Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane | 2007
Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane is a 2007 direct-to-video zombie film directed by Scott Thomas. Thomas co-wrote the screenplay with Mark Onspaugh and Sidney Iwanter. The film was originally titled Plane Dead, but the title was changed at the 2007 Fantasia Festival screening in Montreal. Despite successful screenings at that festival and others, the film did not receive a commercial release and was issued directly to DVD in an unrated version.
Plot On a routine flight from Los Angeles to Paris, a renegade group of scientists smuggles a secret container aboard that holds a fellow scientist infected with a deadly genetically engineered virus that reanimates the dead. The virus is said to be a variant of the "malaria virus." They discovered and manufactured the virus intending to turn it into a biological weapon. Their goal was to produce "super soldiers" who could continue fighting in the harshest conditions, including when mortally wounded or under heavy enemy fire. The virus must be transmitted through bodily fluids. Infected individuals gain superhuman abilities, such as enhanced speed and agility. The zombies also become highly durable; one survives being partially shredded after being thrown into an airplane engine.
The 747 jumbo jet encounters massive thunderstorms, and turbulence releases one of the infected scientists from her cargo hold. Initially appearing normal, she is confused and disoriented. Screen flashes of blood and germs indicate her succumbing to the mutated strain. She encounters a guard who has lost a leg after heavy boxes fell on him and pleads for help but is shot by him. Two scientists go below to check if the container was damaged during turbulence, along with the co-pilot, but they are ambushed by the infected scientist (Patient Zero) and the now-infected guard. The zombies then break into the passenger cabin, starting an outbreak. The uninfected passengers must fight for survival aboard the flight. No government will allow the infected airliner to land, leaving the survivors stranded in the sky with their ravenous attackers. The remaining uninfected are Billy, his wife Anna, Burrows, Frank, Paul, and Megan, a flight attendant. They must reach the cockpit and signal a fighter jet behind them to indicate that there are still living people aboard the 747, or the fighter will destroy them with a missile strike. After obtaining an MP5K submachine gun from the dead guard, Burrows, Frank, and Billy make their way from the back of the plane to the cockpit, while the couple stays behind. Billy is bitten but manages to kill some of the undead passengers before the virus takes hold of him. When Anna comes to help him, she is also bitten but kills a zombie by stabbing it with an umbrella. The zombies attempt to overrun them, but Billy opens the emergency exit, sucking most of the infected out of the plane.
Frank and Burrows make it to the cockpit, where Frank kills the zombie co-pilot and pilot. They try to disengage the autopilot and signal the fighter, which fires at them. They are ultimately successful, and the fighter pilot hits the abort key, causing a missile to explode away from the 747 but close enough to open a hole in its side. All the zombies are apparently sucked out. Frank and Burrows attempt to control the plane, but they crash-land near Las Vegas, Nevada.
As the survivors walk toward the city, some zombies appear to have survived the crash and are heading toward the city as well.
