''Cargo'' is a 2013 Australian short film directed by Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke, written by Ramke, and starring Andy Rodoreda as a father who must protect his young daughter (Ruth Venn) during a

zombie apocalypse Zombie apocalypse is a genre of fiction in which society collapses due to overwhelming swarms of zombies. Typically only a few individuals or small bands of survivors are left living. In some versions, the reason the dead rise and attack huma ...

. It was made for the

Tropfest Tropfest is the world's largest short film festival. It has also become known as the world's first global film festival. Founded by actor/director John Polson, Tropfest began in 1993 as a screening for 200 people at the 'Tropicana Caffe' in ...

short film festival, where it was a finalist. It went viral after it was uploaded to

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

, and it was featured on many web sites. By 2018 it had been viewed over 14 million times.

Plot

After a car crash knocks him unconscious, a man wakes up to find that his wife has died and turned into a

zombie A zombie ( Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in w ...

. He leaves the car, grabs his young daughter from the back seat, and realizes that his wife bit him while he was unconscious. After an emotional goodbye to his wife, he sets off to find survivors. Knowing that he does not have much time left before he turns into a zombie, he puts his daughter in a baby back-pack, binds his hands to a pole, and attaches carrion to the end of the pole. After he collapses, he rises again as a zombie, and, drawn by the lure of the carrion on the pole, continues his journey. After a point, he notices the balloon he inflated for his daughter and is distracted by it. He is then shot by a sniper, and a group of survivors investigate his corpse, almost leaving before one of them discovers everything he did to try to save his daughter, who has 'My Name is Rosie' written on her stomach in permanent marker. The ending is the woman, holding Rosie while in the background, the 2 men bury her father under a cross, giving him honor for his sacrifice and dedication to Rosie.

Cast

* Andy Rodoreda as Father * Ruth Venn as Rosie, the father's baby daughter * Yolanda Ramke as Survivor * Alison Gallagher as Mother * Kallan Richards as Survivor * Effron Heather as Survivor * Scott Wood as Sniper

Release

''Cargo'' was made for the

short film festival, where it was a finalist. After its release, it went viral and attracted millions of views on

Reception

''Cargo'' was featured on '' Die Zeit'', ''

The Week ''The Week'' is a weekly news magazine with editions in the United Kingdom and United States. The British publication was founded in 1995 and the American edition in 2001. An Australian edition was published from 2008 to 2012. A children's ed ...

'', CNET,

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

Film School Rejects Film School Rejects is an American blog devoted to movie reviews, interviews, film industry news, and feature commentary. It was founded by Neil Miller in February 2006. The site was nominated for Best News Blog by ''Total Film'' magazine and na ...

, and Bloody Disgusting.

Remake

''Cargo'' was remade as a 2017 feature length film starring

Martin Freeman Martin John Christopher Freeman (born 8 September 1971) is an English actor. Among other accolades, he has won an Emmy Award, a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award. Freeman's most not ...

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

made the 2017 remake available in April 2018.

References

External links

* * {{YouTube, gryenlQKTbE, ''Cargo'' 2013 films 2013 short films 2013 horror films 2010s science fiction horror films Australian zombie films Horror short films Australian drama short films Films about families Australian post-apocalyptic films Zombie short films Films about viral outbreaks 2013 drama films 2010s English-language films