To contain a deadly T-Virus leak, the AI controlling Umbrella Corporation’s top-secret underground lab shuts down the facility and kills all its personnel. Unaware of the outbreak, the company assumes the computer is malfunctioning and sends an elite team to shut it down. The team soon discovers the terrifying truth when they realize the virus has resurrected the dead staff, turning them into flesh-eating creatures. A film by Paul W.S. Anderson, starring Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Eric Mabius, James Purefoy, Martin Crewes, Colin Salmon, Ryan McCluskey, Oscar Pearce, Indra Ové, Anna Bolt, Joseph May, Robert Tannion, Heike Makatsch, Jaymes Butler, Stephen Billington, Fiona Glascott, Pasquale Aleardi, Liz May Brice, Torsten Jerabek, Marc Logan-Black, Michaela Dicker, and Jason Isaacs.

Inside a high-security Umbrella Corporation lab, an unidentified worker in a hazmat suit uses remote robotic arms to carefully load a dozen vials of mysterious green and blue liquids into a secure transport case. Before exiting, the rogue employee grabs the case and deliberately tosses a single blue vial back into the room.

It strikes the edge of a table and shatters against the floor, spilling its contents. The liquid quickly evaporates into an invisible gas. It drifts up into the ceiling vents before circulating into a busy corridor filled with oblivious employees. A Doberman catches an unusual scent from a ceiling vent and begins to bark.

An AI-controlled security camera activates and zooms in on the broken vial. The system quickly identifies the spilled liquid as the biohazardous T-Virus and detects the rapidly expanding gas. As a preliminary countermeasure, the supercomputer initiates a full lockdown and sounds a blaring alarm.

Employees begin heading toward the nearest exits, but the doors quickly slide shut, trapping them inside the facility. Still chatting on the phone, Lisa (Heike Makatsch) remains completely calm, mistakenly believing it is just another routine fire drill.

Suddenly, the ceiling sprinklers activate, pouring water into the room. Panic sets in as the scientists frantically try to shield their computers and move experimental materials away from the deluge. They rush to the exit, only to find the door securely locked and their access codes useless.

Noticing an active CCTV camera tracking them, Dr. Green (Anna Bolt) desperately waves and yells at the lens, trying to signal that there is no fire. As the water level rises, Dr. Blue (Joseph May) realizes the lab has become a sealed trap. Dr. Brown (Robert Tannion) grabs an axe and swings wildly at the observation window, only to discover the shatterproof glass is practically indestructible.

Meanwhile, another group of employees find themselves trapped inside a stalled elevator. Their frustration turns to sheer terror when they hear an adjacent elevator plummet down the shaft, echoing with the screams of the passengers inside. Suddenly, their own elevator abruptly drops from the tenth floor. The safety brakes automatically engage, screeching loudly before bringing the car to a stop at the third floor.

The system floods the office floor with deadly Halon gas, suffocating all the employees trapped inside. The AI monitors the room until every life sign drops to zero, ensuring no infected individuals survive the lockdown.

Back inside the elevator, they pry the doors apart with their bare hands. The mechanism jams, leaving only a narrow gap. As they peer through, they are horrified to see dozens of facility workers lying motionless on the floor outside. Believing she can squeeze through, Ms. Black (Indra Ové) volunteers to go for help. She forces her way into the opening but quickly becomes stuck halfway. Without warning, the elevator’s safety brake creaks and gives way. The car plummets, dragging her down with her torso still trapped outside the doors. A secondary brake engages, jolting the elevator to a halt mere inches before her head strikes the floor. Terrified, she screams for the others to pull her back in. Just then, the car shoots violently upward, decapitating her.

A woman wakes up in a bathroom with no memory of who or where she is. As she notices a bruise on her collarbone from a recent fall, her mind floods with a brief flashback of showering before abruptly losing consciousness. She leaves the bathroom to explore the premises, but her mind remains completely blank. She discovers she is inside a secluded estate surrounded by a forest and a nearby lake.

On the bed, she finds a red dress she presumably picked out for herself. Moving to the desk, she finds a handwritten note reading “Today all your dreams come true,” signed with an X. Still struggling to remember, she writes the exact same phrase on the paper. She quickly realizes her handwriting is entirely different, proving someone else left the message.

Continuing her search through the drawers, she is shocked to discover a locked ammunition case requiring a combination code. As she wanders through the hallway hoping to remember something, she stumbles upon a photograph of herself in a wedding dress beside a man, indicating she is married.

Moments later, a man appears out of nowhere and grabs her. As she struggles to break free, a squad of heavily armed commandos breaches the house and subdues him. Their leader approaches the woman and demands a status report. Visibly frustrated, she tells him she has no idea what he is talking about. Another soldier checks the system and explains that the estate’s primary defenses were triggered. He adds that she is likely experiencing a known side effect of the defense system, which causes temporary amnesia.

Searching the man, the commandos find a Raccoon City Police badge identifying him as Matthew Addison. When his name fails to return a match in the system, they accuse him of impersonating an officer and demand to know who he really is. Matthew (Eric Mabius) insists he just transferred to the city and claims his paperwork has not been filed yet. Unwilling to leave a potential threat behind, squad leader One (Colin Salmon) decides to bring him along and orders the team to prepare for their descent into the Hive.

As they board a subterranean train bound for the Hive, they discover another unconscious man slumped behind a sealed door. Another flashback floods the woman’s mind, and she immediately recognizes him as her husband from the wedding photograph. She notices he is wearing a gold ring identical to her own.

Slipping her ring off, she discovers a hidden engraving on the inside band reading “PROPERTY OF UMBRELLA CORPORATION”. The man regains consciousness but is completely unable to remember anything, including his own name. The squad’s medic (Liz May Brice) confirms that he is experiencing the same system-induced memory loss.

Arriving at the entrance to the Hive, the commandos secure the perimeter and begin breaching the sealed gate. Frustrated by the confusion, the woman approaches One and demands to know who they are and what is really going on. One explains that he and Alice (Milla Jovovich) actually share the same employer. They all work for the Umbrella Corporation.

He reveals that the mansion above is an emergency entrance to the underground facility. Furthermore, Alice and Spence (James Purefoy), the unconscious man from the train, are highly trained security operatives placed there to guard the access point. Her marriage is a fabrication designed as a cover to keep the Hive a secret.

The Hive is located approximately 800 feet beneath the streets of Raccoon City. It is a top-secret research facility owned and operated by the Umbrella Corporation, housing over five hundred technicians, scientists, and support staff who live and work inside the massive underground complex. One explains that Alice and Spence’s amnesia is a direct result of the facility’s computer-controlled defense mechanisms. When the system triggered, it flooded the mansion with a nerve gas designed to induce complete unconsciousness for up to four hours. A known secondary effect of this gas is acute memory loss.

Once the team breaches the Hive and steps inside, Kaplan (Martin Crewes) warns everyone that the Red Queen has locked onto their position. One explains that the Red Queen is a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence computer controlling the entire underground facility.

Five hours ago, the AI suddenly sealed the Hive and killed everyone inside. One reveals that his squad, which includes Kaplan, the medic, J.D. (Pasquale Aleardi), and Rain (Michelle Rodriguez), was specifically dispatched to shut her down. They still do not know what caused the system to turn murderous, but One strongly suspects the possibility of outside interference.

ᴘ ʀ·ʌ·ᴅ ᴛ

@pradt

RESIDENT EVIL ☣️
Secret Experiment. Deadly Virus. Fatal Mistake.
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A film by Paul W.S. Anderson, starring Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Eric Mabius, James Purefoy, Martin Crewes, Colin Salmon, Ryan McCluskey, Oscar Pearce, Indra Ové, Anna Bolt, Joseph May, Robert Tannion, Heike Makatsch, Jaymes Butler, Stephen Billington, Fiona Glascott, Pasquale Aleardi, Liz May Brice, Torsten Jerabek, Marc Logan-Black, Michaela Dicker, and Jason Isaacs.

Written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, Resident Evil is an action-horror film that follows an amnesiac operative and an elite team of Umbrella Corporation commandos. Together, they breach a top-secret underground lab locked down by a rogue AI, with orders to shut down the supercomputer that slaughtered the facility’s entire staff.

RESIDENT EVIL was theatrically released in the United States on 15 March 2002. The film grossed $103 million worldwide against a production budget of $33 million.

RESIDENT EVIL was released on 4K Ultra HD on 17 November 2020, debuting exclusively as a part of Sony’s RESIDENT EVIL: The Complete Collection box set before receiving a standalone release the following year. Because the movie was originally shot on 35mm film, the native 4K (2160p) scan provided a massive visual upgrade over older, noise-reduced Blu-rays, utilizing HDR10 in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Alongside the improved picture, the release featured a newly remixed Dolby Atmos audio track with spatial audio and height channels, as well as the legacy DTS-HD 5.1 mix. All legacy bonus features, including commentaries, featurettes, and Slipknot’s “My Plague” music video, were preserved on an accompanying standard 1080p Blu-ray.

Following its initial debut in the Complete Collection box set, the original RESIDENT EVIL received a standalone 2-disc 4K Ultra HD release from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on 23 August 2021. The first disc is dedicated entirely to the upgraded feature film, presenting a native 4K (2160p) scan from the original 35mm camera negative with HDR10 in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. This disc also features the newly remixed Dolby Atmos audio track alongside the legacy DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 theatrical mix. All legacy special features are housed on the second disc, which is a standard 1080p Blu-ray. The extras include cast, filmmaker, and visual effects commentaries, an alternate ending with a video introduction by director Paul W.S. Anderson, twelve behind-the-scenes production featurettes, and the music video for Slipknot’s “My Plague.”