Basic Trope: All pathogens progress according to Rule of Drama.
- Straight: Zombification is supposed to occur fifteen minutes to a few days after infection. Bob, a custodian who is Patient Zero, gets infected and turns into a full zombie in the minimum amount of time. Alice, a policewoman who the movie follows for some time, gets infected and lingers for days, fighting until the end.
- Exaggerated: Bob gets infected and turns within seconds, just in time for the first Jump Scare. Alice gets infected and only turns into a zombie weeks after the virus is thought to be controlled.
- Downplayed: Alice takes a little longer than average to turn.
- Justified:
- Alice received a single bite on her hand, and not all the teeth penetrated her skin. Bob was bitten several times and clawed at repeatedly before he managed to get away.
- Adrenaline is a regulating factor. Bob, not being aware until the external symptoms started showing, never produced enough adrenaline to slow the transformation down, whereas Alice was already in Fight-Or-Flight mode before she got infected, was producing it at overtime.
- Inverted: The zombie virus evolves over time, making the speed of zombification faster and faster. As a result, the undeveloped Patient Zero Bob gets a slow and dramatic transformation, but established character Alice is fully turned in seconds flat.
- Subverted: Bob gets bitten in the beginning and is attacking people within minutes. Alice is bitten and initially seems to be still herself...but a few minutes later, when the group is in a crowded space, she begins to growl.
- Double Subverted: ...But Alice stops when Charlie begs her to fight it; she turns out not to be fully turned. Unlike Bob, she can still restrain herself using Heroic Willpower and The Power of Friendship for days after she's bitten.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: Everyone transforms at exactly the same speed, regardless of drama.
- Enforced: The author writes a story that involves Alice turning more slowly because she's played by a more famous actress and the studio wants to get its money's worth.
- Lampshaded: "It's so strange...people get bitten, but they seem to turn at different rates. It's almost as if there's some algorithm of drama being used for who turns quickly and who lingers."
- Invoked: Dr. Evilstein creates a number of variants of The Virus and deploys them according to what he thinks will strike the best balance of emotionally discombobulating the heroes and overwhelming them with sudden attacks.
- Exploited: Alice’s friends have noticed that the people they’re close to tend to turn more slowly for whatever reason, and use that extra time to restrain Alice and put her in a safe place until a cure is found.
- Defied: Alice, not wanting to prolong her zombification and cause more heartbreak for her loved ones, makes no effort to fight the infection and lets herself become a zombie instantly.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: "She’s an established character, so she’ll probably stay a human for a minute or so, for drama."
Back to Transformation at the Speed of Plot
