What Makes World War Z’s Lobo The Ultimate Zombie Killer Weapon

World War Z’s Lobo was designed to be the ultimate zombie killing weapon – here’s what makes it so effective against the undead. Given their current pop culture dominance its hard to image a time zombies were out of vogue. Prior to movies like 2002’s 28 Days Later or Zack Snyder’s Dawn Of The Dead remake, there had been little in the way of zombies movies for at least a decade.

That all changed following Snyder’s Dawn remake, which led to a flood of movies, TV shows, comics, and video games. Arguably the most high-profile would be The Walking Dead, which started out as a graphic novel before the TV adaptation debuted in 2010. Outside of that franchise, there were movies like Zombieland, the Resident Evil series starring Milla Jovovich, and George A. Romero’s Land Of The Dead. Zombies soon became unstoppable in gaming too, including the Left 4 Dead series, Dead Rising and zombie modes for titles like Call Of Duty.

Max Brooks novel World War Z arrived into this crowded subgenre in 2006, with its unique structure detailing the events of a devastating zombie war. Brooks’ level of research brought a stark realism to the novel and it featured some fantastic characters and setpieces. The book was adapted into a movie in 2013 starring Brad Pitt, but outside of the basic concept and a couple of scenes, the movie had little to do with the source material. David Fincher (Gone Girl) signed on to direct the sequel, which was eventually cancelled by the studio. The franchise is still undead and kicking, thanks to the popularity of the new World War Z video game.

One of the most controversial elements missing from the World War Z movie was the lack of the iconic Lobo weapon, although it did feature in the original third act before the film underwent reshoots. The Lobo – short for Lobotomizer – is one of the weapons that helped turn the tide of the battle against the undead in the novel. Designwise, the Lobo is a cross between a shovel and an axe. This meant it could function as a tool, but in combat, it delivers a hefty, precise blow to the skull. This proved especially useful for saving ammunition and they were cheap to mass produce.

Part of the fun that fans of the zombie genre have is deciding on the perfect weapon, such as Daryl Dixon’s crossbow or Shaun Of The Dead’s cricket bat. The Lobo itself is up there in terms of popularity and was recently included in the World War Z game thanks to the Lobo Weapon Pack. It doesn’t do much good in a zombie swarm but one on one, it’s a deadly melee weapon.

About The Author

Padraig Cotter
(3485 Articles Published)

It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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