HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD

At a top-secret chemical research facility called Hope Center #1, a rat causes a chemical leak and dies. As two workers investigate, the rat suddenly comes back to life and kills one of the men, who likewise revives and attacks his co-workers. Subsequently, the entire staff of the plant turns into flesh-eating zombies.

A four-man team of Interpol commandos, consisting of Lt. Mike London, Osborne, Zantoro, and Vincent, are deployed to eliminate a group of eco-terrorists who have taken hostages at the US Embassy in Barcelona, Spain. The terrorists demand the closing of all the Hope Centers, which both the government and the military deny exist. Under orders of the local authorities, the press does not publicize the terrorists' demands or mention the disaster at Hope Center. After another team pumps tear gas into the building, Lt. London and his three commandos burst in, killing the terrorists.

Once the mission is completed, the team loses contact with Hope Center #1. Thinking that terrorists have infiltrated the complex, the team flies to Papua New Guinea. Journalist Lia Rousseau and her cameraman Max, who are investigating a series of mysterious, violent attacks on the locals get their car broken down at some abandoned buildings. Their friends Josie, Josie's husband, and their little son are killed by zombies, just as the team arrives. Lia and Max go with the team, and while stopping at a native village, they witness a group of zombies that suddenly show up to eat the rest of the villagers.

The commandos and the journalists travel through the New Guinea jungle in the commando's jeep, trying to survive while evading the zombies. The group takes refuge at an abandoned plantation, only to come under attack from the zombie residents. For some reason Osborne decides to put his weapons down and play with things in a room, where he is eaten by zombies, forcing the other survivors to flee.

The team battle their way to a beach, escape by raft, and finally arrive at Hope Center #1, where they find all of the workers either dead or roaming the facility as zombies. Max and Zantoro are killed when they are pulled into an elevator filled with zombies, and London gets infected.

While Lia and Vincent separate from London who turns, they learn about the experimental chemical accidentally released, which is causing the zombie infestation. Lia theorizes that the chemical, code named "Operation Sweet Death", has been invented to curb the Third World population by driving it into eating each other. She vows to tell the world, but a horde of zombies – including their now zombified comrades – close in and attack Vincent and Lia. As Vincent is pulled away and eaten, one of the zombies rips Lia's tongue out, then pushes its fist into her mouth and up into her skull, causing her eyeballs to pop out of her head.

Sometime later, the zombie contagion has spread beyond New Guinea's borders and throughout the world. While politicians and scientists dispute the matter, a young couple in the developed world is attacked and devoured by a horde of zombies in a city park.

The surviving commandos and journalists are overrun by zombies at the Hope Center; Lia and Vincent are killed, and the virus spreads worldwide.

The film closes with the protagonists unable to stop the contagion, underscoring the futility of both individual heroics and institutional denial. The graphic fates of the last survivors are matched by a bleak coda: the zombie outbreak, born from human experimentation and secrecy, expands beyond New Guinea, dooming the world to the living dead. It's a full-circle embrace of splatter pessimism characteristic of Italian exploitation horror.