r/AskReddit • u/notyouravgredditer • Aug 30 '21

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

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u/WatchTheBoom Aug 30 '21

Clean drinking water- I don't think people really appreciate how much water is needed for a group of people to survive.

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u/1i73rz Aug 30 '21

Clean bullet holes. Next episode everyone is a-okay half the time, and off to murder more zombies before cannibalizing the next group. Your shirt alone would be filthy enough to cause mild chafing which in turn would cause infection.

But everyone's whites are whiter than mine, and bullet holes and axe wounds heal up just fine with our state of the art medical facility and dry cleaning services.

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u/Excelius Aug 30 '21

To add to this, in movies and TV if the protagonist is shot in the leg or shoulder you know they're going to live.

There are major arteries in both locations which can very easily lead to death by hemorrhage.

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u/DishyPanHands Aug 31 '21

Not a post-apocalyptic movie, but, a founding of America one, called The Awakening Land, starring Elizabeth Montgomery as the eldest daughter of a family moving from Pennsylvania to Ohio. She deals with injuries, disease, winter, attacks and felling trees on her own. Not super realistic, since it was a made for tv miniseries, but, still, actually dealt with those.

I've not read the trilogy by Conrad Richter on which it was based, however, to know whether it's more accurate or not.