Zombieland/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Acceptable Targets:
    • "Rule #1: Cardio." Columbus warns the viewer that being able to outrun zombies is a survival skill and that "the fatties" fell first due to being out of shape.
    • "I'm in Garland, Texas. It may look like the zombies destroyed it, but that's actually just Garland."
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Arguably, the Big Four are all dealing with the zombie apocalypse and the resulting tragedy in their own way. Tallahassee is all about killing zombies in creative ways so he doesn't have to think about his son being horribly killed. Wichita screws over the guys repeatedly because she doesn't want to deal with all the death. Little Rock is adamant about getting to Pacific Playland so she doesn't have to deal with the fact that everyone she knows is dead, other than Wichita (and Wichita is just trying to make her happy so she has a goal to focus on). And Columbus? Well, Columbus is actually kind of normal. Maybe repressing.
  • Angst? What Angst?: Columbus really takes accidentally killing Bill Murray in his stride, and Tallahassee seems to get over the death of his idol fairly quickly. Then again, so does Murray.

    Might be related to surviving a zombie apocalypse.
  • Award Snub: For the 2010 MTV Movie Awards, Jesse Eisenberg is nominated for "Best Frightened Performance" -- but Woody Harrelson was not nominated for "Most Badass Performance"! Instead, Angelina Jolie was nominated for Salt, a movie that hadn't even premiered yet!
  • Crazy Awesome: Tallahassee is the patron saint of this trope.
  • Crosses the Line Twice:
    • The whole thing, but especially when Columbus bashes the clown's head in and his rubber nose squeaks.
    • The revelation that Tallahassee lost his only son being followed by "I haven't cried like that since Titanic".
  • Crowning Music of Awesome:
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Unsurprisingly, Mexican audiences laughed pretty darn hard when Tallahassee comments "In Mexico, you know what they call Twinkies? 'Los submarinos.'" It's totally true! And there's various flavors too!
  • Harsher in Hindsight: Hostess, makers of Tallahassee's beloved Twinkies, may not survive long enough to see a zombie apocalypse.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • Columbus mentions how he's glad that Facebook is no longer relevant in Zombieland. His actor Jesse Eisenberg went on to play Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in "The Social Network".
    • For those who recognize the Left 4 Dead influence and have a black sense of humor, people named Bill don't exactly have good luck with zombies, do they?
  • Memetic Mutation: "The Rules" are everywhere. If you don't believe that, spend some time on a site other than here for about 15 minutes. Also, whatever city you live in/would head for once the Zombie Apocalypse hits is your official "Zombieland name".
  • Memetic Outfit: Woody Harrelson mentioned that he picked out Tallahassee's hat and clothes with this trope in mind.
  • Nausea Fuel: Zombie dribble.
  • Spiritual Licensee: To Left 4 Dead in a lot of respects. To Dead Rising in others, especially to how most players approached that game as a means of finding the most unique way to kill zombies.
  • Tear Jerker: The eventual reveal on Tallahassee's Bait and Switch dog story
  • Too Cool to Live: Tallahassee subverts this.