“All of Us Are Dead” is a 2022 Korean Zombie Thriller series on Netflix. A high school professor’s failed attempt to make his son stronger causes a zombie outbreak in Hyosan High School, which spreads and gulps down the entire town. This emotionally haunting survival story of a group of friends shows camaraderie and lethal perseverance to survive. Let’s dig into the characters and understand the role they played in this world plagued by zombies.
Lee Byeong Chan
Lee Byeong Chan is a science teacher at Hyosan High School. He has a troubled past. He holds a Ph.D. and worked at a pharmaceutical company. After he was fired from the company for an unknown reason, he ended up becoming a high school professor due to his connections. Byeong Chan was a genius, but his son often got bullied in school and tried to kill himself. When Byeong Chan found out about it, he tried to make his son stronger emotionally, but after seeing how weak his son had become, he created a virus and injected it into his body to make him stronger, both physically and mentally. His experiment failed, and his son turned into a zombie.
Byeong Chan was doing his research on hamsters in the school science lab. One of the students accidentally got bitten by the hamster, and the school became the ground zero of the zombie outbreak. Byeong Chan tried to find the antidote but couldn’t. He did what he did for the love of his son. He had turned evil against the world that tried to kill his son, but in the end, he sacrificed himself to save a police officer whom he told about the laptop where all the recordings of his experiments were saved. Byeong Chan didn’t intend to cause havoc, but his fatherly love caused it.
Lee Cheong San
A great sprinter and a brave comrade, Lee Cheong San led his group of friends on their mission to escape. His mom has opened a new chicken restaurant and named it after him, much to his dislike. He was best friends with Nam On Jo and didn’t realize that he had a crush on her until the day On Jo confessed to her crush. When he was trapped with his friends, he always took the initiative to do risky tasks.
When Cheong San was separated from his group, he started a rivalry with Yoon Gwi Nam, who later became a half-bie. This rivalry ended with Cheong San having to pay with his life. He was a true hero who chose to save others’ lives before his own. Even when he knew he was going to turn into a zombie, he fought until his last moment to kill the zombies and save his friends. Fortunately, he got to confess to On Jo before dying. Had he not messed up with Gwi Nam, he could have survived. But his fiery and fearless personality took his own life, but it also saved the lives of his friends. He died, but as a hero.
Lee Su Hyeok
Lee Su Hyeok was the ex-member of a gang of high school bullies. He was athletic and skilled at fighting, and had a great physique. He had left the group of bullies because he had matured and wanted to follow the right path. He accompanied Cheong San and also fought side-by-side with him. He became one of the pillars their group could rely on. Like Cheong San, he was also ready to sacrifice himself.
He had a crush on the class topper, Choi Nam Ra, but thought she would never like an ex-bully and a poor academic like him. He defended and protected Nam Ra until the very end, when she turned into a half-bie. Nam Ra had to run away from him to save him from herself. He encouraged Cheong San to confess his feelings to On Jo. He was a savior and a true friend to all, and had better luck than Cheong San.
Nam On Jo
Nam On Jo was the only child of her father and didn’t have a mother. They both always had each other’s backs. On Jo was not good at academics, but her father always told her to focus on her health more. On Jo and Cheong San had grown up together, and he was very precious to her. She always complained that Cheong San never listened to her and behaved recklessly. Even during their escape mission, Cheong San didn’t listen to her at all.
Her father was a firefighter, and she had learnt some emergency survival techniques from him. Her training helped a lot in their escape mission. Every day, she waited for her father to come and save her, and he did come when they needed him the most. She lost two of her most beloved people: her father and Cheong San.
Choi Nam Ra
Choi Nam Ra came from a rich family and was good at academics. She didn’t have any friends, not because she was proud of herself, but because her mother doted on her a lot. Her mother controlled every aspect of her life. Nam Ra was the class president and a member of the broadcasting club because her mom made her do it, not because she wanted to.
Nam Ra was intelligent and became the mastermind of the group that planned the escape logically. She had a crush on Su Hyeok and, while saving him from Gwi Nam, got bitten by him. She did not, however, become a zombie, but rather a half-bie, half-human, and half-zombie.She helped her friends to escape using her heightened senses, but as her zombie instincts started to take over, she ran away to save their lives. She could have turned evil and become a monster, but she chose to be a hero. She lived to fight other half-bies like her who had turned into monsters.
Yoon Gwi Nam
Yoon Gwi Nam was the bully who almost made three students kill themselves, including Byeong Chan’s son. He was ruthless and would kill you if he could get away with it. He used a lot of other people as shields to save himself from the zombies, even those who tried to help him. He got into a fight with Cheong San after he caught him killing their principal. Their fight ended with Gwi Nam getting bitten by the zombies, but to his surprise, he didn’t become a zombie but a half-bie.
He became powerful and no one could beat him now, neither humans nor zombies. He became the monster that he always was inside. At the end, he chased Cheong San to get his revenge. Gwi Nam thought he would never die and become the ruler of all, but he died when Cheong San dragged him into the fire with him. Our thoughts define our actions. Nam Ra and Gwi Nam both became half-bies, but one became a hero and the other a villain.
Nam So Ju
Nam So Ju was an ex-soldier and now worked as a firefighter to help civilians. When the zombie outbreak happened, he was stuck with a politician and had to carry out his duty to safeguard them and help them escape to a secure place. He was worried about his daughter and wanted to go and save her, but he had to perform his duty first. After saving the politician, he ran away from the quarantine to find On Jo at her school. On his way, he made an escape route through the mountain range to another city. He found On Jo and her friends and explained the escape route to them. He had to sacrifice himself in the end, but he was content because his daughter was safe and he had done his best.
Song Jae Ik
Another diligent civil servant like Nam So Ju, Song Jae Ik, was the police officer who had arrested the teacher, Byeong Chan. Byeong Chan had told him the secret about his zombie virus experiment. Jae Ik had to reach the school or survive until someone else knew about the secret. On his mission, he saved a baby and an infant and kept them together with him while fighting the zombies. Had he not survived and told the secret to the military, the outbreak could not have stopped. Jae Ik also had a family, a wife, and little kids, but he chose to save the public first, by risking his own life.
Jang Ha Ri
Jang Ha Ri was a senior in high school and an archery player. She was supposed to qualify for the national team but lost in the preliminary round. When she came to school, she saw the chaos, and her first instinct was to go and save her younger brother. Although there was less hope, she still fought the zombies to reach her brother’s class to see if he was still alive. She didn’t find him but continued her fight for survival along with her junior archery. She met her brother, Woo Jin, accidentally when Cheong San’s group and her group crossed paths. She was a protective sister, but this time, Woo Jin protected her from the zombies and sacrificed himself. Before dying, he told her to keep on doing archery. Ha Ri was bold and fearless, but seeing her brother die made her feel like dying as well, and she was ready to give herself to the zombies.
Park Mi Jin
Park Mi Jin was also a senior in high school, but she wasn’t good at anything, either sports or academics. She was a rebellious teenager who had no direction in her life. She wanted to study in college but knew that she wouldn’t get in. However, she had not given up on life; she still had the will to live. That’s why she became a great partner to Jang Ha Ri in the escape. She was as fearless as she was and also mature. Though she looked tough and arrogant on the outside, she had a kind heart. She regretted the moment she argued with Joon Young because he lost his life because of it. She stuck with everyone until the end.
Min Eun Ji
Min Eun Ji was bullied a lot in high school by Gwi Nam and his gang. On the day of the zombie outbreak, she had gone on the school terrace to jump off of it. The other student, who also got bullied with her, tried to stop her, but what stopped her was seeing people turn into zombies right in front of her eyes. She was happy to see the world fall apart. She hid in a safe place for most of the time, but when she went to delete her naked video from Gwi Nam’s phone, she got bitten and became a half-bie. After realizing the superhuman that she had become, she tried to burn down the school. She had no one to fear anymore. She was on her way to becoming a monster like Gwi Nam but got caught by the military.
“All Of Us Are Dead” gave us a grotesque thriller with some characters worth remembering. Some we hated and some we loved. Along with being horrifying, the series was heart-wrenching to watch as some of our favorite characters died when they were on the brink of escape. Bravery and camaraderie can take us a long way. No one would have survived if they hadn’t found each other.
See More: ‘All of Us Are Dead’ Ending, Explained: What Was Jonas Virus? Who Were ‘Half-Bies’?
