Army of the Dead(2021)

Plot Summary

• A United States military convoy traveling from Area 51 collides with a car on the highway outside Las Vegas. The convoy's cargo, a zombie, escapes, killing and infecting several soldiers before heading into the city. There, they infect most of the city's population. After a military intervention fails, the government quarantines the city.Six years later, casino owner Bly Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sanada) and his associate Martin (Garret Dillahunt) approach former Las Vegas resident and mercenary Scott Ward (Dave Bautista) 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. Tanaka offers Ward $50 million as payment for the job. Ward agrees (after his own daughter gets infected, and he had to kill her with his own hands, and he has nothing left to fight for) and recruits his former teammates Maria Cruz (Ana De La Reguera) and Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick), along with helicopter pilot Marianne Peters (Tig Notaro), German safe-cracker Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighofer), and Chicano sharpshooter Mikey Guzman (Raúl Castillo), who brings along his associate Chambers (Samantha Win). Martin joins the team to give them access to the casino.Ward secretly offers to keep $15 million each for himself, Maria and Vanderohe, as they all go way back to their time in the military. Peters is offered $ 2 million. Mikey signs up for $500,000. Ludwig is offered $250,000. Ward's estranged daughter Kate (Ella Purnell), who works at a quarantine camp, directs them to Lilly (Nora Arnezeder), a smuggler familiar with the city, who also recruits Burt Cummings (Theo Rossi), an abusive camp security guard (for $20,000). Ward offers Kate the entire portion of his $15 million cut in exchange for her help. When Kate learns Lilly escorted her friend Geeta (Huma Qureshi) into Las Vegas, Kate insists on joining the team over Ward's objections. Geeta was also looking for the casino money (though only 5000 $$) to buy her way out of the quarantine camp for herself and her kids.After an encounter with a tiger zombie upon entering Las Vegas, Lilly wounds Cummings and explains that a group of intelligent zombies known as "Alphas" will allow safe passage in exchange for a sacrifice. An Alpha female known as the Queen (Athena Perample) takes Cummings away to the Olympus casino, where the Alpha leader Zeus (Richard Cetrone) infects him. Lilly leads the team to a building full of hibernating, normal zombies. They wake up only when light is flashed into their eyes. Ward creates a path through the zombies 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.Arriving at Bly's casino (Dieter finds another set of blueprints for the vault, which indicates that Tanaka had sent other teams before them. Martin says he has no knowledge of this), Ward and Kate turn on the power, Peters prepares a helicopter on the roof, and Dieter works on the vault. Meanwhile Geeta is revealed to be alive and in custody of Zeus. Zeus keeps captured humans alive and takes them one by one for feasting.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. Turns out Lilly was working for Martin and Tanaka the whole time, but she thought Martin only needed a vial of the queen's blood. Martin says his bosses want to use the queen's head to have the power to create their own zombie army. Zeus discovers her body and returns her to the Olympus casino, revealing that the Queen was pregnant with a zombie fetus. Enraged, Zeus directs the Alphas to the casino. A news report reveals the government has brought forward the nuclear strike, giving the team approximately 90 minutes. As Dieter opens the vault, Ward discovers Kate had 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 Lilly stole the Queen's head, and the tiger mauls him to death. Vanderohe attempts to fight Zeus (who had broken into the vault basement) but is easily overpowered. Dieter sacrifices himself to get Vanderohe into the vault safely. Ward, Lilly, and Guzman make it to the lobby, where zombies attack them and swarm Guzman, who detonates his grenades, killing the zombies at the cost of his own life and destroying the money he carried. Lilly and Ward head to the roof for the copter.Zeus come out of the basement and heads to the roof and 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 (who had turned into a zombie by now). 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 breaks down in tears 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.

Storyline

• With the abandoned, walled city of Las Vegas overrun with zombies after a disastrous government fault, billionaire casino magnate Bly Tanaka realises he has left something behind in Sin City: $200 million. But for the time being, his mountains of cash are safe behind an impenetrable casino vault. Now Tanaka is willing to pay $50 million to decorated former mercenary Scott Ward and his hand-picked team to retrieve the money before the US President nukes the entire city. Indeed, this is a life-changing offer Scott cannot refuse. Nevertheless, the rules have changed, and this time, the horde of the walking undead seems to be more organised than they might have expected. Above all, time is running out. Will Ward's crew return from Vegas in one piece and rich? — Nick Riganas