The pair, however, unexpectedly run into some non-zombified characters—two sisters who call themselves Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). The men are informed that Little Rock has been bitten, with both sisters asking if they can put her down before she turns. Tallahassee is about to oblige before Wichita quickly interrupts, asking if she can do it instead. Turns out it is a trick, with Little Rock being fine and Wichita pointing the gun at the men—taking their weapons and vehicle. For how clever the trap is, Wichita really cuts it close with stopping Tallahassee from shooting her sister, with her barely knowing the guy who could have easily shot immediately without hesitation.
With no car, Columbus and Tallahassee continue their journey on foot, leading to some engaging casual conversation between them such as discussing what would be considered the “Zombie Kill of the Week.” There's even a transition to the zombie kill of the week by a nun named Cynthia Knickerbocker (her last name a term for New Yorkers), who pleasantly destroys a zombie by dropping a large piano onto it. By pure luck, the pair find a working truck loaded with guns (Tallahassee expressing his gratitude for the existence of rednecks), yet soon run into the sisters again. Expecting a trap this time, Tallahassee plays it more cautiously:
Tallahassee: Going in, it's a trap. Wait here. Drive down if I signal.
Columbus: You're not gonna shoot them, are you?
Tallahassee: Unless the shoot me. Oh, let's hope they shoot me...(Finds car abandoned with no sisters in sight) Looks like they hoofed it. Probably headed west. Just drive slow, keep your eyes peeled…They're in the back, aren't they?
Little Rock: Just me.
Columbus: I'm really sorry. She was like a crouching tiger.
Tallahassee: You got taken hostage by a twelve-year-old?
Columbus: Well, girls mature faster than boys. She is way ahead of where I was at that age.
Little Rock: Twelve's the new twenty. Gun please.
Tallahassee: Like you would ever use it..(Little Rock fires gun right above Tallahassee’s head)
(Comedically screaming) DON’T KILL ME WITH MY OWN GUN!
Using his quick reflexes, however, Tallahassee is able to reclaim his gun and have a standoff with Wichita. Yet a fed up Columbus ends up exploding into a tirade of cusses that both surprises and calms the others down:
Columbus: Hey for f***'s sake, enough already, we're being chased by ravenous freaks. We don't have enough problems? "Oh, they stole my Hummer", "We have trust issues". Now get over it, okay, we can't just f***ing drive down the road playing I-spy, or some s*** for two hours, like four normal-ass Americans? F*** me!
Tallahassee: Whoa
Columbus: (heavy panting) I know.
Tallahassee: (pulls back gun) Let me be the mature one.
The four form a truce and officially become a group. Here is the soul of Zombieland—these four talented actors playing misfits zombie survivors passive-aggressively getting along. The film approaches their growing camaraderie in a very clever tactic of giving each of the characters one-on-one time with the other three. The characters feel more dynamic this way—showing different sides of their personality. This is displayed in full during a driving montage of brief, spliced interactions. Columbus shows a more reckless side by taking off his seatbelt to impress Wichita, Tallahassee shows his old man side when he’s baffled Little Rock doesn't know who Willie Nelson is, while Little Rock tries teaching him about Hannah Montana, etc. There’s a great segment where Wichita teaches Little Rock how to drive while Columbus and Tallahassee keep backseat driving:
Wichita: Since this is a freeway. You can get it up to 65, but you don't wanna go more than 75.
Columbus: You don't wanna go more than 20.
Tallahassee: Do not worry about blind spots. Blind spots are for other drivers.
There's even a rather tender moment in the car where Columbus learns that his destination’s nothing but ash now:
Columbus: I'm not sure what's more tragic, That my family is gone, or the realization that I never had much of a family to begin with.
The group ends up stopping at a trading post for supplies. Columbus wants to impress Wichita—who he is very much smitten with—by taking the initiative in checking for zombies, yet his blossoming bad boy side isn’t enough to overtake the golden rule of survival: #17, Don’t Be a Hero. Columbus allows Tallahassee to go first and, after eliminating the residing zombie, convinces the group to participate in a stress-relieving activity of destroying the store’s interior. It’s a fun montage, pulling the old trick of placing classical music alongside destruction. More importantly, it showcases that with no rules and the allowance of chaos, the zombie apocalypse can actually be fun at times—especially with friends.
After some time, the group ends up in Hollywood where Tallahassee suggests staying somewhere in style—picking Bill Murray’s mansion as their pitstop:
Tallahassee: Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to La Menzion de Murray.
Columbus: Oh, Bill Murray
Witchita: God, no way. This guy has a direct line to my funny bone, I mean every..
Little Rock: Whoa. Who's Bill Murray?
Tallahassee: Now I have never hit a kid before, but that's like asking who Gandhi is.
Little Rock: Who's Gandhi?
Tallahassee: ...
Witchita: She's twelve.
The group decides to split up and search the place to make sure it's zombie-free, once again leading to some great one-on-one scenes—most notably Columbus and Little Rock, who have had the least amount of interaction out of the group. The pair have some gut-busting exchanges here, such as discovering Bill Murray's indoor theater and Columbus enthusiastically showing Ghostbusters to the rather indifferent Little Rock:
Columbus: (smiling like a little kid) Oh, this is so exciting, you're about to learn who you're gonna call...it's Ghostbusters (Little Rock nodding along to amuse him)...Your sister's single, right? There's nothing long-distance or anything.
Little Rock: No.
Columbus: Good, good. And if she had, like, a type - if you can have a type - what would that be?
Little Rock: She kinda goes for, like, bad boys.
Columbus: Really?
Little Rock: Yeah.
Columbus: That's cool. (immediately throws popcorn bowl)
Little Rock: What! Ugh.
Columbus: Oh, Whoops.
Then comes the scene that no one was expecting. One of the most pleasant surprise cameos I’ve ever come across in film. I don’t think anyone went into Zombieland predicting Bill Murray to appear in the film, let alone be playing himself. I didn’t believe it was actually Bill Murray at first—with all the makeup on, I thought it was a lookalike pretending to be a zombified version of him. It’s not until Murray starts yelling when Wichita hits him with a golf club that it became clear it is the real deal—wearing professionally done makeup to blend in with the zombies.
The entire cameo is such an unexpected treat. The only other time I recall being so enthusiastic about an unexpected actor’s appearance was when I watched The Third Man without paying attention to its credits and was shocked when Orson Welles appeared. I'm certainly not the only one excited, however, as Tallahassee starts gushing over meeting his star (there’s some meta-humor here seeing a well-known actor playing a character fanboying over a well-known actor playing himself). According to Harrelson, most of Murray's scenes were improvised, which would explain their beautifully nonchalant conversation about what Bill Murray's been up to during the zombie apocalypse:
Witchita: You look remarkably like Eddy Van Halen.
Bill Murray: I Just saw Eddy Van Halen.
Witchita: Naw ah
Tallahassee: Really?
Bill Murray: Yeah.
Tallahassee: Where?
Bill Murray: At the Hollywood bowl.
Tallahassee: Man, how was that?
Bill Murray: He's a zombie
Witchita: Aww, that's, that's a tough break.
In an amusing segue, Bill Murray offers the two some hospitality in the form of weed as the trio get high and start playing make-believe Ghostbusters, with Wichita doing her best Janine impression and Tallahassee playing Pete for some odd reason (I guess Murray was tired of the role). The stoned group decides to pull a practical joke by having Bill Murray scare the jittery Columbus, only for it to tragically, and hilariously, backfire with Columbus shooting Murray in the chest. Murray expresses his last regrets—“Garfield, maybe”—before passing on (a stoned Wichita laughing at the humorous way he dies). The four have a memorial for him, with Columbus passing around hand sanitizer—that he’s been carrying around in his shirt pocket—after they dump the body.
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