Resident Evil: Retribution Information

Resident Evil: Retribution is a 2012 science fiction action film written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. It is the fifth installment in the Resident Evil film series, based on the Capcom survival horror video game series Resident Evil, and the third to be written and directed by Anderson after the first film and the previous installment.

Retribution is a direct follow-on from the previous film Resident Evil: Afterlife, and focuses on Alice (Milla Jovovich) captured by the Umbrella Corporation, forcing her to make her escape from an underwater base in the Arctic Circle, used for testing the T-virus. The film has many returning actors and characters, along with new characters from the video game not featured in the previous films. Filming took place from October to December 2011 for a scheduled release date of September 14, 2012.

The film was released in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D to a box-office success, grossing over $200 million worldwide. Film critics criticized the film for its characters, plot, and acting while praising the 3D, visual effects, and fight choreography. The Blu-ray and DVD for the film was released on December 21, 2012, and a sixth installment is planned by Sony.

Plot

Following where the previous film left off, Alice (Milla Jovovich) and the others on the Umbrella Corporation freighter Arcadia face an attack by a fleet of airships led by Alice's former ally, Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory), who has been brainwashed by Umbrella through a red scarab device attached to her chest. When Alice causes an airship to crash into the ship, the resulting explosion knocks her out and throws her into the water.

The story switches to Alice living as suburban housewife, with her husband Todd (Oded Fehr) and deaf daughter Becky (Aryana Engineer). This idyllic life is disrupted when zombies attack. Alice and Becky escape to the streets and are rescued by a student, Rain Ocampo (Michelle Rodriguez), who lets them ride in her car. As the three escape, they are hit by a truck, knocking Rain unconscious while Alice and Becky escape. Alice runs and is attacked by a zombified Todd.

Alice awakens a captive in an Umbrella base. Jill interrogates Alice, who unsuccessfully pleads with her to remember her true identity. During a power failure orchestrated by Ada Wong (Li Bingbing) an associate of Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts), Alice escapes from her cell and fights her way through a Tokyo simulation and encounters Ada, who seems to have survived the events of Arcadia. Ada explains they no longer work for Umbrella. Wesker appears on screen and reveals that the Red Queen is controlling what remains of Umbrella and he plans to help Alice escape, in order to save what's left of mankind. Ada explains the base is underwater and serves as a testing ground for experiments, and that Ada secretly infiltrated the base to cause the power outage and recover Alice. To infiltrate the base from outside and help Alice and Ada escape, Wesker has organized a team: Leon S. Kennedy (Johann Urb), Barry Burton (Kevin Durand), and also Luther West (Boris Kodjoe), an Arcadia survivor who now works with the team.

Leon's team plants explosives near the entrance of the base, which will detonate in two hours and trap anybody still inside. The group plans to meet with Alice and Ada in a simulated Raccoon City suburbia, identical to the one in Alice's flashback. Leon and his team enter a Moscow simulation, but are cut off by armed Las Plagas zombies. Alice and Ada manage to enter the suburban simulation where they were supposed to meet up with Leon and his team. In the arena the two find Becky, and is revealed that the "suburban Alice" is actually a clone of Alice created by Umbrella for a virus outbreak simulation, and Becky, Todd, and Rain were clones as well. Jill and her mercenaries, consisting of clones of Alice's deceased allies: an "evil" Rain, Carlos Oliviera (Oded Fehr) and James "One" Shade (Colin Salmon) arrive and demand that they surrender immediately. A shoot-out occurs, resulting in Ada being captured while Alice and Becky escape.

Alice and Becky run into the "good" Rain and head to Moscow simulation, where they meet up with Leon's team. The group escapes the intelligent zombies, and reach an elevator that leads them to submarines that could help them escape, although it shuts off. An enormous Licker appears, with it capturing Becky and killing "good" Rain by throwing her and breaking her neck. The group pursues the Licker, where they encounter Jill's group; another battle ensues, in which Barry and One are casualties. Alice manages to rescue Becky despite Leon's discourage of Becky just being a clone. During their escape from the Licker, they arrive at a cloning facility where Alice and Becky see multiple copies of themselves. Becky asks Alice if she is really her mother, Alice says she is now her mother. The Licker follows them into the cloning facility, where Alice drops grenades, and fires a grappling hook from the grapple gun, and escapes the explosion. They rejoin Leon and Luther as the detonation occurs. The explosion results in the flooding of the facility and the death of Carlos.

The group reaches the surface and await pickup but they are met by a submarine, from which Jill, the "evil" Rain, and a captured Ada emerge. With new orders from the Red Queen to kill Alice, Jill battles Alice. Rain injects herself with the Las Plagas parasite to give her superhuman strength and healing and knocks out Ada and fights Leon and Luther. Alice manages to remove and destroy the scarab device from Jill, returning her to normal. Rain kills Luther and knocks Leon out. Alice realizes she cannot kill Rain and instead shoots the ice, Rain falls in the water, and vows to get Alice but is dragged under by the Plagas zombies. Leon looks after Ada but Alice collapses from her injuries. She wakes in a helicopter, with everyone left safe. Alice, Ada, Becky, Leon, and Jill (who is no longer being controlled by the Red Queen) travel to Wesker's base: the heavily barricaded and guarded White House. Wesker injects Alice with the T-Virus, returning her former superhuman powers so that she can help save the last of humanity from extinction. Wesker leads them to the roof, telling them this is the last stand of the human race and revealing Wesker's Umbrella troops defending the White House alongside the remaining Military Soldiers against enormous hordes of zombies and mutant creatures.

Cast

• Milla Jovovich as Alice

An ex-employee of Umbrella Corporation. After being experimented on by Umbrella, she sets out to destroy all of those who started the outbreak. When asked about her character, Jovovich says that "Alice started off as the audience, as this innocent bystander watching what's going on and then finally understanding what role she had to play in all of it and who she was. And then throughout the series, she kinda started separating from people. You know, first she realized Umbrella was controlling her, so she couldn't be close to people. Now that she's human again, and not only human again, but now she's almost... I mean, this is her life. This is what she loves in a weird, sick way. It's what she does best. And I think in this one, she has a little bit more of a sense of humor about it and is a little more relaxed with it. It's not as shocking as it normally is. In a sense, now she's got her friends, her team, she's part of a team. She's a human being again, so she's connected with the people around her. And she has fun with them."

• Sienna Guillory as Jill Valentine

A former member of Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.), police officer of Raccoon City and ally of Alice who was captured and subsequently mind-controlled by Umbrella to find Alice. Sometime after the events of Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Jill was captured by the Umbrella Corporation and is under their control through the Scarab Appliance on her chest. Guillory was originally set to appear in Resident Evil: Extinction, but she dropped out due to her commitment to Eragon. She made a cameo appearance in Resident Evil: Afterlife.

• Michelle Rodriguez as Rain Ocampo

A pair of clones of Rain Ocampo, who was an Umbrella commando operative from the original film where she died. The Umbrella Corporation has cloned Rain, creating a "Good Rain" and a "Bad Rain". "Bad Rain" is hunting down Alice, under Jill's orders. Meanwhile, "Good Rain" joins Alice in her attempt to escape the testing facility. For many years, Anderson has been trying to get Rodriguez back in the Resident Evil films. He says that he wanted "to kind of give her an opportunity to play something different." Rodriguez explains "Bad Rain" as "mechanical, very straight-forward and very matter-of-fact" and "Good Rain" as "awkward and different - someone who is quirky and doesn't know how to handle a gun and someone who is curious."

• Aryana Engineer as Becky

A little girl whom Alice develops a mother-daughter relationship with. Jovovich says that the relationship between Alice and Becky is similar to Ripley and Newt in Aliens. She went on to say the relationship is a way for Alice to hold onto her humanity. Becky is a deaf child, but does speak, as well as perform sign language. She first appears in the film when an Alice clone is seen living through a virtual Raccoon City infection scenario. She is thereafter found by the "real" Alice as she and Ada Wong make their way through the "Suburbia" testing environment. Despite Ada's complaints that Becky is just a clone, Alice takes her along to their escape.

• Johann Urb as Leon S. Kennedy

A survivor and leader of a tactical team which is tasked with helping Alice escape Umbrella. Anderson says that the decision to include Leon, Ada, and Barry in the film was "fan-driven". When describing his character's story, Urb says "As far as I can tell, I've just been fending for myself, taking care of business, and banding with some people. Then, apparently what's happened is Alice is in a bit of trouble. Wesker needs somebody who, what's the word... is smart enough and strong enough to go in and save Alice. Leon is the first thought that comes to mind, obviously."

• Kevin Durand as Barry Burton

A survivor and member of Leon Kennedy's team who fights Umbrella alongside Alice. Slated as Leon's "partner in crime" and close friend.

• Li Bingbing as Ada Wong

A one-time Umbrella operative who assists Alice in her escape. Despite their romance in the video game, Li says that Ada and Leon Kennedy's relationship is more "subtle" in the film. Li got the role only a few days after her first audition, and prepared for the role by watching Resident Evil: Damnation. During filming, she wore a $7,500 wig.

• Oded Fehr as Carlos Olivera

A pair of clones of Carlos Olivera, a former Umbrella commando and love interest of Alice, who was killed in a sacrificial explosion in Resident Evil: Extinction. Carlos, who appeared in Resident Evil: Apocalypse and also Resident Evil: Extinction, was cloned after his death by Umbrella Corporation, creating a "Good Carlos" and a "Bad Carlos". The "Good Carlos is a suburban man with Alice as his wife and a daughter named Becky. The "Bad Carlos" is part of Jill's commando group searching for Alice. Fehr says in an interview that "the interesting thing is, I come back as two different guys on this one. There's a dynamic to the relationship with Milla's character, and then there's the other side. He's working for the Umbrella again."

• Boris Kodjoe as Luther West

A former basketball player and survivor who joins Leon Kennedy's team and reunites with Alice in the process. He previously appeared in Resident Evil: Afterlife as the leader of a survivor group stationed in Los Angeles and is one of the few characters that did not originate from the video games. Kodjoe found out that he would return for the fifth film after he read the script for Afterlife and found out that his character survives.

• Colin Salmon as James "One" Shade

A clone of James Shade, the leader of the Umbrella commando team who died in the original film. After his death, his DNA was cloned by Umbrella and is used against Alice.

• Shawn Roberts as Albert Wesker

Former head of the Umbrella Corporation. Wesker is revealed to have survived the events of Afterlife. In this film he takes on a much different role, in which he is responsible for helping Alice escape so she can help him save the human race, since The Red Queen no longer follows his orders.

• Mika Nakashima as J-Pop Girl

The patient zero of the T-virus in Japan. After seeing her performance in Afterlife, both Jovovich and director Paul W. S. Anderson praised Nakashima saying, "I want to work with Mika again." Describing her fight sequence with Jovovich, Nakashima expressed, "It was a very valuable experience. A lot of things were new to me, so I had fun." Parts of the scene she appeared in Afterlife was used in this film and her scenes in this film is basically a continuation involving Alice.

• Megan Charpentier and Ave Merson-O'Brian (voice) as The Red Queen

The artificial intelligence that monitored the Hive, a secret underground facility where the T-virus was developed. Since the Raccoon City outbreak, she has been reactivated, seized control of Umbrella and is at war against humanity.

Production

Development

After the release of Resident Evil: Afterlife, director Paul W. S. Anderson was in discussion with Screen Gems of filming a fifth and sixth film back to back. But Anderson later decided to just focus on 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 Resident Evil 4 in their brief fight.

An element from Resident Evil 4, a parasite called 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.

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."

The metal bug on Jill Valentin's chest can be seen on Resident Evil 5.

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 Olivera in the second and third film also returns. There will be 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 their absence is explained by their characters being captured by Umbrella. Also, a new character portrayed by Aryana Engineer has been added to the franchise cast.

Filming

Principal photography started 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.

Durand and Roberts wrapped filming in the first week of December and Li wrapped on December 14. A fight scene between Jill and Alice that involved over 200 moves began filming December 14 until the end of production.

Music

The music group Tomandandy, who performed the Afterlife score, returned to score Retribution. Anderson explains that the score for this film will be a progression of Afterlife, stating that he "wants to kind of mesh their more electronic stuff with an orchestra this time. It still has that cool tomandandy feel, but it has a more epic scope to it." The official soundtrack will be released on September 11, 2012 under Milan Records, which will include tomandandy's score for the film, as well as the film's end credits song "Hexes" produced by Bassnectar featuring Chino Moreno (of the Deftones) on vocals. Actress Mika Nakashima will sing the theme song for the Japanese version of the film.

Marketing

The first teaser trailer of the film was attached to Underworld Awakening, an installment from Resident Evil's rival film series, and released in January 2012, featuring product placement promoting Sony products such as the Xperia phone, the PlayStation Vita and the Tablet S before transitioning into a post-apocalyptic Washington, D.C., with Alice standing on the roof of the White House, in similar fashion to the promotion for previous installments, Apocalypse and Extinction.

A viral website, UmbrellaCorporation.net, supposedly informed about Umbrella, reported that it was on a recruitment tour all over the world searching for "great minds to help them advance". On several occasions, a video of Alice (Milla Jovovich) appeared, telling the viewer not to trust Umbrella. At the same time, an actual mobile tour for the film was launched, travelling to Cancún, Barcelona, Pozna"?, Warsaw and Rome. Furthermore, a black, tinted SUV with the Umbrella Corporation symbol and name on its doors and license plate was seen in Atlanta in June.

A second trailer premiered online on June 14, following a live Q&A with Milla Jovovich in New York City and was attached to prints of That's My Boy.

Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Oded Fehr, Boris Kodjoe, Mika Nakashima and Paul W. S. Anderson appeared at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con Convention on Friday, July 13. A discussion for the film took place, and never-before-seen footage debuted.

On August 10, 2012, a group of 27 people dressed as zombies "invaded" the Shibuya shopping district and handed out leaflets to promote the film. The group marched across the crossing in front of the Shibuya Station and then moved on to Shibuya's underground shopping area "Shibuchika" and to the "Shibuya Cine Palace".

Release

Resident Evil: Retribution was released worldwide on September 14 in 3D, IMAX 3D, and 2D. The MPAA's official rating for the film is R for "sequences of strong violence throughout". It was not screened in advance for critics.

The film's world premiere took place in Tokyo, Japan (where the film was retitled Biohazard V: Retribution) on September 3. Originally, a promotional stunt was planned that involved Jovovich pretending to come out with a gun and "shoot zombies" in the theater. In response to the Aurora shootings, Jovovich declined the stunt, commenting that "There's absolutely no way I'm doing anything violent in a movie theater." Jovovich, Anderson, and Nakashima appeared at the premiere for a red carpet event.

Li Bingbing did not appear at the premiere, raising speculation from reporters that her absence was a demonstration against the escalating dispute between China and Japan over the Senkaku Islands. Li's agent Ji Xiang explained that Li had been informed of the premiere two months before but she was too busy in Beijing to attend at that time. However, Ji did not deny that politics were involved, saying: "We are in line with our government " the Diaoyu Islands belong to China. Bingbing will be attending movie premieres held in other places across the world and she skipped the Tokyo leg only."

The film was released on December 21, 2012 on DVD, Blu-ray and Ultraviolet Digital Copy. The United Kingdom release is set for January 28, 2013, also on DVD, Blu-ray and Ultraviolet Digital Copy. Pre-order for was available in November 2012 on Amazon.

Box office

United States and Canada

Resident Evil: Retribution opened at #1 in 3,012 theaters, beating out the 3-D re-release of Finding Nemo. During its opening weekend, the film grossed $21,052,227 domestically (an average of $6,989 for each theater), which makes the film the second lowest domestic opening weekend in the series, with the lowest being the original Resident Evil ($17.7 million), though it sold the least tickets. The audience in the opening weekend was 64% male, and 55% were 25 years of age or older. Regular 3D showings accounted for 48% of ticket sales, while IMAX 3D contributed 14% and other large format showings contributed 4%. In its second weekend, the film dropped to fifth place behind newcomers End of Watch, House at the End of the Street, and Trouble with the Curve with $6.7 million on the domestic charts. With a 68% decline from its previous weekend, this makes the worst domestic drop so far for a Resident Evil film. Its third weekend grossed $2.9 million, making a lighter 55% decrease and putting it into the number eight spot.

International territories

Retribution broke the series record for the highest worldwide opening with $49.6 million, beating out Afterlife's opening of over $39 million. In its opening weekend, the film was strongest in Asia, where it had the best 2012 Hollywood debut so far in Japan ($11.2 million), Taiwan ($4.4 million) and Malaysia ($2 million). Its premiere in South Korea ($2 million) was underwhelming, where it underperformed to the local film Masquerade ($7.3 million). Elsewhere, the movie did very good business in Russia ($8.5 million) and Brazil ($3.1 million), but was disappointing in Australia ($1.5 million). The film retained the number one spot in its second weekend, grossing $30.5 million for a new foreign total of $103.8 million. Its top market was once again Japan, where it eased 27% to $6.3 million. Its new debuts included Germany ($3.6 million) and Mexico ($3.5 million). In its third weekend, the film dropped to the number two spot behind Looper, making $21.1 million. It had its premiere in France ($2 million), Italy ($1.4 million), and the United Kingdom ($1.3 million). The film broke $200 million in its fourth weekend, notably due to its opening in Spain ($1.4 million).

So far the film has grossed $226 million, with the movie opening in China on 17th March. Although this does not match it's predecessor's gross of $296 million, it still ranks as the second highest grossing in the series, the highest grossing foreign film in Japan in 2012 (7th overall), and the highest grossing Canadian film of 2012, and second of all time (behind Afterlife).

Critical reception

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 31% based on reviews from 61 critics, with an average rating of 4.4 out of 10. The critical consensus on the site is "another predictable entry in the Resident Evil franchise that seems to get more cynical and lazy with each film". On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 39 based on 15 reviews. CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a C-plus on an A-plus to F scale.

Jim Vejvoda at IGN gave the film a 6 out of 10, saying, "Even with all of its dopey dialogue, wooden characters and 'been there, done that' elements, Resident Evil: Retribution is pretty amazing as far as entries in this series go. It certainly feels more like a video game and has a bit more emotion to it than some of the past Resident Evil sequels, but if you don't like this series then there's not much here to make you suddenly warm up to it." Clark Collis from Entertainment Weekly also gave the film a mostly positive review, stating that "writer-director W.S. Anderson's overseeing of the Resident Evil zombie franchise has proven to be both lunatically haphazard and dementedly enthusiastic." Matt Singer from ScreenCrush gave the film a mixed review and a score of 5 out of 10, stating that "Anderson's action chops are undeniable - but Resident Evil: Retribution might be one of the dumbest things ever crafted by human hands."

Awards

Awards
Award	Category	Recipients	Outcome
Canadian Screen Awards	Best Costume Design	Wendy Partridge
	Best Achevement in Sound Editing	Stephen Barden, Steve Baine, Kevin Banks, Alex Bullick and Jill Purdy
	Best Achievement in Visual Effects	Dennis Berardi, Jason Edwardh, Matt Glover, Trey Harrell, Leann Harvey, Jo Hughes, Ethan Lee, Scott Riopelle, Eric Robinson and Kyle Yoneda
	Golden Reel Award	Resident Evil: Retribution

Award	Category	Subject	Result
Golden Raspberry Award	Worst Actress	Milla Jovovich

Sequel

Director Paul W.S. Anderson stated in an interview that their original plan was to produce Retribution and a sixth installment back-to-back, but he later decided to focus on just the fifth film. In the same interview, Anderson stated that if Retribution does well financially, then a sixth film would be developed and it will be the finale of the series. Milla Jovovich revealed that she is planning to star in a sixth and final installment of the franchise which will close out the series' storyline. Her husband, Anderson, pitched her the idea while vacationing following wrapping the fifth film and that the series would most likely continue past a sixth film, just not with her as the star. A sixth film was confirmed by Sony distribution's head, Rory Bruer. In an interview with Forbes, producer Samuel Hadida stated that a sixth and seventh installment are planned and a reboot of the series is possible. Sony officialy scheduled the 6th movie for a September 12, 2014 premiere.