Post-Apocalyptic Storylineand characters

Brief overview of a post apocalyptic storyline

The storyline of a post apocalyptic movie is similar to Todorov's equilibrium theory, where everything is fine, something destroys the equilibrium then there is a re-equilibrium at the end of the movie, or maybe there is no re-equilibrium, but there will be another film after the one made to keep people on edge and to the have a re-equilibrium made in the second film.

Example 1- 28 Days Later

In 28 days later, the protagonist, Jim wakes up from a coma to find himself with no one around him, even though he is in a hospital. He goes for a walk and finds a pair of survivors in a ‘zombie’-apocalyptic London. One of the survivors die and Jim and the other survivor (Selena) go for a wonder to try and find shelter. They eventually meet another pair of survivors and teams up with those. On the radio they start listening to, they hear a call from the army saying they have protection and the cure to the infected. They travel to the army base and one of the survivors becomes infected and dies. The army then turns on the survivors and Jim ends up killing all of the army. Jim, Selena and Hannah then wait to be found by other survivors.

Example 2- World War Z

World War Z-Life for Gerry Lane is all civil and calm until a mysterious virus gets unleashed and suddenly the world starts to become over run with raging, flesh eating zombies. Lane must battle through harsh choices to try and find the cure to this virus to the same human civilisation. By doing this, he explores the area in which he is in and notices that people with an illness does not get attacked. Due to his observations, he realises that he needs to be ‘ill’ in order to survive. He then goes to a facility and injects himself with a vaccination and he then becomes ‘invisible’ to the infected. Due to this, he had officially found the cure to save humanity.

Example 3-Shaun of the Dead

Shaun begins at home and then he goes to work and then comes back, which throughout that, shows how boring his life is. Once he gets home he sits with his best friend and finds a young girl in their garden to then discover that she is a zombie. Since then they keep encountering zombies and they have to battle through them to keep each other ,and those closest to them, safe. Eventually they bump into a group of survivors which looks like the main survivors and they do not unite. Shaun takes the group he was originally with to the Winchester (a pub) and settle down there. However, the zombies end up getting in the pub and then the group have to relocate somewhere else. They eventually bump into the army and get rescued.

The characters in a post apocalyptic film

In a post apocalyptic movie there are different ways in which characters are shown. Alone as a survivor In a pair In a group

Usually, if a character is represented as alone then they will soon unite with others throughout the film and unfortunately some may die.

If people are in a pair then usually one of them dies or gets lost so the pair split, or in other cases the pair meets a group and they unite.

If people are in a group it is more than likely that some of the people in that group get killed or the group separates due to a disagreement.

Example of characters in a post apocalyptic film-1, Shaun of the Dead Lets take Shaun of the Dead again. Shaun and his friend, Ed, are alone and then they realise that the town

is full of zombies. One the realisation hits them, they go on a hunt to collect other survivors whom which they know: Shaun’s mum and step dad, his ex girlfriend and her 2 friends.

Sadly, Shaun’s step dad dies and so does his mum, as they become infected in the middle of the film.

At the end of the film Ed becomes infected, but luckily Shaun keeps him in his shed and there is a re-equilibrium.

Example two- Dawn of the Dead

Dawn of the Dead begins with Ana going home and sees her boyfriend getting attacked by her zombie neighbour. She then flees and ends up bumping into a police man and other survivors. They then head to a shopping mall and get ‘captured’ by the security. The security hold them hostage and unfortunately for them they end up getting captured by the survivors. A survivor eventually gives birth to a zombie and sadly the baby and the woman dies.

Over time some survivors get killed/infected and we are eventually left with only a couple of survivors