History Film / WarmBodies

** Berg plays ''VideoGame/SOCOMUSNavySeals: Fireteam Bravo 3'' on a [[UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable PSP]]. Although, he is playing on Mission 2 but says he is close to reaching "Level 5". it is unknown if this is a case of CowboyBebopAtHisComputer in-universe or he is actually playing an online game with other survivors.

R (Creator/NicholasHoult) is a zombie. He doesn't enjoy being a zombie, spending his time shambling around aimlessly and wondering who he used to be. One day, while joining in an attack on a group of survivors, he stumbles upon a beautiful young woman, Julie. He falls instantly in love, or at least as close to love as a zombie can fall. After eating the brains of Julie's boyfriend and absorbing the man's memories, R decides to protect her from his undead cohorts. While hiding in an abandoned airplane together, both R and Julie start to realize that he's becoming more than just an undead monster. But if these StarCrossedLovers are going to find any kind of happy ending, they're going to have to contend with both the Boneys, a breed of super-zombie, and Julie's dubious fellow survivors, particularly her militalry leader father.

* SoftWater: R and Julie fall a good two dozen stories into the water. Julie emerges completely uninjured because R was on the bottom. R is merely knocked unconscious for a brief moment, still being dead.

* BoyMeetsGhoul: R, a zombie, becomes attracted to living woman Julie as a result of him eating her boyfriend's brain. [[spoiler:This results in him slowly regaining his humanity, and she eventually reciprocates his attraction.]]
* BrainFood: R doesn't ''just'' eat brains, but doing so allows him to experience the memories of his victims and remember what it was like to be alive. Eating Perry's brain results in him falling in love with Julie.

R (Creator/NicholasHoult) is a zombie. He doesn't enjoy being a zombie, spending his time shambling around aimlessly and wondering who he used to be. One day, while joining in an attack on a group of survivors, he stumbles upon a beautiful young woman, Julie. He falls instantly in love, or at least as close to love as a zombie can fall. After eating the brains of Julie's boyfriend and absorbing the man's memories, R decides to protect her from his undead cohorts. While hiding in an abandoned airplane together, both R and Julie start to realize that he's becoming more than just an undead monster. But if these StarCrossedLovers are going to find any kind of happy ending, they're going to have to contend with both the Boneys, a breed of super-zombie, and Julie's dubious fellow survivors.

Meet R.

R is dead, but, so far, he doesn't mind at all - it's hard to mind when you're mindless, you know.

That all changes when R (Creator/NicholasHoult), leading a zombie horde, finds a group of survivors near his daily hangout, an airport. While attacking the survivors, he is struck by his first inkling of a feeling for an unknown woman. Before he can approach her, he's shot. Being undead and hungry (and now irritated), he kills and eats his shooter, a young man named Perry.

As he bites and chews into his brains (they're the tastiest part), he absorbs the memories of Perry, who just happened to be the lover of R's unknown dream girl, Julie. Strengthened by a mix of his own feelings for her and the ones he's just consumed, he feels the need to protect her from his undead cohorts. Fortunately for R, Julie is hiding nearby, and hasn't seen him consume the flesh of Perry. Unfortunately for R, he's a zombie. Zombies eat people. People shoot zombies. That's a fact. But R has this need to take and protect Julie from the others, leading her to an abandoned plane and sheltering her, all the while attempting to get closer. Somehow.

It doesn't seem like he thought this out very well, what with the other zombies getting suspicious and a breed of superzombies - dubbed "Boneys" - out to consume all fresh meat, but, hey. Love finds a way, right?

''Warm Bodies'' is a 2013 [[Film/ShaunOfTheDead RomZomCom]], a tale of a girl and a ghoul slowly falling in love. [[FilmOfTheBook It is based on a 2011 book of the same name.]]

* LighterAndSofter: The movie excises a number of darker moments from the books, most significantly by [[spoiler:sparing General Grigio, and keeping R from killing any of the Living after Perry's death]]. Perry's debraining and thus permanent death is also treated as a mercy by R's (rationalizing) internal narration (see HorrorHunger), rather than falling to the hunger for emotions as in the book.

* TheUnReveal: [[spoiler:We never find out R's full name even after Julie asked him about it. When he becomes human again in the finale, he still goes by "R".]]

* YouCantFightFate: The plot of the film's one major struggle with this. M initially comes to the realization that R is hauling around a living being, and tries to force him to eat her ('''EAT!'''), but realizes something is off about this and wants to see them together, and lets them go - saving them from the Boneys not too much later. This is a recurring theme in the film, with the zombies struggling to shrug off their braindead animalism to become human again, despite the danger of doing so, and the Boneys attempting to enforce animalism.

* PowerWalk: Played for laughs, as R and M lead a zombie horde... and it's not in slow motion, it's the zombies shuffling verrryyyyy slowly.
-->'''R''': ''God'' we're slow! [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall This could take a while.]]

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Film/MyBoyfriendsBack'', very loosely.

* FateWorseThanDeath: Being a zombie isn't fun if you have anything resembling a conscience. Taken UpToEleven with the zombies themselves actively trying to avoid Boneys.

* ShoutOutThemeNaming: Several characters' names are based on the characters of Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet (R is Romeo, Julie is Juliet, M is Mercutio, Nora is the Nurse and Perry is Paris) as a part of the WholePlotReference.

* AttractiveZombie: The protagonist, who has a romance with a human girl.

* DeadToBeginWith:

* DespairEventHorizon: The reason regular zombies become Boneys. They basically give into despair and tear off their skin, quite literally shedding the last of their humanity. R states, rather somberly, that it seems to be the inevitable fate of all zombies. Apparently the undead lifestyle ''will'' grind you down eventually. However, once Julie turns up and zombies start feeling again, a more hopeful option begins to emerge.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:It takes a while, but R and Julie's effort to show General Grigio that not all zombies are mindless and that they can become human again works out, and the surviving humans gradually help zombies recovering their humanity, while the zombies, in turn, help them destroy the Boneys, who are past recovering. In the end, humans and zombies coexist peacefully, and it's implied that all zombies will eventually recover. Also, aside from Perry, nobody else of significance died in the movie. Even General Grigio is SparedByTheAdaptation.]]

* FlashbackStares: M triggers a memory while staring at a picture of a couple holding hands. This is important because before now zombies had almost no recollection of their past.

* GrillingTheNewbie: Nora starts questioning R on what it's like being a zombie as soon as she meets him.

* NiceGirl: Julie.

* NotUsingTheZWord: Downplayed. Zombies are referred to as "corpses," "Boneys" and "skeletons" depending on the type and who's speaking. However the word zombie is used a handful of times. Julie jokingly calls R "Mr. Zombie" before asking for his name, Marcus refers to his stiff fingers as "zombie-fingers" and R does at one point call himself a "dead-eyed zombie". Plus there's a ShoutOut to the film ''Film/{{Zombie}}''.
* OnlyAFleshWound: Grigio shoots R in the shoulder before seeing that he's become human again. Later R is shown to be fine, but realistically this could do a lot of (potentially permanent) damage, even assuming the bullet didn't hit any major blood vessels.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Zombies are mostly patterned after Romero's: shambling, undead, passive and when they're not busy hunting for food, they're repeating what they remember of their life. They can also use tools. They appear to be able to think rationally as time goes on, they realize old features of their past life. Their fondness for eating brains, which eases the pain of being dead, comes from Dan O'Bannon's ''Return of the Living Dead'' spin-off. As far as intelligence, they are capable of complex internal thought, but their capacity to act on those thoughts is limited. There are also Boneys, who have apparently surrendered to despair, ripped off all their skin, and become completely monstrous. [[spoiler:It's eventually revealed that fleshy zombies can come back to life with the Power of Love]].

* PrecisionFStrike: Used twice by M. Both times, it's used [[PlayedForLaughs for humour]] and to demonstrate how the zombies are growing in linguistic skills and becoming more human.
** The first time is when he meets up with R after [[spoiler:Julie leaves]]: "Bitches, man."
** Later, when M manages to [[spoiler:gather a force of zombies who have done a HeelFaceTurn]] and want to help R: "They say 'Fuck yeah'."
** Subverted with Perry, who says "Smile, [[CurseCutShort Motherf-]], but gets [[spoiler:attacked and eaten by R]] before he can finish.

** Corona beer.
** Berg plays ''VideoGame/SOCOMUSNavySeals: Fireteam Bravo 3'' on a PSP. Though, he is playing on Mission 2 but says he is close to reaching "Level 5". it is unknown if this is a case of CowboyBebopAtHisComputer in-universe or he is actually playing an online game with other survivors.

** Also ''Film/{{Zombie}}'' is found by Julie in R's hideout.

* TooDumbToLive: When in zombie occupied territory, it's best not to ignore it when someone says they hear something. It might be zombies coming to eat your brain.

* TheUnReveal: [[spoiler:We never find out R's full name.]]

* CannibalismSuperpower: With {{brain|Food}}s and [[ThePowerOfLove proximity to Julie]] come memories, and more intellect and motor control, [[spoiler:and a higher chance to undo the infection.]]

* CreatorCameo: Isaac Marion can be seen shuffling around as a zombie when R and Julie go through the metal detectors when he brings her to the airport.

* DespairEventHorizon: The reason regular zombies become Boneys. They basically give into despair and tear off their skin, quite literally shedding the last of their humanity. R states, rather sombrely, that it seems to be the inevitable fate all zombies. Apparently the undead lifestyle ''will'' grind you down eventually. However once Julie turns up and zombies start feeling again, a more hopeful option begins to emerge.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: ''Warm Bodies'' presents the experience of being a zombie as basically being UsefulNotes/{{depression}}, but with the urge to feast on the flesh of the living. It's especially noticeable in R's opening narration, but recurs throughout the film; a zombie becoming a Boney (see DespairEventHorizon) is akin to extreme self-harm that would be suicide for the living, and [[spoiler:being cured involves experiencing emotions again, establishing or restoring relationships in spite of the fears and urges that get in the way, and ultimately restoring your desire to ''do''.]]
* EasilyForgiven: Julie forgives R so fast for the whole [[spoiler:"eating my boyfriend" incident that it's possible to get the impression that she didn't care much about Perry. This could be chalked down to a gentle understanding that, at the time, R wouldn't have had a way of stopping his hungry impulses. It's explained later to R that it isn't that she doesn't miss Perry, but growing up in the freaking ZombieApocalypse has made her used to losing people. The film does imply the two had grown apart long before his death and that Perry was possibly a DeathSeeker. The book explores both these elements in more detail.]]
* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:It takes a while, but R and Julie's effort to show General Grigio that not all zombies are mindless and that they can become human again works out, and the surviving humanity gradually help zombies recovering their humanity, while the zombies, in turn, help them destroy the Boneys, who are past recovering. In the end, humanity and zombies coexist peacefully, and it's implied that all zombies will eventually recover. Also, aside from Perry, nobody else of significance died in the movie. Even General Grigio is SparedByTheAdaptation.]]
* EatBrainForMemories: Zombies hunger for brains because they experience the memories when they do, which is the closest they can come now to feeling alive. [[spoiler:Besides feeling love, that is.]]

* FlashbackStares: Mark triggers a memory while staring at a picture of a couple holding hands. This is important because before now zombies had almost no recollection of their past.
* FoodChainOfEvil: The dynamic between zombies and boneys has shades of this. Boneys are noticeably feared by the regular undead and openly antagonistic towards them throughout. As the movie progresses they begin fighting zombies regaining their humanity, attacking them en masse, in an apparent bid to maintain the status quo.

* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: During the LipstickAndLoadMontage by Nora and Julie to [[spoiler:make R look human enough]], Nora cranks up "Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbinson. Julie doesn't find it funny.

* NotUsingTheZWord: Downplayed. Zombies are referred to as "corpses," "boneys" and "skeletons" depending on the type and who's speaking. However the word zombie is used a handful of times. Julie jokingly calls R "Mr. Zombie" before asking for his name, Marcus refers to his stiff fingers as "zombie-fingers" and R does at one point call himself a "dead-eyed zombie". Plus there's a ShoutOut to the film ''Film/{{Zombie}}''.

* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Zombies are mostly patterned after Romero's: shambling, undead, passive and when they're not busy hunting for food, they're repeating what they remember of their life. They can also use tools. They appear to be able to think rationally as time goes on, they realize old features of their past life. Their fondness for eating brains, which eases the pain of being dead, comes from Dan O'Bannon's ''Return of the Living Dead'' spin-off. As far as intelligence, they are capable of complex internal thought, but their capacity to act on those thoughts is limited. There are also Boneys, who have apparently surrendered to despair, rip off all their skin, and become completely monstrous. [[spoiler:It's eventually revealed that fleshy zombies can come back to life with the Power of Love]].

** The living have a shoot-on-sight order on Corpses. The Corpses are regaining their humanity, but are still unable to talk coherently. Their choices are to bury their humanity and join the Boneys, to hide, or to ask the living for help. They then proceed to start an all-out suicidal war against the superior Boneys and help the living. The platoon of soldiers that run across them are so confused by the sight that they are unable to bring themselves to shoot. They heard news that one of their soldiers was saved by a Corpse from Boneys. One the Boneys is thrown from the fight and [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute the only thing they can agree on is to kill ones like it.]] M then walks up to them while the battle is still raging and [[DissonantSerenity non-nonchalantly says "hi" to them]]. They are so taken aback from the surreal situation that they spare the Corpses and help them with the Boneys.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler:General Grigio]] survives the ending confrontation and does not succumb to Boniefication as he does in the book.

* AscendedDemon: [[spoiler: R and the other zombies who pursue love reconnect with their humanity, which starts to reverse their zombiism and bring them back to life. Not so much with the Bonies...]]