Updated

Updated · Deadline · Sep 19

Austin Abrams Recalls Harrowing Resident Evil Stunt as Zombies Fell Around Him on Snowy Set

Updated

Updated · Deadline · Sep 19

Austin Abrams Recalls Harrowing Resident Evil Stunt as Zombies Fell Around Him on Snowy Set

Q: What shocking twist in the final act of this R-rated Resident Evil reboot is leaving early audiences so divided?

The divisive final-act twist is that Austin Abrams’ Bryan does not survive as the hero—he becomes the movie’s final monster, and the cure is lost. After spending the film trying to deliver a key ingredient for an antidote to Raccoon City General Hospital, Bryan reaches the lab already infected and mutating. The scientists manage to create the cure, but he transforms before they can inject him. In a gruesome sequence, his body erupts into a tentacled, fused monstrosity that kills and absorbs the lab team. The shocking part, and the reason early audiences are split, is the film’s refusal to offer a conventional Resident Evil-style victory. In the final moments, the antidote syringe is knocked away and falls dozens of stories into the darkness, leaving no last-second rescue. Bryan, now fully mutated, is framed by arriving National Guard helicopters as the screen cuts to black. Reports and reviews describe the ending as bleak, nihilistic and intentionally cruel in a way that some viewers admire as bold survival-horror filmmaking, while others see it as mean-spirited and anti-climactic. Several commentators have compared it to an origin story for a Resident Evil boss creature: instead of defeating the monster, the audience watches the protagonist become it.

2 articles · Updated · Deadline · Sep 19

Austin Abrams said a Resident Evil stunt felt “harrowing” as he ran down a wet, snow-covered road while zombies jumped from roofs and splattered around him.
Sneakers with little grip, mixed real and fake snow, and the need to hit an exact pace made each take risky, with Abrams saying one wrong move could have gone badly.
Abrams also said he came into the lead role with no prior Resident Evil fandom, having avoided the games and movies because the horror genre felt too frightening to engage with.
Working again with director Zach Cregger after Weapons, Abrams said they built Brian—an original character not from the games—into a more tangible figure than a blank player avatar.