History YMMV / WorldWarZ

** Between its parodies of and references to various celebrities and public figures, its portrayal of the internet and "alternative" media, the manner in which UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror affects the US' initial, blundering response to the ZombieApocalypse, and even brief mentions of the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube and of Ukraine controlling Crimea, the book is decidedly rooted in the anxieties and concerns of [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush Bush-era]] America from the perspective of U.S. progressives.

*** The zombies scaling the wall is quite hilarious. While Max Brooks' Survival Books said that zombies could pile up and climb over a ten foot wall, he didn't mean a hundred foot wall. The zombies should be getting crushed under their own numbers. There's also the fact that the helicopter's didn't notice this despite the massive activity it required.

** There's a scene where Gerry and co make it to their getaway plane on bikes. In-universe this makes sense, because it makes a lot less noise than walking in the rain would and it doesn't set off the zombies. Doesn't make it look any less silly, though.

** An Israeli analyst recounts how despite his country having all the warning needed it still "dropped the ball" in October 1973 and failed to prepare for the Arabs' surprise attack. Hamas' own successful sneak attack in October 2023 adds a new level of poignancy to this statement.

** The Israeli government's inclusive and pragmatic approach to the zombie apocalypse is hard to read when contrasted with the events following the book's release, with Israeli security forces and Hamas in the Gaza Strip regularly committing atrocities and both governments actively sabotaging peace for political goals, culminating in the 2023 war that included the kidnapping of hundreds of Israelis, over a million Palestinians forced from their homes, and thousands dead. That the plans for the attack by Hamas were picked up by Israeli intelligence and then ignored further contrasts with the fictional Israel, the only nation to take the Warmbrunn-Knight report seriously.

* DirtyCoward: Gerry's pilot certainly qualifies. He knows he's on a top-priority mission upon which the future of humanity hinges, and he's flying a large and very capable transport. But the moment the word comes out that the city's been breached, he's gone - no waiting for his one important-above-all-else passenger, not even picking up anyone to get them clear of the onrushing disaster. Just a coward's dash down the runway and he's history.

** Though the discussion of the military in the book was, frankly, [[FalselyAdvertisedAccuracy always pretty bad]], Brooks's attitude is very much rooted in an attitude at the time of increasing derision towards "teched-up" armies thanks to the US struggling to accomplish its goals in Iraq, arguing in favor of more BoringButPractical methods. Nowadays, the wider view of these people, typically named "the Reformers", tends to be in the direction that they were misguided at best and malicious at worst, since research has gone in the direction that the so-called "impractical" gear wasn't half as impractical as it seemed, and the "practical" gear was more often "primitive." Similarly, the consistent lowballing of the effectiveness of artillery was based on ideas that are now discredited (the "balloon effect" described simply isn't a thing), and may owe to the fact that at the time, the average person simply didn't realize how deadly a hit from an MLRS should be, when combat footage of that system was quite uncommon (to put it frankly, the zombies at Yonkers should have been reduced to goo, had their brains scrambled to mush, or broken every bone in their bodies).

** One of the various stories the book talks about is how Queen Elizabeth II, in an impressive showcase of being an IronLady, refused to leave England to its (bad) fate and spent the entire zombie war holed up in Balmoral Castle. After her death in September 8, 2022, this sets the book even further in AlternateHistory.

** Though the discussion of the military in the book was, frankly, [[FalselyAdvertisedAccuracy always pretty bad]], Brooks's attitude is very much rooted in an attitude at the time of increasing derision towards "teched-up" armies thanks to the US struggling to accomplish its goals in Iraq, arguing in favor of more BoringButPractical methods. Nowadays, the wider view of these people, typically named "the Reformers", tends to be in the direction that they were misguided at best and malicious at worst, since research has gone in the direction that the so-called "impractical" gear wasn't half as impractical as it seemed, and the "practical" gear was more often "primitive." Similarly, the consistent lowballing of the effectiveness of artillery was based on ideas that are now discredited, and may owe to the fact that at the time, the average person simply didn't realize how deadly a hit from an MLRS should be, when combat footage of that system was quite uncommon (to put it frankly, the zombies at Yonkers should have been reduced to goo, had their brains scrambled to mush, or broken every bone in their bodies).

** One of the various stories the book talks about is how UsefulNotes/QueenElizabethII, in an impressive showcase of being an IronLady, refused to leave England to its (bad) fate and spent the entire zombie war holed up in Balmoral Castle. After her death in September 8, 2022, this sets the book even further in AlternateHistory.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Between its parodies of and references to various celebrities and public figures, its portrayal of the internet and "alternative" media, the manner in which UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror affects the US' initial, blundering response to the ZombieApocalypse, and even brief mentions of the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube and of Ukraine controlling Crimea, the book is decidedly rooted in the anxieties and concerns of [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush Bush-era]] America from the perspective of U.S. progressives.

* MemeticMutation:
** "Zoombies."
** An edited theatrical poster had a zombie cat attacking the chopper that constantly showing on the news feed.

* SignatureScene:
** Fassbach's "Mother Nature is the greatest serial killer" speech.
** The entire Fall of Jerusalem, but in particular the shot of the zombies climbing over each other to get over the wall.
** The airplane sequence.

* UnfortunateImplications: As noted [[https://thenib.com/depictions-of-palestinians-in-media/ here]], the whole section of the movie taking place in Jerusalem depicts the Israeli as a safe heaven kept safe from flesh-eating monsters by a massive wall. This leans ''heavily'' into anti-Arab propaganda, which frequently depicts Israel as a bastion of civilization constantly threatened by hostile forces. To make things even worse, in the movie, the Wall is only breached because, after being allowed in, Arabs begin singing about peace and the Israeli Jews join them, alerting the zombies outside to their presence - in other words, taking-in Arabs and thinking about peace dooms the nation. This is even more bizarre considering that, in the book, Israel in-fact manages to survive the zombie plague better than perhaps any other country on Earth precisely ''because'' it decided to let bygones be bygones with the local Arabs, give up on Jerusalem, and let them in peacefully.

* IdiotPlot: Given that Dr. Fassbach is a highly regarded virologist and one of the people the military are looking to in order to figure out the cause of the outbreak, [[spoiler:you have to question the sanity of whoever decided to send him into the field with zero combat training, rather than let other (more expendable) personnel gather evidence and samples for him. Naturally, only a few minutes into the mission, he panics at the sight of the zombies, slips on the ramp as he attempts to retreat and blows his own brains out when his gun accidentally discharges. And who was the genius who decided to give the guy with ''' ''zero combat training'' ''' a ''gun''? True, he likely wanted a means to defend himself, but if you don't know how to use a gun properly, including safety handling, you're simply a danger to yourself (as Fassbach obviously proves) and everyone around you.]]

* CriticalResearchFailure: Per the quotes page - a rakshasa is a sort of bloodthirsty but maliciously intelligent demon in Hindu mythology, and have nothing to do with zombies except a shared interest in eating people.

** It's stated in one chapter that the Ukrainian government relocated to Crimea during the war. A decade later, and Crimea is currently occuppied by Russia after an illegal invasion.

* UncannyValley: Zombies don't blink. Not only is this creepy, it also means the surface of their eyes is never lubricated, leading to the eyes becoming scratched and opaque. Hence the traditional white eyes.