World War Z officially a train wreck

Actually, we have historical examples of how people will react when there is a pandemic. The closest example I think to a zombie outbreak would be the Black Death, where the medical profession was overwhelmed by the plaque and didn't have the knowledge nor tools to fight the plaque.

http://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/black-death2.htm

I think, considering that the zombies were undead, that they would be locked in the building, along with the living, and both would be burned. I think physicians would wear protective bite-proof clothing.

One thing I haven't seen in the zombie movies that I have seen is using zombies in biological warfare. In the historical Battle of Caffa, the Mongols catapulted the corpses of plaque bodies into the city. This is believed by some as the cause of the plaque that spread into Europe.

http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/8/9/01-0536_article.htm

 

I never knew bad tooth hygiene was so deadly.

 

I have never read the book but what happens to these people that turns them into Zombies?

 

<Shrug>I intended to say plague.

 

The plague spread into Europe via trading ships. There's a linear progression of the disease which is easy to trace to the rate the rats spread through the continent. World trade is the reason all major disease outbreaks occur, when a pathogen is introduced to an area which has no defence against it. Right now the UK is staring at the loss of our millions of Ash trees because of an introduced pathogen (in this case a fungus).

 

Humans are infected with the Solanum (zombie) virus via bites, scratches, or transfer of bodily fluids through open wounds.

http://zombie.wikia.com/wiki/Solanum

 

Also, there's no more room in Hell. Or is that another franchise?

 

But in this movie, it looks as though everyone gets infected all at once as Pitt and his family are sitting in stopped traffic. It couldn't happen that immediate if world trade and rats were the problem. Sounds like something else happens at a instantaneous rate since everybody goes crazy all at once and starts scrambling out of buildings into the streets.

 

^ Or maybe those people are just running from zombies.

 

I love the book and it seems this movie is going to blow it.

That said, onto this point...dunno if that's true. At least based on the trailer, any "strategizing" the zombies are doing isn't any more than what Army Ants do. I could see that as a zombie variant.

 

I'm all for turning conventions on their head and subverting the expectations of the audience. As I recall, that was the intent behind the I Am Legend book. So maybe zombies really can think. Maybe they can move more as a swarm than as an inexorable wave. Hopefully the film will provide a more plausible context, but the trailer and clip posted here just look ridiculous to me.

 

The problem with the "ant-like" group activity they're engaging in is that human bodies aren't nearly as resilient as ants. We're squishy and brittle and on a much larger scale.

 

I Am Legend is more of a Vampire story that inspired the modern zombie mythology.

 

I was not aware of that distinction. Thanks for the clarification.

 

Not really a problem, as zombies aren't human and they don't care about any of that.

It's just a variant on a theme that is already fantastical in nature. So if one has the willingness to suspend disbelief on the concept in the first place, this isn't much of a stretch.

 

They still require their bodies to function, even if they don't care about pain. Acting as a nearly fluid swarm like that, they would be leaving a trail of limbs and gore behind them as they tore each other apart from getting tangled, squished, clawed at, etc.

 

As I said, suspension of disbelief. As with any of this, you either "go with it" or you don't.

 

I'm not sure if that was specifically a response to me, but I was actually referring to being attack by a zombie not a plague. I know even as a TWD fan if I see what appears to be a zombie in the street when I get up in the morning, my first thought will be that someone is screwing around, not that the zombiepocalypse has started.

 

It doesn't work that way. I accept that zombies are possible because it is required of premise, just like I accept warp drive in Star Trek and that all the fat, stupid, working-class, infantile men in sitcoms have smoking hot wives.

I do not, in turn, have to accept any stupidity they throw in there just because the premise requires me to suspend disbelief about something else. If some seagulls in "The Birds" started shooting lasers out of their eyes or crows started exploding like grenades, it wouldn't be acceptable to just say "oh well, the birds were already pretty unrealistic." There is a line that cannot be crossed and still maintain a credible set of rules.

 

"internal consistency"