Dead Rising - Plot

Plot

Frank West is a photojournalist, who is sneaked into the town of Willamette, Colorado in a chopper. He is investigating why the town has been sealed off by the National Guard. The helicopter lands on the roof of the city mall; Frank informs Ed to return back to the roof in exactly 72 hours. Inside, he finds survivors of a zombie outbreak barricading the mall entrance. Only four people escape to the mall security room, Frank, Department of Homeland Security agent Brad Garrison, his rookie partner Jessie McCarney, and janitor Otis Washington, who welds the door shut. Brad leaves via the air duct to continue investigating. Frank heads out to investigate himself. Before reentering the mall itself, Frank turns to attack something sneaking up behind him, which turns out to be Jessie, who falls and injures her ankle. She asks Frank to go help Brad, who is pinned down in a gunfight. Frank helps drive off the gunman, Carlito Keyes, and convinces Brad to tell him what is going on. The agent agrees, if Frank helps him track down Dr. Russell Barnaby, the man in the photo. Brad and Frank find Dr. Barnaby locked in a bookstore.

The next morning, Carlito is spotted on the monitors; he has captured Dr. Barnaby and has suspended him over a group of zombies. Brad and Frank drive Carlito away and rescue the doctor, although Brad is wounded in the fight. Frank goes to collect medicine from the supermarket pharmacy and rescues a woman he recognizes from the mall entrance, but she runs off. Frank returns to the security room and tracks her down via the monitors. After a fight, the woman identifies herself as Isabela Keyes, Carlito's sister. She agrees to set up a rendezvous between the two men so Frank can learn the reason behind the Willamette outbreak, but at the time of the meeting shows up alone and with a shoulder wound; her brother shot her in anger. Frank takes Isabela back to the security room, where she identifies Dr. Barnaby as the head of a United States research laboratory located in her hometown, Santa Cabeza in Central America. Dr. Barnaby explains that the facility was attempting to mass-produce cattle, but instead caused a local wasp species to mutate; the wasps inject eggs into victims by stinging them, the eggs hatch into parasitic larvae, and the host is killed and "zombiefied" when one of these matures in the brainstem. One of the wasp queens escaped into Santa Cabeza, and the U.S. government sent the Special Forces in to stop the outbreak and kill any witnesses. Outraged over the massacre, Carlito released the mutant wasps in Willamette for revenge, and blackmailed Dr. Barnaby into coming to the mall, to kill him via the zombies he had helped create. After the true nature of the infection is revealed, Dr. Barnaby becomes a zombie himself and bites Jessie, but is shot in the head by Brad before he can harm Frank.

Isabela reveals that the zombie outbreak in Willamette is only the start. Carlito hid several explosive charges in the maintenance tunnels beneath the mall, the detonation of which would propel immature queen larvae into the stratosphere, potentially triggering a nationwide zombie pandemic. Frank is able to gather the bombs and carry them outside, where they explode harmlessly. Brad pursues Carlito, but while both are injured in the following fight, Carlito escapes, while Brad becomes a zombie. Isabela and Frank go to Carlito's hideout to find his laptop, which is controlling a jamming device and preventing contact with the outside world. Carlito is spotted on the security monitors, captured by the butcher, another psychopath. Frank goes to rescue him, and defeats the butcher, but Carlito is close to death. He gives Frank his locket to pass onto Isabela, and Frank promises to break the story of the Santa Cabeza massacre. Frank returns to Isabela with the locket and news of her brother's death; the locket prompts Isabela to the laptop's password, and she is able to shut down the jammer. Jessie calls for help, but is told that Special Forces are being sent in to cleanse Willamette instead. She is captured, but becomes a zombie from Dr. Barnaby's bite shortly after and kills her two guards, then is killed by Frank. A note from Otis reveals that he hijacked a military helicopter and flew to safety, along with any other survivors the player found in the mall during the game. Frank and Isabela hide from the soldiers in Carlito's hideout, but when Frank goes to meet his helicopter, Isabela opts to stay behind. The helicopter arrives on time, but a stowaway zombie attacks Ed, causing him to crash into the mall's central park. Frank slumps to his knees in defeat, unaware that a group of zombies is approaching him from behind.