World War Z [4K Ultra HD Blu-ray/Blu-ray]

Mireille Enos Director: Tim Headington, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Ian Bryce Tim Headington

Overview

Brad Pitt stars as an ex-United Nations employee racing around the globe in a bid to halt a worldwide zombie pandemic in Marc Forster's sprawling adaptation of Max Brooks' bestselling novel of the same name. Retired U.N. investigator Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) and his family are sitting in what appears to be a typical Philadelphia traffic jam when helicopters began to circle ominously overhead, and an explosion throws the city into panic. In the blink of an eye, the streets are consumed by chaos. When Gerry learns that the catalyst for the turmoil is a highly contagious virus that transforms those who contract it into rampaging maniacs, and that legions of the infected are growing on all continents, he agrees to join his former colleagues in discovering the source of the rampant plague so that his wife and two daughters will be guaranteed safety aboard a UN fleet in the Atlantic Ocean. Upon tracing a crucial e-mail to a U.S. military base in South Korea, Gerry learns that the infection has spread more rapidly than anyone realizes. Although a subsequent trip to Jerusalem, where the government has constructed a massive wall to keep the public safe, initially offers hope that the growing horde can be kept at bay, an unexpected breach sends Gerry back into the sky in search of patient zero. Just when Gerry thinks he's traced the origins of the virus, however, the unthinkable happens. Subsequently stranded in Cardiff with a fearless Israeli soldier, Gerry quickly makes his way to a World Health Organization outpost where the few remaining scientists have hit a dead end in their search for a cure. But the struggle is far from over, and after recalling an unusual scene witnessed in Jerusalem, Gerry prepares to make a leap of faith that could prevent the downfall of humanity.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/25/2023
UPC:	0826663237429
Original Release:	2013
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	Shout Factory
Language:	English
Format:	Blu-ray

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Mireille Enos	Karen Lane
James Badge Dale	Speke
Daniella Kertesz	Segen
Ludi Boeken	Jurgen Warmbrunn
Abigail Hargrove	Rachel Lane
Matthew Fox	Parajumper
Elyes Gabel	Rachel Lane
Peter Capaldi	W.H.O. Doctor
Ruth Negga	W.H.O. Doctor
Sterling Jerins	Constance Lane
Fabrizio Zacharee Guido	Tomas
John Gordon Sinclair	Navy SEAL Commander
Michiel Huisman	Ellis
Ann Ogbomo	Camp Humphrey's Soldier
Jonathan Howard	Camp Humphrey's Soldier
Mike Noble	Camp Humphrey's Soldier
Ernesto Cantu	Tomas' Father
Vicky Araico	Tomas' Mother
Graham Anthony Hornsby	Market Attacker
Nick Bartlett	Market Attacker
Kevin Kiely	Motorcycle Cop
Ruari Cannon	Pharmacy Helper
Ryen Perkins	Philadelphian Zombie
Khalid Laith	Thierry's Aide
Noa Paulina Bodner	Israeli Camp Soldier
Asaf Haim Ben Shimon	Israeli Camp Soldier
Gil Cohen-Alloro	Actor
Yaniv Rokah	Israeli Camp Soldier
Shaul Ezer	Israeli Camp Soldier
Linoy Aynesaz	Israeli Camp Singer
Efrat Avni	Israeli Camp Singer
Maisam Masri	Israeli Camp Refugee
Renu Setna	Israeli Camp Refugee
Ori Pfeffer	Israeli Camp Refugee
Julia Levy-Boeken	Israeli Camp Refugee
Imran Mraish	Israeli Camp Refugee
Yousef Jubeh	Israeli Camp Refugee
Troy Glasgow	Argus Sailor
Richard Thompson	Argus Sailor
Song Xuan Ke	Korean Doctor
Christian Wong	Korean Patient
Denis Ischenko	Airline Pilot
Nikola Djuricko	Airline Pilot
Elen Rhys	Flight Attendant
Paula Videniece	Airline Passenger
Doron Davidson	Airline Passenger
Lee Colley	Airline Passenger
Michael Jenn	W.H.O. Vault Zombie
Sarah Amankwah	W.H.O. Lab Zombie
Marc Forster	Actor
Matthew Michael Carnahan	Actor
Drew Goddard	Actor
Moritz Bleibtreu	Actor
Jane Perry	UN Delegate
Lucy Russell	UN Delegate
Tim Berrington	UN Delegate
Konstantin Khabenskiy	Russian Fighter
Lee Nicholas Harris	Camp Humphrey's Soldier
Damon Lindelof	Actor
Fabrizio Guido	Actor
Marco Beltrami	Actor
Tim Headington	Actor
Dede Gardner	Actor
Jeremy Kleiner	Actor
Mark Edward Wright	Actor
J. Michael Straczynski	Actor
Matt Chesse	Actor
Mayes C. Rubeo	Actor
Nigel Phelps	Actor
Ben Seresin	Actor
Ian Bryce	Actor
Paul Schwake	Actor
Gabriele Zucchelli	Actor
Kate Dowd	Actor
Jon Billington	Actor
Debra James	Actor

Technical Credits

Matthew Michael Carnahan

Damon Lindelof

Drew Goddard

Tim Headington	Director,Executive Producer
Dede Gardner	Director,Producer
Jeremy Kleiner	Director,Producer
Ian Bryce	Director,Producer
Brad Pitt	Producer
Mark Bakshi	Producer
Mark Huffam	Producer
Jillian Kugler	Producer
Paul Schwake	Producer
Marc Forster	Executive Producer
Graham King	Executive Producer
Matthew Michael Carnahan	Screenwriter,Screenwriter
Damon Lindelof	Screenwriter
Drew Goddard	Screenwriter
Dominic Gibbs	Sound Effects
James Harrison	Sound Effects
Tobias Poppe	Sound Effects
Alastair Sirkett	Sound Effects
Orin Beaton	Sound Effects

Editorial Reviews

Back in 2003, Max Brooks helped to kick-start the current zombie craze with The Zombie Survival Guide, a tongue-in-cheek book detailing your best chances for survival when dealing with the living dead. Three years later Brooks expanded the scope of The Zombie Survival Guide considerably with World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, a compelling pseudo-oral history of the zombie apocalypse as told through the eyes of the people who had witnessed it firsthand. It was a smart, tense, and inventive piece of socio-political commentary served up in the guise of an apocalyptic zombie epic. It was the kind of book that proved you needn't let your brain rot to enjoy a story about walking corpses waging war on humanity. As expected, it wasn't long before a feature film version of the story was in the works, and the result is Marc Forster's World War Z, a frantic zombie opus that strips away all the nuance of its innovative source material in favor of sheer cinematic spectacle. Retired U.N. investigator Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) and his family are sitting in what appears to be a typical Philadelphia traffic jam when helicopters began to circle ominously overhead, and an explosion throws the city into panic. In the blink of an eye, the streets are consumed by chaos. When Gerry learns that the catalyst for the turmoil is a highly contagious virus that transforms those who contract it into rampaging maniacs, and that legions of the infected are growing on all continents, he agrees to join his former colleagues in discovering the source of the rampant plague so that his wife and two daughters will be guaranteed safety aboard a UN fleet in the Atlantic Ocean. Upon tracing a crucial e-mail to a U.S. military base in South Korea, Gerry learns that the infection has spread more rapidly than anyone realizes. Although a subsequent trip to Jerusalem, where the government has constructed a massive wall to keep the public safe, initially offers hope that the growing horde can be kept at bay, an unexpected breach sends Gerry back into the sky in search of patient zero. Just when Gerry thinks he's traced the origins of the virus, however, the unthinkable happens. Subsequently stranded in Cardiff with a fearless Israeli soldier, Gerry quickly makes his way to a World Health Organization outpost where the few remaining scientists have hit a dead end in their search for a cure. But the struggle is far from over, and after recalling an unusual scene witnessed in Jerusalem, Gerry prepares to make a leap of faith that could prevent the downfall of humanity. Although a pale imitation of Brooks' celebrated source material, the truth is that, for at least the first hour or so, Forster's film is one of the most sweeping and ambitious zombie epics ever to hit the big screen. Working with a budget that would make George A. Romero blue-green with envy, Forster and writers Matthew Michael Carnahan, Drew Goddard, J. Michael Straczynski, and Damon Lindelof plunge us headlong into a world in which social norms have been violently ripped away in mankind's desperate fight for survival. It's a frightening depiction of our downfall made believable by the film's massive scope and Forster's competent direction, though it isn't long before the cracks in this thin veneer begin to show -- most notably in the inexplicable survival of a young boy whose family the Lane's sought shelter with while attempting to reach the top of an inner-city apartment building. Not only is the spatial logic of the boy's escape non-existent, but the kid never even factors into the story later on, which may have at least warranted some amount of forgiveness for the sloppy oversight. It's a bad omen when four established writers can't come up with a logical scenario for a young boy to escape the zombie horde, and while the filmmakers fortunately never again resort to this sort of hackery, the rest of the film consists largely of Gerry and company fleeing from one scene of zombie mayhem to the next. Depending on your tolerance for rotting corpses with the speed and agility of Olympic sprinters, those scenes of mayhem are fairly exhilarating, too. The fault in World War Z certainly isn't poor direction or acting (Pitt is a likable lead, and we instinctively want to cheer for him as he willingly puts himself in harm's way to protect his family), but the fact that, despite being gifted such rich, thematically complex source material, the filmmakers embraced nearly ever cliché in the zombie mythos -- the family in peril, the frantic search for the cure, the bite victim who may or may not turn -- in a shameless summer cash grab. No doubt they'll enjoy a hearty take as well since World War Z essentially amounts to a string of competently executed (and occasionally exciting) set pieces. Forster is obviously a director who knows his craft, and here he's surrounded by artists with the talent to make his vision convincing. In their quieter moments, his chattering flesh-eaters even possess a distinctive creep factor as well. In short, Forster's World War Z is the epitome of everything Max Brooks so brilliantly subverted in his book of the same name. In that respect it's a travesty. But the producers obviously believe that carnage sells more popcorn than social commentary, so until we get the remake Brooks' source material so richly deserves, it's a travesty best served with extra butter and a large Pepsi.