How Zach Cregger's Resident Evil Delivers a Subversive and Shocking Ending

Austin Abrams as Bryan in Resident Evil. —Sony Pictures Warning: This post contains spoilers for Resident Evil .

For a movie based on a video game series that's made a name for itself as a testament to human resilience and survival against impossible odds, Zach Cregger's Resident Evil sure serves up a brutal kick in the teeth of an ending.

For fans of the video games' traditionally triumphant resolutions, it's a narrative decision that's likely to be divisive.

But if you're willing to lean in to the Weapons filmmaker's penchant for expectations-upending final acts, it's one that offers some good old fashioned horror nihilism.

Cregger's adaptation tells an original story in the Resident Evil universe rather than faithfully adapting any of the games, building on previous films, or pulling in legacy characters.

Still, the movie manages to successfully capture the atmosphere and experience of playing through a new installment in gaming’s most storied survival horror franchise, first launched in 1996 by Japanese developer Capcom.

Like a fair share of Resident Evil leads who came before him, our protagonist, medical courier Bryan Hodukavich (Austin Abrams), finds himself thrown into a nightmarish fight for survival against uber-aggressive biological monstrosities.

Ammo is scarce, obstacles are everywhere, and perhaps most relatably, Bryan has no real idea how to operate the progression of increasingly high-caliber guns he picks up along the way.

Bryan (Austin Abrams) comes under attack in Resident Evil. —Sony Pictures The film opens with Bryan—whose newly pregnant girlfriend Michele is waiting at home to discuss their future—accepting a last-minute double-pay delivery job transporting a high-priority Schedule A organ carrier case up through the snowy mountains to Raccoon City General Hospital.

Unfortunately, Bryan's situation quickly turns from dangerous to unbelievable to dire after he accidentally hits a woman with his car who turns out to have been infected by a mutating zombie virus that the shadowy Umbrella Corporation accidentally unleashed on the city a few hours prior.

By the time Bryan learns he is actually carrying the final ingredient needed to synthesize a cure to the virus, he has already fought off several infected individuals, who, to his horror, didn't exactly die after being shot in the head.

Instead, their remains fused together to transform into a grotesque, Cronenberg-esque amalgamation of limbs and tentacles intent on hunting Bryan down.

Not to mention Bryan was also been bitten by one of the aforementioned infected, making his race for an antidote all the more pressing.

How does Resident Evil end? Bryan (Austin Abrams) makes his way to Raccoon City General Hospital in Resident Evil.