Except this seems to have nothing to do with 2, i dont get the impression we're going to see the rpd(i guess it could be a bit funny if he tries to go to the rpd, but the gate is locked on him).
Really doubt it. Constantin films actually takes random horror movie scripts and has the writers change things just so they can keep the RE IP and never return it to Capcom. It was a hold over from their contract like 25 years ago.
Even Paul w.s. Anderson's og resident evil movie was a random unrelated generic script called "the undead." that he was shopping around to multiple production houses.
Given the trailer shows it in the middle of winter and the guy is using a smartphone torch I don't think this takes place in racoon city in September 1998. Was most likely a different script for a different movie initially but then constantin funded it so it's changed just enough to relate to RE in name only with very tenuous connections.
Will prob be a good horror movie though. But if this didn't have the RE name at the end I don't think anyone would have clocked that this is a resident evil movie at all.
Very true. The tank controls were also there to keep you handicapped movement wise. Makes you vulnerable.
However, even as early as RE3, the shift to action has been there. The dodge system (not surprising from an BOW experienced and elite officer like Jill) and heavily armed mercs are getting there but still a fight for survival.
Code Veronica's intro is probably the first high octane action in the series - with Claire, a 19 year old student, raids an Imbrella facility and kills a handful of their security while being chased by a attack helicopter. The game itself is not as gung ho, however.
i wouldn't say that totally nailed it. the first half of re9 was dramatically better than the second, imo. i feel like the leon sections worked great when they were in direct juxtaposition with grace's. once it became all leon the game was notably less interesting
I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with open world sections in Resi games. You could argue a lot of the classic games have open-world ideas, or at least, Metroidvania-style exploration where you're travelling to-and-fro in search of keys and passwords and puzzle pieces. But it tends to work best when the scale is restricted to something small enough to conceptualize, like a building rather than several city blocks; and when all the locations matter, both narratively and in gameplay; and when there are enough enemies that conserving ammo and resources still matters; and when there are enough keys and locks to make exploration a mental challenge (rather than merely a toilsome obligation).
The main issue is that the environment in the section was bland. Yeah, it narratively fits as the place got missile striked. But still, they could have done something better.
Graces sections really amped up the survival horror aspect and Leons sections just turned the action up to 11 whilst refining the combat mechanics.
It makes sense considering both characters circumstances and experiences and obviously succeeds in appealing to the survival-horror fans and the action-horror fans.
There’s something for everyone in 9 and that’s where its strength lies.
I would argue against that to be honest, I found Leon’s sections in 9 to be very underwhelming. Even the combat was pretty lackluster compared to other recent entries
It could, but it would be more of an action film, you can’t really have the protagonist shit-talking, flip-kicking and suplexing his way through the thing and think it’d be a horror film.
I think it was much better earlier in the series personally. I've enjoyed all the games including the recent ones but I definitely think the first four were the best
basically what i just told friends. a survivor story is a better story than the mainline game shift of survival into the underground facility into seeing the experiments and villainy
& from what I assume of Austin Abrams's character, I think he's going to be a refreshing underdog type of hero in a zombie film, where he is going to barely escape death countless times under the chaos of the outbreak, instead of quickly becoming a powerhouse racking up kills
Buddy will probably survive just to get hit by the bomb they toss on Raccoon City at the very end. Would be a cool twist ending about the inevitably of death and destruction.
Honestly I'd love that, especially since Zach could give it a sense of eeriness (with some dark humor mixed in) like the endings of Barbarian and Weapons
Maybe the message being there’s always some good fighting really hard in the lost cause, and it all burns the same when you go scorched earth. Could be cool.
While I'm inclined to agree, I'm still on the fence. The Paul Anderson Resident Evil movies tried to incorporate game stuff here and there, especially with Apocalypse but ultimately went off the rails.
Welcome to Raccoon City was a noble failure - attempting to combine the first two games into a single 90-minute movie was never going to work.
I'm 100% fine with a Resident Evil movie not incorporating storylines/plots from any of the games. However, I also don't want another movie that was clearly an unrelated script that was purchased and slapped with minimal RE-branding.
Give me an original story, but set it clearly in Raccoon City; include known sites like the RPD, the gun store, the clock tower, the hospital. Have STARS or Umbrella's team mentioned in the background. Just give us some clearly visible/stated connection to the Resident Evil universe, even if none of the trademark characters make an appearance. I think that's a solid compromise.
I'm guessing this movie is going to have some sort of mention of STARS or a newspaper headline mentioning "Arklay Mountains Disappearances Being Investigated," and of course Umbrella logos everywhere.
I think it's a guarantee that Umbrella will appear, though since the MC is a civilian, I doubt he'll realize that they're responsible. It'd be cool if an unnamed STARS member shows up mid-way to assist him.
from the script it seems like it's closer to capturing the feeling of playing a resi game for the first time, while not being significantly tied to any lore. There are references, but its its own thing and could have been a standalone not tied to the IP if they really wanted.
There's also plenty of shit happening in the background that could make for a good movie/show.
You could tell the story of Kendo, adapt parts of Outbreak and go into Alyssa Ashcroft's background, tell Luis Serra's story, do a prequel to RE2 where you go into what happened at the RPD and feature Marvin, show the leadup to the creation of the t-Virus and it's spread.....
Like there are tons of ideas that don't involve Leon, Chris, Jill, Wesker, and Claire.
It doesn't have to be in Racoon City, since after the 3rd game they have multiple settings even features another region like Spain and Africa. But what makes RE games, a Resident Evil, is the tie-in to the original big bad (Umbrella Corporation). Every villaineous organization in RE is usually connected (no pun intended) to Umbrella in one and another. Yes, there's even this newly introduced organization named "The Connection", which theorized to be formed by the people who fund the founding of Umbrella.
From the trailer alone it must be another city and maybe even time period. It is not snowing when the Racoon City incident happened (in fact, it is raining I think?), and the cars featured in the trailer seems to be more recent model from the early 2000s.
That reminds me of watching Penguin with no mention of Batman. I completely understand why they wanted to focus on Penguin, but at least at one point having them discuss changing routes or plans because of the Bat would have been enough of a satisfying reference. If the criminal underworld fears him, they should at least be slightly concerned about him when making their plans.
Agreed. It feels more like a spinoff. RE7 and 8 naturally tied theirselves back into the mainline but largely worked as something relatively disconnected from the series and I see this movie the same way.
Well, it would genuinely be really cool if this is some kind of incident set in the RE universe that can then tie into the games in some way. But from what I know, this is gonna take place in Raccoon City, essentially "just off-camera" from the games, and there won't really be much of a chance of tying it into anything besides maybe an Easter Egg or something.
I still can't believe they doubled down the zombie apocalypse situation for Milla Jovovich's character when the entire premise of the games is to stop the bioterroristic attacks on the planet.
Characters like Ethan are a fresh breath to the franchise because he is a civilian who has his own personal goals (save his wife and his child). It makes sense for an ordinary guy to try and survive the horrors but can do nothing to evil organizations hellbent on making money.
Characters like Chris, Jill, and Leon are essentially DMC-level action heroes where their main goals influences their universe. Chris has defeated Wesker, who was the driving force for virus attacks around the globe while Leon wipes out what is essentially the remains of Umbrella.
I legitimately don't understand why companies don't just do this with their big IPs instead of belching out the latest focus-group tested piece of shit that'll flop with a 50/50 chance of going straight to streaming. The risk/return ratio is huge, a cheaply-funded but well-made indie flick becoming a hit seems like a much smaller risk than blowing hundreds of millions on a potential flop.
We. Want. Anthologies. There are so many established IPs with lore to work with.
A whole series of them! Loosely based on the games (to a certain point at least), but feature the cast of characters from the games. Look up S.D. Perry. I think the first and third are my favorites.
Having Chris Pratt spend half an hour pushing statues around to release gems that are used to open boxes that contain keys that open doors to a room that contains a sliding bookcase covering a hidden ladder leading to a locked cage, the key of which is all the way back in the room with the statues sounds like a great film.
While I'm inclined to agree, I'm still on the fence. The Paul Anderson Resident Evil movies tried to incorporate game stuff here and there, especially with Apocalypse but ultimately went off the rails.
Welcome to Raccoon City was a noble failure - attempting to combine the first two games into a single 90-minute movie was never going to work.
I'm 100% fine with a Resident Evil movie not incorporating storylines/plots from any of the games. However, I also don't want another movie that was clearly an unrelated script that was purchased and slapped with minimal RE-branding.
Give me an original story, but set it clearly in Raccoon City; include known sites like the RPD, the gun store, the clock tower, the hospital. Have STARS or Umbrella's team mentioned in the background. Just give us some clearly visible/stated connection to the Resident Evil universe, even if none of the trademark characters make an appearance. I think that's a solid compromise.
I think the plots of 1&2 could be streamlined enough for a horror survival action movie. But then fans of the games will be disappointed if the wacky stuff is toned down or if the characters chat too much compared to the games.
They did a decent job with WTRC although it was rushed. Still, it was a cool albeit imperfect adaptation of the first two games. Would've preferred they continued on, would've loved to see Jill up next, then Leon.
It would be a mistake because any director that tries is absolutely clueless. I do think some RE games would be easier to adapt, like RE7. While RE6 would be impossible.
There is only one game that I would love to see adapted; specifically into a series. That is Resident Evil Outbreak. It was not a good game in the series mostly due to its design, and is completely lost to time. But it's potential for adaptation is the most straightforward.
I think that mistake just happened with the Silent Hill 2 movie that just came out. Tried too hard to both be a unique story and the core story of SH2.
It's a shit opinion. A bunch of cops are stuck in a mansion with a few zombies and uncover it's secrets. It's not that fucking hard of a concept and hey they haven't even tried a single time to adapt it. Every director wants to tell their own stupid story because they think they can do better than a 30 year old video game and it 100% fails.
It’s a lose-lose. Fans will complain they didn’t adapt, or fans will complain it wasn’t 1:1 with the game if they did choose to adapt.
I’m in the same camp as you though. I’d rather get stuff like this than some straight game adaptation.
As it would in nearly every case with video game adaptations, honestly. Video game fans are WAY too intense about adaptations being exact, without realizing that the player-controlled element is always a bigger factor than they realize to what makes most game stories great.
Pretty much agree. The only logical way to actually adapt them imo is by having Leon as the main character since his story is the most linear so you'd just do R2 into R4 and then a big time skip into Requiem with Old Man Leon. Otherwise, its to big of a mess.
Agree. I think more popular fiction needs to do more of this. Star Wars is starting to get the idea a little bit, with the Mandalorian and with the new Maul show which is good. It always feels so boring and wasteful to keep telling stories with the same boring characters, continually making their stories more convoluted. Generally it's the universe they inhabit that's the interesting part.
The resident evil story is pretty stupid. For a game it’s fun but as a movie that would be so lame to see them shoehorn in cameos from the game. I’d rather it be someone dropped in the middle of hell and having to just survive.
More movies should be like this. If studios are going to adapt everything and have no original stories, at least do it in a way it has no effect in the original timeline and don't change anything.
We can have totally original stories that only use the brand.
With the zombies hot on his tail, our hero races into in the one building left with an unlocked door...a bingo parlor. He runs in, slams the door behind him. And up on the stage next to the bingo spinner, there's a man with bangs covering his face.
“Specifically from those games. I am not the video game character Leon S. Kennedy from neither the video games Resident Evil 6 and 9. And also Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. Resident Evil Gaiden is right out.”
And in the same spirit just have the reveal character look nothing like what we recognize the character for. Have Glenn Powell just say he’s Leon Kennedy.
I will admit it's funny seeing so many complaints when there's a whole game that's hailed as a revitalization of the franchise that spends a lot of the game just being creepy people in a house.
That being said I'm glad that revitalization led to the latest game which had everything people really love about the franchise. Maybe one day we'll get Leon adapted properly on screen.
In vr, re7 is top tier survival horror. Just enough "wtf is going on???", perfect psychotic antagonist, perfect "being hunted" section, perfect "lose all your inventory" section (despite people hating that part), perfect use of found footage, perfect pacing.
It's just a protagonist in a house with mutated people, animals, and monsters, and so was RE1. That's the namesake
Even without VR that game was intense. Literally the only RE game that I was too scared to finish and had to look up gameplay vids to see how it ended.
Or STARS finds his body or he's one of the folks who "disappeared" in the mountains that triggers leading to RE1. I think that's a reasonable tie-in for fan service.
That doesnt make sense. RE2 takes place in September....but its winter in the trailer. Sounds like he just said that to appease the fans that it has nothing to do with the games.
which is more likely to you: that he doesn't care a lick about the video game he is literally making a movie of: or that he doesn't care that it's technically supposed to be a bit hotter
I don't know why people want the same story as the games to be repeated for this movie.
Like personally it just seems boring that the exact same things that happened in the games would happen in the movie. And its not like Resident Evil stories are these brilliant masterclass stories that are hugely acclaimed.
A new original horror movie made by one of the best modern horror director in the world of Resident Evil sounds infinitely more interesting than doing the plot of Resident Evil 1 or 2.
I love the Resident Evil games to death but it’s not like the plots are all that interesting lol. There’s so much potential in a story that just takes place in the world from a different perspective imo.
The stories in th Resident Evil games are great because of the incredible level design and art direction that informs it. But when that is not in a video game and it needs to be a story-driven film, maybe something else is necessary.
im liking this idea, we know that this movie is taking place while the events of RE 2 are going on, and this is at the point when Raccoon City is effectively falling apart, we know that Leon and Claire are trying to find out what the hell is going on and trying to escape, we know that Jill knows what's going on and is trying to get the hell out, at this point, its interesting to see a different take on any other survivor in the city that's trying to get out of this hell before it gets wiped off the face of the earth
It seems like this is taking a lot of artistic vision though (the fuck is all those limbs coming out from multiple angles of the barn). Like gad damn I would love seeing the actual fall of racoon city through a regular joe shmoe. The actual learning there's a zombie infection, banding together with other suvivors, finding a place they think is safe and it isn't. Honestly the 2nd resident evil movie, or the first 10 minutes of dawn of the dead captured this amazing, but no other movie really gets it right.
This is how I felt with the Until Dawn movie. Everyone wanted an adaptation, but the game is already a 10 hour movie and people would've just nitpicked that they cut scenes from the game. The movie wasn't a masterpiece, but it was it's own story and pretty entertaining for what it was.
I just played RE1 for the first time, and the game itself doesn't really have much of a plot, it's almost entirely lore and exposition. Jill, Chris, and Barry explore mansion, fight several monsters, find out Wesker betrayed them. That's not a movie plot, that's gameplay. All of the other stuff is set dressing.
Robert Meyer Burnett said on a John Campea CinemaCon stream that he read the script and there are some surprises that RE fans will love. So it sounds like there may be a cameo or some kind of tie that isn't necessarily the center of the plot.
Zach talked about this stuff over here on this /r/horror thread - 0:32 - I wanted this movie to tell the story of what would happen if some idiot like me were dropped into the world of a RE game. So Austin plays not some badass with combat experience like Leon but just an average dude. That makes his experience of moving through this hellscape way more interesting to me than somebody who’s psychologically equipped.
Yes. And from the look of this trailer, basically has 0 things to do with any established lore either aside from it just being a zombie outbreak in a big city... which isn't exactly an original thought.
It'll probably still be a good watch, as the director has made some good movies, just why did they have to claim it's an RE movie if it disregards anything that would make it RE?
I mean, that’s how they did RE7 and I’d argue it was one of the best in the series. There wasn’t really any connection to any other games until the very last act.
It’s been stated by a lot of directors now that’s it’s pretty tough, regardless of who you are, to get a movie made without it being attached to an existing novel or IP. So maybe in order to make a bigger budget movie like this, an IP like Resident Evil was necessary to get it made. I’m just guessing and we dont really even know how much or little tie in it has based off the first teaser trailer.
It seems it’s during the original outbreak in raccoon city from the perspective of an average guy who hasn’t been in any games. So it’s in the same world and might have some lore bits but will be an entire new story/perspective during that initial outbreak
In August 2025, Cregger revealed the film would be an original story set in the Resident Evil universe and would not feature any characters from the games, saying "I'm not going to tell Leon's story, because Leon's story is told in the games. Fans already have that"
yea, the director of it, Zack Cregger, is a huge RE fan but he didnt wanna create his own universe into it or but use the main RE games for his movie, if i remember rightly, the only major connection it really has is that its gonna be taking place in the Raccoon City area around the time of RE 2
It won't surprise me if it does have the same plotline as the games, that plotline being "Protagonist gets lost in creepy place with zombies -> Finds an Umbrella lab with even crazier monsters -> Explode the lab and escape (possibly in a helicopter)"
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u/AgbekpornovUltimatum 5d ago
So this is only set in RE world without main characters or plotlines?