Army of the Dead's robot zombies may have been the product of government experiments in Area 51. As Zack Snyder's first zombie movie since his feature directorial debut in 2004's Dawn of the Dead, Army of the Dead is swinging for the fences and pulling no punches as the first chapter in an already assembling franchise, to be followed up by the prequel Army of Thieves and anime series Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas.
A major focus of the marketing and the chatter around the movie is the introduction of a new, more advanced breed of the undead known as Alphas, who now rule over Las Vegas under the leadership of Zeus, played by Richard Cetrone. One element of the film that's gotten less attention, and which hasn't been seen in marketing yet, are the inclusion of robot zombies. So far, a single comment by Snyder during a Netflix Q&A has been the only major source of information about the robot zombie's role in Army of the Dead, but it could actually be a revealing one.
Bringing such a bizarre sci-fi concept as robot zombies into Army of the Dead, alongside the prominent role the Alphas have in the story, could suggest that there may be a more direct connection between the two than meets the eye. More to the point, the setting of the film in Las Vegas, with its the proximity to Area 51, could mean that the Alphas were born out of a top secret government experiment, with the robot zombies being created under the same scenario.
Army Of The Dead Involves Area 51
While the main action of Army of the Dead will be set in Las Vegas, Snyder has confirmed that Area 51 is directly connected to the origins of the zombies. The highly secretive military base has long played into many sci-fi and horror movies, Independence Day perhaps being the most famous example. With a more evolved breed zombies in the Alphas, Snyder has further explained their origins in Area 51 being somewhat shrouded in Army of the Dead itself, and made more explicit in Lost Vegas.
Even without Snyder specifically mentioning the base as the point of origin for the zombies, the fact that it plays a part in the movie at all would offer plenty to go on of a connection between the two. When it comes to the robot zombies, the entire concept of such undead killers points to an atypical origin from the average Shambler zombie and even the intelligent Alphas. At the same time, Snyder has also explicitly teased their unusual origins.
Snyder Has Alluded To Aliens And Government Experiments
Snyder spoke of Army of the Dead's robot zombies in the aforementioned Netflix Q&A, teasing them as having connections to both alien life and government experimentation. Positing their role in the film as a question, Snyder stated, "Are they monitors that the government has placed among the zombies to monitor them? Are they technology from the other world? What's happening there?" Snyder's tease may actually reveal a bit more than it seems to at face value.
First, the specific wording of the robot zombies being technology from "the other world", as opposed to more ambiguous wording like "another world", could indicate that the zombies being connected to alien life is established with some level of certainty in the movie. Given how much aliens and UFOs play into movies about Area 51, the base's role in the movie would seem to strengthen the notion of the zombies being related to aliens. Snyder's mention of the government's connection to the robot zombies has implications of its own too, suggesting they may have been the product of government experiments. The question is, how do aliens, zombies, robotic tehnology, and Area 51 all come together in Army of the Dead?
How Zeus And The Alphas Could Be Connected To The Robot Zombies
With the Alphas are seemingly products of experiments behind the walls of Area 51, the robot zombies could theoretically have been an off-shoot of this. Hypothetically, the Alphas might have been created experiments on humans in Area 51 involving an alien pathogen or something along those lines, which transformed humans into zombies. However, it may have also led to the rise of Zeus as the first of the Alphas.
The robot zombies could come into play as being a second experiment initiated on the zombies, attempting to combine them with technology, possibly also of an alien origin. Snyder's earlier comments point to the robot zombies as acting as guards against the Shamblers and Alphas, but the government might have also had the grander ambition of weaponizing the robot zombies for military use. Having already amassed an army of ravenous undead through experiments in Area 51, the ultimate aim of bringing robotics into the equation might have been to gain full control over the zombies, turning them into nearly unstoppable (and totally expendable) soldiers under their control. Of course, with Las Vegas sealed off after being overrun by the Shamblers and conquered by the Alphas, and even some zombified tigers, it looks as though this experiment may not have gotten all that far before falling apart.
With the Alphas and robot zombies making the grand entrance shortly, Snyder's comments suggest that their origins in Army of the Dead may not be fully revealed in the movie itself. Most modern zombie movies are known to keep their origins relatively vague beyond off-handed references to a plague or some other X-factor, so Snyder's film does also appear to be trying to be a bit more specific in this respect. Even then, robot zombies are a real curveball, and with hints of aliens and government experiments playing into the story, their entry into Army of the Dead might be a classic sci-fi case of government experiments to turn the latest scientific discovery into the ultimate weapon.
