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| Pitt and Enos running for their lives. |
Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) is a former U.N. employee who resides with his wife, Karin (Mireille Enos), and his daughters, Rachel and Constance. It is basically the start of a normal day: Gerry making the family pancakes, and the kids asking questions about martial law and other issues. Later, they are all sitting in heavy Philadelphia traffic when chaos erupts. A group of zombies spread all over the city attacking innocent bystanders and Lane and his family escape in an RV to Newark.
While arriving in Newark, they stop at a crowded grocery store with lights flickering and Gerry goes to the pharmacy to get medicine for her asthmatic daughter. Next, they go to an apartment unit where they encounter a family with a kid named Tommy. Thierry, deputy secretary-general and friend, calls the family and informs them that they will send a helicopter to rescue them.
The Lanes and Tommy escape from a swirl of infected people (including their parents) attacked by the zombies by the helicopter. They board onto a vessel on the U.S. Navy. A virologist presumes that it is a plague during a meeting. To get some proof and investigate the origin of the virus, Gerry, because of his U.N. investigation expertise, helps the virologist look for the source and they land on a military base in South Korea.
While there, Gerry is being rescued by the base's surviving personnel led by Capt. Speke (James Badge Dale). After an attack, Gerry discovers that the zombies are attracted to noise. He also meets with a former CIA operative (David Morse) who is imprisoned and he tells Gerry to Jerusalem where they have a safe zone before the outbreak was established. After another zombie attack started by the noise from Gerry's mobile phone because his wife was calling, Gerry and his team go to Jerusalem.
I like this movie more than I anticipated. I found that the anticipation for a zombie extravaganza was overrated. But due to the success of The Walking Dead on AMC and the book, Paramount decided it is all right to make it. The movie starts out right away with an intense sequence in Philadelphia where people run for their lives from zombies. It's frenetic and quick and basically, the scariest sequence in my opinion. There are sequences of attack in South Korea, Jerusalem, on the plane, and in WHO headquarters.
The sequence is WHO headquarters is solely quiet where Pitt gets communication from the WHO where a zombie is from where is walking to get a cure in the abandoned facility. It is almost on par with the climactic scene in Alien where Ripley is alone on board of a ship and the alien attacks her.
Brad Pitt establishes himself as a central character that you can follow amidst the intensity of what is going on around the world. Marc Forster, the director, tries to take this seriously. You got to give him credit for attempting to make that good movie. It is smart movie with brains, no pun intended, where they explain the medical issues surrounding the "zombie" problem. It is an apocalyptic movie with not a lot of trite dialogue. I also want to credit Daniella Kertesz who plays a soldier that is brave, even when Gerry had to amputate her arm after she was infected. She's like Ripley from Alien in a way.
There are flaws in this movie. I felt like that the filmmakers did not do a good way as to why Gerry Lane was needed. It felt like a quick precis as to why he was recommended. The climactic sequence at the WHO is quiet and tense, yes, but it gets a bit too long. Besides the Lane family and the brave soldier, there was not a single character that I cared about in the long run. But, this is a solid entertaining movie that delivers and I had quite a fun time.
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