How do you research Solanum?(the zombie plague)

[Gil Hamilton]

There's a comic about 28DL, and apparently (if I'm reading the synopsis right), the programme is run by 2 people, yes you heard me right, two. It sounds like an illegal scheme to boot, and it takes one person to genetically modify the Ebola virus to create Rage. I don't think people realise just how much effort goes into genetic engineering and biological research, it sounds like the comic writers thought that two shmucks in a lab funded by some mysterious benefactor could cook up the apocalypse in a couple of weeks.

Wait... I thought the lab in question at the beginning of the movie was at Cambridge, not some screwy secret lab. That doesn't amke any sense at all.

[jollyreaper]

I object to the portrayal of non-supernatural zombie plagues as sweeping the Earth in a day. If the dead are coming back to life period, no virus involved, you're screwed. But if some chain of infection has to be maintained, the spread should be far slower, resembling a prolonged siege instead of instant global collapse. Once populations fall below a certain density, and assuming the zombies aren't fast and super-strong, that they stick with being Romero shamblers, then zombie outbreaks become something that hits areas and are contained, gradually sapping the vitality of civilization over decades. I also really hate trying to explain the zombie plague because when it's unknown, the mystery is part of the horror. There's no reason for it to happen and it does! The moment you throw in something like solanum my BS meter goes off. "Well, I know you can't have that happen. No, no that doesn't make sense."

[loomer]

Have you read World War Z? Because, beyond having an explanation (with a lot of deliberate gaps) it's a pretty slow Zombie advance. Takes about four months, if I recall, to even get out of China.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Have you read World War Z? Because, beyond having an explanation (with a lot of deliberate gaps) it's a pretty slow Zombie advance. Takes about four months, if I recall, to even get out of China.

And the only reason it got out of China was because the government there treated it as SARS 2.0 and denied its' existence, and refused outside help to control it.

[Vendetta]

I object to the portrayal of non-supernatural zombie plagues as sweeping the Earth in a day. If the dead are coming back to life period, no virus involved, you're screwed. But if some chain of infection has to be maintained, the spread should be far slower, resembling a prolonged siege instead of instant global collapse.

Depends on your viral vector. In Feed the vector is actually a combination of two viruses, one of them was engineered for maximum transmissability (it was designed as a cure for the common cold, so it had to be as transmissible and as hardy as the thing it was intended to fight). So it's airborne, and since it was intentionally released globally, every mammal is infected. Once it met the other one (also a bioengineered cure, for cancer), a mutant strain of the two swept the globe and infected everyone and everything before the dead began to rise, so the outbreaks were relatively simultaneous globally because the virus was already everywhere, but most things have a dormant infection which only goes live when they actually die or come into contact with a live strain. (The actual zombie apocalypse was still handled competently, after an initial shock period of a couple of days because no-one actually believed that zombies were around for reals).

The fact that the virus in Feed also affects animals means that it also spreads more quickly, anything over 40lbs body mass can go zombie, things under that can sustain a live infection and survive, so small animal bites are all of a sudden a whole lot more dangerous. It also has a combination of fast and slow zombies, recent cases of viral acceleration retain all the speed and agility they had in life, the longer they remain a zombie, the more the virus consumes the host, making them slower and eventually just stopping them when the host becomes too degraded.

[Werrf]

Have you read World War Z? Because, beyond having an explanation (with a lot of deliberate gaps) it's a pretty slow Zombie advance. Takes about four months, if I recall, to even get out of China.

And the only reason it got out of China was because the government there treated it as SARS 2.0 and denied its' existence, and refused outside help to control it.

And the only reason it went global and turned into a near-apocalypse in World War Z was because it was basically a Perfect Storm of an epidemic. National governments who refused to listen to warnings, international cooperation at an all-time low, pharmaceutical companies deliberately peddling useless drugs to fight the new strain of 'rabies', etc. We see more people in the book killed by panic, starvation, each other, etc than we ever see killed by zombies.

[Balrog]

Have you read World War Z? Because, beyond having an explanation (with a lot of deliberate gaps) it's a pretty slow Zombie advance. Takes about four months, if I recall, to even get out of China.

And the only reason it got out of China was because the government there treated it as SARS 2.0 and denied its' existence, and refused outside help to control it.

And the only reason it went global and turned into a near-apocalypse in World War Z was because it was basically a Perfect Storm of an epidemic. National governments who refused to listen to warnings, international cooperation at an all-time low, pharmaceutical companies deliberately peddling useless drugs to fight the new strain of 'rabies', etc. We see more people in the book killed by panic, starvation, each other, etc than we ever see killed by zombies.

Don't forget a military response that was incompetent out of all proportions. As much as I thought the book was interesting the read, I could only roll my eyes at how it took a number of Acts of Plot for the Battle of Yonkers to turn out the way it did.

Really, the only kind of zombies that would require more than what's already in place to study biohazard materials are the Return of the Living Dead ones, not only because they retain their intelligence but they are nearly impossible to kill by normal means. You'd want to have it set up so that the everything in the lab could be instantly incinerated in the case of a breakout, with the resulting vapors collected so that the disease can't be spread as in the movie.

[adam_grif]

There's also no really compelling reason why a rage style virus doesn't just make all the rage zombies kill each other. Especially since they're hyper aggressive, and don't run away from each other.

In fiction where the virus spreads via bites and the zombies are cannibalistic, the zombie populations should be self-limiting because anybody who doesn't just get a small bite on the ankle then escape or something is going to get ripped apart before they get infected. So if it's at the point where people can't escape from them, the hordes aren't getting much larger. Anybody who has their face ripped off is going to die from blood loss and or secondary infections long before they become zombies as well.

In order to get a zombie outbreak, you have to handwave most of these problems somehow. And unless they maintain their human faculties and still eat normal food and drink water, they're going to dehydrate to death and/or starve.

And any serious miltiary response is going to decimate them. I'm struggling to believe that it would get much further than a small town, as soon as the national guard equivelant (depending on country) gets involved, the game is going to be over.

[hongi]

Wait... I thought the lab in question at the beginning of the movie was at Cambridge, not some screwy secret lab. That doesn't amke any sense at all.

Apparently it was Cambridge. I don't know, I'm just going to take it as non-canon.

[Eviscerator]

"half of the United States army " dead at battle of yonkers , NY?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Army

549,015 Active personnel
563,688 Reserve and Guard personnel

= 550 k personnel dead? Damn, the battle of yonkers scene is gonna be a corker if and when that World War Z movie comes out

What about the Marines?

[Temujin]

There's also no really compelling reason why a rage style virus doesn't just make all the rage zombies kill each other. Especially since they're hyper aggressive, and don't run away from each other.

In fiction where the virus spreads via bites and the zombies are cannibalistic, the zombie populations should be self-limiting because anybody who doesn't just get a small bite on the ankle then escape or something is going to get ripped apart before they get infected. So if it's at the point where people can't escape from them, the hordes aren't getting much larger. Anybody who has their face ripped off is going to die from blood loss and or secondary infections long before they become zombies as well.

Thank you! This is something I've argued for years. Too often we see someone "killed" by zombies, only to see them later as shambling around as a fairly intact corpse. As for the later part, even if someone did resurrect as a zombie (it's often magic anyway), they would be barely mobile and virtually harmless.

In order to get a zombie outbreak, you have to handwave most of these problems somehow. And unless they maintain their human faculties and still eat normal food and drink water, they're going to dehydrate to death and/or starve.

I've always figured that the best way to present the zombies would be too start off as fast Rage style zombies that eventually break down into the Romero shambles as they begin too decay, giving a Resident Evil (movie) style explanation as for why they are still active.

And any serious miltiary response is going to decimate them. I'm struggling to believe that it would get much further than a small town, as soon as the national guard equivelant (depending on country) gets involved, the game is going to be over.

That's why I consider Shawn of the Dead to be the most accurate depiction of a zombie outbreak.

[Commander Xillian]

That's why I consider Shawn of the Dead to be the most accurate depiction of a zombie outbreak.

Despite how insane that sentence sounds... You're about right. So, who here's looking forward to playing Video games in the shed with Zombies before tea?

[Temujin]

That's why I consider Shawn of the Dead to be the most accurate depiction of a zombie outbreak.

Despite how insane that sentence sounds... You're about right. So, who here's looking forward to playing Video games in the shed with Zombies before tea?

I guess the original and remake of NOTLD worked pretty well as well in that the bands of gun toting humans were easily picking off the not so large hordes of zombies. Of course it all went downhill after that. SOTD showed just how easily modern firepower would slaughter zombies. You don't even need a shot to the head; just riddle them with bullets until nothing workable is left.

[Ryu]

Zombies assaulting humans has a thousand flaws. The reasoning is always questionable at best.

If the zombies attack humans out of hunger, then why do they not attack each other? If hyperaggressive or territorial, then again, why do they not attack each other?

I only know one reasonable way for a war between zombies and humans would arise, and that is if humans are the aggressors, not zombies. It makes more sense. We attack because we hate them or are afraid of them, and they defend themselves. Eventually, both sides would kill one another on sight. If there's a better reason why zombies would assail human survivors, I'd be glad to hear it.