10 WAY Better Endings For Recent Movies
2. Kate Dies, Scott Survives - Army Of The Dead
Zack Snyder's barmy new zombie film Army of the Dead ends with the not-terribly-surprising outcome that Scott Ward (Dave Bautista) is bitten and turned into a zombie, leading his daughter Kate (Ella Purnell) to kill him out of mercy and take off as the heist's sole survivor.
It was a tremendously unsatisfying ending for one major reason: audiences actually cared about Scott, and nobody gave a damn about Kate.
This is largely due to her character being written to have an obnoxiously low regard for the wellbeing of herself and everybody else around her.
Kate tagging along on the mission to seek out her missing friend Geeta (Huma Qureshi) causes a massive headache for everyone and results in several other unnecessary deaths, such that by film's end it's very tough to root for her survival.
It would've been infinitely more gratifying for Kate to become a zombie and Scott have to painfully reckon with putting his own daughter out of her misery.
A bummer ending? Perhaps, but it would've given Snyder and Bautista the chance to deliver something truly powerful, rather than simply leave a sour taste as the opposite outcome did.
All in all, is anyone interested in seeing Kate back in the planned sequel Planet of the Dead?
Needless to say, Scott would've made for an infinitely more appealing franchise protagonist, especially if he bore the weight of killing his own daughter moving forward.