I don’t watch zombie movies.
I steer away from them. I find them generally
tasteless, unimaginative and lacking anything remotely connected to “story”.
Most appear, at least from their trailers, to focus on violence and gore with little interest in anything else (what
could be more gruesome than a person stalking then eating another?).
As a writer of science fiction and fantasy and avid fan of
this genre in motion pictures, I lamented that zombies had become the “in thing”
in stories and film these days. We’d just gotten over werewolves and vampires. Now I
felt doomed by an infestation of the “undead”. I mean, how many ways can you
portray such listless deadbeats?
Now there’s the action thriller “World War Z”. Despite my
intrigue with the trailer, it took my trusted friend’s insistence for me to go
see it.
I was vindicated in my trust of her good taste.
"World War Z" is not your typical zombie movie. In fact, to
call it a zombie movie is to fail to acknowledge the deeper thematic
reflections portrayed. What struck most was that this action thriller focused
less on what zombies did (all that missing blood and gore that some reviewers lamented
over gave me relief and gratitude) than on the effect of a plague that turned
most of humanity into them. It actually had a story! While the
motion picture apparently honored the iconic lore and criteria established in the
zombie mythos, director Marc Forster and screen writers J. Michael Straczynski
and Matthew Michael Carnahan (based on the book by Max Brooks) cleverly did not
let themselves be limited by it. In fact, zombies per se serve more as plot tools in a far more interesting and
deeper story arc and theme.
I’m referring to the subtle notes of ecology, biology and
co-evolution interlaced throughout this visually stunning and rather disturbing
film. What happens when you disturb Nature? The opening titles and scenes show a montage of curious and subtly dark reflections
on the consequences of our general indifference to Nature and her growing
unbalanced ecosystems. “Mother Nature is a serial killer,” virologist Andrew
Fassbach tells our hero during his first—and last—ten minutes on screen. During that short time
they spend together, Fassbach shares some key insights into how Gaia plays. And
she doesn’t always play “fair”. Fassbach also tells us that this zombie plague
started with a virus. Which brings up some interesting questions. Was it an
“intelligent virus”, manufactured and introduced? Did the virus co-evolve with some organism as an aggressive symbiont and was spontaneously triggered by a disturbance? What was that disturbance and was it an accident or a mistake? How did it come to be?
I didn’t fail to notice the reference to swarming ant
colonies in the title montage that foreshadowed a
later scene of zombies piling
onto each other on the walls of Jerusalem in a frenzied search for warm bodies
to eat. This is clearly a film about Nature’s powers and mysteries. You can be
sure that questions about what triggered and defined the zombie plague will be
addressed in the sequel, already scheduled. Because, like any serial killer, Mother
Nature wants to be caught, says Fassbach.
Co-Evolution & Symbiogenesis
Which brings me to what this film really touches on: how
Mother Nature takes care of herself and her own… whether we like it or not. The
key is evolution and something called co-evolution: this is when two normal
aggressors cooperate in an evolutionary partnership to benefit each other.
Ehrlich and Raven coined co-evolution to explain how butterflies and their host
plants developed in parallel. I wrote about it in an earlier post called
“
Co-evolution: Cooperation & Aggressive Symbiosis”
Virologist Frank
Ryan calls co-evolution “a wonderful marriage in nature—a partnership in which
the definition of predator and prey blurs, until it seems to metamorphose to
something altogether different.” Co-evolution is now an established theme in
the biology of virus-host relationships. The ecological “home” of the virus is the genome of any potential host
and scientists have remained baffled by the overwhelming evidence for
‘accommodation’.
“Today...every
monkey, baboon, chimpanzee and gorilla is carrying at least ten different
species of symbiotic viruses," says Ryan.
“Why,” asks Ryan,
“is co-evolution [and its partner, symbiosis] such a common pattern in nature?”
Ryan coined the term “genomic intelligence” to explain the form of intelligence
exerted by viruses and the capacity of the genome to be both receptive and
responsive to nature. It involves an incredible interaction between the genetic
template and nature that governs even viruses. Symbiosis and natural selection
need not be viewed as mutually contradictory. Russian biologists, Andrei
Famintsyn and Konstantine Merezhkovskii invented the term “symbiogenesis” to
explain the fantastic synthesis of new living organisms from symbiotic unions.
Citing the evolution of mitochondria and the chloroplast within a primitive
host cell to form the more complex eukaryotic cell (as originally theorized by
Lynn Margulis), Ryan noted that “it would be hard to imagine how the step by
step gradualism of natural selection could have resulted in this brazenly
passionate intercourse of life!”
Aggressive Symbiosis
In his book, “Virus
X” Dr. Frank Ryan coined the term “aggressive symbiont” to explain a common
form of symbiosis where one or both symbiotic partners demonstrates an
aggressive and potentially harmful effect on the other’s competitor or
potential predator. Examples abound, but a few are worth mentioning here. In
the South American forests, a species of acacia tree produces a waxy berry of
protein at the ends of its leaves that provides nourishment for the
growing infants of the ant colony residing in the tree. The ants, in turn not
only keep the foliage clear of herbivores and preying insects through a
stinging assault, but they make hunting forays into the wilderness of the tree,
destroying the growing shoots of potential rivals to the acacia. Viruses commonly
form “aggressive symbiotic” relationships with their hosts, one example of
which is the herpes-B virus, Herpesvirus saimiri, and the squirrel monkey (the
virus induces cancer in the competing marmoset monkey). Ryan suggests that the
Ebola and hantavirus outbreaks follow a similar pattern of “aggressive
symbiosis”. All you need is a perceived hostile trigger. A disturbance in an
otherwise balanced ecosystem, for instance.
Aggressive Symbiosis & Human History
The historian,
William H. McNeill, suggested that a form of “aggressive symbiosis” played a
key role in the history of human civilization. “At every level of
organization—molecular, cellular, organismic, and social—one confronts
equilibrium [symbiotic] patterns. Within such equilibria, any alteration from
‘outside’ tends to provoke compensatory changes [aggressive symbiosis]
throughout the system to minimize overall upheaval.”
So…what triggered
the zombie plague of "World War Z"? And how will humanity prevail in this new
paradigm of nature? I guess we’ll have to watch the sequel…
Nina Munteanu is an
ecologist and internationally published author of novels, short stories and
essays. She coaches writers and teaches writing at George Brown College and the
University of Toronto. For more about Nina’s coaching & workshops visit www.ninamunteanu.me. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for more about her writing.
