I don’t think I watched Resident Evil: Apocalypse in a movie theater. It was released in 2004, and I might have been on a deployment at the time. From 2002 to 2007, I was in the Navy and was at the mercy of what was shown at the base movie theater or finding it after it was released on DVD.
Fun fact about the base movie theater in Bangor, Washington. The movie that was advertised was rarely shown. For example, I went to watch House of Wax and ended up seeing The Ring 2. They would also play the national anthem before the movie, so it was a rather annoying experience all around.
Back to the second Resident Evil film. I remember thinking it was an awesome movie when I saw it, and it is still entertaining. The director tried incorporating more things from the video games, which was a nice touch.
Is it a good movie? It depends on what you’re looking for. It definitely isn’t boring, but it isn’t a scary movie at all. If you are a stickler for the lore of Resident Evil, you probably won’t like this, and if you hated the first film, you might not like this one. I would also wonder why you decided to watch it but to each their own.
This was released at a time when zombie movies were trying to be more action-packed. It doesn’t attempt to insert a message or give social commentary; Resident Evil: Apocalypse is trying to sell tickets, concessions, and DVDs.
Plot Summary
The plot isn’t too different from Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. The characters from the first film, Alice and Max, are shoehorned into it. There are a few others that weren’t in the game, but it still works with the overall story.
There are six characters who matter and a bunch of side characters who are here to advance the plot or to be killed off once they become unnecessary. Here is a list of the important characters:
- Alice – Our main character from the first film who has been experimented on and given super powers from the T-Virus.
- Max – Our other survivor from the first film who has been turned into Nemesis.
- Jill Valentine is a member of S.T.A.R.S. and is the main character in the third video game.
- Carlos Olivera is a former Umbrella soldier who was left to die in Racoon City. He and his two buddies are from the third game, but only Carlos matters in the film.
- L.J. is a character created for the movie. He is our comic relief and African American stereotype.
- Angela Ashford – She is a creation for the movie, but her family is very important for the video game’s lore.
Throughout the film, Jill and Alice constantly try to out badass each other. It is one of the better parts of the movie. That and Carlos and Alice clearly thinking about fucking every time they look at one another.
Our heroes start out in several groups and eventually are contacted by Dr. Ashford, who wants them to rescue his daughter. Let me back up a bit.
Umbrella reopens the Hive, which leads to the zombies and bio-weapons escaping. The T-Virus quickly spreads through the city, and Umbrella is able to quarantine it. They build a wall around the city with frightening speed.
Dr. Ashford and his daughter are supposed to be evacuated, but Angela gets stuck in the city. She is hiding in the elementary school, and all of our heroes gather there after a few run-ins with Nemesis. After the important characters find Angela, they head for the evacuation spot.
Along the way, a journalist records what is happening in Racoon City. This becomes important later, but it gets lost in the shuffle for the moment. Our heroes make it to the evacuation spot, kill the guards, and then get captured by Umbrella. Oh, and the city is going to be destroyed at sunrise.
Alice fights Nemesis. After she defeats him, we learn that Max is Nemesis. Both Alice and Max remember who they are, and they team up to fight Umbrella. This leads to Max/Nemesis being killed when a helicopter crash lands on him.
Our heroes get back on the helicopter, kill the evil Umbrella guy, and start to fly off. I would use the evil Umbrella guy’s name, but I’m unsure if it is mentioned in the movie. That is how unimportant he is. Anyway, the escape helicopter crashes, and Alice dies. I’m not making that up.
This is where the journalist’s camera comes back into play. Jill, Carlos, L.J., and Angela survive the crash and leak the story to the press. Unfortunately, Umbrella controls the media and quickly discredits the story, leading to Jill and Carlos becoming fugitives.
Alice wakes up in a lab, which will become a running theme for the film series. This Alice is a clone and has more superpowers. She breaks out of the lab and is driven away.
This is where the story ends for now. It leaves you on a cliffhanger like the previous film. It wasn’t a bad ending and could’ve gone in some interesting directions. Instead, things go crazy and morphs into Mad Max for some reason. That is for another time.
What about Angela?
Angela Ashford, or Angie, is wrapped up in the main plot point. She is the person our heroes are sent to save and their means of escaping Racoon City. She also has a psychic connection to Alice, or at least that is one of the things I got from the last scene.
Her father was using her as a test subject for the T-Virus because he wanted to prevent her from suffering from a genetic disease. It seems to be working, and it means that she is carrying around a backpack full of the anti-virus. This is great news for Carlos!
It felt like she would play a larger role in the series moving forward, but she doesn’t. She is never mentioned again and disappears from the series. This was an odd choice.
I’ll get into this more when I cover the next film. It was a strange decision to have her be such a big part of the movie and then forget about her entirely. There is probably a bigger story behind what happened, but I’ll look into that some other time.
The Ashfords
I didn’t remember whether Dr. Ashford was in the first three games. I don’t remember if a character named Dr. Ashford is mentioned in the first three games, so I did a little digging. Everything pointed to Resident Evil: Code Veronica.
So, the name is at least from the games and would become a bigger part of the lore retroactively. There are a number of videos on YouTube that go over this. The one I used to double-check what I found online was from Suggestive Gaming; here is a LINK to the video.
Retroactively, it is explained that Edward Ashford helped to found Umbrella. It seems like the family was inserted into the game’s lore following the release of Code Veronica. I could have this wrong, and if I do, please correct me in the comments.
What about the games?
How close is the movie to the games? Well, it takes some things but misses a lot. It is largely based on Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis.
There were a lot of games released by 2004. Here is a list:
- Resident Evil (1996)
- Resident Evil 2 (1998)
- Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999)
- Resident Evil Survivor (2000)
- Resident Evil Code: Veronica (2000)
- Resident Evil Survivor 2 Code: Veronica (2001)
- Resident Evil Gaiden (2001)
- Resident Evil Remake (2002)
- Resident Evil Zero (2002)
- Resident Evil: Dead Aim (2003)
- Resident Evil Outbreak (2003)
- Resident Evil Outbreak: File #2 (2004)
The fourth game would be released in 2005. I can only guess that the plot of that game impacted what the movies were going to do. It would account for the huge plot holes between the second and third films.
Jill Valentine, Carlos, the Nemesis tyrant, and some other minor characters are in the movie. You might have missed the games if you haven’t played them for a while. The other main characters are not in the movie.
It wasn’t until I started comparing the movie to the games that I realized how many characters from the games made it into the second movie. Resident Evil: Apocalypse is more similar to the third game. I guess they assumed that the plot would be more exciting.
Many of the changes had to do with the film shoving Alice into the series. They also lean into the idea of her having superpowers. This caused many of the characters from the first and second games to be removed from the films.
The plot of the third game isn’t too different from the movie. There were a few narrative changes because of the first film. It is an attempt to make the films their own thing, probably because they were getting ahead of the games.
The biggest change from the games is Umbrella. In the movies, they are an all-powerful corporation that can effectively control the world. They can do anything without worrying about governments and the media.
This is drastically different from the video games in which Umbrella gets shut down. The company gets shut down after all of the crap they do. That happens later in the series, and the filmmakers probably wouldn’t have known that.
Final Thoughts
I thought this movie was fun. It isn’t a great film, but it is entertaining. When I watched it for this post, I found a few things odd about it that I didn’t pay attention to or care about before.
It is a reimagining of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. In hindsight, this makes more sense, as the clues for the Nemesis Project were teased at the end of the first film. There are a number of changes to Resident Evil’s lore, but many of the characters from the game are in the movie, but with different or reduced roles.
I think the first two films are decent zombie movies. They’re more action-oriented, which was the trend for the genre during the 2000s. Most zombie movies gave up on social commentary and replaced it with entertainment.
After this, the film series goes off the rails. Plot points are quickly wrapped up, and things turn into a post-apocalyptic struggle for humanity’s survival. It is a strange direction. They do include some things from the games, but there is a strangeness to them that feels out of place or tacked on at the last minute. It makes me wonder if there was an overall plan for the series or if the directors were making things up as they went along.
If you liked this post, please check out what I said about the first film in the series (LINK).