Why Zach Cregger Changed His Original ‘Resident Evil’ Ending

Resident Evil director Zach Cregger says the movie’s final sequence almost took a much darker path, before he used backup footage to give viewers one last reason to hope Bryan could survive. In Cregger’s Resident Evil, Bryan is a medical courier trapped in Raccoon City as an outbreak spirals out of control. The film does not directly adapt a single game. Instead, it follows a new character through familiar locations, monsters, and survival-horror elements from the franchise. Resident Evil spoilers follow. The T-Virus begins taking over Bryan’s body, driving him toward a cure while he kills scientists in his path. Even as he changes into a monster, Bryan remains focused on a syringe that could save him. That hope becomes the key to the ending. In the finished film, the cure remains in play until the syringe falls from the upper levels of Raccoon City General Hospital. But Cregger told Collider that his original script destroyed Bryan’s chance much earlier. “Originally in the script, that scientist pulls the needle out and as soon as Austin grabs the woman’s face, he drops it, it shatters, and then the rest of the movie is just Austin killing the scientists.” Test audiences reportedl...