Tagline
“The wall is high. The swarm is higher.”
The Review
Marc Forster's World War Z brought the zombie apocalypse to a genuinely global scale for the first time. Brad Pitt races across continents — Philadelphia, South Korea, Jerusalem, Wales — as a former UN investigator searching for the pandemic's origin. The Jerusalem wall sequence, where thousands of zombies pile atop each other in an ant-like tower to breach the city's defenses, is one of the most spectacular horror set pieces ever filmed. The film's production was famously troubled, with an entirely rewritten third act, but the finished product is a taut, propulsive thriller that treats its premise with geopolitical seriousness. It grossed $540 million and remains the highest-grossing zombie film ever made.
Fun Fact
The entire third act was rewritten by Damon Lindelof and Drew Goddard after the original ending — a massive battle in Moscow — was deemed unworkable. The Jerusalem sequence required 1,000 extras and cutting-edge CGI crowd simulation. Paramount removed all references to China as the outbreak's origin to protect box office potential in the Chinese market.
Score Breakdown
Total Score
21/30
Get Glen’s Updates
Investing insights, new tools, and whatever I’m building this week. Free. No spam.
Unsubscribe anytime. I respect your inbox more than Congress respects property rights.
Keep Exploring
Top 25 Horror Movies
See the full ranked list of the greatest horror films ever made.
Read moreTop 25 Sci-Fi Movies
The greatest science fiction films ever made, ranked.
Read moreTop 25 Action Movies
The greatest action films ever made, ranked.
Read moreTop 25 Movie Villains
The greatest antagonists in cinema history, ranked.
Read moreConsulting
Salesforce development and technical consulting.
Read moreWins
Track record of wins across investing, building, and creating.
Read more