Army of the Dead: Every Trailer Scene That Wasn’t The Real Heist

Caution: spoilers ahead for Army of the Dead

Army of the Dead‘s trailer teased lots of moments that weren’t actually part of the film’s real heist. Zack Snyder’s return to the wonderful world of zombies, courtesy of Netflix, sees a ragtag group of armed misfits enter a Las Vegas that has long since fallen into undead rule. At the request of casino owner Hunter Bly, Dave Bautista’s Scott Ward assembles his crew and heads off to recover the millions lying untouched in Bly’s vault. That proves to be the easy part, as the team successfully crack open the giant safe and bag the cash. Getting out, however, poses a bigger problem. After most of his team have already been killed, Ward dies during the escape, retaining only a fistful of notes to gift his daughter, Kate, who survives also. Vanderohe exits with some cash, but is revealed to have been bitten, and the fate of Dieter is ambiguous.

It’s surprising how spectacularly Army of the Dead‘s Las Vengeance crew fail, given that victory seemed so close when the vault cracked open. Sure, some characters were guaranteed to bite the dust, but Kate being the only true survivor comes as quite the shock, and something Army of the Dead‘s trailer kept very well hidden. In fact, it’s now clear that many of Army of the Dead‘s big trailer shots weren’t taken from the actual heist at all. While Bly is giving his warehouse briefing, Army of the Dead runs through a “perfect scenario” montage that imagines the mission going swimmingly. It’s this sequence (combined with the opening flashback) that provides much of Army of the Dead‘s best trailer material.

Army of the Dead‘s decision to obscure its plot by using promo footage that doesn’t happen during the heist proper is a smart move that helped retain an element of surprise when major characters got the boot. On the other hand, trailer scenes fans were looking eagerly anticipating amounted to little more than red herrings in the finished film. Here are all the trailer moments that weren’t taken from Army of the Dead‘s real heist mission.

Sunset Helicopter Ride

Army of the Dead‘s trailer promises a climactic helicopter ride, and that’s exactly what viewers get, with Peters flying Scott, Kate, Geeta and Zeus out of Las Vegas. Unfortunately, the trip isn’t quite as smooth as the trailer’s beautiful shot of a helicopter flying toward a sunset suggested. In the finished film, this image comes right as Hunter Bly says the line “and fly off into the sunset…” The real helicopter escape is a fraught affair in a beat-up chopper that handles like an 18-wheeler on ice, eventually crashing thanks to Zeus’ interference. And not a cinematic sunset in sight.

Tig Notaro Refueling

The Army of the Dead trailer offers an epic first look at Tig Notaro’s Peters as she refuels the escape chopper while blasting on a cigar (don’t try that at home, kids). The scene makes Peters look like a maverick engineering badass, which she is, of course, but not in quite the same way. When Peters reaches the casino roof during the real heist, she’s seen carrying the fuel canisters toward the downed chopper, but her story then skips ahead to the helicopter’s ignition failing. Peters may well have put on some shades, lit a cigar and refueled while looking like something out of Top Gun, but the audience don’t see it.

Blowing The Gate

Army of the Dead‘s promotional footage shows Vanderohe blowing the gate that blocks Bly’s vault in a fiery blaze, but this too is taken from the imaginary briefing montage. When Las Vengeance really do reach the vault, Vanderohe sets his charges while embarking on a philosophical rant about time loops, then pulls the trigger to a somewhat less impressive explosion. Although the gate blast isn’t as good, Army of the Dead doesn’t exactly skimp on pyrotechnics, with Scott’s grenade work and the deaths of Guzman and Chambers both scratching the audience’s explosion itch.

Dieter At The Vault

After Vanderohe blows a path to the vault, viewers would’ve been expecting the team’s resident safe-cracker, Dieter, to face the locked safe and hold his arms aloft like he’s in a Creed video. Although Dieter is certainly awe-struck when he encounters the safe in real life, he gets down to business much faster, and the next time we see Matthias Schweighöfer’s character, he’s moaning at Scott for being too loud. Upon successfully breaking the vault open, Dieter is too lost for words to adopt any Christ-like poses.

Entering The Vault (& The Snyder Cut)

In revealing ahead of release that Scott’s team would successfully enter Bly’s fabled vault, Army of the Dead‘s trailer warned us that the money would become unimportant to the overall plot, and so it proved when most of the cash failed to make it out of Vegas. Little did fans know, however, that the trailer’s vault opening wasn’t the real deal. The shot includes characters who aren’t even present when the real safe is cracked (such as Tig Notaro’s Peters and Samantha Win’s Chambers), and the money-filled cavity isn’t quite as roomy as it is during the briefing montage. Interestingly, it’s the fake-out vault opening that includes the Snyder cut Easter egg, with those famous reels nowhere to be seen during the authentic scene.

Gunfight On The Strip

Like explosions, Army of the Dead isn’t short on intense action sequences and high-octane gunfights, but one battle promised by the trailer was merely a fabrication. Promo footage shows Dave Bautista leading his squad through the desolate Las Vegas strip, fending off a constant barrage of undead in super-cool slo-mo style. Sadly, no such battle takes place. By sacrificing a scumbag security guard to the Alphas, the crew buys safe(ish) passage directly to the vault. Only after Garret Dillahunt upsets Zeus do things start getting ugly, and most of the ensuing human vs. zombie action takes place in hotels and casinos, rather than on the sunny strip itself.

Fighting Back To Back (& The Nail Bat)

Following on from Ward’s non-existent charge through the Vegas strip, Army of the Dead‘s trailer concludes with the main cast standing in a circle, completely surrounded by an onslaught of zombies, firing away merrily at the reanimated corpses. The scene even shows Dieter wielding a nail-covered baseball bat, hinting towards some brutal melee action between the living and dead. Once again, a battle of such magnitude never takes place, with Dieter last seen protecting Vanderohe outside the vault room. Even more strange, the German’s spiky bat is never seen again. Perhaps it was the weapon he was hoping to get, instead of an undersized pistol.

Infested Vegas

Aside from the above scenes that didn’t transpire at all, Netflix’s Army of the Dead trailer also made use of footage from the film’s opening flashback, which gave a speedy overview of how the U.S. government first quashed the Vegas outbreak and restricted the infection. One such image depicts Las Vegas absolutely brimming with zombies, which is precisely what Ward (and the audience) expects when reentering the quarantine zone. In Army of the Dead‘s present, however, many of the undead have been defeated by.. er… sunshine, leaving the outside strip empty for much of the film.

The Tank

The trailer shot of a soldier desperately firing away from atop a tank comes during Army of the Dead‘s flashback intro, set to the dulcet tones of Richard Cheese reinventing himself as an Elvis impersonator. Although the military uniform perhaps hinted that this scene wasn’t taking place in the present, there’s no further tank action in Army of the Dead.

Vanderohe’s Circular Saw

Right from the beginning, Vanderohe looked to be one of Army of the Dead‘s most interesting personalities, and the finished film proves that assumption correct. But audiences were also anticipating liberal use of Vanderohe’s circular saw, which he loves dearly. Though the promo footage shows Vanderohe cutting through undead with his whirling blade, this only was a flashback scene, and the saw doesn’t enjoy much action during the heist itself. Even in his final battle against Zeus, Vanderohe opts to fight with his fists.

Bombing The Strip

Confusing matters, two separate bombings take place in Army of the Dead – a routine carpeting in the flashback, and a nuclear assault in the present. The colorful aerial drop seen in Army of the Dead‘s trailer is merely a scant few moments of the original Las Vegas battle, meaning those expecting to see hordes of undead be ripped asunder but Uncle Sam’s finest fireworks were left empty-handed.

About The Author

Craig Elvy
(3638 Articles Published)

Craig first began contributing to Screen Rant in 2016, several years after graduating college, and has been ranting ever since, mostly to himself in a darkened room. Having previously written for various sports and music outlets, Craig’s interest soon turned to TV and film, where a steady upbringing of science fiction and comic books finally came into its own.
Craig has previously been published on sites such as Den of Geek, and after many coffee-drenched hours hunched over a laptop, part-time evening work eventually turned into a full-time career covering everything from the zombie apocalypse to the Starship Enterprise via the TARDIS.

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Since joining the Screen Rant fold, Craig has been involved in breaking news stories and mildly controversial ranking lists, but now works predominantly as a features writer.
Jim Carrey is Craig’s top acting pick and favorite topics include superheroes, anime and the unrecognized genius of the High School Musical trilogy.

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