Spoilers for Resident Evil follow:
Austin Abrams says the Resident Evil ending was “crazy and shocking” when he first read it, even though he ultimately loved the decision to take Bryan’s story somewhere bleak.
In IGN’s report on Abrams’ reaction, the actor describes Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil ending as “risky and gutsy”. The film follows Bryan, an ordinary medical courier caught in a zombie outbreak, and does not give him the heroic escape that the games usually reserve for their protagonists.
Resident Evil ending: why Abrams liked the risk
Bryan survives waves of undead attackers but cannot reconnect with his pregnant girlfriend after an earlier argument. He records a message trying to make amends, then succumbs to his injuries and transforms into a monster just as a cure is produced.
“I’ve been living with it for a while now, but I thought it was crazy and shocking when I first read it,” Abrams told The Hollywood Reporter, according to IGN. He said the film spends its runtime encouraging viewers to root for Bryan, making his failure to survive more painful than a routine last-minute escape.
Abrams also compared the choice with the softened endings common in modern studio films. “With a lot of movies nowadays, they’re a little too afraid to do something like that — to kill off a character you really like,” he said. “Whereas a lot of older films don’t do that; they just rip your heart out.”
Zach Cregger changed the finale again
The ending was already a departure from the heroic outcomes associated with the games, but Cregger later altered it in post-production using footage he had already shot. TIME’s ending explainer reports that the final sequence leaves Bryan’s fate especially grim, while the director has also discussed an earlier version of the ending.
That makes the film a follow-up to Cregger’s earlier explanation of the alternate Resident Evil ending, rather than a simple case of the production settling on its first idea. For the wider commercial picture, Resident Evil has already opened to the franchise’s biggest worldwide debut. The movie is now in cinemas, and the ending is doing what Cregger intended: leaving audiences with something to argue about on the way home.
Why does Austin Abrams support the Resident Evil ending?
Abrams says the film gives audiences time to root for Bryan before refusing him a conventional heroic escape, a choice he thinks older films made more freely.
Did Zach Cregger change the Resident Evil ending?
Yes. Cregger used footage already shot to alter the finale during post-production, making Bryan’s fate even more tragic.
