Army of the Dead

Army of the Dead is a 2021 American post-apocalyptic zombie heist film directed by Zack Snyder from a screenplay he co-wrote with Shay Hatten and Joby Harold, based on a story he also created. The film features an ensemble cast consisting of Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, Theo Rossi, Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tig Notaro, Raúl Castillo, Huma Qureshi, and Garret Dillahunt. It follows a group of mercenaries who plan a Las Vegas casino heist during a zombie apocalypse.

Snyder conceived the idea for Army of the Dead as a spiritual successor to his 2004 debut film Dawn of the Dead. Originally from Warner Bros. Pictures, the project was announced in 2007 with Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. attached to direct. However, the film spent several years in development hell before Netflix acquired distribution rights in 2019. With a US$70–90 million production budget and Snyder also serving as cinematographer, principal photography took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Atlantic City, New Jersey, in mid-2019. The film underwent reshoots in September 2020 after several sexual misconduct allegations were made against cast member Chris D'Elia; he was replaced by Tig Notaro using green screens and CGI.

Army of the Dead was released in select theaters in the United States for a week on May 14, 2021, and was digitally released on Netflix on May 21. Critics praised the film for its humor but criticized its plot and runtime. At the 94th Academy Awards, it won the "Oscars Fan Favorite" contest. It grossed $1 million at the box office. The film also spawned a spin-off prequel Army of Thieves. A direct sequel titled Planet of the Dead was in development, until it was announced in August 2024 that all future projects had been cancelled.

Plot

A U.S. military convoy traveling from Area 51 collides with a car on a highway. The convoy's cargo, a zombie, escapes, killing and infecting soldiers before heading into Las Vegas, infecting most of its population. After a military intervention fails, the government quarantines the city.

Six years later, casino owner Bly Tanaka and his associate Martin approach mercenary and former Las Vegas resident Scott Ward about a job to recover $200 million from his casino vault in Las Vegas before the military deploys a tactical nuclear strike on the city. Ward agrees and recruits his former teammates Maria Cruz and Vanderohe, along with helicopter pilot Marianne Peters, German safecracker Ludwig Dieter, and Chicano sharpshooter Mikey Guzman, who brings along his associate Chambers.

Martin joins the team to give them access to the casino. Ward's estranged daughter Kate, who works at a quarantine camp, directs them to Lilly, a smuggler familiar with the city, who also recruits Burt Cummings, a camp security guard. When Kate learns that Lilly has escorted her friend Geeta into Las Vegas, Kate insists on joining the team despite Ward's objections.

After an encounter with a zombified tiger upon entering Las Vegas, Lilly wounds Cummings and explains that a group of "Alphas" (intelligent zombies) will allow safe passage in exchange for a sacrifice. An Alpha known as the Queen takes Cummings away to the Olympus casino, where the Alpha leader Zeus infects him. Lilly leads the team to a building full of hibernating, normal zombies. Ward creates a path through them with glow sticks. When Chambers accuses Martin of ulterior motives, he diverts her off the path, and she wakes the zombies. After she is surrounded and bitten, Guzman shoots the gasoline canister on her back, killing her and the surrounding zombie horde.

At Bly's casino, Ward and Kate turn on the power, Peters prepares a helicopter on the roof, and Dieter works on the vault. A news report reveals that the government has brought forward the nuclear strike, giving the team approximately 90 minutes. Martin and Lilly stay outside under the pretense of keeping watch but instead lure the Queen into the open. Martin beheads her and takes her head. Zeus discovers her body and returns her to the Olympus casino, revealing that the Queen is pregnant with a zombie fetus. Enraged, Zeus directs the Alphas to the casino. As Dieter opens the vault, Ward discovers that Kate has left to look for Geeta. As Ward and Cruz are about to search for her, the Alphas appear and kill Cruz.

Martin traps the team in the basement, explaining that Bly cares only about the zombie head, which can create a zombie army for the government and is worth more than the money in the vault. When he steps outside, he discovers that Lilly stole the Queen's head, replacing it with a bill-counting machine, and the zombie tiger mauls him to death. Vanderohe attempts to fight Zeus but is overpowered. Dieter sacrifices himself to get Vanderohe into the vault safely. Ward, Lilly, and Guzman reach the lobby, where zombies attack them and swarm Guzman, who detonates his grenades, killing the zombies, himself, and all the money he carried. Zeus confronts them on the roof. Lilly distracts him with the Queen's head as Ward and Peters escape. Zeus fatally impales Lilly, who destroys the Queen's head by dropping it off the roof.

Peters takes Ward to the Olympus casino to retrieve Kate. Inside, Kate finds Geeta and kills the infected Cummings. Zeus chases them onto Peters' helicopter, and Ward accidentally shoots Peters, causing the helicopter to fly haphazardly. Zeus overpowers Ward and bites him. As the nuke destroys Las Vegas, Zeus is distracted by the bomb flash, and Ward kills him. The nuke's shock wave causes the helicopter to crash, killing Peters and Geeta. Kate survives and finds Ward, who gives Kate money to start a new life before turning into a zombie. Kate kills him and starts crying as a rescue helicopter arrives. Having survived the blast, Vanderohe exits the vault with the remaining money and later rents a plane to take him to Mexico City. On the flight, he discovers that he has been bitten.

Cast

Additionally, Sean Spicer and Donna Brazile cameo in the film, credited as Male Pundit and Female Pundit respectively.

Production

Development

On March 25, 2007, Warner Bros. Pictures announced it would produce the zombie film Army of the Dead, based on a story by Zack Snyder and using a screenplay written by Joby Harold. In a statement, Snyder said he wanted the film to feel similar to his previous projects Dawn of the Dead (2004) and 300 (2007) and that it would center around a father in Las Vegas "who tries to save his daughter from imminent death in a zombie-infested world". At the time, Wesley Coller was attached to executive produce, with Snyder and his wife Deborah Snyder producing through Cruel & Unusual Films (now known as The Stone Quarry). The film is not a sequel to Dawn of the Dead but rather a spiritual successor. During Dawn of the Dead's production, Snyder got the idea and realized he needed a new origin story to develop the plot and a new incarnation of the living dead. He titled the project Army of the Dead as a tribute to the Night of the Living Dead series from George A. Romero. Snyder clarified his work on the project by saying it was "not made by committee. It's definitely a movie that's incredibly personal and singular".

In June 2008, Dutch commercial director and visual artist Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. was signed on to the project to make his feature directorial debut. By October 2011, however, the film was in development hell; van Heijningen said the film had been shelved "three months before shooting" due to the 2008 financial crisis. In an interview, van Heijningen also said the film, if moved forward, would include scenes where "the male zombies rape human females. And they have human hybrid zombie offsprings".

In February 2012, van Heijningen said Warner Bros. Pictures would cancel Army of the Dead "because of the expense of shooting in Las Vegas". After a failed attempt from Legendary Entertainment to produce it, Netflix acquired the distribution rights to the project in January 2019, now described as a zombie heist film, with Snyder attached to direct. In the initial report, given by The Hollywood Reporter, it was announced Netflix had given the film a $90 million production budget, with filming scheduled to begin that same year; Snyder added, "I thought this was a good palate cleanser to really dig in with both hands and make something fun and epic and crazy and bonkers in the best possible way. I love to honor canon and the works of art, but this is the opportunity to find a purely joyful way to express myself through a genre". As Harold's script was written with a different director and budget in mind, Snyder opted to rewrite the script in collaboration with Shay Hatten.

According to Snyder, Warner Bros. Pictures had been strict on their plans for the feature film and experienced budget issues as a result. Netflix allowed the director to create most of his ideas for the project. Snyder recalled a meeting where he spoke about several screenplays he was working on, and after mentioning Army of the Dead, Netflix head of original films Scott Stuber told him to "Go write that movie and let's make it. Go write it tomorrow, and we'll shoot it in a week".