Army of the Dead: Viva Las Vengeance

The Reckoning • Documentary • **Viva Las Vengeance** • Guzman of the Dead 420 • NFT of the Dead • Making of • Zombicide • WrestleMania • Soundtrack • In or Out • Why Not an EV?

## Army of the Dead: Viva Las Vengeance

### Developer

Pure Imagination Studios
Fever
The Stone Quarry
Identity Group (build and logistics)

### Release date

July 2021 (USA)
September 2021 (UK)
October 8, 2022 (Six Flags Magic Mountain)

### Genre

Horror
First person shooter

### Media

VR experience

***Army of the Dead: Viva Las Vengeance*** is a virtual reality experience tie-in to *Army of the Dead*. It's an interactive ride with VR headsets wherein a team of participants can join the Las Vengeance crew and protect the truck as it drives through zombie-infested Las Vegas.

Ana De La Reguera hosted the introduction as her character, Maria Cruz, before participants boarded the Sin City Tacos truck. After completing the mission, participants were able to have their photos taken, eat zombie-themed tacos, and buy merchandise. The taco restaurant was only available during the initial Los Angeles event. The event lasted for about 30 minutes.

## Synopsis

*It's time to take matters into your own hands! Helpless civilians are trapped inside the walls confining zombie-infested Las Vegas, and the Las Vengeance crew needs your help rescuing them. After getting your briefing on the base, you'll step aboard the tactical taco truck and sneak past an opening in the wall for a fully immersive VR zombie-shooting experience. You'll feel every bump and turn as you shoot your way through zombie-filled streets in an epic adventure. Should you make it out in one piece, you'll be able to immortalize the mission's success with exclusive merch and photo ops at the end of the experience. Ready to destroy some zombies?*

--Official Fever synopsis

## Plot

When David got trapped with a group of survivors in Las Vegas, Maria Cruz, coordinating the efforts of Las Vengeance, sent a team of new recruits led by Vera and driven by Jack to save David's group. They took off in the Sin City Tacos truck and fired on the shamblers that crossed their path, saving a helicopter that was being swarmed by them. The truck eventually entered alpha territory, and the recruits managed to take down all the attacking alphas despite the truck stalling. As they fired their last shots, the ammo feeds locked up. Valentine appeared behind them and ripped open the back doors, exposing the defenseless recruits, but Jack ran out behind Valentine to draw her attention. As Valentine accepted Jack's sacrifice, Vera managed to get the truck moving again, but Zeus approached from behind, riding Wildfire. He threw his spear into the truck and called forth more alphas. The taco truck crashed through scaffolding, blocking the chasing zombies' path, and the group was able to catch up with David's truck and lead them safely out of the city.

## Production

An executive from FoxNext moved over to Netflix after working with Pure Imagination Studios on their top-rated *Alien* VR experience, then thought to get in touch to develop another VR experience. Pure Imagination was given the *Army of the Dead* script and came up with a plot that focused on the Sin City Tacos truck, which, at the time, was heavily featured in the beginning of the movie. Those portions were ultimately cut down with the truck becoming less of a focal point in the movie, but Viva Las Vengeance was well into production at that point, so they continued with the truck.

Development began in January of 2020. A script was approved and a truck was purchased so development could begin, but not long after that the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the crew needed to take their workstations home. Production continued however it could. One of the bigger hurdles was developing a moving VR vehicle that didn't cause motion sickness, though, they found that adding in the moving platforms in the physical truck to simulate the in-game movement reduced the motion sickness. Another hurdle was making the full trip take a short enough period of time for the desired experience length, despite a 10-12 mile-per-hour limit and a far distance to travel, so the team lined up warp points with a fallen airplane and triggered a warp coinciding with sparks from hanging wires to avoid player detection. This enabled the experience to skip part of the Strip without it being too noticeable.

The zombie AI was locked to two tracks, one for the left side of the truck, and one for the right. This prevented zombies from being run down by the truck, which would have caused them to clip through into the player space. When the zombies latched onto the sides of the truck, those were scripted events that locked the hands to the bars and made sure multiple zombies weren't consuming the same space. There were also a lot of supply chain issues, from the chip shortage to the box trucks being bought up by retailers. The experience was ultimately completed around the same time as *Army of the Dead'*s release in May of 2021 after 16 months of development.

## Venues

*Army of the Dead: Viva Las Vengeance* opened at pop-up locations in 17 cities across the United States, starting in Los Angeles in July 2021. It then opened in London, England in September 2021.

It opened on October 8, 2022 at Six Flags Magic Mountain during its Fright Fest event in Valencia, California. It had been scheduled to continue running through December 31, 2023. However, it was closed at the end of the park's Scream Break event on April 16, 2023.

## Gallery

Announcement promoTeaser logoLogo with transparent backgroundWebsite promoPromotional shot (Maria Cruz)Promotional shotPromotional shot (Jack, Cruz, Vera)VeraPlayers during the experienceWebsite backdropWebsite footer"Info girl" website infoMission briefingWebsite promoWebsite promoWebsite promoWebsite promoLas Vegas Quarantine Center "How to spot a shambler" signVanderohe's sawValentine statuePost-experience eatery menuPost-event photoshootSamantha Win at *Viva Las Vengeance*The event at AREA15 in Las Vegas, NevadaThe event at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California
### Screenshots

Avatar selectionMaria Cruz mission briefingGame resultsMcCarran Forward Operating Base developer screenshot
### Videos

Army of the Dead VIVA LAS VENGEANCE teaserNETFLIX - Army of the Dead Viva Las Vengeance VR Pop Up Experience 4KArmy of the Dead - Viva Las Vengeance VR Experience LondonArmy of the Dead Viva Las Vengance - Identity behind the scenesThe Tactical Taco Truck- How ‘Army of the Dead’ Rolled Into VR - Unreal Fest 2022
### Merchandise

This merchandise was made available exclusively at the event. The "Survival Kit" includes the duffle bag, water bottle, and survival notebook. This is the only way to purchase the duffle bag.

Non-exclusive t-shirt also sold at the eventT-shirtT-shirtT-shirtT-shirtT-shirtT-shirtSweatshirtSweatshirtSweatshirtHatKeychainKeychain"Survival Kit" exclusive duffle bagWater bottleMugSurvival notebook
## Trivia

* The first 50 people to sign up with the code ("TheUndead") given during the Comic-Con@Home 2021 live stream event also got "a little something special."
* 20,000 people visited the experience within the first four months.
* The gender demographics for attendees were approximately 60% male and 40% female.
* Panic! At The Disco released a single on June 1, 2022, called "Viva Las Vengeance," though it's unrelated to the *Army of the Dead*-based experience of the same name.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Army of the Dead Immersive VR Experience Brings Zombies to 17 Cities Across America this Summer. Pure Imagination Studios (2021-05-26). Archived from the original on September 24, 2022.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Goodacre, Kate (2021-08-08). Netflix's Army of the Dead experience launches, and here's how to get tickets. *Digital Spy*.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Six Flags Magic Mountain (2022-10-07). Army of the Dead Viva Las Vengeance VR Experience is now at Six Flags Magic Mountain!. Facebook.
4. ↑ Unreal Engine (2022-10-31). The Tactical Taco Truck: How 'Army of the Dead' Rolled Into VR. YouTube.
5. ↑ Events at Six Flags Magic Mountain, Six Flags Entertainment Corporation. Archived 2023-03-16.
6. ↑ Events at Six Flags Magic Mountain, Six Flags Entertainment Corporation. Archived 2023-05-01.

## External links

* *Army of the Dead: Viva Las Vengeance* official website
* *Army of the Dead: Viva Las Vengeance* VR Experience at Six Flags Magic Mountain (archived 2023-03-22)
* *Army of the Dead: Viva Las Vengeance* at the Six Flags Wiki