The Walking Dead

Judge Roger Shaw convicts a man of diverting and misappropriating public funds and imposes a harsh ten-year sentence with no parole. This verdict spurs a plan by a gang of racketeers to exact revenge through murder, setting the film's conflict in motion.

A gang of racketeers resolves to avenge Shaw's harsh judgment by murder. They scheme to remove the judge and cover their tracks, establishing the motive for the coming killings.

John Ellman, recently released after a ten-year sentence influenced by Shaw, is asked to monitor the judge for supposed infidelity. He accepts the assignment, though he senses danger and manipulation behind the request.

Shaw is shot and killed while in his car, and Ellman is discovered nearby, having heard the crash. Ellman becomes the primary suspect, triggering his fall from grace and the start of his framed execution.

Nancy and Jimmy, a young couple who work for Dr. Evan Beaumont, witness the corpse being moved into a car. A mysterious man urges them to keep quiet, silencing potential witnesses and enabling the conspiracy to unfold.

Ellman is unfairly tried for Shaw's murder, with Nolan providing a mediocre defense. Despite evidence of his innocence, the court convicts him and sentences him to the electric chair.

Beaumont retrieves Ellman's body and revives him through his experimental work on reanimating the dead. The revival opens the door to new possibilities and ethical questions about life and death.

Nolan is appointed Ellman's guardian, and Ellman receives a state settlement of $500,000. He also begins to sense that Nolan may be his enemy, setting up tension for what follows.

With his revived awareness, Ellman begins seeking out the men who framed him. He moves through various locations, pursuing truth and possible retribution, even as others try to stop him.

Ellman visits Trigger and unnerves him so deeply that Trigger accidentally shoots himself to death. This marks the first fatal consequence among the framers.

Unnerved by Trigger's death, Blackstone attempts to leave town but is confronted by Ellman at the train depot and is struck by an oncoming train. His death increases the psychic weight of Ellman's awakenings.

Ellman visits Merritt at his apartment, and Merritt immediately suffers a heart attack and falls from his window to his death. The death underscores the mounting danger to the conspirators tied to Ellman's return.

Ellman disappears again and is later found wandering a cemetery. Nancy encounters him there and urges him to come back, but he remains evasive and distant from her pleas.

As Nancy scrambles to alert Beaumont, Ellman is mortally shot by the two conspirators who framed him. His death leaves the mystery of the killings unresolved in the moment.

Beaumont hurries to the cemetery where Ellman lies dying in the gravekeeper's cottage, and Ellman delivers a final admonition about the afterlife. The two remaining racketeers die when their car crashes into an electric pole and explodes, while Beaumont repeats Ellman's warning about a jealous God.