Zombie Apocalypse: Difference between revisions

{{examples}}

== Advertising ==

* In [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxXL4oOtjd8 this commercial] for American Home Shield, the [[Brand X]] company ''does'' cover damage done by a zombie apocalypse. [[Skewed Priorities| But not appliances.]] Of course, the ad kind of distorts its message by showing one actually happening.

 

* In Lamberto Bava's ''[[Demoni]]'', the creatures are more like monsters than zombies, but they work with zombie rules and may have been an inspiration for straight zombie films to follow.

* Blending Zombie Apocalypse with [[Our Werewolves Are Different]], ''Mulberry Street'' gives us a virus that's transmissible by rats as well as humans (''totally screwed'' was the phrase, wasn't it?), and turns infected people into rat-faced, rampaging cannibals. Subverted in that {{spoiler|the Virus goes into remission at sunrise, restoring victims to normal, albeit not until after the protagonists have killed off their loved ones in self-defense or mercy}}. Similarly, ''Reliquary'', the sequel to ''Relic'', has those affected by a watered-down virus (it turned you into a horrific cocktail of dinosaur/primate DNA in the original) turned into light-shunning, psychotic, rat/lizard faced things. The even more watered down version just turned you into something like a ''[[28 Days Later]]'' zombie.

* ''[[Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror]]'' takes this trope to its beginning phase, with zombies coming back as the presumable result of an ancient curse, and includes [[It Can Think|tool-using zombies]], along with the unusual use of [[Dawson Casting|an adult dwarf playing the role of a child]].

* ''[[Shaun of the Dead]]'' plays the concept for laughs, while at the same time remaining faithful to the style of the Romero films. Like those films, it includes hints that zombies retain some semblance of their former personalities. It also includes a [[Take That]] against the ''Twenty-Eight'' series.

* ''Flight Of The Living Dead'' (2007) is a zombie movie which was clearly inspired by ''[[Snakes on a Plane]]'', since it takes place in the confines of a commercial airliner. The film's zombies follow the Russo mould, in that they can move faster than a shamble, but the incubation time for the virus varies wildly - some are infected and do not turn until a good while afterwards, whereas some are zombified almost as soon as they die. The most hilarious thing about the film is that [[Alien Geometries|the layout of said plane is completely screwed up]] (access tunnels and zombies clawing their way through the floor of the cabin are two of the most egregious examples). Also, the heroes are able to ''shoot guns inside the pressurised cabin'', which would be film-endingly disastrous if they hit a window.

** Unless the movie decided to be realistic in this regard, in which case the characters would just have to deal with an annoying whistling sound for the rest of the flight.

* Heavily subverted in ''Dead Heat'', a cops vs. zombies movie with a [[Who Dunnit to Me?]] plotline. Police detective Treat Williams dies in the line of duty, but is brought back temporarily with a resurrection device concocted by the corrupt scientist he was investigating. No apocalypse is forthcoming and no flesh/brain-eating ensues, as the zombies retain their free will if they're revived immediately after death {{spoiler|and are compliant Mooks if resurrected a bit later}}.

* ''[[Dead Air (2009 film)||Dead Air]]'' continues the tradition of virus-infected [[Technically Living Zombie]] films, with the infection being caused by a compound spread by terrorist attacks in the United States' major cities.

* Surprisingly enough, someone managed to make a ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'' zombie apocalypse [[Alternate Universe]] fanfic, which you can find [[Watchmen (comics)/Fanfic Recs|here]], that really kicked ass. {{spoiler|Probably because Rorschach is just about the only character that would wind up happier and saner upon becoming one of the flesh-craving undead.}}

* Several [[SCP Foundation|SCP objects]] could potentially trigger this, especially [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-008 SCP-008], which specifically invokes the trope. Additionally, SCP-093 allows access to a world where something like this has already happened; {{spoiler|though the "zombies" are faceless, legless [[Cosmic Horror|horrors]], produced by a [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]], that have absorbed so many people that by this point they're the size of ''buildings''.}}

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

** Plague zombies have been part of 40k background for almost as long as the Chaos powers, and are a playable gang in the spinoff skirmish game Necromunda.

* Card Game ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' has had zombies since the first set, but the plane of Grixis, one of the Shards of Alara, is in a successful Zombie Apocalypse, albeit with necromancers and demons at the forefront, caused by the crapping out of two types of magic good at fighting them off. In any case, humanity is boned on the plane. Note that in ''Magic'', zombies are ''not'' [[The Virus]]; they cannot create more of their own kind through infection, but are instead created from corpses by [[Evil Sorcerer]]s.

** The latest Innistrad block takes this [[Up to Eleven|way over eleven]], by introducing a good old fashioned zombie apocalypse, [[Vampire Tropes|vampires]] and [[Big Badass Wolf|werewolves]], [[Mad Scientist|mad scientists]] and their [[Eldritch Abomination|abominations]], demons, and central to the block's story, [[Beyond the Impossible|all of these at once]].

*** Name-dropped in the Dark Ascension card [http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/tcg/products/dka/3zfb3i9bkw_en.jpg Zombie Apocalypse], which brings back all of your zombies then destroy all humans in play.

* In ''[[Adventure Quest Worlds]]'', {{spoiler|Vordred creates this in the Doomwood Part 1 finale if the hero chooses to betray Artix and let Vordred become the Champion of Darkness}}.

** Also, {{spoiler|in ''Doomwood Part 2'', Drakath grants Gravelyn's wish to bring her father back by sending her and everybody else to an alternate past created by him where he never intervened with King Alteon and Sepulchure's duel. There, this is what happens when [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|Sepulchure kills Death]]}}.

 

== Web Comics ==

* ''[[Wapsi Square]]'': [http://wapsisquare.com/comic/zombie-apocalypse/ Discussed]

* ''[[Squid Row]]'' : [http://squidrowcomics.com/?p=429 here] in an [[Imagine Spot]]

* ''[[Zombie Ranch]]'' takes place over two decades since the dead began to walk. In this case humanity not only managed to survive the disaster—they have adapted so thoroughly to the reality of the undead that they not only have new laws and customs regarding them, but have managed to turn zombies into a prized consumer commodity.

* In ''[[Sinfest]]'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20140209193157/http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3523 Tomie insists on ending a book like this.]

** A bad case of pink eye was going around. Due to some Worcestershire sauce being used to embalm Kenny, he comes back as a zombie and starts infecting people. The local doctor, when visited by some of the infected, mistakes the condition for pink eye and prescribes some topical cream. Stan, Kyle and Cartman, with the help of Chef (who does a great Thriller bit) attempt to stop the zombie threat.

** Another episode displays some homeless people as zombies in a parody of 2004's ''[[Dawn of the Dead (2004 film)|Dawn of the Dead]]''. Though they're more an inconvenience then a threat ([[Too Dumb to Live|doesn't stop the adults from treating it like one though]]).

* Mad Snail Disease in ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'', though it was entirely fake.

* In a season 3 episode of ''[[Transformers]]'', the Decepticons are tricked by the Quintessons into releasing a powerful creature called the Dweller. The Dweller drains the energy of any transformer it can capture, turning them into an "energy vampire". Despite this title, they behave almost exactly like zombies - they move slowly, though not quite shambling, and drain the energy from others to make more energy vampires. They even lose all color, becoming gray and lifeless in appearance.

* [http://zombiehunters.org/ Zombie Squad] is a disaster-preparedness group that uses the metaphor of a Zombie Apocalypse to encourage people to prepare for real-life emergencies, on the principle that if one is prepared for the dead to rise from their graves en masse to feed on the living, and the collapse of civil order that would inevitably ensue, that dealing with something as prosaic as an earthquake or hurricane is small potatoes.

** "Zombie Apocalypse" is a common brainstorming scenario for first responders because it's widespread enough to implicate all of the major disaster relief agencies, but also fictional so it doesn't flare up the usual interservice rivalries.

* The [[Humans vs. Zombies]] massively multiplayer live-action tag game.

* Most nerds/geeks/etc. have put some amount of thought into the subject. Pretty much all of them have plans.

** [http://www.cracked.com/article_18683_7-scientific-reasons-zombie-outbreak-would-fail-quickly.html 7 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Outbreak Would Fail (Quickly)] debunks the lethality of a zombie apocalypse, showing how it would never get very far. A notable example is pointing out how rabies doesn't exactly sweep through the world, so why would zombie infections? That and maggots and gut flora would devour the undead.

** Covering all the bases: in the event that it does happen, [http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-famous-zombie-movie-weapons-that-would-get-you-killed/ this article] discusses how [[Hollywood Tactics]] would promptly get you zombified.

** Other organizations have done the same as the spread of a zombie apocalypse apparently models highly infectious epidemics pretty well.

* It's possible that zombie tropes may be partially rooted in rooted events during [[The Black Death]] or similar [[The Plague|plagues]]. Mass graves were used at times, and high fevers can cause delirium or even brain damage. So if someone was buried haphazardly but recovered from the plague enough to free themselves, witnesses would see an inarticulate, clumsy person covered with sores leaving a graveyard, which would look a lot like a "zombie" even when the [[Unbuilt Trope|trope was unbuilt]].