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Think every zombie movie ends in tragedy? Think again! We're exploring 10 great films in the undead subgenre where survival isn't just a dream. Discover which iconic characters made it out alive in this thrilling countdown.
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00:00What makes zombie tales so appealing is just how bleak they can be.
00:04No movie in this subgenre comes with the promise that any of the protagonists will actually survive,
00:10what with the sheer overwhelming number of the creatures trying to kill our heroes.
00:15It's actually sometimes more surprising when a zombie movie ends with more than one character still alive to tell the
00:21tale.
00:21So, I'm Josh from WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 great zombie movies with at least one survivor.
00:27Number 10. Army of the Dead.
00:28Now, let's get this out of the way straight off the bat.
00:32Army of the Dead is decidedly not the zombie equivalent of The Godfather.
00:37This outrageously ambitious 2021 effort essentially sees the premise of the film's spiritual predecessor,
00:43that being director Zack Snyder's own remake of Dawn of the Dead,
00:47meet Ocean's Eleven in a bonafide zombie heist movie.
00:51An impressive ensemble cast helmed by Dave Bautista are tasked with breaking into a casino vault
00:56to steal 200 million dollars, all housed within a city full of walkers.
01:02The movie itself has a lot of Snyder trappings, but hey, the man knows how to put together some cracking
01:07action set pieces,
01:08and at the end of the day, it is a cracking popcorn movie,
01:12laden with gore and action, which is exactly all it aspires to be.
01:16And Snyder even manages to resist killing all of his protagonists this time around,
01:20as after escaping the shockwave from a nuclear missile aimed at Vegas,
01:24the daughter of Bautista's character survives and is left to duly blow her now zombified father's head clean off amidst
01:32floods of tears.
01:34Number 9. Night of the Living Dead 1990.
01:37Thanks to it slipping into the public domain,
01:40we've seen a plenty of dodgy Night of the Living Dead remakes and re-releases over the years,
01:45with a bunch of hacks taking the general premise of George A. Romero's classic original
01:49and trying to gimmick it to death for a new audience.
01:53Consequently then, with this in mind, you might have written off the 1990 remake of Night Entirely,
01:58but booking trends, this is actually a great movie.
02:01Devised by George A. Romero himself, the legendary filmmaker enlisted the efforts of his longtime special effects collaborator Tom Savini,
02:09someone who had intimately worked on the Dead movies previously,
02:12to deliver a version of Night for modern audiences.
02:16And what we got, while not perfect, is a bloody good time.
02:20Even more interestingly as well, it makes some rather large departures from the source material,
02:25this time around giving Barbara, a catatonic victim in the original flick,
02:29a more pronounced hero role.
02:32In fact, in this version, she's the only character from the original group to make it through the night in
02:37one piece,
02:37joining up with a roaming posse at film's end.
02:40It might not be as iconic as the original, but you shouldn't sleep on this 90s remake.
02:46Number 8, Resident Evil.
02:48Yes, here we are again, another WhatCulture horror list presented by me,
02:52that shouts out the Resident Evil movies.
02:55But the original is really a fantastic zombie movie, featuring a group of memorable heroes,
03:01facing off against a bunch of people infected and mutated by the experimental T-Virus.
03:06What's great about this flick over the sequels in particular though,
03:09is that the zombies themselves are actually really scary,
03:12posing a serious threat and brought to life with some incredible makeup work.
03:17Throw in a villainous AI, some laser slicing death scenes,
03:20and Millie Jovovich kicking zombie dogs in the face, and you have a whale of a time.
03:25And it is Millie Jovovich's hero Alice who gets lucky and makes it out alive by film's end,
03:30which makes sense considering that she has an entire franchise to headline going forward.
03:35But a couple of other characters do also manage to survive the events of the flick,
03:39albeit not necessarily in one piece.
03:42See, most characters do get killed or eventually transform,
03:45but Alice's untrustworthy love interest Matt is also saved at the end,
03:50even if his survival doesn't last long,
03:53as he's transformed into the monstrous nemesis in the second movie.
03:57Interestingly, that second movie also sees more characters survive its zombie apocalypse,
04:02so think of that kind of as a bonus entry here,
04:05though that movie is admittedly much harder to argue for as being a great film.
04:10Number 7, Warm Bodies
04:12For all intents and purposes, a zombie romantic comedy simply shouldn't work.
04:18Also, it initially seemed.
04:20As drawing traditional inspiration from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in a further bizarre twist,
04:252013's Warm Bodies was acclaimed as a heartwarming, cleverly written spin on the genre.
04:31Unfolding from the perspective of a zombie in a uniquely innovative narrative twist,
04:36the movie is helmed by a pair of superb turns
04:39from the consistently underrated Nicholas Holt and Teresa Palmer.
04:42Razor sharp in its execution and remarkably self-aware,
04:45Jonathan Levine's direction produces a triumphant amalgamation of laughs, gasps,
04:50and some genuinely moving moments.
04:52And for the less hardened viewers among us,
04:54this spin on Shakespeare's epic tragedy
04:56also has the benefit of not ending in a devastating double suicide.
05:01That's because upon meeting Palmer's Julie in the story's early going,
05:04Holt's zombie, only known as R, slowly begins to return to life across the course of the film
05:10as his heart starts beating again.
05:12Many of the undead eventually begin to mimic his revival,
05:15meaning that swaths of zombies return to human form
05:18and are left standing in addition to our star-crossed leading duo when the credits roll.
05:22Oh, and by the way, if you've ever been watching one of these here lists and thought to yourself,
05:28by golly, I want to go and watch that movie that guy's talking about right this instant,
05:33then I'm here to remind you that you can literally do that with Paramount Plus
05:37and do so at a discounted price.
05:40Scan the QR code on screen or click the link in the video description
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05:52That's $6 off the Essential tier and $11 off for Paramount Plus Premium,
05:58meaning you can go on as many voyages with the Starship Enterprise as you want,
06:02from Star Trek The Original Series all the way through to Discovery and Beyond,
06:07revisit classics like The Godfather and Mission Impossible,
06:10cross the new divide with Michael Bay's Transformers,
06:13or even bask in a hallowed dad movie classic like the Harrison Ford starring Jack Ryan movie,
06:20Clear and Present Danger.
06:21That last one especially is like a big favourite of mine.
06:24So go on, make it so.
06:26Thanks to Paramount Plus for sponsoring us, and now back to the list.
06:30Number 6, World War Z.
06:32Despite some regrettable instances of rather questionable CGI across 116 minutes of zombie-centric carnage
06:40and, let's face it, a total disregard for the excellent source material,
06:44Mark Foster's interpretation of Max Brooks' wildly successful 2006 novel of the same name
06:50is regarded as one of the more memorable genre outings of recent years.
06:54The sheer scale of World War Z zombies set against the backdrop of some legitimately spectacular set pieces
07:00was a key factor in the film's lasting success.
07:03Furthermore, fans and critics alike were full of praise for the efforts of the ensemble cast,
07:07with special plaudits reserved for leading man Brad Pitt in particular.
07:11It's not the finest example of filmmaking you're ever likely to witness,
07:15but what World War Z undeniably brings to the table is a damn fine zombie experience,
07:20which is kind of nuts considering just how troubled the production was.
07:23And despite the seemingly insurmountable odds posed by the film's plot,
07:27Pitt's hero and his family are ultimately left standing in a safe zone by movie's end,
07:32with a way to camouflage themselves against the zombies to boot.
07:36Number 5, Dawn of the Dead.
07:38With his original Night of the Living Dead famously killing off every protagonist in the story,
07:43as we've already mentioned, fans were expecting something similarly downbeat
07:47when Giorgio Romero returned to the subgenre that he helped invent with Dawn of the Dead.
07:52Depicting the exploits of four survivors within the confines of a shopping mall,
07:56amidst the chaotic backdrop of a zombie apocalypse, the movie absolutely rules,
08:01even if it does take a more tongue-in-cheek approach to the horror at times,
08:05serving as much as a wacky send-up of consumerism, as much as it is a straightforward horror.
08:10But Romero was a master of tone, because he always knew how to ground that horror in real stakes when
08:16he needed to,
08:17and Dawn is absolutely no different as the body bags start to pile high,
08:21with our beloved cast of heroes inside.
08:23However, after pondering several different soul-destroying endings for this effort,
08:28Romero ultimately opted for a less devastating approach to the ending.
08:32The director later revealed that he wanted a more uplifting ending than the desolate endgame of his 1968 effort,
08:38meaning that this time around, characters Fran and Peter eventually do escape to relative, ambiguous safety
08:45aboard a stolen helicopter in the film's thunderous conclusion.
08:48Regrettably, the remaining two survivors are not so fortunate,
08:52with Roger succumbing to zombie bites, and an undead Steven receiving a bullet to the chops.
08:57Number 4. Train to Busan
08:59The manner in which Train to Busan grabs its viewers' attention is utterly relentless from start to finish,
09:05mirroring the rabid nature of the film's undead antagonists,
09:08and culminating in one of the most adrenaline-infused zombie outings of the 21st century.
09:14While lead protagonist Seok-Woo meets his heartbreaking end in shocking fashion,
09:18throwing himself off the train to his death after being infected in the film's nail-biting penultimate sequence,
09:23director Yeon Sang-ho fortunately manages to refrain from killing quite literally everybody else aboard the train.
09:30See, Seok-Woo's daughter Su-An and the pregnant Se-Yong Ke-Yong eventually make it to Busan,
09:36after being locked in the train's engine room by Seok-Woo moments before his tear-jerking death.
09:41In a final nerve-wracking twist, the traumatized duo are nearly mistaken for zombies
09:46and gunned down by army snipers as they approach the city,
09:49but thankfully for all our hearts, the film avoids delivering a Night of the Living Dead-style ending.
09:56Number 3. 28 Days Later
09:5728 Days Later's impact cannot be overstated.
10:01The critically acclaimed post-apocalyptic horror is frequently credited for revitalizing the zombie genre
10:07amidst a period of notable stagnation,
10:10and this lofty accolade makes the fact that director Danny Boyle does not actually consider this movie a zombie film
10:15at all
10:16all the more deliciously ironic.
10:18See, the director's revolutionary concept of terrifyingly quick zombies
10:22was in sharp contrast to the moaning, shuffling counterparts of productions gone by,
10:27and added a jaw-dropping new element of heart-pounding terror to proceedings
10:31depicting the outbreak of the rage virus.
10:34And you all probably know the set-up by now.
10:37In this flick, we follow Cillian Murphy's gym,
10:39who wakes up in hospital following the virus transforming London into a post-apocalyptic hellscape.
10:44Then, he comes across a bunch of survivors trying to find some kind of sanctuary,
10:48and eventually, in classic genre fashion,
10:50it turns out fellow humans are just as dangerous as the undead,
10:54but the cast does make it through relatively unscathed.
10:57Number 2. Zombieland
10:59There is so much to enjoy about Zombieland.
11:02There is a gleefully morbid sense of humor to the proceedings,
11:05capped off by a magnificent quartet of performances from the ensemble cast.
11:10Woody Harrelson in particular is superb as Tallahassee,
11:13is Stetson-wearing bag of one-liners on an unwavering search for a Twinkie.
11:17Zombieland's most impressive attribute, though,
11:19is that it maintains the standards of an excellent zombie horror film
11:22without sacrificing anything in the way of legitimately side-splitting humor
11:26and surprisingly touching moments.
11:29The movie even manages one of the single greatest cameo appearances of all time,
11:33when Bill Murray briefly pops up amongst proceedings.
11:36However, after mowing down hordes of zombies
11:38in an epic climactic showdown at theme park Pacific Playland,
11:41Jesse Eisenberg's Columbus finally gets together with Emma Stone's Wichita,
11:45as Tallahassee finds his elusive Twinkie
11:47and the new family drive off into the sunset as the raconteurs.
11:51So yeah, this is the rare zombie movie where most of the characters,
11:54bar Bill Murray, actually kind of get a happy ending,
11:57or at least as happy as the circumstances can provide.
12:01Number 1.
12:02Shaun of the Dead
12:02It is a delicious stroke of irony that one of the greatest zombie movies of all time
12:07is a glorious parody of several other standout genre entries.
12:11Shaun of the Dead's effortless blend of side-splitting satirical humor,
12:15deftly moving touches,
12:16and some legitimately scary moments in the third act
12:19make for 99 minutes of exemplary filmmaking from start to finish.
12:24Director Edgar Wright's 2004 offering was met with a tidal wave of acclaim when it released,
12:29gaining a cult following that has stood the test of time
12:31and critical re-examination,
12:33while kickstarting a worldwide debate as to whether dogs actually can look up.
12:38Amongst the chaotic audio-visual array consisting of, but not limited to,
12:42joy-driving jaguars, accidental darts to the head,
12:45and the beating of zombified bartenders to death in Time to Queen's Don't Stop Me Now,
12:50Shaun's mum, David and Phillip,
12:53number amongst the many cast members who fail to make it to the end of the movie.
12:56However, Wright's brilliant zombie comedy does see Shaun and his girlfriend Liz,
13:01ultimately outlast the events of the apocalypse and humanity at large,
13:05learn to live alongside some of their zombie companions.