- Directed by: Yeon Sang-Ho
- Written by: Choi Kyu-seok, Yeon Sang-ho
- Stars: Jun Ji-hyun, Koo Kyo-hwan, Ji Chang-wook
- Run Time: 2 Hours, 2 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQAXT17Jz18
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
At a scientific conference in a huge center, someone deliberately releases a virus that spawns fast zombies – with a sort of hive mind. The uninfected have to band together to survive and keep it from becoming a wider disaster. There are some elements that make it unique, which we really appreciated so it’s not the same old thing again. It’s well made and entertaining without slowing down much. We’d highly recommend it.
Spoilery Synopsis
A man calls 911 and says he made a highly contagious terrorist attack with a pathogen in his own body. He also has the only vaccine that could help. Kwon Se Jong and Gyu Song arrive at the bio-conference where Kang Woo-cheol is speaking on stage. They’ve been divorced for ten years, and he still sees a need to help her career. Meanwhile, the man on-stage talks about collective intelligence and ants and how they can use that to improve semiconductors. They’ve used the technology to restore paralyzed rats. It may even bestow a kind of telepathy.
Meanwhile Seuk and Hui are in the mall talking about going camping together.
Kang Woo-cheol gets a call that one of his scientists is planning on making a terror attack this afternoon, and that stops the conference. He then runs into the man in the restroom, and they argue about stolen research. “I’m taking humanity to the next level! The birth of a new humanity.” This culminates in the lunatic injecting the CEO with something.
Almost immediately, Kang collapses and has seizures. He very quickly becomes a Korean Fast Zombie ™ and starts attacking people at that conference. Things escalate very quickly.
Se Jeong and Gyu Seong have some dinner and talk about their lives. Seok, who works security, hears that the building is going into lock-down as the police arrive outside. Very quickly, all the characters we know have barricaded themselves inside a store in the mall.
These aren’t normal Korean Fast Zombies ™, however, they’re linked telepathically into a hive-mind, which soon becomes apparent. Se Jeong remembers what the CEO at the conference said and realizes that this is related to that somehow.
The news reports that the building is under quarantine because of the bio-terror attack, but people outside can see the zombies inside. Gyu Seong tries to help a girl outside their building, and he dies in the process. Se Jeong then talks to his wife on the phone, which goes poorly.
The policeman of the group gets a call about the scientist who caused all this having the vaccine, and he’s probably still in the building. Se Jeong explains how the creatures outside are getting smarter and evolving. They might respond to smells and pheromones.
They “train” the zombies to chase a certain brand of perfume, and then they cover themselves with antifreeze to make a different smell, hoping to walk right past the zombies.
The group inside the mall find Dr. Suh and arrest him. He knows Se Jeong by reputation. They need to get him to the roof to be rescued. Seok tells them about the cargo elevator that no one knows about.
Professor Gong arrives outside Suh’s laboratory. The SWAT teams are about to break in. They find a large number of infected monkeys, but they all seem to be in a trance– except for one that’s awake and out of a cage. The others all wake up and work together to get out; it’s not just a barrel of CGI monkeys. Suddenly, they all freeze and die when monkey #1 is killed. “Patient Zero” seems to be the core of the whole infection.
The elevator doors open on the wrong floor because Suh pushed the button, and several people get bitten. Suh just walks off in the confusion, and the zombies just ignore him because he’s vaccinated. The survivors head to the security office to use the camera to find where Suh has run to. They come to the conclusion that Suh can see through the eyes of the zombies since he is, in fact, infected. The zombies can see through his eyes too, so they blindfold him.
They watch as Suh talks to the infected CEO, and they realize that he was Patient Zero. The CEO bites Suh, and Suh changes. All the zombies go into “buffering mode,” which gives the policeman’s group time to go after Suh. They get him, but he’s linked to the hive now while still keeping his faculties. Suh telepathically sends the zombies to the control room, and Hui is killed. This enrages Seok, who vows that Suh and the rest are all going to die.
Professor Gong explains to the military that the infected are effectively brain dead and can’t be cured. They want justification to shoot the people inside. She explains about killing Patient Zero to stop all this.
Seuk, who has vowed to kill all the survivors, gears up for battle.
The policeman shoots the businessman to use as bait, but the zombies get them both. Se Jeung and two girls have Suh, and they’re the only ones left. They make a plan by text so Suh doesn’t hear them. Jeung heads out and the two girls stay with Suh. Except one of the zombies is reading one of the group’s dropped phones and sees the texts, which means Suh can see it.
Se Jeung finds the policeman’s phone and calls the police commissioner. They send two teams. One to kill the CEO, and the other to grab Suh as a vaccine. Se Jeung tells the police where to find Suh, but since Suh can hear, the zombies attack. Suh escapes with help of the horde.
The soldiers kill the CEO, but it doesn’t do anything. Suh is actually the alpha. Se Jeung finds Suh at the same time Seuk does. Suh uses Seuk’s dead sister against him. Suh explains to Se Jeong that this was all in revenge for her ruining his father’s career.
The soldiers get in and grab Suh, but leaves Se Jeong locked in a closet. Gong calls her on the phone, and they figure out that Suh is “the first monkey” and needs to die. The zombies start using the guns to free Suh, so they’ve evolved pretty far. The military refuses to kill Suh, because he’s also the vaccine.
Suh and some zombies steal a van and leave the building. They drive right up to the crowd of people outside the building and start infecting everyone there.
Se Jeung call Gong, who finds Suh on the CCTV and tells her where to go . Se Jeung finds him and tries to run him over, but there are too many zombies in the way. She tricks the zombies into running in an “ant circle,” something we learned about earlier, and Suh can’t get them to stop. The zombies all fall down and reboot to their original state. The zombies wake up and attack the nearest poster with faces, and Suh ends up catching on fire and dying in the melee.
Everyone freezes. Se Jeong and Gong discuss who’s going to take the blame for all this.
Or ARE the zombies actually permanently frozen?
Brian’s Commentary
The obvious comparison here is “Train to Busan” (2016), and it was, in fact, directed by Yeon Sang-Ho, the director of that film. It’s very similar, with a small number of distinctive characters and personalities and how they interact with each other as they try to survive.
This one is different due to the hive mind and being controlled by a human, Dr. Suh. It turns it from a standard zombie film into almost a supervillain-type story.
There are some very cool shots of zombies doing weird things, and they all have a very unnatural style of moving.
I liked it!
Kevin’s Commentary
I thought it was an interesting touch having the zombies not be able to tell images and cutouts from real people. At first anyway. The hive mind aspect gave this a unique twist on the zombie genre, it was very cool how that was used. I thought this one was pretty great.
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