Back story of the origin of the Zombie Virus

Here's my suggestion of a back story, the only thing I can recall as part of a back story that Bryony wanted is that in one of her previous videos she mentioned a government conspiracy so working with that I'm come up with something

virus which for the sake of this suggestion I'm referring to as 'X' is conceived during a major war, (possibly the Vietnam War, or if you want to be Recent the Iraq war) it's goal in development was to temporarily resurrect deceased soldiers of either side as a way to obtain any vital information during the conflict.

When X is first tested, the deceased subjects have basic living abilities such as heart beating lungs working, but the brains are unable to properly function due to lack of blood flow and the subjects die in a matter of minutes.

for the Second test X has been updated and now allows for the reanimated human to walk and move around, but scientists are unable to communicate with the reanimated and without basic knowledge of eating the subjects die within a few days

Third test using the same virus as the second test, the scientists attach feeding tubes to keep the reanimated alive, but their bodies reject the nutrients as they are unable to properly process the nutrients into energy to survive

It is theorized that in order to achieve basic communication the reanimated would have to be reeducated over a long period of time as if they were teaching babies.

in the next incarnation X (which is this the current incarnation( the reanimated now have the ability to seek and eat meat in order to survive over a long period but an anomaly occurs in which the heart has stopped beating. The reanimated are recorded as Zombies, the Scientists record a breakthrough as the have successfully reanimated a human corpse over a long period of time.

in the middle of research for X's next stage which would have taught memory retainment, a rat crawls through a ventilation shaft and falls through a vent duct into one of the Zombie's pen and is bitten and killed by the zombie. A security guard finds the rat in the pen and is panicking because it was his job to keep the pen clean, think only for the survival of his job and thinking the rat is dead he disposes of the rat in a trashcan.

The Rat reanimates into a zombie rat in a landfill and starts infecting other rodents on the site, eventually it spreads to humans in the area via mosquitoes and the Zombie infection begins

What do you guys think?

I know not the whole back story will be explained in the movie but segments could be hinted throughout the course of the film

dctcool, i like your idea but it got me thinking with a virus there is always the chance there is a cure for it, is there a cure for being a zombie not sure any film has touched on that, only cure i know of is a gunshot to the head but that's a final cure, patient/ victim never recovers from it.

Cool backstory though it does make me think of Resident Evil in a way but such things as a virus that cause people to become zombies pops up in alot of zombie films, so hard to stay outside what's already been done.

Iain

Resident Evil Extinction touched on a "cure" to make zombies more suitable for human life - as though they could walk on the streets to since they dont attack people - but their flesh is still a bit - well - rotten. A problem with it turned out to be that they turned even more violent than before.

Yes that was the Resident Evil i was thinking of, not a cure if they make them super zombies, ( no flying involved) their bite did more than turn you into a zombie it changed you into something else, though that doctor who was bitten did O.D on the T-virus so maybe why he became something more than a zombie ( not going into great detail just incase anyone hasn't seen the film)

Iain

Thinking about it a bit more Iain you're right that a lab would have developed a cure, but I do like the idea of a cure making things worse

1
I'm thinking since the virus was passed onto a rat and taken into a landfill it would have picked up a lot of other diseases that would have caused the virus to mutate, perhaps administering a cure into a bitten Zombie would make it a fast paced zombie,

2
or how bout this maybe if the cure is administered before a bitten human is turned then the human stays human and retains all of of it's human knowledge like knowing how to drive or use a gun, but their desire for eating human flesh is so overwhelming that they still resort to cannibalizing other humans,

"Super Soldiers" has been a back story to a few films/stories. How about some other medical thing that goes bad.
Genetically modified Meningitis that was created to modify brain chemistry to make the subjects more docile, so an enemy can be defeated easier, which goes loopy and affects brain chemistry too much, creating zombies.
Or I was going to say a cure for cancer that goes wrong, but that is the basis for I Am Legend.

If you want to hint at a cause, could have footage of a biochemical building being blown up, bit tricky with no budget. Maybe a Biochemical truck crashing? Just a short scene at the begining.

Or, just don't explain where they come from. Probably easier as the outbreak seems to affect most of the world at the same time, so having a valid reason could be tricky.

Or go the whole hog, have news snippits and conspiracy nuts all claiming loads of different reasons. Just simple voice overs, or short video clips.


Elvis

Western Chemicals and compounds, a company that has subsidaries all over the world. They have just created a drug that keeps bodies alive after death, long enough to extract any human organs that can be donated. They can also store any extacted organs in donar bodies for as long as needed. The only problem is the drug used, needs to be stored at a very low temperature which when transported on our very busy motorways is like firing a bazooka into a crowded room. Bad weather, slippy roads and news of a big pile up could lead to a mass chemical leak spreading anywhere the wind blows.

Or lets say terrorists recieve news that containers are moving said drug from depots at various destinations all over the world. No one knows the seriousness of the outcome but bombs planted explode all over the world cause chemical leaks into the atmosphere.

scooter zombie wrote:Western Chemicals and compounds, a company that has subsidaries all over the world. They have just created a drug that keeps bodies alive after death, long enough to extract any human organs that can be donated. They can also store any extacted organs in donar bodies for as long as needed.

That is hands down the best reason for someone creating a "zombie drug" that I have ever read. Similar to Re-Animator but more practical.

vnflcards wrote:

scooter zombie wrote:Western Chemicals and compounds, a company that has subsidaries all over the world. They have just created a drug that keeps bodies alive after death, long enough to extract any human organs that can be donated. They can also store any extacted organs in donar bodies for as long as needed.

That is hands down the best reason for someone creating a "zombie drug" that I have ever read. Similar to Re-Animator but more practical.

Agreed.
I like this.
I like it like I like custard.

dctcool wrote:Here's my suggestion of a back story, the only thing I can recall as part of a back story that Bryony wanted is that in one of her previous videos she mentioned a government conspiracy so working with that I'm come up with something

virus which for the sake of this suggestion I'm referring to as 'X' is conceived during a major war, (possibly the Vietnam War, or if you want to be Recent the Iraq war) it's goal in development was to temporarily resurrect deceased soldiers of either side as a way to obtain any vital information during the conflict.

When X is first tested, the deceased subjects have basic living abilities such as heart beating lungs working, but the brains are unable to properly function due to lack of blood flow and the subjects die in a matter of minutes.

for the Second test X has been updated and now allows for the reanimated human to walk and move around, but scientists are unable to communicate with the reanimated and without basic knowledge of eating the subjects die within a few days

Third test using the same virus as the second test, the scientists attach feeding tubes to keep the reanimated alive, but their bodies reject the nutrients as they are unable to properly process the nutrients into energy to survive

It is theorized that in order to achieve basic communication the reanimated would have to be reeducated over a long period of time as if they were teaching babies.

in the next incarnation X (which is this the current incarnation( the reanimated now have the ability to seek and eat meat in order to survive over a long period but an anomaly occurs in which the heart has stopped beating. The reanimated are recorded as Zombies, the Scientists record a breakthrough as the have successfully reanimated a human corpse over a long period of time.

in the middle of research for X's next stage which would have taught memory retainment, a rat crawls through a ventilation shaft and falls through a vent duct into one of the Zombie's pen and is bitten and killed by the zombie. A security guard finds the rat in the pen and is panicking because it was his job to keep the pen clean, think only for the survival of his job and thinking the rat is dead he disposes of the rat in a trashcan.

The Rat reanimates into a zombie rat in a landfill and starts infecting other rodents on the site, eventually it spreads to humans in the area via mosquitoes and the Zombie infection begins

What do you guys think?

I know not the whole back story will be explained in the movie but segments could be hinted throughout the course of the film

Hey i like what you did. Just thinking for movie like this would a back story work?

I prefer Scooter Zombie's idea of having a medical substance that prolongs the life of organs after death for quicker and easier organ donation steps. It's simple - it's believable - all without having to go through an entire backstory.

Fuzileer wrote:I prefer Scooter Zombie's idea of having a medical substance that prolongs the life of organs after death for quicker and easier organ donation steps. It's simple - it's believable - all without having to go through an entire backstory.

It's also the T Virus from resident evil

I like the originality of the backstory dctcool suggested

I like the core of dctcool's backstory, but it may benefit from simplifying. For example, consider the experiments as being performed on animals (eg rats) instead, one (or more) of them escaping, and then one of those animals eventually infecting a human. That avoids the convoluted transmission from human to animal and back to human. It also avoids the implausible human experiments; it's much more plausible if such experiments were being performed on animals. Just some thoughts...

Here's a question:
Do we need a back-story for the zombie plague?

i believe as we have the script now, we do not need a backstory. But good thinking going on here...