10 Things That Never Happen in Virus Movies (But Should)

When we watch films like World War Z about zombie plagues and virus outbreaks bringing civilisation to its knees, we€™re used to certain things happening. We know, for example, that only unethical science produces killer viruses, and that outbreaks always wipe out everyone apart from a plucky, mismatched gang of survivors. But what about the things that should happen in apocalyptic virus type movies, but never do? Here are ten things that we bizarrely never see on screen when the infection starts to spread...

10. The infection spreading at a realistic rate

Most virus films are in a bit of a rush to get to the action, which means less screentime for the spread. Some movies like 28 Days Later skip the incubation and outbreak stages entirely, and cut straight to some poor guy waking up in a hospital to a broken world. But at least this technique implies significant time has passed. The idea that one day some people are looking a bit ill and the next day civilisation has collapsed is pretty unbelievable. Maybe filmmakers don€™t dwell on it, because if they did it wouldn€™t seem plausible. After all, if the police can Kettle 50,000 aggressive protesters in a city, couldn€™t they cope with a few hundred brain-dead walking corpses?
 
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Andrew Tipp is a writer, blogger and editor. He writes about pop culture, media and technology, and is interested in how the digital world is changing our lives. He’s a fan of chorizo, coffee, film geekery, reading graphic novels, enjoying TV box set marathons and formulating zombie survival strategies.