Film Theory: The WALKING DEAD's Silent Killer!

stupid corporate decisions number one HBO had the opportunity to air the walking dead but past apparently they thought it was too violent hello Internet welcome to film theory where we always recommend the DoubleTap so let's talk The Walking Dead in a world where zombies are everywhere AMC's The Walking Dead is the big boy on the playground the most popular piece of zombie related media in the last decade except not they're not zombies they're walkers walking or biters but I always thought that was weird but in researching this episode I found that according to the series creator Walking Dead takes place in a universe where the concept of zombies doesn't exist in the pop-culture lexicon hence the characters having to learn about things like attacking the brain well it's good for them I guess it means they live in a universe where Eva Bowles House of the Dead doesn't exist on the flip side though their insistence on calling them walkers now forces me to sarcastically replace all zombie pictures throughout this episode with pictures of tennis ball Laden nursing home equipment and chuck norris Texas Ranger the original Walker but there's always been one other thing that's bothered me since early on in the show and no it's not the way rick pronounces things anything anything everything or coral I mean a Carl it's the fact that by the end of season 1 all of our main characters are killing machines deadly warriors who are always on high alert because if they let their guard down for a second they could be mincemeat for some zombified or biter a fight creature they've survived this long because well survival is their talents but despite all of this zombies still somehow are able to sneak up on them regularly that is absurd these are zombies not Solid Snake but it did get me thinking our heroes can't seriously be snuck up on that often can they how can they be so simultaneously badass yet still get into these absurd situations with walkers that move at a snail's pace nicking up and surprising them is it just some lazy writing and easy way to create tension where realistically there probably shouldn't be any probably yes but here on film theory we try to explain away those logical inconsistencies with the help of science and today loyal theorists I think there's something very wrong with our lovable ragtag motley crew of survivors something with a perfectly sound scientific explanation I think they're all losing their hearing no I get it that's a bit of a weird thing to say right hearing loss well first let me explain how noise induced hearing loss works it should come as no surprise but very loud sounds can damage the internal workings of the ear sound is measured in decibels and generally speaking anything below 75 decibels is safe to hear pretty much constantly however once you start getting above 85 decibels you get into the range where the sound you hear can potentially damage one's hearing and cause permanent hearing loss once you get over 120 decibels you actually start to feel pain the louder the sound the shorter amount of time it takes to do the damage now that 85 decibel threshold of danger might sound like it's a really high number but it's not a normal conversation is usually around 60 decibels heavy city traffic is 85 larga players reaction to a staff jump-scare probably around a hundred depending on the volume of your headphones a passing motorcycle a concert your mp3 player at max volume all well above 85 and the decibel recording system is weighted in a pretty unique way so that in that last example an iPod turned up all the way actually averages at roughly 105 decibels which would be a hundred times more intense than a sound at 85 decibels so that's all well and good but how does it all work well when a noise travels into the ear it vibrates the eardrum and several tiny bones which amplify the sound as it enters the inner ear otherwise known as the cochlea here small hairs are attached to nerve cells these hairs ride the waves of these vibrations creating electrical signals that travel from our auditory nerves into the brain we are then able to translate the signals and to sound we can recognize and understand the sheer force of the vibrations created by sounds louder than 85 dB you run the risk of destroying these little hairs and once they're damaged or destroyed they don't grow back the hearing loss is permanent so what does any of this have to do with the walking dead well consider this guns are loud incredibly loud and the survivors often shoot them in positions where the gums are right next to their ears oftentimes in firing squad formation or next to their faces just watch a Rick Grimes kill compilation it's incredible up through March of this year Rick alone had killed 154 themes throughout the five seasons humans and walkers alight and the vast vast majority of those are gun kills with Rick firing wildly into crowds of zombies like it's left 4 dead so those are bad enough but then there are other creative kills where the gun is right up against the ear like in season 2 when Rick gets stuck under two Walker's he just killed and has to do this cool move where he shoots a walker through the mouth of another Walker the gun is inches from his ear they actually play with the idea of the sound of guns hurting your ears in season 4 when Rick head butts a man holding a gun to his head the man fires the gun by accident right next to Rick's ear and Rick ears ringing for several seconds but this I think is my favorite where Rick literally turns his ear into the gun before he shoots it look Andrew Lincoln I get it I know you're conveying some painful emotions here but your character is gonna be dealing with some painful emotional ear damage when you do that again there are more instances of this than would be interesting to count in this video but you can already start to see how the survivors are putting their hearing in danger but just how far gone are they let's find out our favorite sheriff turned Walker Slayers gun of choice is the Colt Python 357 Magnum which when shot has been measured to be as loud as 164 decibels just to give you a frame of reference that's over a hundred times more powerful than a jet engine which is rated at 140 DB a hundred times and he's firing this thing off like it's Christmas there are countless different types of 9-millimeter pistols used in the show from Glocks to lady Smith's to browning high powers all of which measure in the hundred and sixty DB range shotguns are also a frequent weapon of choice including several different types of 12 and 20 gauge varieties clocking in at 150 decibels or so Gayle's 308 remington 700 156 DB long story short just looking at these numbers we can see that all of them get above both of the threshold of danger and the threshold of pain so you know we're dealing with some pretty powerful sound and it gets worse a lot of the time the survivors are shooting in small echoey enclosed spaces I mean they spent two entire seasons and had countless firefights in a prison as early as Episode one Rick gets stuck under a tank and kills off five walkers and this makes things much much worse for them you see sound acts as a wave and can bounce off of walls creating echoes that's why I record these episodes in my closet the clothes absorb sound so it sounds like I'm right up against you and talking into your ear but without any padding to absorb the sound it bounces until it eventually dissipates with each bounce those tiny hairs in your ears are getting smacked with another way and we are dealing with sounds as loud as gunshots each of those waves is creating huge amounts of damage sure would have sound echoes it generally tends to become about 40% weaker but at this high of DB level in such close proximity to your ears it's gonna be very very bad for our survivors hearing like say that tank I mentioned it's very likely that Rick would have had his hearing permanently damaged in the first hours of the series when he killed the walkers under the tank and in the tank with him sure they do show Rick in pain after the encounter the sound of the gunshot completely disorienting him but then they promptly forget about this and have him talking to walkie-talkie a couple seconds later this is something that happens time and time and time again on this series and sound damage has a cumulative effect well one bad blast can have you lose your hearing permanently see also Archer and his tinnitus more often each concussion your ear has to deal with adds on to all the other ones that came before meaning that with each shot each creative kill the survivors are becoming more and more deaf more and more susceptible to a walker sneak attack now I can already hear you saying but matpat what about soldiers Aaron firefights at least semi frequently but they're not all deaf and yeah that's true but there's the key difference the military uses hearing protection allow me to introduce you to the combat arms earplug these things are pretty cool with two sides that offer two different types of protection the yellow sides allow you to hear conversations but protects slightly against high-pitched banging and snapping well the brown sides offer complete hearing protection and even with this preventive action there have been reports of hearing loss or ringing in ears being a serious problem for soldiers returning home from war and it's not just from Iraq or Afghanistan it's been a problem since World War two so with the amount that they shoot guns and how often the guns are close to their faces most of the survivors really are putting their lives at risk it also explains why Rick has to shout literally non-stop to find coral I mean Carl but there's one more cool part to this theory Daryl and Michonne since they were introduced these characters have been fan favorites mostly because of their really cool weapons of choice the crossbow and the katana but now you have another reason to respect these machines of Walker death not only are they super effective and reusable weapons but they're also practically silent which means they're gonna be a lot more effective in the series for a lot longer Daryl isn't deadly simply because of his aim and tracking skills is because he's protecting one of his most valuable survival senses his hearing okay yeah sure he rides around on a motorcycle which is above the threshold of danger but no one's perfect okay it opposed pocalypse you got to do what you got to do long story short with how much they shoot guns and how often they're in enclosed spaces while shooting I'm surprised that any characters on the show can hear anything anymore let alone all the loud sputtering zombies that seem to sneak up with them with remarkable ease I guess the survivors of The Walking Dead should more accurately be called the walking death but hey that's just a theory a film theory and cut attention anime fans today we're taking a poll which series would you like to see covered on a future episode of film Theory Full Metal Alchemist or sword art online click on one to choose to cast your votes in the meantime though if you watch The Walking Dead you must like zombies if so check out my video on history's most famous zombie Frankenstein's monster and how dr. Frankenstein could indeed bring the dead back to life using modern science by clicking right here and really that's about it so now if you'll excuse me I've gotta go gotta go work on my next theory II yeah we're tackling that one get ready

Channel: The Film Theorists

Views: 7,315,076

Rating: 4.9086533 out of 5

Keywords: The Walking Dead (TV Program), The Walking Dead (Comic Book Series), walking dead, hearing loss, deaf, zombie apocalypse, film theory, Film Theory (Field Of Study), matpat, matthew patrick, The Walking Dead (Award-Winning Work), walking dead theory, walking deaf, Zombie (Character Species), film theorists, walking dead season 6, Theory (Quotation Subject), walking dead glenn death, Television Program (Media Genre)

Id: ewfePPj342M

Length: 11min 33sec (693 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 09 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/anUnkindness]

Except intertwined with all of these "surprise zombie" scenes are numerous scenes wherein characters whisper entire conversations without constantly mishearing each other.

[u/redflagbear]

I don't know if he came up with this independently or not, but there was a thread about this on reddit not too long ago.

[u/TheNOTchosen1]

Eh. You'd think they would've brought that up. Maybe a character complaining about hearing loss or something.

[u/[deleted]]

Cool, I was super against this channel when he first made it, but I've been kind of enjoying these. Granted I completely disagree with like 70% of them but they're sugary colorful entertainment. I'll check this out.

[u/BoozeoisPig]

Seriously though, if you are going to make a whole series based around a conflict with a singular unnatural monstrous force: Make the force something to be reckoned with in the first place, rather than making the characters as competent as they need to be in the moment to make whatever they face have tension.