to infect another. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244/34 "2013-06-21T14:53:51Z")
Shoot, the descriptions of the movie are disappointing. I liked the book, quite a bit, and I don’t care for zombies generally. But I am in the camp of thinking that it is screamingly obvious that it needs to be made into a fake documentary _a la_ Ken Burns. Too obvious for Hollywood to notice, apparently. No doubt they can make more money with yet another cliché action movie instead of something with a bit of imagination. _:shrugs:_ A pity, but there it is - I am not their target audience. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244/35 "2013-06-21T15:00:59Z")
Almost no one would watch a fake documentary _a la_ Ken Burns. And a found-footage shakey-cam type film would have been derided by Dopers and critics (and probably audiences since even the masses are thinking that stuff’s getting old by now…) They really couldn’t win with this one. Possibly this means they shouldn’t have played the game… ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244/36 "2013-06-21T16:11:33Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Almost no one would watch a fake documentary _a la_ Ken Burns. I think that’s an overstatement. I understand the dilemma they have put themselves in - they want a blockbuster, so they hire Brad Pitt, and pay him big bucks so they need a blockbuster to make a profit, so they are afraid to do anything except try for an action movie blockbuster, because they already know how to make an action movie. Unfortunately for my tastes in movies, I do not automatically buy the “Brad Pitt + zombies + lots of death and explosions = must see” formula that Hollywood appears to be relying on in this instance. I was hoping for something new. > [@](#): > > And a found-footage shakey-cam type film would have been derided by Dopers and critics (and probably audiences since even the masses are thinking that stuff’s getting old by now…) I was thinking of something more like the press coverage of the first Gulf War - lots of news footage, interspersed with interviews. The blind samurai guy could be taken from security cameras. Like I said, I am not their target audience, so from their point of view it is probably better to get Brad Pitt (to bring in women) and gore, explosions, and death, to bring in the 14-28 year old boys. The only times they consider what will attract me is when they are designing Ex-lax or Viagra commercials. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244/37 "2013-06-21T16:16:08Z")
[quote=“Frylock, post:35, topic:661244”] Almost no one would watch a fake documentary _a la_ Ken Burns. /QUOTE] I don’t think it would have worked as a movie, but maybe on HBO it might have. However, they got beaten to the punch by Walking Dead, so that won’t happen. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244/38 "2013-06-21T18:13:44Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > This is really a huge spoiler - he gets a brilliant idea, he tries it on himself, it works first time out of the gate, and everyone lives happily ever after. Can someone elaborate on something in the spoiler? Specifically, What does he try on himself? And how does it work? ---
**Author:** ![DirkGntly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@DirkGntly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DirkGntly)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244/39 "2013-06-21T19:03:05Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > This point was addressed in the book. The zombies did decompose albeit slowly. Once the surviving humans had established safe zones, they could have just remained inside of them and waited a few years for the zombies to decay down to harmlessness. > > A lot of people in the book argued this was the best plan - we should stay safe. Others argued against this - they said that if humanity just hid away from the danger until it went away on its own, we would never feel secure again. They argued that we needed to go out and defeat the zombies in order to prove to ourselves that we could control our own destiny. The latter group won the debate in the book. See, I find this a bit ridiculous. Sure, suspension of disbelief and all…but I can write a MUCH more compelling book, that is still “zombie-like” if it is actually a virus that infects, turning the victim into a mindless consumer, like a locust. Conflict is automatically inherint: ACTION SEQUENCES! - We MUST destroy them, because if we don’t, they will eventually consume everything, dooming the human race because the uninfected can’t enclave up and produce food as quickly as it gets consumed… - Can we bait them? How BEST to destroy many of them, quickly??.. MORAL ANGST! - But CAN we destroy them, from a moral perspective? They’re infected, not dead - and we’re working on a CURE! …aren’t we…? SCIENCE CONTENT! - Where did the virus come from? Is it genetically engineered? What are its susceptibilities? How is it spread? (Spoiler! The eyes of infected individuals change color to a mottled gray, including the sclera…) QUESTIONING! - Do we find a cure? Will the human race survive?!? SOCIAL COMMENTARY! - Are we ALL just “mindless consumers?” If so, WHO MADE US THIS WAY??..Can we change/survive??.. SURPRISE TWIST! - Epilogue: 300 years later a spacecraft descends…occupants explore…no living humans found…time to return home! Aliens go into cryo-chambers…one alien’s eyes have turned from yellow…to GRAY!! The end. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244/40 "2013-06-21T21:32:55Z")
So what is the ending? Zombiepalooza? Or Miracle Cure? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-z-the-movie-thread-open-spoilers/661244.md?page=3)