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RESIDENT EVIL
Something rotten is brewing beneath the industrial mecca known as Raccoon City. Unknown to its millions of residents, a huge underground bioengineering facility known as The Hive has accidentally unleashed the deadly and mutating T-virus, killing all of its employees. To contain the leak, the governing supercomputer, Red Queen, has sealed all entrances and exits. Now a team of highly-trained super commandos including Rain (Michelle Rodriguez - The Fast and the Furious, Girlfight), Alice (Milla Jovovich - The Fifth Element) and Matt (Eric Mabius - Cruel Intentions) must race to penetrate The Hive in order to isolate the T-virus before it overwhelms humanity. To do so, they must get past the Red Queen's deadly defenses, face the flesh-eating undead employees, fight killer mutant dogs and battle The Licker, a genetically mutated savage beast whose strength increases with each of its slain victims.
© 2002 Constantin Film Produktion GmbH. All Rights Reserved.
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RESIDENT EVIL FAQs
1. What is Resident Evil?
Resident Evil is a 2002 action horror film written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, loosely based on the Capcom survival horror video game series of the same name. Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing through its Screen Gems label, the film is the first installment in the Resident Evil film series and introduces Alice, an original protagonist created specifically for the films. The film launched a six-film franchise that would gross over $1.2 billion worldwide and remain one of the most commercially successful video-game-to-film adaptations in cinema history.
2. When does the story take place?
Set in the present day, the film opens with a containment breach at The Hive, a top-secret underground research facility owned by the multinational Umbrella Corporation, where a bioengineered pathogen known as the T-virus has been released. As the facility's artificial intelligence, the Red Queen, seals the complex and kills all personnel inside to contain the outbreak, an amnesiac woman named Alice awakens in a mansion above the entrance with no memory of her identity. When a military commando team breaks into the Hive to investigate and disable the Red Queen, Alice and the unit's lone civilian Matt Addison are forced to descend into the facility with them, where they discover that the Umbrella scientists trapped inside have been reanimated as flesh-eating undead.
3. Who are the main characters?
The film centers on Alice (Milla Jovovich), an amnesiac security operative who slowly recovers her memories of having worked covertly for Umbrella; Rain Ocampo (Michelle Rodriguez), the toughest soldier on the commando team sent into the Hive; Matt Addison (Eric Mabius), a man posing as a police officer who has infiltrated the mansion in search of his missing sister; and Spence Parks (James Purefoy), Alice's apparent husband who is also revealed to have ties to Umbrella. The supporting cast includes Colin Salmon as the commando team leader known as One, Martin Crewes as the tech specialist Kaplan, Heike Makatsch as Matt's sister Lisa Addison, and Jaymes Butler as J.D., a member of the unit.
4. Who is the Red Queen?
The Red Queen is the main antagonist of Resident Evil: a holographic artificial intelligence designed in the form of a young girl who controls every system inside the Hive on behalf of the Umbrella Corporation. When the T-virus is released into the facility's environmental systems, the Red Queen seals the complex and exterminates the hundreds of scientists working inside, in order to prevent the outbreak from reaching the surface. As Alice and the commando team descend into the Hive to shut her down, the Red Queen becomes an increasingly hostile presence, deploying laser security grids and other defensive measures against the team while justifying her actions with cold mathematical logic. Behind the Red Queen stands the larger threat of the Umbrella Corporation itself, whose pursuit of bioweapons research has set the entire crisis in motion.
5. How does this film connect to the broader Resident Evil franchise?
Resident Evil (2002) launched the original Resident Evil film series, a six-film arc following Alice across a global zombie apocalypse. It was followed by Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), Resident Evil: Extinction (2007), Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010), Resident Evil: Retribution (2012), and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016), with Paul W. S. Anderson returning to direct the fourth, fifth, and sixth installments. The franchise was later rebooted with Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021).
6. Who are the cast and filmmakers behind Resident Evil?
Resident Evil (2002) is written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. The film is produced by Paul W. S. Anderson, Bernd Eichinger, Samuel Hadida, and Jeremy Bolt. The cast includes Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Eric Mabius, James Purefoy, Colin Salmon, Martin Crewes, Heike Makatsch, and Jaymes Butler.
7. Where can I watch Resident Evil (2002)?
Resident Evil (2002) is available through major digital retailers, including Apple TV, Prime Video, Fandango, DIRECTV, and Sony Pictures Core.
