Line #34 Film/Wyrmwood


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bd571cdfdef0170da92ffe3afc797969.jpg]]
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3	''Wyrmwood'' is a 2014 Australian science fiction/horror film written and directed by Kiah Roache-Turner. Billed as [[JustForFun/XMeetsY "Mad Max meets Dawn of the Dead"]], it tells the parallel stories of family man Barry and his body artist sister Brooke as they adapt to the surreal new reality of a ZombieApocalypse.
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5	The story begins when a mysterious meteor shower alters Earth's atmosphere, rendering flammable liquids inert and transforming most humans into rampaging zombies. An avid handyman, Barry quickly adapts, outfitting himself and other survivors with some impressive improvised weapons. Brooke, however, is not so lucky, and quickly falls into the hands of a ruthless military who will go to any extreme to understand and stop the zombie plague...
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7	In 2017, the producers released a preview for a 10-episode TV series set after the film titled ''Series/WyrmwoodChroniclesOfTheDead''.
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9	!!This film contains examples of:
10	* ActionGirl: Brooke. She graduates to a full-blown LadyOfWar after [[spoiler: gaining the ability to summon and control zombie hordes.]]
11	* ActionSurvivor: Barry, Brooke, Benny, Frank. [[spoiler:The last two sadly don't make it to the end]].
12	* AffablyEvil: The Captain, who might even have been a decent fellow at one time before crossing the MoralEventHorizon to save the world no matter how many uninfected lives are lost.
13	* ArmorIsUseless: Zigzagged throughout the film. Most of the characters go about in heavy armor that holds up well against the attacks of individual zombies, but offers little protection against bullets or when overwhelmed by multiple zombies.
14	** Averted when [[spoiler: the Captain was struck in the head by a metal boomerang. It punctured his helmet, but only grazed his forehead.]]
15	* AsTheGoodBookSays: Frank's speech where he speculates that the survivors are in fact living through the Biblical prophecy of Wormwood.
16	* AwesomeAussie: Most of the main cast.
17	* BalanceSpeedStrengthTrio: [[TheHero Barry]], [[TheBigGuy Benny]], and [[TheSmartGuy Frank]], [[spoiler: who is replaced by Brooke following the former's death.]]
18	%%* BaldOfEvil: The Doc
19	* BigBad: The unnamed captain of the military unit experimenting on people.
20	* BlackDudeDiesFirst: The first characters we meet are a trio of black aborigine brothers on a camping trip where they witness the meteor shower. Two of them die. The third, [[spoiler: Benny, escapes and becomes one of the film's central protagonists.]]
21	%%* BigFun: Benny
22	* BoomHeadshot: The main characters are ridiculously good at this. It's actually tough to find a scene where a character misses a zombie's head.
23	* BottomlessMagazines: Averted throughout the film, but most brutally when [[spoiler: Barry uses the last nail in his nailgun to MercyKill his daughter,]] leaving him unable to take his own life.
24	* CallingYourBathroomBreaks: Benny is a lot of fun on road trips...
25	* ChekhovsGun: The matches Benny kicks out of Barry's reach are ultimately retrieved to turn the tide against [[spoiler: the Captain.]]
26	* CrapsackWorld: Something in the air is making everybody with any blood type but A- turn into flesh-crazed zombies. It's also rendered all flammable liquids inert, so gasoline cars are useless in escaping. The only semblance of civilization left is a military operation bent on experimenting on the survivors.
27	* CrazyPrepared: Frank, whose garage seems to contain all the weapons, armor, and spare parts one could ever want or need during a ZombieApocalypse. Justified, as it is implied he is in the business of providing unusual (and illegal) weaponry for poachers.
28	* CoolCar: The protagonists' armored, harpoon launcher-equipped, zombie-powered truck.
29	* CuteMonsterGirl: [[spoiler: Brooke, who gains the power to control zombies, and shrug off non-headshots]] without gaining their feral appearance.
30	* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler: Averted with Barry killing his daughter, Meganne]]. No other children are seen for the rest of the film.
31	* DespairEventHorizon: Barry becomes despondent and suicidal after being forced to [[spoiler: euthanize his transformed wife and daughter.]]
32	* DevelopingDoomedCharacters: Although a standard trait of zombie films, the fact that every single character in ''Wyrmwood'' is an AwesomeAussie makes it that much more upsetting when they die.
33	* DyingAsYourself: After being bitten [[spoiler: Frank]] demands to be allowed to do this until Barry acquiesces and shoots [[spoiler: him]] in the head.
34	* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The whole movie happens in a course of 2 days at most.
35	* FauxAffablyEvil: [[EvilGenius The Doc.]] The way he struts and minces to Kool And The Gang while clad in a yellow rubber suit, and how he casually chats with Brooke as he tortures her might make him the most disturbing character in the entire film.
36	* {{Fingore}}:
37	** The Doc [[spoiler:gets two of his fingers bit off by a zombie]].
38	** Barry [[spoiler:gets a fingernail pulled off by pliers, as the soldiers force him to call Brooke out from hiding]].
39	* {{Foreshadowing}}: When you see a model getting dolled up in sugar skull makeup for a photoshoot just as the ZombieApocalypse is beginning you just know it's not going to end well.
40	* ForgottenFallenFriend: Barry spends only a few seconds being upset about [[spoiler: Chalker's]] death, immediately teams up with the stranger who killed him, and then never mentions the incident again. Possibly justified given that he wasn't with [[spoiler: Chalker]] voluntarily in the first place.
41	* GasMaskMooks: The soldiers who antagonize Brooke and Barry throughout the film must wear oxygen masks at all times to protect themselves from the contaminated atmosphere.
42	* GovernmentConspiracy: Given that the military is there on the VERY FIRST DAY of the apocalypse fully equipped with stocks of purified air, full environmental suits, and electricity-powered mobile zombie research labs, it's a safe bet that the government knew Wyrmwood was coming. Whether or not they could have or did do anything to try and prevent it is never addressed.
43	* HardWorkMontage: As Barry and co. modify the truck to turn it into an armored vehicle.
44	* HowWeGotHere: The film opens with a trio of armored warriors going toe-to-toe with a frenzied mob of undead over a stalled truck. The next third of the film is a set of flashbacks that lead up to this point.
45	* {{Hypocrite}}: The Captain, who makes a show of being a NobleDemon by calling out Barry for attempting a GroinAttack during their fistfight, right after ''shooting him with a pistol''.
46	* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: [[spoiler: Chalker]], gunned down by an over-excited Benny.
47	* ImprobableAimingSkills: All characters demonstrate this by casually getting head shots with rifles, shotguns, pistols, revolvers and a nail gun at considerable distances.
48	** At the film's climax, [[spoiler:Barry hurls a metal boomerang several dozen yards while handcuffed, and managed to hit the Captain in the head.]] However, it turns out [[spoiler: the attack only grazed him.]]
49	* ImprobableWeaponUser: Barry's go-to weapon for the early part of the film is a pneumatic nail gun. Not surprising as private firearm ownership is severely restricted.
50	* INeedAFreakingDrink: Frank, [[spoiler:after being bitten by a zombie.]]
51	* KatanasAreJustBetter: One of the Captain's men carries a katana, insisting it's the only right way to cut off heads.
52	* LifeOrLimbDecision: [[spoiler: The Doc]] cuts his own hand off in an attempt to stave off infection. [[spoiler: It doesn't work.]]
53	* LivingBattery: The zombies - who are technically still living people - are discovered to exhale a highly flammable gas. When all combustible fuel stops working, Frank, Benny, and Barry get their truck to run by restraining zombies and running a tube from their throat to the engine.
54	* LockAndLoadMontage: The movie has a few of this.
55	** The first one is more like a parody, as Barry puts on his tool belt and loads it up with screwdrivers and hammers.
56	** The second one is in the barn, as the main characters "armor up" to go out and bring the truck inside.
57	* MoreDespicableMinion: [[MadDoctor The Doctor]] is employed by The Captain of the military unit to experiment on people. Said Captain is a good man and WellIntentionedExtremist who wants to cure the zombie plague, while the Doctor is a PsychoForHire who tortures his victims in the experiments for fun, dancing to disco while doing so, and [[EvenEvilHasStandards goes too far even for the Captain]].
58	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: After waking up from a nightmare, Barry gets pissed off at a zombie at his car window and shoots it in the face. The shot [[spoiler:ignites the zombie, which leads to the car's compressor catching fire, so Barry has to get out of the car to put out the fire. He successfully do so, but Frank gets bitten in the hand.]]
59	* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The Doc repeatedly injects [[spoiler: Brooke]] with zombie blood, presumably to either study the immunity of uninfected or in an attempt to create a cure. Instead, [[spoiler: he essentially makes her into a Queen Zombie, able to control other zombies telepathically, yet retaining her human mind and personality.]]
60	* NoHoldsBarredBeatDown: DO NOT try a GroinAttack against the Captain unless this is what you want.
61	* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Very much so. The zombies of Wormwood have flammable blood and exhalations, making themselves a necessity in a world where all other liquid fuels have become inert. During the day, they are just your typical shambling dead; however, at night, they stop exhaling the fuel and become faster and stronger. Frank theorizes this is because they use this "fuel" at night time to power themselves.
62	* PersonOfMassDestruction: [[spoiler: Brooke]] by the film's end.
63	* PostApunkalypticArmor: Just a few minutes spent inside Frank's shed and you'll come out looking scarier than any zombie.
64	* RasputinianDeath: [[spoiler: [[BigBad The Captain]]: first he is exposed to the contaminated air, then gets his face burned off by zombie blood, then finally eaten alive by Brooke's minions.]]
65	* SeenItAll: After having endured the death of his young son by cancer, not even the end of the world can get to Frank.
66	* ShoutOut:
67	** The rapid, jumpy shots of Barry and co. building their weapons and their car are unmistakably similar to the montages of Ash doing the same things in Film/ArmyOfDarkness.
68	** One mook insists that [[Franchise/TheWalkingDead a katana]] is the only right way to cut off heads.
69	* SlidingScaleOfComedyAndHorror: The film doesn't take itself too seriously but there are moments presented as horror, such as [[spoiler: Barry killing his wife and daughter.]]
70	* TechnologyErasureEvent: The same comet that causd the ZombieApocalypse also made it so gasoline and ethanol can no longer burn.
71	* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler: A mortally-wounded Benny opts to [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie let a zombie bite him,]] allowing him to turn and take out several of the enemy who are about to execute Brooke, saving her life in the process.]]
72	* TitleDrop: Albeit one where the actual term is spelled differently than the film's title. Frank states his belief that the zombie-spawning meteors are in fact Wormwood, the poisonous falling star described in Revelation.
73	* TitleOfTheDead: The movie title is subtitled with ''Road of the Dead''.
74	* TooDumbToLive: Why go to all the trouble of bringing a gun when you're just getting out of the car to take a leak? It'll only take a second, [[GenreBlind right?]]
75	-->'''[[DeadpanSnarker Frank]]''': [[SarcasmMode What did you learn?]]
76	* TheUnreveal:
77	** The movie never gets to explaining why the fuel stops working overnight.
78	** The source of [[spoiler:Brooke's mysterious power]].
79	** The real reason for the zombie apocalypse, and the military's involvement.
80	* VillainousRescue: Any time [[spoiler: Brooke's zombies]] show up.
81	%%* WeHardlyKnewYe: [[spoiler:Chalker, then Frank's assistant.]]
82	* YourHeadAsplode: [[spoiler:Chalker's fate]] due to a shotgun blast to the face.

Context Film / Wyrmwood