Train to Busan (2016)

The film begins as a truck approaches a toll booth while it's being sanitized, with several workers cleaning the area in hazmat suits.

The driver passes and accuses them of slowing him down but the workers assure him that nothing is wrong, informing about a small leak at a nuclear power plant. After passing the toll booth, he becomes distracted and accidentally hits a deer. However, the deer staggers back onto its feet, revealing that it is infected.

Meanwhile in Seoul, Seok-Woo is a fund manager in the middle of a divorce, who barely has time for his daughter Su-an. After a stressful day at work and accidentally buying Su-an the same present for her birthday as he did for Children's Day, Su-an reveals that she wants to visit her mother in Busan. Seok-Woo is initially reluctant due to his work, but his mother convinces him by showing him a video of Su-an singing Aloha 'Oe at a school recital (she stops singing in the middle of the song), which he couldn't attend due to work. Out of guilt, Seok-woo books the next Korea Train Express train bound for Busan the next morning.

Early in the morning, Seok-woo drives Su-an to the station, noticing a horde of emergency vehicles heading towards a burning building in the distance. They board the train, which is occupied by a man named Sang-hwa and his pregnant wife Seong-kyeong, a high school baseball team, a COO named Yong-suk, two elderly sisters, In-gil and Jong-gil and a homeless man who seems to be aware of the situation outside.

As the train prepares to leave, a young woman boards the train with a bite wound on her leg. Outside, the station manager signals the train to leave and notices a group of people screaming at something. Su-an watches through the window as the manager is attacked by a zombie, which only she witnesses. Frightened, Su-an gets up to go to the bathroom.

In one of the lower cars, an attendant comes across the infected woman and attempts to help her, only for the woman to infect her as well. Both run into the baseball team's compartment and begin infecting most of the team, with only four survivors escaping: Young-guk, Jin-hee, and two other boys. The zombies then begin stampeding towards the upper cars and infecting everyone in their path.

Seok-woo awakens and notices that Su-an is missing. He then receives a call from his coworker, who tells him that 'violent riots' have broken out across the entire country. Soon after, a group of passengers run past his seat. Realizing that Su-an might be in danger, Seok-woo rushes to find his daughter and sees the horde of zombies. Su-an notices her father and calls for him. Both are chased by the horde but successfully reach a safe compartment.

Seok-woo attempts to barricade the door, nearly locking out Sang-hwa and Seong-kyeong in the process. The survivors struggle to barricade the door but realize that the zombies do not know how to open it and that they attack at the sight of humans. Seong-kyeong covers the glass door with newspapers, tricking the zombies into thinking that they are not there.

The conductor then informs the survivors over the intercom that the train will not go to Busan but stop at Daejeon station instead as military has been dispatched there. Seok-Woo checks in with a contact in the military and finds out that the military intends to quarantine the passengers once they reach the main square. He asks his contact for help and the man reluctantly agrees, telling him to meet up with the troops at the east square instead, so they won't get quarantined.

The train arrives at the station, only for the survivors to find it abandoned. Seok-woo takes Su-an towards the east exit where they will be picked up, while the others go towards the main exit. The homeless man follows Seok-woo, having overheard his phone call. The majority heads down the escalator and stairs and finds a big group of soldiers, all turned into zombies. Meanwhile, as Seok-woo, Su-an and the homeless man head towards the east exit, they see a soldier in the distance. Relieved, the homeless man and Seok-woo rush towards the soldier for help, only to see that he is injured. Seok-woo then receives a call from his contact in the military, asking if Seok-woo has gotten in touch with the soldiers as he could not contact his men at all. The injured soldier begs for help, to Seok-woo's and the homeless man's bewilderment, and is trampled and consumed by a horde of zombies.

Realizing the deployment has failed, all the other survivors start scrambling back to the train. More passengers get infected. Seok-woo tells Su-an to run and she bumps into Sang-hwa and Seong-kyeong, who are rushing back to the train with the others. Seong-kyeong takes Su-an and run to the platform while Seok-woo, Sang-hwa, Young-guk and the two other baseball players try to fight off the horde. After managing to lock the exit door, they run back to the train but Young-guk's two friends are attacked and infected when they reach the platform.

Meanwhile, Jin-hee, Yong-suk and a few others successfully board the train. Seong-kyeong and Su-an are also boarding when a glass window of the train station above shatters, sending zombies raining onto the platform. One of the zombies falls between In-gil and Jong-gil, separating them. In-gil is forcibly dragged onto Jin-hee's compartment, while Jong-gil, Seong-kyeong, and Su-an run in the opposite direction.

Seong-kyeong, Jong-gil, Su-an and the homeless man hide themselves inside a bathroom in one of the infected lower compartments while Seok-woo, Sang-hwa and Young-guk successfully get onto a safe compartment. Sang-hwa calls his wife and realizes she is trapped in the bathroom with a few others. Unwilling to leave them to die, the three begin fighting through the lower compartments to rescue them. In the process, they discover that the zombies are blind in the dark and only react to sound. They use this to their advantage and manage to rescue the others and run towards the compartment where Yong-suk, Jin-hee, In-gil, and the other survivors are.

Young-guk texts Jin-hee that they have rescued the survivors and are headed towards her compartment. When Jin-hee happily tells the others, they react with hostility and decide to lock the door to their compartment to prevent the group from entering. Young-guk attempts to break it open while Seok-woo and Sang-hwa struggle to keep the zombies from entering on the other side, during which Sang-hwa is bitten. Realizing that there is no return for him, Sang-hwa tells Seok-woo to take care of his wife and leave him behind to distract the zombies. Tearfully, Seok-woo apologizes and lets go of the door, dragging Seong-kyeong and Su-an towards the barricaded door. Before he is consumed, Sang-hwa manages to tell his wife the name he chose for their unborn daughter. With Seok-woo's help, the barricaded door is broken down and they get into the safe compartment just in time. However, Jong-gil is attacked before being able to get in.

Under strong protests and accusations from Yong-suk, the rest of the survivors remain hostile to Seok-woo and the rest, forcing Seok-woo, Su-an, Seong-kyeong, Young-guk, Jin-hee and the homeless man to stay in the next compartment. Having witnessed the death of her sister and the selfishness of the survivors, In-gil opens the compartment door and allows the zombies to swarm in and consume the survivors. Seok-woo and the rest are safe as they are in the other compartment. Yong-suk and a train attendant also escape the attack by hiding in the bathroom.

The train soon reaches a part of the railway blocked by train collisions. The conductor announces that he and the remaining survivors have to take another train to continue their journey. He then leaves to find another operatable train, followed by Seok-woo and the rest.

Meanwhile, Yong-suk and the train attendant are still stuck in the bathroom. Yong-suk tricks the train attendant that the coast is clear and makes him head out first, only to push him to the zombies while he escapes by himself. In the midst of his escape, Yong-suk lets out the zombies as well.

Seok-woo and the rest are walking when a burning train coming from the opposite direction causes a collision and collapses. Only Young-guk and Jin-hee escape the accident and they decide to continue their way. While running away from a zombie, Yong-suk bumps into them and he pushes Jin-hee to the zombie. Jin-hee is attacked as Yong-suk flees. Young-guk fights off the zombie and embraces the infected Jin-hee. Having lost all of his friends and thinking that there are no survivors left, he decides to leave himself with Jin-hee, leading to Jin-hee attacking him.

Seok-woo, Su-an, Seong-kyeong and the homeless man, all presumed dead, have survived the collision and are trapped in a small space. Seok-woo manages to crawl out but a part of the train falls and blocks the way before the rest can escape. A glass window soon shatters and the homeless man tries to fend off the small group of zombies while Seok-woo tries to move the object away. Su-an and Seong-kyeong manages to crawl out just in time before all of the windows shatter and the zombies fall onto the homeless man.

The conductor finds a train and starts it slowly to allow the remaining survivors time to board. He notices Yong-suk being chased by the zombies and jumps off the train to help, only for Yong-suk to push him to the zombies as a bait while Yong-suk escapes and boards the train.

Seok-woo, Su-an and Seong-kyeong run after the train and are able to board. They head towards the conductor cabin to find Yong-suk inside, infected. Seok-woo fights off Yong-suk, throwing him off the train, but not without getting bitten in the process. In a hurry, he begins to teach Su-an and Seong-kyeong how to operate the train and asks Su-an to always stay by Seong-kyeong's side. Seong-kyeong has to restrain the crying Su-an as Seok-woo throws himself off the train for the safety of both of them.

The duo stop the train in front of a tunnel as corpses are lying everywhere blocking the way, so they have to alight to walk. Unknown to them, soldiers are dispatched at the other end of the tunnel and are prepared to shoot any incoming zombies. The soldiers spot Su-an and Seong-kyeong but are unable to verify if they are humans or zombies. Their superior hence orders them to fire. However, the soldiers hear a singing voice. It is Su-an singing Aloha 'Oe, the song she had always wanted to sing for her father. The soldiers realise that Seong-kyeong and Su-an are actually survivors and drop their guns and orders the rest of the men to rescue Su-an and Seong-kyeong.