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Before she was the toast of Hollywood, Ella Purnell had a starring role in Zack Snyder’s 2021, Army of the Dead, and it’s not the only time she’s worked with the director. Army of the Dead is one of the Zack Snyder projects that feels a little bit lost to time. That’s probably because it was released on Netflix in May 2021, smack-dab in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, not exactly when audiences were searching for a movie about a viral outbreak that destroys society and turns the afflicted into shambling, quarantined monsters.
It’s a serviceable zombie action flick but feels a little half-baked in a few too many ways. Perhaps that’s why audiences haven’t attached themselves to it the same way Snyder fanboys have to movies like Justice League, Watchmen, and 300. Whatever issues the movie has, the cast isn’t one of them. Ella Purnell, in particular, is a standout, even among dependable veterans like Dave Bautista, Tig Notaro, and Ana de la Reguera. This is before pop culture icon Ella Purnell, and this role should have hinted to more people where her career would be going.
Ella Purnell Plays Kate Ward In Army Of The Dead
Kate Is A Quarantine Zone Doctor
Ella Purnell co-stars as Kate Ward in Army of the Dead, Scott Ward’s (Bautista) estranged daughter. Kate works at a quarantine camp, helping those affected by the zombie apocalypse. Scott is a former military tactician with an unsavory reputation, which has put him and his daughter at odds. However, when Kate learns her friend Geeta Ranjan (Huma Qureshi) has gone into the zombified and walled-up Las Vegas and not returned, she hitches a ride with Scott’s crew, who are going into the city to retrieve $200 million from a vault still inside.
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During the dangerous journey, Kate and Scott learn more about one another and come to terms with the paths the other has chosen in life. Their bond forms the emotional core of the film, and it’s Purnell’s wide-eyed acting alongside Bautista’s hulking sadness that provides a surprisingly poignant finale involving the two. Purnell is primarily called upon for action sequences, as are most of the cast, but she handles the physicality with grace and competence, never losing her ability to emote while firing a gun at a robot zombie.
Purnell’s Other Zack Snyder Project Explained
Purnell Is A Voice Actor In The Rebel Moon Companion Podcast
Zack Snyder must have liked something about Ella Purnell because she later did voice work in the Rebel Moon companion podcast, The Seneschal: A Rebel Moon Story. This six-episode narrative podcast is set years before the birth of Princess Issa (Stella Grace Fitzgerald) from the film. Purnell voices Raina, one of the original inventors of the JC combat robots. The podcast was released on July 29, 2024, and features an impressive voice cast including Jason Isaacs, Peter Serafinowicz, Naveen Andrews, and Alfred Enoch. A minor acting role, Purnell still provides all the emotion one could hope for in a podcast.
How Purnell’s Work In Army Of The Dead Informed Her Fallout Performance
Kate Ward And Lucy MacLean Are Surprisingly Similar Characters
Despite starring in Army of the Dead in 2021, it was Ella Purnell’s starring role in the 2024 Amazon Prime series Fallout as Lucy MacLean that rocketed her to stardom. Why it was one post-apocalyptic series over another that gained Purnell wide attention is unknown, but it’s possible her Fallout role allowed Purnell to show off her comedic chops, which she has in spades. On her Army of the Dead role, Purnell said about playing powerful female characters (via Vogue),
“I am very conscious of that. Often in these male-dominated genre films, the girl is the hostage, girlfriend, wife or the one who needs saving somehow. In this film, we weren’t any of those things.”
In both Army of the Dead and Fallout, Purnell plays characters in wastelands who have been disappointed in their fathers, but both are also more than capable of taking care of themselves and find a strength all their own in order to survive.
From director Zach Snyder, Army of the Dead combines the zombie apocalypse and heist genres in an exciting twist on the classic action film. Approached to retrieve $200 million dollars from a casino vault in the now zombie-ridden Las Vegas, a group of mercenaries embarks on the mission, unaware of what dangers await them inside the quarantined city limits.
- Release Date
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May 21, 2021
- Runtime
-
139 minutes
- Cast
-
Ana de la Reguera
, Samantha Win
, Tig Notaro
, Matthias Schweighöfer
, Huma Qureshi
, Omari Hardwick
, Michael Cassidy
, Theo Rossi
, Ella Purnell
, Raul Castillo
, Hiroyuki Sanada
, Garret Dillahunt
, Richard Cetrone
, Dave Bautista
, Nora Arnezeder - Budget
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$70-90 Million
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