Movie review: 'World War Z'

The fast-paced, tense and horrifying ‘World War Z' is not for those prone to nightmares.
BY SANDI DAVIS Modified: June 20, 2013 at 3:25 pm •  Published: June 21, 2013

Brad Pitt and director Marc Forster have put together a fast-paced, tense and horrifying tale of humanity's survival against a fast-moving virus that turns anyone bitten into a zombie in seconds in “World War Z.”

Pitt plays Gerry Lane, a husband and father who has retired from his dangerous job with the U.N. and is enjoying spending time with his wife, Karin (Mireille Enos), and daughters Constance (Sterline Jerins) and Rachel (Abigail Hargrove).

The Lane family is caught in traffic in downtown Philadelphia when things get strange. A motorcycle police officer clips the family car's side-mirror off as he zips by and Lane gets out to retrieve it. There's a loud explosion and people start running. Looking up he sees a woman jump on the hood of a car and break out the windshield using her head. She grabs the driver and he jumps out of the car to defend himself. As they fight, she bites him and he drops to the ground and is still.

An instant later, his body starts writhing and within 12 seconds his eyes change and he becomes the same type of creature who just attacked him. He attacks his family in their car.

Lane jumps back into his car and follows a runaway garbage truck to get out of the gridlock of downtown. He doesn't get far before he's in a wreck and he has to steal another car to keep moving.

In the middle of all this he gets a call from his former boss at the U.N., Thierry Umutoni (Fana Mokoena), who will send a chopper to rescue his family if they can last the night.

He and his family get stranded in New Jersey and take refuge in an apartment with a helpful family. He offers them asylum if they want to leave, but they don't.

Zombies attack as the Lanes get to the roof, and see their ride and at the last minute, the son from the family, Tommy (Fabirzio Zacharee Guido), runs to join them.

They are taken to a U.S. Navy ship 200 miles out to sea and as his wife and children get settled, Lane talks to his former boss.

Theirry asks him to accompany a Harvard virologist to South Korea, where they believe some of the first cases appeared. It's there they hope they can find how it started and how to fight the disease. Gerry does not want to go and is adamant about it until Theirry threatens to move his family back home in the middle of the zombie riots if he does not.

During the flight, the doctor explains what he is looking for and how Mother Nature hides clues to every disease if you know where to look. It comes in handy on their arrival when they find a room full of incinerated bodies. A clue there takes them to Jerusalem, where the inhabitants curiously built a huge, high wall around their city just before the virus struck.

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