History Film / WorldWarZ

* CuteButCacophonic: Gerry's younger daughter, who ''shrieks'' almost all of her lines. Some reviewers have compared her to Dakota Fanning's character in ''Film/WarOfTheWorlds''.

** [[spoiler:The design of the wall utterly fails to [[GenreBlind take into account]] the issue of the zombies being able to scale the structure. There's a ''[[UrExample reason]]'' that throughout the centuries, castles and forts were often surrounded by moats and ''chevaux de frise'' to prevent enemies from getting close enough for this to happen! Considering the entire project was implemented as a result of outside-of-the-box thinking and planning for worst case scenarios, this comes across as even more of an oversight! Compounding this, there appears to be a lack of soldiers standing ''on'' the wall to, say, warn people that zombies are climbing the wall because of their singing before it's way too late.]]

* ThousandYardStare: On the pharmacist clerk Gerry and Rachel run into -- something of an OhCrap moment as he's wearing a hoodie and pointing a gun at them. Subverted when he just asks what drugs they want and gives it to them free of charge. Gerry has to shoot someone in the store moments later, so the clerk's behavior is entirely understandable. The clerk told them the medicine he gave them worked for his son, then watches Gerry and his daughter leave with barely discernible tears in his eyes. If his son didn't make it, then he's going to give someone else a fighting chance. There's a dead body on the floor of the pharmacy, so it's likely the clerk had to shoot someone just a short time before, explaining his stunned expression.
* TechnicallyLivingZombie: Despite being describe as undead, is clear that at least at first the virus infects and chages living people. Most likely the issue is that the infected person ''keep moving'' after death.

''World War Z'' is a 2013 DisasterMovie, loosely based on ideas from Max Brooks's [[Literature/WorldWarZ book of the same name]]. It stars Creator/BradPitt (who also produced the film), Daniella Kertesz, Creator/PeterCapaldi, [[Film/IronMan3 James Badge Dale]], [[Series/GameOfThrones Michiel Huisman]], and [[Series/TheKilling Mireille Enos]]. Instead of being a direct adaptation of the book, which describes the survivors' recollections of the titular war, the film tells a [[GaidenGame sidestory]] about events that take place during the global ZombieApocalypse. It was directed by Creator/MarcForster, cowritten by Creator/DamonLindelof and Creator/JMichaelStraczynski among others, and scored by Marco Beltrami with {{Music/Muse}}.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: The UN pilot takes off when he hears zombies have breached the Israeli perimeter, forcing Gerry's IDF security team to stop a Belarus airliner at gunpoint to take Gerry and a wounded Segen on board. Averted with the security team; having delivered their charges, they stay to fight rather than flee their country.

''World War Z'' is a 2013 DisasterMovie loosely based on ideas from Max Brooks's [[Literature/WorldWarZ book of the same name]]. It stars Creator/BradPitt (who also produced the film), Daniella Kertesz, Creator/PeterCapaldi, [[Film/IronMan3 James Badge Dale]], [[Series/GameOfThrones Michiel Huisman]], and [[Series/TheKilling Mireille Enos]]. Instead of being a direct adaptation of the book, which describes the survivors' recollections of the titular war, the film tells a [[GaidenGame sidestory]] about events that take place during the global ZombieApocalypse. It was directed by Creator/MarcForster, cowritten by Creator/DamonLindelof and Creator/JMichaelStraczynski among others, and scored by Marco Beltrami with {{Music/Muse}}.

''World War Z'' is a 2013 DisasterMovie based on ideas from the [[Literature/WorldWarZ book of the same name]]. It stars Creator/BradPitt (who also produced the film), Daniella Kertesz, Creator/PeterCapaldi, [[Film/IronMan3 James Badge Dale]], [[Series/GameOfThrones Michiel Huisman]], and [[Series/TheKilling Mireille Enos]]. Instead of being a direct adaptation of the book, which describes the survivors' recollections of the titular war, the film tells a [[GaidenGame sidestory]] about events that take place during the ZombieApocalypse. It was directed by Creator/MarcForster, co-screenwritten by Creator/DamonLindelof (from a story by Creator/JMichaelStraczynski), and scored by Marco Beltrami with {{Music/Muse}}.

[[quoteright:260:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/world_war_z_poster_2334.jpg]]

''World War Z'' is a 2013 DisasterMovie based on ideas from [[Literature/WorldWarZ the book of the same name]]. It stars Creator/BradPitt (who also produced the film), Daniella Kertesz, Creator/PeterCapaldi, [[Film/IronMan3 James Badge Dale]], [[Series/GameOfThrones Michiel Huisman]] and [[Series/TheKilling Mireille Enos]]. Instead of being a direct adaptation of the book that describes the survivors' recollections of the titular war, the film tells a [[GaidenGame sidestory]] about events that take place before and during the ZombieApocalypse. It was directed by Creator/MarcForster, co-written by Creator/DamonLindelof and scored by Marco Beltrami with {{Music/Muse}}.

Gerry Lane, a former employee of the United Nations, is happily settled in Pennsylvania with his family, having given up a globe-trotting journalism gig to be with them. When they leave home, they begin to hear news of an outbreak of African Rabies on the radio, and quickly find that the rumors of the disease are true when a horde comes rushing through the city. After they make a harrowing, nerve-wracking escape from the city, Gerry is forced back into service, tasked with finding the source of the disease in hopes of developing a vaccine.

The film brought new meaning to DevelopmentHell and TroubledProduction, as it went through several enormous revisions including a new last act featuring Peter Capaldi, suffered multiple people leaving, and eventually devolved to the point where Creator/BradPitt and the director couldn't talk to each other anymore. It's safe to say that this was one of the most aggravating productions since ''Film/ApocalypseNow''. The entire plight can be viewed in great detail in the [[Trivia/WorldWarZ Trivia section]].

* ShownTheirWork: Aside from Lane reminding Dr. Fassbach to use good trigger discipline (forgetting it is what gets the poor guy killed), there's also the scene where Lane is impaled by a piece of wreckage and wisely leaves it in place until he can get proper medical treatment. This is ''exactly'' what you're supposed to do with such an injury.

* ImprovisedWeapon: Since traditional weapons are in limited supply and gunfire only draws more zombies, the protagonists fight zombies using [[BayonetYa improvised bayonets]], [[CrowbarCombatant crowbars]], [[BatterUp baseball bats]], [[AnAxeToGrind fire axes]], and pieces of luggage.

** [[spoiler:After explicitly being told to stay as quiet as realistically possible, a bunch of people start singing in order to remain calm]]. This would typically be fine, except [[WhatAnIdiot one of them grabs a microphone]] -- [[spoiler:[[NiceJobBreakingItHero making it loud enough to cause the zombies to rally together to crawl over the walls.]]]]

* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: One of Gerry's daughters asks him what martial law is when it appears on the news. Some of the B-roll on the same show displays what appears to be a zombie horde.

[[Film/WorldWarZ2 A sequel]] has been planned, with Brad Pitt returning, Creator/DavidFincher was lines up to begin directing and running production beginning in early 2018, but he has since rescheduled due to commitments to ''Series/MindHunter''. As of 2021, Paramount chose not to continue plans for a sequel. According to Hollywood Reporters, it's due to directives from Beijing not to depict zombies or ghosts in films that played a big role in the sequel being cancelled.

** Basically all the major locations mentioned, like North Korea and Israel, have their situations inverted completely.

** In a general sense, Gerry manages to wind up at ground zero for pretty much every major event. In the book these were stories told from various points of view, but for the movie they were all handled by Gerry.

** ''Enormous'' piles of bodies left after combat operations that have to be cleared with bulldozers, with still-living zombies rolling out and posing a danger.

* NotUsingTheZWord: Initially played straight -- the zombies are referred to as "Rabies-infected" or, more bluntly, "things" when they are first introduced, [[JustifiedTrope likely because the people aren't sure what else to call them]]. When the word 'zombies' is first mentioned, the initial reaction is scoffs of disbelief. By the end though, a zombie is a zombie, and they are referred to as such. Only exception being the soldiers in South Korea who call them Zeke. Other terms, used in the book, such as "G", or "Zack" were never used.

** Israel in general; those walls being erected all these years were for a reason. "First to know, first to act." Or, more to the point, Israel has been building walls for centuries, as Gerry notes, to keep enemies out. They manage to actually ''finish'' them JustInTime for the apocalypse to start because they have the "10th man" who confirmed the suspicion of zombies and told them to hurry the fuck up.

* SoleSurvivingScientist: Fassbach looks like one ut turns ut to be a RedShirt. The surviving doctors at the WHO bunker play it straighter and help find the solution humanity needs to fight the zombies.

* AdultFear: The main one is obviously the fear of a pandemic, but Gerry's separation from his wife and children is also prominent.
** When Gerry wakes up in the apartment of Tomas's family, and can't find one of his daughters. [[spoiler: False alarm for once; she's curled up in the bathroom with the little boy, who'd been comforting her.]] ''Any'' time one of the girls is out of her parents' sight, really.
** One of the doctors at the medical center tells Gerry that he lost his son to "what used to be his wife". OUCH.

* BaitAndSwitch: A cop arrives at the supermarket to see Gerry has killed a man in self-defense and starts jogging toward him. Gerry and his wife raise their hands in surrender, but the cop runs past them to grab some supplies like the other looters.

** Similarly, aside from an abandoned milkman's truck, the Welsh village Gerry and Segen walk through appears untouched. Given that the only life is one person peering out of their curtains, we're left unsure if either everyone's dead, long-gone or just staying ''very'' quiet?

'''Speke:''' It's all right, boys. I got this one.

* BaldHeadOfToughess: Zombie survivor Segan, who wears a military crop. [[note]]''Literature/TheZombieSurvivalGuide'' specifically recommends this; long hair is too easy for zombies to grab and likely to get you killed.[[/note]]

* BaldWoman: Segan, who wears a military crop. [[note]]''Literature/TheZombieSurvivalGuide'' specifically recommends this; long hair is too easy for zombies to grab and likely to get you killed.[[/note]]

** The former CIA agent notes that North Korea mobilized their entire populace underground, and, in one of his deluded ramblings, says "Sportsfan", which is a genericization of [[spoiler:Metsfan, given name of a possible delusion of an Air Force pilot.]]

[[Film/WorldWarZ2 A sequel]] has been planned, with Brad Pitt returning, Creator/DavidFincher was lines up to begin directing and running production beginning in early 2018, but he has since rescheduled due to commitments to ''Series/MindHunter''.