My name is Alice, and I remember everything.

• Genre: Action/Sci-Fi/Horror
• Role: Alice Abernathy
• Director: Alexander Witt
• Selected Cast: Sienna Guillory, Oded Fehr, Mike Epps, Iain Glen, Zack Ward, Sandrine Holt, Sophie Vavasseur, Thomas Kretschmann, Rasaaq Adoti, Jared Harris
• Production Company: Sony Screen Gems
• U.S. Release Date: September 10 2004

Only hours after the incident in the Hive, Umbrella’s top secret underground research laboratory, the head of the Umbrella Corporation orders the Hive to be reopened in order to discover what really took place in the facility. The reopening is a mistake of catastrophic proportion as the corporation is unable to contain the spread of the deadly T-virus, leading to mass infection throughout Raccoon City. Meanwhile, former special agent Alice Abernathy (Milla Jovovich) wakes up in a seemingly abandoned Raccoon City hospital only to find the city thoroughly ravaged. As a survivor of the Hive, Alice has been subjected to Umbrella’s genetic experimentation as part of their research, giving her unusual strength and agility. As the Umbrella Corporation find the infection cannot be contained, the city is sealed and Alice and her companions only have a few hours time to leave the city before it is sanitized - with a precision tactical nuclear device.

Milla Jovovich portrays Alice, a former Umbrella special agent who is forced to relive the events of the Hive and the traumatic loss of Matt Addison as she battles the monstrous creations of the T-virus as well as Umbrella special operatives in Raccoon City. At the same time, she is also forced to rediscover herself as she puts her new abilities to use in her battle against Umbrella and its ultimate weapon, Project Nemesis.

“My name is Alice. I worked for the Umbrella Corporation, the largest and most powerful commercial entity in the world. I was head of security at a secret high-tech facility, The Hive, a giant underground laboratory developing experimental viral weaponry. But there was an incident. The virus escaped and everybody died. Trouble was… they didn’t stay dead.”

“There’s something down there.” ["I don't see anything."] “Well, that doesn’t alter the fact that there is… something… down there.”

“There won’t be any help. According to Ashford, Umbrella knows they can’t contain the infection. So at sunrise this morning, Raccoon City will be completely sanitized.”

“You should take care of him now. It’ll be more difficult later. You know that.”

“They did something to me.”

“It’s nothing personal. But in an hour, maybe two, you’ll be dead. And moments later, you’ll become one of them. You’ll endanger your friends, try to kill them, probably succeed. I’m sorry. That’s just the way it is.”

“Today’s your lucky day.”

• Upon its opening weekend, Resident Evil: Apocalypse debuted with roughly $27 million, which makes it the second most successful debut of the franchise, beaten by Resident Evil: Extinction only by $1 million.

• Although writer Paul W.S. Anderson is responsible for the screenplay of all three Resident Evil films, Resident Evil of 2002 is the only one he directed.

• Actress Natasha Henstridge was originally considered for the role of Jill Valentine, but declined the role due to other commitments. The role then went to Sienna Guillory.

• Like its predecessor, even Resident Evil: Apocalypse underwent a name change. Originally titled Resident Evil: Nemesis, the name was quickly changed to Apocalypse following the release and Box Office failure of Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002.

• Similarly to Resident Evil, even Resident Evil: Apocalypse contains several references to the original Biohazard video games. A list of these references can be found at IMDb.com.

• To please game fans, Apocalypse saw the inclusion of another female heroine into the storyline, namely Jill Valentine (portrayed by Sienna Guillory), who is the original video game heroine. Alice is an invented character unrelated to the video games. Claire Redfield was another video game character which was originally intended to be featured in the film, but her inclusion in the story was abandoned once actress Emily Bergl left the project. Instead, Redfield is portrayed by Ali Larter in Resident Evil: Extinction.

• The weather map at the beginning of the film clearly shows Raccoon City as being approximately where Philadelphia is in PA. Other real life towns such as Selinsgrove, Hazelton and Pottsville all appear in their correct geographic locations.

• The footage of Eric Mabius as Matt Addison is archived footage from Resident Evil (2002). He did not shoot additional material for his cameo appearance in Apocalypse. Milla was thus the only original cast member to return for a sequel.

• As L.J. (Mike Epps) hits a zombie crossing the road with his cab, he shouts out, “GTA, motherfucker! 10 points!” This is a reference to the popular Grand Theft Auto video games, in which you gain points for acts of crime, including running over pedestrians.

• Like in Resident Evil (2002), the word “zombie” is never mentioned during the film, except for the end credits. Instead, the zombies are referred to as “undead”.

• In order to account for the skimpy clothes of Jill Valentine and Alice, Milla came up with the idea that a heat wave was plagueing Raccoon City. In reality, the film was shot in cold November-weather in Toronto, Canada.

• In one of the film’s most memorable scenes, Alice runs down an over 200ft tall building. Although Milla was willing to perform the stunt herself, a stunt double was used for the first 200ft. Milla was only allowed to run down the remaining few feet.

• Milla has later expressed her dismay at how the film turned out, citing creative differences with the director, Alexander Witt, who reportedly did not allow her in the editing room, despite an earlier agreement. She also felt the script of Apocalypse was too action-oriented, which in her opinion notably lowered the quality of the film.

Upon its September 2004 release, Resident Evil: Apocalypse received a largely negative response, and in general reviews on the film were poorer than those of its 2002 prequel. Many felt the film failed in the few things Resident Evil succeeded, dispensing with any and all character development over unrealistic, though impressive, action sequences. Furthermore, the film was criticized for lacking in the suspense of genuinely scary horror movies.

Extracts from professional reviews:

“Resident Evil: Apocalypse accomplishes the odd feat of having several things going on at once yet never being terribly exciting. That’s not to say that the flick is a complete bust. A few scenes have a kicky, nightmarish quality, but the movie doesn’t hang together as a whole. Director Alexander Witt shows some flair. A sequence set in a church is goose-bumpy, while a bit involving zombie children is equally creepy. But while some moments are effective, the overstuffed story and paper-thin characters keep the movie from being more than a random series of jumps and jolts. Jovovich, who glowers intensely, competes curve to curve with Sienna Guillory, who plays Jill Valentine, a cop in a blue tube top. It’s like having two Gingers and no Mary Anns.” - Randy Cordova, AZ Central

“Some of the imagery is striking enough that it’s bound to reappear in other, similar movies next summer, but none of the pretty pictures are going to stay with me as long as one inadvertent narrative effect I’d never before encountered in all my moviegoing years. There’s a certain plot point I took to be completely overt and transparent, but in the final reel it became clear that I’d been misled by Anderson’s industrial-strength foreshadowing. The surprise, in other words, came from the realization that I was meant to be surprised.” - Cliff Doerksen, Chicago Reader

“The original film was a pleasant surprise, a low-profile zombie movie that introduced us to Alice (Milla Jovovich), a confused woman who needs to escape her underground work facility after a horrible biological mishap transforms her co-workers into the living dead. Sure, realism wasn’t the order of the day for the original film, but Alice seemed like one of us and was easy to root for. Like the recent Dawn of the Dead remake, which hits DVD with extra footage next month, the average Joe characters seemed to be getting better at slaughtering the zombies as the film went on, and during the big scenes we could cheer on their newfound athletic skills that were effective without getting outrageous. But, boy, does this sequel lose track of that.” - Larry Carroll, Film Stew

Personal Thoughts

I have to agree with the many people who have argued Resident Evil: Apocalypse is the weakest of the three Resident Evil films. Although complete with some impressive stunts and action sequences, they provide little comfort over the fact that there’s not much more to this film than one explosion and gunfight after another. Apart from L.J’s Grand Theft Auto shoutout, little comedic relief is provided amidst the zombie massacre, and apart from Sienna Guillory’s sexy turn as Jill Valentine, the film is an overall disappointment.

Similarly, this also Milla’s weakest onscreen appearance as Alice. That is, however, not to say she is to blame for it; with the level of character development bordering zero, there’s very little one can do with a character in the first place, and in Apocalypse Alice is first and foremost a living weapon as opposed to someone with any noteworthy emotional depth. This is actually quite regrettable as, although the Resident Evil movies were never meant to be more than entertaining action flicks, there is so much more the filmmakers could’ve done with the character.

Below are some Resident Evil: Apocalypse related links that may be of interest to you.

• Resident Evil: Apocalypse official site
• Resident Evil: Apocalypse TFL-approved fanlisting
• Resident Evil: Apocalypse TFL-approved Alice character fanlisting
• Resident Evil: Apocalypse at IMDb.com
• Resident Evil: Apocalypse at RottenTomatoes.com
• Resident Evil: Apocalypse at Wikipedia.org

• Alexander Witt at IMDb.com
• Alexander Witt at Wikipedia.org