Call of the Undead

In Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, 10-year-old child Annie Bennett (Quvenzhane Wallis) resides in foster care with several other girls under the care of Colleen Hannigan (Cameron Diaz), a bitter former singer of C+C Music Factory, who spends her days drinking or trying to find a husband. Colleen was a huge singing star back in the 1990s but ended her career on account of having gone insane after drinking alcohol. Colleen gives various grueling chores to the orphaned children in her care. She makes the girls clean the entire dorm in order to prepare for an upcoming city inspector's visit. The other foster girls include Pepper Ulster (Amanda Troya), Isabella Sullivan (Eden Duncan-Smith), Tessie Marcus (Zoe Margaret Colletti) and Mia Putnam (Nicolette Pierini). Colleen gets $157 per week from the state to host each of the foster girls. Annie has a brilliant mind but is a slacker at school. She has a knack of converting any assignment into a musical performance piece. Lou (David Zayas) is the local bodega owner who is friends with Annie and has a crush on Miss Hannigan. Annie spends Fridays waiting outside Domoni's restaurant, believing her parents will come for her because a note written on a receipt from Domoni's says they would return. When a city inspector checks Miss Hannigan on her treatment of the girls, Annie takes advantage of the situation; she manages to copy her social security number from his clipboard and heads off to get her information (she borrows $43.5 from Lou to pay the city hall for her data). Unfortunately, Annie learns that there's nothing more about her than what she already knows. While trying to save a Shiba Inu from a group of bullies, Annie is nearly run over by a minivan; however, she is saved by William Stacks (Jamie Foxx), a germaphobe cellphone mogul running for mayor. Annie's rescue goes viral on the internet, boosting Stacks popularity by five points in the polls. Before the event, Stacks was 20 points behind in polls, and his billions of spending money was not working in his favor. Stacks says that a Telecom innovator he created a network that never dropped a call, and as mayor he promises to create an administration that never drops a citizen. As per suggestion of Stacks' campaign manager Guy Danlily (Bobby Cannavale), Stacks invites Annie for a lunch meeting. Stacks' assistant Grace Farrell (Rose Byrne) brings Annie for lunch after Hannigan makes her write a check to cash for potential injuries to Annie during the incident with Stacks. At the meeting, Stacks and Annie joke about living together to boost his popularity and Guy actually likes that idea. Annie moves in with Stacks to boost his popularity further and she enjoys her new surroundings, making friends with Grace. Mrs. Kovacevic (Stephanie Kurtzuba) is the New York Family Services worker who becomes close with Annie's case. She approves the temporary change in guardianship for Annie from Hannigan to Stacks, after inspecting Stacks' palatial home. As Annie embarks on a photo tour around the city, she gets more popular than Stacks. She is genuine and someone that can relate with, whereas Stacks is still very aloof and cold. Annie also gets to adopt the stray dog from before, naming her Sandy. Annie now has 1.3 million followers on Twitter. Bonding with Annie, Stacks reveals that he had humble beginnings in Queens; he never really knew his father on account of his work hours, but believed he could understand him if he worked just as hard. Annie also helps Grace and Stacks begin realizing their romantic feelings for each other. Nash (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) is the tough but lovable bodyguard and driver for Will and good friends with Annie. He takes Annie to the mobile control room of Stacks' network empire and shows her how the company can track every phone call and data transfer ever made on the network for the past 20 years. Per Annie's request, Stacks takes her and her friends in Hannigan's foster care to see the premiere of Moon Quake Lake. Stacks is uninterested in the movie at first, but soon becomes a major fan, along with Grace. Per Annie and Grace's insistence, Stacks joins the after-movie party. After returning her friends home, Annie shows Grace her Friday routine of waiting to see if her parents will return; Grace sympathizes, agreeing to keep this a secret from Stacks. At Miss Hannigan's, the girls accidentally wake her; Miss Hannigan snaps at them, saying rich people are selfish, and will ditch anyone they don't care about anymore (recalling her own past). Slightly hung over, she laments about her situation of foster kids and her desire to reclaim stardom. Annie and Stacks continue to bond, flying around New York City on a helicopter. Annie is invited to a charity event, where she speaks about how grateful she is for much opportunities she's been given. When Annie is asked to read a speech, she runs out, revealing that she doesn't know how to read (despite being 10 years old and attending school). Stacks decides to get her a special education teacher, but Guy decides that Annie will only hinder Stacks' campaign as his popularity isn't improving any more. Teaming up with Miss Hannigan, Guy plans to have impostors claim Annie as their daughter to boost Stacks' popularity to the point where he wins the election; Guy will then share his payment with Hannigan. However, Guy doesn't care about Annie's well-being, planning to put her back into foster care after the election and cutting Miss Hannigan out of the deal. Hannigan has second thoughts after Stacks revealed the nice things Annie said about her, asking "Who am I?". By the time she realizes herself, Annie has already been kidnapped by the impostors; Hannigan informs Stacks about the scheme, getting Guy fired. Stacks, Grace, Hannigan and the girls board Stacks' helicopter; assisted by the police, they chase the getaway car into the park. Thinking Stacks arranged this (on account of the kidnappers believing Stacks rather than Guy paid them), Annie is upset and refuses to believe him when he informs her he didn't know about the scheme. To prove his innocence, Stacks announces to the press that he quits the mayoral race; Annie then helps Grace and Stacks admit their love. All three dance and sing happily as they are streamed onto television. Later, Annie announces the opening of the "Stacks Literacy Centre", to help children like herself, who cannot read. Everyone sings Annie's song "Tomorrow" and Stacks adopts Pepper, Isabella, Tessie, Mia, as well as Sandy. With a straight face, Miss Hannigan attempts to continue singing after the song is done, only to receive stares that cue her to stop.