Resident Evil (known in Japan as Biohazard) is a SurvivalHorror and science fiction video game series. It has since branched off to become a media franchise consisting of comic books, novelizations, four films, and a variety of collectibles (including action figures, strategy guides and publications.) Developed by Capcom and created by Shinji Mikami, the series has sold 34.5 million games as of February 29, 2008.

The premise of the original Resident Evil was that the Umbrella Corporation was conducting sinister experiments in a mansion outside of the [[TheMountainsOfIllinois "Midwestern"]] town of Raccoon City, and a team of SWAT-like police called the Special Tactics and Rescue Squad, or STARS, is called in to deal with it. Further games expanded on this premise, and it has since become one of the most successful action-horror games series of all time. The movie franchise, starring Milla Jovovich, is also moderately successful and has spawned three movies with a fourth one in development.

Most recently, the Resident Evil franchise released a CGI movie called ''Resident Evil: Degeneration.'' Unlike the live-action films, this is set in the video game canon, taking place one year after ''[=RE4=]''. The fifth installment of the game's main series was released March 12, 2009.

Games in this series include:
* ''ResidentEvil1''
* ''ResidentEvil2''
* ''ResidentEvil3: Nemesis''
** ''ResidentEvilSurvivor''
* ''ResidentEvilCodeVeronica''
** ''ResidentEvilGaiden''
** ''Resident Evil Survivor 2 - Code: Veronica''
* ''ResidentEvil0''
** ''ResidentEvilDeadAim''
** ''ResidentEvilOutbreak''
** ''Resident Evil Outbreak File #2''
* ''ResidentEvil4''
** ''ResidentEvilUmbrellaChronicles''
* ''ResidentEvil5''
** ''ResidentEvilDarksideChronicles''

The live-action film series includes the following films:
* ''Film/ResidentEvil''
* ''Resident Evil: Apocalypse''
* ''Resident Evil: Extinction''
* ''Resident Evil: Afterlife''

Also spawned an AffectionateParody (sorta) planned to span the core games of the series in an over-arching story called ''TwoWeeksNotice''. Each game is a mega-chapter split into regular chapters. Notable for AdaptationExpansion and lampooning SoupCans.

The new Character Sheet is [[Characters/ResidentEvil here.]] Feel welcome to help.
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!!This series provides examples of:
* AbnormalAmmo: Gas, acid and freeze rounds for grenade launchers
* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The Novistador-infested waterway beneath Salazar's castle in ''[=RE4=]'' and the cavernous sewers in ''[=RE2=]'' of which some corridors were larger than the ones in the police station.
* AcceptableTargets: The evil megacorporation doing research into biological weaponry, and with contacts in the government, Umbrella. In Degeneration, the team has to rescue an overweight, white, balding, jerk senator with questionable connections to big business. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope And he's innocent]]. Well, maybe not of the insider trading, but of the "releasing the T-virus" bit. He's still a {{Jerkass}} {{Asshole Victim}} though.]]
* AGodAmI: Alexia in ''Code: Veronica'', Saddler in ''[=RE4=]'', and Wesker in ''[=RE5=]''.
* Amnesia tropes that apply to Alice and Spence Parks in [[Film/ResidentEvil the first movie]] as a side effect of being gassed unconscious.
** EasyAmnesia
** LaserGuidedAmnesia
*** IdentityAmnesia
* ApocalypticLog: A way of saving the games, and way too many logs left by the various researchers and doomed citizens in the games.
* ActionCommands: Becoming quite popular after ''[=RE4=]'' and ''Umbrella Chronicles''..
* ActionGirl: All the playable female characters, not including Ashley and Sherry.
* AfterTheEnd: The third live-action movie. The T-Virus has contaminated nearly all life on Earth, and turned most of the planet into a dry desert somehow.
* AirVentEscape: Sherry does this a few times, notably to stop the train at [=RE2=]'s finale; Ada does it once with Leon's help.
* AllJustADream: The ending of ''Resident Evil: Survivor 2'' reveals that the events of the game were part of a long dream Claire was having during the events of ''Code: Veronica''
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The Umbrella Corporation's executives and researchers are interested in mayhem rather than profit. ''ZeroPunctuation'' said it best: "the Umbrella Corporation is "controlled by a handful of people who, in any sane world, would have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act before they could even finish presenting their proposal to murder 90% of their research staff."
** The characters are GenreSavvy enough to point this out... Chris makes a couple of comments about them being madmen and terrorists, and Jill's assessment is right up there with ''Zero Punctuation''.
--->"They're wacko. One hundred percent grade A jacked up bat shit."
* AlwaysNight: For all the early games, which last through the night and end at dawn. Finally averted in ''4'' and ''5'', which both start in the day time. The sun going down is a signal that things [[ItGotWorse are about to get worse]].
** The first half and very end of ''3'' (and the end of ''1'', for that matter) take place during daytime. The former is difficult to discern, on account of everything being on fire, though.
* AmericaSavesTheDay: {{Lampshaded}} twice:
** In ''[=RE4=]'', Saddler laughs at Leon Kennedy over this trope, right before Leon kicks his ass anyway.
** Lampshaded in ''Resident Evil 5'': it's pointed out that Chris would be getting a hostile welcome no matter where he went in the country, due to attitudes towards the supposed "gung-ho" nature of American forces.
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Alternate outfits are used as rewards in every main series game.
** ''Resident Evil 3'' gives Jill her STARS uniform from the original game, as well as Regina's outfit from ''DinoCrisis''.
* AnyoneCanDie
* ApocalypticLog: "4 -- Itchy. Tasty."
* ArtificialStupidity: The AI ally (be it Sheva or Chris) is often accused of this in ''Resident Evil 5'', but it's YourMileageMayVary territory - many players find that they're no worse than a good-but-not-great human player.
* ATeamFiring: Greg in Degen. 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 [[TooDumbToLive he keeps doing this]] even after Leon tells him to aim for the head. ''Twice''.
*AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever: Some animals are zombified by the T-Virus, but others just get really ''big''. Examples include spiders, centipedes, scorpions, sharks and crocodiles.
* AwesomeButImpractical: Quite a few weapons.
** The Minigun one can unlock for Chris in ''ResidentEvil 5'' is very inaccurate. The ammo reserve also blocks part of the camera view. On the other hand, ''each bullet fired'' packs a huge punch for an automatic weapon.
** The longbow of said game ALSO doesn't have a laser pointer. Also, while the longbow is a one shot kill and fast to reload, it's hard to aim past 5 steps, and will fall victim to gravity very, VERY quickly. Unless you'll spend a lot of time with it to make it somewhat effective.
*** Tribal Sheva is actually considered a mid to top tier character in ''the mercenaries'' due to the one-hit kill nature of her main weapon.
** The RocketLauncher in ''ResidentEvil: Outbreak'' required your target to be either shock still or at a slow pace. You had one shot.
** The portable railgun in ''ResidentEvil 3: Nemesis''. Sounds cool, right? Wrong. The US Army had to set up a room for this, and lost many people luring Tyrants in front of the railgun to destroy. It takes minutes for it to charge, and a while to fire. And by portable, we mean "would need a forklift to transport".
** The Colt SAA in ''Resident Evil 2'' weakness isn't in its power (each shot is as powerful as any other handgun), but in the fact that it can only hold six bullets and takes quite a bit more time to reload than a clip-loaded handgun. However, those six bullets fire ''much'' faster than any other weapon short of the submachine gun, meaning that it's excellent against single to dual enemies. Anything more than that, though, and you're screwed.
* AxCrazy: Ed/[[spoiler:The Axeman]] from ''Outbreak.''
* BackFromTheDead: Wesker and plenty of monsters have this quality, along with [[spoiler:Jill Valentine in ''[=RE5=]'']].
** Although technically [[spoiler:Jill never died in ''[=RE5=]'', since they NeverFoundTheBody to begin with.]]
* BackForTheDead: Brad Vickers in ''[=RE3=]''.
* BadassAbnormal: Wesker in ''[=RE5=]'' is shown in a flashback to have taken a few lessons from The Matrix school of fighting where he can dodge bullets and neither Chris Redfield [[spoiler:nor Jill Valentine]] are able to land a single hit on him he is so fast. [[spoiler:It seems to be an implied result of him injecting himself with a heavily modified T-virus cooked up for him by William Birkin under Spencer's orders.]]
* BadassLongcoat: Wesker and Mr. X. Leon gets one as an alternate costume for completing ''[=RE4=]''.
* BadassNormal: Multiple
** RPD officier and later Secret Agent, Leon.
** Claire Redfield. Every other main protagonist in the game has had at least some form of professional training in either the military or police force. Claire's vocation before becoming a zombie-slaying master of espionage? ''College student.''
*** ''The Darkside Chronicles'' {{revision}}s her backstory slightly to have Chris giving her rudimentary survival and combat training at some point before the Mansion Incident.
** The ''Outbreak'' survivors. Not as extreme, but they were all badass enough to survive Racoon City, especially Raymond, the blonde cop. He was an NPC, true, but when he dies yelling for you to, "Burn these bastards!" it's pretty badass.
** Carlos and Mikhail from ''Nemesis'' were pretty badass, but Nicholai takes the cake. How many times should he have died, but didn't.
***Easily the craziest of all the times he should have died is if he shows up in the gas station, which [[MadeOfExplodium explodes and levels an entire city block]], when he's staning ''right next to the center of the explosion.'' This tropers only explanation is it blew him through a plot hole.
* BadassSpaniard: Luis Sera from ''[=RE4=]'', as the cabin siege sequence can attest. "Did you send out those invitations!? I told you no more than FEEEFTY PEOPLE!"
* BareYourMidriff: A few bonus outfits
* BattleCouple: With the fact that almost every partnership in the game is male-female, there are cases where it isn't hard to stretch it into this.
* BetterLivingThroughEvil: Excella's backstory if you read the file on her from ''Resident Evil 5''.
* BewareTheSuperman: The later installments of the series tend to boil down to [[BadAssNormal Badass Normals]] with [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower Charles Atlas Superpowers]] vs. parasite-empowered superhumans.
* BeyondTheImpossible: The bonus game in ''Resident Evil 4'' has a Ganado with a ''double-bladed flaming chainsaw.'' ''Resident Evil 5'' tries to one-up this with a majini in The Mercenaries that wields a '''FLAMING EXECUTIONER'S AXE'''.
** Gameplay-wise, the Executioner fails to live up to [[ThatOneBoss Super]]-[[DemonicSpiders Salvador's]] reputation, however; not only is his attack not a one-hit kill, he also lacks Super-Salvador's ability to attack ''while moving.'' '''Very quickly.'''
* BigDamnGunship: Helicopter Mike in ''[=RE4=]''.
* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:Barry Burton]] gets one in ''3'', when he shows up at the end with no warning to airlift you to safety before Racoon is bombed. Alice gets one in ''Extinction'', when she shows up and uses her psychic powers to kill off the [[GoddamnedBats Goddamned Crows]] attacking the convoy. Josh's team save Chris and Sheva from Majinis in [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome an extremly awesome manner.]]
* BigNo: ''[=RE4=]'' had its share of these. "MIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE!" "LUUUIIIIIIIS!!" A lively source of {{Narm}}.
* BilingualBonus: ''Resident Evil 4'' and ''5''.
* BigBad: At first the Umbrella Corporation, but Wesker seems to have emerged over the last several games as the series' main antagonist and puppet master.
* {{Badass}}: Most of the cast.
* BlackAndNerdy: Jim Chapman, who's a fan of crossword puzzles.
* BlackDudeDiesFirst - Notably {{averted}} in ''[=RE5=]'', where Josh is actually the only BSAA soldier aside from the main characters to survive. Played straight in ''[=RE1=]'' when the first S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team member Jill or Chris finds dead in the mansion turns out to be Kenneth, the only black man on the S.T.A.R.S. force.
* BlandNameProduct: ''Resident Evil 2'' is loaded with these, one of which (the "Cool Soda" vending machines) got replaced in later versions for being a bit too close to infringing on Coca-Cola's likeness.
* BlindIdiotTranslation: The first game featured an awful lot of English typos, grammatical errors and just plain goofy phrases slip through the QA net (including, not least of all, "Welcome back to the world of [[TropeNamer survival horror]]."). It did get better in subsequent games as the sequels got better budgets.
* BlondesAreEvil / BlondGuysAreEvil: Pretty much every blonde character except Ashley is a villain.
* BodyHorror: And how!
* BoldInflation:
** "What '''IS''' this?"
** "'''Wooah!''' This hall is '''dangerous'''".
** "It's a '''weapon.''' It's '''''really''''' powerful, '''''[[CaptainObvious especially]]''''' [[CaptainObvious against living things]]."
** "Just... '''take - a - look - at - ''this!''''' It's '''Forest'''. Oh my '''COD'''."
* BossInMookClothing: Hunters and Lickers in the first few games, chainsaw wielders in ''4'' and ''5''. ''[=RE5=]'' has the Licker Betas. Super long reach, essentially one hit kills, very fast draining of health.
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler:Jill Valentine]] in ''Resident Evil 5'', who ends up as Wesker's [[TheDragon Dragon]] for most of the game.
* BrotherSisterIncest: Implied between Alfred and Alexia.
* ButNotTooBlack: Sheva Alomar.
* CanonDiscontinuity: The Game Boy Color RPG ''Resident Evil Gaiden'', which had Barry Burton as the main character, was made by a completely different developer and is entirely ignored by the rest of the series (despite being written by the director of ''Resident Evil Code: Veronica'').
* CanonImmigrant: The Red Queen, a computer system from the movies, appears in The Umbrella Chronicles, though there it is portrayed as a super computer as opposed to the movies' hologram.
** Well ''it is'' a super computer in both incarnations. The game's has the good taste of leaving it just being ''a computer'' rather than a character and as a result, dropping the hologram idea.
* CapcomSequelStagnation: Somewhat averted by ''Resident Evil 4''.
* CaptainObvious: Barry Burton, Ingrid Hunnigan.
* CaramelldansenVid
* {{Casanova}}: Leon in ''Resident Evil 4'' and ''Resident Evil: Degeneration''. He'd like to think so, anyway. Luis Sera, also from ''4'', fancies himself one of these as well.
* CashCowFranchise
* ChainedByFashion: Billy Coen, from ''[=RE0=]'', spends the game with a broken pair of handcuffs hanging from his wrist. He ''did'' just escape from imprisonment.
* ChainsawGood: Fan-favourite Dr. Salvador and the Bella Sisters from ''[=RE4=]''.
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Back in the day, Chris Redfield just wasn't as good as Jill Valentine. Oh, he had higher stamina, sure, but he couldn't carry as much, and he didn't get access to the grenade launcher like Jill did. He fared a little better in ''Code: Veronica'', on account of getting some cooler toys to play with and a possible ten inventory slots, but still got the crap knocked out of him by Wesker in the end. As of ''Resident Evil 5'', he can knock enemies through closed doors with a right hook and is fully capable of killing a man by ''punching him in the ass''.
* ChasteHero: Leon refuses to have some fun with Ashley.
* TheChewToy: To quote President Evil's RE plot analysis FAQ, "someone on the development team hated Brad's guts."
* ChineseGirl: Ada Wong, Fong Ling.
* ClippedWingAngel: This happens a lot in the series. Birkin from ''Resi 2'' Nemesis in ''[=RE3=]'', Tyrant Morpheus in ''Dead Aim'', Alexia in ''Code: Veronica'', Saddler in ''[=RE4=]'', and [[spoiler:Wesker]] in ''[=RE5=]'' all transform into giant monsters that are noticeably slower, dumber, and less effective than their superhuman normal forms.
* CloningBlues: [[spoiler:Wesker]], in a manner of speaking. Also Alice in the third film.
* ClownCarGrave: The cemetery in the movie ''Resident Evil: Apocalypse'', and several graves in the games ''Resident Evil 2'' and ''3''.
* CombatTentacles: Loads of bosses, but Villager and Soldier Ganados take the cake; their Plagas often manifests itself as a tentacled brain with a huge scythe tentacle.
* CompleteMonster: Most of the villains. For a more specific example, take a look at [[spoiler:the murderous rapist police chief]] from ''Resident Evil 2''. [[NightmareFuel Better yet, don't]].
* ContinuityNod: At one point in ''Degeneration'', 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''.
* ContinuitySnarl: Capcom's attempts to set at least four different games during the Fall of Raccoon City leads to a lot of continuity errors about the shared locations. Specifically the Racoon Police Department, which players visit in ''2'', ''3'', and ''File #2'' with critical differences each time.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: The entire executive board for the Umbrella Corporation, particularly Ozwell Spencer. Albert Wesker later qualifies.
* ConvectionSchmonvection: ''Most. Guilty. Ever''. The final battle in [[spoiler:''Resident Evil 5'']] takes place ''on a lava flow.'' Not on the lip of a volcano or a catwalk several dozen feet above lava or even on top of a levitation barge skimming a dozen feet above lava. ''On the actual lava flow''.
* CrackingUp: Both [[spoiler:Jill Valentine]] and Wesker do this at the beginning of the first part of your fight with them, assuming of course that you don't shoot at them first.
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: Wesker and Hunk's Mercenaries theme in ''4'', and "Sad but True", the theme for the boss fight with [[spoiler:Jill]] in ''5''.
* CutscenePowerToTheMax: ''Resident Evil 5'' does this. In cutscenes, Chris's starter handgun is amazing. He guns down the second boss with it and in Chapter 3-3 he pulls off ''a headshot on a gunner while on a moving motorboat.''
** Otherwise, the use of ActionCommands avert this trope by letting the player pulls some great moves...provided he PressXToNotDie, see just below.
* CutsceneIncompetence: Wesker will beat the crap out of you in the cutscenes, but you can actually knock him on his ass and beat the hell out of him when you fight him.
* DamnYouMuscleMemory: ''4'' and ''5'' change the buttons each time you do a [[PressXToNotDie Quick Time Event]] to keep you from memorizing the buttons.
** In [=RE5=], this is part of the dynamic difficulty system. The button combinations become more complicated when the difficulty rise.
* DarkActionGirl: Ada Wong, and [[spoiler:Jill Valentine during most of ''[=RE5=]'']].
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Yoko Suzuki was employed as a researcher for Umbrella [[spoiler:and even experimented on in the development of Tyrants.]]
* DarkestAfrica: ''Resident Evil 5'', but only in the middle levels.
* {{Darwinist}}: After 15 years of [[CardCarryingVillain Card Carrying Villainy]], they finally throw this in as Wesker's angle with Uroboros in ''Resident Evil 5''.
* DatingCatwoman: Ada Wong and Leon.
* DeadExMachina: Ada Wong at the end of ''Resident Evil 2''.
* DeadlyGuest: Happens four times in the first movie. Once in the laser trap scene, once with the "dining room" attack scene, and twice with the Hunter.
* DeathFakedForYou: At the end of ''0''.
* DemonicSpiders: Not the literal spiders so much. Hunters (they have two types of DeadlyLunge attacks, one of which is instantly fatal, and they attack in pairs or more), Crimson Heads (better burn those zombie corpses), Lickers (the advanced ones in the second scenario can track you even when you're not moving, and DeadlyLunge at you from offscreen), Drain Deimos/Brain Suckers (''[=RE3=]''), poisonous moths (in ''Code: Veronica''), and of course, Regenerators/Iron Maidens in ''Resident Evil 4'', which need rifles with thermal-scopes and a fair distance to kill them. Reapers in ''[=RE5=]'' can induce panic when you see them, especially in numbers greater than one, as well.
** The problem with the reapers ? They have only two attacks. One, a simple, weak, claw slash, is almost never seen. The other is a one hit kill that will never fail and is inescapable ''if you face them''. That's right. You need to turn your back from the beast so it can't one-hit kill you, and the moment you turn back to shoot... They also have an armor cavering their entire body impervious to ''any weapon but the Rocket Launcher''. Their weaks points are small, only appearing for about ''half a second'' on the higher difficulty, and icing on the cake, they expel a gas that screw up your aim...
*** Said gas being expelled whenever you shoot one someplace that isn't a weak point. Reaper fights can spiral out of control '''very''' quickly.
* DemotedToExtra: Most every canon character who appears in the movies.
* {{Discontinuity}}: Many of the spinoff games like the ''Gun Survivor'' games are completely disregarded by fans. ''[[WordOfGod RE0]]'' suggests that at least the first ''Survivor'' is canonical, however.
** It's generally agreed that, wherever the ''Chronicles'' games don't '''blatantly''' contradict the established series, then it's canon.
* DigitalDistribution: The mobile phone games, such as ''Resident Evil: Confidential Report''. For the main series, ''Resident Evil 5'' is available on Steam.
* DownloadableContent: ''[=RE5=]'' supports this with "Versus" mode and some other extras.
* DistressCall: Poses quite a few problems for you in ''Outbreak.''
* DodongoDislikesSmoke: One of the most massive bosses in ''5'' can be defeated more quickly by chucking grenades into its open mouth.
* DoNotRunWithAGun: More like Do Not Walk With A Gun. The only game in the series which lets you move and shoot simultaneously is ''Outbreak File #2'' and ''Dead Aim'', and then and you move so slowly that it's barely worth the effort.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The main healing item in all the games is "green herbs." Which, when mixed together, are resting as a fine powder on a sheet of rolling paper.
** This is a pretty common way of preparing traditional herbal medicine in Japan and China, and most herbs are green.
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Helicopter pilots have notoriusly low life expectancies in this series. The longest one has lived is two chapters.
* EasterEgg: Examine Wesker's desk an obscene number of times in ''[=RE2=]'' to find a reel of film containing a picture of Rebecca in a basketball outfit.
* ElementalRockPaperScissors: Sort of. The different types of grenades are more effective against some creatures than others. A Licker in the second game, for instance, can take two point-blank regular grenades to the face and keep coming for you, but one Acid round will do them in. And fire tends to be particularly effective against plants. The fifth game even features [[FireIceLightning Fire, Liquid Nitrogen, and Electrical]] grenades.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: Hunk, the {{Badass}}, [[MaskPower gas-mask wearing]] U.B.C.S. operative known as Mr. Death.
* EpilepticTrees: Many are kicked around the fan community, largely because of the confusing, contradictory continuity of most of the games taking place in the same week and because many of the files are written by crazies.
** One that deserves mention: In ''Resident Evil: Outbreak'', Monica is attacked and kidnapped by a monster, but the player sees the attack from the monster's POV. Many fans still insist that this must be ''Resident Evil 2'' BigBad William Birkin rather than the Giant Moth which is shown traveling through vents, kidnaps players during the level, ''and appears in the next room over.''
* EscortMission -- A major plot point in ''Resident Evil 4''. Fortunately, it's pretty endurable, all things considered. Ashley is mostly pretty smart, and there's usually a good place to stow her away in just about every map. This troper can recall only a few areas where she's a load: the El Gigante canyon, which is optional, the Hall of Water in the Castle, which is That One Room, the sniping section in the castle, which is short and the enemies are artificially weakened to help it out, and the Bulldozer section, specifically when you have to leave her alone.
* EverybodysDeadDave - The first game.
* EvilBrit - The Ashford twins.
* EvilCostumeSwitch - In ''Resident Evil 5'', [[spoiler:Jill Valentine gets blonde hair and a black leather catsuit after Wesker converts her into his BrainwashedAndCrazy SuperSoldier [[TheDragon Dragon]]]].
* EvilForeigner - ''Resident Evil 4'' had American-hating, Dracula-accented cult leader Osmund Saddler as the BigBad. And Umbrella is European, apparently.
* EvilIsSexy - Excella, Excella, Excella.... Oh, and Wesker. And Alexia.
* EvilLaugh: About half of Alexia's dialogue, sometimes turning on a camera that she cannot possibly know Wesker is looking at, laughing, and turning it off again. Wesker occasionally gets a good chuckle in too. Alfred does it, too, but it's annoying and flaming gay.
* EvilutionaryBiologist: Plenty to go around.
* FaceFullOfAlienWingWong: William Birkin, Monica.
* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Krauser used to be Leon's partner before joining Wesker.]]
** Subverted in the second movie. [[spoiler: Everyone who's played ''Resident Evil 3'' expects one from Nikolai, but he never turns against the heroes.]]
*** Though they are left with the hanging, nagging thought that maybe [[spoiler: he could've if they hadn't gone and DroppedABridgeOnHim first]]. [[WallBanger Ayy.]]
* FauxActionGirl: Angela from ''Degeneration''.
* FastRoping: The soldiers in the first movie engage in this trope when they enter the mansion. Why they went on the roof first is never explained, but it's probably RuleOfCool.
* FingerlessGloves: Pick a playable character, any character. Chances are they have fingerless gloves.
* FlashStep: Wesker does this a lot in ''Resident Evil 5''.
* FoeYay: Chris and Wesker, who have become so obsessed with each other by the time of ''[=RE5=]'' that Wesker hardly even acknowledges the other player character's existence unless she's shooting him.
* ForeignCussWord: Spanish peasants like calling you any number of foul things in ''Resident Evil 4.''
*{{Full Frontal Assault}}: Lickers, Regenerators, and Iron Maidens are stark naked. And mean.
* GaidenGame: ''Resident Evil: Gaiden''. It's [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin right in the title.]]
* GameBreaker: STARS Wesker in ''Resident Evil 5'' is just one example. On the other hand, Midnight Wesker is ''das professionnal character'', meaning he has all that is needed for overinflated combos and scores, but you need to be good...
* GameBreakingInjury: ''Resident Evil 2'' was the first game to begin having the heroes' body language reflect their overall health. If they took too much damage then they would start limping and not move as fast as they normally do. If you were low in health and had to run away from a group of zombies or a huge boss then you were in for a rough night.
** At 1/4 health in ''Resident Evil 5'', you go into the "Dying" status and have to have your partner resuscitate you, while at 1/2 health, you're limping and holding in your guts.
* GameMod: In [=RE2=] and [=RE3=], {{Game Shark}}s could be used to swap around playable character models. Try [[RuleOfFunny running through the whole game as Tofu]] or [[PacifistRun completing 4th Survivor or Extreme Battle modes as Sherry]].
* GatlingGood: A few of the games let you get your mitts on a huge gatling gun. ''Resident Evil 4'' gives us the ''Chicago Typewriter'', a superpowered tommy gun. ''[[MoreDakka With infinite ammo.]]''
* GenreSavvy: Leon and Claire in ''Degeneration''. They've been in this kind of game/movie before and they know it.
* GhostShip: The Starlight from ''Gaiden'', the Spencer Rain from ''Dead Aim''.
* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere:
** The Black Tiger Spider in ''[=RE1=]'' and ''Code: Veronica''. And several of the {{mini boss}}es in ''[=RE4=]'', including the lake monster and It - admittedly, it can be theorized that [[spoiler:they're Plaga infected creatures and subservient to Saddler as well]].
** And don't forget almost all the bosses from ''0''; where was that Giant Scorpion hiding anyway?
*** On the train's roof...[[WallBanger Yeah, I know...]]
* GigglingVillain: Ramon Salazar, the Ashford twins.
* GoneHorriblyWrong: Pretty much every game until ''4''.
* GoddamnedBats: [[spoiler:''Lickers'']], in ''Resident Evil 5'', crows and bees in ''1'' and the actual bats in ''0'' and ''Code: Veronica''.
* GodModeSue: One of the common complaints about Alice.
* GoryDiscretionShot: Brutally averted most of the time, but ''Resident Evil 5'' censors the chainsaw deaths by having the camera cut to just below Chris' neckline.
* GuideDangIt: In the original ''Resident Evil'', it's possible to kill Rebecca, but it involves ignoring her for much longer than most players will. Similarly, triggering the alternate ending of ''3'' where Barry Burton rescues Jill requires a series of bizarre choices with no apparent connection to his story.
* GunFu: Wesker vs. Chris and Sheva in ''Resident Evil 5''.
* HandWave: Chris, Jill, Barry and Rebecca all survive the Mansion Incident. This is 100% accepted canon straight from Capcom. However, in every iteration of ''[=RE1=]'' available (the original, the ''Director's Cut'', ''[=REmake=]'', ''Deadly Silence'' and the ''[=RE1=]'' scenarios of ''Umbrella Chronicles''), it is impossible to have Barry and Rebecca in the scenario simultaneously, and Capcom has never offered a concrete explanation for what happened in their surviving aside from, "They just ''did''."
** Ironically enough, having Rebecca dying in the mansion would have not changed the following story at all, because she was PutOnABus.
* HarderThanHard:
** ''Resident Evil 4's'' Professional Mode. You ''will'' run out of ammo in the village intro, and you can't bring weapons and ammo from previous playthroughs. Hope you learned knife-fu!
** ''[=RE5=]'' has it worse. Every attack does 10x damage, while you do a about 15% less damage. Hope you like the game over screen, because most attacks will put you in Dying state, ''and'' the resuscitation timer drops from about 15-20 seconds down to ''three''. If you and your partner (be it AI or human) don't stay joined at the hip and help each other instantly upon getting clipped, the game is over.
* HatePlague: Las Plagas in both ''[=RE4=]'' and ''5'', and it also turns the entire society into BeePeople. Why do you think Ashley was kidnapped in the first place?
* HeartContainer: Yellow Herbs in ''Resident Evil 4'' and the Degeneration mobile game.
* HellishPupils: [[spoiler: Wesker's cat eyes are the first sign of his self-imposed infection kicking in.]]
* HeroicBSOD: Alice, in ''Extinction'', though this is a result of Umbrella's mind control.
* HeroTrackingFailure: A rather blatant example in Degen, when bullets fired by ''US Army Rangers'' bounce off the ground in near their target in standard trope fashion. Except said target was ''standing still''. The Rangers in question ''were'' moving, but at the speed of a slow walk, with scoped weapons.
*HeyItsThatVoice: I swear to god, Nergal and Wesker are related.
**Do Jill, Claire and Annette sound kind of familiar? What if I was to throw the names [[Series/{{X-Men}} Jean Grey, Jubilee and Mystique]] at you?
* HideYourChildren: Averted with Sherry Birkin and Lotte and Lily Klein; ESPECIALLY averted with Sherry, who can be killed by zombies or Cerberus hounds. Played mostly straight with the fact that you hardly ever find any zombified children, though there are a few.
** It could just be due to her size though. Cerberus hounds will bit her just fine.
** Zombies can't grab or bite Sherry. So it neatly avoid anything that may looks like pedophilia. They can...barf on her though. The reason they can't bite or grab her is because her character model is so much smaller than anyone else in the game.
* HopelessBossFight: Mutant Steve. You can only 180° turn and run away, and you are bound to take at least one hit unless you're very quick with dodging at the battle's start.
* IGotBetter: Both Wesker and Ada are guilty of this.
* IKnowYouAreInThereSomewhereFight: Rather literally in ''Resident Evil 5'', in [[spoiler:the boss battle with Jill]]. You even have to yell encouragement and everything.
* ImplacableMan: Lisa in the ''[=RE1=]'' remake, Mr. X in ''[=RE2=]'', and Nemesis in ''[=RE3=]''.
* InternetBackdraft: The debate as to whether or not ''4'' and ''5's'' new direction is a good thing rages to this day.
* IncendiaryExponent: Oven Man, a Militia Ganados who stuffs himself in a gas oven for the express purpose of bum-rushing you while {{on fire}}.
* IWontSayImGuilty: Billy Coen, who, for some reason, doesn't deny being forced to massacre an entire village by his [[TheNeidermeyer commanding officer]], though the [=FMVs=] make it obvious he didn't.
* ItsAWonderfulFailure: Dying in [=RE2=] results in a brutal animaation of your character getting graphically killed by whatever baddie did you in.
* JokeCharacter:
** In ''Resident Evil 2'', you could play through Hunk's "Fourth Survivor" minigame. ''[[CrazyAwesome As a giant, knife-wielding block of Tofu]] '' that wears Jill's beret. Crank up the crazy awesome all the way up to eleven.
** Also the Mr. and Mrs. series of characters in ''Outbreak'' and ''File #2'', [[spoiler:they're ''coloured stick figures''.]]
* KillItWithFire - Molotov, incendiary grenades and flamethrowers in each game up to ''5''.
* KillSat - [[spoiler:Used to kill an Uroboros creature in ''Resident Evil 5''.]] Also, is used to try and kill [[ChineseGirl Fong Ling]] in Dead Aim after China pays off Duvuall to try and not turn their land into a radioactive zombie wasteland.
* LargeHam - Alfred and Wesker.
* LampshadeHanging - ''Resident Evil 5'' does this quite a bit.
** ''"I just got an extreme makeover!"'' [[spoiler:Irving try to go OneWingedAngel. It's not pretty.]]
** ''"Do you get all your ideas from comic book supervillains?"'' [[spoiler:Chris, to Wesker, after the latest explain his evil goal. ]]
** ''"Why do I always feel like I'm trapped in a monster movie?"'' [[spoiler:Chris, when not player-controlled, is about to fight the biggest boss in all of ''RE'' history. The thing is Godzilla-sized.]]
** ''"Great. I feel more crazy talk coming."'' [[spoiler:Chris, getting fed up with Wesker's constant monologues.]]
**''"A chain saw? Are you kidding me?"'' [[spoiler:Chris, again when not player-controlled, sees the first Chainsaw Majini]].
* LargeAndInCharge: The mayor of the Ganados village is eight feet tall if he's an inch.
* LastNameBasis: [[strike:Albert]] Wesker. That may as well just be his driver's license -- "Wesker."
* LazyBackup: If there's no "player two" in Umbrella Chronicles, your "partner" is perfectly fine with watching you get eaten alive/beaten to death.
** Particularly awkward in Rebecca's side scenario, which, unlike the main game, is meant to be one player and one player only - she still gets a partner, Richard, who is clearly seen following her with a gun at the checkpoints and yet does nothing until she gets attacked by crows in a cutscene before the boss fight.
* LethalJokeItem - Jim's coin from ''Outbreak''. Each flip which came up heads give him a stackable (to 3) 15% critical hit chance. If he had the time to flip three heads in a row (many levels had safe rooms where you could), he'd become an absolute {{Badass}}.
* LightGunGame - The ''Gun Survivor'' series, which came about with the intention of turning this genre into a free-roaming one. The ''Chronicles'' games are putting them back on rails.
* LostForever - The online components of ''Outbreak'' and ''File #2'' have been permanently shut down by Capcom unless you're willing to pay for a Japanese PS2 and a montly fee, probably the reason why the servers are still up in Japan.
* LowerDeckEpisode - ''Assignment Ada'' and ''Separate Ways'' follow Ada through ''Resident Evil 4''.
* LovecraftianSuperpower - even those human (or formerly human) villains who do go outright OneWingedAngel with mutation will generally have strange claws or CombatTentacles
* MadLibsDialogue: ''Outbreak'''s canned phrases, and [[YourMileageMayVary one might argue]] part of the reason for said spinoff's lack of success. WordOfGod at the time was this was ''deliberate'' in order to ratchet up tension between the players.
* MadScientist: Both Doctor Birkins, Albert Wesker, the Ashfords, and James Marcus. Actually, pretty much ''anyone'' who worked as a researcher at Umbrella was required to have [[FinalFantasyVII Hojo-levels]]of scientific obsession and disregard for ethical standards.
* MadeOfIron: Most of the cast, really, since the most common enemy attack involves zombies chewing through your jugular vein.
* MaleGaze:[[spoiler:Jill's skintight purple leather battle suit]] when you play as her in ''[=RE5's=]'' Mercenaries mode. You basically spend the entire level with the camera focused on her very well defined butt. SoYeah.
** Also in ''[=RE5=]'', we're introduced to Sheva via a shot of Chris from around her ass.
** You start noticing this more in ''[=RE4=]'' when you put Ashley in her alternate outfit. The president has equipped his daughter with ballistics, indeed.
** Interestingly, the FemaleGaze comes into play for at least one novelization, where the author spends a little bit too much time talking about Leon and Chris' faces in soft, {{subtext}} laden narration...
* MalevolentArchitecture: The series is, at a whole, more or less the platonic ideal of this trope.
* ManEatingPlant: The I.V.Y. weapon and Plant 42, the latter of which ate several researches before anyone noticed.
* TheManyDeathsOfYou: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHsHjrC6BXY Oh]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdN73jWNV0Q Hell]][[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xZqT8kaYZQ Yes]]
* MaskPower: HUNK, and his awesome gas mask.
* MascotMook: Dr. Salvador for ''4''.
* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Surprisingly, the ''RE'' world's regular T-virus zombie outbreaks are ''not'' a threat that may lead to this, as they seem relatively self-contained even with minimum government intervention (the ''Extinction'' movie is another story entirely). Also, the plot of at least three of the series' major bad guys (Dr. Marcus in ''[=RE0=]'', Saddler in ''[=RE4=]'', and [[spoiler:Wesker]] in ''[=RE5=]''), although [[spoiler:Wesker]] was the only one who ever came anywhere close to implementing the plan.
* ManOfWealthAndTaste: Wesker from ''[=RE4=]'' onwards.
* TheMedic: Rebecca Chambers, George Hamilton, Cindy Lennox.
* MagnificentBastard: Albert Wesker is responsible for all the events of the ''Resident Evil'' universe and manages to win EVERY SINGLE GAME (even when he appears to lose). He is, quite understandably, pissed when he realizes that [[spoiler:all his schemes, his activities, his Darwinist beliefs -- in short, the ''entire pattern of his life'' -- were programmed into him from the beginning by Ozwell Spencer, an even bigger bastard.]]
* MemeticMutation: Not surprising, considering the series is almost filled to the brim with {{Narm}}.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPf4sW32zGw MIKE!!!!]]
** "Uroboros will fill the atmosphere, ensuring ''[[ThisIsSPARTA complete.]]'' '''''[[ThisIsSPARTA Global.]]''''' '''''[[ThisIsSPARTA SATURATION.]]'''''
** '''[[SayMyName CHRRIIIISSSSSS!!]]'''
* MightyGlacier: Several enemies are very slow, but have high durability and damage output to compensate, such as the Executioner from ''5''.
* {{Minigame}}: A staple of the series, usually involving short missions where you guide a character around an area and take out as many [=BOWs=] as possible within a time limit.
* MistakenForRacist: What many fans felt about the controversy in the 5th game, namely the debate on if its racist or just Un-PC
* TheMole: Wesker, who turns out to be an Umbrella employee leading the STARS to destruction to test the BOWs.
* MoneyDearBoy: Milla Jovovich [[http://shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=11268 flat out admits]] that this is why they're making a 4th live-action movie.
* MostAnnoyingSound: '' "LEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNN!!! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAALP!" ''
* TheMountainsOfIllinois: Though Raccoon City is in the Midwest, the climate and topography don't fit. The novelization moves it to Pennsylvania.
* MultipleEndings: Most of the games have this in some form, though ''Outbreak'' and ''File #2'' take the cake with more than 20 possible endings each.
* MysteriousWaif: Lucia from ''Gaiden''.
* TheNapoleon: Ramon Salazar in ''[=RE4=]''.
* {{Narm}}: "The Master of Unlocking", Jill Sandwiches, a minimum requirement of one horrible voice actor per game, unintentionally hilarious scripts.
* NarmCharm: One gets suspicious that Capcom has caught on that the voice acting was bad, and are now doing it on purpose.
* NeckSnap: Rain Ocampo to a zombie in [[Film/ResidentEvil the first movie]].
* NeverSplitTheParty: In those games where you're either escorting someone or have a partner, it's generally in your best interest to stay close together. Whenever the plot separates you, it's generally so it can throw a really big monster at one character.
* NightmareFuel: The Nemesis, Lickers, Crimson Heads, G, Lisa Trevor, Regenerators.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Popular conception has it that Steve Burnside's haircut was altered to lessen his likeness to Leonardo [=DiCaprio=]. Also, Kevin Ryman looks a lot like Tom Cruise. A ''lot''. Also, did nobody notice David King's simularity to Dylan [=McDermott=]?
* NobodyPoops: Toilets appear to be very scarce in Raccoon City. An issue of the British publication NGC Magazine {{handwave}}d this saying that the citizens of Raccoon had evolved beyond such base needs, as well as [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] said trope by saying, "And can you blame them? Everytime you nip off for a quick dump there's always a bleedin' zombie in the bath."
* NotAZombie: Twice, once with the very first enemy in ''[=RE4=]'', another with yet the very first enemy in ''[=RE5=]'', though slightly different. (Chris notes the guy he shot doesn't move like any other zombie he's seen.)
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: In Leon's B scenario and its ''Darkside Chronicles'' recreation, Ada gets slammed against the power generator pretty hard by Mr. X. And it in fact appears that HesDeadJim. But she's back up to throw a Rocket Launcher to Leon during the battle with his final form. It's better than Leon's A scenario, though, where Ada falls down a BottomlessPit and ''still'' shows up to give Claire the rocket launcher.
* NoticeThis: Oftentimes, your character will look at objects that could need picking up. Or enemies in the room.
* NoSneakAttacks: [=RE4=]. The ganados will yell "Detras de ti, imbecile!" whenever there is someone right behind you that is going to kill you in the next few seconds.
** Actually, it seems to be the ganado who sneaks up on you who yells it. Premature gloating?
* OminousWalk: In the fourth game enemies will often run towards you until they get within a certain distance and inexplicably start using this trope.
* OneWingedAngel: Pretty much every human BigBad will turn into a horrible abomination against God. However, they are often reduced to ClippedWingAngel in their final form, eg Birkin and Nemesis.
* OneWomanWail: Used in the [=RE5=] opener to indicate how awful Africa was even ''before'' the zombies arrived.
* OnlySaneMan: Edward Ashford was the only one of the original founders of Umbrella who actually wanted to use the Progenitor Virus for legitimate medical research to benefit humanity. His son and his grandchildren make up for his lack of batshit insanity in ''spades''.
* PersonalSpaceInvader: Zombies and Ganados alike.
* PersonalityBloodTypes: Blood types are listed in the intro
* PoorCommunicationKills: The ''Outbreak'' series didn't include voice communication, only a small number of prerecorded lines. Unless the players knew what to do in the level, this could very easily get someone killed.
* [[{{ptitle348j0es8wpxt}} The President's Daughter]]
* {{Prequel}}: ''Resident Evil 0''
* PressXToNotDie: ''[=RE4=]'' was largely responsible for popularizing it, but ''[=RE5=]'' abuses it profusely, especially in the boss fight with [[spoiler:the Uroboros infected Excella]].
* PsychicNosebleed: Alice in ''Extinction''.
* PsychopathicManchild: Ramon Salazar in ''4'' is most likely about four feet tall with the proportions of a child, though he claims to be twenty. And is he psychopathic? Oh, yes. For an equally strong example in more frame of mind alone, ''Code: Veronica'' has the Ashford Twins, though one of them has an excuse. Their house is full of dolls, music boxes, and more, along with Alfred's fits of immaturity. It looks as though this will be played up even more in ''Darkside Chronicles''.
* QuestForIdentity: Ark Thompson in ''Survivor''. Alice has shades of this, too.
* RaisingTheSteaks: Zombie dogs are the most iconic, but there are also zombie bats and crocodiles, for a start.
* RecurringTraveller: The Merchant from ''[=RE4=]''.
* RedOniBlueOni: Ada and Leon, respectively. Alfred and Alexia as well, also respectively, though each has traces of the other as well, incidentally also reflected by the "blue king and red queen."
* RevenueEnhancingDevices: Capcom decided to sell the Deathmatch component of ''5'' as DLC.
* RoarBeforeBeating
* RuleOfCool: The laser hallway in the first movie. No real reason why it couldn't have just killed everyone right away by using the "laser grid" on its first pass, other than because watching it adapt to the victims' attempts to avoid it and take them down one by one makes for a much more awesome scene.
* RuleOfSexy: Jill's default outfit in 3, and the reason Leon loses his jacket in 4. (Incidentally, [[JustifiedTrope Leon's shirt is an actual "tactical shirt"]].) There's also Excella Gionne in 5, as well as Chris and Sheva's outfits, to varying degrees.]]
* RussianGuySuffersMost: In ''3'', Jill finds herself having to work alongside three U.B.C.S. members - Nicholai, Mikhail, and Carlos. [[spoiler: Guess which one doesn't die horribly.]]
** Actually, in Canon [[spoiler: Nikolai escapes.]]
*** In one version of the ending, albeit the most accepted one. [[spoiler: Even then, he still survives either an explosion or a zombie attack as well as a dive out of a window, no matter which ending you get - and the ones in which he does die ''are'' probably pretty damn painful.]]
* SaveGameLimits: Typewriter ribbons. JustifiedTrope as part of the player character's personal ApocalypticLog. Lampshaded by Jill Valentine's verbal situation report when starting or restoring a game. A sitrep that ends with "I'm still...''alive''..." in a wondering tone complete with dramatic echo.
* SayMyName: Pretty much all of the series. "LEON! HELP!" "ADA!" "BIRKIN!" "ALEXIA!" "JILL!" "BARRY!" "CLAIRE!" "SHEVA!" "CHRIS!" "WESKER!" And so on.
* SceneryGorn
* ScrappyLevel: Level 5-3 in ''[=RE5=]''. Chris and Sheva have to go through three Reapers, a spinning ElevatorActionSequence, a small army of [[spoiler:Lickers]], Wesker, and [[spoiler:Jill Valentine]].
* SelfDestructMechanism: Just about ''every'' Umbrella laboratory or other important location of biohazard research is subjected to this trope, with the ''final'' final boss fight occurring while the detonation countdown is in effect). The CGI movie ''Degeneration'' 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?
* ShapeshifterBaggage: Uroboros, in addition to all its biological properties, also gleefully flips off the laws of physics and is more than capable of turning your average human being into a 100ft tall monstrosity in a matter of seconds, no extra mass necessary. [[RuleOfCool It's that kind of series, though]]. Ironically, Uroboros Aheri required a pile of corpses to turn that big, and so did Birkin's final form. Same with Nemesis and NYX.
* ShillingTheWesley: S.D. Perry, author of several RE {{Novelization}}s, seems to have a massive hardon, [[LesYay so to speak]], for plucky little Rebecca Chambers... Just read ''Caliban Cove'' for proof.
* ShoutOut: One of Jill's extra costumes in ''[=RE3=]'' mimics Regina's appearance from ''DinoCrisis'', which was developed concurrently.
* ShutUpHannibal: When Ramon Salazar gives Leon one too many smarmy monologues, Leon cuts him short with [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome a knife to the hand.]]
* SigilSpam: The Umbrella Corporation's logo is ''everywhere.''
* SoupCans: If the ''Resident Evil'' series featured the original "soup cans" puzzle from ''TheSeventhGuest'', it still wouldn't nearly be the most out-of-place puzzle in the series. The usual justification, if any, is that the people who designed these places were ''insane''. Toned down somewhat in ''[=RE4=]'' as part of the GenreShift.
* {{Spexico}}
* SpotlightStealingSquad: If your last name isn't Wesker, Redfield, Valentine or Kennedy, the overall plot does ''not'' care about you.
* SpritePolygonMix: ''0'', ''1'' and its remake, ''2'', ''3'', and ''Outbreak''.
* SpyCatsuit: [[spoiler:Jill gets one of these as a part of her transformation into Wesker's sidekick. Couple that with her going blonde, and it might be a ShoutOut to Starcraft: Ghost.]]
* StatOVision: How ''Resident Evil: Apocalypse's'' Nemesis [[RoboCam sees the world.]]
** Also applies to the Red Queen from the first film.
* TheStoic: Leon, at least in ''Degeneration'', where his emotional range varies between "..." and "....." He's better about it in ''[=RE4=]'', but still...
* {{Stripperiffic}}: Most of the female characters' alternate costumes.
* SunglassesAtNight: Wesker ''always'' wears sunglasses, even during night missions. Not that this impairs his ability to shoot a zombie dog out of midair with a single bullet. At range. In the middle of the night. Later, he also uses them to hide the effects of his bio-enhancements, which turn his eyes a reddish-golden color.
* SuperSoldier: The various Tyrants, Nemesis, Mr. X, the rest of the T series.
* SurprisinglyEasyMiniQuest: portions where you're controlling a side or sub character usually fall into this.
* SurvivalHorror: Hugely popularized the genre.
* TemptingFate:
-->'''Chris:''' That's the last of them.\\
'''Sheva:''' Thank goodness. We wouldn't have lasted long against a whole horde of them.
* TentacleRope: In the remake of the first game and ''Code: Veronica''.
* ThemeInitials: Ada Wong and Albert Wesker. Bit of a stretch but the Birkins' first names are Annette and William.
* TheScrappy: Angela in ''Resident Evil: Degeneration'' due to her constantly needing to be rescued. Also an argument for Sherry Birkin and Leo. YourMileageMayVary.
* TimedMission: Crops up every now and again in the canon games, usually paired with the SelfDestructMechanism. ''Gun Survivor 2'' uses this for every level; run out of time, and the Nemesis will start to chase you until you complete the level.
* TitleDrop: In the final chapter of ''Resident Evil 5'', but the Japanese name of Biohazard instead of ''Resident Evil''. "Resident Evil" is a bit hard to fit into a normal conversation, and the Japanese version also uses the English voice track, so it's an unqualified title drop in Japan.
* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler:Brad Vickers]] in ''[=RE3=]''. Also, [[spoiler:Excella in ''[=RE5=]''. Seriously, how could she NOT expect Wesker to stab her in the back, especially with the way he was acting towards her?]]
* TookALevelInBadass: Leon S. Kennedy as seen in ''[=RE4=]''.
* TorchesAndPitchforks: As wielded by the Ganados from ''[=RE4=]''.
* TragicMonster: Mutant Steve, and "Nosferatu", Alfred's mutated father, in ''Code: Veronica''. Lisa Trevor of the Remake
* TransformationTrauma: Most of the many OneWingedAngel mutations.
* UnfortunateImplications: ''Resident Evil 5''.
** Which is hilarious because ''no one'' bitched and whined when ''4'' had you killing Spanish zombies.
* UnusableEnemyEquipment: In ''[=RE2=]'' the player comes upon the remains of Hunk's commando team in the sewers, and cannot loot the submachine guns they carry in cutscenes. This was a common complaint about the game even though realistically they *would* be unusable, as they'd been sitting in dank sewer water for nearly a week. In ''{{Outbreak}}'', however, you come upon a freshly dead [=UBCS=] team next to Raccoon University and can't take any of their stuff either.
* UnwillingSuspension: Ada at the end of ''[=RE4=]''.
* UpdatedRerelease: ''Resident Evil: Director's Cut'', ''[[ColonCancer Resident Evil: Director's Cut: Dual Shock Edition]]'' ''Resident Evil 2: Dual Shock Edition'', ''Resident Evil Code: Veronica Complete'', the GameCube remake of ''Resident Evil'', and ''Resident Evil: Code: Veronica X''; ''Resident Evil 4 {{Wii}}''. For a while there, it seemed it was Capcom's goal to release every game in the series for every system available.
* VaderBreath: Regenerators.
* VasquezAlwaysDies: Played straight in the first movie with Michelle Rodriguez, but averted with Claire and Jill in the sequels (who both survive).
* VictoriasSecretCompartment: In ''Nemesis'', Jill is dressed kinda like a streetwalker (minskirt, tube top, sweater around her waist), and later on gets a harness which adds inventory space, yet she can somehow carry more than Carlos, her erstwhile ally. Carlos is dressed in military fatigues loaded with pockets, and is demonstrably stronger than Jill. So, where's Jill carrying all her gear?
* VideoGameMoviesSuck: Semi-exception; the movies were critically panned, but did well enough at the box office to be expanded into a trilogy. ''Degeneration'' is somewhat of a subversion, since it was produced by Capcom and, unlike the {{Live Action Adaptation}}s, is completely canon.
* VideoGameRemake: A Gamecube remake of the original in 2002.
* VillainousBreakdown:
** In ''[=RE5=]'', [[spoiler:Wesker]] suffers a huge one when the heroes [[spoiler:stop his plan to spread Uroborus virus at the last minute.]]
** Salazar in ''[=RE4=]'' goes from being cocky to throwing a crazier-than-usual tantrum every ten seconds after Leon knifes him in the hand.
* VillainousCrossdresser: Alfred Ashford from ''Code: Veronica''. Justified in the fact that he has a split personality disorder.
* TheVirus: Several viruses, but only the T and G viruses are TheVirus in the trope sense.
* VirusMisnomer: Almost every single virus in the series.
* WakeUpCallBoss: Countless are the players that met the Game Over screen for the first time thanks to Dr. Salvador in the village - and he's an optional miniboss.
* WallOfWeapons: The merchant in ''[=RE4=]'' has a massive arsenal. If only he'd actually use it to HELP you...
* WasOnceAMan: Most of the high-end and creepiest monsters you kill.
* WeaponOfChoice: You can be almost certain that the final boss is going to be finished off with a rocket launcher shot to the face.
* WithThisHerring: You often start out with a weak weapon (unless you're Kevin in ''Outbreak'', but he can barely find any ammo). The games at least attempt to justify this:
** ''Resident Evil 0'' and ''1'' - You are a cop caught in a situation way over your head.
** ''Resident Evil 2'' - You blunder into the ZombieApocalypse without warning.
** ''Resident Evil 3'' - Jill's off the force and doesn't have access to the guns any more.
** ''Code: Veronica'' - Claire starts the game in prison and Chris loses a bag of weapons into the sea.
** ''Resident Evil 4'' - We never see what Leon had in the police car, and it's destroyed before he can return.
** ''Resident Evil 5'' - [[spoiler:Excella is setting you up.]]
** ''Resident Evil: Outbreak'' - most of the characters were just chilling out at a bar when the outbreak got really bad. Kevin and Mark both retain their weapons, as they are a cop and a security guard. The rest have to find handguns dropped in bathroom wastebaskets, beat zombies to death with scrub brushes, or hack and slash with kitchen knives.
* WhatHappenedToMommy: One of the child test subjects in the remake of the first ''Resident Evil'', as well as William in ''[=RE2=]''. This is also [[spoiler:Sheva's motivation for joining the BSAA in ''5''.]]
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Rebecca Chambers hasn't been seen since the first game, despite having canonically survived the events and also being the ''only'' Spencer Mansion survivor who hasn't played a role in any of the subsequent games (and also despite managing to be the main character in the ''Resident Evil 0'' prequel).
* [=~What The Hell, Hero?~=]: Just ''try'' looking up Ashley's skirt.
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield:
** Raccoon City is stated as being in the Midwest, but the presence of [[TheMountainsOfIllinois high mountains]] makes this very unlikely. {{Fanon}} places the city in either Colorado or Pennsylvania, the only mountainous states that can be described as being remotely Midwestern, and the latter being where the novelizations placed it.
** The Spanish-speaking European country in ''[=RE4=]'' is never explicitly stated, and WordOfGod says that this was deliberate. However, the fact that a) it's a Spanish-speaking European country, b) a satellite shot showed the Iberian Peninsula, and c) Luis is from Madrid leaves very few choices as to what country it is.
** Kijuju, the setting of ''[=RE5=]'', is only described as being in Africa. The only hint as to ''where'' in Africa it's located is the fact that Sheva is from the BSAA's West African division.
* WorstAid:
** In ''Resident Evil 2'', when Leon is injured, Ada dresses the wound... by wrapping the bandages outside his clothes.
** If you take Rebecca's offer to heal you in Chris' story in Remake, she just inspects your right forearm from a few different angles before declaring that you have a clean bill of health, [[http://paladin12345678.deviantart.com/art/Welcome-to-Umbrella-Chp-11-130930219 as parodied in this chapter of the Resident Evil fanfic Welcome to Umbrella]].
* WrestlerInAllOfUs:
** In the fourth game Leon has an ability to shoot an enemy in the knee, then run up to them and perform a Northern Lights Suplex. [[YourHeadAsplode Quite effective]], and generally [[spoiler:prevents Plaga creation, which is ''handy.'']]
** In the fifth one, in a similar vein, Chris taps into his inner [[MetalGear Snake]] if you stumble an enemy with a leg shot from behind. He walks up behind them, grabs their head, and snaps their neck like a twig. Sheva gets her Big Boss on with her equivalent - she walks up behind them and slits their throat.
* XanatosGambit: The Red Queen, you know being that she's a terrifyingly intelligent supercomputer, pulls one in the first movie when the protagonists are trying to escape the labs to get out of the Hive before it seals, trapping them. In addition, a Licker is at the window of the lab slowly breaking through. The choice? Kill Rain, thereby invoking VasquezAlwaysDies, who was infected with the T-virus insuring zombification or let her live and be trapped in the lab and be killed by the Licker. Either way the Queen wins as the virus is contained regardless. At least until Kaplan [[TakeAThirdOption takes option three]] by frying the Red Queen, unlocking the door and allowing everyone to escape.
* XtremeKoolLetterz: ''Resident Evil: Code Veronica '''X''''', the UpdatedRerelease.
* YouHaveToBurnTheWeb: In ''Resident Evil'', you end up trapped in a room where the exit is webbed over by {{Giant Spider}}s, and when playing as Chris, can burn the web off the door with a flamethrower. If you're playing as Jill, on the other hand, you just cut the web with a knife.
* YourMileageMayVary: For quite a long time, ''Resident Evil'' games were decidedly SurvivalHorror, but then ''Resident Evil 4'' changed the formula when it shifted heavily towards ThirdPersonShooter. Reactions were mixed.
* ZombieApocalypse: Obviously.
* ZombieGait: Do we need to explain?
* ZombieInfectee: Averted the first movie, with the female soldier insisting she be killed. Inverted somewhat in the second movie when Jill's friend is infected and she won't kill him until he's a full zombie. In the third movie played completely straight with the [[BlackDudeDiesFirst black dude]] who survived the second movie and probably should have known better.
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