Why the outbreak?

[ryansson]

I do like the fact that in the GAR movies we dont really get a solid explanation for the dead returning to life, but I guess most of us have our own explanations we like over others. If pressed, what would you say caused the outbreak:

1. Virus/infection ( of human or alien origin)

2. Voodoo

3. Judgment day

4. Who the hell cares it's just cool

Feel free to offer other possible reasons

[dracenstein]

No.4 for me. It doesn't matter. I don't want to know.

[DawnGirl27]

The same - # 4. If a certain cause was pinned down, then the plausibility of it would be argued about continually, and critics would have even more ammo to nay say things about the genre (which, I acknowledge happens all the same, but why give yet another reason?).
It's more interesting to me to mull over different reasons without commiting to one fully.

[RustyHicks]

#4 as well. I never really did concentrate on the why, in GAR's movies,
neither did he give solid answers.
Unlike Return of the living dead when the reason is
shown right in your face :D

[lullubelle]

# 4, makes for a better story if you dont know where it came from, if you did, you could solve the problem, and me personally I like the whole mess the way it is :D, without any explanation :elol:, so in the words of that famous poet " WHO CARES"

[sandrock74]

I will say #1. I always figured it was viral/bacterial in it's nature anyway, whatever the reason for it initially happening. Most evidence points to that anyway (a zombie bites someone and they die). No hope.

Not knowing exactly what caused it makes it more interesting. Who was "Patient Zero"? Does it really matter in the overall scheme of things?

[Craig]

Not knowing exactly what caused it makes it more interesting. Who was "Patient Zero"? Does it really matter in the overall scheme of things?
Well in the case of Romero's movies there wouldn't really be a 'patient zero' because every dead person comes back to life. Though when you have a mythos where the infection is only spread by transmission (bites etc.) the question of the cause is more likely to come up as some sort of virus or disease.

So I'll say #4 as a general rule since it effectively ends any complications with the story that you'd get if you tried to explain it :lol:.

[AcesandEights]

Looking at the list, I'd have to say Voodoo hits me as the least I'd like to see, but any of those 4 could be enjoyable, if used properly.

[Trencher]

The unknown is allways the most scary, so to keep the horror aspect as much as possible so 4 is the most scary.
Also everytime I seen a reason in a movie or comic they spend too much time on explaining the reason and the goverment conspiracy behind it taking away from the survival and zombie action.

[Mike70]

there doesn't seem to be any one theory that covers all the bases as to why the outbreak occurs. since being bitten causes a person to sicken, die and then reanimate, that suggests that it is a virus or bacteria that is communicable through saliva. i don't know of anyone in the romero series that is infected through contact with blood or other fluids from a zombie.

however, since every person who dies comes back no matter what the original cause of death is, the virus theory doesn't seem to apply. unless it is a virus or bacteria that just about every one has been exposed to (this is possible, i don't think you'd find many people who haven't been exposed to the flu or the common cold) and lies dormant until a person dies. that would explain why a bite would infect an otherwise healthy person. the virus would've become active in the zombie and be transmittable through saliva.

[Tricky]

Its got to be number 1 - virus for me,because any other reason isnt plausible!i dont like it when everyone who dies,bitten or not, turns zombie,i just find that a bit daft!

[Andy]

I Am shocked no-one has said space probe radiation.

And you guys call yourselves romero fans? :shifty:

[Bub666]

I got to go with #4,I really don't care what the cause of the outbreak is.

[SRP76]

If i had to pick a cause, I'd go with Earth pole-reversal screwing with the electrical field, which plays havok with the chemolectrical function of the human brain, which in turn is what's causing dead bodies to still function.

[MapMan]

I Am shocked no-one has said space probe radiation.

And you guys call yourselves romero fans? :shifty:

radiation from a satellite sent to Venus, or that "there's no more room in Hell" .

[slickwilly13]

This is what I think of the zombie bites. Btw, I am bases this off of Romero's series. I do not believe it is a virus that changes people into the undead. I think people die from an untreated infection such as septicemia. Then rise after death.

Since zombie are corpses and decayed, they have bacteria in their bodies. Including the mouth. Their mouth are probably a soup of bacteria and the fact the bacteria is thriving in the mouth of a zombie makes it worse.

Take the Komodo Dragon for example. Their bites are fatal if untreated, because of the bacteria soup in their mouths. They eat carrion. So, there is harmful bacteria in the lizard's mouth. If the reptile bite its prey, but it escapes. The prey will die from the infection within the week.

I see a very similar connection between the two. Docters and scientists may be able to find an antibotic that would cure a zombie bite in due time. But since society is falling apart in the movies, then they really do not have enough time to do that. And usually they are trying to figure what is causing the dead to rise.

Out of every zombie movie I have seen there is only one case in which a person survived a zombie bite without turning.

[dracenstein]

Out of every zombie movie I have seen there is only one case in which a person survived a zombie bite without turning.

Who is that? And in which movie?

[Andy]

Who is that? And in which movie?
The priest in NOTLD 30th annivesary edition is the only one which springs to mind.

[Tricky]

Out of every zombie movie I have seen there is only one case in which a person survived a zombie bite without turning.


How about miguel in day?they cut his arm off to stop the spread of infection & it worked,i think by the time GAR made that movie he'd changed his mind about the cause & went down the more plausible virus route.Just my opinion though!

[Mike70]

This is what I think of the zombie bites. Btw, I am bases this off of Romero's series. I do not believe it is a virus that changes people into the undead. I think people die from an untreated infection such as septicemia. Then rise after death.

great point and be honest that is something that i hadn't considered before. that is quite a plausible explaination, though there is one potential problem: what about the people who get treated with anti-biotics and still die. septicemia can usually be treated but in the case of zombie bites people always die, no matter what the treatment.


How about miguel in day?they cut his arm off to stop the spread of infection & it worked,i think by the time GAR made that movie he'd changed his mind about the cause & went down the more plausible virus route.Just my opinion though!

i don't know if we can be sure that it worked. miguel did himself in before that could really be known.

[Craig]

i don't know if we can be sure that it worked. miguel did himself in before that could really be known.
Nevertheless they still talk about 'the infection' as a cause of the zombies.

[slickwilly13]

great point and be honest that is something that i hadn't considered before. that is quite a plausible explaination, though there is one potential problem: what about the people who get treated with anti-biotics and still die. septicemia can usually be treated but in the case of zombie bites people always die, no matter what the treatment.

The bacteria in the mouth is probably mutated into something that never existed before. And judging from the movie it takes it toll on a healthy body rather quickly. If the outbreak was contained, then in due time they may find a cure for a bite. But since sh!t hit the fans in the movie it never happened. Diseases that are cured today did not happen over night. Maybe some unknown medicine or nanotechnology could cure it. Zombie saliva could also be extracted and a possible cure could be found in it. Scientists have been working on medicines from extracted snake vemon or Komodo Dragon saliva.

Yes, the priest from NotLD 30th is the only biten survivor. His body was sick, but he somehow fought the infection. Maybe in rare cases some people could survive and a cure could be found within them. Also, according to that version of Night, Dawn, Day, and Land never happened. At least in my view, it did not.

[Trencher]

I Am shocked no-one has said space probe radiation.

And you guys call yourselves romero fans? :shifty:
I thought it was option number one.

[RJ_Sevin]

No virus in Romero's world. The dead are returning to life for unknown reasons. Not just those who are bitten -- everyone. Bites become infected and kill the person bitten. Then they get up and kill.

George settled this debate on his message board years ago, and yet it rages on.

Next someone will be asking why the cemetery zombie in NIGHT 90 talks. ;)

[ryansson]

Next someone will be asking why the cemetery zombie in NIGHT 90 talks.


Hmmmm now forgive my ignorance, but only vaguely remember that film and am thinking yr man there wasn't a zed but a funeral director in a state of disbelief and shock, could be wrong though and if I am why did he talk?

[Slain]

I think nano technology and artificial life forms scientists are starting to develope make a pathogen that reanimates corpses and turns them into fleshing eating ghouls at a least halfway plausible. Personally, I think earth seeing a plague of flesh eating zombies is more probable than a visit by intelligent extra-terrestrials.

[Danny Terror]

I'm sticking with the VENUS PROBE.

This started the phenomenon in NOTLD and this, plus the Ghouls themselves spreading their diseased bites caused a worldwide Epidemic. So, the unburied dead returning through radiation and the Ghouls murdering and eating people (Who also rise up) gave the world the double whammy and thus Dawn, Day, Land .............

Diary I guess the same time as NOTLD?? Kinda?? And this new one same time as DOTD ??? Romero seems to have changed his mind or felt shaky about the Space radiation angle in the years after NIGHT , But Karl Hardman and Russ Streiner confirm that indeed, the VENUS PROBE was the cause of the whole deal and after much deliberation while writing the script that's the idea they went with. (See Russo's NOTLD filmbook for confirmation)

Danny T.

[AcesandEights]

George settled this debate on his message board years ago, and yet it rages on.


I think if one of us sat down with GAR, smoked a bowl and talked about other possibilities he'd entertain them, nod his head sagely and then say something that pushed any attempt to bind his films into a coherent, same-world time line further into the abyss.

Then do you know what would happen? The seas would boil, it would rain blood, Philly_Swat's head would explode, 40 years of darkness, Khardis and Scipios living together. Mass Hysteria!

[Publius]

unless it is a virus or bacteria that just about every one has been exposed to (this is possible, i don't think you'd find many people who haven't been exposed to the flu or the common cold) and lies dormant until a person dies. that would explain why a bite would infect an otherwise healthy person. the virus would've become active in the zombie and be transmittable through saliva.

That's the theory I've been mulling over for a while. *Everyone* has the virus, it's just dormant until you die. That makes it easier to spread the crisis through a non-bite vector, although it still wouldn't quite be simultaneous everywhere.

[Thorn]

I like that people try to figure it out, that is human nature. I also like that it has not been revealed to us. As a viewer I like to draw my own conclusions from time to time, or to be left wondering. Rosebud....

That said I do not think it is biblical in origin. I think it is more likely than not radiation that is the cause of the issue as reported in the film, or the radiation mutating a virus or gene.

It would seem too coincidental to me that the radioactive Venus probe returning to earth and the dead returning to life were mere coincidence.

[MoonSylver]

I, like most of my brethren here, prefer no explanation. It lends itself to all sorts of possibilities, lets the viewer decide for themselves, makes it SCARIER IMO.

One other thing I don't think anyone else touched on is that if the world fell apart as shown in the movies, no one would probably ever know why it happened EITHER. You'd get a bunch of wild theories flying around in the 1st few days & then when everything fell apart....no answer. To me, it's the most realistic & really puts us in the same mindset as the characters themselves.