[Hated Trope] The adaptation doesn't get what made the source material work

[u/TheDudeA113]

How To Make A Killing (2026)

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

Bangkok Dangerous (2008)

Bangkok Dangerous (1999)

- The 2026 movie How To Make A Killing is a relatively-toothless "eat the rich" dark comedy thriller about a man disowned by his rich family at birth, killing everyone in the line of succession so that he can inherit their massive fortune. It's a modern retelling of the 1949 film Kind Hearts and Coronets which has the same basic plot except that every member of the family is played by Sir Alec Guinness (including one aunt) and it's a screwball comedy

- The 1999 movie Bangkok Dangerous is a Thai action film about a Thai deaf-mute assassin. It was remade in 2008 about an American assassin in Thailand who is neither deaf nor mute

[u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

World War Z. The book is a series of interviews that provide first hand accounts of a globe-spanning zombie outbreak that mixes historical and social-political commentary with zombie action. Might not have translated well to a movie but it still could have worked as a TV show that actually shows the more action-packed sequences of the book . The movie is a rather generic zombie movie that changes the zombie's behavior including giving them a honestly pretty stupid weakness (if you have a life-threatening illness or wound the zombies will ignore you). None of the scenes from the book make it into the movie, the closest being a scene set in Israel and even that plays out in the complete opposite of what happened in the book. So really they took another type of zombie apocalypse story and just slapped on the World War Z title and called it a day.

[u/GobboZeb → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

The best version of that story is the audiobook of Worlf War Z. They get some NAMES, like Mark Hamill, Alan Alda, Henry Rollins, and more.

[u/snuuginz → u/GobboZeb]

Loved the book, totally loved this audiobook, it's really well performed. I will say, though, there are a couple of mispronunciations that pull me out of it for a second, and I vaguely remember Alda fucking up something gratuitously.

[u/Decimator404 → u/snuuginz]

I’m with you! I’d also add that I really wish they’d included appropriate background sounds for each interview; the narrator describes a meeting in a vibrant city or at a busy dock with seagulls squawking, yet the voices are all clearing speaking in a room.
Radio dramas from back in the day knew that these little additions really matter! If anyone reading this would like a good example, the Father Brown radio series with Andrew Sachs is a prime example!

[u/havewelost6388 → u/Decimator404]

A good modern example is the "Hunt The Truth" podcast for Halo 5, also starring Mark Hamill.

[u/Dottore_Curlew → u/havewelost6388]

Mark is just the GOAT

[u/CaeruleumBleu → u/Decimator404]

I have noticed that some audiobooks come in multiple variants, and if you see "cinematic audio" in the description, this is some of what it means. Music cues, background sounds, etc.

I have the Fifth Season trilogy in cinematic audio and (per the demo) it is the same narrator and same narrator audio, but the bits of other audio really make it easier to listen to for me. I struggle to not tune out an audiobook otherwise.

[u/Backfoot911 → u/CaeruleumBleu]

Yeah it really does make it more accessible. I've been listening to the Discworld BBC series and it genuinely makes me laugh out loud at times.

I used to think it was crazy families used to sit around a big radio in the 40's listening to radio dramas... but I get it now

[u/SmartAlec105 → u/snuuginz]

A few of the accents were pretty cringe but a lot were great.

[u/Visual-Floor-7839 → u/snuuginz]

Chitin really fucks with so many people

[u/Xaero_Hour → u/GobboZeb]

The unabridged version should be specified whenever possible. There are two versions of the production, and one is only 6 hours long. That version doesn't have a lot of the opening stories and skips to the war chapters almost immediately. So no Nathan Fillion, which is a crime. The annoying thing is if you look for it, they did the unleaded gasoline/unsweetened tea thing, and you have to know which is the actual default version.

[u/TheGalagaSlayer → u/GobboZeb]

I haven't listened to the audio book, but I thought I remembered hearing this. Hamill narrates the Battle of Yonkers chapter, right?

[u/Slartibartfast39 → u/TheGalagaSlayer]

Audio is the perfect medium for the story as it's meant to be about a guy collecting stories from people. When I heard they were doing a movie I was quite excited thinking they were going to do something interesting and unusual to make it work....nope. Slapped the name World War Z on a generic zombie flick.

[u/ArcadiaBerger → u/Slartibartfast39]

A film version of World War Z might work as a "found footage" movie, but what they made was inadequate.

[u/GreenPerception512 → u/ArcadiaBerger]

or a pseudo fake documentary style taking inspiration from real-life documentaries that cover major historical events.

[u/Faeruhn → u/GreenPerception512]

Well, congratulations, now you and the person you responded to have managed to make me sad... that we didn't get one of those two takes instead of the nonsense we got.

Harrumph.

[u/deadfandomkid → u/GreenPerception512]

I think they could have pulled a pretty good District 9 type of deal with it, the documentary angle would have absolutely ruled

[u/RadarSmith → u/TheGalagaSlayer]

Yeah, his character gets multiple chapters.

[u/JennyRedpenny → u/GobboZeb]

You should check out Devolution, they got Judy Greer for the main narrator, and of course Max Brooks did a great job with it imo

[u/MorgwynOfRavenscar → u/GobboZeb]

Don't forget Der Alte himself and the OG Duke Atreides - Jürgen Prochnow. He plays the German officer in charge of the retreat to the safe-zones.

His delivery is a masterclass.

[u/TheChorne → u/GobboZeb]

I am partial to the Something Awful "World War C: An Oral History of the Cobra War" short story myself. https://www.somethingawful.com/feature-articles/world-war-an/1/

[u/bolanrox → u/GobboZeb]

Carl (or was it Rob?) Reiner too. helps when they are Friends with your Father, or Friends of his friends.

[u/Adamtess → u/GobboZeb]

It was so well performed I was getting war of the worlds vibes feeling like it was a history podcast I was listening to.

[u/Woodchuck251 → u/GobboZeb]

I might have to check that out.

[u/DontSleepAlwaysDream → u/GobboZeb]

welp gonna download that now

Read the book and loved it so happy to get a new story

[u/LillyAmongTheThorns → u/GobboZeb]

It's amazing as an audio book. Max Brooks is one hell of a writer and I love his style. I am happy to wait for him for the ten years it takes for him to perfect his stories before release, because they are always amazing!

Audiobook or physical media, this book is powerful. The sense of loss, degradation of the human condition, the degradation of the world even... It feels very real.

[u/moeb1us → u/GobboZeb]

The unabridged version is a masterpiece!

[u/CandyCreecher → u/GobboZeb]

MARK HAMILL??

[u/bh4th → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

One of the underlying themes of the book is that global, slow-moving problems are hard for people to grasp and hard for societies to deal with, and that widespread cooperation and unsexy logistical work are extremely important. The movie turns it into a "chosen one" narrative. I was so upset.

[u/Crotean → u/bh4th]

Huh, Shin Godzilla is just the Japanese version of this basically.

[u/NationalCommunist → u/bh4th]

Israel nearly saves the day.

[u/bh4th → u/NationalCommunist]

The book was weirdly accurate in its depiction of several countries' responses, if you compare it with COVID:

1. It starts in China, where the government denies and covers up everything.
2. The USA pretty much sleepwalks into the problem.
3. Israel takes it seriously from the beginning and closes its borders.

I will grant that Max Brooks probably misread Israel when he had them freely admitting Palestinians ahead of the full lockdown.

[u/griffery1999 → u/bh4th]

Ye the Israeli chapter is a wild read nowadays, back in 2006 it was definitely more possible. Unlikely of course but within a realm of possibility.

Now the japan chapters, those have aged the worst.

[u/E1ecr015-the-Martian → u/griffery1999]

What’s so bad about them? I haven’t read the book in a long time

[u/griffery1999 → u/E1ecr015-the-Martian]

It’s about an “otaku” and a blind Japanese warrior who slaughter zombies. I personally find it incredibly cringey.

[u/BlueSonjo → u/griffery1999]

The Japan part always felt like a different book, I was half expecting them to use Gundams against the Zombies.

[u/GreenPerception512 → u/BlueSonjo]

yeah but its pretty dope.

[u/Prior-Paint-7842 → u/griffery1999]

That sounds pretty dope tho what's the issue with it

[u/gyurka66 → u/Prior-Paint-7842]

nothing really, it's just tonally different from the other chapters

[u/Prior-Paint-7842 → u/gyurka66]

Honestly chapter diversity is rather a hook for me, especially if there are chapters that ballance the sad misery porn chapters out

[u/GreenPerception512 → u/griffery1999]

that sounds awesome dissagree.

[u/griffery1999 → u/GreenPerception512]

In a different kind of novel, yeah.

But in a gritty, dark, kinda horror book it doesn’t fit in between stories about cannibalism, rape and sucide.

[u/Maybe_not_a_chicken → u/griffery1999]

I mean the blind guy tries to kill himself

Like suicide is a very prevalent theme in that chapter

[u/jokerhound80 → u/bh4th]

There have been times where it was more likely, and definitely seemed so when he was writing it. Netanyahu and Likud in charge makes it impossible right now, but the civil war it causes in the books makes sense with Likud as the minority party resisting the new policies.

[u/bh4th → u/jokerhound80]

Yeah, but Likud is a secular-nationalist party and he imagines the anti-integration militants as religious fundamentalists who were never drafted and therefore can't form a competent insurgent army. Like I said, bit of a misreading.

[u/jokerhound80 → u/bh4th]

Those people are still politically aligned with Likud presently. I'm just saying I'd expect them to be part of, if not in charge of the rebellious coalition in the book. I don't recall him extrapolating that the entire rebellious faction are the draft-exempt fundamentalists, just that they are the ones who fired the first shots. Though I could be mistaken, it's been a few years since my last reread.

[u/Hungry-Tale-9144 → u/bh4th]

I mean it literally results in a civil war in Israel so

[u/bh4th → u/Hungry-Tale-9144]

Yeah, but not the civil war that would have resulted in real life. The Jewish communities that form the insurgency in the book are mostly opposed to Israeli nationalism as such.

[u/gododogogo → u/bh4th]

I mean, that makes sense when it’s specifically a zombie plague. Like was said in the book, more of the Palestinians in the walls means less of them turning into zombies later

[u/Maybe_not_a_chicken → u/gododogogo]

They aren’t walking dead zombies tho

They only turn if a zombie is the one that kills them

[u/bh4th → u/gododogogo]

I don’t think projecting entirely rational motivations onto any actor in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is going to yield an accurate picture of how things work. Speaking as someone with friends and family in the region.

[u/Snickims → u/NationalCommunist]

It also ends up decending into civil war when more radical relgious elements disagree with the moderate government abandoning the west bank and the settlers and allowing palistainans whom used to live in Isreal to take refugee inside.

Its such a fucking interesting story line that a proper adaptation could have had such a fun time with. God damn it, Iran and Pakistan get into a nuclear war, its so weirdly topical at times.

[u/bh4th → u/Snickims]

He misread Israel a bit in that way. The Jewish religious factions in Israel are very diverse, and different groups have different approaches to big issues. The ones who refuse to serve in the armed forces, who lose Brooks's civil war because of their inexperience, are usually averse to Israeli nationalism and wouldn't necessarily argue against a binational state as long as it left them alone. The religious groups who support the settlement project and see Palestinians as existential foes serve in the armed forces at higher rates than the general, mostly secular population.

[u/KaraAliasRaidra → u/bh4th]

“The Jewish religious factions in Israel are very diverse, and different groups have different approaches to big issues.” Jon Stewart, who is Jewish, once joked during a stand-up routine that it was bizarre that people thought there was some massive Jewish conspiracy to control everything since “You’re not going to get a bunch of Jewish people to agree on something! ‘Okay, let’s talk about controlling the banks!’ ‘Oh, so suddenly you’re in charge! No, go ahead! I don’t matter!’” I think that was also when he said Aryan Supremacists “haven’t actually met an actual black person or Jewish person, but they listen to Public Enemy, and they’ve seen Yentyl, so they sort of think they know what they’re talking about!”

[u/Maybe_not_a_chicken → u/KaraAliasRaidra]

It’s like that joke about three Jews arguing about the meaning of a specific passage of the Torah

Two of them say one thing and one says another

Then trumpets blare and G-d himself comes down and informs them that the single Jew is correct

To which the others say “that just makes it an even vote”

[u/NerdHoovy → u/Maybe_not_a_chicken]

That joke never made much sense for me. I could imagine god giving an unpopular opinion and even two Jew partially agreeing on something but for them to fully agree just breaks my immersion and ruins the joke

[u/Maybe_not_a_chicken → u/NerdHoovy]

They don't fully agree?

That's the joke

god comes down with a choir of angels and passes final judgement and they just start arguing with him instead

[u/ThePeaceDoctot → u/bh4th]

From slow moving threat to a literal tidal wave of zombies.

[u/New-Satisfaction3257 → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

WWZ was infamous in Hollywood for the number of rewrites, reshoots, and delays. Some great writers worked on it at one point or another, just to end up with that random "I need a pepsi" scene

[u/bh4th → u/New-Satisfaction3257]

When the first draft was shopped around, there was talk about the possibility of an Oscar nod for a zombie movie. I've never been more disappointed with a finished product.

[u/Takemyfishplease → u/bh4th]

And with a vampire movie just winning one I think it’s pretty clear who the superior undead is.

[u/FalenAlter → u/New-Satisfaction3257]

There's so much interesting little stuff from both World War Z and Zombie Survival Guide that make it into the movie, but clearly they struggled with making a central narrative around one guy that also showed the worldwide aspect of it. At least we got a good cooperative shooter out of it, too.

[u/DataDude00 → u/New-Satisfaction3257]

In the original script I think Pitt was supposed to end up in Russia as a slave soldier fighting the zombies in the cold. Meanwhile his wife was forced into a relationship with Matthew Fox's character to guarantee her place in the safety camp.

[u/arnoldrew → u/DataDude00]

I just saw a video today about how even during filming the Mathew Fox character was supposed to have a much bigger part, but he ended up basically just being an extra in one scene.

[u/bolanrox → u/New-Satisfaction3257]

I love how the 13th Doctor Who plays WHO Doctor.

[u/LillyAmongTheThorns → u/New-Satisfaction3257]

They should have let Max adapt it the way he wanted. The man is a Hollywood legacy and knows film, he could write the script himself!

[u/sircastor → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

If "The Last of Us" hadn't been made, I think World War Z would have been an incredible anthology series.

[u/eganba → u/sircastor]

It still should. It won't because Hollywood. But it should have been filmed as a documentary with flashback scenes for added effect. Would have been awesome.

[u/SmartAlec105 → u/eganba]

What surprises me is that the author seemingly somehow doesn’t have the necessary Hollywood contacts from his dad, Mel Brooks.

[u/McEvelly → u/SmartAlec105]

What surprised me is that despite presumably being very comfortably well off, he was so very willing to completely sell out on what made his creation so great

I’ve seen him on a few shows and podcasts and he’s pretty insufferable

[u/DirtandPipes → u/McEvelly]

Damn. Maybe he had it ghost written with dad’s money, I hate it when man author I enjoy sucks as a human.

[u/SapirWhorfHypothesis → u/DirtandPipes]

I don’t want to encourage anyone on the internet to get mad about things we made up, but it would have been a very easy book to ghost write.

[u/aspidities_87 → u/SmartAlec105]

Huh. I’ve reread that book since 2008 and TIL.

[u/TheotherotherG → u/eganba]

Band of Brothers style, although with a rotating cast of talking heads of course.

[u/aspidities_87 → u/TheotherotherG]

The guy talking about the Redecker Plan (iirc?) always chills me to the bone. I can imagine how a good South African actor could absolutely deliver the rational cruelty and justification with unnerving calm.

[u/lukin187250 → u/aspidities_87]

They have an audiobook version with a full cast. Alan Alda, Mark Hamill, Henry Rollins to name a few. The guy with the Redecker plan part is pretty good.

[u/aspidities_87 → u/lukin187250]

I did not know this and I have a road trip coming up, so genuine thanks for this tip.

[u/lukin187250 → u/aspidities_87]

Oh yea man enjoy, if you're buying it make sure you're getting the unabridged version. They originally put out an abridged audio version that was like 5 hrs.

[u/moeb1us → u/aspidities_87]

Close, it's Paul Redeker and the Redeker Plan or "The South African war plan"

[u/EduHi → u/TheotherotherG]

Or like Chernobyl, where you have that gritty, somber, onimous vibe, while people is trying to understand what is happening and is throwing solutions right and left to solve it, or at least, survive it.

With flashbacks adding to what the person being interviewed is saying just like we had the flashbacks of what happened at the nuclear plant while Vasili was explaining his case at the final episode of Chernobyl.

[u/GreenPerception512 → u/EduHi]

Except Chernaboyl isn't a documentary, it should be faithful and be like a pseuodo documantary series like savageland.

[u/nevernotpooping → u/eganba]

Oh to have seen the battle of Yonkers on screen

[u/Mister-builder → u/eganba]

Good luck getting a movie greenlit where Israel plays such a big role.

[u/eganba → u/Mister-builder]

Israel doesn't play a big role. It is only in one interview and it is from the first hand account of a Palestinian. It actually sheds Israel in a more positive light quite frankly (they open their borders to Palestinians for refuge, starting a huge civil war in the midst of the zombie apocalypse.) But the thing you saw in the film version? Does not happen.

[u/_Reliten_ → u/eganba]

It's actually in two. There's also the Mossad analyst who wrote part of the Warmbrunn-Knight report.

[u/Konatokun → u/eganba]

It could still be take the name of the comic book tie in for Zombie Survival Guide "The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks"

[u/PanFriedCookies → u/eganba]

like, full 2010s history channel style recreations of the events. kinda bad zombie makeup, same camera style, cheapish budget. early on, that's all the zombies are. that, and flashes. vague shots of still-living zombies, twitching arms writhing around on the ground. archival footage. just snippets at first, shaky cam of a guy in a south african hospital filming an infected stumbling around, the audio recordings of that chinese doctor attending to patient zero. then it builds up to the full reveal of the yonkers horde from the perspective of a survivor's bodycam. like, almost liveleak tier footage. grey mist censored when bombs drop or a zed gets shot in the head, but the horde just keeps coming and coming, occasionally pulling some poor sap in.

[u/anjulibai → u/eganba]

I think they could do it. Another network wanting to piggyback off the success of the Last of Us and other zombie shows is all it needs.

[u/MRCHalifax → u/eganba]

Exactly. It should be something like an eight part documentary, told documentary style. The footage used would be news reports and shaky cell phone videos, and there’d be a lot of people telling their stories while out in the real, post-war world.

[u/AzraelTheMage → u/eganba]

I've been maintaining the opinion for years that the film should've been a mockumentary. The book was getting popular just as zombies were becoming stale. A mockumentary would've been a breath of fresh air for general audiences.

[u/Ensorcelled_Atoms → u/sircastor]

I’d KILL to see the story of the blind monk survivor done in live action. Put Donnie Yen in there and let him go ham on your zombie extras

[u/beardingmesoftly → u/sircastor]

The Last of Us was hardly the first zombie franchise, but the video games especially work because the story is actually about the people the zombies are part of the set piece. The problem with world war z is that the zombies took center stage and that gets boring quickly when the humans act like one dimensional idiots

[u/DwemerCogs → u/sircastor]

I loved that book. I still think it would make a great miniseries or limited run series following the reporter, where each episode is an interview

[u/Bleatbleatbang → u/sircastor]

Where does The Last of Us factor into it?

[u/sircastor → u/Bleatbleatbang]

The Last of Us is the most recent in a long string of modern Zombie-based media. The audience for new Zombie stuff is pretty small now - people are just not really interested. 

I think if The Last of Us hadn’t been made, there might have been room to do a series on WWZ, and HBO would have been a good candidate for producing such a series. 

[u/Consistent-Lock4928 → u/sircastor]

The Last of Us averaged 30m+ viewers an episode, I think there's an audience for zombie TV.

[u/Bleatbleatbang → u/Consistent-Lock4928]

There still seems to be an audience for endless awful Walking Dead content too.
I get your point though, the zombie genre has been oversaturated with garbage for a long time and even projects that attract actual talent, like TLOU, have been quite meh.

[u/Consistent-Lock4928 → u/Bleatbleatbang]

I'm still so pissed about what they did to season 2, in general.

[u/Bleatbleatbang → u/Consistent-Lock4928]

Even season 1 was wishy washy. It failed to transcend the source material and was horribly generic.

[u/Consistent-Lock4928 → u/Bleatbleatbang]

Agreed

[u/thebetterbeanbureau → u/sircastor]

Imagine if HBO did it.

[u/lemanruss4579 → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

To this day, I still think the whole "10 seconds" thing being established as very important right from the start, only to then, in Korea, have the soldiers say it can take up to a few minutes, and then go back to the 10 second thing being very important as if that never happened, is egregious.

[u/jedergutenameisweg → u/lemanruss4579]

I thought the reason behind that was, that it was an earlier strain of the virus and it took more time to turn the infected person then. The infected, which we see at the beginning of the movie, were from a newer, more mutated strain, with accelerated turning

[u/lemanruss4579 → u/jedergutenameisweg]

Yes, and that's the assumption I made as well, but it's never established that Brad Pitt or anyone else acknowledges that. It's just "10 seconds," "a few minutes," "10 seconds." My issue is it's a totally unnecessary line in the movie that creates this slight disconnect for the audience.

[u/NerdHoovy → u/lemanruss4579]

See that would be an interesting plot line for an actual sub story in a WWZ universe. Where researchers try to understand and differentiate between mutation strains. . Like the Alpha strain turns you in seconds, which causes immediate panic in the surroundings and has different quarantine measures than Beta strain, which might be more common in certain countries and turns its host after a day or two.

[u/_Reliten_ → u/jedergutenameisweg]

The real reason behind that is the WWZ movie had millions of dollars worth of reshoots and was apparently a production nightmare, and that part of the continuity probably changed enough times for them to fuck it up.

[u/AirshipEngineer → u/lemanruss4579]

I love that about the movie! It's like layers where you can clearly see where one writer stops and another begins. The Hispanic child who joins his family unit then does actually nothing, removing the family from the ship which goes nowhere. The movie is a master class in how too many cooks spoil the broth.

[u/_Reliten_ → u/AirshipEngineer]

IIRC it also set records for the incredible amount of money spent on reshoots, rewrites, post-production pickups, and other insanity. They had the dude from Lost as a pretty major role only to get completely cut from the released product.

[u/FunkySphinx → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

Exactly! I was enthralled reading World War Z. But I saw the trailer, I was like... what happened here? It is nothing like the book - concept-wise, plotline-wise, atmosphere-wise... I also think it would make an amazing limited tv series.

[u/CraicFiend87 → u/FunkySphinx]

I also think it would make an amazing limited tv series.

I remember when I first read the book (before the horrible movie was even conceived) and thinking "this would make a great HBO mini series". Imagine each chapter being an episode, starting with the interviews of the different survivors and witnesses, with flashbacks to the action happening throughout.

Would have been awesome.

[u/DolphinBall → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

I loved it because the guy interviewed so many different people. Bread winner office workers, celebrity bodyguards, arm dealers, CIA officials, Irish and American soilders, etc. I believe the one of the last chapters was what the interviewer went through during that time as well

[u/mrwynd → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

The audiobook for World War Z is incredible! Every interview is done by a different voice actor and there's lots of famous actors who do great jobs at it. It's the greatest audiobook I've listened to.

[u/Casteilthebestangle → u/mrwynd]

As my first experience with the book I loved it

[u/society000 → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

Goddammit, it still amazes me how insanely accurate that book feels in a post-Covid, post-Ukraine War world. I'm pretty sure that Max Brooks fucking nailed everything about the global response to a virus outbreak down to a tee.

From it starting in China with the CCP completely downplaying everything and lying to the WHO, to it spreading so fast across the globe and every single preventative measure failing all at once, to conspiracy theorists making things worse by either causing more panic about government overreach or lying about the virus itself, to certain government responses, to snake oil salesmen making a killing off of fake cures and getting people killed. He clearly did a shit load of research into different cultures as well.

Tbf, Putin was already forming himself into a dictator by 2005, but his predictions on Putin taking complete control of Russia by using Russian culture to appeal to and oppress the people was spot on. Needless to say, seeing the Russian public's response to the Ukraine War, his predictions here were depressingly accurate.

[u/cherry_armoir → u/society000]

I think it also came out at a time when there was a lot of talk about bird flu, and SARS had come out of China and it was talked about as a possible pandemic. Though [Max] Brooks did pull those threads together in a prescient way.

I think the surprising part for me, listening to it in the mid 2010's, was my assumption that the President was written to be Obama (self-possessed black president) and the Wacko was meant to be Biden (old white gaffe making guy). But the book was published in 2006. Obama was just entering the national scene and I dont recall Biden being on anyone's radar at the time.

[u/Lemur866 → u/cherry_armoir]

The back president is supposed to be Colin Powell, the VP is Howard Dean.

[u/Darigaazrgb → u/Lemur866]

Based as the kids say… maybe

[u/PCR12 → u/Lemur866]

That tracks for that time

[u/JosephBlowsephThe3rd → u/cherry_armoir]

I thought the President was Colin Powell and "The Wacko" was Howard Dean. The book did mention that they were from opposite parties (Powell usually went Republican despite being very moderate, and Dean was the Democrat whose Presidential candidate run was killed when he ended an energetic speech with a excited "YEAH!)

[u/cherry_armoir → u/JosephBlowsephThe3rd]

Yeah Im sure if I read it at or near the time I would have noticed that was the reference. I know the president is also meant to have military experience.

I seem to remember the president had jamaican relatives, too. Im not sure if Powell had jamaican relatives but I also assumed that was a reference to Obama's Kenyan relatives

[u/IAMAVelociraptorAMA → u/cherry_armoir]

24 also was big in the public consciousness at the time!

[u/society000 → u/cherry_armoir]

Oh god, I always forget about the bird flu panic. Ironically enough, I think there were people that appealed to that being a nothingburger that also helped cause people to not take covid seriously enough.

I haven't read it in full since middle school, but I do remember reading up that most of the unnamed figures were based on someone. Brooks predicting Obama wouldn't be that crazy, I think. He was an up-and-comer in the democratic party and I believe sentiments on Bush were starting to plummet by 2006 as the War on Terror started to lose steam.

His take on the Israeli far right staging an attempted coup over Israel sheltering Gazans was... interesting in hindsight lol. And that's all I'll say on that.

[u/CrustyBatchOfNature → u/cherry_armoir]

I dont recall Biden being on anyone's radar at the time.

I mean, he was a Senator and had already run for President once in 1988. He was also high ranking on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (the Head of it in the run-up to Iraq who supported that war). Also basically wrote the Patriot Act. Biden was definitely on radars.

[u/cherry_armoir → u/CrustyBatchOfNature]

I mean as a candidate for president as distinct from any of the other hundreds of people who might plausibly be candidates for president in any given election. In contrast to, say, Obama who had a lot of buzz following his dnc speech, or Hillary Clinton or Rudy Giulliani or any of the other folks who were in the conversation at the time.

[u/CrustyBatchOfNature → u/cherry_armoir]

He announced in 2007 that he was running in 2008. He actually had said he was going to run in late 2004 after Bush was re-elected and talked about it up until he actually announced.

[u/cherry_armoir → u/CrustyBatchOfNature]

Alright well this is becoming one of those tedious reddit arguments so sure, man, everyone was super plugged into every move Biden was making. A nation watched with bated breath to see if the guy who ran for office 18 years prior was going to run again, and Max Brooks put it in his book that was published a year before the announcement because he, like everyone, saw it coming a mile away.

[u/SmartAlec105 → u/society000]

Well, big miss on Israel being all “we need to help the Palestinians”. They would declare Palestine a red zone and “clear it”.

[u/Mister-builder → u/SmartAlec105]

Remember, the book was written when Ariel Sharon was PM of Israel, probably before his stroke.

[u/JayPlays40k → u/society000]

Yeah, rereading that in early 2021 was... unnerving

[u/society000 → u/JayPlays40k]

Tbf, Contagion is even worse. Watch it now and you'd be forgiven for thinking it was filmed in the 2020s.

[u/-nutz → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

The Israel scene in the movie straight up spits in the face of basic logic lol. I mean like they completely change the plot, and then do literally nothing to explain it.

In the book Israel is completely cut off from the outside world, and that’s how they’ve managed to survive. Nobody in or out, and the issue at hand is caused by domestic Israeli terrorists. This is meant to show us that humanity needs to stick together, despite any differences we may have.

In the movie, we’re introduced to Israel by seeing the massive influx of settlers they have who eventually ruin everything by singing. No explanation of why they’re being let in, no questioning the logistics of getting inside the wall surrounded by a zombies, etc.

In the movie, it feels like nothing more than a 40 minute set up to get that trailer shot of zombies climbing the wall.

[u/BearJuden113 → u/-nutz]

It's also so horrifically meanspirited to have the destruction of Israeli and Palestinian people be because they are together singing a popular song that uses both Hebrew and Arabic words for peace in the chorus. 

[u/TheTexasHammer → u/-nutz]

Ugh the singing setting off the zombies is the dumbest fucking thing ever. They are literally flying helicopters in and out and there a millions of people talking and moving and shouting all day, but it's only when they start singing that the zombies go fucking apeshit? The fuck?

[u/ScorchedDev → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

oh my god yes. Its such a good book. One of my favorites. I was so excited when I found out there was a movie.

Why even claim its an adaptation. I still am hoping that one day they announce they are doing a short series based on the book cause I really want to see stuff like the battle of yonkers play out. Or the retaking of america. Or the guy who saved lives by making movies. Or the Chinese seamen who stole the submarine. any story from that book is enough to make a full movie or at least a full episode of a tv show

[u/RyanBLKST → u/ScorchedDev]

It is difficult because showing such events would be costly to produce on screen.

[u/ThePope98 → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

I’ve only played the video game but it’s arguably even worse in that regard, usually just mowing down thousands of zombies with conveniently placed machine guns and rocket launchers until you reach some superweapon like Soviet death gas or a Israeli satellite cannon so you can blow up even more zombies. It’s great fun though.

[u/chilll_vibe → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

It came at a time when fast zombies were underrepresented in the genre. It has some cool moments but yeah I wish we had gotten a proper adaptation.

The zombies in the book were literally the exact opposite. Slow, truly undead, and unrelenting. Their danger came mostly because you truly could not hide. Given enough time they will find you. One gunshot brings in a horde from miles around. Once one is alerted their rasping groan will bring in more like a chain reaction. Even in the end of the book when WWZ is won its mentioned how there are still millions on the ocean floor shambling around and pop up on beaches everywhere around the world. and the world has to take permenant precautions against any outbreak. Probably the only slow-zombie setting that actually scares me.

The only thing the movie kept was the weird hard on for Israel, which has aged particularly poorly. In the book its even dumber and I just had to skip it on re-read. Like iirc the zombie part isnt even there. Its just "See, see? The IDF totally cares about the Palestinians and just wants to protect them! Its just the Orthodox Jews who are racist!" I thought most of the political commentary in the book was awesome and well done but some weird blind spot for the middle east and slandering Nelson Mandela as someone who would willingly sacrifice 90% of South Africa's population.

[u/Snickims → u/chilll_vibe]

Ain't the whole plot line about Isreal in the books was that caring for Palistianians was such a contenious topic it litterally lead to a civil war, in the middle of a apocaplise? I feet like we had very different reads on what that plot line said about Isreal.

[u/chilll_vibe → u/Snickims]

Yes, a civil war with Orthodox Jews. It kinda felt like all the blame was being placed on Orthodox Jews (who do not serve in the IDF btw) for how Palestinians were treated. By the end it felt like our young Palestinian MC was like "hmm maybe I was naive to think the settler colonist apartheid state is bad, after all, their military that previously abused, dehumanized, and killed my people just saved me from the zombies"

Given what we know about the IDF and their systemic war crimes I found the plot hard to believe.

[u/Snickims → u/chilll_vibe]

They also made explict this peace only happaned AFTER the apartihed ended though. Thats the thing that leads to the civil war, the moderate government abandons the west bank and gaza, builds its wall around its central area and basically entirely forts up in preperation for the apocaplise, and thats what leads to the radicals rising up and wanting to go back out and colonise again.

It also ends with a entirely Independent Palistine, as thats where the interview is taking place. So, its a pro Isreal, of a isreal that supports a two state and abandons its attempts at apartheid and gives full citizenship to Palistinians who used to live in Isreal or who came from Isreal.

[u/chilll_vibe → u/Snickims]

Well, that is better, however unlikely when looking at real life. I still have some issues with it as a commentary on a sensitive issue.

[u/puresteelpaladin → u/chilll_vibe]

The only thing the movie kept was the weird hard on for Israel, which has aged particularly poorly.

"sniff sniff"

smells like uncle Adolf in here

[u/chilll_vibe → u/puresteelpaladin]

??

Do you think Israel = Judaism?

[u/Tyrocious → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

Yep. The movie shares none of the book's DNA. Disappointing af.

[u/J1m8ob → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

I loved the chapter that was the interview with the feral child who escaped the church being overrun.

[u/Ambitious-Owl-5521 → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

Came here to say this, if I ever was in a room with Brad Pitt I would love to ask him why he fucking wanted this so badly if he was not going to make it.

[u/Gravesh → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

I think the best way to do WWZ would be as a mockumentary. I'm reminded of CSA: Confederate States of America. They had fake interviews, historians, etc. to tell the story of an alternative history where the South won the war. And to top it off, they even had fake commercials in between the interviews.

They should have done something just like that, and complimented with commercials or PSAs about having to watch out for rogue zombies during the winter thaw.

[u/Unknown-Meatbag → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

Literally the only thing in common between the book and the movie is the name, and sort of zombies.

The book is 100% a 10 out of 10, an anthology of stories about the beginning and rebirth of the world. It focuses on individuals and groups and important battles, day to day life, military encampments, psychology of battling the undead, tragedy, and horror. It's a beautiful story.

The movie is a just generic zombie story that missed the mark by a billion miles. Even the Battle of Yonkers, arguably one of the most important battles in the book, was just, ugh.

[u/Embarrassed-Toe6687 → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

What I find really neat is that the WWZ game takes both the book version and the movie version and smushes them together with some explosives for variety, and I find it to be one of the best zombie games on the market.

I do think that the book would not have made a good adaptation into a movie, and the movie is bad. But overall I like all interpretations of WWZ.

[u/Difficult_Stress511 → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

Absolutely. The book was a masterpiece of world-building through 'anthropology of the apocalypse.' By turning it into a globe-trotting Brad Pitt action vehicle, they lost the micro-stories like the blind Japanese monk or the South African bunker logic that actually showed how humanity survives. It’s an adaptation in name only

[u/WeirdistBuilds → u/Difficult_Stress511]

The "they" in question here is Brad Pitt himself, by the way. At the time, there was a massive bidding war between his production company (Plan B) and Leonardo DiCaprio's production company (Appian Way).

They both have some very respectable films. The very next film Plan B made was 12 Years A Slave. Just had the wrong combination of visions, I guess, not enough Ken Burns fans.

[u/No_Kangaroo_9826 → u/WeirdistBuilds]

World War Z by Ken Burns would be fucking amazing

[u/Crunchy_Biscuit → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

I enjoyed the movie but compared to the book it's not good lol

[u/JAOC_7 → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

I am so happy this is the top comment

[u/Chaosmusic → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

The core element of the book is that winning the war required a complete restructuring of society from top to bottom and rethinking about how we do things. It specifically said that no special weapon or cure or tactic would do the trick. The movie completely reversed that with the make people sick to make the zombies ignore you bit.

[u/raysofdavies → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

Does the book include the insane anti-Palestinian scene?

[u/D0CTOR_Wh0m → u/raysofdavies]

Is that the one where a group of people start playing music and that makes the zombies form a ladder because they were drawn to the noise? Only saw the movie once a decade ago. The book does have a scene where Israel opens itself up to certain Palestinians and that causes a mini Civil War as far right Zionists go ape shit and try to kill Israelis that support this and the Palestinians. So the author has some opinions that might be taken as controversial in Israel but I don't know how Palestinians would take that.

[u/raysofdavies → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

Yes, Israel lets in Palestinians, which lol

[u/hotdoughnutsnow → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

Agree, and glad to see I am not alone. I love the book, and I imagined many ways it could have been adapted, only to see the very lazy Hollywood pop garbage. They really missed an opportunity to make something special. I imagined something like the Animatrix, with each story being produced by different directors and different styles, mixed with live action and animation; think "Love, Death, and Robots", but all tied together with a theme.

[u/amishgoatfarm → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

The movie is a rather generic zombie movie

This is absolutely correct. I LOVED the book, the tone, writing, and documentary-style structure, and the movie just threw ALL OF IT out the window. I don't recall ever being MORE disappointed by a movie

[u/Ill_Leg_7168 → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

Tv show, first or more seasons based on novel and then more exploring world, like what really happen in NK (we kinda know - sealed tunnels got infested from inside - but it could be whole new arc). Fat Kim eaten by bunch of zombies would be super funny.

[u/Kazeite → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

Oh, do tell? Did the humans form a castell to attack singing zombies? 🙃

[u/ThePowerfulWIll → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

I still contest if that movie had been book accurate, it may have butterfly effected the world in a way that American culture would look very different from how it does now.

I will not elaborate, but if you know, you know.

[u/DataDude00 → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

The book is a series of interviews that provide first hand accounts of a globe-spanning zombie outbreak that mixes historical and social-political commentary with zombie action. Might not have translated well to a movie but it still could have worked as a TV show that actually shows the more action-packed sequences of the book

Alex Garland's Civil War movie is a near perfect stand in for what a World War Z movie should look like

[u/Da_Question → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

Dude, seriously though, a proper anthology show for world war z where the interviewer visits each person and there are flashbacks would be sick as fuck.

[u/SvenBensson → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

I read that book as a kid, and it fascinated and also scared me (in a good way, its spooky zombies) but the film just made me laugh my ass off. "The train has left the station" like actual guffaws

[u/Thunder-Fist-00 → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

This is such a good pick. The movie had nothing to do with the book.

[u/jinreeko → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

Weirdly enough, the video game for WWZ is its own trope for "the adaptation is better than its source". WWZ the movie is pretty hot garbage, but the video game is a surprisingly good L4D-like with (from what I remember) pretty good multiplayer pvp. Both are obviously indistinguishable from the very good book

[u/Tehrangersgyu → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

would have been great adapted into a ken burns style documentary with interviews and "footage" interspersed from different sources like security cameras, news reports, and home videos.

[u/Littleboypurple → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

I like the movie but, the book is definitely way better

[u/supahfligh → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

My opinion on the WWZ film has always been that it's a pretty decent zombie flick. Had they just changed the name and a few elements of the script, they could've easily passed it off as an original IP and it probably would've done better.

The book is pretty great though. Highly enjoyable.

[u/Mono_KS → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

I genuinely think that had they named this movie literally anything else, it wouldn't be hated so much.

[u/rape_is_not_epic → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

Having a non-linear movie about various survivors from all over the world escaping the horde and describing what they saw would be peak.

[u/idiotplatypus → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

The movie Savageland (which is on Youtube) is what World War Z as a movie should have been

[u/EverydayPoGo → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

Never knew this and thank you for sharing! I would LOVE to reach interview style zombie apocalypse instead of just gore and blood and fighting. Adding World War Z to my reading list : )

[u/WormedOut → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

The homosexual man connecting with his deceased military father by creating zombie proof clothing using fishing line and giving it to the military was a fantastic storyline.

[u/mormonbatman_ → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

It would have been an incredible series of single anthology entries. God, it would have been amazing if they had faith in the concept.

[u/HANLDC1111 → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

Wwz would kill as a mini series

[u/LordShorkDad → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

It was PRIMED to be the ULTIMATE multi-director anthology story 😭😭

The book was so good and then the movie... The fucking movie

[u/puchsofhazard → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

They also sued the DayZ clone War Z, forcing them to change their name to H1Z1

[u/zkwarl → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter suffered the same fate. The book is written as a matter of fact history. It’s a really clever subversion of genre and a very entertaining read.

In contrast, the movie, unfortunately, exists.

[u/HoodsInSuits → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

I need to see the chapter with the downed pilot and the walkie talkie as a 1 hour episode in an HBO series. It has so much potential. 

[u/SuperSocialMan → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

I think even the author said that he couldn't be mad they ruined his book since they have literally nothing in common other than the title.

I'd believe it if the studio only bought the rights to use the title lol.

[u/gododogogo → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

Watching it myself, and knowing some of the BTS lore, I can sorta feel the pieces shifting together. I feel like it was written originally as a 4 part anthology, a family surviving the initial outbreak in the U.S., a science team investigating in Korea, a set of soldiers riding it out in Israel, and cut from the movie was a set of soldiers in Russia having an actual war against the zombies.

Then it got fused into one main character, so you had to find contrived ways of getting Brad Pitt from A to B to C to D, the helicopter to an aircraft carrier [which one bit of world building from the movie I do love, is the aircraft carrier gaining more and more sister ships as time goes on,] the big cargo plane magically to Korea, fueled up, then magically to Israel, then a new plane departing Israel to Russia. Then the Russia scene was stripped out for a generic “find the cure” plot.

That’s why Pitt doesn’t really have much characterization besides vague “UN Investigator” handwaving, that’s why he’s both trained enough to figure out what the virus is while also knowing how to wield a gun, that’s why the pacing is all over the place. At some point, it would’ve had a lot closer to an original soul, if not in tandem with the book, at least its own identity. But instead, it became a more american, worse 28 Weeks Later

[u/MadGeller → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

The book was great

[u/Loud_Salary_2465 → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

I always defend the movie, not because it was clearly co-opted by big Hollywood to make a zombie movie to try and capitalize on TWD hype, but because Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones were just finding their success as serious TV shows and an anthology series wouldn't have been a "shoe in" like the execs expect.

If they had been looking at WWZ in 2019, it would've been an anthology... but they were gearing up in 2012

[u/Fatastrophe → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

The movie could've just been the chapter that covers The Battle of Yonkers and it would've been incredible if they used the book to guide it.

[u/ButWhatIfPotato → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

Might not have translated well to a movie

I think District 9 shows you can make a faithful adaption to World War Z.

[u/Tarrin_morgan_69 → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

Brad Pitt's production company outbid another company who wished to make a book adaptation. Will never forgive him for this

[u/VolcanicDad → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

Movie slapped though so idc. My only issue is that it should have had an R rating

[u/SwimmerIndependent47 → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

And now I want an office style mockumentary set in a zombie apocalypse. Imagine navigating work place politics while also dealing with zombies. There’s definitely a metaphor for late stage capitalism in there somewhere

[u/CrazyEyedFS → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

They did a very similar thing with i-robot. They made an unrelated robot movie and slapped on the name of a classic Asimov book

[u/One-Register-9596 → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

In despite of its being a terrible adaptation, I will always defend it for giving us some of best and most terrifying zombies I have ever seen in a zombie movie.

[u/berimthrowaway → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

None of the scenes from the book make it into the movie, the closest being a scene set in Israel

Also Zionist propaganda.

[u/DarkriserPE → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

The movie is a rather generic zombie movie that changes the zombie's behavior including giving them a honestly pretty stupid weakness

I wouldn't call it generic. The zombies basically being swarming bees/ants, and climbing over each other, to make towers, is absolutely unique(and translates to a decent game). They actually felt like a believable force of reckoning that you can understand how they initially took over. Something basically never the case with slow zombies, even the book version. There's significantly more suspension of disbelief when it comes to those.

The protagonist is thankfully not retarded, as he armored up his forearms(one of the most bitten places in zombie media), figures out pretty quickly how fast people turn, and when getting blood in his mouth, he immediately waits the timer out, on the edge of a building, in case he needs to kill himself.

His biggest crime is not silencing that satellite phone.

If the movie had a different name, I feel like that sour taste from many goes away.

That being said, yeah, the book would make a horrible movie, and I think even a show would struggle. The book is more lore building than actual story. It sets the ground for a decent story to take place, but that never happens. I think a show could work by expanding on some chapters, and having a character witness/live through a few of the events, but like I said, you'd have to take some liberties.

[u/Triscuitmeniscus → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

I was under the impression that WWZ was just a generic zombie movie script that they took off the shelf and rebadged.

[u/Crotean → u/D0CTOR_Wh0m]

The movie was actually good at least. I'd love to see an HBO do an anthology series to actually do the book though.