How Vanderohe Survived In Army Of The Dead

Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead has been a monster hit for Netflix. The Las Vegas-set zombie heist caper is full of cool action, intense gore and surreal digressions that distinguish it from the crowd. With an anime-style series and prequel film already in production, many are beginning to talk sequel plans and based on the last scene, it feels like a no-brainer that this will be intertwined with the fate of Omari Hardwick’s Vanderohe.

When things all fall apart in the final act, Vanderohe is sealed inside the (almost) impregnable Olympus vault. Shortly afterward, the government drops a thermonuclear bomb on Vegas, destroying the strip and apparently wiping out the swarms of undead. But, as the fallout settles, a hatch opens and Vanderohe emerges. Carrying sacks of cash, he heads for an airport and begins flying to Mexico City.

Celebrations are underway when he starts feeling ill, heading to the bathroom to discover that he got bitten after all. The film then ends on the implication that Vanderohe will become the next Alpha, with Mexico City sure to fall to the undead. But how did he survive the initial blast? Well, as ScreenRant explains:

“Vanderohe [survives] thanks to having been shut inside the massive, heavy-duty vault with its steel-reinforced concrete walls at least a foot thick. Thanks to the fact modern vaults have mechanisms that allow them to be opened from the inside if someone accidentally gets shut inside, Vanderohe is able to eventually crawl out of the vault with money in tow, clearly having been protected inside of the Götterdämmerung.”

But there are still a number of unknown factors here. For one, Snyder has hinted that there’s more to the movie than meets the eye, with the characters wondering whether they’re trapped in a time loop and several suspiciously familiar corpses scattered around. On top of that, as far as we can see, Vanderohe wasn’t bitten by the Alpha during their on-screen fight. Then there’s the appearance of UFOs in the early scenes and the never explained presence of robotic zombies with glowing blue eyes.

Some of these questions may be answered in the upcoming prequel or animated series, but I hope they forge ahead with a full Army of the Dead sequel soon, as I’m betting this story has way more twists to come.