8 Things that the World War Z Movie Have in Common With the Book

Jonny Prophet and I saw World War Z yesterday. Having enjoyed the book, I was curious how faithful the movie would be to the book. I didn't have expectations and to that end I wasn't really disappointed. In all, I think the movie was about 5% accurate to the source material... so yeah, it's easier to cite the similarities rather than the differences. That said, here are 8 things I noticed in common with the book:

1. Zombies - Although the movie zombies were the more recent “running” type rather than the traditional slow moving hordes from George Romero’s films and, subsequently, the book itself. To that extent, like with any zombie apocalypse story, the cities are screwed. I'm not sure that can count though. 

2. The Zombie Cry – The book made a big deal out of the growing howl noise the zombies made. They did a good job with this in the movie and it added a level of creepiness to tense scenes.

3. Zeke – Like in the book, the military used nickname of “Zeke” for the zombies.

4. Doctor Gets Bit – The origin was never really revealed like in the book, but there was a key element the movie carried over. A doctor examines an unconscious patient, only for said patient to wake up as a zombie and bite the doctor. However, the people were Chinese in the book, not Korean and the patient was a boy, not an AWOL soldier.

5. South Africa – In the book, South Africa had a major involvement in the plot. In the movie they are mentioned over the radio. I give partial credit for that.

6. Nuclear Explosion – Again, partial credit. During a fly-over, a nuclear detonation is seen below. It is never explained, but likely this is in reference to the nuclear exchange that took place between Pakistan and Iran in the book.  

7. India – Once again, partial credit. India was significant to the story and the fact that Brad Pitt went there at least shows some effort to connect the book to the screen, even if what took place in India was completely different. By the way, the nuclear explosion could have also come from India where they used at least one to take out a zombies en mass.  

8. Walled-Off Israel – This was probably the most accurate thing from the source material to the film. Israel was walled off and refugees were allowed in after going through the checkpoint cages. However, since the zombies were not runners, they didn’t scale the wall in a big undead mass and get inside Israel. (Though I did think that was a cool touch to add a little originality.)

That’s about it. It’s likely I missed something since its been a while since I read the book, but these commonalities are what stood out to me. I would say that the movie and book of World War Z share more in common than just the title, but not by much. 

In conclusion, World War Z the movie is an okay zombie flick, I've seen better, I've seen worse. The book, however, is fantastic. I highly recommend that over the film any day.