It's a brave new world out there in George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead (2005). There are zombies everywhere — the living are the new minority. The living have built themselves a walled city to better be able to defend themselves against the hordes of the undead.
Zombies come in all shapes and sizes, as anyone who is even vaguely familiar with the genre is aware. These zombies start out as the good old-fashioned kind. They shuffle forth, looking for something to feed on, but they're neither fast nor organized. Like most zombies they can infect the living through their bite and once they've brought down a living human they tend to overwhelm and devour them, rending flesh from bone in no time at all.
The living are forced to forage outside their walled communities, as in all good post-apocalyptic scenarios, and there are teams of mercenary soldier types who take care of that. There is also a very hierarchical structure within the walled city, where only the really affluent can live well, in a skyscraper that is a cross between a mall and a luxury hotel. The ordinary folks live in ghetto-like circumstances.
Our main protagonist is Riley Denbo (Simon Baker), one of the foragers, along with his companion Charlie (Robert Joy), a savant with a special talent for fancy shooting. They work with Cholo (John Leguizamo) who is frankly not a very nice person and they work for Kaufman (Dennis Hopper) who is downright unpleasant. Kaufman is the king in this little hierarchy, the boss at the top of the skyscraper who never actually has to get his hands dirty.
The zombies start out as brainless as ever in this tale, but they suddenly begin developing the ability to work together under the ”leadership” of Big Daddy (Eugene Clark). They are mindlessly fascinated with fireworks and stand around going "arrrgh" up 'til that point. Not that they aren't plenty dangerous enough when they get hungry.
Once the zombies start to organise they attack the walled city and all the high and mighties get their comeuppance, as you might expect. That, and a story line about an enormous tank nicknamed ”Dead Reckoning” is what keeps this narrative moving forward, but forget all that for now. Forget Dennis Hopper looking sharp in a nice suit and the entertainment in the pit where you throw a live girl in with two zombies to see who can eat her first.
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