Zombie Apocalypse is a fantastic catastrophic scenario for horror films, horror literature and computer games : an epidemic that turns people into aggressive living dead - cannibals and leads to the collapse of civilization . The notions of zombies and zombie apocalypse from the beginning of the 2000s began to exist not only as a scheme for films of a certain genre, but as a kind of universal model applicable to many genres and directions of mass culture [1] [2] .
The underlying idea of the zombie apocalypse was Richard Matheson ’s post-apocalyptic novel “ I Am A Legend ” (1954), where, however, it was not about zombies, but about rational vampires - victims of the “vampiric” infection carried by mosquitoes [3] . Zombies in their traditional form - like bloodthirsty living dead - were introduced in the 1968 low-budget film " Night of the Living Dead ", in which several heroes find themselves in a country house under the siege of many zombies.
Content
Description
Separate scenarios of a fictional zombie apocalypse associate a zombie invasion with a certain pathogen , for example, a human-to-human virus , likening a zombie apocalypse to an epidemic of a real infectious disease . Other, even more fantastic scenarios suggest that every dead person - for whatever reason - turns into a zombie obsessed with the desire to attack living people. However, a zombie bite always leads to death and subsequent transformation into zombies. Government services, police and the army are unable to cope with the threat, and the few survivors are forced to fight for survival surrounded by many zombies.
In zombie apocalypse, the following survival recipes are offered. It is necessary to find weapons and vehicles on which to leave the crowded place and settle in a country house. It is proposed in advance to stock up on food, hunting and fishing equipment, fire sources, dynamos, warm and protective clothing, as well as a first-aid kit [4] . The contents of the “emergency case” are: water, food with a long shelf life, knife, scotch tape, battery radio, soap, towel, blankets, first aid kit [5] .
Interesting Facts
In 2009, Canadian mathematicians from Ottawa and Carleton Universities published in the Infectious Disease Modeling Research Progress a collection of scientific papers on modeling zombie apocalypse as an unusual epidemic, which showed that the very existence of a hypothetical zombie infection should sooner or later lead to the collapse of civilization. The article stated that, despite the obvious improbability of such a scenario, the work demonstrates the flexibility of the mathematical modeling method and its applicability to the widest range of problems in biology [6] [7] .
May 16, 2011 in the official blog of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States appeared Rear Admiral Ali Khan , written by the director of this agency, US Deputy Secretary of Health playful instructions for survival during the zombie apocalypse [8] [9] . Representatives of the agency called the instruction that caused extreme public interest a joke, provoked by complaints that the society is difficult to force to pay attention to the calls of specialists to prepare for real disasters [10] .
By 2014, the Pentagon had developed a plan to repel zombie attacks, paying particular attention to plans for rapid evacuation from the city [11] [12] [13] [14] .
Numerous opponents of tightening control over arms trafficking in the United States cite the zombie apocalypse, saying that it is impossible to limit the carrying of weapons, since they may be needed in emergency situations when "the state will not be able to respond." Just for such cases, the National Rifle Association even arranges rallies where you can train accuracy on targets with zombies. The founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, came up with an alternative to firearms - his flamethrowers in case of a zombie apocalypse could be bought without a license, and if the weapon did not work in a battle against the walking dead, Musk promised to return the money. The first and so far the only batch was sold out in a few hours [15] .
See also
- Apocalyptic
- CONOP 8888
- Zombie Survival Guide
- Quasi
Notes
- ↑ Sandanov A. B. Zombie apocalypse in the cinema: a cure for fear and role model // The Art of Cinema . - 2011. - No. 5 . - S. 53-62 .
- ↑ Kim Paffenroth . Religious Themes of George Romero's Zombie Movies (English) // GOLEM. - 2006. Archived on September 6, 2012.
- ↑ Mathias Clasen. Vampire Apocalypse: A Biocultural Critique of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend . Volume 34, Number 2, October 2010 . Philosophy and Literature (2010). Date of treatment August 28, 2015.
- ↑ Zombie Apocalypse: Rules of Survival
- ↑ Scientist deduced the formula of zombie apocalypse
- ↑ Pallab Ghosh. US officials prepare for 'zombie apocalypse' . BBC News (August 18, 2009). Date of treatment October 6, 2011. Archived on August 30, 2012.
- ↑ Philip Munz, Ioan Hudea, Joe Imad, Robert J. Smith. When zombies attack !: Mathematical modeling of an outbreak of zombie infection (Eng.) // Infectious Disease Modeling Research Progress. - Nova Science Publishers, Inc, 2009. - P. 133-150 . - ISBN 978-1-60741-347-9 .
- ↑ Khan, Ali S. Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse . CDC Blogs (May 16, 2011). Date of treatment October 6, 2011. Archived on August 30, 2012.
- ↑ Khan, Ali S. Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse (inaccessible link) . CDC (May 16, 2011). Date of treatment October 6, 2011. Archived June 2, 2011.
- ↑ McGreal, Chris. US officials prepare for 'zombie apocalypse' . The Guardian (May 19, 2011). Date of treatment October 6, 2011. Archived on August 30, 2012.
- ↑ The Pentagon Has a Plan to Stop the Zombie Apocalypse. Seriously. Foreign Policy , 05.13.2014.
- ↑ The Pentagon has prepared for the zombie apocalypse . Lenta.ru , 05/14/2014
- ↑ US Army prepares for zombie apocalypse // Russia Today , 05/14/2014
- ↑ Pentagon prepares for war with zombies Archived May 18, 2014 on Wayback Machine . Vedomosti , 05/14/2014
- ↑ Nikita Soldatov. How the walking dead came and went // Kommersant Weekend Magazine. - 2018-06-04. - S. 12 .