Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
116,612
edits
Zombie Apocalypse: Difference between revisions
when?, copyedits, italics on work names, fixed redlink, added example
(Rescuing 5 sources and tagging 0 as dead. #IABot (v2.0beta9)) |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (when?, copyedits, italics on work names, fixed redlink, added example) |
||
Line 2:
[[File:zz8vphb173 en 6925.jpg|link=Magic: The Gathering|frame|"There will come a day so dark you will pray for death. On that day your prayers will be answered."]]
{{quote|''Zombies don't represent anything in my mind except a global change of some kind. And the stories are about how people respond or fail to respond to this. That's really all they've represented to me.''
|'''George Romero''' (creator of ''[[Night of the Living Dead]]'')}}
{{quote|''If thou openest not the gate to let me enter, I will break the door, I will wrench the lock, I will smash the door-posts, I will force the doors. I will bring up the dead to eat the living. And the dead will outnumber the living.''
|''[[The Epic of Gilgamesh]]''}}
Within the past couple days or hours, something very strange has happened. Maybe the [[Synthetic Plague]] the government was working on got unleashed. Maybe a [[Hollywood Voodoo|voodoo]] priest's spell [[Gone Horribly Wrong|went awry]]. Maybe [[Applied Phlebotinum|an alien space probe]] [[Plan 9 from Outer Space|broadcast a weird signal]] at the Earth, or [[Night of the Living Dead|fell to Earth and brought radiation with it]]. Maybe [[Dawn of the Dead (film)|there's just no more]] [[Doom (series)|room in Hell]].
Line 24 ⟶ 26:
The trope Zombie Apocalypse refers to any kind of undead apocalypse — the common traits of this trope are that the undead spread rapidly, wipe out humans primarily by eating or biting them, and are usually highly infectious.
If you are looking for different types of Zombie, see [[Our Zombies Are Different]]. Not to be confused with ''[[Vampire Apocalypse]]'' by Derek Gunn.
{{examples}}
== Advertising ==
* If Toshiba doesn't make their laptops drop-resistant, the resulting chain of events will cause a zombie outbreak. Their latest{{when}} marketing campaign has the CEO imagining various worst-case scenarios if some seemingly minor feature isn't added to their latest product.
* 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.
Line 134 ⟶ 135:
* ''Stake Land'' takes place in a post-[[Vampire Apocalypse]] setting.
* ''The Dead'', filmed on location, depicts a Zombie Apocalypse in an unnamed African country.
== [[Literature]] ==
Line 161:
* Carrie Ryan's ''[[The Forest of Hands and Teeth]]'' takes place in a fenced-in community several ''generations'' after the Zombie Apocalypse.
* A good half of Clark Ashton Smith's work features Zombies of the non-contagious variety, generally [[A Wizard Did It|custom animated by necromancers]]. In at least one case they 'outlive' their creators and carry on with what they were doing before they died.
* [[John Wyndham]]'s 1951 novel ''[[The Day of the Triffids]]'', while concerned with genetically engineered [[Man-Eating Plant
* ''[[Star Trek]] Destiny'' reveals that this is how {{spoiler|the Borg came to be, as a result of two humans lost in the Delta Quadrant getting "possessed" by a starving energy being called a Caeliar, capable of manipulating matter as she saw fit. Then all they did was [[Schmuck Bait|wait for the locals to come wondering what that huge racket was]]...}}
* Another ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' example: the second ''[[Soul Drinkers]]'' novel features the ridiculously powerful mutant-psyker Teturact, who would induce these, then bring it to a halt while forcing any survivors to [[A God Am I|worship him as a god]]. His main starship has been set up so that it can self-destruct and provide a ''[[It's Raining Men|drop assault]]'' Zombie Apocalypse.
Line 175:
* In the episodic ebook series ''Zombies!'' by Ivan Turner, a [[Genre Savvy]] 17 year old is the first to alert the authorities to the threat, thus subverting the trope because the authorities handle it carefully and sensibly enough that your average citizen doesn't even notice the undead walking among them.
* ''[[Night of the Living Trekkies]]'' is about what happens when the intial outbreak is at a ''[[Star Trek]]'' [[Fan Convention|convention]].
* Derek Gunn's ''[[Vampire Apocalypse]]'' is pretty obviously an example of this with vampires.
* Peter Clines' ''[[Ex Heroes]]'' is a story about the end of the world at the hands of zombies, only to be opposed by superheroes.
* Deconstructed in ''Handling the Undead'', which [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|explores]] how society would react if dead people actually came back to life, and without the craving for brains that makes it so easy to just [[Kill'Em All]]. (The zombie violence is rare and seems to stem more from their being unaware of their actions and consequences.) The first thing that happens is that the government calls an emergency meeting and decides what terminology to use, deciding on [[Not Using the Z Word|"reliving"]] because it sounds so much more pleasant than "zombies". A memorable subplot follows the [[Tear Jerker|grieving mother of a recently deceased young boy, fighting to hide her mindless zombie child from the authorities]].
* ''Theories of International Politics and Zombies'', a rare non-fiction case of this trope; it's an almost serious look at the subject, through the lenses of various theories of international relations.
* In the [[The Bible|Biblical Gospel of Matthew]], when [[Jesus]] is crucified, the dead rise from their graves around Judea.
** Another Biblical example, this one involving a sort of inversion: In the Book of Ezekiel, piles of bones are assembled and fleshed out. They then receive the breath of life from [[God]], and form an army. (They are probably more in the category of [[Technically Living Zombie]] or even [[Back from the Dead]], though.)
* The entire point of ''[[Can YOU Survive the Zombie Apocalypse?]]
* In the 1961 novel ''The Day They H-Bombed Los Angeles'' by Robert Moore Williams, mutated protein molecules invade Southern California, turning people into flesh-eating zombies.
* The web-novel ''[[Domina]]'' is about a number of super-powered zombies called "screamers" attacking an island city. Hasn't hit the actual apocalypse stage yet, but the [[Reasonable Authority Figure]] is rightly worried.
* ''[[Rot and Ruin]]'' takes place about 15 years after an unexplained Zombie apocalypse, and while the zombies are relatively easy to kill (zombie hunters tend to make a game of it) the society is still kind of in shock, so the idea of any organised take-back-the-earth campaign fails to gain traction when it's brought up. Something of an unusual example in that while the main characters do kill Zombies, one of the main points of the book is that just because they're walking around doesn't mean they're not someone's dead relative who [[Due to the Dead|deserves respect]]
* ''[[Diario de un Zombi]]'' has this as the setting for a depopulated Barcelona. Add in unstoppable biomechanical horrors and cultists.
* Subverted in ''[[That Is All]]''; the Zombie Apocalypse is one of the few things that ''doesn't'' occur during [[The End of the World as We Know It|the Ragnarok of 2012]]. The only creatures that rise from the dead are taxidermied animals, and they are harmless because they are all mounted on wooden planks.
Line 201:
* Although they are not real, in an episode of ''[[Spaced]]'', "Art", Tim takes some bad speed and plays ''[[Resident Evil]] 2'', essentially making him hallucinate a zombie attack throughout the whole episode. The Twiglets he ate at the party didn't help either.
* Discovery's ''[[The Colony]]'' is a reality TV show that takes place after a simulated "viral catastrophe". It's basically a zombie apocalypse with the zombies cut out.
* An episode of ''[[Smallville]]'' dealt with a zombie apocalypse.
* Though not a classic example, the dark future of the ''[[Dollhouse]]'' resembles a Zombie Apocalypse. A signal was sent to all telephones on the planet that would wipe the listeners' minds, and program them to kill anybody who didn't hear the signal. In result rabid hordes of lunatics hunt down the few remaining normal people in the ruins of the civilization; a very strong similarity with this trope.
* ''[[That Mitchell and Webb Look]]'' features a recurring sketch about a game show taking place in a world where an unspecified, but clearly horrific and traumatising, "Event" has happened. Food is scarce, there are no more children, there are frequent exhortations to "Remain Indoors" and the survivors live in terror of a mysterious '''Them''', who look like us because they used to ''be'' us. {{spoiler|The latest episode has revealed that '''They''' are sephulchral voiced, red-eyed zombies with a taste for human flesh. Oh. ''And they've got in''.}} It's hinted that this is not the worst part of the "Event".
* The ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' episode "The End" has exactly this. It was more or less a [[Shout-Out]] to ''28 Days Later'' (rage virus infected, very fast Zombies, I mean Croates).
* AMC's [[The Walking Dead (TV series)|TV adaptation of]] ''[[The Walking Dead (comics)|The Walking Dead]]''.
* The ''[[Sliders]]'' had an alternate dimension Earth, where, get this, a {{spoiler|new "fat burning" medicine}} causes a Zombie Apocalypse. The {{spoiler|drug was meant to "eat away" fat}} and an antidote would be taken to end the effect... However something went horribly wrong and millions of people started to hunger for fat, even if that fat was of another human. For some reason these zombies also became very sensitive to light, possibly having something to do with the zombies becoming excessively pale. Also the zombies aren't of the risen dead variety, {{spoiler|but will die without feeding as the medicine - possibly an engineered virus considering it transfers with getting bitten - will simply eat them alive if they don't get fat to their system.}}.
* ''[[The X-Files]]'' episode "Millenium" deals with a zombie apocalypse with the advent of [[Y 2 K]]. Obviously, going back and watching this episode over a decade later, it doesn't hold nearly the same punch as it did when it first aired in 1999.
** The Halloween episode of ''[[Community]]'' deals with a zombie plague breaking out in the college. The group must try to escape, reach the thermostat to lower the temperature, and not be driven insane by the [[Soundtrack Dissonance|"Mama Mia!" soundtrack]].
* The [[National Geographic]] program, ''[[How to Survive the End of the World]]'', had an episode called '''Zombie Earth''', where an airborne strain of the rabies virus creates this kind of tropes.
== Music ==
Line 231:
* Parodied in LMFAO's music video "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ6zr6kCPj8 Party Rock Anthem]".
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzDmgn-G2FM "Fight 'Em 'Til You Can't"] by [[Anthrax]]. The cover for the single even depicts [[Rule of Cool|the band themselves fighting off zombies]].
== New Media ==
Line 248 ⟶ 247:
* 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''.}}
* This is implied to be the case in ''[http://www.ubernorden.com Tales of Ubernorden]''.
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* ''[[The Far Side]]'' once had a strip depicting the "Night of the Living Dead Chipmunks".
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
Line 268 ⟶ 265:
** The Horde format becomes this when you [https://web.archive.org/web/20130704003750/https://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg%2Fdaily%2Fsf%2F166 build the Horde out of zombie cards].
* The board game ''Zombies!!!'', which seems to owe some influence to ''[[Resident Evil]]'' (the players have to shoot the zombies, and they win the game by escaping in a helicopter).
* The ''[[GURPS]] Infinite Worlds'' setting has the Gotha timelines. Those are about twenty known parallel worlds where civilization was wiped out by the "Gotha Plague": a mutant disease that causes infectees to behave like the ''[[28 Days Later]]'' variety of zombie. It specifies that the Plague has trouble establishing itself in small communities, so civilization on these worlds is in small enclaves.
** The Gotha Zombies have a few differences from other zombies, though; they're semi-intelligent, and function more like a highly aggressive chimpanzee tribe in terms of organization than anything else. They're quite willing to eat zombies from other "tribes", and will even eat their own if there isn't any other food available.
* In 2008, [[Rifts|Palladium Books]] debuted their own Zombie Apocalypse game: Dead Reign
* The Corpse Factories in the ''[[Feng Shui]]'' supplement ''Glimpse of the Abyss'' are Buro-created superzombies that are markedly more intelligent than the non-infectious zombies that they create. Only five of these things exist in 2056, and if just one of them gets loose, it's Zombie Apocalypse time, particularly since the Necromantic Implanter, an arcanowave device that every corpse factory is equipped with, can be used to turn regular zombies into more corpse factories.
* In ''[[Exalted]]'', this is one of the favored tactics of the more militarily inclined Deathlords. High level Necromancy can raise corpses en masse, and certain spells can even corrupt an area to the point that the dead will rise of their own accord. Eye and Seven Despairs, one of the Deathlords, has even pioneered a zombie plague that works on its own accord, but is too busy [[Revenge Before Reason|tormenting the reincarnations of people who screwed with him in the First Age]] to actually deploy it.
* ''[[Deadlands]]'' has zombies, but these things are intelligent and cunning. Makes them hard to put down. Particularly if they're intact enough to be ''shooting back''.
* ''[[The World of Darkness]]'' games actually subvert the zombie apocalypse. While Zombies do exist, they're not exactly common, and aren't normally infectious.
** There was an adventure done by Thomas "Wanderer" Wilde (best known for his ''[[Resident Evil]]'' plot guide) that took this trope head-on, called ''The Last Escape''.
** While there isn't necessarily an ''infectious'' means of Zombie Apocalypse, certain ghosts and spirits in the ''[[New World of Darkness]]'' have a chain of Numina that allow them to jump into a corpse, then jump into any corpse ''that'' corpse kills, then possibly invite some friends along...
* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' zombies are simply mindless, reanimated corpses with no risk of infection, and are among the least dangerous of [[The Undead]]. However, there are quite a few undead with the "create spawn" ability, and several of them are ''[[Our Ghosts Are Different|incorporeal.]]''
** The "Infectious Zombie" template was provided in the 4th-edition supplement ''Open Grave''. Unfortunately, actual rules for the zombie plague were not, despite being alluded to in the template.
** In the previous edition, [http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/wight.htm wights] are probably the closest thing to more traditional zombies.
** ''[[Greyhawk|The World of Greyhawk]]'' campaign setting included a zombie variant known as a "Son of Kyuss," which was an aggressive zombie with green worms crawling about in its eye sockets. If the worms landed on someone, they burrowed under that person's skin and attempted to reach the brain, at which point the victim would become another Son of Kyuss. Given the nature of some of the beings in the game, these creatures were probably too weak to cause a full-scale apocalypse, but they could easily wipe out an entire village of zero-level humans.
** In the 3.5 edition book Elder Evils, there's a world born dead, Atropus, whose coming is marked by the undead rising from their graves in a zombie apocalypse. As in some other Zombie Apocalypses, his coming may cause anyone who dies by any means (not just killed by a zombie) to rise as a zombie (or skeleton if there's not enough flesh for a zombie). When Atropus gets close enough to the planet anyone who's dead will reanimated as a skeleton or zombie by tearing out of their graves even if they were killed years ago.
* The board game ''Last Night on Earth'' has several different scenarios to play through during a Zombie Apocalypse.
== Theatre ==
* ''Rhinoceros'' is a play by French author Eugene Ionesco that revolves around people spontaneously becoming rhinocerotes. They're destructive, but not violent, and one must apparently choose to become one (or at least not actively choose not to). Though mostly comedic, it still has the feel of a Zombie Apocalypse, not least because there's {{spoiler|only one man left standing at the end.}}
== [[Video Games]] ==
Line 294 ⟶ 289:
** However, the games usually take place which has been almost completely devastated at the regional level, providing a sort of local zombie apocalypse.
** And subverted in the later games where they are not, technically, zombies, though they behave much the same.
** Now it ''is'' a true zombie apocalypse in ''[[Resident Evil 6]]'', targeting two fictional cities.
* The ''[[House of the Dead]]'' series.
** Subverted in ''Overkill'': {{spoiler|the [[Not Using the Zed Word|mutants]] were exposed to a [[Psycho Serum]] and it's not contagious otherwise.}}
Line 307 ⟶ 302:
** There is also a subversion to the rule that the zombies don't fight each other, but it happens so rarely that you may not see it at all at first.
** Two things throw into doubt whether this is a true apocalypse - the military's still in reasonable shape, having the capacity to launch rescue missions and bombing runs, and it's not stated what's going on in the rest of the world.
*** The Military Base portrayed in the Comic seems to show the severity quite heavily. The base appears severely understaffed, with only a handful of soldiers where there should be hundreds. The base is also extremely insecure, with one soldier getting Infected and nearly killing some guards, and a Witch somehow wandering right on in. To make matters worse, it's dangerously low on supplies, and one of the Officer's is leading a mutiny against the base's Commander. The base also appears completely isolated from the rest of the Military (if it's still even around). The Military Base is ultimately destroyed by a massive zombie mob attack, and '''all''' known personnel are KIA. However, due to the Infection's inability to spread over water, the Navy in ''[[Left 4 Dead 2]]'' seems to be operating at full capacity.
*** Multiple maps show that almost all the evac centers in the US have been overrun or aren't evacuating anymore. In Crash Course, the New Orleans, Midwest, and Allegheny Forest outposts are still up and running. In Dead Center, only New Orleans and the Midwest are left. The entire United States has been overrun in 2–3 weeks.
**** Of course, by the time you reach New Orleans in The Parish campaign, it seems to be largely overrun and abandoned, too. Bill says "As far as we know, zombies can't swim", so it's possible that islands are still safe, as long as air travel didn't bring The Infection to them.
* ''[[Space Pirates and Zombies]]'', of course. You are [[Space Pirates]]! There are Zombies! What more is there to say? Well, actually, there is quite a lot to say, as the Space Pirates have got to wonder why there are no sentient alien species to speak of... then they {{spoiler|[[Chekhov's Gun|open the Titan Gates]], which they'd known about for quite a time, and all hell breaks loose because of ''them''. True, they are Space Pirates, the [[Recycled in Space|terrors of the Seven Sectors]], but that's no reason for them to doom all of Humanity to a zombie fate, like ''all the other sentient species before them.'' Yes, the Zombies were waiting in the center of the Galaxy for the next species, and it it weren't for the Space Pirates' efforts, they probably would have assimilated all of Humanity.}} [[A Fate Worse Than Death|What a way to go.]]
* ''[[Project Zomboid]]'' has Knox County being overrun by zombies with you in the middle of it. Developers state in later versions of the game, later (provided you survived that long) the zombies spread worldwide, with repercussions ingame such as no electricity for ovens or refrigerators.
* Both ''[[
** ''[[Quake]] 4'' features partially Stroggified humans whom for all intents and purposes behave like zombies, this is [[Lampshaded]] by another soldier.
** The ''Doom'' novelization had especially creepy scenes where zombies, still bearing an imprint of their former lives, would mindlessly shamble to the grocery store, pulling rotting food from the shelves, walking past the cash register, and so on.
Line 336 ⟶ 331:
** While Lordaeron and Northrend are of course the major victims of this trope, being the Scourge's bases of power, Duskwood in the kingdom of Stormwind is currently dealing with animated skeletons that (probably) have nothing to do with the Scourge. The town of Raven Hill is in ruins, and Darkshire is constantly on watch. Of course, they also have to deal with [[Our Werewolves Are Different|feral worgen]] in addition to the undead.
** What happened to Quel'thalas counts, only about ''eleven percent of the original population survived.''
* As the title character of ''[[Stubbs the Zombie]]'' in ''Rebel Without a Pulse'', you get to play a zombie, bringing terror to the [[Zeerust]] utopia of Punchbowl.
* ''Possession'', which, in addition to being able to lead a variety of zombies (slow, fast, intelligent, mutated, you name it) has the main character as a sentient zombie unleashing chaos on a corporate-controlled city.
* ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines]]'', a CRPG set in the ''[[Old World of Darkness]]'':
Line 346 ⟶ 341:
* ''[[Battle for Wesnoth]]'''s Walking Corpses, and their level-up, the Soullesses. They follow the Russo rules, for the most part: any unit killed by a Walking Corpse or Soulless becomes a Walking Corpse or Soulless on the side of the Corpse that killed them, simulating The Virus.
* ''[[Postal]] 2: Apocalypse Weekend'' features Mad Cow Tourettes zombies (apparently Tourette's syndrome sufferers who ate mad cow-infected meat). They normally shamble slowly, but can sometimes be seen stumbling forwards quickly (catching the player off-guard); they throw chunks of their own flesh to attack; their heads must be completely destroyed to kill them (merely cutting them off will do no good); and (for no other reason than the fact that the world of Postal 2 is already messed up as it is) you can resurrect dead zombies by ''pissing on them''.
* A new{{when}} MMO currently in Beta, ''[[Dead Frontier]]'', takes place after a Zombie Apocalypse with the player as one of a handful of survivors who must constantly make supply runs into the city, which has been overrun by zombies of many shapes, sizes and speeds, to procure food, medical supplies, new weapons and ammunition. It's important to note that most everyone has a place in the new society, such as doctors, engineers and even chefs, and those who try to go it alone may find themselves as zombie food more often than they'd like.
* The FPS ''[[STALKER|S.T.A.L.K.E.R.]] - Shadow of Chernobyl'' has zombies in one part of the game, who are actually stalkers who have been [[Mind Rape|mind raped]] by psychic emissions in certain parts of the zone.
* In ''[[City of Heroes]]'' and ''[[City of Villains]]'', zombies are counted among the servants of the Banished Pantheon and the minions of [[Mad Doctor|Dr. Vahzilok]]. Also, the Halloween events feature zombies that spawn from trick-or-treating, and the 2008 incarnation featured zombies crawling from the ground en masse. Finally, the Mastermind Necromancy primary set lets player villains summon their own zombie minions.
** In ''[[City of Heroes]]'', there's also Dark Astoria, a Zombie Apocalypse relegated to a single
* An [[Clown Car Grave|infinite number]] of zombies usually appears early on in ''[[Castlevania]]'' games. Fortunately they're much easier to kill than the average movie zombie.
* In a similar fashion, countless zombies (and [[Everything Trying to Kill You|other things]]) plague our hero in ''[[Ghosts 'n
* A new game call ''The Last Guy'' features the zombie hero(?) rounding up the various survivors of a zombie apocalypse. From the looks of it, the zombies have devolved (or evolved) into large, dangerous, non-human things, however.
* The PSP game ''[[Infected]]'', as in the quote above, features a massive zombie apocalypse in New York City, played ''Smash TV'' style. The player is Officer Stevens, whose blood is not only immune to [[The Virus]], but actively destroys zombies, who are nigh-invulnerable to everything (it's implied they destroyed a tank battalion, and were able to wield weapons) by causing infected blood to explode. This results in the guys in charge of the quarantine to strap a blood gun to one arm of Stevens, give him/her weapons, and run around NYC, splattering zombies. For the record, the game is hilarious and fun, but short.
* ''[[System Shock]] 2'' had zombies as the first stage of infection by alien parasitic worms, including shambling, strange speech patterns, no vital signs, etc. Oh yeah, and they're still conscious, aware of what they're doing against their will, and ''apologise while they attack you and beg you to kill them''. Later stages were considerably more monstrous, and quite un-zombie like.
** The original ''[[System Shock]]'' had early
* ''Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ''. A grown-up [[Little Red Riding Hood]] vs. zombified versions of classic Fairy Tale characters. [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]].
* In ''[[Elite Beat Agents]]'', one of the missions involves helping a peanut salesman fighting off against giggling zombies that start to attack the town. By sheer luck, the zombies happen to be allergic to peanuts. Huh.
Line 385 ⟶ 380:
* The early 80's [[Edutainment Game]] ''[[Agent USA]]'' is a G-rated Zombie Apocalypse, with people turning into walking balls of TV static and infecting others.
* ''Arma'' and ''Arma II'' both featured popular zombie mods that turned an ultra-realistic tactical FPS into a zombie survival game. The use of massive maps and realistic effects and equipment makes them extremely immersive.
* While the text/ASCII-based ''[[Hell MOO]]'' doesn't feature an actual zombie apocalypse (they go for the standard nuclear warfare), there is a zombie virus and some locations, especially the basement of the Bradbury hotel in Slagtown, are filled with them. Since all NPCs can be killed (with varying degrees of difficulty) and anyone who dies of zombie rot rises as a zombie if their corpse isn't butchered, one or two tough NPCs getting infected can easily result in a zombie plague hitting Slagtown; usually the Freedom City Police is skilled and tough enough to keep the spread outside their borders, but it can make wandering into Slagtown or Gangland suicide for a newbie.
* In ''[[StarCraft]] 2'', this happens to a group of refugees due to a zerg bioweapon. Raynor's raiders burn out the infested and help the refugees settle in on another planet—where it promptly happens ''again''.
* One of many possible creations in the ''Pandemic'' series, you can create shambling, insane, rotting ([[Fate Worse Than Death|though technically still alive]]) infected who spread across the planet.
* ''[[Call of Duty]]'' first gave us [[Nazi Zombies]], which was the reason many played World At War. The game mode returned in ''[[Call of Duty: Black Ops|Call of Duty Black Ops]]'' where it got so bad zombies attack the Pentagon, [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|four]] [[A Nightmare on Elm Street|cult]] [[Danny Trejo|monster]] [[The Walking Dead (TV series)|hunters]] had to be called in and at the end, the [[Big Bad]] reveals it's all an [[Evil Plan]] to cause an apocalypse.
* ''[[Dead Space (series)|Dead Space]]'' features the necromorphs, these zombies are not just reanimated humans but 'reshaped' necrotic tissue who don't go don't until you blow of a limb or three. Head shots are useless against them.
* The curse of the Darksign in ''[[Dark Souls]]''. Those born with it are marked as Undead and never permanently die, always coming back, losing a bit of their humanity each time. Eventually, they all lose their minds and become Hollows, highly aggressive, near-mindless beings that attack all others. This, plus the habit of throwing the Undead into the Undead Asylum, has destroyed countless nations.
Line 395 ⟶ 390:
* ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' had the [[The Plague|Gray Plague]], which, as players found out through [[Time Travel]] to [[After the End|Seaside Town, 28 Days Later]], killed the infected population and brought them back as zombies.
* Downloadable PC Game ''[[Zombie Driver]]'' casts the player as an [[Action Survivor|Action]] [[The Taxi|Taxi Driver]] in the midst of an infested city where the outbreak was caused by a chemical explosion. The cabbie must rescue people trapped in various buildings and return them to an extraction point. He gets paid by the mayor for zombies killed and survivors rescued, so he can buy bigger and badder cars and weapons to run down zombies.
* The [[Xbox]] and [[PlayStation 2]] game ''[[Darkwatch]]'' is sometimes subtitled "The Curse of the West", said curse being a Zombie Apocalypse unleashed on [[The Wild West]] by [[Our Vampires Are Different|a vampire lord]] whom the protagonist, [[Outlaw|an outlaw]] [[The Gunslinger|gunslinger,]] [[Sealed Evil in a Can|accidentally set free]] when he thought he was robbing a gold train.
* Though all three ''[[Diablo]]'' games featured undead, only ''[[Diablo III]]'' features an actual Zombie Apocalypse casted by the Skeleton King New Tristram after a mysterious meteor crashed into Tristram's cathedrale. Whereas in the previous games the zombies were mere mooks that you would meet and kill, this game features them much like a classic example, with them attacking villages and able to turn people they bit into zombies.
* 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 ==
Line 405 ⟶ 399:
* ''[[Brawl in the Family]]'''s third Halloween episode started with [[Kirby]] walking towards Dedede, zombified. Soon, the entire cast was zombified. They all moaned 'braaains...' and began closing in on [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Mother Brain from the Metroid series]]. Now there are a bunch of zombies roaming the land, moaning, 'braaaaaiiiinss....' (except Mother Brain, who moaned, 'Meeeee....') {{spoiler|The zombies then found a schoolhouse and studied hard and graduated, achieving the 'brains' they wanted. Then, it turns out the characters where just telling scary stories, and Kirby was the last one to add his part to the story. He apparently tells a disgusting and creepy tale, [[The Un-Reveal|but the comic just skips to when he says, "The End!"]] with a very cute face while the rest of them look [[Nausea Fuel|nauseous.]]}}
* According to the Demononlogy page in ''[[Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures]]'', one becomes undead only if they die within 24 hours of receiving a scratch or bite from an undead creature. This implies that the wound itself is not automatically fatal, and that if one died more than 24 hours after receiving it they will stay dead.
* ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20150811231136/http://deadmetaphor.comicdish.com/ Dead Metaphor]'' is a comedy set in a world plagued by zombie outbreaks. Zombies are very Romero-like in their actions and their desire to consume flesh—although the human population treats the zombies more as an annoyance than a threat.
* ''[[Dead of Summer]]'' is one of these, as experienced by the city of Baltimore. [[The Protomen]] have a key role later on.
* Played with in ''[[Dead Winter]]''; the city is full of zombies, but they're normally ''not'' a threat until a large number is encountered without an escape route. Other humans are far more dangerous.
* ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'''s titular Dr. McNinja has faced one, of course. [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|Zombie ninjas,]] no less. And zombie Ben Franklin. {{spoiler|1=The zombies are contained thanks to McNinja and the mayor of the town (who is secretly a time-traveling survivor of a future ravaged by this very apocalypse) having set up anti-zombie defences for the city}}. McNinja is convinced the zombies have risen in revenge for him mass-murdering them in the previous storyline (for the greater good, of course). {{spoiler|However, it is revealed the zombies are just a side-effect of a resurrection drug used by the clone of Ben Franklin after he was murdered in the previous storyline. The resurrection itself actually turns out to be part of a larger plan by Dracula.}} It's that kind of comic.
* The ''[http://halloween2008.dragoneers.com/ 2008 Halloween Cameo Caper]'' will feature a variety of zombie-types, from a couple of different comics, invading a mall.
* ''Last Blood'' with one hand plays along with this trope and with other hand subverts it. While that world, indeed, had experienced Zombie Apocalypse and majority of zombies are near mindless, hungry creatures, {{spoiler|the First Zombie was, in fact, a vampire, who starved for too long, and completely retained his intelligence after transformation. This is also true for any other vampire-turned-zombie but not for their zombie "children".}}
* ''[http://www.nightzero.com/ Night Zero]''. Professionally made webcomic/graphic novel utilizing staged real-life photos.
Line 428 ⟶ 422:
* ''[[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.]
* In the ''[[Urban Rivals]]'' comic the Nightmare clan raises an army of zombies to attack Clint City, they were beaten when Blaaster goes [[Thriller (song)|Thriller]] on them and sends them off a cliff to the sea. No really.
== Web Original ==
* ''[[
* ''[[Dead Ends]]'' is one of these in interactive story form.
* ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNwCojCJ3-Q MEOW]:'' An [[It Got Worse|utterly hopeless]] zombie apocalypse with [[Cute Kitten]]s.
* ''[http://bendingsignpost.tumblr.com/post/180254311910/a-christmas-movie-i-want-to-see Slay Ride]'', a "story seed" posted to [[Tumblr]] in late 2018 -- in which [[Santa Claus]], alarmed by an unexpected change in the number, types and location of presents requested, leaves the North Pole early to discover a Zombie Apocalypse in progress.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
Line 443 ⟶ 436:
* Although the entire incident was a prank, in a Halloween episode of ''[[Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'', the "zombies" seem to follow Romero Rules (if you excuse their cry for brains); Mr. Herriman is "killed" and returns as a zombie soon after, a zombie bite turns someone else into a zombie, etc.
* ''[[Mighty Max]]'' had an episode where Max had to travel to Haiti to help his mother investigate the strange behavior of the locals. They had a [[Zombie Gait]] and were pretty strong, however they were possessed by slug-like symbiotes (you could kill the slug to free the victim) and tried to attach more slugs to make more "zombies". Eventually Max finds a hive full of them and kills the Queen slug. The victims were fully aware of what they were doing, a unique trait for these zombies.
* ''[[My Little Pony:
* There is an episode of ''[[The Smurfs]]'' called "The Purple Smurfs" in which Lazy gets bitten by a "purple fly". This turns him purple, makes him aggressive and causes him to bite other smurfs. The same thing then happens to those smurfs. Check it out for yourself [http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1okrh_smurfs-the-purple-smurfs_family here].
** As noted above, this is an adaptation of a storyline from the original Smurf comic book.
Line 461 ⟶ 454:
* 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.
** In ''[[Transformers Prime]]'' the first five episodes concerned the use of Dark Energon, which revived Transformers into a mindless, zombie-like state. They
***
* An episode of ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'' had everyone in Miseryville turn into pickle zombies.
* ''Operation: Z.E.R.O.'', [[The Movie]] of ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' had ultimate evil Grandfather unleash a Senior Citizombie- apocalypse on the world.
* ''[[Superfriends]]'' had one of the series' scariest stories with "Day of The Plant Creatures" when a meteorite crashes into a swamp and cause a flood of plant creatures who rampage and infect every animal into one of them while the Super Friends race to find a way to stop the disaster.
* Parodied on ''[[The Amazing World of Gumball]]'' episode called "The Joy". Miss Simian plays the role of the protagonist, and even has a video camera that she uses as an [[Apocalyptic Log]]
| |||