Resident Evil: Apocalypse

Resident Evil: Apocalypse is a 2004 action horror film, and sequel to the 2002 film Resident Evil. The film stars Milla Jovovich, Sienna Guillory, Oded Fehr and Mike Epps. The film was released in the United States on September 10, 2004 and in Japan on September 11, 2004.

The film was written by Paul W. S. Anderson and directed by Alexander Witt. Anderson could not direct the film due to his work on Alien vs. Predator, but was involved in the film's pre- and post-production phases.

RE: A mainly borrows elements from Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, and Resident Evil - CODE: Veronica.

Tagline:
 * My name is Alice, and I remember everything.

Plot summary
The film begins with Alice (Milla Jovovich) recalling the key events from the first film. On September 29, thirteen hours after the initial T-Virus outbreak in The Hive, the Umbrella Corporation sends in a research team to re-open the complex. As the team enters The Hive through a secret insertion point beneath Raccoon City, the entire team is slaughtered by zombies and Lickers who have been sealed within the complex. Realizing the entrance is now open, and the virus and infectious zombies will make their way to the surface, Umbrella establishes a security perimeter around the city to keep the citizens in a quarantined area.

Alice wakes up in a downtown hospital, and recalls her recent memories. After surviving The Hive, Alice was recovered by Umbrella and used for experimentation. She has gained superhuman powers because the T-Virus bonded with her blood on a cellular level. As she exits the hospital, she recognizes the virus has escaped causing devastation in the streets and makes her way to a police car where she grabs a shotgun from the front seat. She pumps the shotgun once and moves on.

As civilians reach the checkpoints, Umbrella operatives screen them for traces of any infection, until Major Timothy Cain (Thomas Kretschmann), orders all checkpoints to be closed, as the infection already reached the gates, and then he informs the remaining citizens to return to their homes. No one responds to the order, and the military threatens them after hoaxing a shoot-out.

Elsewhere, Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr) and two other Umbrella soldiers Nicholai Ginovaef (Zack Ward) and Yuri Loginova link up with multiple Special Tactics And Rescue Service units in an attempt to hold against an onslaught of zombies in the street. However they are overrun, causing Carlos and his team to fall back with an infected Yuri who was bitten during the battle. Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) (a S.T.A.R.S. unit member) together with Terri Morales (Sandrine Holt) and Peyton Wells (Razaaq Adoti) retreat to a church, where they are attacked by Lickers before being saved by Alice. In the church it is revealed that Terri Morales is recording their encounters with the zombies and other monsters in case they survive the outbreak.

When the infection reached critical stages, Umbrella dispatched their Nemesis program (Matthew G. Taylor) to kill all remaining S.T.A.R.S. operatives, and when he encounters L.J. (Mike Epps), and thirteen other members of S.T.A.R.S, they open fire on him, before he guns them down, sparing only L.J.'s life when he drops his weapons. Dr. Charles Ashford (Jared Harris), a key Umbrella scientist and creator of the T-Virus, has refused extraction by Umbrella until he has located and rescued his daughter Angela (Sophie Vavasseur). As he hacks into Raccoon City's network of closed circuit cameras, he determines she is hiding out in her school and contacts Alice and her group. He informs them that Umbrella's method of sanitizing Raccoon City is by nuking it, but he offers to arrange for an evacuation in exchange for rescuing Angela. Inside the school, the group encounter Carlos and his team, who have also been given the same offer. After various encounters with zombie dogs and infected children who kill Nicholai and Terri respectively (Terri's video camera records her death), they succeed in finding Angela, leaving the remaining survivors to escape by car and head towards the extraction point. Alice records her story with Terri's video camera as they travel to the extraction point.

When contacted by Alice about their success, Ashford gives them the location of the extraction point, and tells them that "it is lightly guarded." After subduing all of the guards, Alice and the other survivors are confronted by Major Cain. Cain had been aware of Ashford's plan, captured him, and finally kills him, forcing Alice to fight Nemesis for her friends' lives. As she defeats Nemesis in hand-to-hand combat, she realizes his true identity (her former friend, Matt Addison) and refuses to deliver the killing blow. Her mercy appears to rekindle a trace of Nemesis's former humanity, and they join forces and attack the Umbrella troops. Nemesis is killed in the ensuing fight, and Alice and the others escape in the helicopter, Major Cain attempts to board the helicopter but Alice throws him off. Major Cain picks up a pistol and fires it into the rapidly growing crowd of approaching zombies several times, then tries to kill himself with the pistol, only to find that it is out of bullets. He is eaten alive by the rest of the zombies (with, ironically, the reanimated Dr. Ashford being the first to get to him).

On September 30th, The N-2 Missile flies above Raccoon City, reaching the towers, and then obliterates the whole city. The helicopter is caught in the blast radius, the shock wave dislodging a piece of metal that hurtles towards Angela. Alice leaps in front of her and is impaled by it. The helicopter then crashes into the Arklay Mountains. Alice is recovered by Umbrella, but the rest of the occupants escape before the crash site is located. Terri's video is recovered and released, and flashes of news scenes appear. At first the scenes show a public suspicious of Umbrella, but it is soon revealed that Umbrella hushed up the incident, saying it was nothing more than a sick joke playing on the accident at Raccoon City. Umbrella explains the nuclear explosion on a failed reactor, and by the end of the series of news clips, Terri's video seems to have been regarded as a hoax, and those featured in it are called in by the police for questioning.

Alice is taken to an Umbrella research station, where, after several weeks, she awakens in a water tank, completely regenerated from her injuries. Led by Umbrella scientist Dr. Isaacs (Iain Glen), the doctors query her. At first, she appears to have no memory, but soon a rapid series of images of recent events come flashing back, and she says with contempt "My name is Alice… and I remember everything." She fights her way out of the facility showing some of her darkest powers yet, only to be surrounded by dozens of armed guards. Suddenly, Jill, Carlos and L.J., disguised as Umbrella employees, pull up in an SUV. Carlos shows the guards a written order placing Alice in his custody. The guards stand down, and as Alice enters the waiting vehicle she sees Angela in the back seat. Angela asks Alice if she is alright as they drive away, to which Alice doesn't respond. Dr. Isaacs is shown announcing "Program Alice Activated," and a close-up of Alice's eye reveals a flashing Umbrella logo as the film comes to an end.

Production
Apocalypse was greenlit in 2002 when the first Resident Evil film was a success at the box office. The film was produced by Constantin Film, Davis Film and Impact Pictures, mostly on location in Canada. The film entered pre-production stages in mid 2003 and began principal photography on August 6, 2003 and ended on October 23, 2003.

The majority of the movie was filmed in Ontario, Canada; with Toronto and its surrounding suburbs being a stand-in for Raccoon City. Toronto City Hall and Exhibition Place (namely the National Trade Centre) were used as Umbrella's worldwide headquarters, while the logos of Canada's largest banks feature prominently in the skyline shots of the city, and the Prince Edward Viaduct is used to represent the only exit out of Raccoon City.

The movie cost $11 million more than the original Resident Evil

Paul W.S. Anderson, who wrote and directed the first Resident Evil, only wrote the screenplay for Apocalypse, passing the director's chair to Alexander Witt so he could direct Alien vs. Predator.

The Monsters
Previous to filming, just as in the first movie, actors playing zombies were trained at a zombie "boot camp." Actors were coached to act as zen-zombies (a creature that relentlessly follows its target) and liquid zombies. Anderson and other crew members were tempted to make the zombies move faster but decided that it would be breaking with a fundamental element of the games.

Nemesis was an actor in a suit, Matthew G. Taylor, with only special-effects applied to certain parts of the characters body (such as the eye of the creature). Despite Taylor being 1.98 metres (approx. 6 feet, 6 inches) in height he was still considered too short, to hide this the character wears large boots and in many scenes the Nemesis was stretched to appear taller.

The same dog-team was used for the Cerberus' as in the first. The look of the Dobermans was achieved through a combination of make-up and computer-effects. Due to the dogs' inexplicable reluctance to dive through a sugar-glass window as they had done before, the window in the scene was done in CGI.

The Lickers were fully computer-generated this time, though the use of physical puppets was considered for a while. To avert the problems faced during the production of the first film, the CGI work of the lickers began early in production.

Filming Locations

 * Berlin, Germany - The Hive
 * Brampton, Ontario, Canada - Raccoon City
 * City Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada - Raccoon City Hall
 * Hamilton Cemetery, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada - Cemetery
 * Prince Edward Viaduct, Toronto, Ontario, Canada - Raven's Gate Bridge
 * Bloor Collegiate Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada - Raccoon City Junior School
 * Northern Secondary School, Toronto, Ontario, Canada - Raccoon City Junior School
 * Unknown - Arklay Mountains/Raccoon Forest

Regenerate
The Regenerate "commercial" was a teaser trailer for the second Resident Evil movie, and can be seen in the movie on a TV screen in the female scientist's house. It is reminiscent of the Olay product Regenerist advertisements.

Regenerate (2003) is a skin care product (and registered trademark) of the Umbrella Corporation (motto: Our business is life itself), using the T-Virus to reanimate dead cells and make you more youthful looking.

An ad similar to the Regenerate can be seen in ending credits. The ad states that the film is "a product of the Umbrella Corporation." It ends with "Some Side Effects may occur."

The teaser trailer is available from Sony Pictures in both RealMedia and Windows Media formats.

Reception
Apocalypse received even more negative reactions from the critics than the first film. The film appears only 20% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes (22 out of 112 reviews are counted fresh). Tim Cogshell from the Box Office Magazine stated that Apocalypse is "superior to the original film." Robert Dominguez, from New York Daily News stated that the film "should please the target audience." Walter Chaw from Film Freak Central states that Apocalypse is "An awful sequel to an awful film."

Film critic Victoria Alexander (from FilmsInReview.com) said “If you like tough chicks killing zombies, RE:A is for you,” although she nonetheless noted that “Screenwriter Paul W.S. Anderson doesn’t bog down the film with philosophical subtext or explain the zombies,” which she acknowledges are probably not “questions ...suitable for the demographics targeted.”

Critic Sean Axmaker gave the film a grade of C+, and said that the director’s “ headlong pace that favors action over spectacle... helps distract from all but the most contrived and absurd turns of Anderson's slapdash script.” Critic Dragan Antulovbigger gave the film 5/10. He noted the more spectacular setting (made possible by the bigger budget than the initial film), “deadlier weapons...[an] increased number of explosions[, and an] increased body count.” He said that despite the “shallowness of the content” there was “interesting production design and energetic direction.”

Reviewer Roger Ebert gave the film one half of a star, calling it an “utterly meaningless waste of time”, “a dead zone, a film without interest, wit, imagination or even entertaining violence and special effects.” Chris Alexander of Rue Morgue Magazine said that “RE2 is a dreary, incoherent mess of a movie, failing on almost every conceivable level and having the dubious distinction of rendering hordes of shambling, screaming cannibalistic zombies boring.” Alexander stated that the director “Witt can’t stage an action sequence,” said that the lead actress “looks bored,” called the score “useless” and said that the “effects are more like defects.”

Film critic Rob Blackwelder called "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" “inept, unoriginal, [and] asinine”, and stated that it is “on the Worst of 2004 list.” Blackwelder criticized the film as a a “braindead disaster” with “pathetic... leaden mindlessness,” with “impossibly stupid and nonsensical plot defects.” He stated that the film was “overflowing with off-the-shelf action-hack staples” and “tiresome stereotypes,” and directed with a lack of “narrative or cinematic sense.”

Walter Chaw of Film Freak Central, who gave the film half a star out of four, criticized the “shoddiness of the make-up” and the lack of “critical biographical/geographical details.” He states that the editing seems like it was “edited with a weed whacker.” Chaw notes that “an entire sequence” was “lifted whole from La Femme Nikita.” While Chaw admits to loving genre films, he states that films like this “lowe[r] the conversation even lower than it already is.” In all, Chaw says “no artistry[–] it ain't good.” Reviewer Anthony Del Valle calls the film “yawn of the dead,” and laments “how little the writer develops the idea, and how the director turns his back on every opportunity to creatively exploit the situation.

Box office
The film grossed $23,036,273 on its opening weekend (September 10-12 2004). The film gained $51,201,453 domestically and $129,394,835 worldwide.

The film's success has spawned yet other sequel, released in 2007 titled Extinction, the official website of the third installment claimed it would be the last and final installment in the series, although a fourth film is still rumoured.

Trivia

 * The film's director Alexander Witt has a cameo in the film as the sniper on top of Raccoon City Hall...just to be killed by Milla Jovovich.
 * Ben Moody, former lead guitarist of the alternative rock band Evanescence, makes a brief cameo appearance as a zombie in the film, which is mentioned in the DVD audio commentary.
 * The word "zombie" is never mentioned, following the example of the first movie.
 * Dr. Charles Ashford and his daughter Angela share the same last names as the Ashfords, one of the families who were revealed as having founded Umbrella and the last two scions of which were the primary antagonists in Resident Evil: Code Veronica.
 * The S.T.A.R.S team that was killed in the store by Nemesis (Matt) is said to be of the director's family, also the store is called Westwood, the name of the supermarket is possibly a reference to Westwood Studios, the developer of the Command & Conquer series and the developer of the PC port of Resident Evil.
 * The way Raccoon City was destroyed is similar to the way Louisville, Kentucky is destroyed in Return of the Living Dead.
 * In Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, there is a poster in the alley behind Jack's Bar saying, "Umbrella announces a new miracle drug! It will make you look and feel 10 years younger!" This is very similar to the Regenerate drug.
 * It should be noted that if Major Cain had spared the life of Angela's father, he would have had the single bullet to kill him self. He shot Mr. Ashford once, and into the crowd of Zombies seven times, with the magazine containing only 8 rounds.
 * At the beginning of the film, there is a continuity error. As Jill Valentine is being introduced, she enters the police station not wearing her black shoulder holster. After a couple of brief scenes without it where she kills a number of zombies, the next shot shows her wearing the holster.

Soundtrack
There are two albums for Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The first is the soundtrack, featuring music from and inspired by the movie. The second is the score, composed by Jeff Danna and performed by the Philharmonic Orchestra. The Score album features at least 2 tracks that were not featured in the film, notably "2 Wheels Hero" (possibly in reference to Alice's arrival in the church on a motorbike).

DVD
The Resident Evil: Apocalypse DVD was released on December 28, 2004 in North America and March 16, 2005 in Australia and New Zealand.

The UK region 2 DVD was released in February 2005. The release, whilst only having one disc, was almost exactly the identical to the North American release. The region 2 version features descriptive commentary for the blind. The cover also features Alice, like on the R1 DVD cover, but it in a gray-blue and black, with Alice in a graveyard with Raccoon City in ruins in the background.

Contents
Special Edition features DVD features:
 * Available subtitles: English
 * Available audio tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
 * Commentary by director Alexander Witt, producer Jeremy Bolt, and executive producer Robert Kulzer.
 * Commentary by Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr, and Sienna Guillory.
 * Commentary by writer/producer Paul W. S. Anderson and producer Jeremy Bolt.
 * Widescreen anamorphic and full-screen formats.
 * 20 deleted scenes.
 * Cast outtakes.
 * Game Over: Resident Evil Reanimated.
 * A six-part making-of Corporate Malfeasance: Featurette on the real-world similarities to the Umbrella Corporation.
 * Game Babes: Featurette on the emergence of the female stars in the movie.
 * Symphony of Evil: Featurette on the special effects used in the movie.
 * Poster gallery: A collection of winning submissions created by the finalists of the online poster design contest.
 * Number of discs: 2
 * Film Trailers

Region 2 Special Edition
Play.com lists a 2 disc special edition of Resident Evil: Apocalypse that features new packaging art. The DVD will be released in early September, probably to coincide with the release of Resident Evil: Extinction.

Extended Edition
The film's DVD release in Germany has an exclusive "Extended Edition", that reinstates most of the Deleted Scenes from the DVD and also, but not limited to.

Extended Scenes

 * An extended scene before Jill, Peyton and Terri enter the church, Terri whispers to Jill "What's going on? They were shooting on people. Innocent people, why didn't you do something? You are the police aren't you?" Jill ignores her, the scene continues as normal, but audio is a bit different in places.


 * A shot that was in the trailer where the camera spins around a gargoyle on top of the church, and a flash of lightning reveals a Licker, thrashing its tongue around.


 * A shot of Alice pulling a shard of glass out of her leg after Jill demands "Who the fuck are you?" and limping away.


 * After L.J. runs over the undead, he sees 2 topless strippers, and crashes his car. In the Extended Version, L.J. says something along the lines of "You're still looking good, baby. I'll still spend 5 dollars on you!" before crashing. This scene was in the novelization by Keith R.A. DeCandido.


 * After L.J. drops his guns before the Nemesis, he shouts abuse at him and dances whilst clicking his fingers and singing. Some of these shots are in the outtakes reel.


 * Finally, an exchange between Jill and Alice when they are walking past the phone boxes, where Alice asks "What are you staring at?" Jill responds "I'm not sure, what made you want to work for Umbrella?" from a wide angle, Alice says "A girl's gotta make a living." Jill laughs. This scene is featured in the deleted scenes for the U.S. version of the DVD.

Universal Media Disc
This version of Apocalypse is available for the PSP. It has no special features, and the quality of picture is less than the DVD.
 * Widescreen - 1.78 (modified from the original 2.35 and fills the entire PSP screen).
 * Dolby Digital 2.0 - English, French, Spanish, Italian
 * Subtitles - English, Portuguese, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian - Optional