This document provides a compare and contrast essay between the disaster films Chernobyl Dairies and Zombieland. It summarizes that in Chernobyl Dairies, survivors take shelter overnight in a stranded van in Chernobyl, while in Zombieland survivors stay at Bill Murray's residence in Hollywood. It contrasts that Chernobyl Dairies involves a tour group becoming stranded at the site of the nuclear disaster, while Zombieland follows survivors traveling across a zombie-infested America. The main characters are also contrasted, with one being reckless in Chernobyl Dairies and shy in Zombieland. Filming locations included Chernobyl, Ukraine

1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT
NAME: LIEWPOH KA
STUDENT ID NO: 0320424
FILMS SELECTED: CHERNOBYL DAIRIES, ZOMBIELAND
WORD COUNT: 1045
ENGLISH 2 (ELG 30605)
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY
LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA
SUBMISSIONDATE:APRIL 8TH
, 2015

2. PRE-WRITING
Van goes wrong
Night falls, arguing and affixing blame begin
Noises heard outside
Everyone afraid and stay in van
Zombies everywhere
People found stars’ home
Stay in residence
Travel to Europe
Radiated Chernobyl
Mad cow disease
30 rules
Heading to LA amusement park
Reckless person
Arrogant person
Shy person
Friendly and passionate
Filming location
Chernobyl, Ukraine
Abandoned house
Nuclear power station
America
Bill Murray’s residence
Theme park
Pacific Playland

3. Contrast Essay between Chernobyl Dairies and Zombieland
A disaster film is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject
and primary plot device. There are some disasters include natural disasters such as floods,
earthquakes and also accidents such as worldwide disease pandemics. I will be contrasting
the differences of two disaster movies which are “Chernobyl Dairies” and “Zombieland”. The
“Chernobyl Dairies” is released on 24th May 2012 directed by Bradley Parker. On the other
hand, the “Zombieland” is released on 2nd October 2009 directed by Ruben Fleischer. There
are similarities and differences between the two movies, however, I choose to contrast the
differences of the place where people hide for survive, the storyline, characteristics of main
actors and settings.
There was a place where people hide for survive. In the movie “Chernobyl Dairies“,
the survivors are staying in the van for survive a short time. When the people are going to
leave Chernobyl, something happened to the van. They find out the wires in their van have
been chewed through. They do not know who did it or what kind of animal did it. They also
try to radio for help to no avail. The tour guide, Uri get down from the van and try to fix it
back but he couldn’t and other people remain in the van. As night falls, the group begins
arguing and affixing blame. Noises are heard outside and Uri goes out with a flashlight and a
gun. Shots are heard. People in the van are afraid. They stay in the van the whole night. On
the other hand, for the movie “Zombieland“, the survivors are staying in a residence.
Zombies are everywhere. The people travel from another place to Hollywood. When they
arrive in Hollywood, they dodge zombies and use a map of stars’ home to find Bill Murray’s
residence. Bill Murray’s residence is a distance from the zombie. So that they manage to stay
there until they have a new plan. They play together in the residence, fooling around and also
they sleep there. It is the safest place for them to stay for survive.
The storyline for both movies are completely different. The movie “Chernobyl
Dairies“ is about the Americans Chris, his girlfriend Natalie and their friend Amanda and
Paul travel to Europe on vacation. Chris wants to travel to Moscow to propose to Natalie, but
Paul convinces the group to first visit to Chernobyl with an extreme tourist guide. They meet
the guide Uri and another couple who are also going on the tour. Uri explains that because of
the radiation levels he can only take them to Pripyat, a deserted city very near Chernobyl.
They travel by van, but are stopped by a military checkpoint that makes them turn back. Not
giving up, Uri finds an alternative route to the town. The group spends the day taking

4. photographs and exploring abandoned buildings. Uri becomes nervous and decides it's time
to head home. However, the van won't start and they discover the engine was sabotaged.
Soon they discover that they are stranded, no one knows they are there and that they are
definitely not alone. On the contrary, in the movie “Zombieland“, in the early twenty-first
century, mad cow diseases have turned everyone into zombies and zombies have taken over
America. A shy and inexperienced college student in Texas has survived by following his 30
rules: such as "look in the back seat," "double-tap," "avoid public restrooms". He decides to
travel to Ohio to see if his parents are alive. He gets a ride with a boisterous zombie-hating
good-old boy headed for Florida, and soon they confront a young woman whose sister has
been bitten by a zombie and wants to be put out of her misery. The sisters are headed to an
LA amusement park they've heard is zombie free. Also, they kill zombies when they are on
their way to their final destination.
The main actors in both movies have different characteristics. In the movie “Chernobyl
Dairies“, Paul is a reckless person. The tourism guide, Uri told Paul about Chernobyl is a
dangerous place. Chernobyl is abandoned for many years because there was a nuclear power
plant explosion and the place is highly radiated. Paul does not want to care about the
radiation there and also he does not think of his friends’ health if he decides to go Chernobyl.
Other than that, Paul is also an arrogant person. He always thinks he very smart, he also
makes decisions without think of aftermath. He gets into trouble after he decides to get down
from the van to find out where the noises come from. At last he gets a severe hurts after he
back to their van. Besides that, he is a selfish person. He doesn’t want to care about his
friends’ safety. He only wants to make sure he and his girlfriend are safe to escape from the
place. Lastly he dies in this place because of his selfishness. Conversely, Columbus in the
movie “Zombieland” is a shy person. He is shy when he is with one of the sisters, Wichita.
He fell in love with Wichita. He feels uncomfortable when only he and Wichita because he is
very conservative person and reversely, Wichita is a friendly and passionate person.
Columbus is also a timid man. He is afraid of zombies and so he created 30 rules for himself
against the zombies. He also helps his friends when they are surrounded with bunch of
zombies. This shows he is a kind person who takes good care of his friends.
The filming location for both movies is dissimilar. In addition, the filming location for
the movie “Chernobyl Dairies“ is at Chernobyl, Ukraine where it features the abandoned
housing of Pripyat and the Chernobyl nuclear power station. The other filming location for
the scene before the people travels to Chernobyl, they are filmed at America. They are all met

5. there and decide to travel to Europe for vacation. Meanwhile for the movie “Zombieland“, all
scenes are filmed in USA. The location when they found Bill Murray’s residence for them to
stay overnight is filmed in Atlanta, USA. The other scene where the theme park scenes for
the film’s climax, Pacific Playland, are mostly shot in Valdosta, Georgia’s local theme park
Wild Adventures Water and Theme Park.
Finally, “Chernobyl Dairies” and “Zombieland” are both differs from the place where
people stay for survive, storylines, main actor’s characteristics and also their filming location.
In my opinion, I love both movies as “Chernobyl Dairies” is about people becoming mutant
because of the explosion of nuclear plant, whereas “Zombieland” is about people becoming
zombies because of the disease-hamburger, and both have their interesting part. Although
there are not many people know both of these movies, but still both of the movies have
nominated for awards and won numerous awards.

6. Reference
1. Chernobyl Dairies- Filming Location (2012)
www.imdb.com/title/tt1991245/
2. Zombieland- Shooting Locations (2009)
www.imdb.com/title/tt1156398/
3. Zombieland- rules
www.zombielandrules.com/
4. Chernobyl Dairies- Synopsis
http://chernobyldiaries.warnerbros.com/dvd/