Survival Training Tips, 'WWZ'-Style!

Brad Pitt faces a sudden apocalyptic situation in World War Z, forcing him to forage for supplies and seek refuge with his family until they can be airlifted to safety and he can solve the mystery behind the global zombie pandemic. While we all know (and hope) that a zombie invasion is the stuff of fiction, real disasters happen every day around the world. In an earthquake, tornado, hurricane, flooding, fire or riot situation -- when the lights go out -- will you be ready?

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In celebration of this week's release of World War Z on Blu-ray and DVD, I put myself in a pretend apocalyptic scenario at L.A.'s old abandoned zoo in the wilds of Griffith Park -- picked up by military personnel in Humvees and dropped into a "safe zone" with other "non-infected, essential personnel" -- and talked to top survival experts (and Brad's Israeli soldier escort, Daniella Kertesza, from the film) to learn a few crucial skills to make it to the light of day when it all goes down. Watch the video!

Those showing me the ropes included survival specialist Sam Sheridan, author of The Disaster Diaries: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Apocalypse; knife-fighting instructor and Grandmaster martial artist Mark Mikita, who demonstrated the critical error that attackers make when they come at you with a hand-held weapon; WWZ senior military technical advisor Freddie Joe Farnsworth, who showed the best way to approach an unknown situation with an assault rifle; and chef and foraging coach Bryce Waring detailed which indigenous wildlife and plants of the area are usable to cook and ingest, and demonstrated how to properly scale and filet a freshly caught fish. Yum!

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World War Z is available now on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Download.