Why do the characters want to survive?

[Bunsher]

In every zombie film I've seen, the characters really do try their hardest to survive the impending apocalypse that is occuring. Even without an apocalypse, humans have an unexplainable desire to live for no other reason then, well, to live... but what's there to truly live for in a post-zombie-apocalyptic world? In all honesty, if there were to be a zombie outbreak I'd just go over to the person I love and just spend my last moments with her. I wouldn't barracade the place, I wouldn't do anything, I'd just sit with her and wait until the zombies tear me to shreds. I've never understood why no character in a zombie film says "Well it's pretty pointless to live, I'll just die now.." although I guess John comes pretty close in Day.

[Marie]

People want to survive for the same reason that people want to reproduce in this crazy, and increasingly dangerous world, even without the zombie plague being real. We're programed for it, othewise our species would have died out centuries ago. If we'd have quit trying we'd have never become the dominant species on this planet. M_

[Legion2213]

What Marie said - Survival/preservation/continuation is hard-wired into our minds and our DNA.

[JDFP]

In all honesty, if there were to be a zombie outbreak I'd just go over to the person I love and just spend my last moments with her. I wouldn't barracade the place, I wouldn't do anything, I'd just sit with her and wait until the zombies tear me to shreds. I call bullshit on this. You honestly mean to tell me that if a ghoul was about to enter into your place with a loved one you would just say: "Oh, well, shit, I guess we're about to die."? Here in Tennessee we call a person that doesn't stick up for his family/friends a yellow-belly (a.k.a. coward). Do you wake up in the morning and just say: "Well, I don't feel like trying to succeed in life anyway because I'll just end up failing anyway, better just to save myself from the embarrassment." Because, that's exactly what you are saying. If not for your own laziness, if this is the way you really feel, then you should survive in knowing that the longer you keep going the longer you can help other people who really want to live to survive. I agree with others here about the survival instinct. You say the above now, but I could bet you a buffalo nickel that if you were about to face certain death you'd either fight or flight. I've always liked the phrase: "I'm not afraid of death, just the dying part." I think that really sums a great deal of it up right there. We carry on regardless of the tumult or toil or terror because it's who we are as people (at least, ahem, some of us). We all die, but some of us (like the person you mention above in your phrase) never truly live. Now a nuclear war is a different story all together... j.p.

[zombiekiller]

I call bullshit on this. You honestly mean to tell me that if a ghoul was about to enter into your place with a loved one you would just say: "Oh, well, shit, I guess we're about to die."? Here in Tennessee we call a person that doesn't stick up for his family/friends a yellow-belly (a.k.a. coward). Do you wake up in the morning and just say: "Well, I don't feel like trying to succeed in life anyway because I'll just end up failing anyway, better just to save myself from the embarrassment." Because, that's exactly what you are saying. If not for your own laziness, if this is the way you really feel, then you should survive in knowing that the longer you keep going the longer you can help other people who really want to live to survive. I agree with others here about the survival instinct. You say the above now, but I could bet you a buffalo nickel that if you were about to face certain death you'd either fight or flight. I've always liked the phrase: "I'm not afraid of death, just the dying part." I think that really sums a great deal of it up right there. We carry on regardless of the tumult or toil or terror because it's who we are as people (at least, ahem, some of us). We all die, but some of us (like the person you mention above in your phrase) never truly live. Now a nuclear war is a different story all together... j.p. hear,hear. i agree with you 100 percent.if you would give up then, you might as well just stay home in bed til you die. cause you wouldn't mount to anything anyway.

[SRP76]

Plain fear. People are afraid to die. Zombies or not, croaking is a frightful thing that you don't want happening to you. So, you try to avoid it.

[sandrock74]

Simple answer: the human will to survive.

[Yojimbo]

We all die, but some of us (like the person you mention above in your phrase) never truly live. Wise words. Death is an inevitability that is only truly sad when there there was no point to the life lost.

[SymphonicX]

I can see where Bunsher is coming from in a sense, maybe misguided in the way the point is expressed but I am assuming he means the pure futility of trying to survive in a sparsely populated, extremely volatile and dangerous environment wouldn't exactly make you want to breed let alone see any point to survival. It's kinda like living on the mouth of a volcano, one day you know it's going to cause your premature end so why stave it off til you're too old to run away from it? Human survival instinct only goes so far, and after a few years of a zombie plague I'd bet my bottom dollar the suicide rate would be higher than the death from zombies rate. However I doubt Bansher would really let zeds tear him and his girlfriend limb from limb, that's just painful and a horrible way to die and I do suspect you'd fight tooth and nail to see your gf have a more peaceful end than that, if suicide was on the agenda. I mean the ultimate fear in all of this is being torn apart and eaten by zombies...so to simply throw yourself into that situation is unnatural in terms of human behaviour. I think the likelihood is that you'd be taking a whole bunch of sleeping pills and zzzzzzzzzzz

[Publius]

I can see where Bunsher is coming from in a sense, maybe misguided in the way the point is expressed but I am assuming he means the pure futility of trying to survive in a sparsely populated, extremely volatile and dangerous environment wouldn't exactly make you want to breed let alone see any point to survival. It's not like the human race hasn't been there (in a sparsely populated, extremely volatile, and dangerous environment) before. Should the first humans have just laid down to die cuz of all the scary sabertooth tigers and such? If they had thought like Bunsher, we wouldn't exist today.

[SymphonicX]

yeah but we're not talking about an underdeveloped, flailing species...those instincts would be sharper and more attuned to those environments...however imagine if the species evolved to the point of no natural predators, and instead survival was merely a thing of the past, so the species relaxed and generation after generation didn't have to deal with anything close to a constant physical threat...then suddenly all hell breaks loose, how does this species handle this problem? I'd say a fair few suicides... That's obviously where we're at now, but with thousands of years ago we hadn't relaxed and volatile environments were what people were born into...I reckon the sudden change now days would be enough to tip people over the edge...maybe not all of us, we are of course, a species renowned for the "adapt and overcome" method of being - but there would be a major, major culture shock which wouldn't surprise me if a lot of people simply couldn't handle it...

[Trin]

Depression and trauma are tricky things to predict, and in severe cases can completely jack up the survival instinct. Maybe the dude isn't going to lie down and let the zombies win the first night, but after a couple months, and after seeing the futility of living on, that might just be the case. Day after day of watching the world sink would eventually take its toll.

[SymphonicX]

Depression and trauma are tricky things to predict, and in severe cases can completely jack up the survival instinct. Maybe the dude isn't going to lie down and let the zombies win the first night, but after a couple months, and after seeing the futility of living on, that might just be the case. Day after day of watching the world sink would eventually take its toll. Exactly. I'm gonna kill myself now tbh....

[Wyldwraith]

Whoa, All over the world people are still fighting tooth and nail to eke out a subsistence-level existence. Painting the species as if soft complacency is the norm is inaccurate, since we are VASTLY outnumbered by the portion of humanity still one bad harvest/one outbreak of disease/loss of one week's extremely minimal earnings from being wiped out. Humanity has only been around for an eyeblink of time on Earth, but it strikes me as unreasonable to believe that instincts and drives responsible for keeping us going through the vast majority of the time we've been around that predates the last century of modern conveniences have just disappeared. Yes, many would die due to a simple lack of knowledge, but the survivors would relearn the lessons of survival in short order. How do we know? We're the one species on Earth prone to experiencing major overall improvements in the condition of our species DUE TO catastrophes that claim large portions of our populations. The Younger Dryas caused mass migrations that lead to human populations discovering/settling in new and much more favorable territories, and is also believed to be responsible for technological leaps forward in weapons/hunting implements design. The Black Death leads directly to the Renaissance. (Which is quite telling, since the golden age of gentle climate Europe had been experiencing prior to the Black Death had resulted in ossification of social development, while the sudden extermination of two thirds of the population ends the Dark Ages and slingshots us towards the Enlightenment) One could easily make the argument from a historical perspective that the loss of 5-6 billion people worldwide is more likely to trigger our next leap forwards as a species than it is to threaten our survival. Humanity seems to thrive and advance ONLY when life turns to horror and shit for the majority of us...

[Gemini]

Max Brooks addresses this with references to suicide epidemics and death due to unexplained natural causes (tangible evidence of lost hope and lost will to live) in his great book World War Z. However the people too weak to summon the will to persevere are in the minority I believe. How about Max's strange yet plausible 'quislings' theory, living people so disillusioned and warped by the zombie crisis that they believe they are one of them, and shamble amongst the undead, attacking the living before being devoured themselves by legitimate zombies. Interesting post by wraith btw.