Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS ahead for Army of the Dead.
In Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead, refugee camp volunteer Kate Ward (Ella Purnell) follows her father on a heist into zombie-ridden Las Vegas, hoping to find and rescue her missing friend Geeta (Huma Qureshi). However, the movie's ending creates some confusion over exactly what happened to Geeta.
A detainee in the camp outside the walls of Las Vegas, Geeta makes the dangerous choice to head into Las Vegas in the hope of getting some cash out of the city for herself and her daughters. But after being smuggled in by Lilly the coyote (Nora Arnezeder), Geeta goes missing and fails to emerge from the city. Kate eventually finds her, alive, in the Olympus hotel and casino that serves as the home of the alpha zombies. The king of the zombies, Zeus, keeps humans prisoner until he is ready to transform them into alpha zombies, and Kate manages to get Geeta out before she's turned.
Given that the search for Geeta is what drives Kate throughout Army of the Dead, it's surprising that Geeta's death is so understated and easy to miss. After Kate, Geeta, and Scott (Dave Bautista) make it to the roof of the hotel, they are picked up in a helicopter flown by Marianne Peters (Tig Notaro). Geeta is seen climbing into the front seat of the helicopter, next to Peters. There's a later shot of her watching the nuclear bomb approach Las Vegas, and another brief shot of her being shaken around by the explosion, but that's the last time Qureshi appears onscreen. Rather than being explicitly shown, her death is implied by the fact that her half of the helicopter cockpit is destroyed in the crash, and by Kate's reaction of despair after she looks into the cockpit. In the aftermath Scott gives Kate some cash that he says will be enough to help Geeta's daughters, confirming her death. But why is there so little footage of Geeta after she gets into the helicopter?
The most likely explanation has to do with a major recasting decision for Army of the Dead. The character of the helicopter pilot was originally played by Chris D'Elia, but he was cut from the movie following allegations of sexual misconduct. The role was recast with Tig Notaro, who shot all of her scenes in front of a green screen and was later added into scenes with the other actors using CGI. Most of the shots where Notaro was added are fairly static, though, and it would have been more challenging to replace D'Elia with Notaro in shots as frantic and shaky as the final flight of the helicopter. Since Geeta is sitting in the front seat of the helicopter, it's likely that almost all the footage of Qureshi during the helicopter scene had D'Elia in the background instead of Notaro, and it may simply have been too difficult to alter it.
While Army of the Dead not showing Geeta's body after the crash might create some confusion, perhaps it's for the best that the movie didn't give her a gratuitously gory corpse. And while Kate may not have succeeded in getting Geeta back to her daughters alive, at least Geeta's daughters have a chance at the freedom she wanted for them.