World War Z (film)

World War Z is a 2013 apocalyptic horror film directed by Marc Forster and the first film in the World War Z franchise. The screenplay by Matthew Michael Carnahan is based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Max Brooks. The film stars Brad Pitt as Gerry Lane, a former United Nations investigator who must travel the world to find a way to stop a zombie-like pandemic.

Pitt's Plan B Entertainment secured the film rights in 2007 and Forster was approached to direct. In 2009, Carnahan was hired to rewrite the script to the film. Filming began in July 2011 in Malta on an estimated $125 million budget, before moving to Glasgow in August 2011 and Budapest in October 2011. Originally set for a December 2012 release, the production suffered some setbacks. In June 2012, the film's release date was pushed back and the crew returned to Budapest for seven weeks of additional shooting. Damon Lindelof was hired to rewrite the third act, but did not have the time to finish the script and Drew Goddard was hired to rewrite it. The reshoots took place between September and October 2012.

World War Z premiered in London on June 2, 2013 and was chosen to open the 35th Moscow International Film Festival. The film was released on June 21, 2013 in the United States in 2D and RealD 3D.

Plot
Former United Nations employee Gerry Lane and his family sit in heavy traffic in Philadelphia while the radio reports on a rabies outbreak that has spread internationally. After hearing explosions they are attacked by masses of zombies. Those bitten are transformed into zombies after 12 seconds. As the attacks continue, the Lanes narrowly escape to an apartment complex, to wait for extraction by a helicopter sent by Gerry's former UN colleague, Thierry Umutoni, the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations.

After a brief struggle in which Gerry is almost infected, the Lanes reach the helicopter and are taken to a U.S. Navy vessel off the coast of New York City, where a team of analysts and military personnel are analyzing the scope of the worldwide outbreak. A virologist, Dr. Andrew Fassbach, argues that the plague is a virus, whose origin must be found in order for a vaccine to be developed. Because of his expertise as a former UN investigator, Gerry is tasked with helping investigate the virus and help Fassbach find the outbreak's source. After the Navy threatens to kick Gerry and his family off the ship if he doesn't help, Gerry reluctantly agrees to fly to Camp Humphreys, a military base in South Korea where the word "zombie" was supposedly first used in reference to the outbreak. Before he leaves he tells his family goodbye giving his wife a satellite phone so they can keep contact.

Arriving at the base, they are attacked and Fassbach accidentally discharges his weapon, killing himself. At the base, Gerry learns from the survivors that the zombies are attracted to noise. The leader also informs Gerry of a local who bit the base doctor, and shows him to a room of incinerated bodies, where the soldiers first saw the outbreak. Gunter Haffner, a former CIA operative imprisoned for treason, tells Gerry to go to Jerusalem, where the Israeli Mossad had established a safe zone just before the outbreak was officially acknowledged, implying Israel might have had prior knowledge. Gerry and the soldiers return to stealthily refuel the plane but Karin calls Gerry and the noise of the phone attracts the infected. Gerry and his pilot barely escape but several soldiers are killed.

In Jerusalem, Gerry meets Mossad leader Jurgen Warmbrunn, who explains that Mossad had months earlier intercepted communications from an army general in India, who stated that Indian troops were fighting the Rakshasa, or undead. With this knowledge and using a policy implemented to prevent Israel being caught off guard, known as the "10th Man", the country quarantined itself. Though quarantined Israel allowed uninfected civilians, regardless of nationality, to enter. Due to loud noises coming from within the zone, the thousands of infected outside begin to run climbing onto and over each other like ants, eventually breaching the wall. During the chaos, Gerry notices several civilians who are completely ignored by the zombies, including an old man and an emaciated boy. While they are escaping, one of Gerry's escort soldiers, Segen, is bitten. Gerry immediately amputates her hand in time to prevent her from being infected, and they escape from Jerusalem on an airliner.

Contacting Thierry, they are diverted to a W.H.O. research facility in Cardiff, Wales to assist in finding a cure. However they crash just before arriving as a stowaway zombie emerges from the galley elevator and begins attacking passengers resulting in the plane crashing after Gerry detonates a grenade that sucks the zombies out of the plane, causing the plane to crash, with Segen and an injured Gerry as the only survivors.

After arriving at the facility, Gerry reveals his theory: that the infected do not bite people who are seriously injured or already terminally ill, since they would be unsuitable as hosts for viral reproduction. He volunteers to inject himself with a terminal but curable pathogen on himself to see if his idea works. However, the wing in which the pathogens are stored is overrun with infected, after a doctor accidentally infected himself and then his colleagues. Gerry fights his way through the zombies into the pathogen storage vault, injects himself with a sample, and successfully returns to the main lab without being attacked. Seeing that his "camouflage" theory works, the doctors rejoice and immediately treat him.

Gerry returns to his family, now relocated to a safe zone at Freeport, Nova Scotia. A "vaccine" derived from deadly pathogens is developed that can act as camouflage for the troops battling the infected, and for fleeing civilians. As human offensives begin against the zombies, humanity now has hope, but Gerry notes that, "This isn't the end, not even close."