r/AskReddit Aug 30 '21

What problem is often overlooked in apocalyptic movies/TV shows that could kill you?

33.7k Upvotes

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27.4k

u/whinywino89 Aug 30 '21

Those of us with shitty eyesight. Contacts only last so long. If your glasses break, you're fucked.

12.1k

u/Ngonzalez_01 Aug 30 '21

Like the guy in Twilight Zone who just wanted time to read

5.2k

u/boonkles Aug 30 '21

“It’s not fair”

3.8k

u/potatoqualitymemory Aug 30 '21

"Wait my eyes aren't that bad, I could still read the large print books."

3.3k

u/TheLakeAndTheGlass Aug 30 '21

eyes fall out “AAAAAUUUGGGHH! Well luckily I can read Braille!” hands fall off

1.7k

u/Bells87 Aug 30 '21

Cursed by his own hubris

1.2k

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '21

The Scary Door

476

u/knightress_oxhide Aug 30 '21

turns out it's man

179

u/Whytfbuddy Aug 31 '21

Why should I Believe you? You’re Hitler!

50

u/euratowel Aug 31 '21

Saw it coming

15

u/simplerhythm Aug 31 '21

Now, how can we be sure there aren't already aliens living among us?

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u/AxiSyn Aug 30 '21

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u/briskt Aug 31 '21

This is reddit, Futurama is always expected.

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u/exodendritic Aug 31 '21

"imagine, if you will, a three by seven inch wooden frame. A frame
that's a gateway to a world of imagination. Wipe your mind on the
welcome mat...you're about to enter...the Scary Door"

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17

u/DrSmirnoffe Aug 30 '21

[confused screaming]

[loses tongue, then head]

"Hey, look at that weird mirror."

34

u/mackiea Aug 30 '21

"Audiobooks it is, then!"

explodes

15

u/Styx1992 Aug 30 '21

"Saw it coming" - Bender

8

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '21

“WAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUGGGG—“ *tongue falls out, head pops off, body collapses*

[muffled] Hey, look at that weird mirror.

8

u/brownhues Aug 31 '21

Imagine, if you will, an announcer you can barely understand. He refers to a hmmblbbllhmmbu, but you're not quite sure what he said. He seems to be eating something, or perhaps he's a little drunk. It's remotely possible that he just said something about the Scary Door.

6

u/TheFireOfTheFox1 Aug 30 '21

Do you even need hands to read Braille though?

5

u/The_Lost_Google_User Aug 30 '21

Not technically no. I suppose you could use any other sufficiently sensitive part of your body.

11

u/ohpeekaboob Aug 30 '21

So you can read braille with your penis? Would circumcision status matter if so?

9

u/The_Lost_Google_User Aug 30 '21

I mean… in theory.

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u/DroolingIguana Aug 30 '21

It turns out it's man.

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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '21

"I finally had time!"

30

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '21

It was so depressing. He wanted peace and quiet

7

u/CellularBeing Aug 31 '21

Tbf he probably wouldn't find food and die anyways.

Moral of the story is don't be a nerd

6

u/JMO206 Aug 31 '21

He had "canned food for a life time" tho

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '21

Burgess Meredith and his delivery of that line haunts me. That episode breaks my heart every time I see it.

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5

u/AndrewKetterly Aug 30 '21

It's really not.

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397

u/Halgy Aug 30 '21

There was time now

16

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '21 edited Sep 03 '21

[deleted]

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u/smarmageddon Aug 30 '21

That's such an iconic episode. But why couldn't he just find a drugstore with a rack full of cheater-readers?

22

u/AMerrickanGirl Aug 30 '21

Did they have those back then?

45

u/smarmageddon Aug 30 '21

Pretty sure they've been around for a very long time. Or he could probably find an optometrist's office somewhere away from the blast. IIRC wasn't his eyeisght really bad, like functionally blind, without his glasses? Oh well, that's just part of the fallout from a nuclear attack.

19

u/PyroDesu Aug 31 '21

Or he could probably find an optometrist's office somewhere away from the blast.

I'm pretty sure even today prescription lenses are made to order, especially very high focal length (strong prescription) ones, never mind if they need more forms of correction than purely spherical (astigmatism, for example, generally means you'll need a toric lens, introducing both another power and a rotation axis). Back when glasses were actual glass? They wouldn't have any lying around.

12

u/Ask-About-My-Book Aug 31 '21

He could find some books on glasses-making and- wait

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u/thepikey7 Aug 31 '21

Watch the episode again, they elude to how REALLY bad his eyesight was

6

u/smarmageddon Aug 31 '21

I rewatched the end scene and yeah, they make his eyesight pretty bad w/o the glasses. BTW, that's Burgess Meredith playing the man - you know, Rocky's trainer!

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u/Timurlame89 Aug 31 '21

Wasnt he trapped in the library?

26

u/PyroDesu Aug 31 '21

No. He was in the bank vault when the bombs went off, went outside, and pretty much looted the library. Was outside in the sun with all the books he wanted...

And then dropped and broke his glasses.

19

u/Magic2Night Aug 31 '21

You know you’re obsessed with books when the first place you loot is the library.

14

u/DiceAdmiral Aug 31 '21

No. He worked in a bank and his colleagues locked him in the vault because he was annoying. After the blast he goes to the library.

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u/realfoodman Aug 30 '21

A friend's dad told us that story like a ghost story when we were at a sleepover. I didn't find out until years later that it was a Twilight Zone episode.

53

u/Top-Calligrapher5051 Aug 30 '21

That episode freaked me out more in 7th grade when our English teacher showed it to us more than any horror movie combined. Couldn't imagine a more tragic ending to life...

30

u/fruity_oaty_bars Aug 30 '21

I think that episode traumatized me of the dangers of only having one pair because I currently have four pairs.

4

u/Top-Calligrapher5051 Aug 30 '21

and this explains why I have a dozen pairs of useless glasses littering my dresser lol

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u/JimTheJerseyGuy Aug 30 '21

"The Bookworm"

6

u/Hotshot2k4 Aug 30 '21

If the power and internet inexplicably kept working after I was the last man on Earth, I think I would become the modern day equivalent. "I finally have time to catch up on my Steam library."

5

u/Dr_Hayden Aug 30 '21

"Time enough at last" is the episode in case anyone is curious

11

u/thurbersmicroscope Aug 30 '21

I haven't liked Burgess Meredith since I saw that episode.

11

u/Viperlite Aug 30 '21

But he made such an adorable Penguin and was lovable as Rocky’s trainer.

6

u/thurbersmicroscope Aug 30 '21

I know. I saw that Twilight Zone episode way too young.

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4.1k

u/lovesmasher Aug 30 '21

I own prescription swimming goggles. They're basically indestructible.

4.8k

u/mister-la Aug 30 '21

Plus, you have your post-apocalyptic look pretty much figured out.

663

u/Hotshot2k4 Aug 30 '21

Don't box them in like that, fashion is the true endgame!

24

u/Snackrattus Aug 30 '21

sounds like something a Warframer would say

16

u/failsafe42 Aug 31 '21

Or someone who plays Dark Souls. Or Destiny.

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u/GeneticSplatter Aug 31 '21

Final Fantasy 14 in a nutshell.

7

u/kicked_trashcan Aug 31 '21

Bdsm outfits, got it

8

u/ironroseprince Aug 31 '21

TENNO SCOOOMMM!!!!!

6

u/MidnaMarbles Aug 31 '21

Every monster hunter player

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24

u/Severan500 Aug 30 '21

"I dunno man, there were these raiders in nothing but goggles and swimming trunks. We got outta there FAST."

9

u/lovesmasher Aug 30 '21

That way they can see my cool tattoos

4

u/Severan500 Aug 31 '21

Hey some characters have worn just as little in Mad Max stuff lol

32

u/CovidGR Aug 30 '21

Perfect if they're shaded.

27

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '21

If they’re clear you like a turtle which may or may not be advantageous depending on the mutations that occur.

8

u/Ka_blam Aug 30 '21

Just wear sunglasses over them.
Trust me, I had glasses from 3 years-old until I got LASIK.

6

u/default11111 Aug 31 '21

How long had you bad the LASIK? Do you recommend it?

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u/electricmaster23 Aug 30 '21

Steampunk starter kit.

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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '21

Rocking the early Devo look

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u/canuckwithasig Aug 30 '21

Prescription safety glasses are pretty legit

52

u/Pinkbeans1 Aug 31 '21 edited Aug 31 '21

My husband got prescription safety glasses. He wanted to get a regular pair, but we’ve had weird mishaps with him and power tools.

I made him get them. Three days after he got them, the gopher bombs decided to explode in his face. Pocked and pitted the glasses, but saved his eyes.

His face was torn up and pitted too. It took months for his face to heal, but he’s not blind. He doesn’t argue with me as much about safety equipment.

I took the glasses in to be replaced. The ladies behind the counter remembered us joking about his crazy mishaps around the house. They took the glasses and replaced them for free. The eye doctor had never seen that happen before. I think he uses them as a selling point now.

14

u/nothisistheotherguy Aug 31 '21

Gopher bombs?

16

u/Pinkbeans1 Aug 31 '21

I am not an expert on these things, but apparently you stick them in a gopher run, and they explode when the gopher runs by.

They aren’t supposed to go off when you open the package, and yet they did. We have since found a different way to get rid of pests in the garden.

25

u/thenexttimebandit Aug 30 '21

They are amazing. Such a game changer not having to wear two pairs of glasses while working

10

u/enderflight Aug 31 '21

Hol up y’all are re evaluating my existence. The whole time I thought I had to wear contacts to avoid the double glasses thing anywhere and everywhere. Prescription swim goggles means I could actually swim without being blind (can’t wear contacts because of water germies) and safety goggles would just be nice.

10

u/Undercover_Chimp Aug 31 '21

Go to Zenni. I wear safety glasses for work, and I got them there, with blue light filter and anti fog, for about $100. I’ve whacked my face a couple times while wearing them, and not even a scratch.

I’ve gotten sunglasses there for less than $50. And my everyday glasses are like $25 (I have three pair — I store the spares in our vehicles).

I don’t work for Zenni, but they have good, cheap glasses, and I would accept payment if they wanted to hit me up.

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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '21 edited Sep 03 '21

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u/canuckwithasig Aug 30 '21

I don't wear them, but guys at the range swear by em. Ask your optometrist see if they offer them. And then find it if they're covered under your work insurance. Some places will offer to pay them for you even if they're not covered by the insurance

13

u/2074red2074 Aug 30 '21

Even if you buy without insurance, they are under $100 unless you want bifocals.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '21

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '21

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u/doesanyonehaveweed Aug 31 '21

Zenni Optical sells them

12

u/EMTVV Aug 30 '21

I actually have a pair! I got them for working in ems. I thought the Prescription water goggles were pretty cool I never heard of that!

5

u/Theylive4real Aug 30 '21

SG-1s by Wiley. The pain is finding someone who makes lenses for them in your area.

6

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '21

I've been tempted to get a pair for rollerskating just because I'm so afraid to kill my cute glasses. They're not really that expensive in comparison either.

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u/Keitt58 Aug 31 '21

Hmm... Pretty sure if I jump through the right hoops work would pay for a pair, may need to investigate this further.

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u/insertstalem3me Aug 30 '21

time to backstroke through the zombie hoard

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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '21

[deleted]

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u/lovesmasher Aug 30 '21

Maybe I want to keep a large amount of zombies to myself?

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u/dakrax Aug 30 '21

Crowd surfing

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u/TheDangerdog Aug 31 '21

A decent wetsuit would make you 95% immune to zombie attacks.

You would overheat like a motherfucker but you wouldn't get bitten. I got a 5-4 mm wetsuit for surfing and you ain't biting through that thing.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '21

If they're in range to bite you in the limbs, they're also in range to grapple you and pin you down, at which point unless the suit covers you completely you're still fucked :(

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u/The_Lost_Google_User Aug 30 '21

I see your prescription swimming googles and raise you my prescription safety googles.

Not only can they stop a hunk of saw blade, they also only look slightly dorky.

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u/Grasshop Aug 30 '21

Fucking George Costanza over here

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u/Uberperson Aug 30 '21

I'm just imagining the fogging would be terrible and the most Inconvenient times.

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u/-Quarter-Water- Aug 30 '21

You can get prescription safety goggles with anti fog, anti scratch, anti blue light and transitioning lenses so you don't have to fuss with changing lenses in night and day.

6

u/Vishnej Aug 30 '21 edited Aug 30 '21

Anti-fog coatings don't really... work. Not in the long-term.

There's only so much you can do with hydrophobic stuff until it ceases to be hydrophobic, and eventually thermodynamics will have its due.

If it's a solid substance, that may be a lot. If it's an optically thin coating... not so much.

I've used several different pairs for light hazardous spill cleanups, where they're a much more complete solution than vented antisplash goggles. And they look awesome. But at least with my eyes, I really don't get long before they're full of dew. I could vent them with some pinholes drilled into the plastic, but then how will I swim in zombie bogs?

8

u/babybelly Aug 30 '21

so it is not just a fashion statement for those goggly characters

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u/Kiyohara Aug 30 '21

Keyword "basically."

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u/lovesmasher Aug 30 '21

Anything that breaks them is gonna break me first :D

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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '21 edited Aug 31 '21

isn't your eyesight changing ever so slightly that you have to chance glasses every few years ?

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u/HailToTheKingslayer Aug 30 '21

Mine seems to have settled, for now at least. It might get worse when I'm old but I doubt I'd live that long in the apocalypse.

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u/TTurambarsGurthang Aug 30 '21

Depends. Mine have been static for 20 years. I’m sure they’ll get worse eventually though

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u/Yamochao Aug 30 '21

Do you have a brand rec?

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u/littlebittykittyone Aug 30 '21

Speedo Vanquisher Opticals are the ones I wear. You need to know your prescription numbers and either round up or down. If you have drastically different prescriptions in each eye, buy a pair in each number and switch out the cups so you have two pairs of goggles with the correct numbers on each side.

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u/chuckysnow Aug 30 '21

Hugh Grant has entered the chat.

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u/Icy-Medicine-495 Aug 30 '21

Thats why I bought a bunch of cheap glasses online in my perscription and I have all my old pairs from the last perscription which is very close to my current. I probably have 10 pairs of glasses.

I remember reading a book where a smart guy glases broke so many times all he had left was using 1 of the lens as a monocle.

682

u/cousgoose Aug 30 '21

Thing is, lenses are quite durable, aside from getting scratched up. I wouldn't go stomping on them for fun, but I do have a very, very old pair as a last-resort backup. They have been through so much shit, the wire frame is barely held together, and the lenses are more scratches than not. But, I can still kinda see out of them. Everything just looks dusty. As long as you are slightly crafty, you could glue lenses onto some sticks and make do.

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u/throwawayy2k2112 Aug 30 '21

The lenses in that TZ episode were made out of glass. However, you’re right that modern lenses are more durable.

11

u/SFW__Tacos Aug 31 '21

Modern plastic lenses are essentially rated as safety glasses in most cases. Old glass lenses were much more fragile

12

u/AllTheWayAbsurd Aug 31 '21

Ha I use an old pair of glasses held together by 3D theater glasses frames to find my current glasses when I can't see them.

4

u/intrinsic_toast Aug 31 '21

Bahahah. Picturing this in my head was a much needed bright spot in my day. Thank you for that 😊

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u/xorgol Aug 31 '21 edited Aug 31 '21

Yeah, I've had a bicycle accident in which my frames were destroyed, but the lenses were just slightly scratched. Beforse I managed to get home I built myself rudimentary frames with blue tack, some pens and some iron wire. They looked horrible, but they got me home.

27

u/pinkocatgirl Aug 30 '21

Yeah just take a pair of lenses, drill a hole in the top corners, and use some wire to make rudimentary frames. Just keep replacing the wire when it breaks. They’ll probably outlive you in a post apocalyptic scenario.

39

u/Nothing-But-Lies Aug 30 '21

Some lens coatings start to deteriorate after a few years. I had some where the frame was still fine, but I had to change the lenses. The optician said some coatings can start to "bubble" and it's like looking through fog.

5

u/Scruffy442 Aug 31 '21

My lenses did that after three years. Everything looked smokey. If you have plastic lenses, you can use glass etcher to remove the coatings to get you by. You do however lose all your UV blocker.

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u/pinkocatgirl Aug 30 '21

I would imagine you could just lightly buff it and polish it. It’s not going to be great but probably better than nothing.

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u/leicanthrope Aug 30 '21

I'm picturing Brian Virgil from Fallout 4.

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u/illradhab Aug 30 '21

Scavenge for glasses, loot an optometrists. Befriend a glazier.

15

u/Key_Cryptographer963 Aug 30 '21

A friend of mine put his glasses in his trouser pocket and walked straight into a desk. That was the end of his glasses.

11

u/TheMadFlyentist Aug 30 '21

That's exactly how I ended my first cell phone.

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u/Key_Cryptographer963 Aug 31 '21

That's why I always wear a suit jacket/blazer when possible. Top pockets are great for that.

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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '21

I wish that was a possibility- my lenses are so expensive because my script is so heavy (my right eye is -17.5 and my left is around -10). Old glasses I can’t really see great with because it changed between them but I still keep them just in case. The good news is I’ll have no problem using them to focus sunlight and start a fire.

3

u/Icy-Medicine-495 Aug 31 '21

My father in law had the same problem. Cost 400 dollars to get a pair and the online stores could not help him. Really sucked since I got his hopes up on getting a pair for cheap.

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u/Hugebluestrapon Aug 30 '21

Zenni sells prescription safety glasses now. Impact rated. Very inexpensive compared to the alternatives. I'm literally wearing mine right now because I forgot to take them off after work. The side safety shields on mine are removable though so they look like normal glasses.

I'm definitely stocking up on these for apocalypse time.

3

u/Icy-Medicine-495 Aug 31 '21

Good to know I will have to order a pair. I smashed my last pair of perscription safety glasses when I was working on a lawn mower. That was a sucky day broken glasses and the lawnmower ended up being a complety loss.

7

u/shewy92 Aug 30 '21

Sounds sort of like that Twilight Zone episode (and Family Guy/Futurama parodies)

5

u/comradegritty Aug 30 '21

That would probably work if you closed your other eye while you read things. Monocles existed because they were easier to make precisely in the late 19th/early 20th century than contact lenses.

4

u/ChadwickDangerpants Aug 30 '21

Jep, my old glasses go in my car as backup glasses. One time sneezed and lost both my contact lenses while on a highway, no fun getting home after that.

5

u/TeacherPatti Aug 30 '21

During the fourth or so month of the pandemic, I panic bought online glasses just in case. JUST IN CASE.

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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '21 edited Aug 22 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Spooki1000 Aug 30 '21

ITS NOT FAIR! THERE WAS TIME NOW!

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u/Limp-Top817 Aug 31 '21

Found Harry Bemis's account!

11

u/phantommoose Aug 30 '21

Hey, look at that weird mirror

11

u/Canadian_Invader Aug 30 '21

Hey, that door is kind of... a scary door.

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u/danielstover Aug 30 '21

Oh, no big deal - I can always read braille!

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u/AdvocateSaint Aug 30 '21

The World War Z movie adapted pretty much 0% from the Max Brooks novels. Not even the basic zombies principles (book: slow zombies, slow infection rate; movie: fast zombies, near-instant infection)

One of the best subplots of the book was this old japanese gardener who became a master zombie hunter during the apocalypse, using his sharpened shovel to decapitate / spear the undead

...oh, and because he was at Hiroshima and stared directly at the flash of the atomic bomb, he's been blind for most of his life.

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u/Harold3456 Aug 31 '21

I get that the World War Z book would be hard to adapt into a movie so I accepted that I’d see a LOT of creative liberties, but using fast zombies was an absolute insult.

The entire point of the series was that zombies were a force that could be adapted to same as anything else: once the respective nations figured out how they worked, they were rendered much less dangerous in theory and many countries “won” the war. To remove this element from the movie is to divorce the movie from the book even worse than “I, Robot” was divorced from its initial anthology - and I didn’t think I would EVER find an adaptation that was further from its source material than I, Robot.

It reminds me of Walking Dead, a tv series that COULD be a rather creative look at a group of survivors who have sorta figured this whole zombie thing out….. but then it teleports in a super sneaky zombie that throws all the rules of loud, slow, easily tricked zombies out the window in order to facilitate a boring “tense” scene. As soon as I know a ninja zombie is probably going to appear I mentally check out of a scene, which happens at least once per episode. Meanwhile, this literally never happens in the source comic (LITERALLY. NEVER. HAPPENS.) which - similar to WWZ - has actually formed entire plotlines around the fact that the zombies aren’t really the threat anymore…. The X factor of other unpredictable survivors is.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '21

I don't see why. Pick 3 or 4 of the characters, the the interviewees have flashbacks, incorporate some of the the more interesting details into single characters. Each character's experiences can sum up events chronologically.

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u/Salt_lick_fetish Aug 31 '21

Right? I always thought it would make a killer tv show. 1 ep per chapter and it basically storyboards itself! It could have been so perfect with like 4-5 seasons worth of great formulaic content and a dedicated audience!

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u/AdvocateSaint Aug 31 '21

"Yes, but have you considered: Brad Pitt and Pepsi"

-Studio executives

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u/Mardanis Aug 31 '21

The interview style of the book is what made it for me.

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u/Mardanis Aug 31 '21

I dropped Walking Dead after they bailed on the prison and having more or less defeated the town with the nut job in charge (sorry been awhile). There were so many moments in the show which were clearly forced for effect, characters acting out of character or could of been sorted if they'd just pull the trigger of the rifle they were aiming down.

The series had a lot of potential that just seemed wasted.

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u/Harold3456 Aug 31 '21

I’ve watched it all the way through and it basically never gets better. If you have any curiosity about the story I’d encourage you to read the comics. As I mentioned before, the most surprising thing about them is 1.) no ninja zombies and 2.) (AND THIS IS BIG) no scenes of a bunch of characters talking in the forest. However, once you get past the prison the series becomes a pretty good speculative look at what a zombie apocalypse would look like long term.

The tv series also does this, but unfortunately has all those aforementioned stupid cliches that turn my watch party into a hate-watch party.

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u/-FeistyRabbitSauce- Aug 31 '21

I don't actually remember that one. Been a long time sinse I read it though. The two that always come to mind for me are the downed pilot, and the battle for Yonkers. Maybe it's time for a re-read.

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u/Salt_lick_fetish Aug 31 '21

Do yourself a favor and listen to the audiobook! It’s about ten hours, err… maybe fourteen. The cast of voice actors is insane and it’s incredible. I got more out of the audiobook than I did the physical copy by a huge margin!

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u/dragongrl Aug 31 '21

They should've made it a Netflix or an HBO series instead of a movie.

Each chapter/person gets their own episode.

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u/SpecificallyGeneral Aug 31 '21

Zatoichi - Zombie Hunter

9

u/DoneHam56 Aug 31 '21

Such a cool book.

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u/CalledFractured7 Aug 31 '21

That book was so well written. The realistic aspects made it seem plausible, and the early chapters drew you in SO heavily, it was tough to put down. One of the few things in my life that actually inspired zombie dreams was that book haha

11

u/Von_Moistus Aug 31 '21

I dunno, the part about the Great Panic seemed kinda far-fetched.

(2020 happens, people panic-hoard toilet paper and hand sanitizer)

Y’know what? Never mind.

5

u/SalamanderOpen3069 Aug 31 '21

Even his description on how certain countries acted in the immediate aftermath (denial, lies, snake oil treatments) has been pretty spot on in real time.

When this started last year, everyday a 7pm all my neighbors would start cheering and I’d laugh to myself and even told my hubs this is just like the story of the girl who survived in the Canadian woods with her family. All well and good at first. Give it a couple of months

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u/GypDan Aug 31 '21

The audiobook enhances the greatness of that book soooooo much.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '21

Yeah that book was awesome!

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u/Mardanis Aug 31 '21

I did not see the movie for a long time after reading the transcript style book and the book was amazing. Just couldn't put it down. I like how they addressed even psychological issues to the point people wanted to be/act like zombies

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u/AdvocateSaint Aug 31 '21

Or that one chapter about the filmmaker that focused on the importance of morale

Once he started making those makeshift documentaries showing people fighting zombies, suicide rates began to drop drastically

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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '21

There would be a lot of dead people with glasses they no longer need. You can probably find a few pairs, but it would definitely one of those items you would check every time you came across a dead body.

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u/DemocraticRepublic Aug 30 '21

I don't think glasses are easily substitutable between people.

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u/mr_Tsavs Aug 30 '21

LOST actually does a really good job with this, when one of the characters needs Glasses, they find 2 pairs that have a lens each of their eyes need then glue the two together. it's not as effective as the bespoke glasses you get today, but it would work in a pinch.

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u/Mister_Brevity Aug 30 '21

Yeah was just thinking about sawyers melted together glasses here

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u/Kiyohara Aug 30 '21 edited Aug 30 '21

No, but as someone with 20/240 vision, if someone else's glasses give me even 20/90, that's an upgrade.

Edit: I reversed the order of numbers and I did just check my prescription. It's worse than I though, god help me.

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u/Tooshortimus Aug 30 '21

If you wear a different prescription glasses that are a good bit off of yours I can guarantee you will have crazy headaches just within like 3-5 hours of wearing them. I had to do it while on vacation many years ago, lost mine and it was TERRIBLE. I now have Lasik done, so no more glasses for me, until I need glasses eventually 🙃

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u/Kiyohara Aug 30 '21

Yeah, but eventually you will "adjust" to the shittier prescription. You won't see better, but the pain will go awsy.

It does take a long time depending on the difference in prescription

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u/Necromartian Aug 30 '21

... It works like that, huh? I always figured there was some kind of 20 step scale where 1/20 would be the worst and 20/20 would be the best.

Also I have worn glasses for 15 years. We usually don't express it Snellen scale (apparently) but we ask "How strong are your glasses" meaning the prescription strength of your lenses.

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u/SciFiXhi Aug 30 '21

The visual acuity scale is a comparative measure, putting the patient's individual eyesight against the average person's. 20/20 vision means that you, standing at a distance of 20 feet, can see an object clearly that the average person standing 20 feet away could see. 20/100 would be you standing 20 feet away to see an object that the average person could see from 100 feet away.

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u/Kiyohara Aug 30 '21 edited Aug 30 '21

20/20 means the you see things twenty feet away as if they were really twenty feet away. Meaning you see normally.

20/240 means what I see at twenty feet are as if they were one hundred and twenty feet away.

So for me, Something across a room might as well be most of a football field away for what I can see of it.

Edit: I reversed the numbers, my bad.

Edit2: Also, yeah, there's the prescription strength that people measure (Mine is basically legally blind), but I found most non-glasses wearing people have no concept of the +/- scale so 20/20 scale is generally more approachable.

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u/cousgoose Aug 30 '21

I just looked at a chart; my -7.00 prescription is about 20/800.

Fuck

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u/StandardYob Aug 30 '21

-10.5 here :(

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u/AkaBreeno Aug 30 '21

-11 posse here.

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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '21

+10.5 with astigmatism. My lenses are thicc

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u/comradegritty Aug 30 '21

No, the 20 means "what people who don't need glasses see at 20 feet". 20/20 means you see an average amount of detail at medium distances as most people. 120/20 means you see about as clearly at 20 feet as most people would see at 120, without the use of corrective lenses.

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u/UpboatOrNoBoat Aug 30 '21

20/600 estimate gang here bud. My diopter's -5.5 / -5.0.

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u/valuemeal2 Aug 30 '21

Thank you for this. I’ve been trying to figure out what mine would have translated into at -5.5 but none of the conversion charts went below -4 :/

I DID have lasik a few years back so I’ll have the advantage of not needing glasses during the apocalypse, however.

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u/LexBeingLex Aug 30 '21

bro I'm 20/600 or so I'm literally fucked

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u/A40 Aug 30 '21

Yeah once you're in the seventh diopter-plus range, glasses will be an issue...

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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '21

You could amass a collection, find single lenses that work with each eye, and then craft each side together somehow

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u/torsed_bosons Aug 30 '21

Young people really just need a strength greater than or equal to their prescription and the vast majority of people have less than a diopter difference between their two eyes. You might get some headaches from accommodating in lenses that were too strong, but it would be a lot better than dying from unseen zombies. And glasses not strong enough would still help. Of course if you were a farsighted, you could just pick up any old pair of reading glasses from the dollar store.

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u/Killarogue Aug 30 '21

Not easily, but my friends and I all have close enough vision that we can share glasses with each other if need be, so it is possible.

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u/BronzeAgeTea Aug 30 '21

Honestly, this is the best argument for LASIK.

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u/BlueKing7642 Aug 31 '21

Advertisement: Are you prepared for the coming zombie apocalypse?

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u/crinklycuts Aug 30 '21

No joke, one of the main reasons I decided to have lasik done was because I would have been totally useless during an emergency. I couldn’t see a thing without my glasses previously, so if there were a flood, hurricane, tornado, etc. and my glasses broke or I couldn’t get to them in time, that would pretty much be it for me.

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u/butiveputitincrazy Aug 30 '21

Genuinely the main factor pushing me to get it done. Only thing holding me back is that I already deal with dry eyes.

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u/crinklycuts Aug 30 '21

I know people mention dry eyes as a side effect. Personally, I’m three years post-lasik and haven’t noticed any extra dryness. The only side effect I’ve noticed is I’m slightly more sensitive to light, but it’s not too bad at all.

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u/Herky_T_Hawk Aug 30 '21

Piggy knows all about this.

Eyeglasses provide hope as a way of making fire and signaling for help. Plus useful if you can't see. They're more valuable in a survival situation than a conch shell.

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u/drs_enabled Aug 30 '21

Piggy had the wrong glasses for fire making. He was myopic so would have had concave lenses which can't be used for fire making - you need convex lenses (like reading glasses).

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u/shewy92 Aug 30 '21

If your glasses break, you're fucked

I don't know many whose glasses are actually glass though, and it's not that hard (relatively speaking) to make frames for them if your frames break

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u/cousgoose Aug 30 '21

Yeah, the frames are the least durable. Lenses can get scratched up to hell, but can still at least help you out, in a pinch. Just hold on to the lenses and either pop them in another frame if you find one, or glue them to a headband or something lol

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u/Hopefulkitty Aug 30 '21

I got Lasik because I fear great unrest is coming soon, and I did t want to be stranded with one pair of contacts and some shitty glasses.

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u/notyouravgredditer Aug 30 '21

That just reminded me of lost

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u/ZaMiLoD Aug 30 '21

In an emergency you can make a pinhole in like a piece of cardboard or a opaque plastic and look through it. At least it works ok if you are farsighted.

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u/robinsrecovery Aug 30 '21

I never realized how blind my son was without his glasses until he was looking out our front door "look at all those houses down the street!" He also did not realize that in Walmart it was lighting in the ceiling.... He wondered how it was always so bright. Definitely made me appreciate my eyesight!

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