MythBusters: Zombie Special

[babomb]

What a crock o'shit! Worst MythBusters ever! I thought they were gonna do some cool shit. Like use ballistic jelly with a skull inside to see what kind of melee weapon is most effective, or see how far into a zombie something like a katana would go. They made a foam axe and compared it with paintball guns. Inside a warehouse, where you had to stand inside a 30ft circle and wait for the zombies to breach the circle. They concluded that an axe was more efficient than a firearm.

[Neil]

They concluded that an axe was more efficient than a firearm. Hmmmm!

[babomb]

In certain circumstances an axe would be better than a firearm. But not in the way they showed. They made a foam axe with paint in the foam and the guy was just barely tapping people with it. The situation was that they drew a 30' diameter circle and they couldn't attack a zombie until it got inside the circle. Zombies came from all sides, and he ran around tapping them on the head. This completely ignores the weight of the axe, and the length of the swing required to exert the amount of force required. Not to mention the recovery time between swings, and having to pull the axe out of every skull. He "killed" 15 zombies with the axe, and the other guy killed 7 or 8 with paintball guns. Realistically, the guy with the axe would've been lucky to get 2 kills before being taken down. The plus side of the show is that they tested to see how easy it would be for a horde of zombies to break down a barn door. They 1st tried an old rickety barn door with a single board holding it closed. They broke through with barely any effort. In the end they used strong new hinges and screwed a bunch of 2x4's across it in various places and even 100 people couldn't break it down. They had guest stars Micheal Rooker and Greg Nicotero.

[AcesandEights]

Tactical tomahawks and the like are way cool and all, but I've never been a fan of sinking something that could easily get stuck into a zombie as a primary weapon. If you miss and imbed the thing past the clavicle around the scapula or, god forbid, the rib cage it could get caught and cost you time you need if there are multiple zeds, not to mention it wouldn't kill the zed now attached to your weapon. That's why I support lead pipe for congress.

[babomb]

The scenario of the show was terribly flawed. Nobody would wait for dozens of zombies to get within 30ft before they act. In that scenario even a lead pipe would fail you. You'd be spent quick after swinging it so much. In a horde melee weapons should be used for evasive purposes only. If you were to find yourself in the center of a horde, you made a fatal mistake already that it's unlikely you could recover from.

[Mike70]

In certain circumstances an axe would be better than a firearm. But not in the way they showed. They made a foam axe with paint in the foam and the guy was just barely tapping people with it. The situation was that they drew a 30' diameter circle and they couldn't attack a zombie until it got inside the circle. Zombies came from all sides, and he ran around tapping them on the head. This completely ignores the weight of the axe, and the length of the swing required to exert the amount of force required. Not to mention the recovery time between swings, and having to pull the axe out of every skull. He "killed" 15 zombies with the axe, and the other guy killed 7 or 8 with paintball guns. Realistically, the guy with the axe would've been lucky to get 2 kills before being taken down. The plus side of the show is that they tested to see how easy it would be for a horde of zombies to break down a barn door. They 1st tried an old rickety barn door with a single board holding it closed. They broke through with barely any effort. In the end they used strong new hinges and screwed a bunch of 2x4's across it in various places and even 100 people couldn't break it down. They had guest stars Micheal Rooker and Greg Nicotero. I agree with you about the "engagement circle." that made zero sense. no one with a firearm is going to wait until 100 zombies are only 10 meters away from them before they start letting lead fly. Michael Rooker made the ep. interesting. the only part of the ep. i really found interesting was when they were testing the strength of differently re-enforced doors. other than that, it was a dud. Worst episode ever...

[babomb]

I agree with you about the "engagement circle." that made zero sense. no one with a firearm is going to wait until 100 zombies are only 10 meters away from them before they start letting lead fly. Michael Rooker made the ep. interesting. the only part of the ep. i really found interesting was when they were testing the strength of differently re-enforced doors. other than that, it was a dud. Worst episode ever... My thoughts exactly. As far as Mythbusters itself is concerned it was the worst episode I've ever seen. In any other episode they're much more through and go to the trouble of taking into account different scenarios. I was only made aware of the episode because I watched the "Zombie Apocalypse" show earlier in the evening. That was pretty good actually. They explored the cannibal attacks that got alot of attention within the past year or 2. But when I saw the advert for the Mythbusters special I was thinking they'd do something like test different melee weapons on ballistic dummies or gel molds. I didn't think it would be such a let down. The part where they had people running through different ratios of zombie hordes was semi-interesting. Although extremely flawed also. They turned it into some sort of flag football style event, where they had velcro balls on the runners backs that the zombies pulled off. Didn't take into account that if you were running like that you'd also be pushing the zombies aside, and hitting them to get away. So overall the only test that had any degree of accuracy or realism was the barn door stress test.

[Trencher]

Yeah the gun vs axe test was stupid. A person in that situation would be dead any way. Both weapons are situational. It looked to me that they were just goofing off and playing around this episode, which was fun for what it was. I liked the running test, I doubt Grant or Kari would be pushing many zombies anyway so the "rules" worked fine for me. And the barrikade segment was great! Michael Roeker really made that segment with his yelling and comments. He even gave the zombies the finger lol!

[senorvega]

love mythbusters. Which they covered all crazy tv shows.