Army Of The Dead Updates: In Army of the Dead, a key worn around the neck of Maria Cruz of Ana de la Reguera is featured prominently during the monologue of Vandeirohe’s time loop. But the interesting thing to know is whether it can unlock it or not?
On the surface, Army of the Dead appears to be a simple zombie and robbery movie mashup, but with the development of theories about aliens and robot zombie tees and time loops, there’s more going on than meets the eye. Maria Cruz as a character doesn’t have much else going on to make her a key figure in any theories.
She’s a mechanic and key member of the Las Vengeance team from the zombie war and has a history with Scott Ward (Dave Bautista), but the only real relevance given to the key around her neck is it’s one of the personal items shown while Vanderohe waxes philosophical about how their team is caught in a repeating loop of fighting and dying.
Interestingly, the key worn around Cruz‘s neck has four holes in the head, whereas the one on the dead body only has three. So, naturally, the question is if the key has any greater significance than facilitating this tease. What does it unlock?
What is written in Peter Apperlow’s book Army of the Dead?
ScreenRant
Thanks to a quote by Reguera in the book Army of the Dead: A Film by Zack Snyder: The Making of the Film by Peter Aperlo we know a little more about the key and what it means to Cruz. “Attentive viewers will also note that Cruz wears a key on a necklace. “That key opens a locker in my body shop,” she explains, “and in my mind, that key opens all my memories of when I fought in the war with Scott. It’s very sentimental.”
Ultimately, the key doesn’t need to be anything greater than it appears. Snyder has said he designed the film to work primarily as the basic sort of zombie shoot-em-up audiences would expect, only including some of the crazier teases for viewers who desire to take a deeper dive.
While anyone hoping for a greater cosmic significance maybe let down (especially after Snyder’s “Lois is the key” tease in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, a tease that may never be paid off if Warner Bros. has their way), the fact that there is still more to be gleaned from a simple prop, whether it be simply how it informs the character or how it ties into a theme of metaphorical time loops.
Cruise won’t be returning for an (as yet unannounced) Army of the Dead 2, as she didn’t survive Army of the Dead, but she will be a major player in Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas, the animated prequel series.
