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Zombie Apocalypse: Difference between revisions
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The [[Zombie Apocalypse]] has arrived.
While [[Horror]] is assumed to be an inherent part of the zombie apocalypse, not all the horror and conflict comes from the zombies themselves. Instead it can come from the reaction of the living humans involved, and how they respond to the state of fear and violent chaos brought about by the zombies. Often, the answer is [[Divided We Fall|"not well"]]. The breakdown of society, the fear that your [[Fire
Common to virtually all [[Zombie Apocalypse]] tales is that, regardless of the reason zombies attack living/non-infected people, they [[No Zombie Cannibals|never attack other zombies]]. Whether they'll attack animals other than humans varies, but it's rare for [[The Virus]] to affect other species, probably because it's cheaper to film humans in make-up than to work with animals, whether trained, animatronic, or CGI.
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The collapse will also take place very quickly, over a period of weeks or months, instead of years. This prevents society and/or the main characters from adapting, and also makes [[Convenient Comas]] somewhat plausible. In the occasion where collapse occurs in a couple of months, a nuclear submarine or aircraft carrier could realistically be expected to weather the entire outbreak start to finish in perfect isolation and safety. This will never be brought up. Characters will also assume that their portable radios have infinite reception and frequency range, and local dead air means a completely global collapse.
Subtrope of [[Our Zombies Are Different]]. A member of [[The Undead]] trope family. See [[Night of the Living Mooks]] for cases where zombies don't threaten the end of the world. See also [[Zombie Gait]], [[
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.
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If you are looking for different types of Zombie, see [[Our Zombies Are Different]]. Not to be confused with [[Vampire Apocalypse the Series]] by Derek Gunn.
{{examples
== Advertising ==
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* The manga series, ''[[Highschool of the Dead]]'' features a bunch of typical high school anime characters put into a zombie apocalypse in which everybody who dies and was dead before almost immediately turns into a flesh-eating zombie. On a number of occasions, this manga pays homage to previous zombie movies and games.
** Notable in that the zombies are actually played as realistically as possible - the protagonists test and figure out that since the dead have no circulation, their eyes cannot possibly work, meaning that they find things from vibrations (throwing a wet cloth at a locker on the other side of a hallway will draw them to it); no circulation also means that with the local humidity, the zombies will decay to the point of uselessness in a little under a month (although nobody has a clue how the zombies are still moving).
** ''[[Highschool of the Dead]]'' also subverts the traditionally leftist/libertarian politics behind most zombie-themed works, and is one of the few that takes on an explicitly right-wing nationalist stance. An ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyoku_dantai uyoku dantai]'' group provides safe and effective harbour for survivors (whereas the "normal people" undermine it), and the military is shown to be effective at containing zombies. There are also some scenes where the characters lament the stupidity or myopic priorities of groups of anti-government radicals and protestors. Speaking of characters, the main cast includes: the rich, blue-blooded daughter of the ''uyoku dantai'' leader, an [[Heir to The Dojo]] with traditionalist [[Yamato Nadeshiko]] views and styles, a gun nut trained by a Blackwater mercenary, and the daughter of a police officer (and, by extension, [[The Man]]), while the head of the group is praised by the ''uyoku dantai'' leader for his filial piety (family loyalty). The anime actually had some scenes involving Saya's family altered because it became increasingly apparent to the [[Media Watchdog|Media Watchdogs]] that [[What Do You Mean
*** The licensed English translation also tries to downplay the right-wing politics of ''Highschool of the Dead''. For instance, in one scene a character likens the Ukyou Dantai group to a mafia - in the Japanese Saya rejects that and defends her father's group, noting how it's a force for good in the community; in the Yen Press version, however, she only growls "we're so right-wing even the mafia hate us", which quite badly distorts the original point.
* Spoofed in an episode of ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]''. Alien toothaches are contagious, and if the sufferer bites three or four people, the pain will go away. In short order the entire classroom is filled with crazed teenagers with swollen faces and a burning need to bite each other and any non-infected that they can. It's like a very silly [[Zombie Apocalypse]].
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** The Papercutz translation of the original comic book story to English also changes the infected Smurfs to purple.
* ''[[The Walking Dead (Comic Book)|The Walking Dead]]'', a typical zombie story about a handful of survivors trying to seek shelter in an increasingly zombie world... if they don't kill each other first.
* Averted in an issue of ''[[BPRD (Comic Book)|BPRD]]'' (a spinoff of ''[[Hellboy (Comic Book)|Hellboy]]''), wherein a zombie outbreak occurs in a small European town and the zombies are [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|brutally slaughtered]] by [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass|angry villagers]] with [[Torches and Pitchforks|farming equipment]] before anyone else is infected.
* In ''Dead West'', zombies rise up in a town built on ground where a Native American tribe was slaughtered. Then a [[Lawyer
* ''Zombies vs. Robots'' (and its sequel ''Zombies vs. Robots vs. Amazons'') starts out in a post zombie apocalypse world where man's former servants fight to protect the last uninfected baby.
* The Black Lantern Corps in the ''[[Green Lantern (Comic Book)|Green Lantern]]'' story "[[Blackest Night]]" are a particularly nasty variation. The zombies are reanimated by flying rings that are programmed to automatically seek out corpses. As long as the rings are still worn, they can construct zombies out of almost anything, [[Dem Bones|even empty skeletons]], so damage to the brain doesn't kill them. They are neither slow nor stupid, regaining all the skills and abilities they had in life, including any superhuman powers. The number of Black Lanterns in existence is truly Legion, recruited from multiple different planets across the entire universe. Worst of all, while Black Lanterns do possess many elements of their former personalities, they will all kill any living thing they encounter without hesitation or remorse.
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* ''[[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.
* Brilliantly skewered in the 2006 film ''[[Fido]]'', which occurs in an alternate 1950s that is in the heyday of a zombie post-apocalypse. The zombies have been tamed into domestic servitude by a control collar. This is possible because zombie bites do not cause a change. Billy Connolly plays the eponymous character, one of the most charismatic shambling corpses ever shown on the big screen.
* ''[[Grindhouse|Grindhouse: Planet Terror]]'' gleefully plays out all the classical zombie tropes in the style of a '70s [[B
* The ''[[Resident Evil]]'' based movie series with Milla Jovovich is more straight forward survival horror, although zombie apocalypse elements are involved from 2 on to the end.
* ''[[Night of the Creeps]]'' features the alien entity infection variety, where the victims could either remain sentient or become mindless shamblers looking to continue infecting others.
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** 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.
* The [[Zombie Blood Bath]] trilogy (1993, 1995, 2000) proves to be capable of bringing forth [[Narm Charm]] unlike anything you've ever seen.
* 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.
* The fan remake for [[Plan 9 From Outer Space|Plan Nine From Outer Space]] seems to be playing this up, ''majorly''.
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* [[Older Than Dirt]] invocations in [[Mesopotamian Mythology]]:
** In ''[[The Epic of Gilgamesh]]'', [[Jerkass Gods|the goddess]] [[I Have Many Names|Ishtar/Inanna]] tells her father that if he doesn't help her get revenge on Gilgamesh for turning down her proposition, she will break open the underworld and [[Disproportionate Retribution|bring up the dead to consume the living]], all of them. He, sensibly, agrees to her alternative. Had she gone through with it, it would probably have been the [[Ur Example]] by a couple of millennia.
** She does it again in ''[[Inannas Descent to The Netherworld (Literature)|Inannas Descent to The Netherworld]]'', sort of a [[Spin
* Max Brooks' ''[[The Zombie Survival Guide]]'' is a handbook on how to survive a zombie apocalypse. Its advice is based around classic zombie behavior that is not quite rooted to any specific source. It breaks down the hazards and strategies in detail, from zombie strengths and weaknesses to effective combat tactics.
* Max Brooks' next effort, ''[[World War Z]]'' is a mockumentary of a past zombie invasion, conducted in a series of interviews with survivors from around the world. The interviews are ordered so as to take the reader through the war chronologically, from "Patient Zero" to the Zombie Apocalypse to the eventual human victory. The interviews are supposedly conducted by [[Author Avatar|Max Brooks himself]]. When ''The Zombie Survival Guide'' is mentioned and criticized, the "interviewer" says, "Oh really?"
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* 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
* ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|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 40000]]'' example: the second ''[[Soul Drinkers (Literature)|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 ''[[Its Raining Men|drop assault]]'' [[Zombie Apocalypse]].
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* Derek Gunn's [[Vampire Apocalypse the Series]] 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
* ''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 (Literature)|Biblical Gospel of Matthew]], when [[Jesus]] is crucified, the dead rise from their graves around Judea.
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*** 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|[[
* ''[[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 ''[[Vidao Game/Doom|Doom]]'' and ''[[Quake]]'', in both cases supernatural (and in neither case the main threat to humanity). In the former game, the zombies were undead foot soldiers (a few pistol shots would do one in permanently), still using the firearms they had been carrying in life (though ''Doom 3'' introduced more regular walking corpses, which were originally intended to keep getting up as long as their corpse was intact, as revealed in a leaked beta; this was dropped from the final version because the Ragdoll Physics added to their deaths made it impractical). In the latter the zombies were shambling long-dead corpses in the Russo mould (nothing short of dismembering them with explosives would keep them down), though much more easily killed "grunts" more like the ''Doom'' zombies were found in the early levels of each episode (these may well have been still living, but possessed or otherwise mind-controlled). The ''Wolfenstein 3D'' games also had re-animated corpses as enemies, these created by Nazi Mad Science.
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* The ''[[Half Life]]'' series has its ubiquitous, iconic [[Personal Space Invader|Headcrabs]] and the zombies they create when they attach themselves to a suitable host and commandeer its nervous system. Although incapable of infecting others directly, they otherwise behave identically to Romero zombies ([[Zombie Gait]], mindless, dangerous in numbers, prone to [[Infernal Retaliation]] et cetera). In the original game they were weak and somewhat annoying enemies, rarely present in more than small groups. In ''Half Life 2'' and its Episodes however they cause ''two'' instances of this trope:
** The Combine commonly use Headcrabs as a biological weapon, storing them in artillery shells which are fired on entrenched locations, the shell both causing structural damage and killing any nearby humans due to its impact or the Headcrabs it releases. When the Combine discovered Ravenholm, a small mining town used to shelter a large number of people who had fled from Combine control, it was subjected to ''massive'' bombardment by these weapons, and by the time Gordon arrives the only things he finds are corpses, hordes of Headcrab Zombies, and one shotgun-wielding [[Badass Preacher]].
** In ''Episode One'' the entirety of City 17 experiences this, the liberal use of Headcrab Shells during The Battle of City 17 and {{spoiler|the destruction of the Citadel's Dark Fusion Reactor}} crippling Combine control of the region resulting in the city's underground infested with Headcrabs and zombies and the city itself under almost constant attack. With {{spoiler|the complete detonation of the Citadel}} they are the only living things remaining in City 17 and even ''they'' are fleeing by ''Episode Two'', creating a constant stream of zombies into the surrounding regions that attack humans and Combine alike. That Gordon Freeman, [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|what a great hero]].
* The MMORPG ''[http://www.urbandead.com/ Urban Dead]''. Unlike other examples, the zombies in this game are intelligent since they are controlled by players. While they do have a limited vocabulary, zombie players have come up with creative ways of in-game communication. And that's not even counting the Metagame on the forums. It also emulates the Romero model of zombies getting smarter. As they learn more skills, zombies can open doors, move faster, attack better, talk (sort of), track you down, and make a lot of noise to draw attention when they find a safehouse full of survivors. If one counts the RP, they're also highly mutated, undying, and God help us if they break from the quarantine.
* The final level of ''[[The Simpsons Hit and Run]]'' is populated by zombies that can be run over, due to Kang and Kodos {{spoiler|infecting Springfield with BUZZ Cola for kicks and television ratings.}}
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* ''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 (Tabletop Game)|Old World of Darkness]]'':
** There's a mission called "You Only Die Once a Night" where the Hollywood graveyard caretaker Romero(!) asks you to keep ''hordes'' of mindless zombies from breaking out of the cemetery. Infuriatingly enough, Romero has only given you the job of watching the graveyard ''so he can go out and buy porn!'' Some people neglect any duty they're given, it seems, which is why you're given the option of finding a prostitute for Romero instead of staying behind to cause a zombie apocalypse. Or, if female and with sufficient looks and poise, seducing him instead. The [[G
** There's also an earlier mission where you have to track down and kill the members of a cult of vampires that deliberately infects their meals with a horrible virus. You have to fight your way through a horde of zombies before you can take the last one on.
* ''[[Space Quest]] V'' has the mutant Pukoids fulfilling this trope.
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* 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 ==
* The premise of ''[[All Manner of Bad]]''.
* ''[[Brawl in The Family (Webcomic)|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
* According to the Demononlogy page in ''[[Dan and Mabs 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.
* [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.
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* In ''[[The Whiteboard (Webcomic)|The Whiteboard]]'', the two weeks to either side of Halloween 2010 featured a zombie uprising that Doc and Roger had to take down. This story arc updated daily, instead of the strip's normal M/W/F schedule.
* Lampshaded in [http://www.xkcd.com/734/ this] ''XKCD'' comic.
* ''[[The Zombie Hunters]]'' [[Reconstructed Trope|reconstructs]] this against the backdrop of a [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future|near-future]] [[After the End|Post-Apocolypse]]. It's been a few years since [[The Virus]] nearly [[Depopulation Bomb|wiped out]] the human race and turned Earth into a [[Crapsack World]], where [[Our Zombies Are Different|multiple]] [[Superpowered Mooks|subspecies]] of [[The Undead]] roam freely. The known [[Endangered Species|remnants]] of humanity and [[Government in Exile|government]] have settled on an [[Island Base|Island]] [[Police State|Military Base]], to attempt to [[Find the Cure]] and [[Fighting for A Homeland|rebuild society]], which would be fine if it weren't for the tensions between the two [[Fantastic Caste System|castes]], uninfected and Infected. The Infected are a minority population of [[Zombie Infectee]] [[Action Survivor|Action Survivors]] who contracted a dormant form of the virus due to low exposure [[Fighting for Survival|at close proximity]]. [[Typhoid Mary|Highly contagious]], they can infect others through their own bodily fluids, and will inevitably [[Came Back Wrong|reanimate]] after death. Consequently, Infected are both [[Fantastic Ghetto|segregated]] from and forbidden from [[No Sex Allowed|romancing]] the uninfected. They're also [[Dystopian Edict|required]] to wear [[Fantastic Racism|identifying armbands]] and ID tags, [[Big Brother Is Watching|pass through checkpoints]], and [[Fascists Bed Time|obey curfews]] while among uninfected, and the young and unskilled are [[Fantastic Caste System|exploited]] as [[We Have Reserves|highly-expendable]], underequipped, yet vital [[Disaster Scavengers]]. The story revolves around a [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits|motley]], [[Shell
* ''[[Bob and George]]'', in a Halloween special.
* ''[[The Pocalypse]]'' has a [[Zombie Apocalypse]], along with a [[AI Is a Crapshoot|Robot Apocalypse]], a [[When Trees Attack|Plant Apocalypse]]...
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* Although the entire incident was a prank, in a Halloween episode of ''[[Fosters 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: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', out of ''all the possible'' cartoons, also plays with this trope. At the beginning of "Bridle Gossip", Twilight Sparkle and Spike wonder why Ponyville's streets are suddenly deserted and why everypony is locking themselves inside their houses. After pondering some possible answers, Spike decides that some kind of zombie apocalypse is going on.
* 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.
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