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The primary fallacy is that zombies could kill a significant number of people at the start of an outbreak. How to solve a zombie outbreak: 1. Board your windo

The primary fallacy is that zombies could kill a significant number of people at the start of an outbreak. How to solve a zombie outbreak: 1. Board your windows and close your door. 2. Stand on your [balcony, garage, out your window], and [shoot/hit with a hard object] any zombies in your neighborhood. 3. Wait for it all to blow over. Thats why all zombie movies skip over the actual outbreak.

manfredo 9y ago
Though it's a game, not a movie, The Last of Us had a fairly good premise for the outbreak. Theres a fairly large latency between infection and visible symptoms, so by the time society is aware of the outbreak a large portion of the population is already infected. That combined with the fact the infection spreads both though contact and through inhalation of spores.
- lobster_johnson 9y ago
  To add to that, in some zombie stories, such as The Walking Dead, everyone turns into a zombie when they die, even if they haven't been bitten. I don't know if it's ever explained in the graphic novels, but in the TV show it's glossed over, with the character Rick Grimes saying something like "whatever it is, it's in all of us now". I forget if Romero's films share the same conceit. But in The Night of the Living Dead, the dead are actually coming to life, raising from graves.
PhasmaFelis 9y ago
That's great if everyone (a) has boards, nails, and umpty days/weeks of supplies on hand, (b) is in a defensible place or can easily get to one, (c) finds out about the outbreak in time to take appropriate action, and (d) is genre-savvy and knows they need to do all of that.
DrScump 9y ago
It's not just the zombies that jeopardize your safety in that scenario, though -- the non-zombie self-absorbed idiots inside your building are a factor, too[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Living_Dead https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Living_Dead
notahacker 8y ago
I think they'd kill a significant number of people who weren't expecting them. Afterwards, killing them off shouldn't be too difficult. Unless they're zombies who can do passable impressions of a normal human being until they get isolate victims and get close enough to bite them, which I think technically makes them vampires :-D

manfredo 9y ago

Though it's a game, not a movie, The Last of Us had a fairly good premise for the outbreak. Theres a fairly large latency between infection and visible symptoms, so by the time society is aware of the outbreak a large portion of the population is already infected. That combined with the fact the infection spreads both though contact and through inhalation of spores.

lobster_johnson 9y ago
To add to that, in some zombie stories, such as The Walking Dead, everyone turns into a zombie when they die, even if they haven't been bitten. I don't know if it's ever explained in the graphic novels, but in the TV show it's glossed over, with the character Rick Grimes saying something like "whatever it is, it's in all of us now". I forget if Romero's films share the same conceit. But in The Night of the Living Dead, the dead are actually coming to life, raising from graves.

PhasmaFelis 9y ago

That's great if everyone (a) has boards, nails, and umpty days/weeks of supplies on hand, (b) is in a defensible place or can easily get to one, (c) finds out about the outbreak in time to take appropriate action, and (d) is genre-savvy and knows they need to do all of that.

DrScump 9y ago

It's not just the zombies that jeopardize your safety in that scenario, though -- the non-zombie self-absorbed idiots inside your building are a factor, too[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Living_Dead https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Living_Dead

notahacker 8y ago

I think they'd kill a significant number of people who weren't expecting them. Afterwards, killing them off shouldn't be too difficult. Unless they're zombies who can do passable impressions of a normal human being until they get isolate victims and get close enough to bite them, which I think technically makes them vampires :-D