In the AskReddit forum, user graendallstud asked:
"What problem is often overlooked in apocalyptic movies/TV shows that could kill you?"
The post gained over 30,000 responses from Reddit contributors and their responses will definitely not make you cringe or keep you up all night with anxiety. Not at all...
1) Diarrhea
"Diarrhea. So many things can cause it, and it used to be (well, still is in the least developed countries) quite lethal, mostly for babies and children."
"I have minor IBS so I poop when I'm stressed. I'm a goner."
"Diarrhea (edit: returned Peace Corps Volunteer, I’ve ass-vomited more than you weigh, and without a shred of toilet paper)."
S*** happens.
2) Sawing logs
"Snoring, 100%. I think about this all the time. Anyone who snores after the zombies come must be exiled. But most will die quickly."
- pabodie
"I thought about this while watching A Quiet Place. How lucky that nobody in their family snored/talked in their sleep."
"I have apnea. Even if I didn’t snore I would be unable to get restful sleep without a cpap, which needs electricity. In a matter of weeks or months I would just be sleeping 16 hours a day but getting no real rest and it would go on in a vicious cycle."
3) Infections
"Yep, was checking for this. Get some germs or dirt in an otherwise pretty minor scrape and it could get messy real quick."
"UTIs were definitely on my list of things i would die from. this time last year i had a UTI go into my right kidney. it felt like someone was stabbing me in the back. i have gotten three UTIs in the past year because my immune system sucks. and because my immune system sucks, i need antibiotics because my body won’t fight it off by itself."
"Sepsis."
4) The ability to see
"They never talk about optometry. what am i going to do if my glasses break in the apocalypse? I’m f***ed. I can’t see s*** without these. They won’t last me forever."
- dheddie
This is actually the plot of a heartbreaking Twilight Zone episode.
5) High quality H2O
"Clean drinking water—I don't think people really appreciate how much water is needed for a group of people to survive."
6) The STENCH
"I don't know if it could kill you, but the stench of death is horrendous and not an insignificant thing. In any disaster situation where someone has died and it starts becoming days long, things would be getting nasty.
Over time people would get used to how foul everything would smell, but for a while it would be terrible."
"I always think of trash. Like, any bins with a garbage in it is gonna get real rank. People's homes too. 99% of americans have a trash can in their kitchen with food waste in it. They show the characters scavenging in home but no commentary on the sludge filled fridge or trash can not 3 feet away? Or the general smell of dead folks and trash sludge while running around outside?"
7) Acts of God
"Natural disasters. You'd have no f***ing clue if a hurricane, flash flood, typhoon, monsoon, or other sharknado events were coming."
- Amadeum
8) Think about your teeth
"Lack of Dental care. A dental infection can take you out right quick. And without treatment that HURTS."
"And mouth infections can very easily spread to the heart, at which point “that HURTS” very quickly become “grrrrkkk”….dead."
*Schedules dental appointment out of fear*
9) Shoes
"Footwear. Wrong footwear, damaged footwear, lack of socks, wet feet, open wounds.....Once your feet are screwed so is the rest of you."
"Yeah, trench foot is a serious concern. Not too many people know about it."
Freaking YIKES— read up on trench foot HERE.
10) Gasoline troubles
"Gasoline has a shorter shelf life than is portrayed in these movies/TV shows, so after a year nobody would really be driving anywhere. It wouldn't necessarily kill you, but it's one of those things that bothers me because it's never really addressed."
- -eDgAR-
"Gasoline turns to goop after only a couple of years I believe. The inability to move place to place for resources will be a problem. And most people don't know how to handle a horse."
- univoxs
"Who knew my teenage horse girl phase would be so useful in the apocalypse?"
11) Humans are squishy
"I don't know how this hasn't been mentioned yet, but it's common sense that is almost ALWAYS overlooked in movies and TV. Humans are WAY MORE physically fragile and squishy than you might think.
Based on John McClane and other invincible action heros, who take damage and do things that would break or catastrophically cripple a normal person, movies are a poor source of information for deciding what to do and what could happen to your body, should you somehow falsely think you're the main protagonist of an apocalypse movie.
Indoor firefight without hearing protection? You're probably deaf now. Jumping off a building to catch a wire? Kiss your fingers and/or lower extremities goodbye, assuming you land on your feet. Taking a beer bottle to the head? That's probably a concussion.
Movies have made us think we're a lot more durable than we really are."
- beakrake
12) Birthing
"Childbirth.
Already one of the most dangerous things a person can do, carrying a child to full term and giving birth without proper medical care for either the mother or the baby, well...all you gotta do is look at your history books."
13) Nasty-ass dust
"Dust from destroyed buildings. Just watched the two latest Godzilla movies, and aside from all the other things that could have killed folks, staring at monsters that are destroying buildings and kicking up all sorts of dust and other air debris, while staring open mouthed, is a great way to get lung damage/encounter breathing issues."
- cgtdream
"This should absolutely be the top. If you go back and watch the footage from 9/11, it's incredible just how much dust a couple [of] buildings spew when they collapse, and that's not even counting the fires and flooding.
Everyone is saying "clean water!" and other pretty obvious ones that aren't really plot holes as much as convenience since the main characters won't die from dehydration. But severe lung damage caused by dust? Yeah, that's not even on the radar and almost everyone [in] one of those apocalyptical movies has a scene where a famous building comes crashing down."
14) Life without Google Maps
"Everyone always seems to know where to go. If it were me, I'd die because I can't find my way back to base or something."
- Giel2006
"I always assumed directionally challenged people like me already died."
- deqb
How TF do people read maps?
15) Literally any illness
"Typhus or Cholera! These 2 diseases can run roughshod over a population group in days. Also rampant mosquito overpopulation because nobody is spaying to keep them in check. More people die from mosquitoes each year than anything else. There is a laundry list of all the diseases mosquitoes can transmit!"
"Any infection, any chronic disease, food poisoning, allergies - basically all those things that healthcare provide that we take for granted"
- R4NK5
"Around one in ten Americans have some form of diabetes. They're not going to do so well when insulin production collapses in an apocalypse Makes you wonder if their current healthcare system is preparing them to live with constant insulin scarcity (shrug)"
16) Laziness
"In general, the #1 killer in a survival situation (apocalyptic scenario fits perfect) is "concessions for comfort".
Many people will die due to a lot of the reasons postulated here simply because they were not willing to push themselves hard enough to mitigate these issues.
"I've been working hard for the last 6 hours....I'd rather take a rest than continue to harvest until it is too dark to do so."
"Digging a latrine 100 yards away from my stream-side campsite is too difficult, I'll do it closer...."
17) Parasites
"Parasites. Not xenomorphs, but tapeworms, ring worms, etc. There are a lot of diseases that used to be endemic before modern sanitation wiped them out."
- nezumipi
Fun fact: ringworm is actually a fungus.
18) Lack of mental health help :(
"I think about mental health treatment a lot. I have anxiety and depression that gets real bad in winter. I try my best to eat right and exercise to manage my symptoms, but without the medicine I take to keep my mood stabilized so I'm not a frightened, emotional wreck most of the time? I don't think I'd last."
- Vercury
Now that you've finished reading this depressing, but thought-provoking list, scream into the void and listen to Phoebe Bridgers.
Lead image: Warner Bros.
The post 15 Overlooked Problems In Apocalyptic Movies That Are Deadly IRL appeared first on The Mother of All Nerds.
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