History Literature / WorldWarZ

** The intro to the book even says that this is kind of the point- there are official reports in-universe, but they don't show the personal, human, incomplete touch. The horror of a four-year-old whose mom tried to kill her to MercyKill her, the a woman who [[MaybeMundaneMaybeMagic might have hallucenated a voice that guided her to safety]], a refugee who didn't know the larger context of the war...

** As noted in {{Artistic License Biology}}, Brooks portrays the zombies inconsistently so that the most effective ranged weapon against them is semi-automatic weapons, rendering his much hated gun, the AR-15, obsolete. This is despite the fact that, as noted in {{Artistic License Military}}, [[EpicFail nearly all civilian AR-15s are semi-automatic only]].
* AuthorAvatar: The unnamed narrator is implied to be Max Brooks himself, who also performed the role in the audio book, and is hinted to have written ''The Zombie Survival Guide'' within the context of the story.

** T. Sean Collins explicitly refuses to name names during his account on the basis that some of them (or at least their estates) are still alive and active and threatening to sue, but [[Series/AmericanIdol Ruben Studdard]], Creator/ParisHilton, [[Series/RealTimeWithBillMaher Bill Maher]], and Ann Coulter were all at the ill-fated celebrity bunker. Maher tells anybody who will listen that the ZombieApocalypse is merely a sign of the breakdown of the capitalist/consumerist system (in between ranting about high-fructose corn syrup and the "feminization of America"), Hilton makes fun of a wannabe zombie hunter who [[TooDumbToLive gets himself killed]] on national TV, Ruben and his handler (who's wearing a [[Creator/LarryTheCableGuy "Get It Done!"]] cap) get blown up by a hand grenade, and Maher and Coulter [[OutWithABang have sex as everything goes to hell]].
*** While the man who set up the celebrity bunker likewise is unnamed, the hints imply that he's meant to be UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump.

** The development of the "Standard Infantry Rifle" is completely unnecessary from a realism standpoint; if the Army in the post-apocalypse needed a new rifle for their new anti-Zombie military doctrine based on semi-auto fire, they could've just modified their massive stockpiles of M16s and lock them into semi-auto only, rather than spend a load of time and resources on designing and ''producing'' a new rifle. The choice to create this new rifle seems to stem from Max Brooks’ disdain for the AR-15, as seen in his depiction of the rifle in ''Literature/TheZombieSurvivalGuide''.[[note]]Note to mention the millions upon millions of civilian AR-15s that are ''already'' semi-auto only.[[/note]]

* AuthorAppeal: Israel's status as the most successful nation against the zombie threat is obviously peppered by a little Jewish pride on the part of Brooks.

* GaiasLament: The ecosystem is badly damaged by the war. Ash and pollutants from the unprecedented number of fires worldwide has caused the planet to cool rapidly, many water sources are polluted, places such as the Canadian Subarctic have yet to recover from severe deforestation and garbage dumping, and several species on land and especially in the oceans have either had their populations devastated or have gone extinct.

* DirtyCommunists: A ''lot'' of the blame for the Z-War is directed at the "[[YellowPeril ChiComs]]"; from [[OrganTheft exporting black market organs that actually came from either zombies or infectees]] and smuggling infected persons out of China, to disguising the zombie hunts as crackdowns, to swelling the zombie herds with {{Zerg Rush}}es, to bungling evacuation efforts, to ''attempting to destroy the global satellite network with a debris storm'', the Chinese do a fairly good job of screwing things up. Of course, {{Eagleland}} wasn't at its best either--see UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror for more.

* DirtyCommunists: A ''lot'' of the blame for the Z-War is directed at the "[[YellowPeril ChiComs]]"; from [[{{Organlegging}} exporting black market organs that actually came from either zombies or infectees]] and smuggling infected persons out of China, to disguising the zombie hunts as crackdowns, to swelling the zombie herds with {{Zerg Rush}}es, to bungling evacuation efforts, to ''attempting to destroy the global satellite network with a debris storm'', the Chinese do a fairly good job of screwing things up. Of course, {{Eagleland}} wasn't at its best either--see UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror for more.

--->Remember what I said about being beholden to your conscience? You can’t blame anyone else, not the plan’s architect, not your commanding officer, no one but yourself. You have to make your own choices and live every agonizing day with the consequences of those choices. He knew this. That’s why he deserted us like we deserted those civilians. He saw the road ahead, a steep, treacherous mountain road. We’d all have to hike that road, each of us dragging the boulder of what we’d done behind us. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t shoulder the weight.

*** The military explicitly had highly-effective anti-Zach black ops. The fact that zombies are (somehow) resistant to explosives, feel no fear, and can "chain swarm" never came up, or wasn't given to the folks planning Yonkers, or wasn't considered relevant. Note that a ''dog'' figured out the basic principle of the latter to lure zombies to their death, without any human help.
** More like Hollywood strategy: After the rout at Yonkers, the military and government apparently just ''gave up'' on decisively beating the enemy for several years. Even though it should still have lots of men and metal to try again with the problems fixed.

* HollywoodTactics: The earlier battles against the zombies, notably the Battle of Yonkers, contain many examples of this. While various in-universe explanations are given (such as generals expecting a quick, easy victory to show off to the media), ultimately the zombies only inflict as much damage as they do because the human armies are prevented from using proper tactics. The major reasons enumerated are:
** Bringing, and using, anti-vehicle weapons against a massed human-wave attack.[[note]]This is particularly egregious because in recent history the Army was ready to design an entirely new ammunition type for the Abrams main gun for use in Iraq (optimized for use against obstacles and improvised fortifications), rather than choose to use sabot for a job it was not good at.[[/note]]
** Not only failing to bring enough ammo, but being ''honestly surprised'' that they ran out of ammo for even the anti-tank weapons after half an hour of continuous fire.[[note]]This is handwaved as the military being overconfident, but it goes against the normal US military doctrine which says that ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill, which is used as a PR strategy ("Shock And Awe") as well as for serious warfighting.[[/note]]
** Everything that had to do with the defensive line. They not only had just one line of defense,[[note]]The military state of the art had advanced beyond this kind of tactical layout before the end of the Bronze Age. The ''Assyrians'' understood the concept of holding back at least some elements in reserve in order to have them available to reinforce vs. enemy breakthrough or exploit sudden opportunities.[[/note]] but no soldiers were put in overwatch positions on buildings, they'd failed to secure the combat zone behind them (say, checking to make sure that homes were empty of zombies),[[note]]Failing to provide for flank guard and/or rear guard when laying out fighting positions is an error as fundamental as holding onto the grenade and throwing the pin instead of the other way around. The military has standard procedures for maintaining at least some kind of watch on flanks and rear for units all the way down to a single fire team (four men). Sweeping an area for concealed enemy units before setting up camp on it is even more basic than that. And yet the military at Yonkers, despite being present in at least brigade strength, fails to do either effectively.[[/note]] and valuable time, resources, and energy were wasted building cover (blasting tank bunkers out of parking lots, even!) against a force without ranged weapons.
** Reserving artillery until the enemy was in sight of the infantry line, then firing all the artillery at the initial small groups of zombies instead of letting the lighter guns handle them.[[note]]MLRS has a maximum range of approximately 30 miles, and a ''minimum'' range of several miles.[[/note]]
** Deploying all soldiers in MOPP gear, even though they had not been trained to move and fire in that gear, and even though it was in a completely unnecessary environment, as reporters and officers were not wearing protective gear. Furthermore, they failed to even use the graduated stages of MOPP gear, by having infantry don the whole set of protective equipment instead of doing it in phases based on weather & threat.[[note]]It's possible the MOPP gear ''did'' save lives, but only after things fell apart and bits of exploded zombie were flying everywhere.[[/note]]
** The Land Warrior combat integration system, designed to allow soldiers to communicate with each other and with their commanders while giving ready access to GPS data, maps, and satellite reconnaissance. Its main accomplishment was demoralizing the soldiers equipped with it, as it personally showed each of them just how large the horde was (Wainio notes the satellite and aerial data showed the horde reaching from New York City - an unbroken, miles-wide snake 17 miles long, and countless soldiers just freaking out upon seeing it), and allowed them to watch their comrades all across the battlefield get overrun and horribly eaten in real time. [[note]]The Land Warrior system in truth never allowed for this ability in the first place, for this exact reason, and because allowing infantry to see what every other soldier is seeing causes massive information overload.[[/note]]
** Despite having complete aerial superiority and aerial spotters, there's no mention of ''airstrikes'' until things fall apart.
** The military explicitly had highly-effective anti-Zach black ops. The fact that zombies are (somehow) resistant to explosives, feel no fear, and can "chain swarm" never came up, or wasn't given to the folks planning Yonkers, or wasn't considered relevant. Note that a ''dog'' figured out the basic principle of the latter to lure zombies to their death, without any human help.

** Cuba, being relatively shielded by its remote location (and, more importantly, ''armed'', unlike the even more isolated Iceland which became a near-total death zone) saw a flood of North American refugees who quickly found themselves relegated to prison camps and menial labor, just as they had done to Cuban refugees fleeing Castro during the Cold War. However, to add an extra layer of irony, the Cuban goverment took careful steps to integrate the Americans into society with huge success, resulting in a liberalization of Cuba and eventually complete democratic reform. Castro, seeing the way the political winds were blowing, didn't fight the change but instead paved the way for free elections, and while he lost his candidacy, he ended up remembered as a hero rather than a dictator.

** Both the Whacko and Todd Wainio agree that the secessionists that the U.S. military very violently suppressed did have a solid reason for refusing to rejoin the United States. They correctly pointed out that America left them, not the other way around. Taken further, they weren't just forgotten during the withdrawal west, they were deliberetly left behind ''as bait'' to keep the dead distracted. The Whacko does stipulate that this sympathy only applies to the secessionist enclaves east of the Rockies. Those groups that tried to secede inside the Pacific safe zones are regarded as traitors who tried to destroy America.

* OutsideContextProblem: The zombies, and the virus itself. Both the U.S military, as well as nearly every other military force on Earth, not to mention civilian survivors, find it nearly impossible to mount an effective defense early on, as zombies do not behave like a traditional enemy. They don't need to eat, rest, or resupply, you can't demoralize them, they can't be bargained with or forced to surrender, and standard combat tactics are nearly useless against them, as they will not die from anything other than a destroyed brain. Their infectous bites also means that any injury, no matter how minor, is essentially a death sentence. By far the biggest issue however, is that every soldier who died ran a good chance of joining the zombie ranks, meaning that every fallen soldier not only makes you weaker, but also makes the enemy stronger.

** This is a significant part of the Reddeker Plan- the government would be in a safe area, while civilians were kept in well-defended areas... seiged by the living dead. As the plan puts it, every zombie attacking the civilians is one more not attacking the important people.

## The North Koreans' plan ''worked perfectly'', and some day 24 million heavily-armed fascists are going to emerge from those bunkers to find a new world ripe for the taking, where their decadent western enemies have all been greatly weakened. Now, if they intend to ''stay'' down there, then the people of North Korea likely live in a society totalitarian to such an extreme that [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour Big Brother]] and [[Paranoia Friend Computer]] would either be proud of or ''[[HorrifyingTheHorror scared]]'' of, where a mad tyrant [[AGodAmI controls every last aspect of his subjects' lives down to their access to the air they breathe.]]
** Sadly, the most possible outcome is that the "Put the entire population in underground bunkers" was just propaganda, most people would be left as cannon fodder or even just bait so the powerful elites could hide.

## The North Koreans' plan ''worked perfectly'', and some day 24 million heavily-armed fascists are going to emerge from those bunkers to find a new world ripe for the taking, where their decadent western enemies have all been greatly weakened. Now, if they intend to ''stay'' down there, then the people of North Korea likely live in a society totalitarian to such an extreme that [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour Big Brother]] would either be proud of or ''[[HorrifyingTheHorror scared]]'' of, where a mad tyrant [[AGodAmI controls every last aspect of his subjects' lives down to their access to the air they breathe.]]

** The development of the "Standard Infantry Rifle" is completely unnecessary from a realism standpoint; if the Army in the post-apocalypse needed a new rifle for their new anti-Zombie military doctrine based on semi-auto fire, they could've just modified their massive stockpiles of M16s and lock them into semi-auto only, rather than spend a load of time and resources on designing and ''producing'' a new rifle. The choice to create this new rifle seems to stem from Max Brooks quite unrelenting (and somewhat irrational) hatred for the AR-15, as seen in his depiction of the rifle in ''Literature/TheZombieSurvivalGuide''.[[note]]Note to mention the millions upon millions of civilian AR-15s that are ''already'' semi-auto only.[[/note]]

** Towards the beginning of the outbreak Israel has a civil war, driven by hardliners who are against the decisions to abandon Jerusalem and allow non-jews into the safety zone. The war is over relatively quickly due to the fact that most of the rebels were ultra-orthodox who were exempted from the country's mandatory military service, and thus didn't have the training or equipment to be a real threat.

** In the United States, armed secessionists are noted as a serious threat in the early days of the war.

* CurbStompBattle: Once the American campaign to retake the country got underway, environmental hazards, rogue survivors, abandoned traps, feral children, and sickness were statistically much more likely to kill their soldiers than the zombies. Individual soldiers with kill counts in the thousands aren't even considered notable except as an indicator of length of service.

* IHaveManyNames: The Redeker Plan, the overall human survival strategy that came out of South Africa, later gained nation specific monikers, such as the Chang Doctrine in South Korea or the Prochnow Plan in Germany.

* ItCanThink: What T.Sean Collins fears when he hears the inbound siege on the celebrity mansion is running for the gates.

** [[spoiler: Ultimately [[SubvertedTrope subverted]], as it's not zombies running to the gates to get in and eat, but ''uninfected humans'', trying to get in to survive.]] It appears to be a [[TakeThat potshot at the prevalence of fast zombies in media]], too.

* BladeOnAStick:
** Zulu tribes in South Africa use traditional spears.
** One unnamed fellow attempts this by bolting a cleaver to a hockey stick and rollerblading along fast enough to decapitate a zombie in one swing. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome He gets tripped and pulled into a sewer very quickly.]]
** The US armed forces have weaponized their standard-issue entrenching tool, dubbing it the "Lobotomizer" or "Lobo."

* HumansAreWarriors: The zombies really weren't ready for us. Even civilians on many occasions display feats of incredible valour and surprising prowess, ranging from a ranchhand who singlehandedly defends his cattle from a horde in true cowboy fashion, to a Californian soccer mom [[UnstoppableRage who rips a zombie's head clean off after it grabs her daughter]].

** The development of the "Standard Infantry Rifle" is completely unnecessary from a realism standpoint; if the Army in the post-apocalypse needed a new rifle for their new anti-Zombie military doctrine based on semi-auto fire, they could've just modified their massive stockpiles of M16s and lock them into semi-auto only, rather than spend a load of time and resources on designing and ''producing'' a new rifle. The choice to create this new rifle seems to stem from Max Brooks quite unrelenting (and somewhat irrational) hatred for the AR-15, as seen in his depiction of the rifle in ''Literature/TheZombieSurvivalGuide''.
** Disregarding even the HollywoodTactics, the actual ''effects'' of 155mm artillery shells and 270mm rockets is almost comically misunderstood, to the point where a volley from entire batteries of MLRS launchers is somehow only truly effective because it sets off the ''gas tanks'' in the cars nearby. The actual effect of some hundreds of thousands of explosives being rained down on a zombie horde apparently don't matter.

** Deploying all soldiers in MOPP gear, even though they had not been trained to move and fire in that gear, and even though it was in a completely unnecessary environment, as reporters and officers were not wearing protective gear. Furthermore, they failed to even use the graduated stages of MOPP gear, by having infantry don the whole set of protective equipment instead of doing it in phases based on weather & threat.

** There are some indications the outbreak possibly begins in 2011, judging from clues given in the book: Nelson Mandela is still alive, there's a Rugby World Cup going on at the start of the outbreak (2011 was the last one held before Mandela's death), the U.S. recently had an election the year prior to the outbreak starting (probably the 2010 midterms), the USS ''Saratoga'' is still afloat, and Crimea is still under Ukrainian control (having been occupied by Russia since 2014).

** [[spoiler:Somewhat subverted, as the withdrawal of an Israeli presence in Jerusalem to consolidate a more defensible national perimeter proves to be too much for many Israelis to accept, leading to the Israeli Civil War.]]

** Later, after cases of "African rabies" begin to pop up around the globe, shortly before the Great Panic, [[UsefulNotes/Israel the government of Israel]] decides to suddenly and unexpectedly withdraw their occupations of Palestine and move back behind a new border that even gives up Jerusalem. They then offer free, unconditional asylum for anyone who might have heritage in the lands they call home, Jew or Palestinian. Many Arabs think this is some sort of ploy, but can't figure out why.[[spoiler: However, giving up Jerusalem turns out to be a major line in the sand for more hardline Israelis, leading to the Israeli Civil War.]]

** Later, after cases of "African rabies" begin to pop up around the globe, shortly before the Great Panic, [[Israel the government of Israel]] decides to suddenly and unexpectedly withdraw their occupations of Palestine and move back behind a new border that even gives up Jerusalem. They then offer free, unconditional asylum for anyone who might have heritage in the lands they call home, Jew or Palestinian. Many Arabs think this is some sort of ploy, but can't figure out why.[[spoiler: However, giving up Jerusalem turns out to be a major line in the sand for more hardline Israelis, leading to the Israeli Civil War.]]

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: A Chinese doctor relates how he realized that the zombie invasion was serious when a colleague with the Institute of Infection Diseases told him "everything's going to be all right." The colleague was an extreme pessimist with a constantly negative outlook and the only time he had previously said that phrase was decades earlier when they were in mortal danger; when teased about it afterwards, he would always say that the situation would have to be a hell of a lot worse before he ever said it again.