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I'm layered out , I'm deaf . Now , hello and welcome to an entertainment podcast about movies , tv shows and video games , a special about what is a special about . Mitch Me no .
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Last week we didn't have a special , so we're using this special . This time we're going to talk about zombie films . I know you've at least seen some of the movies . I haven't .
You've got to die . What are these zombies you speak of ?
Well , first we've got to define what is a zombie . Well , okay , that's a good question .
That's a good question . Is a zombie film ? Okay , that's a good question . That's a good question . Is a zombie film genre ? Like , would you say all zombie films are horror or would you say that zombie films are their own genre ?
I'd say zombie films are their own genre at this point .
Yeah , okay , I think there's been enough film and enough uh , it's a sub-genre of horror adaptations and interpretations what has to happen in order for a zombie film to be a genre like ?
I think there has to be some sort of global pandemic or a very large pandemic located to a certain area of a group of people who become undead or , in ways , become very much animated by some sort of illness .
Hmm .
Hmm .
What would be kind of like an outlier for that , that's .
I'd say resident evil . As in , I say a lot of like the nervous cause , like a lot of like the mutation kind of deal where they are .
Like you know , you're like you're 28 days later .
28 weeks later , I'd say we'll probably actually be a better idea with the rage .
Would Omni-Man , or what's Will Smith ? I Am Legend is that a zombie movie .
I mean it's a post-apocalyptic film which kind of fits some of the criteria of a zombie film .
I have seen where they've included it in there , but technically those things aren't dead .
I wouldn't qualify them as zombies . I think zombies have to be something that had died and ceased to exist as it was and was reanimated . You can never go back . Yes , okay .
Well , for what I wrote down here . It's like the term zombie has been redefined since its original concept of the voodoo zombies that were hypnotized slaves , basically , yeah , and now they're undead flesh eaters , most of them .
I think that's the . I think we can all agree . That's the definition of a zombie .
What's the earliest zombie movie ?
The earliest zombie movie ? Yeah , that is a good question . What ?
do you think it is ?
I'd say George Romero's Night of the Living Dead .
That's the earliest staple for zombie movies . A movie called White Zombie .
Yeah , but that's the voodoo one .
I'd say Night of the Living Dead is the opening benchmark of what zombie films would become .
Yeah , to me that's the modern day zombie . We'll move on , since we're kind of moving into that . Anyways , we'll move on to the next point which I was going to bring up is that there's three predominant causes in zombie films that create the zombies .
You got sci-fi , infectious and religious , and , like for sci-fi , you have things like Night of the Living Dead , the original one . There was some kind of like . It was a throwaway line , Well yeah , but I mean , that was like what was supposedly caused . It was radiation from this meteor that went over . That was what they allude to as being the cause .
Okay , like the infectious ones are like 28 days or 28 weeks later it's a viral infection of some kind . Or kind of like the crazies , where I mean they're not technically zombies but they're on that same kind of path of like crazy Rage monster .
Yeah , and then you got the religious , which is like the Walking Dead or Dawn of the Dead , where it's not technically announced as religious but they have a lot of allusion to it .
As far as , like these people just coming back , there's like no definitive , you know reasoning for what's happening so people default to some supernatural reasoning behind it well , because they have , like , in a dawn of the dead , the zach snyder one they they mentioned like stuff .
Like you know , you have the preacher talking about how , when you know hell's full , the , the dead will rise I mean . But I mean it's not religious , but there's no underlying cause that you can just say . You know , this is what's causing it .
There's one thing they don't talk a lot about in the Walking Dead , Like why is this happening ?
Because they alluded to it in like what the first season when they try to get to the CDC ?
Yeah , and all you end up finding out is , like you know , when you die , it doesn't matter how you die , you're going to reanimate out is like you know , when you die , it doesn't matter how you die , you're gonna reanimate right , and now I mean , that's pretty much as far as they explain it .
Are they ever gonna answer that ?
probably not but uh , yeah , that's like the most vague of things . It's the religious one , because it typically it's just something that's not explained at all . Now , I was gonna out of those three , which ones do you prefer ? The ?
viral , one Viral .
Viral .
It's easier to believe .
That I feel like it's more well , like you said , believable that it could spread that easily .
Yeah , the suspension of disbelief of watching it happen as something that's like . You know it started in a lab or it's some sort of illness that you know mutated to whatever it's far more believable and applicable .
I agree .
Let's see .
Our next topic is the zombie types .
Okay .
Which you have , like the slow walk which is like the original Night of the Living Dead , which would arguably be the most believable , Because you've got to think if a zombie apocalypse happened . People are rotting to death Because their body is dead .
Well , if it's a zombie that comes out of the ground , yeah , but even let's say , Hayden gets bitten , becomes a zombie .
As the time goes by because I'm using you as an example . His body will eventually deteriorate because he's not alive anymore .
His body isn't pumping blood .
It's not replenishing tissue or cells . He will eventually decompose .
Maybe I am a zombie . That depends on the reasoning for the zombie to begin with . If there was enough radiation that created the zombie , for whatever reason , then it kills off the bacteria to where it doesn't deteriorate as quickly .
I mean it depends on Zombie . Movies were easier to swallow back in the 70s , when they didn't use a lot of science . Because we had Star Wars , we had movies where the MacGuffin was just the force or magic or whatever it was . Go with the mentality Today back to the future .
If it never existed and was made today , nobody would buy it because the flux capacitor wouldn't be good enough for a reason to go back in time , We've become too smart . Yeah , people require there to be more reasonable based science that explains what is doing what .
The next . You had the slow walk . Now we'll move on . You had the fast run . Nope . Dawn of the Dead .
Speed zombies .
Army of the Dead World War Z .
I read a book by max brooks . He's the guy that did uh world war z . World war z and hand guide survival guide .
Yeah , it's a zombie .
I got that one too for some reason , this dude is like the jesus of zombie films and you know he's mel brooks's son yeah , yeah anyway . So , like they , they asked him in an interview once , like because he's the guy he knows , like what would your odds be of surviving in a zombie apocalypse ?
And he said slow walkers or fast walkers , and they're like I guess both . And he was like slow , you have like a one out of three , and fast , you have a one out of seven . You know , and I was like he just came up with those numbers right then and there this guy knows his zombies .
This man knows his stuff but I mean , I don't know if it's the fast zombies . I'll be honest , I'm gonna die .
I can't outrun it forever first , first rule is cardio , or something like that I mean , if you're not a fast person and you have fast zombies , your best bet is just upfront confrontation . Don't try to run , just conserve your energy for the fight itself .
I don't think so . I think if you're within grappling distance it's game over man , so I would get away .
All right , that was fast run . Now we'll move on to the rage zombies , which is like the 28 days later where they don't even have to bite you , I mean , if they bleed on you , they just puke on you .
Yeah , you get blood in you or on you .
You're kind of screwed , or you kiss them , which is weird .
Yeah , it's kind of strange .
Rage zombie . But you know , he thought she was immune .
so yeah , still . And then you move on to the smart zombie , you think ? You're pretty smart , huh , well , this is like the you undead bum . The new Netflix Army of the Dead or Land of the Dead , where they're like using guns , like they're not like full-on , like tactical using guns .
Isn't that where they're ? Just like picking it up and Isn't that where Romero , like , wanted to go eventually with ?
the zombies .
I think so Like they were kind of . Some people theorize that he they were like sentient , but they were like essentially the new step of evolution for humanity right .
Well , it's almost like they were coming back .
It's like cavemen , kind of like learning slowly how to use the stuff and they eventually like . But they were stuck in like their living methods , like yeah , they're the guy that was the gas pump clerk yeah , everybody heard the bell .
He just came out there and started squeezing the gas pump , so it was weird . Well , out of those four , what zombies would you prefer or feel are most ?
terrifying , oh terrifying .
The rage ones .
I mean the smart zombies never really been well interpreted True , so I don't know .
And , like their degree of comprehension , is speculative .
When we say smart zombie they're smarter than your typical zombie . If you include I Am Legend into this category , I think that that would be pretty scary . It would Because they were intelligent . They could .
I'm torn between the fat zombies and the rage ones .
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The rage is the herd mentality of the rage , because I remember watching an article or interview with Danny Boyle when he was talking about how they wanted to showcase this pack mentality of zombies chasing people in an open field , and it was like a reverse of one wolf chasing a herd of sheep .
It would be like a herd of zombies chasing this one guy trying to get away and stuff like that . That was kind of an interesting take on it , so I think it would still be smart zombies for me .
I want to say rage .
You would never know exactly how smart they are .
Because their rage does not dissipate . Why ?
are they so ?
angry . They just need a hug Because you voted for Trump . That's why Shut up .
The next part
¶ (Cont.) ET! Throwback: Zombie Apocalypse Survival Guide
I have is the unanswered questions in zombie films . Why do they have random deterioration between the walking dead return of the living dead ? How do they maintain their movement and stuff they shouldn't be able to .
Realistically , they should be able to maintain motion for maybe a couple of days .
So according to Max Brooks , the godfather of zombies .
He explained that essentially , all that needs to happen for a zombie corpse to be animated is the tendons , like the bone , and the tendon like everything else , and if there's a central nervous system connected to it , so like they don't need muscle matter and stuff like that in order to be a zombie , as long as the Connected tissues . So that's it .
That's all it needs to survive . So everything else can rot away , and , depending on the climate , too , if it's very cold they should be slow a little longer but they'll also be very slow so it's very hot .
They should deteriorate far faster so whatever in the walking dead season 35 , when they have a billion zombies and they're all like fresh bodies , that shouldn't be a thing .
Yeah , so it doesn't make any sense well then you have like movies like return of the living dead , which they're goofy but like if they become a zombie if they become a zombie , they're like instantly degraded looking yeah well , that came out of the goop man .
I gotta say that scene scared the crap out of me . Just how happy he was there you are , I got it . All right .
The next point is the nutrition . How do zombies maintain energy even if they haven't eaten ?
I think nutrition doesn't have anything to do with it , because they don't need digestive systems and that sort of stuff to maintain .
True .
How do ?
they maintain the energy to keep moving .
It depends on who your film person is .
It depends on who's coordinating this .
Romero kind of did it in an aspect where the zombies just needed to make more zombies . And then whoever did Return of the Living Dead made it about brains . Like they have to consume your brain . That's like their thing .
Yeah , because a lot of his was was like eating brains , where some other zombies are just like cannibals or just eat everything , right ? Yeah chicken bones and then and then , like the gluttony factor , like they just keep eating .
Yeah , that's the walking dead thing and they never explained it was creepy at first , but then they just . You see it all the time in the show kind of lost its . You don't understand why they're doing it . Just keep eating , he's . You're just like okay , that guy's going to distract them for a little while we can move around now .
Well , it's like in season two , Shane shoots the guy on the leg . They're like oh well , they'll just all eat this one guy . Yeah , I'll be busy .
He's a big old boy .
All right . The next point I wrote down was brain functioning levels . So , like you have some that can climb ladders , open doors , the smart zombies you have some that dodge trees like falling there was something I was watching , but they were like dodging a tree that fell they could swim .
And then you have some that can coordinate , like in World War Z , to scale the walls like ants .
Oh yeah , World War Z is a different take , Because that's an even crazier herd mentality .
Yeah , that's like army ants , that herd mentality .
Yeah , that's like army ants that's like pinnacle herd mentality .
That's not Max Brooks's interpretation of what was . Anyways , I think that a zombie shouldn't like they should , have the mindset of a lesser animal , like they shouldn't be able to figure out how to open a door or anything like that , but they do have . It's almost like impulsive , I don't know , like a jellyfish .
They don't really know what they're doing to consume , but they just do it .
Yeah .
You know , I think that's more realistic if you want to try to associate .
It's more like a pure animalistic sense that they have .
Even then , like animals , a dog will find a way . If you lock it into your bathroom for To get out , It'll eventually find a way to get out .
Tear that door off the edge yeah a zombie will just stand there and wait until it falls apart . Walk into it repeatedly whatever . Unless you're like in the Zack Snyder 2004 Dawn of the Dead or he just burst through the door trying to get out that's a different zombie .
Yeah , so I don't know . I think it depends and I think , whatever the motivation level is for the zombie to do something .
So yeah , yeah . Or like a shawn of the dead when they're just like pawing at the glass there's a girl in garden . Oh my god and then , uh , the next point I had was finishing a meal , like some , sometimes they'll like , eat it to the bones , yeah , and sometimes they're like oh , a couple bites , and then they just move on .
Oh , a couple bites , and then they just move on Like they don't even eat it all , they just move on to something else .
I think it was in the handbook survival guide where it was talking about how , like a disemboweled zombie was eating the flesh of something and it would just fall through its abdominal cavity on the floor and it would just keep eating because it was there , yeah , and it's vicious in its cycle , until it just fell apart .
Until something broke its cycle Right .
Well , I mean , granted , why don't they eat each other , especially the freshly made zombies ? Why don't the older ones try to eat them ?
Because they're dead . When you die , your scent and everything changes immediately , immediately , immediately , immediately .
And then the next point I had was the physical abilities . Like you have some zombies that like over , like in Walking Dead , you have these degraded zombies and they're like overpowering people . That shouldn't happen .
That's the problem with the Walking Dead is you just don't really know where they are .
It's all a plot ?
yeah it is , you know , I I don't know , so that's , that's hard to say , and when you have and the fact that walking dead zombies sneak up on anybody yeah pisses me off to no end , and they're all walking you know , if it's a dude walking in the woods and the camera's close on him , you're like , oh , there's going to be a zombie coming on frame there he
is the zombie's like Stealth . He activates dead silence .
But then you also have the World War Z ones , where they leap like 30 feet through the air .
Do they ? I thought there was a couple of them .
There's a couple of them that like leaped from like .
I thought they just climbed on top of each other .
Well , there was one that like leaps from like 10 feet away onto this guy getting out of a car and stuff that might be Hollywood .
stupid stuff just trying to yeah .
Well , you just got to realize like their motion is going to be different than a normal person because they're not going to be stopped by you know , I could land on the ground and get hurt . They don't have that sort of you know inhibition where it's like , oh , this could cause me pain , but they should .
They're moving at full physical speed that they can possibly move .
Right , but if you were to fall off of a roof and break your legs ?
that's it .
The same should work for a zombie too . Like it can't just get up and sprint at you or walk at you or sham it .
No , the body structure is degraded . You shouldn't be able to .
The skeletal structure . If that is altered , then yeah , You'd just be crawling around . So I don't know . See , these are like minutiae questions that the broad zombie genre is just overlooking Because , let's be honest , it's zombies . People don't watch it to try and understand the science behind zombies which you know .
Maybe that's the last stone unturned for the cause it's it's an overdone genre . What else can we do with zombies that hasn't been done ?
Superheroes .
Okay , Actually I've read a book about that .
Yeah , I know I will say looking back across all these zombie films .
I think the best one is still Shaun of the Dead ?
I don't know .
As far as the way the zombies act , the way they move , this whole I really liked . 28 Days Later , I think that that was my favorite movie and it felt like the zombies were all consistent throughout .
I would say that the zombies in Shaun of the Dead are consistent .
Yeah , they are . I mean , it's just the same thing , but it's a comedy . That's what makes it so interesting . But it's the same . George Romero , zombies .
But the fact that they acknowledge it .
Yeah , yeah .
I still find movies like Dawn of the Dead . To me , those are the scariest zombies . That , yeah , you know . I still find movies like Dawn of the Dead . To me , those are the scariest zombies . That's what I like . If I'm going to watch a zombie movie , it's got to be scary . Those are scary because they're going to just run you down .
It's scary for like 50 minutes and then , once you understand how they work , it's just watching the survivors just survive .
Do dumb stuff you just watch them get picked off one at a time until the end of the movie , exactly .
I don't know . I guess that's my problem with the zombie genre . Ten years ago it was cool because it was kind of like in its prime there was zombie everything . And nowadays it's just like you see a zombie movie and it's the same as the last , but when's the last zombie movie ?
you remember that's .
Scout's Guide .
Army of the Dead .
Oh , army of the Dead . Yeah , so you see a zombie movie and you're like all right , so how come these people don't know about zombies ? I mean , it's so meta culture right now . If a zombie apocalypse were to happen , people would be shooting zombies in the brain immediately because we know we know all right , and so how do you have a universe ?
by removing the head or destroying the brain right how do you have a universe that is removing the head or destroying the brain , right ? How do you have a universe that is somewhat similar to ours , where people don't understand how zombies are ? Zombies have become so popular .
You cannot have that People will be live tweeting it's just like oh my God , it's the zombie apocalypse and here we are . It's like , what's our plan ? It's like go to Mom's house , kill Phil sorry Go to Liz's . Go to the Winchester and have a nice cold pint . Wait for this whole thing to blow over .
I know , if it was real you would see people on TikTok like , hey , watch this .
Pow Zombie kill of the week .
Exactly . That's the thing . That's why .
Zombieland is funny .
Well , the first one .
Yeah .
The second one was just trying to . That's why I think the second one didn't do well , because it was the same crap .
And no Bill Murray .
That's true , poor BM .
Is that how you say hello where you come from ?
In retrospect , this wasn't a good idea . Go ahead .
My next point is the Herds . Because of the Walking Dead , they've started developing this into other what do you call it zombie movies where , like these , zombies will just herd together .
I guess like to have some sort of collective unit . Cohesiveness is an interesting idea , kind of like an ant mentality or whatever . Like you know , what's really interesting is mycelial networks . I don't , this is like stupid science stuff that I would find interesting .
But like , fungi will essentially communicate and work and live together in eating an organism , but not like stepping on each other's territory of that organism , and scientists to this day don't really know how fungus communicates that way .
I think it's more . I guess they're attracted to sound or motion or something , yeah , and if you get enough in the other , they all kind of realize like , oh , we're all going in this direction . And that's kind of just how it snowballs .
We're all in this together .
The whole thing is like if they're a herd and they're attracted to noise when they all congromulate . Whatever you say , it Congromulate .
Congromulate .
Words with Mitch Words with Mitch Congregate .
That right there . We gotta get Mitch on Sesame Street or something .
When they congromate One one .
One one , no , like I mean when they're all together , though . Like why would they not just walk around in circles Like , cause they show them doing that ?
You know it was an interesting uh , that movie cell .
The the cell .
Yeah .
The cell
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, yeah , the Cell .
With Vincent D'Onofrio and J-Lo no , no , no . With John Cusack and Samuel Jackson . The Stephen King book .
Oh man , I forgot all about that that was 1408 . Isn't that 1408 ?
No , it's the Cell . No , that was . I think that was no . I think they did a different one .
All right , well , what's interesting about this ?
But that's also the kind of herd mentality . It's almost like worker bees , where they communicate through frequency of sound .
There's zombies in there , yeah .
But they're people , obviously , but they're brainwashed into this thing and they become
¶ (Cont.) ET! Throwback: Zombie Apocalypse Survival Guide
zombie-esque very much .
Oh yeah , okay , yeah , it's something about technology , isn't it ? Yeah , it's something about technology , isn't it ? Yeah , something like that .
Okay , like that's what causes the zombies .
Yeah , in a way , but that aspect of that was always a Romero allegory , too is basically people being so involved in their material world that they become zombies .
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There's three ways , predominantly , that they try to make zombies dangerous in film .
Okay , the first one is they put a group in a location that limits their resources obviously yeah , because , god forbid they just walk to where resources are or drive or transport themselves in some sort of fashion before you move on .
I mean like this survivor stories are always interesting right um but they're like interesting to a degree , like what's that story about the people that got stranded on an airplane or on an airplane crash in a mountain and they like cannibalized each other and stuff like that to survive ?
That was about like a soccer team .
Yeah , and like they did a movie adaptation . Yeah , and it was interesting , that was true , yeah it was interesting for like 30 minutes , and then it was just kind of like die already .
Get to the bend .
Skip it With zombies . You can take a survivor story and inject an interesting kind of personified appeal to it that causes the survivors to go through hell , but in a pacing that's more understandable to the audience . So that's one way of doing an interesting survivor story . Unfortunately , it's been done over and , over and over again .
You know like you can just watch 30 years of the walking dead .
So yeah , moving on to the next point is they'll increase the zombies physical abilities or the infection rate to where it's like astronomical , to where you got to be like quarantined not to get infected .
It makes sense for 28 Days Later . It doesn't make sense for the Walking Dead or other things .
And then , lastly , you basically just make the protagonists idiots .
Yeah , they're always falling down .
It's either because it's a comedy zombie movie or the good guys are just completely dumb when it comes to choosing a location their weapons . We've got these guns . Let's take the machete .
This kind of thing , but the machete doesn't run out of ammo .
What's your backup weapon ? Take both , that's the answer .
Obviously , that's the answer . I've explained my zombie scenario . What I need A lot of it's already here in the apartment . I'm already on the third floor , which is nice because I have elevation .
Okay , I have unlimited water . I'm good you got your Power Rangers helmet . I have two Power Ranger helmets and one X-Wing helmet . Which one would you wear ?
This brain can't be eaten .
My third one's in the mail . Oh , look at you .
It's a Blue Ranger helmet , so suck on that . Which color would you wear for the zombie apocalypse ? Green , oh , it blends in with the foliage , or something .
Obviously Plus some of you will look and go oh Green Ranger .
You'd be a really funny zombie walking around . That's also kind of like a niche kind of thing .
It's just like is that the Green ?
Ranger .
Oh he's a zombie .
He can't bite us . He's got the helmet on . I'd be harmless . People would , just I'd be like a novelty . Have you seen the ?
Green Ranger zombie . Don't kill that guy . He looks cool .
No , I'd go to medieval times and raid that place . Okay , mine would be For chain mail , swords , you know , armor Uh-huh , because zombies can't bite through steel .
Okay .
Swords don't run out of ammo . Okay , and those , okay swords don't run out of ammo and those are battle tested , you know , hardened swords , of quality steel that can take impact after impact so mine would be you .
I would have a long gun , a shotgun , a handgun and a melee weapon .
Okay , you'll carry all that , yeah what kind of uh inventory system are we using ?
you get a rucksack , you know , and you can upgrade it plus five inventory space .
That's going to get heavy .
Hey , I am light infantry man . I know how to pack stuff .
A long gun would be great , right , ammo I mean obviously you have to pick up as you go Shotgun . To be honest , I would try to find a double barrel and cut it down to a sawed-off .
I would be fine , just for that quick .
You know , if you pulled a saw off out of like some sort of holster or something quick where you have two barrels that you can fire rapidly .
Let's be honest Tom's going to outlive us In giant spread If a zombie apocalypse happens , because we have three other people we have to keep alive . That's true .
I just have to worry about me , yeah .
Well , okay , so I would want a , a shotgun , solely for breaching , and that's like if I'm running from a zombie or whatever , and I get to a house and I get the door , I'm not going to try the door , I'm just going to blow the hinges off and run inside .
How are you going to re-secure the door ?
Once I get inside the house that's he's like that's a five minutes down the road problem .
Exactly , that's a later problem . Right now I need to get inside decide . Why don't you just jump through the window ?
well , first off . Hopefully I wouldn't be in that position true and uh . So here's , here's my scenario . I have those weapons , I have a plate carrier and I have , uh , my rucksack don't get too far into scenarios . I have some questions and I would live in a water tower . There you go , it's gonna get cold yeah , it's gonna get cold I've slept in colder .
I promise you anyways , we'll get back to that . I have some scenario questions at the end . Next little point I was going to get to is , like most zombie movies or zombie films , they explore , like the breakdown of society or the inability of people to work together . Which do you think of those seems more believable .
Like what makes for a better story . California would be the first to go .
Yes , People's inability to work with each other . That's exactly what I think would happen , but do you which one do you think makes for the better story in like a film or tv ? Um ?
well , I , I . So if you're gonna like do a social satire through a zombie film , I mean , that's kind of always been . The origin of zombie films is just like this is why people suck and this is why they would die in any kind of monster . You know worldwide situation , so I think that's outdone If we're talking about a good movie .
Now , if you had it where , like it was just four survivors that were from different cultures and they found a way to overcome their differences and then use their differences as a means to survive , I think that would be interesting . I feel like the Walking Dead always almost gets there and then kills them off . That's why I kind of give up on that show .
Yeah , social satire or social parody or whatever you want to call it , I don't know , that's boring . What was the other options ?
Well , I'll put it down Breakdown of society or the inability for people to work together .
Breakdown of society is always fascinating . You know , like when did Every man for himself ? They're always like the government's failed , that's always like the first line in an apocalypse movie .
The government's collapsed . If you depended on the government , you failed yourself .
That's why I like 28 Days Later , because you see how the government failed , kind of as they go along . It's already happened , but you pick up on it more as they go along .
In retrospect .
And I thought that that was an interesting one .
And the fact that the entire world just quarantined it to England .
Right , because it was an island . I mean , it makes sense .
It's an island . It's perfect .
And I wish they would have for World War Z .
I wish they would have done how the book did it , which was Manhattan Island , Like the hordes of zombies were just trying to get across the bridges , and how they were fighting all these giant zombies , or hordes of zombies , on these bridges and how they were failing , because modern weaponry is designed to incapacitate living humans and not walking corpses .
So they were just piling on top of each other and overrunning the soldiers and stuff like that .
Soldiers , if you don't know about zombies , they're trained to shoot for center mass to drop the target .
That's true too yeah , yeah , trained for headshots only .
Yeah , so I mean , basically they're wasting ammo until they eventually figure it out .
And there's how many bridges that come off of Manhattan to the mainland ?
Several , yeah , they couldn't blow them up , all up in time .
So it was really interesting how they did that .
You got that , plus you got tunnels . Yeah , you got the subway , you got the tunnels of the Lincoln Tunnel . It's a lot . There's a lot of ways off that island . It might be an island , but there's a lot of ways to get off of it .
If a zombie apocalypse ever actually happened and it got far enough out of control where there's big major problems , you're never going to be able to curtail it because they could just expand anywhere . All it takes is one person to get infected , wander into some town and then just infect everybody in the town and then just continue to spread again .
It's kind of like how COVID was . You see that sweaty guy walking into a room and you're like dude , I'm going to kill you right now , Just save everybody the problem .
Mitch , what's your next point ?
Just to curtail this , we're just going to kill all of them .
Let's just pump the brakes on that right now . Let's table that question .
I'll save everybody having a bad couple weeks .
The next part I had before our scenarios was why . What draws people into wanting , like the audience to wanting to watch zombie movies .
Because they see stupid people go through stupid situations and they sit there and think I could do better .
They're feel-good movies . Most dudes have their zombie plan oh yeah , yeah , and I mean to be fair .
We have the benefit of the doubt , because we live in the learned world where we understand zombies . If there was some actual apocalyptic whatever that happened that we wouldn't know what to do , I'm sure everybody would be singing a different tune .
I mean I hope for the zombie apocalypse , because then that means I can stop paying taxes .
Okay , so I don't have to go back to work .
I don't have to go to work anymore .
Better yet . Well , this might reveal a little bit , but I would go to work and I would kick everybody out .
You're free where we work is a secure enough facility a secure facility , everybody's free get out . This is my building yeah , enough to sustain several people not more than 10 for an exorbitant amount of time yeah , yeah , yeah .
So yeah , I think that zombies were always interesting , for that aspect is that people were fascinated with the idea of what they would do , and it is a really easy way Could you survive . A really easy way to satirize problems with current modern issues and politics and economy and culture clashes and whatnot through a monster movie .
So you get your little artesian nose up at society stuff too , but you also bring in the people who just want to see blood and guts .
That's another thing . I was going to ask what's so fascinating about a never-ending foe ? Essentially , Well , it's not a never-ending foe , it kind of is .
It'll end eventually Name one zombie movie that has a legitimately happy ending .
Shaun of the Dead Does it though yeah , I mean , they do turn them into like game show zombies .
Isn't there still zombies ? There's still zombies , though I guess it does have a half .
They have like talk shows with zombies on them .
All right , I still love him , I still love him , he's my husband . A serious zombie movie , though .
Why isn't it a serious zombie film ?
Because it's comedy . And that somehow takes away from the fact that they're zombies .
People died in that movie .
They did in a very funny way .
And very grotesque .
But I'm talking about like she's drunk Night of the Living Dead , Dawn of the Dead , both versions 28 .
Days Later . Well , no Dawn of the Dead ends in a kind of happy note , not really , no , not .
Dawn of the Dead ends in a kind of happy note .
Not really , no , not Dawn of the Dead , I'm sorry . 28 days later .
They get sort of rescued . But you know . Even then , you don't know what and where they are and what the future of this outbreak is and you're left to assume that it could be a lot worse .
And then they have a sequel , which is not that great , but that does get a lot worse , and then they have a sequel , which is not that great , but that does get a lot worse .
Make it the mainland europe right .
So I think that zombie movies fall into what's called a dread genre , you know a type of horror where there is no , there's no feasible happy ending and you're just essentially seeing people um , gonna go to their doom one way or the other . So it's like a slice of life right before your death . Choke on it .
All right . Well , we're going to move on to the scenario questions . I have a few that I wrote down . All right , and you just have to go with it . You can't reason your way out of it .
Number one Do I have a gun ?
Well , we'll see . Overnight , two-thirds of the world becomes a zombie . That's fast . You wake up . Two-thirds of the world's a zombie . What do you do first ?
Go to the bathroom .
Okay , chances are ?
I woke up , I have to pee .
Tom dies pooping .
He does pooping . How do I die ?
pooping Just like . Elvis , I guess I'd check local news .
to see how bad it is locally , sit down and watch the telly .
Two-thirds of the population are zombies . But is it where I live ? Yeah , exactly .
That's what I want to know . So if I turn on the TV and go to the local channel station , if it says experiencing technical difficulties , it's just going to say stand by , stand by . I'm going to be like okay Is my Wi-Fi out .
You hear screaming outside the window .
All right , all right , shut up out there I'm trying to watch the news . I guess you know I get in the car and I'd go to the Winchester .
I'd have myself a nice cold pint . Now . I mean , obviously all my stuff's locked when I wake up all the doors and the windows and everything but I'd probably fire up the bathtub to fill it up all the way as much as I could to conserve as much water as I could , good plan . Probably do the same with as many .
Considering you're on the third floor that water pressure is going to die soon as many bottles or stuff I can salvage he's going to sit on the porch . Pick off the parking lot , raid all the neighboring apartments .
We're going to show up to Tom's apartment and be like we're here , tom , he's going to start shooting at us . No , I'm going to my parents .
Yeah , your parents have a great . They got a fence .
I don't know , I might just go to work . Take my family and go to work . I'll occupy We'll go to Central . Yeah , take a spot and kick some people out Like this is where we live now .
All right . Well , I mean , granted , we all kind of know , but I was going to ask this and I didn't think about asking this until after I wrote it down and I was like , eh , but I was going to say , do you have any weapons close by ? Yeah , we can just go with , yeah .
Yes , the answer to that question is yes , I have the master sword .
I have that sword right there . I have four lightsabers . I got two Power Ranger morphers I'm set the rest of the world hates it , but we live in America .
There's guns .
I have a dog that really likes bones .
So if anything's exposed . He's just going to tear the zombie off of the yard .
That'd be kind of funny to watch .
What would be your first priority , Besides what you're going to do ? What would be your first priority like to do ?
I guess like after I have the realization of what's going on well after I have legitimate security of me and my people I would try and find a way to communicate with somebody and uh somebody that I know like I .
I got a buddy that me and him . We've already actually talked about this .
Yeah .
How we would like complex up and essentially just Called Britt . Yeah .
Be texting . Hey , is this going on where you live too ?
Text me your address .
I'm on my way , Britt .
Yeah Well , I called Britt , but he wouldn't answer .
That's true .
He'd be outside . He'd look like the .
He'd be outside . He'd be outside in a Hawaiian shirt and his night vision speed helmet , in the middle of the day with some .
SBR going Woo . What's the redneck in the hurricane where he's holding the flag swinging his ?
hand . Yeah , that'd be him , that'd be Brit .
That would be Brit Living the dream He'd love every second of it .
That doesn't count . You kind of already answered this but if you had to escape blood ?
every second of it . That doesn't count . You kind of already answered this . But if you had to escape , like you had to leave , let's say you had to leave our county where are you going to go ?
The mountains probably .
Coast the coast . Why the coast ?
The ocean Fish . It's a water source and a food source . Yes , I will have to boil the water and sanitize it and turn it into fresh water . It's harder than you think it is I mean okay .
It can be done , I don't know , not reasonably . I'd go to the mountains because you have fresh water and it is a high point with like , depending on where you're at feasible line of sight in all directions and stuff like that . That's where I'd go too .
I want to go to the mountains , because you can just chop down some trees , make some barricades .
Just chop down some trees , Just whack , whack whack .
Take your chainsaw .
The zombies would have to move their way up the hill or unless they go up the one road . So you have a little more advantage of being higher , plus when it gets colder if you go a little further north in the mountains you know they're going to be slower , so that's what I would do too .
And set the mountain on fire .
Let's do that . That's good , unless you're living on the mountains . Just wait , just wait . And then my next question , and then my next question do you trust others ?
Not you two Wow .
Well , we know we're coming to raid first Go ahead and get that out of the way .
Good luck coming in alive .
I got to steal this Power Ranger helmet's top .
We'll come and raid just what two energy drinks in their life ? Yeah , I'll steal his Red Bull and just get it out . I'll drink . Yeah , and your popcorn , chicken and fries you have in the freezer .
It is funny how in movies , how quickly people betray each other . Oh yeah , it's just like dude , it's a Twinkie .
I like to chill out . You don't have to murder .
It's the last Twinkie you don't have to murder each other for that . But yeah , like , I hate snowballs . I think , in today's society .
Coconut not the taste , but the texture .
What's weird is this might be getting a little , you know , revealing Well , no , like in depth of like modern social psychology , but I think people and social media kind of have this weird distant distrust of everybody , but they also have really tighter , closer circles of people that they would trust and work with .
So I think it will work out .
It would be like you know you have your commune and some dude's walking up who are ? You ? Where are you going Back the way you came ?
There's something prowling around here .
I mean I would be trusting of others to a degree it depends on like my situation at the moment .
Yeah .
You know , if I'm in a compromised position , then no , they just keep on walking .
Hey , I already get my man . Hey , what's your name ? Tony .
F you Tony .
I already get my man with a shotgun , so you know it wouldn't be much of a change .
That was good . My next question was kind of along the same lines . You have your family with you . Are you going to stop and help others ?
Nope , it depends , it depends .
Nope , I'm going totally cutthroat . For me it would be no .
If they're not like my immediate family or friends . F them .
These are just strangers on the side that are , you know .
Nope .
Schwack them , take their stuff , keep it moving . If it's a dude , that's like you know .
My leg is broke .
Yeah , it's like sucks to be you . No , like say , there's like 10 zombies around this guy and he's stuck on the water tower .
I'm not If it's a guy , if it's kids or something like that , I don't know .
You got money .
It depends If my family's with me ?
no , they're on their own . Just because my family's too little , other than my wife , to defend themselves . It's up to me to defend them .
It depends If I could feasibly see a way of doing it . You know what do they call those death assessments like how can ? I die , you know , and if it , if it's reasonable , I'd figure something out . It depends all right .
My last one is you lose the vehicle that you have uh-huh what you're going for well if I gotta take a vehicle , I gotta take a vehicle I mean , that's where the distrust comes in is now any resources ?
for for me and my people obviously some sort of truck with off-road capability would be most , uh , desirable . Something probably stronger in horsepower , I will carjack somebody .
If I have to , I don't care . Yeah , do some like dc sniper kind of stuff , whatever it takes we know where he went , real quick .
This is where you really learn about the guys on this podcast . Whatever it takes If the world goes to crap , you realize how far we're going to go .
Hopefully I'll figure something better out first , but if that's what it comes down to , it is what it is .
Sorry , okay , that was all the questions I had and what I researched and stuff and the many dark turns we've taken .
Yeah .
I just figured it'd be an interesting conversation , yeah .
It was People like zombie films and stuff . Yeah , there we go .
Sean , what was the best one ? I think so . I don't know of any . There's obviously Walking Dead crap coming out forever . There's also the Zack Snyder show or movie coming out with the most recent day .
I think there's going to be a sequel to Army of the Dead somehow because they have the .
Army of .
Thieves Right . They have the Army of Thieves . That leads into as like a prequel to that , and then they have this , and I think there's supposed to be something that takes place like after it .
So but besides that there's not much . There's not like a zombie game or anything that's like .
They do have that Days Gone by , which is supposed to be kind of like a mix between the Division and Walking Dead Okay , which I mean it's really good graphics . They're using Unreal Engine 5 . That's why it got delayed .
Yeah .
I mean it's all multiplayer where you can kind of like the dead zone stuff except for you don't have to exfil , but there's other people around .
There's nothing zombie game or something that I'm super excited about anymore . That sounds like Left 4 Dead . Even then , Left 4 Dead got really repetitive .
What's the one in the mall ?
Oh , Dying Light . No , no , that's not Dying Light .
That's the one we played .
What is that one ?
I don't remember that one was like huge . It was funny because you just pick up random stuff . Gta Zombie Edition oh .
Dead Rising , dead Rising .
There was like eight of those too .
Yeah , they , dead Rising , dead Rising . There was like eight of those too . They were fun to begin with .
You kill people with like tricycles and stuff like that . Yeah , hit this guy with the mallet you use to hit the little thing into the bell .
I remember like I was being chased by a horde of zombies and I ran into like a toy store and I grabbed a wiffle ball bat and it was just like squeaky noises . And I was like this is useless . Why would they make this a feature ?
because you can do that in real life too in 134 hits you'll be dead , depending on which game you can grab other things like from the adult store just swing it .
Hit some dude upside the head with some 12 foot dildo yeah , I don't know like the .
Yeah , I think the , the zombie genre like , will probably resurge in 20 years , but I think it's kind of on the way out for now .
I don't know why , but I find zombie like I've read several of the different novels and stuff and the one that I would really like to see made into a TV show , because a movie you wouldn't be able to cover enough , but it's day by day , armageddon , it's a really good story . It would make a fun TV series .
Well , maybe the people from Walking Dead will bastardize it .
No , they'll just keep milking the crap out of Walking Dead and whatever they can get out of it .
I like reading zombie books because you get your own imagination with it , but those are still pretty good to me . Yeah , if you get the right one .
Yeah , I wonder if there is ever going to be something like the hayfire of zombie , Because I mean it kind of trickled in with all the Romero movies for about 10 , 20 years and then , just from the late 90s , early 2000s , it just blew up for the past 20 years and then it's going to slow down again . I don't know if anything will ever be like that .
I will say , though , if there ever is a zombie apocalypse , I am going to look at a zombie and go da-ba-da-ba-da-ba-da-ba-da , and see if he goes da-ba-da-ba-da-ba-da you would .
It's supposed to say base or freeze , all right , well , that was fun , that was a good conversation .
Good conversation , Mitch . Good job , Mitch . Welcome to Conversation Corner . All right .
If you enjoyed that or if you have any other things you want to talk about . I don't know werewolves or something hit Mitch up on the social media .
American Werewolf and Wood .
What's the one social media thing that's easiest for them to contact you at ?
Entertainthispodcastcom .
There you go , because it'll take you to all the others . All right , that's it for this Great episode . Bye you cheated . Good job , tom . Hi Jack , how'd you find ?
out . Goodbye Tom and hey and Mitch . Bye guys , bitch bye guys .