Watched the movie, World War Z, last night. Brad Pitt stars as a young yet very seasoned UN analyst who is tapped on the shoulder to find out what the disease is and where it originated.
I didn't realize how much I missed in this movie the first time I saw it. What struck me this time was the deranged CIA operative behind bars in South Korea who seemed to have some first hand knowledge of what the disease was all about. Was the CIA involved?
Movie starts out: You and your family are driving down a street minding your own business and all of a sudden all hell breaks loose. There's an explosion behind you and people are turning into zombies, attacking everybody. There is mass chaos, mass confusion, mass panic and mass casualties.
During all of this, the analyst is contacted by the Assistant Secy General to the UN and is told that a helicopter will pick he and his family up if they can make their way to the top of a building. First they must get through all the rubble and carnage.
After they're picked up they arrive on a ship and he's informed that he's been handpicked to lead a team of investigators to South Korea to find out how the disease originated and where its source is.
He doesn't want to go because he will be leaving his family behind but quickly told that if he doesn't, his family will be removed from the safety of the ship to some sort of safe zone where the likelihood of their survival will be diminished.
He has no choice now and heads to South Korea with a young and inexperienced Harvard Virologist who thinks he's ready to take on this assignment. Wrong. He wasn't prepared for what lay ahead and immediately succumbs to panic and a fall as an elite band of soldiers, who stayed behind to protect the base station, encounter a horde of zombies.
Anyway, if you haven't seen this movie, it might be a good idea to watch it. Well done, well acted and the special affects are really excellent.
I had a moment to reflect on the movie and wanted to share my thoughts. Actually, the movie really encapsulates what could collectively happen to all of us without much warning.
Nobody will be spared and it won't matter your age, what part of the world you're from, your color or what political party you belong to.
Actually what happens in this movie is actually occurring in the world right now but in smaller doses. We've all heard of Ebola, Dengue Fever and there's a polio type virus going around right now that's affecting young children. There's no cure just ongoing research to find out the causes.
Disease does not discriminate. Just like Mother Nature, when she's unleashed we are the hapless recipients of her wrath.
The movie showed me that we humans are just walking petrie dishes. We are prey and nothing more. That nothing's changed in the world. That there are very few who are qualified let alone willing to stick their necks out for the rest of us albeit even if it took a little bit of hand twisting to get the analyst to agree to take on this new assignment.
In the end he saved everybody.
While we're all cowering in fear, these people are out on the front lines taking a bullet.
I wonder, what would happen if we didn't have these selfless individuals in our midst? What makes one person willing to give of himself to help others? To put it mildly, I'd say we're all screwed.
If the time came to give of yourself, on behalf of others, would you be a helper or a hapless?
Something to think about.
This movie showed me that nothing's certain in life, that there's always an element of risk and uncertainty in everything. That what we consider normal could just as well be abnormal. That what is stable today can morph into something completely unrecognizable tomorrow.
Is this all hand wringing? Doom and Gloom. No, it's something that needs to be said so more of us are aware of the world we live in, the dangers, who we are and what we are.
It doesn't hurt to be one step ahead of whatever it is that's coming or at least not be taken completely by surprise don't you think?
What this movie boiled down to was our lives really lie in the hands of a Few who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of all.
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