Movie Review – World War Z (WWZ) (2013)
This past weekend saw the release of World War Z, a big budget zombie flick based on Max Brooks’s hit book World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War.
Imagine waking one day and proceeding your with normal routine. Apart from the negative news reports on the airwaves, everything seems to be normal. That is until you’re stuck in a traffic jam and suddenly all hell breaks loose. That carnage and chaos is caused by a sudden zombie epidemic that’s sweeping the globe and overrunning the major cities.
Nobody is safe.
That’s the beginning of World War Z, the latest zombie film to hit the theaters. Directed by Marc Foster, World War Z stars Brad Pitt in the title role of Gerry Lane, a retired United Nations employee who has seen action in some of the world’s worst places. He’s not a soldier but he has an understanding of combat tactics along with basic medical treatment. Supporting him in the film are Mireille Enos as Karin Lane, Gerry’s wife, Fana Mokoena as Thierry, the Deputy Secretary-General to the United Nations, and David Morse as a former CIA operative currently held prisoner.
Don’t look for a whole lot of famous faces in this film. World War Z is literally all about Brad Pitt’s character and how he handles the zombie pandemic, from sheltering his family to assisting the government with trying to find the source and hopefully finding some way of stopping the zombies.
For those of you who have read World War Z: An Oral History to the Zombie War, be prepared for several major differences from the book.
World War Z begins with a series of news clips showing deteriorating conditions around the world. We don’t exactly know why there’s trouble, just that times are looking bad for many people.
World War Z (2013) – (c) Paramount Pictures
Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) and his wife Karin (Mireille Enos) are awakened by their daughters Rachel and Constance. It’s a normal morning in the house and Gerry cooks breakfast for the girls. The younger girl has a birthday approaching while the older daughter has an asthma problem. There’s a television news report of a country that has been placed under martial law, and one of his daughters asks Gerry about martial law and being in those dangerous countries. We know that Gerry used to work for the United Nations, but his job there is still a mystery.
The morning quickly progresses and Gerry drives his family into Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for work and school. They’re stuck in heavy traffic and listed to news reports of a mysterious rabies outbreak around the world. Suddenly a police motorcycle races through the stopped cars and knocks off Gerry’s side mirror. He gets out of the car to investigate when another cop yells for him to return to his vehicle. Gerry complies, but once he’s back inside his family witnesses a small explosion in front of them. This explosion is followed by a mob of people fleeing from something horrific but still unknown.
World War Z (2013) – (c) Paramount Pictures
A garbage truck suddenly smashes its way through the cars, clearing a path for Gerry. He manages to follow the truck, using it as a blocker. This works until Gerry is caught in an accident, and he and his family have to flee on foot. He and his wife grab their daughters and make it to an unoccupied R/V. While running, Gerry watches as a crazy person (a.k.a. zombie) attacks a fellow motorist. The motorist is bitten several times and begins convulsing and has a massive spasm. Twelve seconds later that motorist rises from the asphalt and begins attacking people in a frenzy.
Gerry’s family huddles inside of the R/V as he starts the engine and flees out of the city, smashing and grinding each zombie that tries to break into the vehicle. Once they’re outside the city he stops the vehicle and helps Karin tend to their daughter who’s enduring an asthma attack. Unfortunately, the medication to stop it was left back in their car.
World War Z (2013) – (c) Paramount Pictures
While tending to his daughter, Gerry receives a phone call from Thierry Umutoni (Fana Mokoena), the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. Now we know that whatever Gerry did in the U.N. must have been important as he has a direct line of communications with a top leader in the organization. Thierry informs Gerry that New York City is being evacuated and they’re sending a helicopter to grab him. The chopper won’t be arriving though for another hour or so.
World War Z (2013) – (c) Paramount Pictures
Gerry and his family make their way to a supermarket in Newark, New Jersey. The place is being raided as people grab whatever they can to survive whatever evil is spreading through the world. Karin and one girl begin grabbing groceries while Gerry and the other daughter get medication at the pharmacy. There’s a scream as Karin is suddenly attacked by two armed men. Gerry defends her and the fighting stops when a police officer arrives on scene, but the cop is more interested in grabbing provisions instead of stopping any non-zombie attackers.
Outside the grocery store, Gerry and Karin discover that their R/V is gone. Somebody snatched the vehicle while they were inside of the store. Karin spots a nearby apartment building, and while heading there Gerry calls Thierry and informs him of his new location. He’ll use red flares to guide the chopper onto the building’s roof.
World War Z (2013) – (c) Paramount Pictures
Newark is already infested with the rapidly spreading zombie population. Gerry and his family manage to get into an apartment building but so do the zombies. A small family of Hispanics unlocks their door and allows Gerry’s family refuge for the next hour. When it’s time to head to the roof for the helicopter, the young boy follows along and joins Gerry’s family. Zombies follow them up to the roof and Gerry fights them, holding them back so his family can try to escape. He makes it to the roof but some of the zombie’s blood lands on him. Gerry stands on the roof’s edge and waits to see if he transforms into a zombie. Twelve seconds pass and he’s still himself.
World War Z (2013) – (c) Paramount Pictures
The helicopter arrives but so do more zombies. Gerry holds back the stairwell doors until his family is on board the chopper. He then runs for the chopper as UN soldiers shoot all the zombies chasing him. It’s a close call but everybody makes it onto the helicopter and flies away to safety.
That safety turns out to be a U.S. navy ship about a hundred miles in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New England. Gerry’s family is assigned a place to sleep, and on the ship Gerry and Thierry learn more about the true horrors of the sudden zombie uprising. It’s mentioned that the president is dead along with some of the top military leaders. The vice-president is missing. That’s the last we hear about the U.S. government.
World War Z (2013) – (c) Paramount Pictures
On the ship is a command center that’s monitoring the zombie outbreak and trying to find a way to stop it. One of the people, a virologist named Dr. Andrew Fassbach (Elyes Gabel) claims that the plague is actually a virus, and if they find its origin then they can find a way to stop it. Dr. Fassbach volunteers to go out into the field to research the zombie plague, but Gerry knows that the scientist won’t stand a chance of surviving in the danger zones. The naval commander “convinces” Gerry in using his expertise in such situations and accompanying Dr. Fassbach on his mission. If he won’t go then Gerry’s family will be deemed as non-essential and sent on the first available helicopter back to Philadelphia, a virtual death sentence. Knowing this, Gerry reluctantly agrees to help with the mission. He gives his wife a satellite phone so the two of them can stay in contact while he’s away.
World War Z (2013) – (c) Paramount Pictures
The mission transfers to a nearby aircraft carrier, and they’re launched off the carrier’s flight deck on a C-130 Hercules (NOTE – A special version of the C-130 was capable of such carrier operations, as demonstrated back in 1963, but the aircraft was deemed too large for proficient carrier operations. The movie is technically correct with this footage but it’s a very rare condition, something generally considered fictitious.) The C-130 then flies halfway around the world (How did they refuel the aircraft? Was it an air-to-air refueling? Did they land at secure airfields to refuel?) to South Korea and makes a night landing in the middle of a thunderstorm.
World War Z (2013) – (c) Paramount Pictures
The South Korean airfield is adjacent to Camp Humphreys, a military base that warned of “zombies” in an e-mail written almost two weeks ago. A team of Navy SEALs quickly arrives at the aircraft as zombies begin attacking. Dr. Fassbach falls and accidentally shoots himself in the head. His body is left behind and the SEALs manage to get Gerry into their secure facility.
Inside the base Gerry learns more about the zombies from the survivors. He’s shown a room with incinerated bodies, the remains of some of the earlier victims. The SEALs claim that a local man was foaming at the mouth, but when he was being treated by a local doctor he began biting people and spreading the disease. The mystery of the plague’s origin died with those first victims.
World War Z (2013) – (c) Paramount Pictures
Incarcerated at Camp Humphreys is Gunter Haffner (David Morse), a former CIA operative who went crazy during the outbreak of the zombie plague. Haffner reveals that he’s imprisoned because he was caught selling weapons to North Korea. He claims that North Korea is one of only a couple of countries that managed to repeal the zombie plague. Heffner hints that the real reason the North Koreans survived is because the citizens had their teeth removed as part of a massive and quite horrific plan by the government. Without teeth there would be no biting and further spreading of the disease.
Another country that is surviving the zombie plague is Israel. Heffner tells Gerry to go to Jerusalem and find out what they know. The fact that they survived so well hints that they might have had prior knowledge about the zombie outbreak, and maybe they know a way to stop it.
The Navy SEALs use stealth to help Gerry back to the C-130 sitting on the airport’s runway. While Gerry is assisted back to the aircraft, other SEALs sneak a refueling truck to the aircraft. The plan goes well until Karin tries calling Gerry’s satellite phone, and the loud ringing alerts the zombies. Gerry races to the aircraft while some SEALs begin refueling it and others fight the zombies. The C-130 Hercules is refueled in what can only be a record-setting time (hint, hint), but the commander of the SEALs is bitten by a zombie. He chooses to take his own life instead of having one of his own men shoot him.
Zombies climb into the back of the C-130, but they fall out the rear of the cargo plane as the C-130 pitches its nose into the sky and climbs during take-off. While cruising to Jerusalem Gerry calls Karin and informs her that things didn’t go well in South Korea, and now he’s heading to the Middle East. While talking on the phone he sees a nuclear explosion on the ground.
World War Z (2013) – (c) Paramount Pictures
The film fails to explain this nuclear explosion. In the book World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, we learn that Iran and Pakistan are allowing refugees to cross the border despite the fact that the two countries have a deep disliking towards one another. The two enemies have temporarily put aside their differences to help the innocent people escape from the zombie plague. An incident on the border turns into a skirmish, and the two military forces quickly escalate and carry out attacks on each side of the border. Before people know it there’s a full nuclear war between the countries. Both Iran and Pakistan are destroyed during the exchange of nuclear weapons. The film World War Z includes this major incident as a single unexplained nuclear detonation viewed from the air.
World War Z (2013) – (c) Paramount Pictures
After landing in Jerusalem, Gerry meets with Jurgen Warmbrunn (Ludi Boeken), the leader of Israel’s Mossad organization. Things seem fairly well and organized in the holy city. People are getting on with their everyday lives despite the zombie pandemic. Warmbrunn explains that his organization intercepted messages from India in which Indian troops were fighting the “undead.” Warmbrunn and a few other people were tasked with taking this message seriously and planning a method of defending their country. Unlike past incidents where Jewish people and the Israelis ignored warning signs (such as the Holocaust in World War 2 or the Yom Kippur War in 1973), this time they would be ready.
World War Z (2013) – (c) Paramount Pictures
Warmbrunn shows Gerry part of the massive wall that defends Jerusalem from the zombies. We also see that, surprisingly, people are still being allowed into the country as a refugee. This entry part really isn’t explained in the movie, but thankfully we know from reading the book that the Israelis figured out that dogs were key in detecting the zombie disease in humans. All the refugees had to do was pass by a series of dogs guarding the entrances into the fortified area. Anybody who was singled out by the dogs (in the book the zombie disease took several days to fully transform a human) would be denied admission into the country.
World War Z (2013) – (c) Paramount Pictures
In the film we see that some of the refugees are so overwhelmed with the joy of being safe that they start singing a praise. This is sung over the loudspeakers which, unfortunately for them, attracts the attention of a massive zombie horde. The zombies form a “human” ladder and actually scale the perimeter walls and invade the “secure” zone. I guess the Israelis simply forgot to station guard towers and also warn people to remain quiet and not attract any additional attention from the zombies. Oh well. There goes Jerusalem.
There’s a panic in the city as soldiers try to fight the zombies and people flee to wherever they can go. Gerry runs through the city with a few soldiers and tries to get back to the airfield. One of the soldiers escorting Gerry, a female warrior named Segen (Daniella Kertesz), is bitten on the hand by a zombie. Gerry grabs her machete and swiftly amputates the woman’s left hand, stopping the virus from spreading throughout her body. Segen survives and Gerry helps wrap her arm to stop the bleeding. They get back onto their feet and continue to the airfield.
While running, Gerry notices that a boy is able to stand in the middle of the path and not be attacked by the zombies. He saw another similar incident with an older man. Are some people actually immune from the zombies?
World War Z (2013) – (c) Paramount Pictures
The pilot of the C-130 is spooked when he hears reports of zombies overrunning the city of Jerusalem. He flees and takes off in the cargo plane before Gerry is able to return. Gerry is upset when he watches his ride leave without him, so he and a few other soldiers force an airliner to stop and give them a ride. A ladder drops from a compartment near the aircraft’s nose, and Gerry helps Segen climb into the airliner. They then take off and barely avoid the zombie horde.
After they are airborne, Gerry is able to make contact again with Thierry. He informs him of the latest information and requests directions to the nearest World Health Organization (W.H.O.) research facility. Gerry goes to the cockpit and passes the phone to the co-pilot. The phone’s battery dies but the co-pilot is able to learn enough to change their course to the country of Wales. During the flight across Europe, Gerry changes the bandage on Segen’s arm, a rather painful process.
The airliner flies over Wales and begins to make its approach to their airport destination. A flight attendant hears a noise from a compartment that leads to the plane’s lower deck. She makes the mistake of opening the door and having a trapped zombie suddenly jump out and attack her.
World War Z (2013) – (c) Paramount Pictures
Up in their first class cabin, Gerry hears a small commotion in the cabin behind him. He peeks around a corner and sees zombies attacking the passengers. Gerry quickly, and quietly, has his fellow first class passengers pile luggage and try to block the access points to the other cabins. This works until a piece of luggage falls and alerts the zombies to more victims. The zombies rush into the first class cabin and attack everybody in sight. Segen manages to kill a couple of zombies by shooting them with her pistol, but clearly that’s not enough to stop the attack. They’re still trapped in the air with death staring them in the face. Gerry takes one of Segen’s hand grenades and tosses it back to the zombies. The grenade detonates and rips a large hole in the plane’s fuselage. Air rushes past the gaping hole, creating a vacuum effect, and the zombies along with everybody not strapped into a seat are sucked out of the airliner. Gerry and Segen manage to climb into seats and fasten their seat belts.
Some people and zombies end up hitting the airliner’s right engine. This damages the engine, and along with the damage to the exterior of the aircraft, the airliner is doomed. Keep in mind that there’s a lot of Hollywood here and in real life such a damaged airliner could have still made a safe emergency landing. But this one in the film is doomed and unable to remain airborne. It crashes into a forest and the airliner is destroyed in the crash.
World War Z (2013) – (c) Paramount Pictures
Gerry awakens and discovers that a large piece of metal is lodged in his abdomen. He’s unable to remove it himself. Gerry unlatches his seat belt and is relieved to find that Segen also survived the crash. She appears to be uninjured and helps Gerry walk to the nearby W.H.O. research facility. Gerry collapses outside of the facility. He later awakens inside of the facility and without the piece of debris that was stuck inside his body.
World War Z (2013) – (c) Paramount Pictures
Gerry meets with the few remaining scientists at the W.H.O. research facility, and they try to figure out a plan of stopping the zombie outbreak. The zombie plague acts like a virus, but as one of the scientists points out, it cannot be stopped with a virus because a virus depends on a living host. Zombies are dead. They don’t have a functioning circulatory system.
These comments trigger memories of a few people not being attacked by zombies. Gerry theorizes that those few people were either very old or terminally ill. Somehow the zombies could sense that and therefore avoid them, choosing to instead go after the younger and healthier prey. What if the masses of humanity were infected by treatable viruses? Would the zombies then stop attacking people?
Time is short and they need to prove this theory to be true. Unfortunately, those viruses are contained in a separate part of the research facility, a section that is full of zombies. It’s revealed that one of the research scientists accidentally infected himself with the zombie virus, and that quickly spread to the other scientists. All eighty of the zombies are contained in the separate section of the research facility.
Gerry volunteers to get the virus, and Segen and another scientist go with him. The three of them use stealth and manage to make their way around quite a few zombies until they accidentally make some noise. This alerts the zombies and soon all the undead creatures are chasing after them. Segen and the other scientist try to make for the virus while Gerry leads the zombies in a wild goose chase through the facility. Unfortunately, not every zombie follows Gerry, and Segen and the other scientist are forced to retreat back to the main part of the research facility, leaving Gerry alone with the zombies.
World War Z (2013) – (c) Paramount Pictures
It’s blind luck when Gerry finds the right room in the infected part of the facility. He locates the locked chamber holding the viruses, and one of the scientists calls him on the phone to give him the pass code to unlock the door. This works, but once Gerry is inside of the sealed chamber, one of the zombies is standing right outside. Gerry’s weapon is also outside of the chamber.
World War Z (2013) – (c) Paramount Pictures
It’s do-or-die time. Gerry takes a random virus and injects himself. After waiting a few moments he opens the door. Sure enough, the zombie is no longer interested in biting him. Gerry takes the other virus samples and leaves the zombie locked inside the chamber. He then causes a distraction at the soda machine and calmly walks past the zombies as they rush to follow the sounds. He re-enters the main part of the facility and is given a vaccine to treat whatever he used to inject himself. But it worked. People can be given a disease that will act as camouflage against the zombies.
After Gerry arrived at the W.H.O. research facility in Wales, he learned that his family was ultimately removed from the safety of the naval ship and taken to a supposedly secure zone at Freeport, Nova Scotia. He’s able to find a way over to that part of Canada and has a joyous reunion with his wife and their two daughters.
World War Z ends with footage of soldiers and innocent people being given the new “vaccine” to be used as camouflage against the zombies. It seems like humanity now has the upper hand but Gerry reminds us that this isn’t anywhere near the end of the story, implying future films.
So is World War Z any good?
That’s a loaded question for sure.
I’ll say that World War Z is a decent horror film with plenty of action and carnage. Like in 28 Days Later, these zombies run at full speed. They use their heads to smash windows, they run, they jump, and they can form “human” ladders to scale walls and structures.
I will also say that the film World War Z does a pretty bad job explaining the events that we’re witnessing. Perhaps the writers wanted to be as close as possible to Brad Pitt’s character and his lack of knowledge towards the events and undead creatures that he encounters. Unfortunately, this can also easily confuse the audience and leave them asking too many questions about what they just witnessed. Thankfully the book covers those problems.
In the book World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, the book’s “author” goes around and interviews people ten years after humanity won the war against the zombies. We learn about the zombie’s origin, the initial attempts to fight the hordes of zombies, the way that humanity fled and tried to survive in the brutal wilderness, and how the soldiers eventually learned how to correctly fight back against the zombies.
The film World War Z misses many of those fantastic events. For example, there is no Battle of Yonkers where the military brass wanted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the modern military versus a horde of slow-moving zombies. As we remember this major scene in the book, the military lost that battle. We also don’t hear about how people in the U.S. or other countries tried to flee from the zombies. There are no stories about rescue boats being swamped with zombies, zombies walking underwater and invading islands that previously thought they were safe, or people starving in northern Canada and resorting to cannibalism in order to survive.
One can only hope that those stories and more are brought to life in sequels to World War Z. If Hollywood does it correctly, this can be a fantastic and frightening realistic vision of humanity fighting against and surviving an overwhelming zombie outbreak.
World War Z is a film where the first half is definitely better than the second half. The initial zombie attacks and escape from the apartment complex are terrifying, the back story in South Korea is fascinating, and the combat in Jerusalem is quite interesting. It’s when the film shifts to Wales and the W.H.O. research facility where the film falls flat. The ending where Gerry discovers that zombies won’t attack sick people is quite disappointing. Had the film had a better ending and more of the survival stories, then this could have been an epic and fantastic zombie film.
But it’s not. World War Z is pretty good, but because of the lame ending, it’s NOT a great film.
World War Z (2013) – movie trailer
Unfortunately, the film World War Z just lacks too much of the material from its original book. The differences are so numerous that we’re *almost* looking at two different stories. From the motion of the zombies (running / stampeding versus the slow walk) to the lack of survival stories to the whole ending (A virus as camouflage against the zombies? Yeah, right!), one has to wonder what Hollywood did to an outstanding book.
Again, hopefully there will be future sequels that shed much more light on the missing stories of survival and battles with the zombie hordes. This film had great potential but finished with most of it still on the drawing board.
Gerry Lane – “If you can fight, fight. Be prepared for anything. Our war has just begun.”
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NOTE – The screenshots were added after World War Z was released on DVD.