Hollywood Movies: The Idea Of A Zombie Apocalypse (Essay Sample)

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Zombies
Hollywood movies have brought to life the idea of a zombie apocalypse for many years, and the stories have been embraced in the popular culture because of television shows like the “World War Z” and the “Walking Dead”. However, scientific studies have explained the possibility of the existence of a zombie virus (RedOrbit para. 1-2). For example, one study asked several microbiologists to comment on the existence of a zombie virus in a real world scenario. All the scientists gave a similar answer to the question. The scientists believed that the zombie virus is almost in existence in the form of the rabies virus. The rabies infection kills 100 percent of its victims, but before this, the infections turns the victims into a “walking dead” for a while (RedOrbit para. 1-2).
Moreover, rabies infection changes the behavior of the victim by reprogramming his/her brain, making him/her to bite other people in order to spread the infection. The rabies virus has zombie like effects on the victim. However, for rabies infection to turn its victims into full zombies, it will have to evolve in a manner that it will constantly make the “zombies” to look for the next person to infect (RedOrbit para. 2-3). Currently, the rabies virus kills its victims a few days after the symptoms appear if left untreated. The rabies infection can stay inside the body for about ten days to a year before causing symptoms such as hyper-salivation, agitation, paralysis, hallucination, confusion, and anxiety. This means that if a zombie apocalypse had to occur, it would spread slowly and not rapidly as portrayed in the movies (RedOrbit para. 2-3).
Other common symptoms associated with a rabies infection include aggression, fear of water and bright lights, which are common characteristics of zombies in the movies. The symptoms of a rabies infection closely mimic the characteristics of zombies portrayed in the movies (RedOrbit para. 2-3). If the zombie virus is engineered or mutates so that it does not kill people, but just reprograms their brains to make them want to bite other people and spread the virus, then it is possible to have a “zombie breakout” (RedOrbit para. 3-4).
Conspiracy theories have taken things a notch a higher by claiming that the zombie virus is already in existence and it is called LQP-79. Allegedly, this virus infects people’s brains, and it was engineered in an effort to develop a substance that could control the human mind (RedOrbit para. 1-2). Conspiracy theorist claim that the mind-controlling virus was supposed to be used in training facilities, but the media had concealed this information from the public. Evidence has proven that this story was fake, but it was the most searched topic on the CDC’s (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) website in 2012 (RedOrbit para. 1-2).
Some theorists have argued that the virus that could turn people into zombies is related to the rabies virus, but slightly different. These theorists have called the virus HZV (Human Zombism Virus) (Pecos and Lomax para. 1-2). The virus is passed to humans by ticks belonging to the family Ixodidae. After the HZV virus infects individuals, they transform into zombies undergoing similar stages as vampires. However, two main differences exist in the transformation stages. When people turn into zombies, the symptoms start and progress very fast, and they are not affected by time, for instance, day and night like in vampire transformations. In addition, if a zombie bites a person, he/she is more likely to develop a septic wound because the mouth of a zombie contains dangerous microorganisms unlike vampires (Pecos and Lomax para. 1-2).
In the first stage of zombie transformation, the symptoms manifest quickly, after about one or two hours. The symptoms include high metabolism and heart rate, severe itching, thirst, fever, chills, headache, and flu-like symptoms. In the second stage, the infected person enters zombies’ commas that lasts for about six hours (Pecos and Lomax para. 2-3). The short fever is very intense, making the victim suffer brain damage. People who are very old or very young are less likely to survive the zombie fever. Neve...