Resident Evil is a film series based loosely on the video games of the same name. They take the same basic premise of the games—an outbreak of the zombie-creating T-virus is caused by the machinations of the less-than-savory Umbrella Corporation and those seeking to oppose it—but demote the games' Player Characters to supporting roles in favor of central protagonist Alice (Milla Jovovich).The films are:
None of these films should be confused with Resident Evil: Degeneration, which is explicitly set in the canon of the videogames and is a CGI piece instead of live-action.
These films contain examples of:
Abandoned Hospital Awakening: Alice does this at the end of the first movie. The same scene is also used as the first scene in the beginning of the sequel.
Action Girl: Alice is the standout example, but there's also Rain, Jill, and Claire from the first, second and third movies, respectively.
Actor Allusion: In Afterlife, Alice meets a guy locked up in a cell. He tries to convince her to help him, and claims he isn't really a criminal and knows a way out of the prison. It's Wentworth Miller, who played Michael Scofield on Prison Break.
After the End: Extinction is set in a world in which the T-virus has contaminated and destroyed nearly all life on Earth,
A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Subverted. It looks like Red Queen has gone homicidally insane, but it's her job to contain outbreaks, which she did perfectly. Umbrella (who built the Red Queen) responds by inexplicably breaking quarantine and releasing the virus.
Air Vent Passageway: In the first film, at one point the surviving team members go through air vents to evade the zombies.
Alice Allusion: Alice, the Red Queen, and the White Queen.
Attempted Rape: Some post-apocalyptic rednecks set up a fake Distress Call which ensnares Alice in Extinction. They looked as though they were about to rape her until she Neck Snaps one of them and they decide to feed her to the dogs.
Luther from Afterlife seems to serve as the de facto leader of the survivors.
Beneficial Disease: In Apocalypse, Alice gains superhuman strength, speed and agility because the T-virus that infected her has bonded with her on a cellular level.
It's stated at one point that the T-virus was initially designed to be this by reanimating dead cells for purposes such as allowing a paralyzed person to walk again by reanimating the dead muscle cells in their legs. Unfortunately, it's so extremely potent that it must be administered in small, carefully controlled doses along with periodic injections of an antivirus to prevent it from spreading into other parts of the patient's body. Allow the virus to get out of control and spread too far, you end up with the Zombie Apocalypse seen in the films.
Big Damn Heroes: Alice gets one in Extinction, when she shows up and uses her psychic powers to kill off the Goddamned Crows attacking the convoy.
Big Red Button: Opens and closes the subway car's floor door in the first movie.
Black Dude Dies First: Toyed with in Afterlife. Played ridiculously straight in Extinction, though.
Blown Across the Room: In the first film Rain Ocampo's machine gun fire sends a zombie flying about 20 feet.
Bottomless Magazines: Bullets run out only when the film demands it. Otherwise even the REVOLVERS can shoot non-stop with no need to reload whatsoever.
Celebrity Survivor: Former pro basketball player Luther West in Afterlife. A faded billboard of him shilling fancy watches can be seen from his fortress. In the same film, there's also Bennett and Crystal, who were, respectively, a movie producer and a struggling actress before the T-virus outbreak.
Character Development: It may just be five years of surviving a Zombie Apocalypse, but in Extinction,LJ seems like a lot less of a "gangsta" and seems to take things more seriously.
Cloning Blues: Guess what, Alice? You just got a whole army of... yourself.
Doing It for the Art: Paul W.S. Anderson wrote the script for the first film specifically because he wanted to ensure that Resident Evil got a decent cinematic adaptation, and the films are loaded with winking little references to the games.
Dueling Hackers: In the first movie Kaplan has a hacking duel with the Red Queen AI to bypass her defenses.
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The Executioner and Majini just saunter into Afterlife with no real explanation. Nobody is the least bit curious where a ten-foot-tall zombie...thing that can use an axe came from, although there are Fan-theories that Wesker sent it to flush out Alice. Again, possibly Rule Of Cool.
Hand Cannon: Being "Resident Evil" you know they had to include one at least one example. Apocalypse has three specific examples of ridiculously large handguns. Olivera's Desert Eagles as duty weapons, L.J's gold plated Desert Eagles, and one random survivor with a Smith & Wesson Model 629 in .44 Magnum.
Hand Signals: Rain Ocampo and the team leader in the first movie.
Heel Face Turn: The White Queen technically undergoes one of these. It just barely qualifies as her programming was designed to prevent the spread of the T-Virus and try to control the epidemic as best she could. As an AI she has no loyalty to Umbrella beyond what is programmed into her and since Umbrella didn't think to do this she turns on them as she quickly concludes that Umbrella is only going to make the outbreak worse if allowed to continue existing.
Heroic BSOD: Alice in Extinction, though this is a result of Umbrella's mind control.
Hologram: The Red Queen's projected image in the first movie. This is also how the heads of Umbrella meet. Alice uses it at the end of the third move as well.
Hall Of Mirrors: LJ ends up shooting at a zombie's reflection in Extinction. The zombie was actually behind him.
[They] shoot so badly they actually increase the number of zombies.
Speaking of said locks, they are designed to contain some of the most dangerous viruses known to man. Which, when damaged, unlocks instead of staying shut. There's no kind of manual lock backup, like actual biohazard vaults might have in addition to the electronics. Who designed that syst- oh, right, Umbrella.
Implacable Man: Apocalypse has Nemesis fulfilling this role quite nicely. Afterlife has the Executioner from RE5.
It's The Only Way To Be Sure: Raccoon City is destroyed by missile strike to purge the infection (and cover up the evidence). In the fourth film, Umbrella's corporate headquarters in Tokyo is consumed in an expanding plasma fireball to contain an infestation of Alice clones.
Necessarily Evil: The Red Queen qualifies big-time. Yes, she did murder the entire Umbrella research facility staff but she was only following her main directive to prevent a T-Virus outbreak. In all fairness, her actions are probably the most sensible out of anyone in the entire series in containing the outbreak. Her actions are brutal but effective at least until Umbrella unseals the facility and lets all the zombies loose.
Neck Snap: Rain Ocampo and Alice to zombies in the first movie. Alice in the second. LJ in the third.
Refuge in Cool: Don't just turn your brain off to enjoy this series; take it out and store it somewhere safe, because these movies will punish it harshly for trying to apply logic to anything you see in them.
Retcon: In the beginning of Extinction, the voiceover says that the T-Virus destroyed the environment and showed all the water on Earth drying up. Notwithstanding the impossibility of the water disappearing, that plot point doesn't even survive the end of the film it appears in: Tokyo is shown in a rainstorm at the end. By Afterlife, the Pacific Ocean is right back where they left it.
In Apocalypse, this happens when the team sent by the Umbrella Corporation unlocks the Hive below Raccoon City in the opening scenes.
And again in Extinction, with the clown car trailer full of zombies.
Rule Of Cool: Liberally invoked throughout the series, but special notice goes to 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.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In Afterlife the Umbrella minions aboard the Arcadia all jump ship when they learn their boss is actually eating people.
Alice walks out of the hospital to find that she's in a deserted (except for zombies) Raccoon City.
Apocalypse ends with Carlos and Jill rescuing Alice from Umbrella custody - but a satelite activates the T-Virus in Alice, turning her into something else...
Extinction ends with Alice finding the rest of the clones of her that Umbrella was using for their experiments... and they're waking up.
Afterlife ends with Jill seen on a plane speaking to a small army...it's clear they're going after Alice and co.
Shoot Out the Lock: In the 1st movie, Spence shoots out the lock on the lab door.
Sinister Scraping Sound: The first zombie in the first movie, and the bag wearing giant in the 3D movie.
Slow Electricity: When the Red Queen (and the power) are shut down and restarted in the first film.
The Starscream: Considering what Wesker does with Umbrella in the game series, it's notably averted with Wesker in the film series, as he notably doesn't even attempt to backstab Umbrella for more power. Then again, considering how Wesker was made the chairman and the implied founder of Umbrella in the film adaptations rather than a high-ranking member of Umbrella's researcher division who went rogue, this is probably justified as he doesn't even need to usurp Umbrella for his own agenda, as Umbrella is his agenda.
Surprisingly Sudden Death: Happens four times in the first movie. Once in the laser trap scene, once with the "dining room" attack scene, and twice with the Licker.
Vasquez Always Dies: Played straight in the first movie with Michelle Rodriguez, but averted with Claire and Jill in the sequels (who both survive).
Villain Ball: In the first movie, the UBCS team sent to investigate The Hive reveal that there is a timer running from the Red Queen, and given that The Virus broke loose and infected everything, when the timer hits 0, every entrance into The Hive will be permanently sealed below Raccoon City. nothing gets in. nothing gets out. Seems pretty smart so far. Umbrella does not agree with this. Not only is there a built in override for said system, but the team sent to do so contains 5 people. 5. Guess what happens when they override the containment system.
Xanatos Gambit: 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 Vasquez Always Dies, 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 takes option three by frying the Red Queen, unlocking the door and allowing everyone to escape. This goes badly.
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