The Resident Evil ending tops off a gnarly 90 minutes of bloody action, so you might have missed some of the details as the film comes to its grisly conclusion. That's where we come in.
Below, we've explained everything that happens in the Resident Evil movie ending with spoilers, so you can get up to speed at a glance. The movie follows Austin Abrams's Bryan on his mission to transport his mysterious medical cargo to a hospital in Raccoon City. Along the way, he must contend with an unfolding nightmare as a zombie virus takes hold of the area.
So, for all your questions answered on the Resident Evil movie ending, head to the below. Be warned, though, there are full spoilers below, so turn back now if you haven't seen the new horror movie yet. For more, check out our spoiler-free Resident Evil movie review.
Resident Evil ending explained *Spoilers*
The Resident Evil ending kicks off with Bryan finally making it to Raccoon City General. There, he finds the regular entrance impassable with zombies, so he heads to the parking garage – finally successfully shooting off a padlock – and makes his way inside.
He can't access the elevator, however, and briefly gives in to despair when he sees how far his infection has progressed up his arm. Still without cell phone service, he records a heartfelt message for his partner, Michelle, on his phone. Then, a voice on the intercom – none other than director Zach Cregger – speaks to Bryan and instructs him to bring the cure he still carries up the stairs to the scientists. He specifically warns Bryan against using the elevator, considering the state of the building.
The trouble is, it's a lot of stairs, and Bryan has had a rough night. So, after climbing four flights, he gives up and uses the elevator instead. At first, everything is fine, but acid begins to burn through the ceiling. It's also burning through the floor, giving Bryan less and less place to stand. The cause of the acid is a disgusting zombie spitting out the green substance from above – and Bryan is still being pursued by the zombie made up of an amalgamation of the film's victims from below, too.
Bryan manages to cling on to the elevator cable and get to safety, forcing the vomiting zombie to spit up acid on the other creature pursuing him, which knocks it back down the elevator shaft.
Then, all Bryan has to do is cross the sky bridge to take one last, much shorter elevator up. But, to get to the sky bridge, he has to go through the maternity ward. That proves to be a nightmarish experience, with the ceiling and cribs full of bloody blobs and weird-looking creatures. One blob explodes as Bryan is trying to pass through the room, waking up a horde of zombies. He flees and shuts the doors behind him, trapping them closed with a mop handle, and discovers that the sky bridge is now nothing more than a narrow ledge. As Bryan's shoes began melting in the acid sludge from earlier, he took them off, meaning he has to cross the ledge in just his socks.
The maternity ward zombies are close to breaking through the mop, while the amalgamation zombie is climbing up the hospital wall towards him again. Bryan uses his last bullet to shoot the mop handle and unleash the maternity ward zombies on the creature climbing up, which knocks it to the ground – he learned earlier in the film that zombies could die from falling from a great height.
Now free of zombies pursuing him, Bryan finally makes it to the right floor. A scientist meets him and takes the sample from him, then they head inside the lab. Bryan takes a seat and hides his worsening condition as the scientists hurriedly begin synthesizing the cure.
They don't notice Bryan is succumbing to the virus until it's too late. Bryan's arm suddenly transforms into one of the terrifying tentacles seen throughout the movie as he desperately attempts to grab the cure. The tentacles, seemingly with a mind of their own, keep grabbing the scientists and feeding them into a mouth formed in Bryan's torso as he begins to transform into a creature like the one that had been chasing him all movie.
The scientists do attempt to cure him, but in the panicked confusion, none of them manage it, and Bryan completes his transformation and becomes a mindless undead zombie. With a giant eye next to his head and his deformed body, he looks like the transformed William Birkin from the first game, or perhaps like the Nyx.
The film ends with Bryan outside on the sky bridge roaring at an approaching helicopter, as the cure falls to the ground almost 30 stories below.
What happens to Bryan?
Bryan is bitten by an infected girl while trying to traverse a blocked tunnel. The infection spreads slowly, but by the time he reaches the hospital, it has progressed enough that his arm is beginning to appear deformed. Bryan makes it into the lab, but before the scientists can administer the newly synthesized cure, Bryan's transformation accelerates to the point that he sprouts tentacles that begin attacking the scientists. In the chaos, none of them are able to cure him, and Bryan finishes his transformation into a mindless zombie.
Is the cure lost?
The cure is synthesized by the scientists and is supposed to be taken to the roof of the hospital so the National Guard can take it away. However, in the chaos of Bryan transforming into a zombie after he was bitten earlier in the movie, the cure ends up falling from the sky bridge down over 20 stories to the ground. Whether it shatters on impact or survives the fall is not revealed.
Who dies in Resident Evil?
Pretty much everyone bites the dust. The first casualties are the already-zombified woman Bryan runs over, followed by the police officer who pulls him over. Then, the zombie woman's husband is also revealed to be a member of the infected, along with their dog. The little girl Bryan finds in the camper van is transforming and Bryan shoots her when she attacks. Then, the two Umbrella employees who find Bryan are killed: one is ripped in half, the other is absorbed by the giant rampaging zombie made up of all the film's victims. Finally, Bryan kills all the scientists working on the cure when he transforms at the end of the film.
How does Bryan get infected?
Bryan is forced to walk towards the hospital after he accidentally shoots out his own engine, then crashes the truck belonging to the zombified occupants of the closest house. He ventures inside a dark tunnel on the road blocked by a campervan. Inside, he finds a terrified little girl hiding in the bathroom, who says her mother bit her foot. The girl's foot is transforming into the zombified tentacles of the other creatures. Bryan tries to help her, but her face splits apart and she attacks, biting him on the arm and infecting him.
What is in Bryan's bag?
At the first hospital, Bryan is given a bag for transporting organs and told it's the highest priority. He assumes it's something like a heart and begins driving it towards its destination, Raccoon City General Hospital. However, halfway through the film, he meets two people from the Umbrella Corporation, who tell him what he has is a substance vital to produce a cure for the virus turning everyone into zombies.
What created the zombies?
The zombies were created by the Umbrella Corporation themselves by mistake, as they reveal to Bryan. They're trying to manufacture a cure to give to the National Guard, and they need the mysterious substance Bryan has been tasked with carrying.
Why did Umbrella develop the t-Virus?
The Umbrella Corporation created the zombie virus, AKA the t-Virus, by mistake, as two employees tell Bryan when they rescue him halfway through the film. One of them hints at top-secret government work, but is stopped from elaborating more by the other employee. In the games, the t-Virus is used to create bio-organic weapons to serve as super soldiers, so perhaps that's what Umbrella was up to in the movie, too.
Are there any characters from the Resident Evil games?
No, there are no characters from the Resident Evil games in the Resident Evil movie. Instead, we follow an original character, Austin Abrams' Bryan, as he travels "on the periphery" of Resident Evil 2. There are very few references to the games or the lore, though it's possible Bryan's zombie design is intended to mimic the transformed William Birkin, or Nyx.
What happens next? Will there be a Resident Evil 2?
At the moment, nothing has been confirmed about a Resident Evil 2. With the cure potentially lost, it would seem the door is open to more amid the inevitable zombie pandemic, though. But Bryan would be unlikely to return – unless he came back as a zombie boss for the new heroes to kill.
Cregger has also said he's got some more ideas. "I can't help thinking about other places this story could go. I’ve got ideas, but this movie hasn't even come out yet. Let's see what happens," he told The Playlist.
Is there a Resident Evil post-credits scene?
There is no Resident Evil post-credits scene. Once the film ends, you're free to leave the theater.
Resident Evil is in theaters now. For more, check out our guide to the best Resident Evil games or all the upcoming video game movies.
