What's your chance of surviving the zombie apocalypse?

[HaemishM]

I never understood in 28 days later why Rage Infected Nutjobs weren't just going at each other till oblivion. 

Maybe the RIN's taste bad or something?

[Endie]

I never understood in 28 days later why Rage Infected Nutjobs weren't just going at each other till oblivion.

Indeed.  Especially since the film is such an out-and-out critique of the situation in Iraq.  One set of Zombies should have been offended that the other lot ate their victims' eyes before the tongue, and would have started killing them.  The eye-lovers would have responded by kidnapping individual tongue eaters and partially eating them in groups of 20 and leaving their remains to be found by their Rage-Infested Neighbour Zombies.

Another lot, in the north of the country, would have settled down to running a stable Zombietocracy, and would rather optimistically offer adventure holiday flights for tourists into Middlesborough.  In time, it would transpire that 20 or so zombies had stockpiled most of the brains and were siphoning them off to Switzerland.

[Ironwood]

What ?

[Samwise]

Yeah, rabies makes you go nuts if untreated, but it doesn't give you the ability to magically tell who does and doesn't have it and make you want to eat those particular people who don't.

But if it did, I bet there would be some very dramatic consequences.  Apocalyptic, even.

Hey, someone should make a movie about that!

[Endie]

What ?

Which bit did you not get?  I mean, you did catch the whole Iraq thing in the film?  It was pretty blatant.

[Yegolev]

I missed the Iraq thing too.  I saw lots of mankind-treats-mankind-like-shit, but honestly the movie stank so much I could be way off.

[Endie]

I was beginning to worry that I was reading too much into it, but a quick google suggests that I am not a unique little snowflake after all ("The parable to America in Iraq is ham handed and obvious" as one says)

[Samwise]

I missed the Iraq thing too.  I saw lots of mankind-treats-mankind-like-shit, but honestly the movie stank so much I could be way off.

Are you talking about the first movie or the second?  They had radically different underlying themes IMO, which I found interesting.  The second movie was the one with all the Iraq parallels; it didn't have nearly as much Lord of the Flies.

In the first movie, the protagonists ended up surviving because they defied the "military" (or what was left of it) and watched out for each other.  In the second movie (spoilers the protagonists doomed the world by disobeying orders, generally because they thought they were serving a greater good and knew better than their superiors.  The kids going out of bounds, the scientist seeking a cure, the father misusing his access, the sniper holding his fire, the pilot carrying out his friend's last wishes, the girl protecting her brother... any one of those things not happening would have prevented the movie's grim conclusion.)

[Ironwood]

What ?

Which bit did you not get?  I mean, you did catch the whole Iraq thing in the film?  It was pretty blatant.

28 Days Later was about Iraq ?  I Repeat :  What ?

[Ironwood]

I missed the Iraq thing too.  I saw lots of mankind-treats-mankind-like-shit, but honestly the movie stank so much I could be way off.

Are you talking about the first movie or the second?  They had radically different underlying themes IMO, which I found interesting.  The second movie was the one with all the Iraq parallels; it didn't have nearly as much Lord of the Flies.

Ahhhh, I get it now.  He's babbling about 28 Weeks Later, which I haven't seen yet.  Jesus, I thought I was going crazy not seeing an Iraq in the first one. 

[Endie]

Ah yes, I was talking - or babbling, if you you find that helpful - about 28 Weeks Later.  I'd just seen it so, since it was in the forefront of my mind, I somehow assumed that everyone else would make the leap automagically, too.

[Lantyssa]

Thankfully I wasn't the only going wtf.  I haven't seen the second either.

(Also the spoiler stands out on the grey background in your quote, Ironwood.)

[Samwise]

It's standing out in my post too, which is weird because it was on a black background when I posted it.  I guess it's still hard enough to read that you're not likely to wreck the movie for yourself by glancing past it.

We need a proper "spoiler tag" around here.   

[Lantyssa]

We do.  It's called 1pt font. :-D

[Samwise]

I hate having to copy and paste to read a post.  It breaks the rhythm.  But you're right so I went back and made my post 1pt anyway.   

[Signe]

Then just use the quote button to see what they typed, Sam.  (I took your wise away)

[Yegolev]

Ah.  Weeks.  Good effort there, but the problem is that I have seen 28 Days Later and therefore will be avoiding 28 Weeks Later like... well like an Iraqi zombie, I guess.  Luckily for me, I don't need a movie to tell me how I should feel about US foreign policy.

[Righ]

Ah yes, I was talking - or babbling, if you you find that helpful - about 28 Weeks Later.

I thought it was more bethering than babbling myself. I think that the problem is that virtually nobody here has seen the second film. Its still in cinemas and whatnot, right? I'm personally not going to watch it until its a freebie on some non-subscription cable channel. And your one line review cements my decision. :P

[Polysorbate80]

The movie bounced along over so many plot-holes that I was too distracted to pick up on any "Iraq" bits.  And not enough zombie violence.

That, and I spent most of the movie staring at (the unfortunately-named) Imogen Poots' eyes.  (No, that's not a euphemism for "boobs")

Glad to see France get it, though.

[Samwise]

(I took your wise away)

"Samwise" is meant to be a slightly corrupted English translation of a Westron name (Banazîr) that means "halfwit".  Like "semi-wise".  If you keep that in mind when you read my posts they make a lot more sense.

[Endie]

Ah yes, I was talking - or babbling, if you you find that helpful - about 28 Weeks Later.

I thought it was more bethering than babbling myself. I think that the problem is that virtually nobody here has seen the second film. Its still in cinemas and whatnot, right? I'm personally not going to watch it until its a freebie on some non-subscription cable channel. And your one line review cements my decision. :P

Blethering: perfect.

And I'm probably not the best reviewer, since I'm not a huge fan of most zombie movies, but I'd certainly not recommend taking the time to go and see it at the cinema.  There are a few good bits in it, but that's the best I could say.   Not a terrible movie in the way that Pirates 3 is, but still meh.

I totally agree, however, with whoever said that the film could have been largely turned around by having Robert Carlisle kill a zombie by throwing a pint glass over his shoulder off a balcony.

[Ironwood]

"Someone fucking glassed that Zombie and no cunts leaving till we find out who."

[DraconianOne]

I had to do a double take at the headline on the BBC Technology News page today.  It reads:

FBI tries to fight Zombie hordes

EDIT

[Ironwood]

It's a lot harder than fighting Zombie Whores.

[Sky]

zomg they found signe!

[Signe]

I am NOT a horde!

[Murgos]

I am NOT a horde!

So, you're conceding the zombie bit?

[Sky]

Maybe a zombie hoard?

Pass the dutchie to the left hand side!

[Signe]

I am NOT a horde!

So, you're conceding the zombie bit?

I can seed nothing!

[Furiously]

My wife and I thoght the same thing, then we got pregnant 4 years later.

[Ironwood]

Both of you ?  That's unfortunate.

And, I thought, impossible.

[WayAbvPar]

My wife and I thoght the same thing, then we got pregnant 4 years later.

You thought her insides were a rocky place where your seed could find no purchase?

[Mortriden]

81% Guns and living in a rual area helped a lot.

Seth here as well

[Endie]

I have an 89% chance, apparently.  I think having a silenced, scoped firearm in a country without guns should count double, but at the same time, I'm not sure that .22 long rifles are much use against the shuffling zombie masses.  Maybe I'm supposed to use my rifle to shoot someone with a shotgun, then steal that.

I think it was the last vestiges of concern for my loved ones and family that are endangering me.  I must scorch my heart, lest I am taken.

[Calantus]

I figure the chances of finding a new weapon, some ammo, or a powerup with an objective like finding your family is pretty high so you shouldn't get penalised for going to find them. Hell, it might even be impossible to survive the apocalypse until you find out what happened to them.