Resident Evil: Apocalypse

Plot

After the events of the previous film, the Umbrella Corporation sends a new team in to re-open The Hive and determine what happened. When the team opens the sealed blast doors, they are slaughtered by the massive crowd of T-virus infected zombies. The zombies are released, and the infection quickly spreads through Raccoon City. Two days later the Umbrella Corporation quarantines Raccoon City and establishes a security perimeter around it, evacuating all important Umbrella personnel. A girl named Angela Ashford, daughter of the Level 6 Umbrella researcher and T-virus creator Dr. Charles Ashford, goes missing after an Umbrella security car transporting her out of the city has an accident.

Alice awakens in the deserted Raccoon City hospital, arms herself with a shotgun from a police car, and wanders the city looking for supplies. Umbrella begins evacuating civilians at the Raven's Gate Bridge, the only exit out of the town. Disgraced police officer Jill Valentine confers with Sergeant Payton Wells, her old partner, after hearing about the infection. The T-virus infects a man having a heart attack, turning him into a zombie that bites Sgt. Payton at the city gates. Umbrella's head of the Raccoon City contamination operation, Major Timothy Cain, seals the exit to the city and orders his soldiers to fire into the crowd and scare them back into the city.

In another part of Raccoon City, Carlos Olivera and other Umbrella soldiers link up with the Special Tactics And Rescue Squad (S.T.A.R.S.) units to defend against an onslaught of zombies. Their positions are overrun, causing Carlos and his team to retreat. Carlos' friend and fellow soldier Yuri, who has been bitten, turns into a zombie that bites and infects Carlos before being killed. Jill, Payton, and news reporter Terri Morales lock themselves in a church, but the church is overrun and they must be saved by a heavily armed Alice. Umbrella also dispatches their Nemesis Program for testing against the S.T.A.R.S. team, who are all killed except for civilian L.J. Dr. Ashford hacks into the city's CCTV system and uses it to contact Alice and the other survivors, offering to arrange their evacuation from the city in exchange for their help safely retrieving his daughter. Dr. Ashford explains that Umbrella intends to cleanse Raccoon City in the morning by dropping a low-yield nuclear bomb on it.

Alice and the others head for Angela's school, but they are ambushed by Nemesis along the way and Payton is killed by Jill after succumbing to his bite wound and turning. Alice engages the Nemesis but is wounded and forced to retreat. Jill and Terri make it to the school, picking up a stranded L.J. along the way. Inside the school, Terri is killed but Jill finds Angela and rescues her with help from Carlos and Nicholai. Alice re-joins them and Angela reveals she was deliberately infected with the T-virus to treat a genetic disease. She also reveals that Alice has been massively infected as well, but her body has bonded with it and she is enhanced rather than turning. Alice uses Angela's anti-virus to treat Carlos and the group sets out to escape the city. Dr. Ashford gives Alice the location of the extraction point at City Hall where a helicopter waits. The group makes it to the rendezvous point but are again ambushed, this time by Umbrella forces. Cain requires a final test for Nemesis and orders Alice to fight him or Cain will kill all of the survivors. He reinforces his threat by shooting and killing Dr. Ashford. Alice battles Nemesis and finally impales him on a steel beam, but she refuses to kill him after realizing that he is Matt Addison.

Cain orders Nemesis to return to the helicopter so they can leave, but Nemesis turns on Cain and attacks the Umbrella troops. Nemesis is finally killed protecting Alice from an explosion, and the rest of the survivors seize the helicopter. They throw Cain from the helicopter to the ground to be eaten by zombies including the now-turned Dr. Ashford. The survivors escape in the chopper as the nuclear bomb detonates over the City Hall, catching the chopper in the blast wave and forcing it to crash. Alice sacrifices herself to save Angela during the crash and is impaled on a metal pole, killing her.

Some time after the explosion Umbrella employees locate the helicopter crash site and rescue the survivors. Through TV footage we see that the explosion was covered-up by Umbrella and explained as an explosion at the nuclear plant. The survivor's stories of the infection and what really happen in Raccoon City are passed off as a hoax and discredited. Alice wakes up in an Umbrella research facility and escapes with help from Carlos, Jill, L.J., and Angela. They are allowed to leave by Dr. isaacs, who tells Alice that "Project Alice" has been activated. The Umbrella logo flashes over Alice's pupils before the survivors drive off.

Pre-production

Resident Evil: Apocalypse was first discussed by Milla Jovovich and Paul W. S. Anderson while promoting Resident Evil (2002). Anderson stated that he began writing the screenplay for the second film after completing the first. He revealed an idea to have Jill Valentine meeting up with Alice, however this idea was scrapped as he wanted two separate stories occurring at the same time. Anderson mentioned the film would go ahead if the first film was a success and promised that "the sequel will be even better", stating that "there is more of the story to be told." The sequel was officially greenlit by Sony in mid-2002, however Anderson chose not to direct but rather stay on as the film's producer and writer due to commitments to Alien vs. Predator (2004).

Alexander Witt was hired by Sony to direct the sequel. Milla Jovovich confirmed her character would return in the sequel if the first film was successful, and when the film was greenlit, Jovovich officially signed on. In March 2002, Eric Mabius (who played Matt Addison in the first film), confirmed the story would revolve around his character becoming Nemesis. He also revealed he would portray the character and study his movements whilst playing Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, however before production began he pulled out and Matthew G. Taylor was cast as Nemesis. It was reported that Gina Philips would appear as Claire Redfield and Natasha Henstridge as Jill Valentine, however both actresses left before production began. Sienna Guillory was cast to portray Jill Valentine and Oded Fehr was cast as Carlos Olivera, while Claire Redfield's role was scrapped after Emily Bergl dropped the role. The role was later offered to Ali Larter in the film's sequel Extinction (2007). Jason Isaacs was originally intended to return and portray Dr. William Birkin, however passed on the role and the character's name was changed to Dr. Isaacs, with Iain Glen being cast in the role.

Jack Noseworthy was originally rumored to portray Brad Vickers, however, this was later revealed as a rumor. Two weeks before production began, Jared Harris was cast as a new character called Dr. Ashford who developed and produced the T-virus.

Story development

In March 2002, it was revealed that the film borrowed plot elements from Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, as the film's subtitle was revealed as Resident Evil: Nemesis. It was also revealed that the film included new characters from the video game series, such as Jill Valentine, Claire Redfield, Carlos Olivera, Dr. William Birkin and Nemesis. In April 2003, it was confirmed that the story began minutes after the end of the first film, where Alice is a survivor amongst the ruins of Raccoon City.

The film borrowed numerous elements from the game series, including re-enactments of certain scenes, such as Alice running through a building with an Umbrella helicopter firing at her, up to the point where she drops her gun, falls, re-grabs it and fires, which is reminiscent of the introductory cutscene of Resident Evil Code: Veronica. Another scene where Raccoon City is overrun by zombies and the police and Umbrella mercenaries are fighting back is reminiscent of the introduction of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. Other scenes involve the launching a missile to destroy Raccoon City and the attack at the graveyard.

The film references Resident Evil, with the crash site of the helicopter being located in the Arklay Forest near the Arklay Mountains, where the Resident Evil series began. Other similarities include Jill's moves from the first game. The recording of Terri's death is similar to Kenneth's death. A white goddess statue can be seen in the church, with artwork of goddesses having a large role in the puzzles of the Resident Evil series. Whilst walking on the Arklay Overpass, Jill speculates that there is no way out, and that Ashford may just be watching them on the cameras, as if the whole thing were some sort of sick game. The games use a fixed camera perspective, which in most of the earlier games resembles a mounted camera's perspective. Another similarity includes a scene where Jill finds a gun under a pew, mirroring the game when the player finds ammunition or weapons in certain areas.

The film references Resident Evil 2 when Alice visits the gun shop which is similar to Kendo's Gun Shop. Angela Ashford's character is based on Sherry Birkin, as they are both children, dressed in school uniforms, and in need of rescue. Both of their fathers are also researchers working for Umbrella. The Ashford name comes from the founders of Umbrella revealed in Resident Evil Code: Veronica. The film also references Resident Evil 3: Nemesis with Jill wearing the same outfit. Nemesis is a character taken directly from the game, and the "STARS" are mentioned on numerous occasions.

Production

Actors portraying zombies were trained at a zombie "boot camp" where they were coached to act as "zen" zombies and "liquid" zombies. Anderson and other crew members intended to make the zombies move faster but decided that it would be breaking a fundamental element of the games. The design for Nemesis was to include an actor in a suit (Matthew G. Taylor) with only special effects applied to certain parts of the character's body, such as the eye. The Lickers were fully computer-generated, though the use of physical puppets was originally considered. To avert issues faced during production, the CGI work of the Lickers began early. The film was filmed on location in Canada, with the film entering pre-production stages in mid-2003. Principal photography was slated to originally begin in July 2003, before being bumped up to August 6, 2003.

The film was shot in Ontario, Canada, with Toronto and its surrounding suburbs being a stand-in for Raccoon City. It was originally feared that production would be shut down due to the 2003 SARS outbreak in Toronto.

Marketing and release

The film was planned for an October 31, 2003 release, although was pushed back to September 10, 2004 due to the 2003 SARS outbreak. In late 2003, a teaser trailer was released titled Regenerate and was directed by Marcus Nispel. The preview was noted for being reminiscent of the Olay product Regenerist advertisements and can be viewed in RealMedia and Windows Media formats. In May 2004 it was revealed the trailer would actually be part of the film. Milla Jovovich's official website later released promotional images that showed Alice in several scenes from the film.

The theatrical trailer was released on Yahoo! Movies on July 7, 2004 and prior to the film's release, two albums for Resident Evil: Apocalypse were released. The first was the soundtrack which was released August 31, 2004 and featured music from the film. The second was the film's score, which was released in late 2004 and was composed by Jeff Danna and performed by the London Philharmonia Orchestra. A day before the film's release, numerous props from the film were auctioned on the website Premiere Props. The film opened at number one in North America on September 10, 2004 and received an estimated $23.7 million on its opening weekend and $129,394,835 worldwide.

A novelization written by Keith R. A. DeCandido was published by Pocket Star on August 31, 2004. The novel is 288 pages long. DeCandido also wrote the novelizations for the first and third films.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 21% based on 124 reviews. The site's Critics Consensus reads, "Resident Evil: Apocalypse has lots of action, but not much in terms of plot or creativity." Metacritic gives the film a score of 35/100 based on 26 reviews.

Leonard Maltin rated the film a "BOMB" in his book Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide, and called it a "Tiresome follow-up to Resident Evil that plays more like a remake." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a score of half a star out of four, saying: "The movie is an utterly meaningless waste of time. There was no reason to produce it, except to make money, and there is no reason to see it, except to spend money. It is a dead zone, a film without interest, wit, imagination or even entertaining violence and special effects. [...] Parents: If you encounter teenagers who say they liked this movie, do not let them date your children."

Dave Kehr of The New York Times gave the film a positive review, saying: "Anderson's screenplay provides a steady series of inventive action situations, and the director, Alexander Witt, makes the most of them. His work is fast, funny, smart and highly satisfying in terms of visceral impact." M. E. Russell of The Oregonian said: "The bad news? The movie is monumentally stupid. The good news? It's a fun kind of stupid." Nathan Rabin of A.V. Club said that the film "takes too long to get going to qualify unequivocally as a good movie, but when Jovovich finally starts kicking zombified ass, it becomes good enough."

Gregory Kirschling of Entertainment Weekly praised Jovovich but felt that "the rest of the cast is strictly straight-to-DVD." Ben Kenigsberg of The Village Voice said the film is "not without its moments of elemental dread [but] also obviously padded, too long on action, and painfully short on irony. The satirical element still packs a minor jolt." Carrie Rickey of The Philadelphia Inquirer said that "those who want something more substantial from a movie than a vid-game script with centerfold appeal will not find it in this noisy, bone-crushing survivalist flick."

In 2009, Time listed the film on their list of top ten worst video game movies. According to the DVD extras of Resident Evil: Extinction (2007), Paul W. S. Anderson, the director of the first film and writer of the series, was critical of director Alexander Witt's work.

Home media

The film was released on VHS and DVD in North America on December 28, 2004. Releases on UMD and Blu-ray Disc formats followed on April 19, 2005 and January 16, 2007, respectively. The film was released in Australia and New Zealand on March 16, 2005 and February 2005 in UK. The release included an audio commentary by the director Alexander Witt, producer Paul W. S. Anderson, and actress Milla Jovovich. The release included 20 deleted scenes with numerous outtakes and a featurette titled "Game Over: Resident Evil Reanimated". 6 other featurettes were included which covered behind the scenes of the film's production. The blooper reel included on the DVD edition is not included on the Blu-ray edition of the film.

Special "Resurrection Editions" of both Resident Evil (2002) and Resident Evil: Apocalypse were released in a two-disc set on September 4, 2007. An exclusive sneak peek scene for Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) was included, along with several other bonus features including "Diary of an Apocalypse" and "The Evolution of Resident Evil: Bridge to Extinction".

In 2013, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released a two-disc set containing the first four films in the series. It was called The 4 Movie Resident Evil Collection.