[Lee Jong-gil's Movie Reading] Humans Gigantes Attacking Zombie Zeus

Netflix Movie 'Army of the Dead' Transforms Las Vegas into Olympus
Zombies Evolved in Body and Intelligence Compared to Snyder's Previous Work 'Dawn of the Dead'
Differentiated by Themes from Greek Mythology... Emphasizes Personal Loss and Appeals with a Twist

An American Space Force truck transporting military supplies. The driver wonders what is loaded in the cargo hold. "Why is the security so tight like this?" "It must be something important. Maybe a nuclear football or the original constitution?" (…) "It could be something related to space. That’s where we were, after all." "So there’s a possibility? Like the Holy Grail we shouldn’t be moving. Area 51, secret hangars, autopsies, aliens."

The moment a top-secret leak occurs, a traffic accident happens. The cargo hold is damaged after a head-on collision with a passenger car. A man jumps out and bites the neck of a soldier on guard. Other soldiers open fire but are quickly subdued, and the man turns his gaze to the city spread out below the hill. It is Las Vegas, shining brightly even at night.

In the Netflix movie Army of the Dead, the world’s top entertainment city Las Vegas is overrun by zombies. Director Zack Snyder shows this process with a lively touch. The song "Viva Las Vegas" plays as a man who looks exactly like pianist Liberace (1919?1987) plays the piano. The following slaughter scenes are a mix of fast and slow-motion shots. A nouveau riche man is eaten by zombie showgirls, a patient becomes prey right after hitting the jackpot on a slot machine. A female police officer who mistakenly shoots and kills healthy people thinking they are zombies cannot withstand the zombies’ coordinated attack.

The living dead are not a continuation of Snyder’s previous work Dawn of the Dead (2004). Some zombies possess advanced intelligence and physical abilities. They dominate inferior zombies and even establish a class society. The leader is an alien moved from Area 51. He is called Zeus, inspired by the Zeus statue standing in front of the Olympus Hotel. Snyder explained, "I made the movie with the idea that zombies evolve," adding, "They are primitive but communicate with each other and live in an organized society."

The concept of "thinking zombies" is not new. It has already been depicted in George Romero’s Land of the Dead (2005) and others. Snyder differentiates his work by borrowing from the Gigantomachy, the battle between the Gigantes and the Olympian gods in Greek mythology. Here, the Gigantes are humans, not zombies.

Bligh Danka (Hiroyuki Sanada), the owner of the Olympus Hotel, offers Scott Ward (Dave Bautista), who saved the Secretary of Defense during a past war with zombies, $50 million if he brings $200 million from the casino’s underground vault. Ward gathers his comrades who fought alongside him, a helicopter pilot, and a safecracker, and heads to the locked-down Las Vegas.

The Gigantomachy was triggered by Gaia, the earth goddess. When Zeus orders his children, the Titan gods, to be imprisoned deep underground, they plan revenge. Gaia incites the Gigantes to attack Olympus. The Gigantes are immortal to the gods; only humans who cannot escape death can eliminate them. Zeus wins the war by bringing Heracles, his child born of a human, through Athena.

Zeus in Army of the Dead has no child like Heracles. Athena, a pregnant zombie, is beheaded by Danka’s subordinate Martin (Garret Dillahunt). "Do you know how valuable this head is to our boss or the government? In the right hands, it can create more zombies. The power to control a zombie army, the ultimate weapon of mass destruction." Zeus, who finds Athena’s body late, senses something is wrong with the fetus and breaks down in tears. Holding the corpse, he rides away alone on horseback. The Zeus statue visible beyond has its right arm holding a lightning bolt severed.

At that moment, Ward and his team succeed in opening the underground vault door. However, they all meet tragic ends like the Gigantes. It is not because they were blinded by greed. Martin broke the zombies’ rules, which required sacrifices. The zombie kingdom was already doomed to destruction by a low-yield nuclear strike. Yet Danka had Athena’s head brought to win another war. This resembles great powers that, despite experiencing two world wars, continue to expand their military and develop nuclear weapons.

Director Snyder emphasizes personal loss to appeal for peace. He points to children in quarantine camps and war refugees behind container walls, and instills paternal love not only in Ward but also in Zeus. The reason for placing the Irish alternative rock band The Cranberries’ song "Zombie" (1994) in the latter part is here. The song was written reflecting on the 1993 bombing by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Warrington, England. It commemorates three-year-old Jonathan Ball and twelve-year-old Tim Parry who died then.

"Another head hangs brutally low / And the child is slowly dragged away / Violence that caused this silent stillness / Who are we to make such mistakes? But look, this is not me, nor my family / In your head, in your head, people are fighting / With their tanks and their bombs / And their bombs and their guns / In your head, in your head, they are crying / In your head, in your head / Zombie, zombie..."