World War Z: Announced

[cignus_pfaccari]

Also, while we used to be good at massed infantry charges, that's not how we fight wars today. So the military isn't really trained to counter that. Besides the book (and the Survival Guide before it) make it pretty clear (rightly so) that automatic weapons fire isn't very effective against zombies. You need precise, non-panicked shots- which is exactly the tactic they use later on.

Of course, I haven't read the book, so I don't know if they do that or not, but based on my (admittedly partial knowledge), I'd:

* - Rely primarily on artillery, both to destroy advancing zombies and deliver scatterable minefields that can slow the horde down;
* - Armor uses beehive/canister rounds and supports the infantry;
* - Infantry uses same general strategy, digs in, uses aimed fire, directional mines, and flamethrowers to defend positions;
* - The line moves by bounds as the zombies come forward, at no point should the line be in contact with the horde;
* - Bombardment with cluster, thermobaric, and napalm munitions should be undertaken whenever possible.

For truly large hordes, I'd be all for nuclear cluster munitions. There might be some form of chemical warfare possible, if we could toss out some form of necrotizing agent to help them rot. But both those would require some R&D, which might be...interesting in the circumstances.

But, yes, initial fights would be disastrous.

Brad

 

[frankthedm]

Yes, maybe the REAL military might have done better- but maybe not. I'm in the Air Force and not the Army and so I can't really comment on how best to use infantry any better than anyone else who just studies tactics casually. But I can say that the reaction (and consequent force deployment) from the military "brass" seemed entirely realistic. And since THAT was the main "problem" with the scene- I didn't really see any problem.

Agree

 

[RangerWickett]

This idea is copyrighted by the way, so don't even think about going off to Hollywood and trying to film this masterpiece.

Yes, by Bungie. It's called Halo 3.

 

[Umbran]

For truly large hordes, I'd be all for nuclear cluster munitions.

Okay, for perspective (spoiler tagged for your protection):

Spoiler

The scene they are discussing has a zombie horde comprised of, if I recall correctly, the entire population of Manhattan. It is beyond "large". We are talking not about hundreds, or thousands, or even tens of thousands, but about millions of zombies in one place at one time.

If it were not JMS, I'd be thinking that this movie would stink like week-old fish (or month-old zombies, really), but with that name, it has a chance.

 

[Tetsubo]

I just can't figure out how you get large hordes of zombies.

There are 300 million people in the US. Lets say that one percent of that number are corpses right now. Many of those that have been buried just aren't going to be able to rise, even in a Romero style "any dead person becomes a ghoul" scenario. And most zombie plagues seem to use the disease vector model.

So, 3 million corpses stand up and start attacking humans. The first 24 - 48 hours would be absolute chaos. The number of zombies could easily double to 6 million. And then the living smarten up. We out number the deadheads by 50:1. Those are pretty good odds. Even if you take out the elderly and children, you would still have something like 25:1 odds in the favor of the living. Even without factoring in the existence of a *lot* of firearms in the US, twenty-five humans could take out a single zombie with broken chairs.

There just isn't anyway to get *millions* of dead in huge hordes attacking the living. The scenario would play out like -Shaun of the Dead-. Lots of initial chaos and then life goes back to normal with the addition of zombies... Even in a Romero World people would quickly adjust. Humans are very good at killing things...

 

[Darkwolf71]

Yeah, shame on them for bringing something on the screen that's mildly original .

Yeah, tell that to the Cloverfield hate folks.

 

[Tetsubo]

Yeah, tell that to the Cloverfield hate folks.

I rather enjoyed Cloverfield. The monster violates the laws of physics but it was still entertaining.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I was actually watching "Four Feathers" tonight and I commented how the Brits would do well against zombies cause the soldiers in World War Z were essentially using the same tactics

Yeah I would say it would be mainly panic that did in the army in that chapter.

Also, I CAN'T WAIT till I see that flashback. I dunno about you, but I imagined all the army units stationed around this town, it is on a hill however. So stretched down before you in the distance is New York City, and you see a single black swarm, like a snake slithering its way toward the army and that are the zombies.

It has been a while since I have read it, but wasn't one of the reasons it hit so fast, is besides the Manhattan breakout there were tons of others thanks to evacuees, blood and organ donations so you had pocket cases that simply spread in various parts of the USA so there was no single front.

I do wonder though how many interviews the movie will showcase and will it be back and forth like the book or one straight interview after the other. I am guessing they probably won't have the ones mainly dealing with the political/business end of it, like the guy talking about managing the factories and such.

We better see some good Lobo action too

 

[Umbran]

There just isn't anyway to get *millions* of dead in huge hordes attacking the living.

Absolutes aren't in your favor. For one thing, just because you can construct a way that a scenario can be avoided, doesn't mean that that it automatically will be avoided. Seems to me you are not taking fear into account. And, more importantly, the lack of ability to coordinate. Outnumbering the enemy 50 to 1 does not help if you cannot get that 50 to 1 in the right place, in the right time, with the right equipment.

I mean, if the horde is in New York, how do you expect anyone west of the Mississippi, or even just outside the New York Metropolitan area, to matter to the fight at all?

 

[Tetsubo]

Absolutes aren't in your favor. For one thing, just because you can construct a way that a scenario can be avoided, doesn't mean that that it automatically will be avoided. Seems to me you are not taking fear into account. And, more importantly, the lack of ability to coordinate. Outnumbering the enemy 50 to 1 does not help if you cannot get that 50 to 1 in the right place, in the right time, with the right equipment.

I mean, if the horde is in New York, how do you expect anyone west of the Mississippi, or even just outside the New York Metropolitan area, to matter to the fight at all?

Here's the thing, there wouldn't *be* a horde in NYC. There might be 80,000 - 160,000 ghouls in the city. With some 8 million *living* to take them out. The people west of the Mississippi don't really need to lend a hand in that scenario. And you don't need special equipment. just the firearms (legal and illegal) in the city and whatever hand weapons can be grabbed or made on the spot. How many baseball bats are there in NYC?

Like I said, you are looking at a -Shaun of the Dead- situation, not WW Z.

There is *one* zombie scenario that I know of that would get you "hordes". -The Abandoned- by Ross Campbell, it is available as a graphic novel. In the story line everyone who is twenty-three or older dies. No explanation, it just happens one night (at midnight?). Once you turn 23, you also die. Then you Rise. Instant zombie apocalypse. They are the slow style of zombie as well. My preference.

But in a Romero type of universe (or even the remakes) you just don't get hordes.

I spent *decades* afraid that the zombies would actually rise. Silly I know. But once I started to dwell on the thought logically (and discovered why I had the fear) I came to realize how absurd most zombie story lines really were.