Wednesday 16 April 2014

Resident Evil Films Rebooted: My Ideas



Resident Evil is one of my favourite video game franchises, if not my favourite. The films are a guilty pleasure of mine in that I enjoy them but they are not that great. One of the many reasons for this is the large deviations they make from the source material, including completely changing the main character. Imagine if a Harry Potter movie had a new character as the protagonist, while Harry was relegated to a side character.

Below, I have a very basic outline for what I would do with the Resident Evil film franchise. It makes some minor changes for an easier transition to film, simplifies the story, but mainly stays true to the source material. My franchise would be divided into two trilogies, much like Star Wars was. The first trilogy would be horror, taking place in Raccoon City, with the second being a more action-heavy trilogy, focusing on the events after Raccoon City. Obviously, as I only had six films I had to pick and chooser which stories to tell, so some spinoffs got lost (Revelations for instance, which I love) and some stories got merged into one film.




The Raccoon City Trilogy
Resident Evil
Cast
Chris Redfield
Jill Valentine

Barry Burton
Rebecca Chambers
Albert Wesker
Richard, Enrico, Forrest, Kenneth, Joseph


Enemies
Cerberus
Hunters
Yawn
Plant 42
Lisa Trevor
Neptune
T-002 Tyrant


Follows the plot of Resident Evil for the Gamecube
Two groups: Chris/Rebecca, Jill/Barry
Wesker is a traitor-antagonist, but this isn't shown until the final act
Chris/Rebecca fight Lisa Trevor and Yawn, Jill/Barry fight Neptune, Plant 42 & Lisa Trevor
Kenneth & Forrest are already dead
Enrico has the same role as in the game, as does Joseph
Barry is killed by Hunters
Resident Evil 1, establishes the universe and introduces the Redfield family arc
Claire will be "name dropped" a couple times in this film to build the universe


Resident Evil 2
Cast
Leon Kennedy
Claire Redfield
Sherry Birkin
Ada Wong
Echo Six (Dee-Ay, Tweed, Harley, Shona)
Brian Irons
Marvin Branagh

Enemies
Cerberus
Lickers
The Gator
Mr. X Tyrant
William Birkin

For the most part follows Resident Evil 2, from Claire's perspective, further establishing the "Redfield Arc"
Leon is a supporting character
Ada has a semi-antagonistic role as an Umbrella spy, but also as a semi-romantic subplot with Leon
Chief Irons has 1 scene, the scene where he is killed by William
Marvin appears twice, once to give a card to Leon, and once as a zombie with Claire
Claire kills the Gator
Mr. X is mainly after Leon, and William is after Claire and Sherry
Echo Six are featured as a supporting crew. Over the course of the film, they land in Raccoon City, make their way into the sewers and eventually sacrifice themselves so that Claire and Sherry can board the train at the end
William's multiple malformations are all explored in this film

Resident Evil: Nemesis
Cast
Jill Valentine
Carlos Oliveira
Dario Rosso
Nicholai Ginovaef
Mikhail Victor
Brad Vickers

For the most part follows Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
Carlos, Mikhail and Nicholai are dropped in with the UBCS to rescue civilians, but Nicholai eventually betrays them
The film shows that it was actually Nicholai who shot Mikhail from a distance, and then met up with Carlos when he followed Mikhail to finish him off. He pretends to be an upstanding soldier
Nicholai is killed by Nemesis in this continuity
In a post-credits scene, Umbrella retrieves Nemesis' body from the wreckage of Raccoon City. This will set up a surprise in a later film




The Post-Raccoon Trilogy (I will find a better name for this)
Resident Evil: Code Veronica
Minor Changes
The entire movie takes place on Rockfort. There is no Antarctica, but Rockfort is greatly expanded upon
The plane and attempted escape is all still there, but they crash back on Rockfort after the tyrant fight

Alfred Ashford
Slightly less feminine
Very much like Norman Bates/Mother character
A more depressed, pathetic character
Death: Steve punches, he falls, impales himself, gets to Alexia's chamber, and dies at her feet as she awakens
Steve actually tries to catch him after he begins to fall

Alexia Ashford
Main villain of the third act
Distraught over brother's death
Releases many insect B.O.Ws including spiders and moths, as well as ants
Chris kills her with the Linear launcher

Steve Burnside
Jack Dawson from Titanic, right down to his sacrificial death, speech & monologue
Wields a single golden Luger for much of the film
Steve's father is a zombie

Alexander Ashford/Nosferatu
Breaks free in the attack on Rockfort by Wesker
Roams the complex, barely missing Claire and Steve
Is killed by Claire on a helicopter pad

Tyrant
Minor role, only 2 scenes, the first scene being its release
The fight on the plane is there
Death: Pushed off the plane by a cargo crate

Wesker
Similar in appearance to his Re5 look
He moves much faster in this film, again closer to Re5


Resident Evil 5
A mix of RE4 and RE5
Wesker replaces Saddler
instead of the president's daughter, it is Sherry Birkin
Chris and Leon go in as a unit to the European region from RE4
The Chris-Jill arc from RE5 remains the same

Enemies
Jack Krauser appears and is told through flashbacks
Executioner appears
Dr. Salvador appears
Garrador appears
Wesker is fought but doesn't mutate

Resident Evil 6

Ustanak is actually the recovered Nemesis with modifications
Follows the story of Chris and Leon, with Piers and Jake as supporting characters
Follows Chris' general campaign, but with zombies
Carla and Ada's arc is followed as a subplot
Again, Claire is name-dropped but does not appear. The Redfield story arc finished with CV for the most part

That's my ideas on how a Resident Evil Reboot should be executed. If you have any ideas, or would like me to elaborate on anything, then leave a comment.

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