In a nutshell, it's a Road Trip Plot with Zombies
The Battery is a 2012 American drama-horror film directed by first-time director Jeremy Gardner. The film stars Gardner and co-producer Adam Cronheim as two former baseball players trying to survive a Zombie Apocalypse. Much of the drama stems from the conflicts in the two leads' personalities. Ben (played by Gardner) quickly adapts to the lawless and constantly on the road lifestyle, Mickey is almost the opposite, refusing to face the situation and longing for a "normal" life.
This film provides examples of:
- Action Survivor: Ben and Mickey. At the end, only Ben.
- Attractive Zombie: There is a scene in which one of the main characters begins masturbating at the sight of a not particularly horribly decayed female zombie that is ineffectually trying to break into his car, smooshing her breasts all over the door window in the process.
- Batter Up!: As the two are former baseball player, they make use of their bat on several occasions.
- Boom, Headshot!: Ben is pretty good at this.
- Caught with Your Pants Down: A darkly humorous example. One morning, as Ben goes skinny dipping, Mickey is awakened by a zombie girl pounding on his car window. Initially frightened, but seeing the girl's rather well-endowed bust pressing against the glass gives Mickey another idea. He unzips his pant and starts to masturbate furiously. And just before he climaxes, Ben, who just got back from the bath, shoots the zombie in the head, smearing her brains all over the window. Seeing Mick with his pants down, Ben almost chokes himself laughing.
- Character Development: Mickey underwent this after his Heroic BSoD.
- Downer Ending: Mickey gets bitten and has to be shot by Ben, who vows to kill all those responsible for putting them in that situation. He then walks to an uncertain future, followed by a horde of zombies.
- Genre Blindness: Mickey, for most of the film, downright refuses to act like a character in a zombie movie.
- Good-Times Montage: A short one, after Mickey recover from his Heroic BSoD
- Guile Hero: Ben. Seen most clearly when he gets out of the Hostage for MacGuffin situation.
- Headphones Equal Isolation: Mickey's habit of using headphones is discussed several times by Ben.
- Heroic BSoD: Mickey suffers one at mid point. The only other survivors he knows of flatly refused to let him join and warned him against trying to contact them. Then the next morning, a (most likely) hungover Ben unleashes a zombie in his room. Mickey gets better pretty quickly, though.
- Hostage for MacGuffin: A man takes Mickey hostage and demands their car keys. Ben smartly tricks him into releasing Mickey without handing over the key.
- Jerkass: Mickey, for most of the movie, almost always refuses to do anything, leaving the dirty work (killing zombies, scavenging useful items, etc) to Ben.
- The Load: Mickey is pretty useless throughout the movie, constantly refusing to acknowledge the danger of the situation and repeatedly forcing Ben to save his ass.
- Road Trip Plot: With zombies.
- Only a Flesh Wound: Averted. Ben gets shot in the leg, and the movie goes downhill from there.
- Sink or Swim Mentor: Ben sics a zombie in Mickey's room and locks the door, forcing his friend to kill his (first) zombie. It works.
- Too Dumb to Live: Mickey, on a lot of occasions. He listens to music with his headphones on, refuses to learn basic survival skills, including killing zombies, just to name a few.
- Zombie Gait: Ben can easily out-walk them with an injured leg.
- Zombie Apocalypse: The story happens after one.
- Zombie Infectee: Mickey, though he doesn't hide it from Ben, and the two deal with it pretty quickly.
