In the first full-length trailer for Netflix's Army of the Dead, director Zack Snyder is definitely giving fans an improved breed of zombies, as a group of mercenaries descends on their home in Las Vegas. Dave Bautista's Scott Ward, a veteran of the zombie war, is leading the charge into the barricaded city to steal $200 million from an abandoned casino before the U.S. government blows the place up. The plot initially suggests the undead are the villains -- but that may not be the whole story.
Upon dissecting key shots from the trailer, it appears the zombie horde is a thinking society, with maybe even a hive mind. Either way, they're not just a rabid population but a resistance of sorts. And from some of Snyder's statement, clues have been dropped that they're actually not the enemy, which makes for an even more terrifying prospect.
Snyder admitted the cause of Army of the Dead's outbreak comes from Area 51. As a result, it seems like the government decides to contain the outbreak by walling up Vegas to protect the rest of the country and by extension the world. This means that people were trapped inside and sacrificed, isolated to stem the spread, which is why they may have regained a level of sentience. This lends to the philosophical debate of the human condition, one that often shuns victimized groups dictated as problematic to places where they don't have to actually confront these real or perceived issues. Thus, Army of the Dead's Sin City represents the debauchery, ignorance and selfish nature of man, where they often leave their problems behind. Unfortunately, in this case, the "problems" were people that deserved help.
Now, the way the zombies are rallying to a leader suggests they've formed their own government of sorts. And with Alphas ready as super-soldiers and hunting on the ground in packs, they're truly disgruntled by their treatment and want to experience freedom again in the real world. This could even be Snyder's statement on war with armies invading to exploit regions for their resources and killing people who try to fight back. After all, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, as the old adage goes. Therefore, Snyder could be showing that mankind is the real monster, not the undead.
It may be that humanity gave up on a cure for the species, or they were just locked in Vegas to suffer while they figured it out. This paves the way for a statement on society and class, with the gap between the privileged and lower classes highlighted. The idea of "eat the rich" also comes to mind, which is a stigma people often associate with ghettos, perpetuating the false belief that the poor will always target the elite out of jealousy.
"I want the audience to get a chance at having sympathy," Snyder said. "Alphas have consciousness and they're self-aware and they're not like us. So I wanted to create this moral ambiguity about whether or not humans that we love in the movie crossed a line. Was there a thing that they did to the Alphas, when the Alphas were minding their own business? And therefore, do the Alphas have [the] moral high ground? It muddies the water, in a good way."
It seems that disturbing the zombie civilization represents colonization and appropriation, with an ecosystem being upset so other people can benefit. This explains why the zombies are angry and want to get vengeance. They were victims left to rot, only for humanity to decide the zombies have something they want, thus they should be killed for it. Ultimately, by having the undead in a genocidal situation, audiences should sympathize with them more as they fight to take back what's rightfully theirs.
Directed and co-written by Zack Snyder, Army of the Dead stars Dave Bautista, Garret Dillahunt, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Raul Castillo, Tig Notaro, Theo Rossi and Ana de la Reguera. The film arrives on Netflix on May 21.
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