Zombies, Pirates and Volvo, Oh My

We went to see “28 Weeks Later” last weekend, and while cars are not the primary focus of the apocalyptic zombie flick, a previous-generation Volvo V70 wagon played a heroic role. Without giving away too much, this Volvo wagon withstood crackling-fast zombies, poison gas floating through London streets and soldiers using flamethrowers, and it was able to successfully navigate a flight of stairs down into the London Underground. All without popping an airbag.

Volvo doesn’t stop its summer movie march with zombies. The company launched a promotion for the upcoming “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequel last week. Volvo is offering $50,000 in gold and the keys to an XC90 (“the one vehicle safe enough to drive the treasure home”) as reward for solving a puzzle that leads — surprise — to buried treasure. While the XC90 is a fine vehicle, and we’d be plenty happy with $50K in gold, we don’t really see any natural connection between a safe sport-ute and flamboyant pirates. What car would you want as a reward?