George A. Romero's
SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD
s

NOTE: This spoiler was written by DRickmeister.

The film opens with Sarge (Alan Van Sprang) staring at something off-screen while his voice-over describes how the world has been overrun by zombies. He says that he and his fellow National Guard members have done their part to take down as many as possible but the hardest part is when you have to kill one of your own. At that moment, a dead soldier rises up from beneath a sheet on the gurney that Sarge had been watching. Sarge offers a gun to another soldier named Lou and tells him that he has to shoot the reanimated body since he was responsible for the man being killed. Lou is reluctant to act, so Sarge kills the zombie. He turns the gun on Lou but another zombie appears and bites into Lou's face. Lou is overcome with shock, so Sarge puts him out of his misery by shooting him in the head. Another soldier, named Kenny (Eric Woolfe), then kills the zombie that attacked Lou. Sarge's narration says that after the incident he and the others went AWOL and began holding up the people that they encountered, stealing whatever they wanted. One of the groups they stopped was a documentary crew which shot footage of their meeting. The footage was posted on the Internet and made Sarge famous.

The scene shifts to Plum Island, off the coast of Delaware. Six days after the dead began to rise up, an old man named Patrick O'Flynn (Kenneth Welsh) organized a posse to shoot every zombie, although his daughter Janet (Kathleen Munroe) disagrees with him. O'Flynn's group enters the home of the Muldoons and asks about the status of the couple's children. O'Flynn suspects that one of the children has become a zombie. He and his men draw their weapons and demand to see the children but Muldoon and his wife refuse. In the commotion, Muldoon's wife is shot and killed. Muldoon borrows a gun from O'Flynn and shoots his wife before she has a chance to come back to life. As he's doing this, the men go upstairs to search for the children. They are taken aback after seeing that both children are zombies and are chained up in their beds. O'Flynn hesitates for a moment and his daughter says that no one else is willing to kill children. Just as O'Flynn is about to shoot, Muldoon's father, Seamus (Richard Fitzpatrick), appears with a larger group of men and orders O'Flynn's party to stop what they're doing and leave. The Muldoons believe that the dead shouldn't be destroyed but rather locked away until a cure can be found. Seamus decides the island is not safe with O'Flynn on it, so he orders that O'Flynn be put on a boat and sent away. Down on the beach, four of O'Flynn's men agree to go with him but his daughter decides to stay. O'Flynn says they would all be staying if there were no Muldoons on the island. He and his men then take off in a small motorboat.

Three weeks later in Philadelphia, Sarge and his unit search through a wooded area after hearing noises. They come upon a group of men talking around a campfire. Sarge shoots one of the men in the shoulder when he ignores Sarge's order to put down his weapon. While investigating their campsite, Sarge discovers that the men have put the still-living heads of eight zombies on poles in a clearing. Sarge kills each one of the zombies. When he returns to the camp, one of the men attempts to shoot him. Sarge's troops kill the men, then find a teenager (Devon Bostick) who was traveling with them. When one of the dead men comes back to life, the teen grabs a gun and kills him. Sarge scolds the boy for taking the gun, then invites him to travel with them. Sarge decides to take the armored car that the men had been driving. Inside the vehicle is a safe containing 1-point-3 million dollars. Cisco (Stefano Colacitti) asks the teen for the key to the safe but the boy pretends to swallow it. Sarge isn't fooled but goes along with the deception. As they try to decide where they will go, the teen shows Sarge a video of O'Flynn. Now going by the nickname "Captain Courageous", O'Flynn invites people to come to Slaughter Beach. From there, he promises that people can sail to the safety of Plum Island. Sarge believes the offer is too good to be true but the others want to go to Plum Island, so he agrees. Later, Sarge steals the safe key from the boy's pocket as he's sleeping.

Once they arrive at Slaughter Beach, Sarge and his group find that O'Flynn is luring people to the docks in order to steal their possessions. As Sarge and O'Flynn argue, a group of zombies heads toward the marina. Sarge believes they can get out of the situation by driving onto a nearby ferry and using it to escape. Cisco says he has experience driving a boat, then jumps into the water and swims toward the ferry. He doesn't realize that there are zombies below the surface of the water. Sarge kills one of O'Flynn's men after he shoots at Cisco. The teen then saves Sarge's life by shooting a zombie that was coming toward him. Several zombies grab at Cisco but he's able to make it to the ferry. Once on board the boat, he kills a zombie using a fire extinguisher. Another zombie is about to attack him when Tomboy (Athena Karkanis) shoots it. After she tells him that she also swam to the boat, Cisco shoots another zombie. He and Tomboy start working on trying to get the boat running. As the ferry begins moving to the dock, Sarge leaves the armored car and heads to the driver's seat in order to move the vehicle. Once O'Flynn's men start firing at him, Sarge lobs a grenade which blows the wall off of the shack that O'Flynn and his men are in. Now that they are exposed, the dead swarm into the shack and kill O'Flynn's men. He escapes and uses dynamite to blow up the shack. O'Flynn is able to dive onto the ferry just as Sarge and his group are pulling out of the marina.

On board the boat, Sarge confronts O'Flynn about his attack on Sarge's group. O'Flynn assures him that they're on the same side, then kills a zombie which has come up behind Sarge. O'Flynn suggests that they make sure there aren't any other zombies on the ferry. Tomboy takes some junk food up to Cisco and notices that he doesn't look well. She asks him if he was bitten by one of the zombies while swimming. He replies that he wasn't bitten, but rather he bit the finger off of one of them however he doesn't believe that he swallowed any of its blood. The group kills a couple of zombies that are still in the cars on the ferry's main deck. The boy is startled when one of the zombies starts up his car and drives toward him. He tells Tomboy that it's a sign the zombies are getting smarter but she doesn't agree.

As they approach Plum Island, O'Flynn admits to Sarge that he is not welcome on the island. He also says that they will have to anchor the ferry and go ashore using one of the lifeboats. Once on the island, the group begins walking up to O'Flynn's home. On the way, they see a mailman, a woman working in the field and a man chopping wood. The three are zombies but are chained up and going through the motions of their former professions. Suddenly, shots ring out! O'Flynn says it's Muldoon's people firing at them. Sarge is shot in the shoulder when he jumps up to save Kenny. Tomboy realizes that there is only one shooter and kills him. Despite Sarge's actions, Kenny was also hit by a bullet and dies from his injury. As Sarge is grieving the loss of his friend, O'Flynn shoots Kenny in the head, saying it had to be done. While the two men are fighting, Janet appears riding a horse. She jumps over a fence post before riding off. The teen thinks she's beautiful, Sarge observes that she's dead and O’Flynn admits she's his daughter. As they look around the area, Tomboy finds several bodies. A closer look reveals that they are not zombies but people who have been shot to death. O'Flynn claims Muldoon's behind it and vows to kill him. Sarge says he wants revenge on Muldoon for his injury and Kenny's death. O'Flynn tells the soldiers to go wait for him at an old meeting hall while he rounds up people to help them. As he walks off, O'Flynn kills the three 'working' zombies.

On the other side of the island, Seamus is sitting on his front porch when Lem comes up and says there is something that needs his attention. They ride on horseback down to a stable where zombies are being kept in stalls. When they arrive, Chuck (Joris Jarsky) says he is having a hard time controlling the zombies. Chuck and Seamus kill three zombies that get out of their stalls. Chuck questions why they have been killing some of the zombies, while trying to save the rest of them. Seamus replies that they only shoot the ones that don't "show promise". When Chuck questions why the people near the marsh were shot (the bodies that Sarge's group found), Seamus says they were strangers and no kin of his. He tells Chuck that they need to find a more intelligent zombie that they can train to eat something other than people. He then suggests that O'Flynn's daughter may be the one they want.

At the meeting hall, Sarge's group begins checking out their surroundings. Tomboy realizes that Cisco is not with them and goes into the woods looking for him. She finally finds him in a clearing, where he admits that he must have swallowed some zombie blood because he is sick. He plans to commit suicide, but Tomboy knows that would go against his religion so she offers to do it for him. She puts a bullet in his head and is staring at the body when Chuck sneaks up from behind and grabs her. Inside the meeting hall, Sarge collapses as a result of his shoulder wound. The teen goes outside to find water to treat the injury. As he's returning to the hall, he is surprised by Janet. Meanwhile, O'Flynn meets up with his former followers. As they are talking, they see Muldoon's men taking Tomboy to his house.

During dinner at his home, Seamus questions Tomboy about how she got to the island. When she lies to him, Seamus lets her know that one of his men saw her with the other soldiers and O'Flynn. He goes on to explain that his family has always honored the dead and that's why they believe the reanimated bodies should be looked after, not destroyed. As he's speaking, Tomboy glances into the kitchen and sees Seamus' dead wife chained up inside. Seamus says that he hopes that he can convince Tomboy to join him.

Chuck and Lem track down Janet and capture her. Chuck tries to calm her down but she attacks him. Chucks hands the girl over to Lem, who prepares to take her back to Muldoon.

Sarge wakes up to find Janet and the teen standing over him. It turns out that Janet had a twin sister named Jane. Jane is the one who was killed and turned into a zombie. Janet asks where her father is and the teen tells her that he went to gather his followers. Janet says her father and Seamus are set in their ways and don't accept anyone else's vision of the world but their own. At that moment, O'Flynn and his men enter. He says that Muldoon has Tomboy and probably Cisco and that they need to go after him now.

Just before they cross the bridge to the other side of the island, O'Flynn stops everyone and says he has a feeling they should cross somewhere else. Suddenly a bright spotlight shines on the group. Sarge is able to push himself and the teen into the bushes just as the light comes on. He tells the kid to go back to the boat, take the money out of the safe and go live his life. He then gives back the key that he stole and rejoins O'Flynn's group in the spotlight. On the other side of the bridge, a light comes on. Tomboy is chained to a piece of fence. She is surrounded by several chained-up zombies that are being held back by Muldoon's men. Muldoon warns that Tomboy will be killed if his men are shot. Muldoon orders O'Flynn and his men to drop their weapons and come across the bridge. They reluctantly comply.

O'Flynn, Sarge and the rest are taken to Chuck's ranch. As they arrive, Tomboy tells Sarge about what happened to Cisco. Muldoon has O'Flynn's daughter Jane chained in the center of one of the outdoor pens. He tells them of his plan to train the zombies to eat other things, then releases a horse into the ring. Muldoon tells Chuck to bring the other zombies outside so that they can see what happens and "maybe learn something". As the zombies walk out of the barn, Muldoon says he will let O'Flynn and his men go if O'Flynn will simply say that Muldoon was right. Meanwhile, Janet is walking through the woods to her horse when the teen approaches her. He asks "What would you do with one million dollars?"

As everyone waits to see if Jane will eat the horse, Janet sneaks up and gives O'Flynn's party their guns. She then tells everyone that it's up to them what they do now. They can open fire and kill each other or they can end this feud. As the two sides square off, Chuck tells Muldoon that he is changing sides and begins to walk over to O'Flynn's group. Muldoon shoots Chuck in the leg as he walks away. Jane begins shuffling toward the fence and Janet says it's because she recognized her sister. Janet goes up to the fence and the two hold hands and stare into each other's eyes until Jane suddenly bites Janet's hand.

A gunfight breaks out between the two sides. Janet pleads with her father to stop the violence but he refuses. During the battle, Chuck shoots off the lock that is keeping the zombies in the holding pen. He uses himself as bait to lure the zombies toward Muldoon and his men. Several zombies grab him and begin eating as the others walk past. Lem and the rest of Muldoon's men are overcome by the undead. Meanwhile, O'Flynn calls for a truce with Muldoon so that he can spend time with his dying daughter. As he turns to go to Janet, Muldoon shoots O'Flynn in the back. As Muldoon comes over to gloat, O'Flynn rolls over and shoots him. While the survivors are surveying the damage, Janet sees Jane bite the horse (proving Muldoon's theory that the dead can be trained). Just as she's about to tell Sarge what she saw, O'Flynn kills her. O'Flynn says goodbye to them, then staggers off to die.

Sarge, Tomboy and the teen think about staying on the island but decide to take the money and head back to the mainland. While Sarge (in a voiceover) wonders if Muldoon's plan could have worked, several zombies are shown eating the horse.

O'Flynn and Muldoon (both now zombies) walk toward each other. Each man stops and tries to kill the other by repeatedly firing a pistol, but their guns are out of bullets.