Scott Ward

> "I just thought that maybe. . . I thought I'd f%&ked that up forever."
> "Forever is a long time."
> "I'm realizing I've been wrong about everything."
>
> Scott Ward and Maria Cruz, *Army of the Dead*

**Scott Ward** was the owner of a taco truck in Las Vegas before the city was struck with a zombie plague that uprooted his life and forced him to uncover skills he wasn't aware he had. He retrofitted his truck into a zombie-slaying search and rescue machine and led a team in rescue efforts across the fallen city. Scott was portrayed by Dave Bautista in *Army of the Dead*. Some of Bautista's work for *Army of the Dead* was later used in *Army of Thieves* as well, and he returned to voice the character in *Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas*.

## Biography

***An extended biography for Scott Ward can be found here.***

Scott ran a taco truck for Sin City Tacos before the zombie outbreak in Las Vegas. He was married to Laura Ward and they had a daughter, Kate Ward. Scott took up the path of the zombie hunter out of necessity and turned out to be quite good at it. He banded together with a group of survivors to help rescue citizens from the dying city. He unfortunately lost his wife along the way, which led to a rift between him and his daughter.

In the safety of the outside world, Scott moved to a small apartment in Victorville and began cooking for the Lucky Boy diner. Bly Tanaka eventually approached Scott at the diner and offered him $50 million to head back into zombie-infested Las Vegas with a safecracker and his own hand-picked team of mercenaries. The goal was to crack the Götterdämmerung vault under the Las Vegas Strip, retrieve the $200 million inside, and safely remove it from the city within 32 hours. Scott accepted the offer and spent the next day building a team.

The group entered the city and made their way to Bly's Casino, where they split up to accomplish everything that needed to be done. Scott took Kate to the roof to turn on the generator while Ludwig Dieter began to crack the safe. They managed to break in and collect the money, however as a result of Martin taking Athena's head, the Las Vegas horde attacked the casino, killing most of the team. In the excitement of the safecracking, Kate had headed to The Olympus to rescue her trapped friend, Geeta. Realizing this, Scott had the team's pilot, Marianne Peters, fly him to The Olympus to pick her up. Kate succeeded in saving Geeta, and Peters succeeded in flying them from the city, despite the zombie king, Zeus, leaping aboard. Zeus bit Scott and the helicopter crashed, leaving only Scott and Kate alive. They shared Scott's final moments before he turned, then Kate put him down.

## Abilities

* **Exceptional physiology**: As an experienced mercenary, Scott was in peak physical condition, with a large, muscular build.
	+ **Peak physical strength**: Scott was very strong, as he could easily overpower every alpha he came across with Zeus being the only exception. Although he could contend with the latter, the alpha zombie's abnormal strength proved to be superior to his own.
	+ **Hand-to-hand combat**: Using his strength to his advantage, Scott was able to come up with a fighting style of his own, not involving incredible technique, but ultimately being devastating to the majority of his foes.
* **Zombie experience**: As a founding member of Las Vengeance, Scott was on the ground during the initial Las Vegas outbreak and the following zombie wars, gaining a lot of experience dealing with zombies.
* **Marksmanship**: As a mercenary, Scott was proficient with firearms. He was capable of quickly taking down zombies with repeatedly accurate and precise headshots.
* **Leadership**: Scott was a respected leader, with Las Vengeance veterans and new members alike following his commands without issue.
	+ **Plan-making**: Scott was a skilled developer of plans, forming the nearly-successful Götterdämmerung heist, which only failed due to members of the team following their own agendas. The heist was an incredibly dangerous, yet likely would have been completed with no casualties if not for Martin and Kate Ward's selfish actions.
* **Zombie physiology**: After being bitten by Zeus, Scott briefly became an alpha zombie, greatly enhancing his body's durability.

## Equipment

* **Glow sticks**: Scott used glow sticks to chart a path through the dark, when too much light would have awakened a crowd of sleeping zombies.
* **Body armor**: When dealing with zombies, Scott wore protective gear that prevented them from biting through to his flesh. He was able to use the armor on his forearms to block an alpha bite and hold the attacking zombie at bay.
* **KA-BAR knife**: Scott used this standard-issue Marine Corps knife for hand-to-hand fighting, later replacing it with the Night Stalker variant.
* **SIG-Sauer P226R**: Scott's pistol of choice was the SIG-Sauer P226R. He used this gun to protect a grocer during the zombie wars.
* **Heckler & Koch HK416**: The primary weapon Scott carried was his HK416, equipped with a Trijicon ACOG rifle scope and a Magpul D60 drum magazine, which is capable of storing 60 ready-to-fire rounds. During the zombie wars Scott could be seen with the weapon prior to the addition of the Magpul D60. The HK416 is capable of full-auto fire.
* **Heckler and Koch 40mm grenade launcher**: Scott used this single-handed grenade launcher to fire a grenade at Zeus, which knocked him down long enough for Scott's party to escape to the helicopter.
* **Sin City Tacos truck**: After using it as a food truck, as a search and rescuer Scott used his work truck to head into Las Vegas to rescue people still clinging to life against the zombie hordes.
* **Truck**: Scott's personal vehicle just prior to the Götterdämmerung heist was a Toyota Truck.

## Relationships

### Allies

* Kate Ward - daughter
* Laura Ward - wife (previously)
* Las Vengeance
	+ Maria Cruz - love interest
	+ Vanderohe
	+ Marianne Peters
	+ Ludwig Dieter
	+ Mikey Guzman
	+ Chambers
	+ Lilly
	+ Martin
	+ Burt Cummings
* Secretary Boorman - rescuee
* Bly Tanaka - client
* Kevin - boss at Lucky Boy

### Enemies

* Las Vegas horde
	+ Zeus

## Appearance chronology

*Lost Vegas**Army of the Dead*
zombie wars*Army of the Dead**Army of Thieves*

## Gallery

Concept art by Alan VillanuevaConcept art by Alan VillanuevaScott's gun concept art by Jonathan BachDead Drop #7A skeleton (left) is implied to belong to Ward from an alternate timeline
## Trivia

* After his zombie transformation, Scott appears to call out to his daughter twice by name, though his voice has become garbled. If true, something about the nature of Scott's bite and/or his physiology might have enabled him to not just become a king class zombie like Zeus, but to have surpassed Zeus by retaining some part of his human mind. He was put down too quickly for this to be determined.
* Zack Snyder originally pictured the character of Scott Ward as older, and even named him after Scott Glenn, with whom Snyder worked on *Sucker Punch*. He intended Glenn to portray the character at the time, with the role of Vanderohe written for Bautista instead.
* Rob de Groot performed the stunts for Scott in *Army of the Dead*.

## References

Shay Hatten (writer) & Jay Oliva, Zack Snyder (directors) (Spring 2022). *Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas*.
Shay Hatten, Zack Snyder, Joby Harold (writers) & Zack Snyder (director) (May 14, 2021). *Army of the Dead*.