Apocalypse Z: A Man And His Cat Fight For Survival

As the world ends, Manel doesn’t lose sight of his most important priorities: making sure his cat is safe and well-fed.

Shhhh, don’t meow!

With A Quiet Place: Day One and Apocalypse Z: The Beginning Of The End, it looks like the “protagonist and cat surviving the world’s end” thing might be a growing subgenre.

While Day One lit up theaters in spring and early summer, Apocalypse Z is a zombie flick out of Spain, currently sitting atop Amazon’s Prime Video charts as a major crossover hit.

It stars Francisco Ortiz as Manel, the owner of a small solar power business and servant of a talkative cat named Luculo. Manel’s brother-in-law works for the Spanish military, and as reports of a deadly and spreading virus hit the news, his sister relays privileged information from her husband warning Manel to hide during mandatory evacuation and find a way to join the family on the Canary Islands, where Spain’s military and civil leaders have fled.

Vince McMahon Meme

After weathering the initial wave of the virus by huddling in his apartment in Galicia, Manel seeks out a way to make the 2,400km (about 1,500 mile) journey to safety.

One thing I loved about this movie was Manel’s absolute devotion to Luculo. When he tries to stock up at a store being ransacked by panicked locals, the first thing he does is grab cat food. When he finds a set of wheels at one point — a sporty motorcycle — he straps Luculo’s carrier securely to the back of the seat.

No matter how impractical, no matter how much danger it puts him in, Manel refuses to abandon his pal, even though the little guy can’t keep his mouth shut.

Apocalypse Z
Manel with Luculo the cat in his carrier, strapped to the back of the motorcycle.

While watching Day One, all I could think about was how conveniently silent Sam the cat was, and how dead I’d be trying to survive with Bud in the same situation.

Luculo is incapable of being quiet, although he’s not as loud or insistent as Bud is. He’s named after the Roman statesman and conqueror Lucinius Lucullus, described as “the greatest glutton of antiquity, who stunned Rome with his lavish feasts” and his dedication to bringing recipes for the tastiest dishes from the provinces back to the capital.

“He came, he ate, he conquered” might be an appropriate motto for Lucullus, and his feline namesake is similarly food-obsessed, often seen scarfing down yums as if the apocalypse is just a minor obstacle between meals.

Apocalypse Z
Manel refuses to leave his buddy behind, going to great lengths to keep Luculo safe as the world goes to hell around them.

Apocalypse Z isn’t a walk in the park, given the genre, but it’s significantly less gory than The Walking Dead, The Last of Us or even Zombieland. The film’s infected are Danny Boyle-style zombies, the terrifyingly fast baddies from 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, rather than the slow shufflers of Romero-influenced productions. Accordingly, they’re much more dangerous and enable more intense action sequences.

Finally, because this is a cat blog and I’ll most certainly get emails and comments if I don’t address the tabby in the room: nothing terrible happens to Luculo. His greatest ordeal is having too many admirers, who are shocked to see a guy who’s survived so long with his pet cat.

Apocalypse Z
Luculo does quite a bit of hissing at the zombies, who stand between him and his beloved yums.

Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End is the first part of a bigger story, as the title suggests. It rocketed to the top as the most-streamed movie in more than 90 countries, so we should be hearing news about a sequel soon.

If you’re a fan of genre movies and escapism, Apocalypse Z is a fun way to spend a few hours.

Apocalypse Z is available now to stream on Amazon Prime Video. The stream will default to an overdubbed version, but we highly recommend enabling English subtitles and switching the audio track to its original Spanish.

22 thoughts on “Apocalypse Z: A Man And His Cat Fight For Survival”

    1. I think it’s the same name spelled differently. Google says it’s a Spanish/Catalan version of Emmanuel/”God is with us,” as is Manuel.

      It didn’t sound much different to my ears, although admittedly I’m not used to hearing “the real Spanish” with “como ethtath” and all that lol.

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  2. I really detest zombie movies but will give it a try. I can always fast forward on the gross parts. Which means i will hold remote in my hand the whole time. 🤣

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      1. Wow! Just finished watching it. I never get excited about a zombie movie. I guess part two is coming soon? Poor cat. Zombies. Getting knocked all over the place in the carrier. Dog food. Dumb humans telling him to be quiet or shushing him. Good movie overall.

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      2. Pretty fun, wasn’t it? I like the emphasis on how Manel and Luculo survived the initial outbreak, and how Luculo’s like “Ugh, more zombies? When’s dinner, dude?”

        Considering it hit #1 in 90+ countries and hit the top 10 in lots of others, yeah, they’re definitely gonna do a sequel. I think that was the plan anyway, since as you know they gave us that big twist toward the end.

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    1. It’s like that beautiful husky in I Am Legend. I enjoyed that movie but I can’t watch it again because of what happens to the dog.

      As it happens, there’s a major movie coming up based on a popular book, and it has a horrific scene involving a cat. I’ve already started writing a preview based on the book to warn people about how gratuitous and disgusting the scene is, and that’s just one of several acts of violence toward animals in the narrative.

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      4. When did that site become snowflake central? I looked at the entry for Gladiator II and the page says “Potential triggers” with questions like “Is someone gaslighted?” “Was someone abused with a belt?” “Do characters use drugs?”

        Wow.

        Can you imagine the emperor stopping the games, pointing to one of the gladiators and saying “Are the Thracian’s feelings hurt? Did he feel as though he suffered micro aggressions? No? Okay, great. On three, start murdering each other again!”

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      5. I haven’t been there in a couple of years so perhaps it’s changed. I only visited to check on cat violence with regards to one movie and was honestly surprised at all the movies that depicted violence (on-screen and off-screen) towards cats.

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  4. Agree totally with Mollie – thanks for leting us know the cat isnt harmed ( human harm is fine just not any harm to animals ) will look this up on Amazon in the UK!

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    1. Yeah I figure on PITB that is the one spoiler that is welcome.

      I also like how this was set in Spain and not the US where there are like 10 guns to every person. There’s much more of a sense of danger to the characters.

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  5. Makes me think of the Palestinian woman who opened Gaza’s first cat cafe weeks before Israel began bombing everything out of existence. She was forced to leave her cats behind. I’ve no doubt her heart bleeds knowing that they didn’t have a chance to survive – if she has survived the genocide herself. 😿

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      2. Yes I forgot to include US involvement, its likely also UK Government/military involvement in some covert way, UK civilians are certainly very publicly involved in the killing. I aplogise I do recall PITB detailing the heroic actions of the cat man of Allepo

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      3. No worries dude, I was just posting it in case anyone had missed it and wanted to read more.

        During the build-up to the Iraq War, I supported it because I was young and stupid, and still shook by 9/11 which obviously had a big impact on the psyche of New Yorkers.

        It took longer than it should have, again because I’m an idiot, to see these foreign interventions for what they are.

        The graphic novel Pride of Baghdad does such a good job showing how tbe horrors of war impact animals, although it’s also much more than that. Tough to read, but really good.

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