History Film / TheDead

* MenOfSherwood: Only three of the soldiers and deserters from the unnamed African country (implied to be Ghana) the protagonist is stranded in get much dialogue or screen time, but almost every soldier who appears is evacuating civilians to defended areas, defending their Homs, or killing zombies, and doing so effectively. Any serious failures they do experience are only because [[DramaticAmmoDepletion there are more zombies than the soldiers have bullets.]]

* DoomedHometown: Daniel's village is attacked at the beginning of the film. While soldiers try to fight them off and rescue some of the villagers, the vast majority of them are killed. Hearing the last survivor mention his son was rescued prompts Daniel to go in search for him. The human village they run into also presumably falls victim to this after they leave, since they don't have a lot of men and have limited ammo left.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Brian Murphy learns that he's not getting out of Africa, his family is dead, and the zombie outbreak has reached America. And right after that, the walls of the refugee center he's taken shelter in collapse, and the undead horde forces its way in and begins killing everyone. Although it isn't shown, it's implied that he and Daniel's son die with the rest of the refugees.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The opening scene features [[spoiler:an infected man dying and reanimating aboard the plane. It can be inferred that infected aid workers returning home is how the zombie outbreak reached America.]]

* FateWorseThanDeath: Turning into a zombie. A few characters are mercifully killed or commits suicide before they can turn into one.

* ImprobableInfantSurvival: Zigzagged. Averted with the infant in the plane that Brian is on when it crashes, as it's assumed to have either died when the plane hit the water, or drowned shortly thereafter. Played straight later when he runs into an injured woman who is trying her best to flee some zombies. She hands her baby to him, and begs for a MercyKill, which he eventually relents to. Later a convoy carrying refugees passes by, giving him an opportunity to hand the baby off to someone who could take better care of it than he could. Averted again at the end, when the zombies break through the wall and attack the refugee camp filled with civilians. Interestingly, no child zombies are shown in the film.

* ImprobableInfantSurvival: Zigzagged. Averted with the infant in the plane that Brian is on when it crashes is assumed to have either died when the plane hit the water, or drowned shortly thereafter. Played straight later when he runs into an injured woman who is trying her best to flee some zombies. She hands her baby to him, and begs for a MercyKill, which he eventually relents to. Later a convoy carrying refugees passes by, giving him an opportunity to hand the baby off to someone who could take better care of it than he could. Averted again at the end, when the zombies break through the wall and attack the refugee camp filled with civilians. Interestingly, no child zombies shown.

* RoadTripPlot: The film follows Brian's journey from the coastal plane crash site to the northern military base.

* EatenAlive: Many people fall victim to this, and the screams they let out as they're being devoured doesn't help any [[spoiler:including Daniel, who gets attacked after he and Brian fall asleep and fail to hear the sound trap they laid around their campfire to alert them of zombies]].

* MercyKill: Brian does this to a severely injured woman who's about to be eaten. A woman also suffers this fate when the army convoy stops briefly to rescue fleeing humans. The first one is okay and is allowed onto the truck, but the second woman who was clearly limping from bites she suffered is immediately killed. Considering the alternative of becoming a zombie, this was probably a better fate for her.

* DespairEventHorizon: Daniel suffers this after he and Brian are attacked by zombies and he is bitten several times in the process. Brian suffers his after he manages to call a US military base, only to learn that the zombies have also overrun America and his wife and daughter are dead.

* DespairEventHorizon: Daniel suffers this after he and Brian are attacked by zombies and he is bitten several times in the process. Brian suffers his after he manages to call a US military base, only to hear that the zombies have also overrun America.

The film is unique compared to other zombie movies, not so much for what it features but what it ''doesn't'' feature. Gore is kept to a minimum and the slow and agonizing build up of tension is utilized instead of cheap and cliche jump scares, and before the movie is over the audience is practically begging for the random zombie to pop up with an accompanying scare chord.

* BolivianArmyEnding: The film ends on this note. Brian manages to get Daniel's medallion to his son, and the screen fades to black as the two look on at the zombies encroaching on them.

* DespairEventHorizon: Daniel suffers this after he and Brian are attacked by zombies and he is bitten several times in the process. Brian suffers his after he manages to call a US military base, only to hear that the zombies are also in America.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Brian Murphy learns that he's not getting out of Africa, his family is dead, and the zombie outbreak has reached America. And right after that, the walls of the refugee center he's taken shelter in collapse, and the undead horde forces its way in and begins killing everyone. Although it isn't shown it's implied he dies with the rest of the refugees.]]

U.S. Air Force engineer Lt. Brian Murphy (Rob Freeman) is the sole survivor of a plane crash, finding himself washed ashore on the African continent. He's far from home, low on supplies, cut off from all contact with the outside world, in one of the most dangerous places on Earth, and he just wants to get back to America and be with his family. Unfortunately for him he's found himself trapped in the middle of the ZombieApocalypse, making Africa all the more dangerous for him.

The Dead is unique compared to other zombie movies not so much for what it features but what it doesn't feature. Gore is kept to a minimum and the slow and agonizing build up of tension is utilized instead of cheap and cliche jump scares, and before the movie is over the audience is practically begging for the random zombie to pop up with an accompanying scare chord.

''The Dead'' is a low budget 2010 film by Indelible Productions.

Army engineer Lieutenant Brian Murphy is the sole survivor of a plane crash, finding himself washed ashore on the African continent. He's far from home, low on supplies, cut off from all contact with the outside world, in one of the most dangerous places on Earth, and he just wants to get back to America and be with his family. Unfortunately for him he's found himself trapped in the middle of the ZombieApocalypse, making Africa all the more dangerous for him.

A less successful sequel ''The Dead 2: India'' was released in 2013.

* DangerousDeserter: averted, Daniel is a good guy just trying to reach his son to protect him, and we encounter several others at a village who've done the same thing, and are successfully defending their homes and families, and provide some aid to Daniel and Brian. Even the solider who washes ashore from the plane crash with Brian and abandons him as the zombies approach never poses a threat to anyone [[spoiler: although that may be because he got turned before getting very far]].

* AFatherToHisMen: the leaders of both groups of African-soldiers (mentioned under TheRemnant, and DangerousDeserter) have some of this.

* TheRemnant: Daniel's son is being protected in a compound still manned by some of these. They do a fairly good job, but they only have so much ammunition.
* RememberTheNewGuy: a woman who Brian sees drowning on after the plane crashes, and two soldiers who was up ashore with him and are quickly set on by zombies weren't seen sitting with the other survivors before the plane actually went down.

* InfantImmortality: Zigzagged. Averted with the infant in the plane that Brian is on when it crashes is assumed to have either died when the plane hit the water, or drowned shortly thereafter. Played straight later when he runs into an injured woman who is trying her best to flee some zombies. She hands her baby to him, and begs for a MercyKill, which he eventually relents to. Later a convoy carrying refugees passes by, giving him an opportunity to hand the baby off to someone who could take better care of it than he could. Averted again at the end, when the zombies break through the wall and attack the refugee camp filled with civilians. Interestingly, no child zombies shown.

* BigDamnHeroes: Daniel pulls this off magnificently when he arrives just in time to save Brian from being eaten after his truck gets stuck.

* DoomedHometown: Daniel's village is attacked at the beginning of the film. While soldiers try to fight them off and rescue some of the villagers, the vast majority of them are killed. Hearing the last survivor mention his son was rescued prompts Daniel to go in search for him.

* InfantImmortality: Played completely straight.