World War Z

Plot synopsis:
Former UN employee Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), his wife Karin (Mireille Enos) and their two daughters wake and enjoy a family breakfast. Gerry tells the youngest daughter he quit his job to spend more time with the family. On the TV is some news about strife and talk of martial law. Later, they sit in heavy Philadelphia traffic when the city is attacked by a horde of zombies -- these attackers move very quickly, biting people and the bitten being turned very rapidly. The Lanes are in a car crash during the panic stampede and Gerry notices it takes approximately12 seconds for a bitten person to change.As the chaos spreads, the Lanes escape from the city in a stolen RV trailer. They stop near Newark, New Jersey at a store where Karin stocks up on whatever food she can scrounge and Gerry is able to find medication for his daughter's asthma. His wife is attacked by looters -- Gerry shoots one of them and Karin is let go. Outside the store and take refuge in an apartment complex in Newark. Deputy Secretary-General Thierry Umutoni (Fana Mokoena) - an old friend of Gerry's - calls and tells the family that he is sending a helicopter to rescue them, however it will take until the next morning to arrive. The Lanes hide out in a small apartment with a Latino family. One of the children, a boy named Tomas, speaks English and translates for the Lanes. Gerry, believing that the best chance of survival is to keep moving, is unable to convince Tomas' family to leave with them. The Lanes creep through the mostly abandoned tenement trying to find the roof but the undead detect them and they are chased to the roof. They find Tomas on the way. When Gerry is attacked by several zombies, they spew blood on him. Arriving on the roof, Gerry steps to the edge, ready to throw himself off if the blood spilled on his face makes him turn. He doesn't and, after holding off another horde of the undead, the family boards the chopper and escapes. The helicopter takes the Lanes to a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier off the coast of New York City, where a team of scientists and military personnel are analyzing the scope of the worldwide outbreak. Thierry is waiting there for them and fixes them up with bunks.A virologist, Dr. Andrew Fassbach (Elyes Gabel), argues that the plague is a virus, whose origin must be found in order for a vaccine to be developed. Because of his expertise as a former UN investigator, Gerry is tasked with helping Fassbach find the outbreak's source. Gerry reluctantly agrees to help, on given the word that his family will be safe, and is sent to Camp Humphreys, a military base in South Korea, where an email was received about 11 days prior that stated that the outbreak may have started there.Moments after arriving at the base, Gerry's team is attacked by zombies. Fassbach is killed after accidentally shooting himself. After being rescued by the base's surviving personnel, Gerry learns that the zombies are attracted to noise. The soldiers on the base, lead by Captain Speke, explain that a Korean soldier had been out in the field doing research when he was attacked and turned. His conversion took considerably more time than what had been witnessed more recently. The corpse of the infected man attacked the base doctor & both were incinerated. Speke tells Gerry how one of his men was able to stand in the middle of the infected people and not be attacked. When Gerry asks the soldier, who walks with a slight limp, how he injured his leg, the soldier tells him something's been bothering him lately.Gerry talks to a Ex-CIA agent, Haffner (David Morse), who'd been arrested for selling arms to North Korea. He tells Gerry a chilling account of how the North Korea government was able to contain the outbreak by pulling the teeth of every citizen within a 24 hour period, giving citizens no way to infect each other through bites.Haffner tells Gerry to go to Jerusalem, where the Israeli Mossad had established a safe zone just before the outbreak was officially acknowledged, implying Israel might have had prior knowledge of what was to come. To get the C130 refueled and Gerry aboard, the Speke's men ride in a fleet of bicycles to avoid making any noise. Gerry's satellite phone goes off when Karin tries to call him and the undead attack. The plane is refueled successfully and Gerry and the C130 pilot manage to escape.In Jerusalem, Gerry meets Mossad leader Jurgen Warmbrunn (Ludi Boeken), who explains that the Mossad had months earlier intercepted communications from an Army General in India, who stated that Indian troops were fighting the "rakshasa", or "dead spirits". Warmbrunn also explains how the center of Jerusalem was walled in -- the wall is formidable, at least 50 feet high and refugees are being brought in to the quarantine zone, including non-Jews and Muslims. While Gerry talks with Jurgen, a group of Muslim refugees begin to sing joyously at finding a safe zone to survive in. One of the women is able to find a microphone and the singing grows louder. The zombies outside begin to climb the protective wall forming a massive pile that eventually succeeds in entering the city. While fleeing, Gerry notices that an old man and an emaciated boy are ignored by the zombies. A young Israeli woman, Segen (Daniella Kertesz), Gerry's escort, is bitten by a zombie. Gerry quickly amputates her hand to stop the spread of the infection, counting to 12 until he's sure that she won't turn. Gerry and Segen eventually manage to board a Belarus Airways airliner after Gerry's pilot panics and flies away.Contacting Thierry, Gerry asks for the nearest WHO or CDC type lab, they are diverted to a WHO research facility in Cardiff, Wales. While in the air, a stowaway zombie is released from the cargo hold and attacks a flight attendant. She attacks the rest of the passengers. The plane crashes near Cardiff after Gerry detonates a grenade to kill the zombies. Segen and Gerry proceed as the only apparent survivors of the crash, Gerry has been impaled by a chunk of metal. Segen finds him and they walk to Cardiff and find the WHO facility. Out of contact, the US Navy assumes he is dead and deports his family to Nova Scotia.After arriving at the facility, Gerry passes out at the gate and awakes three days later strapped to a gurney -- his wound has been treated and bandaged. He is able to convince the staff of the facility that he's there on a specific mission -- the men watching him call his wife's satellite phone. Thierry answers the phone and tells Gerry that his family were considered "non-essential" personnel & were relocated to a land-based facility. Gerry is upset but Thierry is able to verify Gerry's identity to the suspicious WHO staff.Gerry reveals a theory to the wary scientists that since the old man and the sickly boy in Jerusalem were ignored, the infected do not bite people who are seriously injured or already terminally ill, since they would be unsuitable as hosts for viral reproduction. He volunteers to inject himself with a terminal but curable pathogen to see if his idea works. However, the wing of the building in which the pathogens are stored was overrun by zombies after a doctor accidentally infected himself. Gerry decides to go get a pathogen regardless, while Segen and one of the WHO doctors follow him for backup. They fight their way through the zombies, and Gerry finally gets to the pathogen vault.Inside, Gerry fills a small box with vials of pathogens from two separate cabinets. The scientists watch him on camera, remarking that the left cabinet contains deadly and incurable diseases. Gerry gets ready to leave and sees one of the undead doctors outside. Cornered and without a suitable weapon, he decides to inject himself to see if his theory will work. He shows the scientists a note saying "TELL MY FAMILY I LOVE THEM" and chooses a vial at random from the box. Gerry waits a short time and opens the door to the vault. The former doctor ignores him and Gerry is able to walk out, past the horde of zombies that have infested the facility.After he makes it back to the safe part of the facility, everyone rejoices at his theory's success, and the doctors cure him of the pathogen. Gerry returns to his family, in a safe zone in Freeport, Nova Scotia.A "vaccine" derived from deadly pathogens is developed that can act as camouflage for the troops battling the infected. Air drops are performed, delivering the pathogen to all parts of the world. Human offensives begin against the zombies, and hope is restored. Russia is particularly successful in halting the pandemic with military and civilian force. Gerry comments, "This isn't the end. Not even close."

Tags: boring, murder, violence, flashback, action, entertaining

Review:
What struck me about it was how much of a wasted opportunity it was, given how interesting and entertaining the source material is.Having read the book World War Z, I could tell from the trailers for this movie that it wouldn't exactly be a faithful adaptation.
The book features a lot of setpiece action scenes, and to be fair, many of these involve world cities falling to zombie infestation and the movie does do enough to cover this.
Not a literal apocalypse of course, just 16 dozen different zombie books, graphic novels, games and TV shows taking over the world like the plague, and you just had to have your piece of the pie, didn't you?World War Z is based on the 2006 novel by Max Brooks.
It also caught the eye of producer and star Brad Pitt, who after a long struggle with studios, directors, producers and other Hollywood zombies, managed to put together a half decent movie with director Marc Forster.Half decent?
Sure, Gerry travels around the world and makes a few long distance phone calls, but there's never anything remotely compelling enough to warrant his travels and whenever the plot does manage to come close to something it quickly sets it aside in the interest of keeping this summer blockbuster light, family friendly and internationally marketable.After Quantum of Solace there was much uncertainty about Forster's ability to direct action and after WWZ, guess what?
The more hardcore genre fans might also want to look elsewhere if they're seeking gory zombie kills; there isn't much of that either as its PG-13 rating might suggest.Brad Pitt is really the film's only strength.
This is a fast paced, edge of your seat thrill ride led by one of the finest actors of this generation (Pitt's acting ability is far too underrated and lost in the kerfuffle of tabloid news).For those of you who stare at the ticket window debating whether or not to see a film in 3D or standard, you might want to spend the extra few dollars to see this one in 3D (I know it's asking a lot, but maybe you can sneak some candy or a bottle of water to offset the concession stand price - deal with it).
(And I'm a huge fan of all Max Brooks zombie books.) The movie begins with a short intro to the main character and his family (it was enough, it told me all I needed to know) before launching into a fantastic, break neck sequence that establishes the pace for most of the rest of the movie.
I learnt several things from this movie 1) to let go of my preconceptions about what a zombie film should be, 2) that a low rating doesn't mean its for kids - I have two sons and despite the lack of gore I certainly wouldn't let then see this.
And when most of your action scenes involve panicking people running away from what are allegedly zombies, having them pretty much indistinct from each other means you never get much of an inclination about the level of the threat or even what's going on.A possible solution would have been for the film to opt for the shambling moaning Romero-esque zombies of the book.
World War Z is a zombie outbreak movie that supposedly bases itself on the amazing book of the same name by Max Brooks.
However, the big studio disliked this and demanded rewrites and re-shooting that damaged the relationship between the director and Brad and results in a quick, intense action movie that lacks the character development and messages it needed to be a truly memorable movie because almost every one of those scenes were cut so much to the point that central characters get barley any lines.
Anyways, the film focuses on Brad Pitt's character (Gerry Lane) who's required to assist the UN with discovering a possible vaccine/cure to the horrifying virus that's spreading throughout the world and turning human beings into ghastly creatures.
As a result, conversations feel extremely and oddly brief and segments that could've been expanded on feel like they're set on "fast forward" in order to get to the "point." This means that there's much less space for character development and characterization in general, and zombie movies (or we can say Horror movies as a whole) definitely need to spend some time on their characters so that the audience is able to connect with them and feel for them as they progress on their journey.
So, to put it most understandably, if you're entering this movie the way it was marketed, you'll experience a wild, roller-coaster ride that's fairly effective in its capability of featuring some dramatic moments of diplomatic negotiations and political discussions over the world's collapse and then placing you into intensely impossible situations only to be followed by an incredibly suspenseful, nerve-wracking sequence.
In the end, World War Z is a fun, entertaining night out, but if you can't make it to the showing, don't feel too bad because you've most likely seen everything displayed in this film already..
I watched this with an open mind that it may be "altered" to be more entertaining as a movie.Still thought it was way too far off from the book to even have the name "World War Z".
World War Z (2013) ** (out of 4) Brad Pitt plays a U.N. worker who must leave his family behind and go search for a cause or cure for a zombie outbreak that is pretty much destroying every form of life.
tl;dr - Set aside expectations related to the zombie genre and enjoy World War Z as a disaster popcorn flick.**********Max Brook's muscular, world weary "oral history of the zombie war", a thinly veiled geo-political mouthpiece on the world at large seen through the eyes of an agent working for the UN, has taken shape and form through a movie of the same name — World War Z.
Combine that with Brad Pitt bringing his A-game, and you've got yourself a good time.As a zombie movie, there are some things to notice.
World War Z goes with type 2, clearly the worse of the two choices in terms of survival, but best in terms of an intense, action-horror movie.Now, this being a zombie movie at its core, there are a couple of clichés that even Brad Pitt can't avoid, like the mass looting of the surviving population, the fact that huge, technologically advanced cities and governments can't figure out how to keep a damn virus from wrecking everything, or the...ugh, going any further with this is a spoiler.
Just know that there'll be one point where you'll say, "there's always THAT guy..." But still, these are very minor complaints in an otherwise beautifully done movie.Some people might take issue with the lack of blood or gore, but in all honesty, I was so deep into the story and suspense that I forgot this was PG-13.World War Z is a great modern day zombie flick, and a great movie all-around.
I'm generally not a fan of zombie movies, not because I don't like them but rather because they seem to easily have an effect on me, chilling me to the bone and staying with me for days (no walking into dark rooms for me).
As a result I put off watching World War Z but I was still interested in seeing such a big budget zombie film.
When Gerry Lane, a former UN worker is tasked to help a scientist travel across the planet to discover a cure for the rapidly growing zombie infection, he also is troubled by leaving his family behind while the world around him collapses into chaos.Directed by Marc Forster, WWZ is easily one of the most entertaining and epic zombie films ever made.
But there is plenty of room to make a sequel or two because the story here is much to grand for one film.Overall, World War Z is one of the best blockbusters of the year, with good acting, directing, and polished visuals that have you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.
technical after 5-10 you had to walk out of this movie as your jumping from one plot hole to the next plot hole basically I should vote 0/10 but i could see it for free so 1/10 is OK besides from the plot holes (this movie has no real story) the directing and camera movement is awful too you cant see anything with this shaking and dark mess you cant even see who is a zombie from 3m onward distance to make a zombie movie with pg16 is genius too I don't even know why they are called zombies i am surprised they didn't call-in the Prometheus scientist team again which has already proved it can handle such stuffabout the people you know that brad Pitt will survive and about the rest you don't carelol lol lol what a crap movie.
How much did a drink company paid for the film to add the obvious subliminal message of "drink this s*** and your life will be good?" I thought I was watching a TV commercial from Asia rather than a zombie movie!The plot was horrible.
At least several movies could be made out of the book with each of them focused on few related person's story and their view point regarding the World War Z.
The performances at least made the non-action scenes quite entertaining.World War Z is somewhat gripping, but it's really cluttered with generic zombie movie plot points.
I saw the trailer for World War Z and I was absolutely excited, but unfortunately I was left feeling very disappointed.First of all, the 'zombies' in this film were created by a virus which came out of nowhere.
The film states that he's had experience in battle before so he knows his stuff but as of now he's abandoned that profession...so why do they need him when they have perfectly able marines and seals on hand?Additionally, World War Z continuously switches between the enemy being 'infected' or 'zombies' or 'undead'.
Overall, World War Z is a moderately good zombie movie; entertaining enough to be worth your money and time.
There's nothing wrong with that, but I suppose those(like me) that want story and character development ALONG with action, will be disappointed as World War Z, to them, only resembles the original novel IN NAME ONLY.
I think that says something about itAnyways on to the film, the plot so incredibly flimsy it makes houses of cards look like architectural wonders and Brad Pitt's character (Gerry, I think it was?) is one of the worst movie hero's I've ever seen.
I won't detail any scenes from the movie since I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but Pitt's character was shallow and unbelievable, and the only good filmography were the zombies.
Brad Pitt's performance was fine and I loved certain scenes and concepts (like the episode in South Korea) but overall I felt the movie was uneven and could have used a better edit.
I really liked this film.It was the perfect mix of intimate intensity, emotion and absolute, terrifying spectacle.Directed by Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace, Monster's Ball), and starring Brad Pitt, the film deals with a zombie outbreak on a global scale and the attempts to find the source and cure.Certainly, the film is barely ten minutes young when it all kicks off.
During the movie you never really 'see' the zombies as being blood thirsty cannibals as you've seen in other movies such as Dawn of the dead!The acting in the movie was OK but the performance by Brad Pitt was great so if you're a fan of him give this a watch!
Oh, did I mention that they adopted an immigrant in the process?I'm rating this movie as 1 not because of the terrible scene where Brad Pitt drinks a grape soda and the 15 minutes victory sound track, but because of the mutilation and degradation in the terrible adaptation of the book and the misconception created by the makers of the movie when they decided to name this a horror film...PG-13 contains suggestive themes..............
World War Z starring Brad Pitt is an uneven movie.
Here, Brad Pitt cannot even drive his kids down the road without being swept up in a world-wide zombie plague.This reviewer was offered a choice of 2D and 3D, and decided if the film was good enough it would stand on it's own merits in the 2D format.
However, World War Z has a much better plot than most other zombie movies.
The killing was off-screen, the acting was not believable (in fact Brad Pitt looked like he didn't care for the movie at all) and the violence was almost non-existent.
If you already have a working understanding of zombies or virus zombies and how best to survive a zombie infestation after watching 28 Days Later and/or The Walking Dead and/or Zombieland - skip this movie.The camera work is Parkinsonian at best; the lighting will strain your eyes 70% of the time because it gets hella murky; the family Brad Pitt is saddled with is so annoying you'll wish death upon them after 10 minutes.
Or if you hate gore, violence, suspense or general horror in your horror movies; if you've been on the hunt for a nice, family friendly zombie action flick; or if you want some 3D Brad Pitt and don't really need or want any plot or character development, then this is for you.Otherwise, it's a boring waste of money.
Saw the trailer, I thought it was good, went to the theater to watch this, stepped out of the theater after 30 minutes.The presentation is good, other than that it's so boring I just couldn't stand it.Most of the dialog is pointless and overacted, brad pitt's worst acting too.The effects are not interesting and don't give you that "woah!" feeling.I don't think most people will enjoy it or even the zombie apocalypse fans.This is truly the worst zombie apocalypse movie of all time..
Contrast that to another film in the same genre, Danny Boyle's 2002 critical success 28 Days Later, which had an estimated budget of US$8 million.So expectations are high for World War Z, which many may know as 'The Brad Pitt vs zombies show'.
Here in World War Z Pitt also plays against type, and does so to a fault -- many critics have lamented that, if you didn't see the Pitt name on the credits, you would have no idea you were watching a mega-star.Oops again.One good thing about film (aside from the fact that watching it is fully optional, no one is going to FORCE you to see it) is that the first 20 minutes probably set a record for non-stop action.
For the harden zombie fans there's atmosphere, finely executed visuals, memorably the immense birds eye views of the swarming population like ants and a calibre of realism not found in the majority of films this genre.With a genuine on location feel and despite being reminiscent of 28 Days/Weeks later with fast infected Forster delivers a globe trotting disaster flick with less deliberate rough edges.
Before my review, I state that Zombie-movies fans will not like this film.World War Z achieves success from the beginning at establishing the apocalyptic climate, and settling it's own plausibility (you believe the Zombie issue).
I gave it a chance since the book was great, but here are some problems:Bad acting - Brad Pitt is a great actor, but this movie was put together so quickly for the quick cash that it was so disappointing.
More like World War 'P'.What should have been a good, fun zombie flick is killed with such an overt political message, that's so in your face, I'm surprised there weren't any reps from big-pharma handing out drugs and administering injections in the cinema lobby after the film ended.Meh!
But I'd read enough reports beforehand to realise that aside from the name of the film and the soldiers calling zombies 'Zeke', everything else from Max Brook's work was pretty much discarded.That's frustrating to know given the source material, but as a fan of zombie movies in general I thought I'd at least give it a shot.
That shot means there's two hours of my life I won't get back.It's badly paced, the zombies are more like the a poor version of the 'infected' from films like '28 Days Later' or 'I Am Legend' and rather than be an interesting story, it's comes across as an excuse to show off Brad Pitt's acting chops.Now I know Brad gets grief for his celebrity lifestyle and some really really terrible perfume ads, but generally I quite like him as an actor.
The sheer scale of it, Max Brook's globe trotting masterpiece, written in the best traditions of the genre, equal parts good old fashioned gore fest and social commentary of it's age.Then there were the set pieces, Yonkers, Hope, the great battles never before envisaged in a zombie movie, and I read with glee, this movie was going to have the budget to meet expectations.Then it was announced Brad was going to star, that was the first warning sign.
But I can judge World War Z as a stand alone movie and I must say - it's not particularly good.The movie is mostly about Brad Pitt's character - a former U.N. employee named Gerry Lane - trying to find a cure for the zombie outbreak.
Still, if you're not really that interested in drama/characters/overall story and just want to watch action scenes and eat popcorn - World War Z is the movie for you, since there are some really impressive and tense action scenes.
There is no long exposition as to how the zombies came about or Brad Pitt's back story.The CGI is awesome and the film is shot well.