A Zombie ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Adaptation

A Zombie ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Adaptation

    At first one might not think that the Movie Warm Bodies directed by Jonathan Levin, released February 1, 2013 (USA) is too close to Shakespeare's famous play Romeo and Juliet. The title makes the film sound like a bloody and literally brainless Zombie movie and the cover doesn’t really alter that view. However the movie is in many ways related to the play. In addition to smaller similarities like names and scenes, the themes and the main conflict that produces the plot is the same, though modernized into a Zombie movie.

    The main conflict in Romeo and Juliet is a feud between two families, the Capulet's and the Montague's, that is eventually ended through the love between Romeo, a Montague, and Juliet, a Capulet and their sacrifice. In Warm Bodies a terrible plague has struck the earth that makes Humans forget how to live and turns them into thoughtless and emotionless Zombies. The plague creates conflict between these two parties and therefore resembles the feud between Capulet's and Montague's, in which Capulet's are the Humans and Montague's are the Zombies. A Zombie named R falls in love with Julie, a Human. Together they discover that their love is a cure to the plague just like Romeo and Juliet’s love ends the feud.

    The first and most obvious similarity one discovers is the similarities of characters and their names. Romeo becomes R, Juliet becomes Julie. Juliet’s Nurse becomes Nora, Julie's best friend and Romeo’s friends Mercutio and Benvolio together with the role of Friar Lawrence combine to M (Marcus) a friend of R. Paris becomes Julie’s ex-boyfriend Perry who bares some of Tybalt's characteristic as he gets killed by R causing a conflict between him and Julie. Lord Capulet is Julies father and the leader of the rest of surviving humans.

    There are several similar scenes in the play and the movie the most obvious being the famous balcony scene. R and Julie first meet when Julie and a group of friends leave the protection of the wall, set up to by the humans to keep the Zombies out, to look through abandoned houses for medical supplies. They run into a group of hungry Zombies. When R sees Julie he is instantly attracted to her, but in contrast to the play she is first afraid of him the love on first sight is one sided. Knowing that she is in danger among the Zombies R takes Julie to an airplane in which he lives. Julie is at first suspicious about his intentions. She asks him to take her home which he eventually agrees to. After Julie finds out that R has killed Perry she leaves him and returns to the Humans alone but when he discovers that him and other Zombies that have seen R and Julie’s connection including Marcus start to cure themselves, follows her behind the wall. He sneaks onto her parents property surprising her as she walks onto the balcony. Like in the play she is afraid that he will get caught as she knows he will be killed instantly. She hides him inside the house. They admit to each other how the missed the other one when they were separated.

In the end the love of R and Julie triumphs over the plague and the conflict between Zombies and Humans. Like in the play where their love ends the feud. It gives both sides hope and together they teach the infected how it is to be human, which cures them. In contrast to the play the film has a happy ending. R is prepared to sacrifice himself for her, which turns him human once more and the both survive.