50 Fun Facts About Zombieland

Who directed Zombieland, making his feature directorial debut?

Ruben Fleischer. He says he is no horror fan and took the job for the comedy, treating the zombies as window-dressing on a buddy road movie.

Which pair wrote Zombieland and later wrote Deadpool?

Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. They first wrote it as a TV pilot, and it became a movie only when its first-time director gave the road trip a destination: an amusement park.

Who plays Columbus, the rule-following narrator of Zombieland?

Jesse Eisenberg. His Columbus's greatest fear is clowns, so the finale makes him face a zombie clown to rescue Wichita.

In Zombieland, a mutated strain of what turned people into zombies?

Mad cow disease. Two months after it jumped to humans, Columbus finds so few people left that he renames the country the United States of Zombieland.

Which actress plays Wichita in Zombieland?

Emma Stone. Her Wichita is a con artist who robs the two men of their truck and guns minutes after meeting them, by passing her sister off as a bite victim.

Who plays Little Rock, the 12-year-old sister in Zombieland?

Abigail Breslin. She was 12 when she played the pint-sized con artist, and she came back a decade later for a sequel in which Little Rock runs away to find people her own age.

Which snack is Tallahassee hunting for throughout Zombieland?

Twinkies. When he finally finds a crashed Hostess truck, it holds nothing but Sno Balls, and he flies into a rage.

Why do Zombieland's survivors call each other by city names instead of real ones?

To avoid getting attached. Among the four leads, the rule holds until the film's final minutes, when Wichita at last tells Columbus her real name.

What real name does Wichita reveal to Columbus at the end of Zombieland?

Krista. She says it as she kisses him, moments after he has fought through a zombie-filled amusement park to get her down from a ride.

In Zombieland, where is the narrator heading from Austin, Texas, to look for his parents?

Columbus, Ohio. He never gets there: on the road Wichita tells him the city has been burned to a ghost town, so he stays with the group.

In Zombieland, what is Tallahassee driving when he first picks up Columbus?

An armored Escalade. The sisters soon con him out of it, and its replacement is a yellow Hummer that happens to be full of guns.

Which amusement park are the sisters trying to reach in Zombieland?

Pacific Playland. The Los Angeles park is rumored to be zombie-free, until the sisters switch on its rides and lights and draw every zombie nearby.

Whose Los Angeles mansion do the survivors hole up in during Zombieland?

Bill Murray's. He plays himself, alive and made up as a zombie so he can play golf in peace, until a prank on Columbus gets him shot.

Zombieland's celebrity cameo was originally written for which actor?

Patrick Swayze. He was too ill with cancer to film it, so the writers offered the part to about a dozen other stars, rewriting the jokes for each.

Which actor plays Tallahassee in Zombieland?

Woody Harrelson. He also landed the film's celebrity cameo: when the star first cast dropped out a week before filming, he phoned a friend.

During which board game in Zombieland does Columbus realize who 'Buck' really was?

Monopoly. Tallahassee had been mourning a 'puppy named Buck', and over the board Columbus works out that Buck was his young son, lost to the zombies.

What is rule #1 on Columbus's survival list in Zombieland?

Cardio. In his telling, the first people the zombies caught were the ones too out of shape to outrun them.

Which Zombieland rule does Tallahassee inspire?

Enjoy the little things. 'I hate to give credit to anyone who looks like Yosemite Sam, but I'm writing it down,' Columbus says, making it rule number 32.

Which rule does Columbus flip to its opposite in Zombieland's amusement-park finale?

Don't be a hero. With Wichita trapped on a ride and a zombie clown in his way, he decides some rules are meant to be broken, and rule 17 becomes 'Be a hero'.

What is the sisters' own survival rule in Zombieland?

Trust no one. Wichita adds 'just you and me', and the sisters live by it, twice getting the drop on the two men before anyone agrees to a truce.

Which Metallica song plays over Zombieland's opening credits?

For Whom the Bell Tolls. The gory slow-motion titles play like a music video for a reason: making those was the director's job before this, his first film.

In Zombieland, Columbus's first zombie kill is his neighbor, played by which actress?

Amber Heard. Her character is known only as 406, her apartment number: bitten on the way home, she dozes off on his couch and wakes up hungry.

In Zombieland, Tallahassee enters a grocery store playing which instrument to draw out the zombies?

A banjo. Once it has drawn out the store's three zombies, he kills them with it, a metal bat and a pair of hedge clippers.

Before the outbreak in Zombieland, Columbus was a shut-in hooked on which online game?

World of Warcraft. Being a shut-in is what saved him: holed up for weeks with pizza and Code Red Mountain Dew, he was avoiding people long before they were zombies.

In Zombieland, Tallahassee says he hasn't cried so hard since which film?

Titanic. The joke lands in the film's saddest scene: he is weeping over the young son he lost to the zombies, whom he had passed off as a puppy.

Zombieland took which film's zombie box-office record?

Dawn of the Dead. The 2004 remake had opened bigger, but Zombieland held on better and passed its whole North American run in just 17 days.

Zombieland's opening weekend roughly matched what figure?

Its production budget. Earning back its $23.6 million cost in three days had the writers talking sequel that same week, though the follow-up took a decade to arrive.

In Zombieland: Double Tap, Columbus proposes to Wichita with which famous gem?

The Hope Diamond. The grand gesture backfires: Wichita feels smothered, and by morning she and her sister have left a note and driven off.

Zombieland's amusement-park finale was mostly shot at a theme park in which state?

Georgia. Tax incentives drew the production there, so Wild Adventures in Valdosta had to pass for a park in Los Angeles.

In Zombieland: Double Tap, Tallahassee is stuck riding in which kind of vehicle he despises?

A minivan. The grudge is ten years old: in the first film he takes a crowbar to one in a rage rather than drive it.

Tallahassee's hat in Zombieland is handmade from recycled truck tarps in which South American country?

Brazil. The actor asked for it himself as part of his push for a greener set: the maker cuts every hat from old cargo-truck tarps.

Which streaming company ordered a Zombieland TV pilot in 2013?

Amazon. It put the pilot online and let viewers help pick which shows went to series; when it passed, the writer blamed die-hard fans, who he said had 'hated it out of existence'.

In Zombieland: Double Tap, what makes Zoey Deutch's character look as if she is turning into a zombie?

A nut allergy. Columbus walks her into the woods to shoot her but fires over her head, and she turns up alive later at the wheel of an ice cream truck.

In Zombieland: Double Tap, what does the hippie commune do with every gun brought to its gates?

Melts it down. The pacifists' rule costs Tallahassee's group its guns just before a horde arrives, so the battle plan comes down to exploding biodiesel and a tall building.

Before Double Tap, Zombieland's director made which 2018 comic-book hit?

Venom. He went straight from that hit, which found a part for his old Tallahassee, to the reunion; Double Tap opened in October 2019, ten years after the original.

In Zombieland: Double Tap, 'Zombie Kill of the Year' goes to an Italian who drops which landmark on a horde?

The Leaning Tower of Pisa. The first film crowned a 'Zombie Kill of the Week', won by a nun; ten years on, the contest has grown to a whole year and a national monument.

Where are the four survivors living at the start of Zombieland: Double Tap?

The White House. They make themselves at home until the morning after Christmas, when the sisters slip away in the presidential limousine, leaving only a note.

In Zombieland: Double Tap, the slow, dumb zombies are nicknamed after which cartoon character?

Homer. Ten years in, the survivors codename zombies by type so they know what they are hunting: Homers are the slow ones, Hawkings the clever, Ninjas the silent.

Zombieland: Double Tap's toughest zombies are nicknamed after which screen killer?

The Terminator. Columbus calls them T-800s, after the cyborg's model, because they shrug off the double tap of the title and keep coming until the head is completely destroyed.

In Zombieland: Double Tap, Zoey Deutch's ditzy survivor had been hiding in a mall inside which store?

A Pinkberry. For ten years she ducked into its freezer whenever zombies came near, which is the whole of her survival plan: 'Mostly stay in the freezer.'

What is the name of Zoey Deutch's character in Zombieland: Double Tap?

Madison. The men find her in a mall she has not left in ten years, and within a day she has moved in with them and seduced the lovelorn Columbus.

In Zombieland: Double Tap, Little Rock runs off to which Elvis landmark?

Graceland. Tallahassee, an Elvis devotee, arrives to find the mansion in ruins and has to settle for an Elvis-themed motel down the road.

Who plays Nevada, owner of an Elvis-themed motel, in Zombieland: Double Tap?

Rosario Dawson. Her Nevada saves the day in the finale, ploughing a monster truck through the horde, and ends the film as Tallahassee's partner.

Which former Nickelodeon star plays the pacifist Berkeley in Zombieland: Double Tap?

Avan Jogia. His Berkeley woos Little Rock with songs he says he wrote, which are really old hits by Bob Dylan and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

In Zombieland: Double Tap, what are Luke Wilson and Thomas Middleditch's lookalike survivors called?

Albuquerque and Flagstaff. The joke is an old one: these were the heroes' own names in early drafts, changed once the first film was no longer going to be shot in the Southwest.

What is the name of the hippie commune where the climax of Zombieland: Double Tap takes place?

Babylon. Its fireworks give it away: the display draws a horde of the toughest zombies to a commune full of unarmed pacifists.

In the mid-credits scene of Zombieland: Double Tap, the cameo star is promoting which sequel?

Garfield 3. It pays off the first film, where his dying regret was 'Garfield, maybe'; this time Al Roker turns zombie in the middle of the junket interview.

Zombieland: Double Tap opened behind a Disney sequel and which hit?

Joker. It was in its third weekend and still outsold the newcomer, though Double Tap went on to beat the original's worldwide total.

In Zombieland: Double Tap, Thomas Middleditch's rule-loving survivor calls his own rules what?

Commandments. He and Columbus compare lists like long-lost twins: commandment 1 is 'Teamwork', and Columbus already has a rule to match nearly every one.

Which Disney film opened the same weekend as Zombieland: Double Tap in North America?

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. The Disney sequel won the weekend but fell well short of its forecasts, while Double Tap landed right inside its own $25-30 million range.