Twice the Action, Half the Heart
By Ram Charan
A Film Review of Zombieland: Double Tap directed by Ruben Fleischer
Tallahassee. Columbus. Wichita. Little Rock. No, they are not the names of your family’s next road trip destinations; they’re the names of four unlikely allies who band together to create the most awe-inspiring quartet of zombie hunters.
Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) is a gun-slinging cowboy who hides his internal pain with a twisted sense of humor and the occasional brutal mutilation of an unsuspecting zombie. Columbus (Jesse Eisenburg) is a curly-haired, law abiding nerd who has survived the apocalypse using his quick thinking. Wichita (Emma Stone) is a protective older sister who can hardly trust anyone, and her younger sister Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) is a careful individual who is merciless against the undead. The end of the world forces the four zombie hunters to work together and form a unique family of sorts.
First introduced 10 years ago in Ruben Fleischer’s horror comedy film Zombieland, the four characters have since grown closer and further away from each other. The unlikely circumstances which helped them create their dream team, in the first place, have disappeared. Little Rock, now 18 years old, no longer yearns for the support of her older sister Wichita. Wichita and Columbus struggle to confront the direction of their relationship, while Tallahase tries to be the loving father he never could be for his dead son. Although the problems that emerge between the four characters are something incredibly unique, the absurdity of “Zombieland,” a zombie-infested post apocalyptic United States, is what truly makes the film stand out.
The first film focuses on the desolate nature of the Zombieland world. It opts to include fewer encounters between each of the individual characters and the zombies before they meet. In this unique world, the names of people are exchanged to their ultimate destination when they travel across Zombieland. They also have seemingly arbitrary rules govern the lives of zombie hunters, which made the film such a great watch. From the banter between Columbus and Tallahase to the way each of the characters was united with their loss of family, the original Zombieland, film acted as much more than a simple horror-comedy film. Instead, it chose to explore how people, in a post apocalyptic world, would handle the crippling feelings of fear and desolation that haunted the memories of survivors.
An example of this is a series of rules that Columbus created that continued to grow in length throughout both films. These rules seem random at times, but they are incredibly important to Columbus in how they help to instil a sense of order in his chaotic life. Throughout the film, they pop up on screen to justify the decisions of characters when killing zombies or when deciding how to kill zombies. One of these rules is the “Double Tap.” This means that one should always confirm a zombie’s death with a second shot, knife wound, or simple smashing of the head. Although he kills zombies in a methodical manner, he remembers throughout the film that the zombies were people at one point, introducing an element of guilt and sympathy within the film. He also struggles with being alone, a problem that has haunted him before and continues to follow him until he finally finds his true family. These instances are just a few examples of how Columbus’s conflicted nature helped make the first film so much better.
The first film also explored innocence and its role in helping survivors get through each new day of the apocalypse. Tallahase’s obsession with Twinkies is an example of how the first film used an absurd concept to illustrate a thought-provoking idea. During the course of the film, Tallahassee intermittently stops at several abandoned ice-cream trucks and grocery stores to find his ever-coveted Twinkie. The film later explains through Columbus that it was almost as if the twinkie resembled a simpler time, a more innocent time when the world wasn’t undead. This theme of innocence is further explored by Wichita’s and Little Rock’s journey to Pacific Playland.
The theme park is supposed to be a zombie-free paradise, and while no such land exists, Wichita says that she wants her sister to be a kid again. Similarly, Columbus is named after his hometown in Ohio where he hopes to go to find his parents. While they never had a great relationship, he was just searching for a familiar face; when he is told that the town is completely dead, he decides to stick with the rest of his zombie hunting partners and his character evolves. He finally finds his family.
In the second film, Zombieland is still desolate and haunted by walking mounds of flesh. The movie starts when the group decides to inhabit the White House. While their natural banter and zombie-killing skills remain the same, a rift is beginning to form between Little Rock and the rest of the family. Unlike the rest of them, Little Rock is incredibly young, and she wants to seek company of people her own age. After Columbus scares Wichita with the idea of commitment, by proposing, Wichita and Little Rock leave the White House to not be “weighed down.” However, they meet a young man named “Berkeley.” This pot-smoking supposed poet is a repetitive stereotype of musicians. If anything, the variety of characters available to replace this choice is one of the ways in which Zombieland: Double Tap falls short of the original.
Eventually Little Rock and Berkeley leave, and Wichita seeks the help of Columbus and Tallahassee. This occurs a month after Wichita’s departure, and during this time, Columbus seeks the company of another woman named Madison. The ensuing journey to find Little Rock as she races away to another supposed safe haven called “Babylon” is filled with jaw-dropping gore and violence. A new strain of zombies, named after the T-800 model of a Terminator from T2, have evolved in the “plains” and threaten to capture Little Rock and her peace-seeking musician boyfriend.
Unlike the first film, Columbus has now found his family. His new search is for a home. While this concept is also incredibly interesting against the background of a zombie apocalypse, the breakout laughter inducing scenes cannot stop the film from falling to the tropes of typical family films. The complexity of Columbus’s character is reduced profusely. While this is true, simultaneously, the film tries to focuses on Wichita’s individual battle with dedication and trust. However, the film falls short again in how it opts to focus on zombie-packed action or funny situations instead of simpler scenes focusing on individual characters.
An example of this is the encounter between Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Columbus, and Tallahassee. Flagstaff and Albuquerque are parallels to Columbus and Tallahassee respectively. While this was a funny instance, the dialogue within the scene could have been better used to provide introspection by the characters. It is moments like these, where Zombieland: Double Tap compromises the possibility of complexity for action that is disgusting and brutal. While this violence is necessary to demonstrate the graphic nature of zombie-hunting in Zombieland, there is just something missing from the film. The plot shifts all over the place, and while it seems like the movie is about a search for Little Rock, weird encounters created for laughs distract viewers from the focus of the film.
These ideas explored by Zombieland: Double Tap have been repeatedly bludgeoned, similar to how zombies are terrorized in the film, to the point that they are barely recognizable as creative. For this reason, Zombieland Double Tap falls short of its predecessor which instead balanced world-building with a less obvious message. In the search for family and home, Zombieland provides a lackluster finale similar to the first movie’s finale; only, that it was worse. This does not mean that Zombieland: Double Tap isn’t an entertaining Halloween flick to watch in theaters. Just be wary of the meandering plot and message; both more lost than the straggling survivors of Zombieland.