We Bury the Dead (2025), directed by Zak Hilditch, is not a zombie film about survival in the traditional sense. It is a film about unfinished lives, unresolved guilt, and the emotional debris left behind after love collapses. The undead here are not monsters to be defeated. They are reminders. Of promises broken. Of words unsaid. Of grief that refuses to stay buried. Set in the aftermath of a catastrophic military mistake, the film strips away spectacle and replaces it with quiet dread. The horror is intimate. It lingers in small gestures, in silences, and in the way people cling to the dead because the living have already failed them. This is not a story about stopping the apocalypse. It is about learning how to walk through it without losing whatever humanity still remains.
Spoilers Ahead
We Bury the Dead (2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
How Does the Weapon Detonation Redefine Death in Tasmania?
The opening catastrophe is sudden and impersonal. An experimental American weapon detonates off the coast of Tasmania, obliterating Hobart and leaving much of the island’s population brain dead rather than immediately killed. Death becomes strange and uncertain. Bodies remain warm. Faces familiar. But minds are gone. Soon, some of the dead begin to move again. Not all. Only a few. Some regain motor function quietly. Others turn violent without warning. The film refuses to offer scientific clarity. Instead, it frames resurrection as something selective and cruel. Survival is no longer binary. People exist in a suspended state between life and absence. This ambiguity sets the emotional foundation of the film. When death does not mean an ending, grief has nowhere to settle.
Ava Newman is a physiotherapist, trained to help people regain movement, not to destroy bodies. Her decision to volunteer with the Australian military is not rooted in duty or patriotism. It is personal. Her husband Mitch was on a business trip in Woodbridge when the weapon detonated. His status is unknown. Not confirmed dead. Not confirmed alive. By joining the body retrieval unit, Ava creates a purpose for her waiting. She tells herself she is helping. In truth, she is delaying the moment she might have to accept loss. Assigned to the northern region of Tasmania, far from Woodbridge, Ava’s work becomes mechanical. Locate bodies. Tag them. Alert soldiers if they wake. Every corpse is a reminder of Mitch. Every burial feels like practice.
Why Do Ava and Clay Abandon the Unit?
Clay is another volunteer, carrying his own quiet shame. When Ava finds a motorcycle in a garage, it represents something rare in this world: agency. Movement toward an answer. Together, Ava and Clay choose hope over protocol and abandon their unit to cross the island in search of Mitch. This decision is not heroic. It is reckless. But it is also human. The military offers closure through procedure. Ava wants truth, even if it destroys her. Clay follows because he understands what it means to be defined by what you failed to protect. Their journey is less about speed and more about avoidance.
As long as they are moving, the worst truth remains ahead of them. At the abandoned petrol station, the undead attack feels familiar. But Riley’s arrival complicates the danger. He is a lone soldier. Calm. Helpful. Controlled. He saves Ava and Clay, then immediately isolates them. Riley’s interrogation of Clay while locking Ava away reveals his psychology. He is not trying to survive the apocalypse. He is trying to rebuild the past. Time stretches in the bathroom as Ava drifts into memories of Mitch. When Riley returns, Clay is gone. Not dead. Gone. Another abandonment Ava cannot process. Riley offers to take her to Woodbridge. Instead, he takes her home.
Why Does Riley Turn From Savior to Threat?
Riley’s house is frozen in grief. His wife Katie died in the blast. Pregnant. Preserved. Worshipped. He feeds Ava, speaks softly, and shares stories of loss. The danger is not immediate. It grows slowly. When Riley asks Ava to wear Katie’s clothes and dance, it becomes clear that he is trying to overwrite reality. Ava becomes a stand-in for a life that stopped moving. For a moment, Ava participates. Not out of desire, but understanding. Grief recognizes grief. The moment Ava refuses to remove her wedding ring, Riley snaps. The fantasy collapses. Ava’s refusal to let go of Mitch mirrors Riley’s refusal to let go of Katie. The difference is consent.
What Do the Chained Undead Reveal About Unfinished Business?
In the shed, Ava discovers Riley’s true obsession. Chained undead. Carefully observed. Notes documenting behavior. Riley believes only those with unfinished business return. He frames himself as a researcher, but his actions are driven by denial. Katie’s pregnant body lies in their bed, surrounded by a shrine. Riley insists he felt the baby kick. In his mind, life has not ended. It has paused. Ava understands then that Riley does not want answers. He wants permission to stay broken. When Riley makes it clear that Ava’s defiance cannot be forgiven, she kills him. Not in rage. In self-preservation.
As she escapes, she sees Katie awaken. Proof that Riley may not have been entirely wrong. At the camper van, Ava encounters a different kind of undead. A father who wakes, digs a grave for his family, and calmly prepares for his own death. He does not attack. He does not resist. This moment reframes everything. The undead are not all driven by violence or obsession. Some are driven by responsibility. Closure. Ava helps him bury his family. When he allows her to kill him, it is an act of trust. This is where Ava changes. She stops seeing the undead as errors. They are people finishing something.
We Bury the Dead (2025) Movie Ending Explained:
What Does Ava Learn When She Finds Mitch?
Through memory, the film reveals the fracture in Ava and Mitch’s marriage. Infertility. Resentment. Silence. Ava’s affair. Mitch’s discovery. His departure. Ava’s search is no longer just about love. It is about guilt. She needs Mitch alive because his death would freeze their relationship in unresolved pain. Finding him dead would mean there is no chance to apologize. Or be forgiven. At the resort, the truth arrives without cruelty. Mitch never woke. He died as he was. Ava also learns he cheated before his death. The betrayal is mutual. Balanced. Ordinary.
Clay finds her there. Instead of judgment, he offers presence. He confesses that his family believes he is selfish. That this mission was meant to prove otherwise. Together, they burn Mitch’s body at sea. Not as revenge. As release. For the first time, Ava chooses an ending. On the return journey, Ava and Clay encounter Katie again. She has given birth. She walks away from the baby, unresponsive. Her unfinished business is complete. The infant is alive. Human. Unmarked by death. Ava holding the child is not about replacement. It is about acceptance. Life continues, not because the past is repaired, but because it has been faced. The film ends quietly. With grief acknowledged. With guilt named. With love no longer frozen in denial. We Bury the Dead argues that the dead return not to haunt the living, but to remind them of what they refuse to confront. Closure is not found by holding on. It is found by finishing what was left undone, and finally letting go.
