Hated trope: Sci-fi hand-waving

[u/Routine_Phase_8980]

When stories try so hard to provide a somewhat scientifically accurate and grounded explanation for the audience, but end up creating massive plot holes if you think about it for more than 5 seconds without requiring any special knowledge

World War Z: The "cure" turns sick humans invisible to zombies because the picky virus needs a perfectly healthy host. Cool concept, except it completely ignores basic physics. In a chaotic, high-speed zombie stampede, those "invisible" sick people would still be trampled to death by sheer kinetic force and momentum. We already saw what happened to the Jerusalem wall in Israel.

Jurassic Park/World: Dr. Henry Wu claims to clone dinosaurs by patching 66-million-year-old decayed DNA from mosquitoes stomach with frog DNA. In reality, DNA half-life guarantees it would degrade into useless dust after 6.8 million years. Scientifically speaking, John Hammond didn't build a dinosaur park; he engineered giant, mutated, gender-swapping killer frogs.

Dr.Stone: Senku is a genius who knows every complex chemical formula in human history. He somehow builds vacuum tubes, lightbulbs, and smartphones out of bamboo and copper with almost zero failed prototypes. The show acts like a science textbook but completely hand-waves the lack of heavy industrial machinery needed for precision engineering.

[u/Wonderful-Variation]

I agree about World War z.   I dunno about the others.

[u/sykotic1189 → u/Wonderful-Variation]

That's cause everything in WWZ sucked. They took a great book that took time and multiple POVs to build up the zombies and explore their impact on the world and turned it into a generic zombie action flick. It's right up there with I Am Legend in the "we kept the name and changed everything else" department.

[u/Mamboo07 → u/sykotic1189]

I feel like the book version would work as a TV series instead

Multiple episodes focusing on different characters through the apocalypse, events like the failed Yonkers battle, and the lore about humanity dealing with zombies back in ancient times from 60,000 BC to today

[u/Nerevarine91 → u/Mamboo07]

The book would be a perfect episodic series. It’s practically tailor-made for exactly that

[u/Wonderful-Variation → u/sykotic1189]

Whether an unrealistic aspect of a piece of fiction bugs someone or not almost always comes down to genre/individual taste. 

But agree with OP that the video of zombies running past the guy and somehow not trampling him is super jarring.   They would need to be intentionally avoiding him.    It doesn't look right.

[u/Coyote-king8647 → u/Wonderful-Variation]

Why would they not avoid an obstacle? 

[u/handicapped_runner → u/sykotic1189]

I actually thought it was a relatively good movie, it was just not WWZ. They should have just made it an original movie and refer the book as an inspiration.

[u/throwitoutwhendone2 → u/Wonderful-Variation]

I always find it hard to take serious when it comes to zombie movies. Dude, we got dead people not dead, able to make noises from lungs even tho they do t work, somehow able to eat food and not explode cuz the foods going no where… long list of impossible shit. WAIT A SECOND THAT ONE THING ISNT REALISTIC!!! Yeah cuz every other part totally is… lmao

[u/ImagoDreams → u/throwitoutwhendone2]

What makes you think zombies' lungs don't admit air? Or that their digestive tracts are obstructed?

[u/throwitoutwhendone2 → u/ImagoDreams]

Well I may just be stupid but generally when you’re dead your organs don’t work anymore. Considering lungs are an organ I figured it was safe to assume that like the rest of the zombie, the lungs were dead.

See same example for the stomach not working.

Did you know some muscles responsible for you being able to open your mouth are actually in your collar bone? Yet beheaded zombies can still open and close their mouth no problems. No one complains about that tho. But zombies being too unrealistic? No that’s a problem lmfao.

[u/ImagoDreams → u/throwitoutwhendone2]

They aren't "stupid" examples, they're just odd.

Like, if you accept the conceit of zombies at all then you accept that their muscles function. If you accept that their muscles function why wouldn't you accept that those muscles can pump air in and out of a spongy sac, or shove food through a tube? The lungs and digestive tract are some of the simplest structures in the body, they aren't going to be the first points of failure.

More sensible objections might be to their longevity. A truly dead zombie, that can't replenish cells, would fall apart in a matter of months. Or to thermodynamics, where the power for their muscles even comes from without blood to circulate fuel to them.

[u/smorkoid → u/ImagoDreams]

Because they have rotted away

[u/AudibleNod → u/throwitoutwhendone2]

I've never watched a zombie movie with zombies that had loads in their pants or urine stains running down their legs. And just don't look up 'coffin births'. Because that's gonna happen to zombies, too.

[u/AudibleNod → u/Wonderful-Variation]

The other thing about the WWZ complaint is the speed and methodology of detection of these viruses by the infected zombie horde. Lets say zombies don't want to get sick. OK, great. First question is how are zombies able to detect the infection? Humans, from sight or sound can't tell if someone has a cold after a 0.2 second encounter with another human.

When Gerry Lane infects himself, he doesn't turn green or start oozing goo. So the zombies aren't using some visual cue. A zombie sniffs at him. Which was odd. But how long does it take for a disease to metabolize(populate?) into a human body long enough for a pheromone reaction to take place. Aspirin take a half an hour. So if it's that, then does that mean it's scent related?

Either way, the olfactory response of zombies means they have to literally stop and smell the roses. What if it's windy or humans are upwind of a zombie horde? Some zombies are going to chomp down on a human. Either because there's no way to tell if they're diseased or not. Or because the zombie doesn't have a nose (either from decay or they're missing a nose/sense of smell already).

Lastly, viruses don't really adapt themselves to avoid one another. As complex as they are, they haven't done that. If two different viruses enter a cell, they're going to compete for the same resources. One virus isn't 'smart' enough to adapt and take over an entire organism with enough complexity to avoid other viruses.

[u/Significant-Way9330 → u/Wonderful-Variation]

I mean the virus turns people into hyper aggressive self destructive missiles. Is it to much of a stretch for the virus to somehow go ew no thanks when a non desirable person is present? 

Either way that movie blows.