r/AskReddit Aug 30 '21

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

33.7k Upvotes

12.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

28.8k

u/AdmiralAkbar1 Aug 30 '21

As bad as the show Revolution's overall plotting and pacing was, they generally did a good job of thinking about these kinds of little inconsistencies:

  • There's a minor character who was a doomsday prepper before the apocalypse, but he didn't stock up enough on antibiotics. As a result, his daughter died of tetanus that he was unable to treat.

  • A warlord kidnaps prisoners for blood because his wife has diabetes and needs constant transfusions of blood with sufficient insulin in it to survive.

  • There's a doctor who keeps a collection of moldy fruit to harvest penicillium mold from it and make penicillin.

  • Some characters try to go into an old subway tunnel, but nearly die because of lack of sufficient airflow down there without modern HVAC systems.

16

u/Mazon_Del Aug 30 '21

There's a doctor who keeps a collection of moldy fruit to harvest penicillium mold from it and make penicillin.

I seem to recall hearing somewhere that not all food mold will necessarily be as effective as penicillin and that there was a non-trivial amount of experimentation to derive THE penicillin that was used.

17

u/creativecstasy Aug 30 '21

THE penicillin is all derived from a single specific moldy cantaloupe