World War Z

I’d never have thought I’d watch a zombie movie, ever. The last close-to-zombie movie I watched was Will Smith’s “I am Legend”. Even that is not zombie; it’s rabies/vampire-like virus. I couldn't think of other zombie movies/books I read either. The only zombie thing I enjoyed was the game “Zombie vs plants”.

The idea of watching zombie movie to me was, uh, uncompelling. If it is an apocalypse movie about a deadly virus, not zombie, which humans have never encountered before, maybe I’d still watch it even though it’ll gross me out. But, the undead? Hmm…

But here I am, a person who has watched a zombie movie, starring Brad Pitt. So, why the change?

When I saw the poster, I argued with my friends that it was not going to be zombie movie. There wasn't any tagline which usually helps us figuring out what the movie is about. Only the word “World War Z” and Brad Pitt looking at a destroyed city from a rooftop an aeroplane are our clues. The trailer also didn't show any zombie-like creatures, just a spontaneous world-wide chaos like there’s a sudden invasion which triggers a world war. The only thing which made me think it’s not going to be just another war movie was a scene of spectacular spontaneous rendition of huge human stair/pyramid trying to climb up super high wall. That scene was just so, disturbing? No humans can take that much load underneath that massive pile of bodies and no normal human being will be willing to sacrifice himself to be spontaneously stepped on so that others can cross the wall without any planning for whatever reason.

Because of peer pressure and review that it’s pretty good for a zombie movie and my own curiosity of that disturbing frame, I watched it.

Oh yeah, it IS about zombie, which symptoms spreads quickly after direct blood contact with the infected. Only in 12 seconds, and… voilà! You are a zombie. Brad Pitt plays Gerry (I thought it was Jerry), the retired UN investigator, who is called back on duty after the zombie virus caused big cities in US to collapse and infected millions of people all over the world in a matter of months. He must travel all over the world in a mission to find the cure, or his family won’t be kept on board the UN military ship. It’s harsh, but considering the situation, I can understand. If the world is about to collapse, of course only the most important, intelligent, strongest and most resourceful people are kept alive. And of course you have to contribute a lot. If not, you are just a burden.

So, there he goes on a mission, first to South Korea, to find the origin of the virus, together with a bright doctor who is supposed to be “the hope for a cure”, whom he must protect to stay alive. However, “the hope” accidentally kills himself, in a rather silly way. From then on, Gerry is in charge to figure out what is and how to produce the cure.

In South Korea, he receives information that there’s one nation who knew about the virus and had enough time to defend itself from the attack; it is Israel. So he sets off to Israel to figure out how they knew things while others had not the time to react.

And… there it is! The huge wall I saw in the trailer! So this is where that act is taking place...

So, Israeli had enough time to even construct a very tall perimeter wall surrounding her biggest city, I guess. Can’t be for the whole country, right? Apparently, they knew about the zombies from the intercepted radio broadcast in India about the “undead”. Due to the new security / political system in Israel, where if there are 9 high officials agreed to one course of action, it is the duty of the 10^th man to prove they are wrong. At that time, 9 officials agreed it was just a hoax and no further action needed. Therefore, the 10^th man set out to proof that it was right and gave order to build that wall, protecting them from the outside threat. For a while.

The loud noises from inside the wall “wake up” the zombies. In South Korea, Gerry learned that zombies are attracted to noises and would turn hostile. Otherwise, they will just stay “sleeping”. It is too loud that the zombies are piling up, creating that scene I saw in the trailer as they are trying to climb up the wall to get to where the humans are. Gerry, who had a hunch of what is going on outside the wall by judging on the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) reaction, knows that the zombie are coming because of the loud noise. But it is too late. Here goes the raining zombie!!

screen capture of the disturbing scene. I found it through googling

So Israel is down. But he sees that the zombie somehow avoids a young kid and an old man. I just made a guess that it is because zombies don’t like children and old people. But, Gerry thinks differently (of course). His idea is because they have terminal illness that the zombie avoids and not bits them; the terminal illness makes them invisible to the zombies.

En-route while fleeing to the nearest research centre to Israel, a zombie somehow manages to hide himself in the aircraft’s lift, wreaks havoc in the aircraft Gerry flies in. Together with an Israeli female IDF soldier he saved, they blow the aircraft with a hand grenade so that they are saved from the zombies. But after the emergency landing, he finds himself stabbed in the gut with an aircraft broken piece.

Of course they make it safely to the nearest WHO research centre, while Gerry is nearly dead losing blood from the emergency landing and passes out. Meanwhile, because he was MIA for a few days (I think 3 days), the UN authority aboard the UN ship decides to let go of his family, sending his wives and his two daughters to a safe zone Nova Scotia. Seems not fair indeed.

And of course, he regains consciousness after an emergency surgery to stitch up his wound.

After telling his theory to the scientists in WHO, they decide to test it. But the vials containing the terminal illness virus are located inside the other wing of the WHO building, where an accident occurred and caused the whole wing residents to become zombies. So, Gerry, the IDF soldier and a doctor agree to go and get those vials back.

Here is where it gets a little bit hilarious. The zombies are stationary at their positions while doing those jerky zombie movements, like a broken robot movements. One female zombie is jerking towards the wall, which looks funny.

Because the whole wing is full of zombies, they have to be very, very quiet and not be seen by them. But one thing leads to another; the doctor accidentally makes a loud thud, wakes up all the zombies, and their mission seems to fail with the doctor and the soldier rushing to come back to the safe wing without bringing the vials.

But Gerry stays. He is determined to get those vials. By luck (or more of by screenwriter’s will), Gerry makes it to the vault, gets the password to open the vault and really purely by guessing takes whatever vials are there. But, a zombie is waiting outside the vault, with his teeth clicking outside the door. This is one hilarious scene of the zombie.

So, Gerry takes the bet and injects himself with any of the virus in one of the vials. And it proves that his theory is correct. He is invisible to the zombies and able to make it back safely to the safe wing, with the vials.

This turn of events gives humans hope, that though they haven’t found a cure, they find a way to camouflage themselves from the zombies, making rescue attempts possible to people all across the world.

The movie ends with Gerry’s reunion with his family in Nova Scotia.

I bet there’s a sequel to this movie.

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Overall, the movie is really not bad for a zombie movie. The scenes of zombie flooding the city and the fights were so intense that every time there’s a blackout in transition, I could hear everyone inside the theatre breathed out sigh of relief. And everyone was laughing at the zombies at the ending scene too. Zombies can be hilarious after all.