The Battery 2012

Two former baseball players, Ben Jeremy Gardner and Mickey Adam Cronheim, drift along the back roads of Connecticut as a zombie apocalypse has overtaken New England. Their past life is slowly revealed: three months trapped inside a house in Massachusetts with Mickey’s family, where his father, mother, and brother were killed before they managed to escape. Since then, Ben has grown wary of sleeping indoors and survives by constant movement and scavenging. Mickey, by contrast, longs for a return to normalcy, stubbornly resisting practical survival skills and often retreating into his CD player, headphones keeping him isolated from the harsh new world.

At a now-abandoned house belonging to Mickey’s girlfriend, Ben discovers two walkie-talkies. While testing their range, they overhear a conversation between Annie Alana O’Brien and Frank Larry Fessenden, hinting they belong to a structured group known as the Orchard. Mickey eagerly tries to contact them and asks to join, but his plea is flatly refused. Despite Ben’s caution, Mickey keeps trying, only to hear nothing in reply, raising questions about who or what might be out there and whether a safe, organized community truly exists.

The duo pushes deeper into the woods and finds a house tucked inside a forest. Mickey wants to sleep inside, and Ben, to placate his friend, reluctantly agrees, though he keeps Mickey’s CD player for the night. That evening, Ben drinks and dances to music while Mickey speaks into the walkie-talkie. Annie answers, and this time she is decisive: stay off the channel and stop contacting her group. The tension between the desire for human connection and the urge to survive pressurizes their fragile bond.

The next morning, Ben discovers a zombie tied up near the house and frees it into Mickey’s room, urging Mickey to kill it with the baseball bat left in the room. When the struggle ends, Ben opens the door to find that Mickey has managed to kill the intruder. Mickey’s anger erupts, and he storms outside as Ben attempts to comfort him. The moment exposes how fragile Mickey’s new-found resolve is; he breaks down while recounting his unsettling exchange with Annie and the fear that they might never belong to a real community.

That incident becomes a turning point. Mickey starts listening to Ben’s guidance, learns practical skills like fishing, and spends far less time with his headphones—signs that he’s beginning to adapt to a harsher, more pragmatic life. Their journey takes another sharp turn when a roadside stop reveals a man, Jerry [Niels Bolle], who holds Mickey at knifepoint and demands their car keys. Ben uses a quick, cunning move to convince the aggressor to release Mickey, then shoots him dead. The encounter brings two other survivors into the scene: a woman and Egghead [Jamie Pantanella], who repairs the abandoned car and prepares to leave. Mickey, recognizing Annie’s voice from the walkie-talkie, calls her by name, but Annie refuses to let them trail and shoots Ben in the leg, flinging the car keys into a tall grassy area before driving away with Egghead.

With dark already settling, Ben and Mickey decide to sleep in the car, unable to pursue the fleeing group. The vehicle soon becomes encircled by zombies, and they are forced to endure days inside a shrinking space. Unable to move quickly due to his wound, Ben watches as Mickey volunteers to crawl out through the sunroof and search for the keys. When Mickey returns, his hand bears a bite, and the grim reality sinks in: he asks to be spared, but Ben is faced with a brutal, heartbreaking decision. He shoots Mickey, a scream tearing from him as he confronts the loss of his friend and composes himself for what lies ahead.

The film closes with Ben speaking into the walkie-talkie, vowing to seek out Annie and take action to avenge Mickey’s death. A mid-credits moment shows Ben having escaped the car, walking down the road with a horde of zombies shambling behind him, signaling a road forward that is anything but clear.