Apocalypse Z: The Beginning Of The End Recap And Ending Explained 

As far as zombie survival thrillers are considered, Netflix’s 2024 Spanish hit, “Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End” doesn’t break any new grounds, but still manages to be an entertaining fare thanks to the craftsmanship of the makers and performance of the actors involved. Maintaining a perfect balance between horror elements, dystopian world creation and emotional aspects involved with such narratives, “Apocalypse Z” proves itself to be an engaging fare, despite being mostly derivative. Now that the sequel is about to be released, let’s take a brief look at the events of the first entry.

Spoilers Ahead

Manel’s Regrets: The Outbreak of TSJ Virus 

 A Galicia based lawyer/ solar panel company owner, Manel is visiting his sister, Belen’s place during the winter holidays, along with his beloved wife, Julia. Manel shares a strong bond with his nephew, Carlos, which at times upsets Julia given how he has been avoiding commitment to parenthood despite having all the qualities it takes to be a great guardian. On their way home, Manel and Julia engage in a heated argument, and it distracts Julia enough to cause a tragic accident which costs her life. Manel is wrecked with guilt, given his recurrent excuses to delay prospects of parenthood didn’t allow Julia to have peace of mind before she passed away. Manel withdraws himself from the rest of the world, living alone with his pet cat, Luculo – who symbolizes the last vestiges of Julia’s memory he wants to hold onto. A year goes by, and following the tragic incident, Manel has not visited Belen’s family, and only maintains bare minimum communication with them. 

Meanwhile, a deadly TSJ virus has gradually caused a pandemic like situation across Europe, and even though no concrete details about its origin are provided, from the news broadcast excerpts it is hinted that a Soviet era bioweapon created by mutating Ebola virus was obtained from dilapidated labs by Chechen extremists. TSJ virus causes infected ones to rapidly lose their sanity and aggressively attack others with killing intent, basically turning them into conventional zombies. While the world leaders and politicians are covering up the true extent of the fast-spreading pandemic situation, Manel is too aggrieved to care about anything happening in the world outside. People who have survived the worst of Covid, have started panic-buying, hoarding and leaving towards safer, secluded areas. Balen, concerned for her brother, suggests that  he  accompany her family to the Canary Islands, her husband, Mario is an army personnel, and he revealed to her that the Spanish government is considering the island as the prime refuge if things go awry. Manel initially refuses Balen’s requests, but eventually heads towards the airport as he decides to join them. 

Surviving the Zombie Outbreak: Manel’s Experiences 

However, as the pandemic situation worsens due to the virus’ incubation period accelerating at a scary pace, the European Union decides stricter measures regarding airspace control. As a result, flights get cancelled, resulting in a chaotic situation as a person among the impatient, nervous crowd decides to snatch a gun from airport security. Benel advises Manel to lock himself in his home in Galicia, and after somehow returning to his place amidst all the chaos, Manel witnesses the horror of the infection for the first time. Army evacuates the population to bring the non-infected to quarantine zone, and calling Manel, Belen strictly advises him not to accompany them to avoid possible infection risk. 

While trying to restock his supplies, Manel gets attacked by one of the  infected ones; thanks to the heroics of a cop, he lives to see another day. World order collapses in no time, and Manel decides to make his house a fortress for himself and Luculo by installing defensive measures. Following his sister’s advice, Manel somehow manages to stay hidden from the army, and spends next two weeks cloistered inside his house as communication channels go down. Eventually, in order to scavenge for supplies, Manel prepares a makeshift protection costume by customising a diving gear, and sets out. After raiding a couple of neighbouring houses, he comes across Gabriela, a paraplegic, starving old lady who has been abandoned by her family. Gabriela’s deft knowledge about neighbouring houses helps Manel to gather supplies. At night, as Manel  has a heartfelt conversation with Gabriela, he learns the poor woman doesn’t hold grudges against her family for abandoning her, she knows the practicality of survival, and believes that they did the best they could. Manel opens up to Gabriela by mentioning  Julia, and late at night, they intercept an official broadcast which reveals Canary Islands has become the sole sanctuary of the survivors. Manel plans to take Gabriela along with him, but tragically enough, the next morning he finds out she has taken her own life to spare him the burden of taking her along, which might have jeopardized his chances of survival. On his way home, Manel is attacked by an infected, whom he has to kill to save his own life – and he decides to fetch her ID from her belongings, to ensure she doesn’t get reduced to the nameless, identity-less infected ones. 

A grief-stricken Manel takes Luculo with him as he heads towards the docks by riding a motorbike; Julia’s boat, which still acts as her memorabilia, is there, and using it Manel hopes to head towards Canary along with the survivor group whose radio transmission he intercepted. While riding through the woods, Manel is attacked by a horde of infected, and somehow evading the deadly ambush, he reaches the docks, only to find Julia’s boat to be missing.  

Why Did Viktor Help Manel?

Obtaining a U-boat, Manel moves through the open waters for a while before the boat defects. Fortunately, he finds help from an approaching Russian vessel, as its captain, a shady Ushakov, allows him to come aboard. Manel gets acquainted with Ushakov’s translator, a Ukranian-Mexican pilot, Viktor Pritchenko. As the captain refuses to head towards the Canary Islands, right off the bat, Manel can sense something is off about the crew of this ship. Later that night, Manel sees the vessel rescue a family of survivors, who are nowhere to be seen the next day. As Viktor denies having any new survivors on board, and asks Manel to refrain from questioning, Manel finally decides to get off  the vessel. It turns out Ushakov has been bringing in hapless survivors to turn them into his slaves of sorts, as he aims to create his own Island colony. As humanity struggles with survival, scoundrels like Ushakov use the broken world order as the perfect opportunity to wreak havoc. Manel offers Viktor a chance to escape by mentioning that he is heading towards a hospital in Pontevedra, where Julia died, and with Viktor’s help they can fly away to Canary using the chopper stationed there. 

To ensure his survival, Viktor had to work for Ushakov even though he never aligned himself with his dastardly principles. Listening to Manel’s proposition, he decides to help him despite the plan being way too risky to pull off. As Manel rescues the captive survivor duo, Viktor helps him to evade Ushakov’s cronies. They are able to rescue only one of the survivors before escaping from the vessel, and Viktor sustains a gunshot injury. 

Manel takes Viktor to Pontevedra hospital to have his wound treated, where they come across fellow survivors, nurse Lucia and nun, Cecilia, who have been looking after three orphan kids. Lucia treats Manel’s injuries, and shows Manel the location of the chopper, surrounded by hordes of infected. From Lucia and Cecilia, Manel learns how they are helping the kids to process the horror and pain of their present reality by letting them face it, an advice Manel should have utilized in his own life long ago. Throughout the movie, he continues to recall painful memories of the fateful night when she lost Julia, and continues to make efforts to reach out to Belen, in vain. In his insistence of turning away from the tragic reality, Manel shut the world off, a decision he deeply regrets. Manel goes through all the video messages Belen had sent him over the years in hopes of helping her brother to cope with the pain, and realizes how foolish he has been to distance himself  from his loved ones. In a way, his experience as a survivor has taught him the importance of trust, of relying on others.

Things take a wrong turn when Ushakov and his crew arrive at the hospital for supplies, and to evade them, Manel leads the survivors through zombie-infested corridors when Cecilia ends up getting infected. Cecilia decides to stay behind to let her fellow survivors escape with their lives, and eventually, Manel and co. somehow reach  the chopper undetected. 

Did Manel Finally Reach Belen?

However, as they head towards the chopper, zombies present in the vicinity rush towards them, and Manel decides to fight off as many as possible while Viktor struggles to launch the chopper. In the meantime, Ushakov and his crew arrive at the scene and hold Manel at gunpoint to force the survivors to give up the chopper. Manel shows his quick-wittedness by allowing the zombies to pour inside the launchpad, resulting in Ushakov and his crew getting viciously mauled to death by the rabid killers. Manel somehow latches on to the ladder as Viktor finally manages to take off quickly, and the team flees the scene with haste. 

Breathing a sigh of relief, Manel tries to reach out to Belen, and as the chopper heads to the Canary Islands, he finds peace by realizing the communication network is actually working. Manel contacts Belen, and is elated to learn she has survived as well. However, much to his shock and horror, Belen warns him not to head towards Canary Islands, as it is hinted that the so-called refuge has turned into zombie-infested hell. As the movie nears its conclusion, two jets blitz towards the islands, which acts as an indication to Manel and his team about how dire the situation must have become. In the upcoming sequel, “Apocalypse Z: New World” viewers will get to know what happened in the Canary Islands, and whether Manel gets to reunite with his sister after all. 

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