WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Army of the Dead, now in theaters and streaming on Netflix.
Army of the Dead on Netflix delivers high-caliber zombie kills amid a dystopian heist movie, with the slasher element of the story being showcased most in the film's ending. Almost all of the film's main characters are killed off in some harrowing way, with some of them even being turned, if only temporarily, into zombies themselves.
One of the main characters, Omari Hardwick's Vanderohe, does make it out, even if the circumstances around his survival are incredibly tragic. Saved by his new friend and locked into the vault that the team was seeking out, Vanderohe is able to survive both zombies and a nuclear strike. Here's how one of the film's final scenes might explain his survival.
What Happened to Vanderohe?
Army of the Dead's climax came after Zeus, the king of the Alpha zombies, discovered that his wife, the Zombie Queen, was pregnant when she was beheaded. Angered, he ended the agreement that the zombies had with Coyote and the other humans. Rushing to attack the invaders, the Alphas began killing off the humans just as they reached their goal of the vault's stashed away cash.
Zeus eventually found Dieter and Vanderohe by the vault, with the latter trying valiantly to fight the vengeful king off. Despite his best efforts, the former soldier was no match for the superhuman creature. Wanting to save his unlikely new friend, Dieter pushed Vanderohe into the vault and safely locked him away, sacrificing himself to Zeus' wrath in the process.
Eventually, the entire Vegas strip was hit with a nuclear strike to eliminate the zombies once and for all. This decimated the already derelict area, leaving the former commercial hub of Nevada a dusty tomb. Ironically, a survivor rose out of the rubble, with Vanderohe making it out of the ordeal alive.
How Did Vanderohe Survive?
Vanderohe's survival in Army of the Dead's ending is somewhat perplexing, though there are ways in which it could be explained. It's possible, though highly unlikely, that the vault was so heavily fortified that it alone protected him from the full force of the initial nuclear strikes. Likewise, the thrashing that this likely gave the vault and the structure of the building as a whole may have been enough to open it up, thus allowing Vanderohe to crawl out afterward. This could explain why much of what should've been the vault was shown to be in shambles.
There are also fail-safes in many real-world vaults in the event that someone gets locked inside of one. The aforementioned force inflicted on the safe by the nuclear strike may have inadvertently activated this fail-safe by virtue of so much of the system being corrupted or destroyed in the blast.
Then there's the question of how Vanderohe just casually walked through a nuclear blast zone, making his way to Utah, no less. The answer to this more than likely stems from the revelation in the film's last scene, where Vanderohe is confirmed to have been bitten by a zombie. It's possible that the beginning of his subsequent mutation allowed him to shrug off any adverse effects of the lingering nuclear radiation, with the other zombies only being killed from it due to the massive blast that was caused. Given how much the scene seems to set up a sequel, fans will have to wait until Zack Snyder makes an Army of the Dead follow-up to get an answer.
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 is currently in theaters and arrives on Netflix on Friday, May 21.