Zombie Apocalypse Tropes

[navar100]

1) The Group shall exist of:

The Hero
The Badass Sidekick
The Uncooperative Jerk
The Stupid one who never follows the plan and lets the zombie horde into the current Safe Place. Often has a spouse or relative currently a zombie Stupid refuses to accept as being such.
The Secretly Bit one who hides that fact
The Cool Guy who gets killed and eaten half-way through the movie
Hysterical/Catatonic Girl
Joe Average Extra who gets killed and returns later as a zombie

2) Never call them zombies

3) If the Group finds a Safe Haven Community, the leader of the community is always an evil donkey cavity, worse than Uncooperative Jerk.

4) The Safe Place never remains safe. If Stupid is not the cause, it's Uncooperative Jerk.

5) There's one particular zombie who gets lots of screen time.

[Kitten Champion]

If there's an undead animal, it's inevitably a dog.

If you've failed to destroy the brain, it will keep attacking you.

[Radar]

Someone will inevitably snap and start shouting something like "whe'll all gona die".

At least one person will inevitably repeat "we have to stick together to survive" many times over the course of the movie. As a corrolary, anyone breaking off from the group of their own free will is as good as dead.

[INoKnowNames]

It's a bit more related to Horror Movies in General, rather than just the Apocalypse, but if you're horny, decide which part of you gets fed to the zombies first. Almost as bad for your health as having a particularly large amount of melanin in your body.

[Traab]

There is always a convenient safe place to go to. But it isnt a permanent location.

The hardass is ALWAYS going to die.

[Eldan]

If there's an undead animal, it's inevitably a dog.

If you've failed to destroy the brain, it will keep attacking you.

I'd love to see more zombie animals. Zombie rodents. Zombie birds. Zombie insects.

[Traab]

I'd love to see more zombie animals. Zombie rodents. Zombie birds. Zombie insects.

No zombie birds. That has been ruined forever by resident evil movies and the pyromania psychic ability. Too bad, because those zombie raven swarms were awesome.

[JustSomeGuy]

The hardass is ALWAYS going to die.

Didn't you know; the person who is the most fit to survive through skills, knowledge, experience and physical ability is incedentally also the least fit to survive, for exactly the same reasons... it's newton's 2nd law or something.

[White_Drake]

The hardass is ALWAYS going to die.

I can't remember seeing this; I haven't seen many zombie movies, could you please provide some sources so as to ameliorate my ignorance (just the title, no spoilers please).

[navar100]

I can't remember seeing this; I haven't seen many zombie movies, could you please provide some sources so as to ameliorate my ignorance (just the title, no spoilers please).

The hardass is Uncooperative Jerk.

Night of the Living Dead - Father (also Stupid)
Shaun of the Dead - David
Resident Evil - Spence
The Walking Dead - Shane
Dawn of the Dead (remake) - Steve
28 Days Later - Major West (evil donkey cavity leader of Safe Community), interestingly no Uncooperative Jerk in Group

[tbok1992]

If it is a videogame, there will be many colorful, creative varieties of zombie with a well-designed and compelling variety of mutations. If it is a film, then get used to seeing the same old "slightly beat-up humans" over and over again.

Yeah, that's kind of a pet peeve of mine, and this guy's article (http://www.bogleech.com/halloween/hall12-zombies.html) explains why so much better than I ever could

[Avilan the Grey]

I can't remember seeing this; I haven't seen many zombie movies, could you please provide some sources so as to ameliorate my ignorance (just the title, no spoilers please).

Compare "Wasquez Always Dies" which tend to overlap and happen to the same character, especially if it is a kickas female.

Also, search this (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ZombieApocalypse).

[Jib]

I wanna see mutant zombies in a game that move their vital control center randomly. Give them lots of hit points, and make it a guess for each of the mindless monsters as to find where the control house is.

Zombies with their brain in their posterior~

[navar100]

Zombies with their brain in their posterior~

Can. Worms. :smallbiggrin:

[White_Drake]

I wanna see mutant zombies in a game that move their vital control center randomly. Give them lots of hit points, and make it a guess for each of the mindless monsters as to find where the control house is.

Zombies with their brain in their posterior~

What was the name of that robot from the Destroyer books?

[dehro]

little kids will always manage to outrun adults and have a better chance at survival than armed and fit adult members of the team. especially so if they have a pet or a pupppet they keep losing.
children somehow manage to always escape from their parents' supervision and get themselves into trouble despite having barely survived until then and knowing full well that there are zombies roving all around them.
the hot girl is always one of the last to die, unless there's more than one... in which case the bombshell dies first and the cute one develops John McClane-size cojones and survival skills

[Kitten Champion]

Has there been a zombie movie where any identified, uniformed member of a military actually survived?

[Traab]

Has there been a zombie movie where any identified, uniformed member of a military actually survived?

Does it count if they died in a sequel?

[Accordion Twome]

If you think about how the zombies work you will come up with a blank if the movie does not tell you explicitly.

[Kitten Champion]

Does it count if they died in a sequel?

Nah, since it just means they didn't get around to it fast enough.

I think killing the uniform is a symptom of the left-wing anti-establishment politics from whence zombies movies have come, or perhaps because we're simply less concerned with the deaths of soldiers given their occupation.

[Traab]

Nah, since it just means they didn't get around to it fast enough.

I think killing the uniform is a symptom of the left-wing anti-establishment politics from whence zombies movies have come, or perhaps because we're simply less concerned with the deaths of soldiers given their occupation.

I looked at it as a method of showing that noone, no matter how well trained, is truly safe in a zombie outbreak. Not the cop, not the soldier, not the crazy survivalist that has been preparing for this his whole life, noone. I mean think about it. Random person with no known skills dies, big deal, that isnt a surprise, a professional dies? Thats how you know things are serious. Its almost like the worf effect, they kill off someone you presume to be strong to show us how bad the bad guys are.

[Kitten Champion]

I looked at it as a method of showing that noone, no matter how well trained, is truly safe in a zombie outbreak. Not the cop, not the soldier, not the crazy survivalist that has been preparing for this his whole life, noone. I mean think about it. Random person with no known skills dies, big deal, that isnt a surprise, a professional dies? Thats how you know things are serious. Its almost like the worf effect, they kill off someone you presume to be strong to show us how bad the bad guys are.

So it's the Worf Effect? Zombies rarely seem that strong though.

[dehro]

your everyday survivor is more of an underdog than the military trained man, in a situation of combat and zombie outbreak.. so the military man gets it because the authors prefer to favour the underdog..be it because they are aware of the fact that most people tend to root for the underdog or because they think it's a "clever upset" to make the underdog the hero instead of a trained fighter.

[Starwulf]

your everyday survivor is more of an underdog than the military trained man, in a situation of combat and zombie outbreak.. so the military man gets it because the authors prefer to favour the underdog..be it because they are aware of the fact that most people tend to root for the underdog or because they think it's a "clever upset" to make the underdog the hero instead of a trained fighter.

Just once though it would be nice to see the man in uniform survive/be the leader the entire way through the movie, just to represent what is most likely to happen in reality. In reality, most civilians are going to be wiped out in the first week, where-as the people with the actual training and weapons will be the ones that are almost certainly going to survive that first week.

[navar100]

Just once though it would be nice to see the man in uniform survive/be the leader the entire way through the movie, just to represent what is most likely to happen in reality. In reality, most civilians are going to be wiped out in the first week, where-as the people with the actual training and weapons will be the ones that are almost certainly going to survive that first week.

Sheriff Rick, so far

[Starwulf]

Sheriff Rick, so far

lol. I guess that is a good point. He has had his fair share of issues, and still has managed to keep his group MOSTLY alive and well. Can't wait until the series starts up again.

To be honest though, I was more referring to films though, where I don't think I've ever seen a person in Uniform manage to survive the entire way through while leading the group. They always die heroically halfway through the movie, kick-starting the person they saved into high gear, at which point they manage to finish leading the group to the "safe" place, all in honor of the dead guy in uniform.

[Inglenook]

If audio series count, We're Alive (http://www.zombiepodcast.com/) has three people in the military among the main characters (and even more after season 2). And they're realistically competent, which is very refreshing. :smallbiggrin: