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Hi, everyone and welcome back to Geek Time. Hi, Brad.

Hi, Lulu.

So I thought every time I always ask you what we're going to talk about. This time, let me propose a topic.

OK.

Over the years I’ve watched a lot of horror films and one particular genre are about zombies.

Uh.

And with most of the zombie films, the whole setup is always the world is ending.

Yeah.

Yeah, and then zombies are taking over. How are these survivors trying to survive, right?

In English, we call that the zombie apocalypse.

Apocalypse basically means the end of the world.

Yeah.

所以今天我们就聊一个非常奇怪的话题, zombie apocalypse, 就是僵尸出现的这种世界末日.

First of all, let's establish the basics for some of our listeners who never watch these types of shows. But I'm sure even if you have never watched, you have heard of it. What is a zombie? What is a zombie to you?

There's a traditional zombie is the undead slow walker that's…

Mostly green?

It can be green, gray, color ash, they're dead. And so their skin starts going dark. And basically the whole thing is if they bite you, you become a zombie.

So basically it is contagious.

Yeah.

They can spread it. So it's more like a virus. Yeah, what Brad was saying that's like the conventional western zombie?

Yeah.

You do know there's Chinese zombie as well.

Oh. Yeah.

Chinese zombie would hop.

I’ve actually seen an old Jackie Chan movie where they had like the Chinese zombies that we're hopping around.

Yeah, but they either way with zombies, most people probably have the idea. First of all, they move with a particular pattern.

Uh.

Either they're very slow, they drag their feet, or they're like Chinese zombies, they hop.

Uh.

So it's doesn't sound like they are as active as some of the other movie monsters.

Yeah.

Right. But then have you watched some of the Korean films?

Yeah, like Train to Busan. That's crazy. Ha.

《釜山行》, 我不知道大家有没有看过. So that sort of zombies that's not traditional zombies anymore.

No, there's 28 days later which is a movie that as a more modern take on zombies as well, the similar type of zombies really fast. If you…there's a big series on YouTube right now, there's a series of videos talking about your survival chances based on which movie you are in. So they talk about like either how to survive a particular one or why you wouldn't survive this one? And for the Train to Busan, because the zombies are the way they are. He just said there's you would not survive this.

When I was watching that film, I have to say that's very impactful film. That when you watch it you think, yeah, I probably just give up.

Yeah.

Zero survival chance. And back to how they will get you. Yeah, they can just sort of kill you. But when they kill you, they turn you.

Yeah, it depends on like the law, some of the law states that everyone is infected with this virus and when you die you turn. But if you get bitten, because you have a larger dose of it, it will just automatically turn you and kill you no matter what.

So you are the dead or you become the undead.

Yeah.

And it's always a disease, it's always a virus kind of thing.

Right.

And usually these kind of stories they always start with some experiment gone wrong or doesn't unknown virus. But with all these, since they're already undead, you have to kill them in a specific way. You can't just, for example, shooting them in the chest. It's not going to kill them because they're already dead.

Right.

The whole point is that like the virus takes over their basic motor controls and controls them and moves them, so they can spread the virus. And that's kind of idea behind it. The whole idea is basically that the virus is controlling the brain. At a very minute level, it hungers, it needs to survive and so it needs to eat flesh to survive, but also…

They don't have higher brain functions.

The higher brain function is gone.

But cutting their head off, whacking their head that's going to do the trick.

Cutting their head off will only separate them from their body and their body will be dead. But the head can still bite you.

So you have to completely mangled the brain.

Right. You have to hit destroy the brain, so shoot them or you have to destroy the brain matter.

I see. And like I said, most of these stories they always start with something gone wrong. And then the virus gets out and spreads which really is not like many of the other monster films. If you think about other monsters, what are you talking about vampire or ghosts. It's never so much apocalypse.

Right.

You don't hear about ghost apocalypse. Why is…why do you think zombies always is linked with end of the world scenario?

When you look at vampires, for example, vampires and werewolves and these they're smarter. Well, werewolves can't really control it, but it only happens once a month and they only eat one person or something like that. When it comes to vampires, if they bite someone that person can become a vampire as well. But they're smart and they know they need a food supply. And so they would never let them get to the point where they don't have a food supply. Whereas like a zombie, zombie has no brain function. It's a virus.

It's a really basic instinct. They're always hungry, they are always hungry for brains.

Yeah.

But to be honest, with the zombie apocalypse was how it spreads. It's just a bit scary to think that this is how a virus spreads.

Right.

Like any other contagious virus.

That's probably how people started thinking about it. They started thinking about zombies as being kind of like a way to explain the spread of a virus.

I’m sure glad that this is not a zombie virus because that sounds like really scary. And then in these kinds of films, usually where do these people go?

The people typically go to the countryside because countryside has a much smaller population. They usually are a little bit more spread out, flatter areas. So you can kind of see if anything is coming at you.

So they can social distance.

Yeah, kind of. But it's always you want to stay away from groups of people, right? When you're in the zombie apocalypse and just any apocalypse, it's not the zombies are fighting against. It's also other people who might be looking for supplies as well, who you're going to be fighting against.

Yeah, that's how TV shows like The Walking Dead as managed to go on for so many series. If it's just about them shooting zombies, it would have ended 10 episodes into the show. But it's also about them meeting other groups, finding other groups, mostly just fighting other humans, really.

But like if you think about where you should go, right? Like the most optimum place for a person to go would be some place that has really cold winters. Zombies don't put on clothes and so like if zombies are in a place where it's really cold winter.

But they also don't feel cold, though.

But they're going to freeze.

Oh. So they cannot move.

Right.

I see.

Like you go somewhere where it has really cold winters, you have a bunch of supplies and you wait it out. In a house they freeze and while they're freezing, they can't really do much and so you could easily survive much easier that way.

Smart. All right. It's a weird, weird topic, but I’m glad I brought it up and this is the basics. Let us know what kind of zombie films or TV shows you have watched. What is your favorite? What is your least favorite? In the advanced episode, let's focus on the bright side. Let's see if there are any survival guide for imaginary zombie apocalypse.

All right.

I’m so sorry, I dragged it as we're talking.

That's all right. That's always fun.

All right. We'll see you next time.

See you next time, everyone.

Bye.