History: Film / ResidentEvilDegeneration

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'''''Resident Evil: Degeneration''''' is a CGI film released in 2008 by {{Capcom}} as part of the ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' continuity. It should not be confused with the live action films.

The film is set in 2005, seven years after the [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis destruction]] of [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2 Raccoon City]], one year after the events of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'', and brings back the main characters of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2''. Claire Redfield, after the events of ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica Code: Veronica]]'', has decided she isn't suited for actively combating Umbrella and its bioweapons, instead joining a non-government organization known as "Terra Save", which both opposes bioweaponry and conducts search and rescue of chemical and bioterrorist attacks. She goes to an airport to chaperone a [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything little girl with missing parents]] when zombies suddenly infest the terminal. With only a few suvivors, the military calls in an expert on these kind of situations to stage a rescue mission: [[GenreSavvy Leon S. Kennedy]]. HilarityEnsues. Then [[FromBadToWorse not so much.]]

Unlike the other ''Resident Evil'' movies, this one actually takes place in the continuity of the games and uses some fan favorite characters for protagonists along with a couple (as in two) new bloods to serve the TooDumbToLive roles you simply can't have a zombie movie without. It also continues the somewhat new series tradition of taking itself less seriously, though not as much as the NarmCharm - tastic ''Resident Evil 4''. It brings back the T-virus zombies for another outing as well as letting a boss monster from ''Resident Evil 2'' out to play.

It is followed up by the sequel ''Film/ResidentEvilDamnation'' with Leon once again as the protagonist.

!!This movie includes examples of:
* ActionGirl[=/=]ActionSurvivor: Zigzagged with Claire. Per her own dialogue, she's voluntarily demoted herself to pacifism, and would rather look after the civilians than kick ass. Hand her a gun, though, and it becomes apparent ''why'' she's one of the few survivors of Raccoon City.
* ATeamFiring: Greg. In a mild variation, he has a fairly high hit rate. It's just that he's shooting, y'know, ''zombies''. He even holds the barrel shroud in an overhand grip to reduce climb. It should be noted, though, that [[WhatAnIdiot he keeps doing this]] even after Leon tells him to aim for the head. ''Twice''.
** It's at least justified in context. The SRT isn't trained for dealing with T-virus outbreaks, and years of training for center of mass shots and muscle memory simply can't be overcome in a few minutes. Even after coming face to face with the fact that the hostiles aren't still alive Greg and Angela still have trouble coming to terms with this fact.
* ActionizedSequel: While ''Degeneration'' takes place after ''Resident Evil 4'', it is more a sequel to ''Resident Evil 2'', and is much more of an action movie than a horror movie.
* ArmorPiercingSlap: Claire gives Senator Davis a ''good'' one for abandoning Rani.
* AttackItsWeakPoint: Leon and Claire always aim for the head when facing the zombies and specifically instruct the others to do the same, even claiming that ''only'' headshots work. In the games, this isn't true. While torso shots will bring a zombie down ''eventually'', it's a waste of ammo when compared to an instant-kill headshot.
* {{Badass}}: Leon.
* BadassPacifist: Claire, as mentioned above, chose to take a role of rescuer and healer after the events of ''Code: Veronica''. This doesn't stop her from kicking zombie ass when she's put into a corner, though.
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Angela is arguably a {{deconstruction}} of this, as she places her teammates in danger several times by blindly running off to do something heroic, most notably when she runs off to investigate what Leon warns her is the sound of zombies, thinking it might be an injured human being. She even notes she accidentally got some of her teammates injured in a foolhardy attempt to save someone from a river before the events of the movie.
* CListFodder: Averted. Amongst the survivors in the airport, there are the senator's male secretary, and a female airport employee. Neither character is given a name and each speaks only a few lines, which would normally be signs of basically them being zombie chow, but both of them manage to survive the airport outbreak.
* ContinuityNod: At one point, Claire uses an umbrella as a weapon. Though she never opens it, it's clearly patterned after the Umbrella logo. She even {{lampshades}} it. Also, she is reunited with Leon after he rescues her in the exact same manner that he did in ''Resident Evil 2''.
* DeadlineNews: The reporter at the airport ends up as a spectacularly [[TooDumbToLive moronic example]].
* DirtyCoward: Senator Davis cares only for himself, and if surviving means putting the lives of the other members of the group in danger then so be it. To add insult to injury, it works. He survives the zombie outbreak, [[spoiler: but not Tricell's cleanup operation.]] 
* DramaticGunCock: Justified when Angela gets the drop on Frederic Downing and intentionally scares him by pulling the trigger when her gun was empty. She racked the action to eject the live round in the chamber.
** And parodied in the outtakes.
* DullSurprise: Leon gets hit with this hard.
* EvilBrit: PlayedWith regarding Frederick. He seems nice at first, only to be revealed to be working for [=WilPharma=]. Then it's subverted when it's revealed that [=WilPharma=] were actually working on a vaccine to cure the virus. [[spoiler: ''Then'' it's double subverted when it turns out he was lying and was responsible for the virus outbreak after all.]]
* FauxActionGirl: Angela.
* GenreSavvy: Leon and Claire, having survived multiple separate bio-outbreaks apiece, ''know'' what's going on and how to survive. If only their allies would listen to them.
* HeroTrackingFailure: A rather blatant example when bullets fired by Marines patter off the ground near their target in standard trope fashion. While said target was ''standing still''. And (being the BodyHorror FinalBoss) has a center of mass about seven feet up. Even if the Marines are [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy missing at that range]], why are their bullets hitting the ''ground''?
* HeyItsThatVoice: Creator/CrispinFreeman as Dr. Downing, doing a [[SoBadItsGood hilariously bad]] English accent to boot.
* HilariousOuttakes: Mostly redubs and re-edits of existing scenes, along with a couple others, like a press conference by the G-virus infected Curtis. 
** OMG CLAIRE NUKED—no, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SD_AZtBKcM BLEW UP RACCOON CITY!]]
** Leon's is TOO GOOD!
-->'''Leon''': ...Angela.
-->'''Angela''': Yeah?
-->'''Leon''': (frightened tone) Don't leave me. I'm scared!
* HisStoryRepeatsItself: Like in ''Resident Evil 2'''s A-Scenario, Leon once again finds himself holding the hand of a LoveInterest, her life literally in his hand. [[spoiler:This time, though, he manages to save her.]]
* ImmuneToBullets: G-Curtis starts to NoSell the full auto fire of the Marines. Subverted later on, with Leon managing to stun him with a headshot.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: Leon during the escape sequence in the lobby can take out zombies dozens of meters away with clear headshots armed only with his handgun, which doesn't have a scope. Then again, this ''is'' [[{{Badass}} Leon]] we're talking about, so it kinda comes with the package.
* ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure: To contain a viral outbreak (consisting of one person infected with the G-virus and a handful of zombies), an entire research facility self-destructs in the most needlessly elaborate way possible - by dropping, section by section, into an enormously deep shaft and then being incinerated.
* LeParkour: Leon does an incredible parkour sequence near the end of the movie to escape a SelfDestructMechanism. 
* MadeOfIron: Leon. He gets smacked dozens of metres through the air by a G-virus mutant, smashes into a block of metal, and is still able to get up afterwards and pull off the LeParkour sequence with no hassle.
* MamaBear: Claire to Rani.
* ManBehindTheMan: It appears Senator Davis might be responsible for the biohazard outbreaks after all. [[spoiler: He's not. It's Frederick.]]
* MeaningfulEcho: "If you don't try to save one life, you will never save any."
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Claire's reaction when she learns that Terra Save's actions have delayed distribution of the T-virus vaccine.
* NoNameGiven: Rani's aunt is never named, and is only referred to as "Aunt" in the credits. The senator's secretary and the hostess of the airport's VIP lounge, despite being part of the group of survivors, are not given names either.
* NotAZombie: Happens a few times.
** First, the nameless security guard threatens to arrest the first zombie to appear, allowing it to get into range before it latches onto his throat. Somewhat justified, as he had just arrested a Terra Save protester in a zombie costume and thus had reason to believe it was another idiot. Senator Davis' bodyguard continues to treat it as if it's a human, even after Claire warns him, and is eaten for it.
** Later, despite having just been told about the zombies, and being warned by Leon that the moan she's just heard is a classic sound of the zombies, Angela runs off and, finding an apparently injured man on the ground, hoists him over her shoulders; only Leon's intervention saves her from getting her face bitten off. Even then, she ''still'' warns a zombie to back away, then aims ''downwards'' and shoots her in the leg, to no practical effect.
** Then there's Greg, who avoids the "deliberately shoot non-vital areas" and "try to order the zombie back" flaws, but wastes his ammo on a "spray and pray" fighting style, which ends up inflicting minimal casualties and almost gets him killed when one of the zombies he had shot up breaks through a window and grapples him to the ground.
* NotUsingTheZWord: Unusual, considering zombies are always used to refer the walking dead in universe. Leon calls them "the dead", and everyone else calls them "those things".
* NuclearWeaponsTaboo: Averted; while it isn't made clear if the bomb that destroyed Raccoon City was nuclear or not, a reporter mentions that it's rumoured to be such.
* RedShirtArmy: The Marines fighting G-Curtis. After initially knocking him down, they get torn apart with ease.
* RedShirtReporter: One of the first casualties is one of these.
* SelfDestructMechanism: The finale gives us the mind-boggling containment system in the [=WilPharma=] facility, which includes: [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill spraying everything with flammable liquid, detaching contaminated sections, dropping them in a 3000 foot shaft (in sequence no less), incinerating them in a giant fireball (twice), and sealing them behind a steel covering thick enough to withstand a nuclear blast.]] How the hell did they have any funds left for medical research?
** In all fairness, Umbrella's shown how piss-poor containment protocols hold up against zombie monsters, so overkill might be a bit justified. [=WilPharma=] may actually be the most efficient corporation in the history of the franchise when it comes to keeping things from biting them in the ass.
* SequelHook: The ending shows [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil5 Tricell]] doing the clean-up of the [=WilPharma=] site.
* ShoutOut: Many, to both ''Resident Evil 2'' and to ''Resident Evil 4''.
* TheStoic: Leon, who never speaks in anything but a monotone, has almost no facial expression whatsoever, and whose emotional range varies between "..." and "....." He even loses the psuedo-DeadpanSnarker wisecracks and LargeHam tendancies from ''Resident Evil 4''.
* TheStinger: [[spoiler: In the ruins of the [=WilPharma=] facility, a cleanup agent in a biohazard suit finds a part of the late mutated Curtis, picks it up, and stores it in a container.]]
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: The [=WilPharma=] facility's SelfDestructMechanism.
** In all fairness, it actually takes the full sequence to kill [[spoiler:the mutated Curtis]], so it's closer to CrazyPrepared than overkill.
* TooDumbToLive: 
** Angela and Greg both make rookie mistakes common to the "police/military official meets zombie" scenario, despite the presence and warning of [[GenreSavvy Leon]]. And unlike every other scenario where this happens, zombies are ''not'' some previously unseen phenomenon; their existence has been common knowledge for years by the time the movie takes place. While they weren't sure it was a T-virus to begin with, and knowledge about what really happened in Raccoon City is a little shakey at best, they still had Leon with them, and he gave them the lowdown on what to expect.
** The television reporter at the zombie-infested airport takes this UpToEleven when her cameraman looks past her and runs off. The obvious implication here being that extreme danger is heading their way, but her reaction to this is a confused "Why'd you stop filming?!" Cue a hungry zombie showing up behind her.
** Some of the Marines can be considered this, due to their battle plan against G-Curtis consisting of "shoot him" and "shoot him some more," even though he's obviously shrugging all the bullets off. By the time they consider switching over to their grenade attachments he's already cutting through them.
* UnderwaterKiss: From Leon to Angela, as she apparently needed the air more than him. A rather big ShipTease moment.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Curtis. He caused an outbreak to pressure [=WilPharma=] into revealing the truth behind the Raccoon City disaster as he wished for the tragedy to never be repeated.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Curtis lost most of his family to the Raccoon City disaster, so he was extremely determined to ensure that said disaster is never repeated, even if the method of not repeating the disaster is [[spoiler:causing an outbreak of the T-virus at an airport and the [=WilPharma=] facility, and then injecting himself with the G-virus as a means to force the government and [=WilPharma=] into revealing the truth.]]
* ZombieApocalypse: A surprisingly small one. The airport outbreak is small and easily contained, and while there's one when Claire is escaping the [=WilPharma=] facility, the rest of the movie focuses more on Leon and Angela escaping the mutated Curtis. It speaks to either the LoweredMonsterDifficulty of the zombies or Claire's own badassedness that the zombies running around [=WilPharma=] are barely an afterthought for her even though she's already visibly injured and heads off on her own.

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