Resident Evil: Retribution is a 2012 action horror film written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. A sequel to Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010), it is the fifth installment in the Resident Evil film series, loosely based on the video game franchise of the same name. It is also the third to be written and directed by Anderson after the first film and Afterlife. The film focuses on Alice (Milla Jovovich) captured by the Umbrella Corporation, forcing her to make her escape from an underwater facility in the Extreme North, used for testing the T-virus.
Written and directed by Anderson, Retribution was planned to be filmed back to back with the sixth installment, but Anderson decided to focus on the fifth film. Filming took place in Toronto, Ontario from mid-October to December 23, 2011. The film has many returning actors and characters, along with new characters from the video games not featured in the previous films, including Leon S. Kennedy, Ada Wong, and Barry Burton.
The film was released in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D to box-office success, grossing over $240 million worldwide, but received generally negative reviews from critics, who criticized the characters, plot and acting, while praising the 3D, visual effects and fight choreography. The DVD and Blu-ray for the film was released on December 21, 2012, in the U.S. A sixth film, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, was released in 2016.
Plot Alice and the survivors on board the Umbrella Corporation freighter Arcadia are attacked by a fleet of Umbrella gunships led by Alice's brainwashed former ally, Jill Valentine; Alice is captured during the attack. An Alice clone awakens in the suburbs, living with her husband, Todd, and their deaf daughter, Becky. Zombies attack, revealing the suburbia as Raccoon City during the initial outbreak. As Alice and Becky drive away from the undead with the help of Rain Ocampo, they are hit by a truck, knocking Rain unconscious. Alice hides Becky inside another house but is killed by a zombified Todd.
Meanwhile, the captured Alice awakens in an underwater facility and is interrogated by Jill. During a power failure, Alice escapes, rearms, and finds herself in a simulation of Shibuya Square, Tokyo. Fighting her way against zombies, she enters a control room filled with dead Umbrella employees and encounters Ada Wong, one of Albert Wesker's top agents.
Wesker appears on a screen, explaining that both no longer serve Umbrella, and the power outage was staged by him. The Red Queen, one of Alice's arch-enemies, was reactivated after the Hive was contaminated and now controls Umbrella. The underwater facility, formerly a Soviet naval outpost in Kamchatka, Russia, was designed by Umbrella for manufacturing clones and creating simulated outbreaks to show the effect of the T-virus. Ada and Alice aim to rendezvous with a rescue crew organized by Wesker, which includes Leon S. Kennedy, Barry Burton, and Luther West. Leon's team plants explosives near the entrance of the facility, which will detonate in two hours to ensure its destruction. The group plans to meet with Alice and Ada in the Raccoon City suburbia area. In a New York simulation, Alice and Ada defeat two Executioners; Leon's team enters a Moscow simulation but is surrounded by an armed Las Plagas undead horde.
In the suburban simulation, Alice and Ada encounter Becky, who mistakes Alice for her clone mother and becomes attached to her. They also find Jill and the clones of Alice's deceased allies: James "One" Shade, Rain Ocampo, and Carlos Oliveira, who are sent to capture them. During a shootout, Ada stays behind so Alice and Becky can find their way out. The two encounter a "good" clone of Rain in the Moscow simulation. Alice gives her a weapon to help keep Becky safe. She then rescues Leon's surviving crew from the Las Plagas zombies and a giant Licker. The group reaches the submarine pens in the facility exit, but are ambushed by Jill's team.
During the ensuing fight, Becky is captured by the Licker, and "good" Rain is killed. Alice rescues Becky and kills the Licker. Barry sacrifices himself, holding the Umbrella operatives off long enough to ensure the others' escape. The explosives at the entrance go off: Leon and Luther escape flooding while Alice and Becky survive through the ventilation system.
On the surface, their snowmobile is knocked over by Jill's submarine. Jill and "evil" Rain confront the group, holding Ada as a hostage. During the fight, Alice tears the mind-controlling scarab off Jill's chest, returning her to normal. Meanwhile, Rain—now enhanced with superhuman strength and healing, thanks to the Las Plagas parasite—joins the fight, kills Luther, and knocks out Leon. Realizing she is too powerful to fight, Alice shoots the ice under Rain, who is dragged underwater by swimming zombies.
Alice, Jill, and the remaining survivors travel to Wesker's headquarters, a heavily fortified White House, staffed by the remainders of the U.S. military. Alice meets Wesker in the Oval Office, where he injects her with another strand of the T-virus, returning her superhuman abilities. On the roof, he explains that the Red Queen is trying to wipe out humanity; the remaining uninfected humans are in the base. The soldiers prepare to defend the White House against hordes of T-virus abominations.
Cast
Milla Jovovich as Alice, a former Umbrella security officer turned rogue fighter Sienna Guillory as Jill Valentine, a former S.T.A.R.S. member and police officer of Raccoon City Michelle Rodriguez as Rain Ocampo, a member of the original Umbrella strike team that was sent into the Hive Aryana Engineer as Becky, a child clone who plays the role of suburban Alice clone's deaf daughter Li Bingbing as Ada Wong, a former operative of Umbrella and was one of Wesker's top agents An uncredited Sally Cahill dubbed over Li's voice in the film, reprising her role as the voice of Ada Wong from several Resident Evil games. Boris Kodjoe as Luther, one of Alice's former allies Robin Kasyanov as Sergei Johann Urb as Leon S. Kennedy, the leader of the rescue team sent by Wesker to help Alice escape from the Umbrella test facility Kevin Durand as Barry Burton, a member of the rescue team Oded Fehr as Todd / Carlos, a former U.B.C.S mercenary turned rogue fighter Ofilio Portillo as Tony Colin Salmon as One, the leader of the original Umbrella strike team sent into the Hive Shawn Roberts as Albert Wesker, former head of Umbrella Corporation Mika Nakashima as J-Pop Girl, a "Patient one" biohazard creature Megan Charpentier as the Red Queen, an on-and-off-again, renegade artificial intelligence who controls the Umbrella facility Voiced by Ava Merson-O'Brian
Production Development After the release of Resident Evil: Afterlife, director Paul W. S. Anderson was in discussion with Screen Gems of filming the fifth and sixth film back to back. But Anderson later decided to just focus on Resident Evil: Retribution. Anderson returned as writer and director, Glen McPherson serves as director of photography, Kevin Phipps as production designer and Nick Powell as both a fight choreographer and second-unit director.
Influences When Ada and Alice encounter each other the first time, they recreate a scene from the game Resident Evil 4 in their brief fight. Another element they featured was Las Plagas parasite. Las Plagas plays a part in the film and allows the undead to "run around, ride motorbikes, and shoot machine guns." An action scene inspired by Resident Evil 5, where the characters are driving a Hummer while being chased by zombies, is featured, but for the film the Hummer was changed to a Rolls-Royce Phantom. The metal bug on Jill Valentine's chest can also be seen in Resident Evil 5.
Aside from the video games, writing for the film was heavily influenced by science-fiction films. "I think Inception had a huge impact on everyone," says Bolt, "and I think Westworld is an important film to Paul. Everybody knows, because he talks about it enough, the Alien series, Blade Runner, all these things are inspirations."
Makeup effects supervisor Paul Jones stated that he wanted the makeup on the zombies to look realistic. He took inspiration from Day of the Dead.
The film's fight sequences were influenced by Asian cinema. "We watched a lot of Thai movies this time around because of the movies (Powell) has done," says Anderson. "He did The Last Samurai as well. He has worked with a lot of Japanese stuntmen and he has worked with a lot of Hong Kong stuntmen. But we felt the area that hadn't been mined by western cinema much was that whole kind of high impact Thai style of fighting. So we just watched a lot of action sequences from a lot of Thai movies. There were moves and just a general feel that we thought we could infuse the movie with. You know, that kind of bone crunch where you really feel the impact. We tried to bring that into the movie, which is also good for 3D because obviously 3D makes it harder to sell those kind of fake phony punches because you see the distance between the fist and the face. So that kind of Thai style of fighting where you actually make contact is a lot stronger."
Casting
Returning from the previous film are: Milla Jovovich as Alice, Sienna Guillory (Jill Valentine) and Boris Kodjoe (Luther West). Shawn Roberts (Albert Wesker) makes a cameo appearance. Colin Salmon who played James "One" Shade and Michelle Rodriguez who played Rain Ocampo in the first film return. Oded Fehr who portrayed Carlos Oliveira in the second and third film also returns. There are two "versions" of Rain and Carlos; one being portrayed as "evil" and one as "good". The characters Ada Wong (played by Li Bingbing), Leon S. Kennedy (Johann Urb) and Barry Burton (Kevin Durand) appear in the film. Ali Larter (Claire Redfield), Wentworth Miller (Chris Redfield) and Spencer Locke (K-Mart) do not return and they are presumed to have died in the attack on Arcadia or held captive elsewhere by Umbrella. Also, a new character portrayed by Aryana Engineer has been added to the franchise cast.
Anderson said that casting Leon was a challenge, due to his "extreme look": "Firstly, he's a major action hero. But also he has the floppy hair, and you have no idea how hard it is to find someone who looks like that. They're usually mutually exclusive. It's like the guys with floppy hair are all kind of doing British period movies, like Brideshead Revisited, and the guys who are top action heroes usually have buzz cuts. But I think after a long and very exhaustive search, we've finally found the right guy in Johann Urb."
Filming Principal photography commenced on October 10 and wrapped on December 23, 2011, for a 55-day shoot. Filming locations included Toronto at Cinespace's Kipling studio facility, Times Square in New York City, Tokyo and Red Square in Moscow. Resident Evil: Retribution is the second film in the series to be shot in 3D, the first being Resident Evil: Afterlife. It was also filmed in 4K resolution. The Red Epic camera system was used, which producer Jeremy Bolt said is 50% smaller than the Sony F35 that was used for Resident Evil: Afterlife.
On October 11, a platform collapsed during the second day of filming and injured 16 people on the set. According to Toronto police, ten people were taken to the hospital for emergency treatment. Injuries included bruises and broken bones. Emergency workers had a difficult time determining which injuries were real, since the people were dressed in zombie costumes with fake blood.
The streets of Red Square were cleared for a day and background filming was done in the Russian subway after it was cleared for five hours (although the subway station scene is actually the Lower Bay abandoned station of Toronto subway). Most of the streets were built into sets. The car chase scene was filmed in late November in Moscow.