The Deadliest Night in Show Business
Genre: Horror/Action/Comedy
Director: Rian Johnson
Writers: Andrew Doster & Chad Taylor
A Hill Valley Entertainment Production
Cast: Daniel Craig, Amanda Seyfried, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Hartnett, Andrea Riseborough, Orlando Bloom, Rachel Brosnahan, Julia Butters, Richard E. Grant, Eli Roth, Neil Patrick Harris, Melissa Benoist, Alan Cumming, Jeremy Swift
Plot: 1939, The Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles. In a grand ballroom, the band plays 'Hooray for Hollywood' as well-dressed guests begin to take their place for the eleventh annual Academy Awards. Top starlet Joan Crawford (Rebecca Ferguson) is making her way from table to table, socializing with various other stars. She begins a conversation with Gary Cooper (Josh Hartnett) and his wife, a mild-mannered leading man who Crawford once co-starred with. In the corner of her eye, she sees the entrance of her new rival Bette Davis (Amanda Seyfried), who is tipped by many to win her third Best Actress Oscar tonight. On her way in, Bette is approached by Errol Flynn (Orlando Bloom), a swashbuckling newcomer who is very flirtatious. Bette flirts a little bit back before she takes seat next to friend Carole Lombard (Rachel Brosnahan), an actress known for her parts in screwball comedies and recent beau of Clark Gable. Carole compliments Bette on her dress and Bette the same.
Meanwhile, Humphrey Bogart (Daniel Craig) is smoking outside with Boris Karloff (Richard E. Grant). They are mid-conversation as Karloff talks about an offer he has to star in a Broadway play, which could be act as a good reminder that he's a classically-trained actor and not just Frankenstein's monster. He then shrugs his shoulders and says that at least Frankenstein's monster pays well. As Boris leaves, Bogart is joined by Greta Garbo (Andrea Riseborough), a famed silent film star who successfully transitioned to sound. Greta asks why he hasn't went in yet and Bogart says that these big events aren't really his thing. She can empathize with that, mentioning how she feels like a social pariah at the moment given her string of box office failures. Humphrey chuckles and says that at least she's been a star - he's been playing tough guy supporting parts for the last ten years and is beginning to wonder if he'll have much of a future in Hollywood. Greta raises her cigarette and toasts to the both of them making it through the night. Humphrey reciprocates her toast before checking his watch and seeing that it is almost time to begin.
Everyone makes it into the ballroom as the big ceremony begins. The first award given out is for Best Director, which is given out by Lombard. She announces the nominees and then that the winner is Frank Capra. Carole makes a joke about him never casting her in one of his screwball comedies. There is rapturous applause as Capra (Eli Roth) takes the stage for his third Oscar in five years. While Frank is giving his speech, a man slowly staggers into the room making sounds similar to moans. People start muttering acknowledging him to be Charlie Chaplin (Alan Cumming), allegedly drunk. At one point, he falls to the ground, near the table occupied by the Temple family, accidentally hitting young child actress Shirley (Julia Butters). Her parents approach Chaplin, worried because the man seems to be unable to breathe and start to ask animatedly if there is a doctor in the room. Bette Davis looks on aghast while Cooper begins looking around for a doctor, eventually finding one and escorting him to the scene. The ceremony is momentarily suspended and some of the guests get up and approach to see the situation closer. A few moments later, Charlie jumps up and bites hard on the arm of Shirley's dad. He also bites the doctor who was presiding over him. The two men quickly begin to feel very bad.
Shirley's mother rushes to her husband's aide to see if she can do anything to help. He struggles to get his words out but indicates that he is feeling unwell while their daughter looks on scared. While Mrs. Temple holds her husband in her arms, he suddenly bites her on the cheek. Shirley screams in horror while the infected doctor also bites a nearby person. Cooper stands up on a chair and tells everyone to evacuate the ballroom immediately. This causes an immediate panic as people start to go in every which direction for the exits, causing a momentary crush. Humphrey, who sees a terrified Shirley, lifts her into his arms and into safety. Meanwhile, the chaos causes Cooper to fall and breaks his leg. Greta Garbo, who is moving through the crowd, spots Cooper on the ground and helps him up as the number of the infected begin to multiply.
Karloff is climbing the stairs to seek shelter after seeing that the main entrance was blocked due to the infected strangers from the street pouring in. His pace as he climbs the stairs is staid as the infected are following just behind him. At the end of the stairs, he decides to go right and finds himself stuck in a dead end hallway. The infected are closing in as he cries out "not like this!". Meanwhile, Lombard is on stage looking around in terror without knowing what to do. Many infected have surrounded the stage and are trying to go up. Two manage to climb up and try to attack the actress but Errol Flynn fends them off with his chair as he comes to her rescue. He sees a velvet large rope hanging from the ceiling, grabs it, and hands it to her. He tells her to use it to climb to the a balcony above the stage and that he will be climbing behind her. She begins to warn him against looking up her dress but he tells her they are running out of time and, instead, lifts her up to get started on her climb as he starts up himself. Capra is left on the stage pleading for help and so Carole tosses him the rope. He begins to climb but then realizes that he forgot his Oscar. He grabs it and then makes his way to join Carole and Errol.
Throughout the ballroom, the biting continues to rapidly spread as the few surviving guests try desperately to escape amongst the hordes of people. Joan finds herself all alone and increasingly hopeless. Suddenly, she hears someone shouting her name. She looks around and finds that Bette has found a small compartment that allows for an escape to another room. Joan hurries to escape and join her rival. Meanwhile, Bogart keeps Shirley protected behind him as he searches for an exit. He instead finds a small custodial closet that they can use for a quick break. He pulls out a cigarette but then decides against it upon seeing Shirley's face. He kneels down beside her and says that everything is going to be OK. She asks about her parents and he is unsure of how to respond to this. After a brief pause, he says that they will figure it all out later but that she is safe with him.
Garbo and Cooper arrive in the lobby trying not to make noise where they try to find medical supplies to treat Cooper's wound. While Greta is bandaging Cooper's broken leg, a group of infected begins to slowly make their way towards the actors. Cooper tells her to protect herself and leave him behind, but she says she won't. He takes off his high-heeled shoes and uses them to repel the infected. It only works momentarily and things start to look disastrous. Suddenly, a wooden stick swings and knocks out some infected while female shoes put them into battle. The owner of the cane is Fred Astaire (Neil Patrick Harris) while the woman is Ginger Rogers (Melissa Benoist). Greta thanks them for their help, but she points out that more are coming. Astaire turns, sees the new rounds of infected arrive, and nods to Ginger. Astaire starts singing "Puttin 'on the Ritz" as he and Rogers tap-dance through the infected crowd. He throws the stick at her and lifts her as he turns in a repetitive motion, clearing rows of infected. Astaire starts dancing with one of the infected as he sings the line "dressed up like a million dollar trooper / trying hard to look like Gary Cooper". He drops his partner low for a dive into Cooper's punch-punch while Astaire sings "super duper!". As Astaire and Rogers continue to fend off the infected, Greta sees an opportunity for them to get to the second floor, so she helps Cooper up and they escape.
On the small balcony, Carole thanks Errol for his assistance. He says there's a reason that he was chosen to play Robin Hood and gives a wink. She asks if he is flirting with her in the midst of some sort of zombie outbreak and he says that maybe it is his body's response to fear. Capra makes a quick comment to say that they could make a good starring couple in one of his films if they are able to make it out of here. Just as he says this, there is loud noises from outside the door to the balcony. Frank and Carole freeze in terror while Errol bravely volunteers to see what is out there. When he opens the door, he finds an infected staring him in the face and he now freezes in fear himself. Capra suddenly leaps forward and stabs the infected in the neck with his Oscar statuette. He turns to Carole and Errol and says that he can't believe that worked, just as bitten on the leg by the infected. He looks worryingly up to the two stars and pleads for them to not leave him behind. Errol apologizes as he pulls the Oscar out of the infected's neck and says that they need to get going as more infected get closer in the hallway. He grabs ahold of the rope and sticks out his arm for Carole, commenting "my lady?". She reminds him that "this" isn't a thing but then sidles up next to him as they swing from the balcony to the main lobby.
Joan Crawford and Bette Davis are walking together in the corridors exchanging nervous glances. On the ground there are some infected, presumably dead. Trying to break the tension, Bette jokes about how surreal all of this. Joan quips back that Bette probably would've preferred Chaplin entered after Best Actress was presented. Bette says that if this is the last Oscars, then a nomination feels as good as another win. Joan makes cold eyes at Bette while Bette exchanges them right back. Halfway down the long corridor, an infected one grabs Bette's ankle and tries to bite her. Bette falls to the ground trying to free herself asking Joan for help but she doesn't intervene. Bette manages to free herself, looks around and takes the fire extinguisher from the wall (or a hatchet or some other object) and smashes the infected head. She then rushes her like a fury to Joan's pushing her against her wall screaming at her that she could die and she hadn't done anything to help her. Joan tries to defend herself and tells the angry Bette to lower her voice.
Meanwhile, a large number of infected have been attracted by the noise and are approaching them. Joan warns Bette of the danger and turns around brandishing the weapon as Joan runs off to the stairs. Joan stops after a couple of steps and watches Bette fight the infected with strong willfulness. She then starts climbing the stairs again until she stops again listening to the noise of the fight between Bette and the infected. Joan turns around again and rolls her eyes, snorting. Bette has lost her weapon and is in trouble, the infected are too many for one person to fight and she is being overwhelmed. At that point Joan intervenes, picks up the weapon from the ground and kills the last remaining infected. She then she helps Bette to get up and they exchange a knowing look. At that point they walk together towards the stairs.
Shirley and Humphrey are in their hiding place. The little girl has her hands in front of her eyes and she is sobbing as she realizes that her parents have been infected despite Humphrey's words to change the subject. Humphrey tries to reassure Shirley even though she doesn't quite know how to do it until she hands a candy he found in his pocket. The girl accepts him and thanks him before bursting into tears at the man, who hugs her tightly. Humphrey and Shirley notice some movement outside the door and whispers that he will protect her. Humphrey takes a broomstick and looks at the handle opening. Humphrey gets into attack position as the door opens and a massive figure stands in front of him noticing that it is Alfred Hitchcock (Jeremy Swift). At that point, Shirley also peeks out from behind Humphrey's body to watch. Humphrey breathes a sigh of relief when he notices that Alfred is fine and does not appear to be infected.
At the bottom of the staircase, Bette spots Errol and Carole in the distance and yells to them to come follow up to the roof. Errol and Carole must fight through a crowd of infected but they make it to the staircase. As they make their ascent, Errol laments Capra's death and says that he agrees with the director that this could make for a good screwball comedy premise. Carole quips back that it would be funny to have a lead couple of stars with rhyming names. Errol looks back at her to smile but, when he does, Carole notices his eye becoming bloodshot. She freezes and he asks what is wrong. She asks if he was bitten and he tries to say no but finds that he can only mumble. He begins looking all over his body while Carole tells him to let her pass him and go to the roof. She finds that he can't tell what she is saying so she tries to dash past him but he grabs on to her, now fully infected. She tries to fight him but finds him stronger than her. She is able to momentarily break free but this causes her to tumble down the stairs. She regains her composure and once again tries to make it to the door to the top floor but he is able to grab her ankle just as she reaches the door. She falls to the ground as he gets closer. In a split second decision, she bites down on the hand that he is using to pin her down. She is able to get up and get to the door but then begins to feel a weird tingling feeling. She realizes that she must be infected now so, instead of following her friend, she decides to descend the stairs to her inevitable death but away from the survivors. Infected Errol begins to follow after her but then he hears something from the doorway to the roof.
On the roof of the hotel, the remaining survivors group together: Bette and Joan, Garbo and Cooper, Humphrey and Shirley. They begin to talk about how they are going to escape after looking down and seeing chaos on the streets. As they do, they hear a voice say that he has been in contact with authorities and help is on the way. They all turn around to find Boris Karloff, somehow still alive. He explains that he found himself cornered by infected but did the only thing he knew how to do: he acted. He acted like Frankenstein's monster and was able to convince the infected that he was one of them. Just as he finishes saying this, infected Errol lunges at him from behind and bites him in the beck. Karloff screams "oh the humanity!" as the others get into action mode.
As Karloff slowly turns, more and more infected are gathering on the roof. Bette is attacked by some of them and starts to retreat to find herself at the edge of the roof. At that moment Joan intervenes by pushing the infected over the edge but she loses her balance and risks falling down too. She manages to hold on for a moment but loses her balance. Bette manages to take Joan's hand but risks falling too. Joan sways in the void and tries to convince Bette to let her go because both of her are in danger of falling but Bette refuses categorically. At that point, Joan tells her former rival that she has more to live for so it will be OK. And ultimately, in these last few hours, Bette taught her a new kind of selflessness she wasn't aware that she was capable of. She then she gives a kiss to Bette's hand and falls into the void. Bette regains her balance and is helped up Greta.
The fire department arrives at a nearby building and attaches a ladder for the survivors to escape. As they begin to get on it, Humphrey says that he will fight off the infected to give them enough time to escape. Cooper goes first because of his injury. As they each get on and Humphrey defeats some infected, a shriek is heard and he turns around to find Shirley on the verge of tears after being bit. You can see Humphrey's heart drop upon this revelation. The rescuers call for them to join but Humphrey informs them and the survivors that he is going to stay behind. He can't leave her alone like this. He once again gets to his knees and lets her know that everything is going to be OK as the infected begin to make their way towards them.
Bette, Garbo, and Cooper look out on the Hollywood skyline as chaos fills the streets, each letting out a different sigh of relief.
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