Netflix’s Army of the Dead ending explained

The highly anticipated Zack Snyder film Army of the Dead has hit Netflix and fans have mixed reviews. Some are saying it wasn’t that great, while others loved it and are hoping for a sequel.

The film combines the zombie and heist genre’s when a team is hired to enter into the city of Las Vegas, which the undead has overrun. The team is headed up by Scott Ward (Dave Bautista) and is tasked with breaking into a casino safe that contains $200 million. They all possess skills that make them ideal for the job.

Bautista is joined by Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, Theo Rossi Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, Raúl Castillo, Huma Qureshi and Garret Dillahunt. Tig Notaro joined the cast after Chris D’Ella was cut from the film for sexual misconduct allegations. The interesting thing is Notaro had to reshoot scenes and then be digitally inserted into the film.

How does Army of the Dead end?

Tread lightly because from this point on, this article will contain major spoilers for the film. 

After the city of Las Vegas is nuked by the government, we see Scott and his daughter Kate (Purnell) and Peters (Notaro) after their narrow escape from the city via helicopter. Peters died in the crash, but Scott and Kate survived; but Scott had been bitten during his altercation with Zeus (Richard Cetrone), the leader of the zombie army.

Kate is forced to kill her reanimated father but not before he gave her a large amount of cash that he was able to secure from the vault before they had to evacuate. He told her to start a new life with the money. Kate killing her zombified father harks back to when Scott was forced to kill his wife early in the film, who had also become a zombie.

In another ending to the film, we see Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick) emerge from an underground hatch. He has several bags of cash from the vault, and all-around him, we can see Vegas destroyed from the nuke. How did he survive? That is all due to one of the most unlikely heroes in the film. Zeus was coming after Vanderohe, and in a quick move, Deiter (Matthias Schweighöfer) made the ultimate sacrifice by locking Vanderohe in the vault to ensure his survival.

Being locked up in the vault is what saved Vanderohe from the nuclear blast, and he was able to escape the city with a lot of money. After traveling in the desert, he secures a private plane to take him to Mexico. During the plane ride, he starts to feel a bit off. He discovers he was bitten, most likely during his fight with Zeus.

Now, this could mean a couple of things. He could succumb to the bite, turn and kill everyone on the plane, and it crashes, and he dies. Or, because the bite came from the Alpha, he could turn, making him the Alpha, turning the flight crew into the start of his undead army, which would bring the virus to Mexico, causing another outbreak.

There have been instances in shows like The Walking Dead where someone’s limb is bitten, it is cut off, stopping the spread, and the person doesn’t turn. But, to have a sequel, the virus must infect someone because it is assumed that the nuke has eliminated the outbreak.

Vanderohe and his bite are the keys to a sequel, so it will be interesting to see if Snyder continues with an Army of the Dead 2. Until then, enjoy Army of the Dead streaming on Netflix now.