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Army of the Dead

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This article is about the 2021 film. For the 2008 film, see Army of the Dead (2008 film).

Army of the Dead
File:Army of the Dead (2021 film).png
Official release poster
Directed byZack Snyder
Screenplay by
Story byZack Snyder
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyZack Snyder
Edited byDody Dorn
Music byTom Holkenborg
Production
company
Distributed byNetflix
Release date
  • May 14, 2021 (2021-05-14) (United States)
Running time
148 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$70–90 million[1][2]
Box office$780,000[3]

Army of the Dead is a 2021 American zombie heist film directed by Zack Snyder, with a screenplay he co-wrote with Shay Hatten and Joby Harold, based on a story by Snyder.[4] The film stars 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, and follows a group of soldiers who plan a Las Vegas casino heist amid a zombie apocalypse.

The film was announced in 2007, but spent several years in development hell at Warner Bros. before having the rights bought by Netflix in 2019. Snyder was announced as director, and the cast joined over the next several months. Filming began in July 2019, taking place in Los Angeles, New Mexico, and New Jersey, including at the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel. Chris D'Elia was originally cast in the film, but after several sexual misconduct accusations were made against him in August 2020, Tig Notaro was hired to replace his character and reshot his scenes using green screen and body doubles.

Army of the Dead was released in select theaters in the United States on May 14, 2021, and started streaming digitally on Netflix from May 21. The film received praise from critics for "the action, humor, and diversity of the cast" but the runtime and "attempts at more emotional content" were criticized.[5]

Plot

In the United States, a U.S. military convoy transports an unknown payload from Area 51 when it is struck by a car driven by distracted newlyweds. The payload container is compromised, unleashing a superhuman zombie that kills the soldiers while infecting two of them. The zombies head to Las Vegas, causing a large outbreak which devastates the city. The military's intervention fails, forcing the government to quarantine the city by setting up walls around Vegas.

Former mercenary Scott Ward now runs a burger restaurant is approached by a casino owner Bly Tanaka and his associate Martin about a job to steal over $200 million from his casino vault before the military destroys the city with a tactical nuclear strike. Ward agrees and recruits his former teammates Maria Cruz and Vanderohe, along with helicopter pilot Marianne Peters, German safecracker Ludwig Dieter, and Mexican sharpshooter Mikey Guzman, who brings along his associate Chambers. Martin also joins the team to observe them. To infiltrate Vegas, they enlist the help of Ward's daughter Kate, who works at the quarantine camp just outside the city. It is revealed that Kate became estranged from her father after he was forced to kill her mother when she turned into a zombie. Kate directs them to Lily, who is familiar with the city. Lily also recruits Burt Cummings, the security guard for the quarantine camp, for undisclosed reasons. When Kate learns that Lily had escorted her friend Geeta into the city, Kate insists on joining the team to look for her, much to Ward's objections.

After a brief tense encounter with a zombie-tiger named Valentine moments upon entering the city, Lily shoots and wounds Cummings for sexually abusing female workers and refugees. She then explains to the team that there are two groups of zombies present: the normal zombies, and a more intelligent group known as Alphas, who are willing to allow safe passage in exchange for a sacrifice. An Alpha female known as the Bride takes Cummings away to the Olympus casino where he is infected by the Alpha leader Zeus. Lily leads the team through a building to evade detection, but they discover numerous hibernating normal zombies. Ward creates a path through the zombies with glowsticks. Chambers suspects Martin of ulterior motives, so Martin diverts her off the path, causing her to wake up the zombies. As she is overpowered, Guzman is forced to shoot her gas tank, blowing up both her and the zombies surrounding her.

When the team reaches Bly's casino, Ward and Kate turn on the power, Peters prepares a helicopter on the roof and Dieter works on the vault. Martin and Lily stay outside under the pretense of keeping watch, but they instead lure the Bride out into the open where she is beheaded by Martin, who then takes her head. Zeus discovers her body and directs the Alphas to Bly's casino. A news report reveals that the government has rushed the nuclear strike, giving the team barely over one hour to finish the job. As Dieter opens the vault, Ward discovers that Kate had left to look for Geeta. Ward and Cruz go look for her, but they are attacked by the Alphas and Cruz is killed.

During the escape, Martin traps the team in the basement, explaining that Bly’s goal was not the money, but that he is working with the government to create an army of zombies by using the Bride’s head to control them. However, when he steps outside, he discovers that Lily had swapped the Bride’s head with a money counter and is subsequently mauled to death by Valentine. Vanderohe attempts to fight Zeus, but he is easily overpowered, forcing Dieter to sacrifice himself to get Vanderohe in the vault safely, locking him in before being killed by Zeus. Meanwhile, Ward, Lily, and Guzman make it to the lobby where they are attacked by zombies who manage to swarm Guzman. He then sacrifices himself by detonating grenades, killing the zombies, and destroying the money they were able to claim. When they make it to the roof, they are confronted by Zeus. Lily distracts him with the Bride's head allowing Ward and Peters to escape. Zeus impales Lily, but she manages to throw away the Bride's head and destroy it before she dies.

Ward asks Peters to take him to the Olympus casino to retrieve Kate. There, Kate finds Geeta, but they are attacked by the infected Cummings, who is killed by Kate. They end up cornered by Zeus, but Ward arrives in time to subdue him with an explosive. They reach the roof and board the helicopter, but Zeus catches up to them and jumps onto the helicopter, leading to a fight between him and Ward. Though Zeus bites Ward, Ward is eventually able to kill Zeus. The nuclear warhead then strikes the city, as the resulting shockwave causes the helicopter to crash, killing Peters and Geeta. Kate manages to survive but finds a dying Ward, who gives Kate money to start a new life before turning into a zombie, forcing Kate to kill him. She breaks down in tears as a rescue helicopter arrives.

As he was in the vault during the blast, Vanderohe survives it and leaves with the money leftover in the vault. He drives to Utah, where he rents a private plane to take him to Mexico City. On the flight, he begins feeling dizzy and the flight attendants notice his body temperature dropping. When he checks on himself in the bathroom, he discovers a bite mark on his arm from his fight with Zeus and realizes he will turn into a zombie himself.

Cast

  • Dave Bautista as Scott Ward, a mercenary and founder of the mercenary group - Las Vengeance
  • Ella Purnell as Kate Ward, Scott's estranged daughter who works with the World Health Organization
  • Omari Hardwick as Vanderohe, a soldier and philosopher
  • Ana de la Reguera as Maria Cruz, Scott's friend, and companion who is a mechanic
  • Theo Rossi as Burt Cummings, the former security guard taking advantage of the power he has obtained over the refugees
  • Matthias Schweighöfer as Ludwig Dieter, the German safecracker
  • Nora Arnezeder as Lily, the Frenchwoman known as the Coyote
  • Hiroyuki Sanada as Bly Tanaka, a billionaire that orchestrates the heist and rounds up the team
  • Garret Dillahunt as Martin, the right-hand man to Tanaka. The former head of security at his Las Vegas casino
  • Tig Notaro as Marianne Peters, a helicopter pilot primarily tasked with transporting the team. Notaro replaces Chris D'Elia due to claims of sexual harassment towards women, Snyder filmed with Notaro alone and used CGI to remove D'Elia
  • Raúl Castillo as Mikey Guzman, a sharp-shooter influencer
  • Huma Qureshi as Geeta, a disenfranchised refugee and single mother of two children, Angela (Sheila Awasthi) and Adjit (Sebastian Balchand), who is a friend of Kate
  • Samantha Win as Chambers, Guzman's friend, and companion
  • Richard Cetrone as Zeus, the Alpha Zombie king
  • Athena Perample as The Bride, queen of the Alpha Zombies
  • Michael Cassidy as Sergeant Kelly.

Production

The project was first announced in March 2007.[6] Universal Studios and Warner Bros. Entertainment were on board to co-produce the project. Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. signed on to serve as director.[7] By January 2019, after lingering in development hell for a number of years, Netflix acquired the distribution rights to the project from Warner Bros. with Zack Snyder directing. The filmmaker also serves as co-screenwriter with Shay Hatten, based on the story treatment by Snyder and Joby Harold.[8] The film entered principal photography in mid-2019, with a reported budget of $90 million.[8]

Casting

Dave Bautista was cast in April 2019,[9] while Ella Purnell, Ana de la Reguera, Theo Rossi, and Huma Qureshi joined the cast in May.[10]

In July 2019, Garret Dillahunt, Raúl Castillo, Omari Hardwick, Chris D'Elia, Hiroyuki Sanada, Nora Arnezeder, Matthias Schweighöfer, Samantha Jo and Rich Cetrone joined the cast of the film.[11] In August 2020, Tig Notaro was announced to replace D'Elia, who was cut from the film due to sexual misconduct allegations. As of March 2021, Notaro has been inserted into the film through a combination of reshooting scenes opposite an acting partner and also using digital compositing to insert her into the scene due to COVID-19 safety protocols restricting Snyder from reshooting scenes with the cast.[12][13]

Filming

Principal photography began on July 15, 2019, in Los Angeles, California, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.[14][15] Filming also took place at the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey which had been closed since 2014.[16] Art Direction of the Film was done by Darshankumar Joshi, Geoffrey S. Grimsman and Brett McKenzie.[17]

Snyder served as his own cinematographer, and shot the film with custom-made Red Digital Cinema cameras.[18] [19]

Post-production

By March 2021, Snyder confirmed that work on the film had officially been completed.[13]

Release

Army of the Dead will be digitally released by Netflix on May 21, 2021.[20][21] The film also played in about 330 Cinemark theaters and 270 other locations the week prior to its digital release, just the second time Netflix allowed one of its films to be played in a chain theater following The Christmas Chronicles 2.[22]

Reception

Box office

The film made $290,000 on its first day of release, and $780,000 over its opening weekend at 430–600 theaters. The figure was below industry projections, which had estimated a $1.5–2 million debut based on pre-sales, but still the best theatrical opening for a Netflix film, topping Roma's $200,000 five-day frame in November 2018.[3]

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 73% of 129 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "An ambitious, over-the-top zombie heist mashup, Army of the Dead brings Zack Snyder back to his genre roots with a suitably gory splash."[23] According to Metacritic, which assigned a weighted average score of 57 out of 100 based on 36 critics, the film received "mixed or average reviews".[24] Audiences polled by PostTrak gave the film an 83% positive score.[3]

Writing for Variety, Owen Gleiberman called the film "a stylishly grandiose, muscular but conventional popcorn pageant that's got something for just about everyone. It's a zombie movie. It's a heist thriller. It's a sentimental father-daughter reconciliation story."[25] Alonso Duralde of the TheWrap wrote: "There's enough gore, mayhem, and decay in Army of the Dead to make for a satisfying zombie-movie experience, and while it's the best film Snyder has made since his last 'of the Dead,' it's also one that continually hints at the more satisfying work it might have been."[26]

Future

In September 2020, it was announced that a prequel film and an anime-style television series are in development to expand the franchise.[27]

Prequel

Main article: Army of Thieves

Matthias Schweighöfer will direct and star in Army of Thieves, which takes place before the events of Army of the Dead and focuses on Schweighöfer's character, Ludwig Dieter. The film will also star Nathalie Emmanuel, Guz Khan, Ruby O. Fee, Stuart Martin, Jonathan Cohen, Noemie Nakai and Peter Simonischek[28] which began development in October 2020.[29] Filming wrapped in December 2020.[30]

Animated series

Main article: Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas

The anime-style series will be titled Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas and will center around some of the characters from Army of the Dead during the early phases of the zombie outbreak.[31]

References

  1. ^ Brandon Katz (May 10, 2021). "Zack Snyder Wants to Kick Off the Age of the Netflix Summer Blockbuster". Observer. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  2. ^ "Film and TV Projects Going Into Production – Army of the Dead". Variety Insight. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c D'Alessandro, Anthony (May 16, 2021). "Lackluster B.O. Weekend As U.S. Pandemic Calms: 'Spiral' Sees $8.7M, Zack Snyder Netflix Movie 'Army Of The Dead' Opening To Est. $780K". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved May 16, 2021.
  4. ^ "Army of the Dead". Writer's Guild of America East. Archived from the original on November 13, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
  5. ^ Dan Auty (May 10, 2021). "Review Roundup For Army Of The Dead". GameSpot. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  6. ^ "Snyder Raises Another Army". Cinema Blend. March 26, 2007. Archived from the original on April 17, 2021. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  7. ^ Sciretta, Peter (June 4, 2008). "Matthijs van Heijningen set to direct "Army of the Dead"". /Film. Archived from the original on May 3, 2019. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  8. ^ a b Kit, Borys (January 29, 2019). "Zack Snyder Returning to Movies With Zombie Action Pic 'Army of the Dead' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 6, 2020. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  9. ^ Fleming Jr., Mike (April 5, 2019). "Dave Bautista To Star In Zack Snyder-Directed 'Army Of The Dead'". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on May 2, 2019. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
  10. ^ Verhoeven, Beatrice; Gonzalez, Umberto (May 28, 2019). "Ella Purnell Joins Zack Snyder's 'Army of the Dead' as Dave Bautista's Daughter (Exclusive)". TheWrap. Archived from the original on June 29, 2019. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
  11. ^ Galuppo, Mia (July 15, 2019). "Zack Snyder's 'Army of the Dead' Rounds Out Cast with Omari Hardwick, Chris D'Elia". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on July 28, 2019. Retrieved July 15, 2019.
  12. ^ Kit, Borys (August 14, 2020). "Tig Notaro to Replace Chris D'Elia in Zack Snyder's 'Army of the Dead' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on August 14, 2020. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  13. ^ a b Collis, Clark. "Zack Snyder on possible DCEU return and why 'Army of the Dead' was his 'most joyful cinematic experience'". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on March 19, 2021. Retrieved March 19, 2021.
  14. ^ "Army of the Dead". ProductionList.com. Archived from the original on June 19, 2019. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
  15. ^ Radish, Christina (July 14, 2019). "Ella Purnell Talks 'Sweetbitter' Season 2 and Zack Snyder's 'Army of the Dead'". Collider. Archived from the original on July 15, 2019. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
  16. ^ "Crews ready Atlantic Club for filming zombie flick". The Press of Atlantic City. August 26, 2019. Archived from the original on November 14, 2019. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
  17. ^ Army of the Dead (2021) - IMDb, retrieved May 15, 2021
  18. ^ Mendelovich, Yossy (February 26, 2021). "'Army of the Dead' Trailer Is Out: Shot on RED Monstro by Cinematographer (and Director) Zack Snyder". Y.M.Cinema - News & Insights on Digital Cinema. Archived from the original on February 26, 2021. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
  19. ^ Trumbore, Dave (August 12, 2019). "Zack Snyder Reveals Behind-the-Scenes Shot of 'Army of the Dead' as Filming Continues". Collider. Archived from the original on May 3, 2020. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
  20. ^ Squires, John (April 3, 2021). "Colorful New Poster for Zack Snyder's 'Army of the Dead' Reminds You to Always Bet on Dead". Bloody-Disgusting. Archived from the original on April 3, 2021. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  21. ^ Miska, Brad (February 21, 2020). "Zack Snyder's 'Army of the Dead' Shambles to Netflix on May 21st! [Poster]". Bloody-Disgusting. Archived from the original on February 21, 2021. Retrieved February 21, 2020.
  22. ^ Epstein, Adam (May 5, 2021). "The pandemic is giving Netflix its long-awaited chance to be in movie theaters". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  23. ^ "Army of the Dead (2021)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  24. ^ "Army of the Dead Reviews". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  25. ^ Gleiberman, Owen (May 11, 2021). "'Army of the Dead' Review: Zack Snyder's Zombies in Vegas Heist Thriller Is an Epic Meat-and-Potatoes Undead Flick". Variety. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  26. ^ Duralde, Alonso (May 11, 2021). "'Army of the Dead' Film Review: Zack Snyder Returns to His Zombie Roots, So There's That". TheWrap. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  27. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (September 3, 2020). "Zack Snyder Netflix Zombie Pic 'Army Of The Dead' Spawning Film Prequel & Anime-Syle Series". Deadline. Archived from the original on January 2, 2021. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  28. ^ Rosario, Alexandra Del (October 1, 2020). "'Army Of The Dead: Lost Vegas': Netflix Anime Series Adds Joe Manganiello, Christian Slater, Vanessa Hudgens & More". Deadline. Archived from the original on October 3, 2020. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  29. ^ "Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead Prequel Begins Production". Movies. Archived from the original on October 27, 2020. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  30. ^ "Zack Snyder's 'Army of the Dead' Prequel Movie Has Already Wrapped Filming". /Film. December 23, 2020. Archived from the original on December 25, 2020. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  31. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (September 3, 2020). "Zack Snyder Netflix Zombie Pic 'Army Of The Dead' Spawning Film Prequel & Anime-Syle Series". Deadline. Archived from the original on January 2, 2021. Retrieved December 28, 2020.

External links

Template:Army of the Dead

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