95 Fun Facts About Resident Evil

What is the Resident Evil series called in Japan?

Biohazard is the Japanese title; for the West, the publisher's US office ran a staff contest for a new name, and Resident Evil won as a pun on the mansion where the first game is set.

Which company makes Resident Evil?

Capcom, the Osaka company behind Street Fighter, expected the 1996 original to sell around 200,000 copies; it sold millions and grew into the firm's best-selling series.

Who directed the first Resident Evil game in 1996?

Shinji Mikami got the job because he hated being scared: his producer reasoned that someone afraid of nothing could never understand what frightens other people.

The first Resident Evil was based on which 1989 haunted-mansion horror game from the same publisher?

Sweet Home, itself adapted from a Japanese horror film, gave Resident Evil its mansion setting and its tight item limits, which force players to choose what to carry.

Why couldn't Resident Evil keep its Japanese title in the United States?

Others already used the name, among them a video game and a New York band, so the US staff held a naming contest; the winner was a name their own PR man voted against as 'super-cheesy'.

What is the name of the fictional Midwestern town where S.T.A.R.S. is based?

Raccoon City, the fictional Midwestern home of the S.T.A.R.S. unit, is overrun by the T-virus outbreak of Resident Evil 2 and 3 and destroyed by a missile strike at the end of the third game.

What does S.T.A.R.S. stand for?

Special Tactics and Rescue Service: when its Bravo team vanishes in July 1998, Alpha team goes looking and is chased by a pack of monstrous dogs into the mansion where the first game unfolds.

Which horror director shot a live-action Japanese TV advert for Resident Evil 2?

George A. Romero's advert, shown only in Japan, impressed the studio enough to hire him to write and direct the first Resident Evil film, but his script was then rejected.

On which console was Resident Evil first released in 1996?

PlayStation got Resident Evil first, in March 1996; the project had started life in 1993 as a Super NES game before moving to Sony's new console the following year.

Who is the S.T.A.R.S. captain revealed as a traitor in the first Resident Evil?

Albert Wesker, the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team captain, is revealed as a double agent for the company behind the mansion and is impaled by the Tyrant he unleashes, surviving only through an experimental virus.

What is the name of the pharmaceutical company behind the T-virus?

Umbrella Corporation, co-founded by Oswell E. Spencer, developed the T-virus whose leak caused the 1998 mansion incident and the outbreak that consumed the city two months later.

In Resident Evil 2, Leon Kennedy arrives in the doomed city on what occasion?

His first day at work is the occasion: Leon Kennedy turns up late for his first shift and finds the town already overrun, meeting Claire Redfield on the way in.

What was the 'Zapping System' introduced in Resident Evil 2?

Two characters facing different puzzles and encounters: what Leon or Claire does in one scenario changes the other's, an idea the director pushed through though a colleague thought it too much work.

The scrapped early version of Resident Evil 2 is commonly known by what name?

Resident Evil 1.5 was scrapped in 1997 as it neared release because its makers were unhappy with it; the rebuilt game dropped its biker heroine Elza Walker for Claire Redfield.

The relentless Nemesis in Resident Evil 3 was inspired by which movie villain?

The T-1000 from Terminator 2 was the model: the designers wanted an enemy that never lets up, so even when Jill beats or escapes Nemesis, he comes back to hunt her again.

Resident Evil 4 popularised which camera perspective, later used by Gears of War and The Last of Us?

Over-the-shoulder is the perspective Resident Evil 4 popularised in 2005, placing the camera behind Leon's shoulder with laser-sight aiming; Gears of War adopted the view the following year.

In Resident Evil 4, Leon must rescue the president's daughter from a cult in which country?

Spain is the setting: Leon tracks Ashley Graham to a rural village whose people aren't zombies but parasite hosts, who talk to each other, wield weapons and attack as a group.

Which parasite controls the villagers and cultists in Resident Evil 4?

Las Plagas, ancient parasites revived by the Los Illuminados cult, control the villagers Leon fights in Resident Evil 4; Leon and Ashley are implanted too and must purge the eggs with a radiation device.

Which hooded dealer does Leon buy from and sell to throughout Resident Evil 4?

The Merchant, a hooded figure who greets Leon with "What're ya buyin'?", sells, buys and upgrades his weapons at stops along the way; in the 2005 original the two share a voice actor.

Resident Evil 5 is set in Kijuju, a fictional region of which continent?

Africa is the setting: Kijuju is a fictional West African region where an agent sent to stop a bioweapon sale finds the townspeople already infected and turned into violent Majini.

Which game finally kills the traitorous ex-S.T.A.R.S. captain, at the hands of Chris and Sheva?

Resident Evil 5 ends with Chris and Sheva firing rocket launchers at the mutated captain in a volcano after he tries to spread the Uroboros virus worldwide.

Resident Evil 7 was the earliest main game to use which perspective?

First-person was new for a numbered entry when Resident Evil 7 arrived in January 2017, with Ethan Winters searching for his missing wife Mia in the Baker family's derelict plantation house.

In which US state is Resident Evil 7 set?

Louisiana is the setting: the Bakers of fictional Dulvey were an ordinary family until a tanker ran aground nearby and they took in a girl from the wreck, the bioweapon Eveline.

Which game introduced Resident Evil's timed bonus mode The Mercenaries?

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis introduced The Mercenaries in 1999 as "Operation: Mad Jackal", a timed dash across the ruined city as Carlos, Mikhail or Nikolai; the mode returned in Resident Evil 4.

What is Lady Dimitrescu's first name?

Alcina Dimitrescu shares her castle with daughters Bela, Cassandra and Daniela; after fans kept asking, the game's makers confirmed she stands 2.9 m (about 9 ft 6 in) in her hat and heels.

Who provided Lady Dimitrescu's voice and motion capture?

Maggie Robertson, who doesn't play games herself, auditioned on the strength of a character description alone and went on to win Best Performance at The Game Awards 2021.

In Resident Evil Village, who sells the player weapons and cooks hunted animals?

The Duke, a huge trader who travels with his cart, sells and upgrades weapons and cooks the animals Ethan hunts into lasting boosts; near the end he carries Ethan to the final battle himself.

What happens to Ethan Winters at the end of Village?

He sacrifices himself to destroy a fungal colony: already dying, Ethan stays behind to detonate a bomb on the Megamycete while Chris gets Mia and baby Rose to safety.

Resident Evil Zero, the 2002 prequel, pairs Rebecca Chambers with which convict?

Billy Coen, a former Marine officer condemned to death, gets free when his prison transport crashes, then teams up with Rebecca Chambers aboard a train full of zombies.

Code: Veronica was released in 2000 for which console?

Dreamcast got Code: Veronica in early 2000 as a Sega exclusive; Claire, then her brother, fight through Rockfort Island's prison and an Antarctic base, and the expanded Code: Veronica X followed in 2001.

Who is the playable character introduced in 2026's Resident Evil Requiem?

Grace Ashcroft, an FBI analyst, is the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft, a playable survivor in 2003's Resident Evil Outbreak who was killed eight years before Requiem begins.

Which blind, skinless creature with an exposed brain made its debut in Resident Evil 2?

Licker: named for its long, lashing tongue, it hunts by sound alone, so a player who walks instead of running can often slip right past one.

Which consumable item was used up every time you saved in the early Resident Evil games?

Ink ribbons were used up at each typewriter save in the 1996 original and its early sequels, turning every save into a decision; Resident Evil 7's Madhouse difficulty revived the idea with cassette tapes.

Who plays Alice, the lead of the first six live-action Resident Evil films?

Milla Jovovich played Alice in all six films from 2002 to 2016 and married their writer-director during the series; Alice was created for the films and never appeared in the games.

Who wrote and directed the first Resident Evil film in 2002 and directed four of the six?

Paul W. S. Anderson wrote all six films, directed the 2002 original, Afterlife, Retribution and The Final Chapter, and married the series' star in 2009.

In the 2002 Resident Evil film, what is the name of the underground lab beneath the doomed city?

The Hive is the underground lab beneath the city in the 2002 film; its AI, the Red Queen, seals it and kills the staff after the T-virus is released, and Alice wakes with amnesia in the mansion above.

What did the six live-action Resident Evil films starring Alice gross worldwide in total?

Over $1.2 billion is the combined worldwide gross of the six films from 2002 to 2016, with The Final Chapter the biggest earner at about $312 million, most of it from China.

Who directed the 2021 Resident Evil film reboot?

Johannes Roberts, director of 47 Meters Down, made the 2021 reboot, which returned to the first two games' 1998 setting rather than the Alice films and grossed about $42 million worldwide.

Who led the cast of Netflix's 2022 Resident Evil series as clones of the games' arch-villain?

Lance Reddick played the arch-villain and his clones in Netflix's 2022 series, which the streamer cancelled the month after it launched; Reddick died in March 2023.

Which model was Jill Valentine's face based on from the 2002 remake through Resident Evil 5?

Julia Voth, a Canadian model and actress, lent her face to Jill Valentine from the 2002 remake through the 2009 entry, after which the 2020 remake of the third game used Sasha Zotova instead.

Chris and Jill became founding members of which anti-bioterrorism body?

The BSAA (Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance) counted Chris and Jill among its eleven founders; by the end of Village, Chris learns the soldiers it sent there were bioweapons themselves.

Which Nintendo console got two on-rails Resident Evil shooters, in 2007 and 2009?

Wii: the first of the pair was planned to play like Resident Evil 4, until its producer judged that too complicated for the console's owners and turned it into a simpler shooter.

Which producer, the creator of Ghosts 'n Goblins, conceived the original Resident Evil?

Tokuro Fujiwara had made a haunted-mansion game for the 8-bit Famicom in 1989, and proposed Resident Evil to do what that hardware couldn't, chiefly in its graphics.

After a falling ceiling nearly crushes her in the first Resident Evil, Jill is told she was almost a what?

Jill sandwich: the awkwardly delivered line, spoken by the teammate who frees her from the trap, resurfaced as an internet meme about ten years after the game came out.

Which 1997 port of the original Resident Evil added a battle mode with a gold Tyrant?

Sega Saturn owners waited 16 months for the game and got an exclusive Battle Game in return, whose enemies include a gold Tyrant and a zombie version of the traitorous captain.

Which demon-hunting action series began as an early version of Resident Evil 4 judged too different to keep the name?

Devil May Cry came out in 2001, four years before the horror sequel it was meant to be. The series creator felt the prototype was too great a departure, so it became a new game.

Which food is a secret playable character in Resident Evil 2, sent through the zombies armed with nothing but knives?

A block of tofu stars in a hidden bonus mission. In the 2019 remake it opens once the game's other secret mode is beaten, and extra characters were added to it.

Near the climax of Resident Evil 5, the hero repeatedly punches which object until it falls into lava?

A boulder takes the beating inside an active volcano, and the scene became an internet meme. A villain in Resident Evil Village later mocks the hero for it.

Which horror filmmaker directed a TV commercial for Resident Evil 2 and wrote a rejected script for the first film?

George Romero had his secretary play through the whole game on tape so he could study it. He wrote five or six drafts of the screenplay, and the producers turned them all down.

Which shock-rock star composed the score of the 2002 Resident Evil film alongside Marco Beltrami?

Marilyn Manson described the music as more electronic than his earlier work. He and Beltrami wrote it in mid-2001, months before the film reached cinemas.

The original Resident Evil entered the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2008 for having the worst what?

Dialogue for the game was recorded in English at a Tokyo studio, and even the Japanese release used it with captions. The record's full title was Worst Game Dialogue Ever.

The original Resident Evil was the first game to be given which genre label, coined for the style it launched?

Survival horror became the name of a whole genre, and the series is also credited with bringing zombies back into popular culture and renewing interest in zombie films in the 2000s.

Which actress plays Rain, the commando who is infected during the mission, in the 2002 film Resident Evil?

Michelle Rodriguez was among the first three actors signed, early in 2001. Her character is bitten by a reanimated teammate, yet she returned to the series a decade later in Resident Evil: Retribution.

The original 1996 Resident Evil opens with a cutscene made in which style, toned down for the US release?

Live action was shot in Japan with a cast of American actors playing the mansion team. The sequel's cutscenes were built with computer graphics instead.

In the 2002 film Resident Evil, which artificial intelligence seals the underground lab and kills everyone inside?

The Red Queen was added to the story as a homage to Lewis Carroll, whose most famous heroine shares a name with the film's lead. Her aim is to stop the virus leaking out.

At the start of the 2002 film Resident Evil, Alice wakes in a deserted mansion suffering from what?

Amnesia hides the truth from her and from the audience: she was a company operative guarding the lab's secret entrance, posing as one half of a married couple.

In the 2002 film Resident Evil, what kind of defence system kills four commandos outside the computer's chamber?

Laser beams claim the commando known only as One and three of his team. He is played by Colin Salmon, who came back to the series in Resident Evil: Retribution.

The 2002 Resident Evil film dropped which planned subtitle after the September 11 attacks?

Ground Zero suited a film conceived as a prequel to the games, showing where the infection began. After the attacks the phrase meant something else, and the film was retitled.

The 2002 Resident Evil film was shot in which European capital, using a subway station that was still unfinished?

Berlin offered the then-unfinished U-Bahn station Bundestag as a ready-made underground set. Filming began there in March 2001.

In Resident Evil: Extinction, Alice and the desert convoy stop for supplies in the ruins of which US city?

Las Vegas is where the convoy is ambushed by a new breed of super zombies. The survivors are trying to reach Alaska, which they believe to be a safe haven.

Footage from which 3D film persuaded the director of Resident Evil: Afterlife to shoot in digital 3D?

Avatar was shot with the Fusion Camera System, and the fourth film used the same rig during its Toronto shoot in late 2009.

Which Heroes actress plays Claire Redfield in three of the Resident Evil films, starting with Extinction?

Ali Larter missed seven episodes of the television drama to shoot the fourth film, Afterlife. She came back once more for The Final Chapter.

Which Prison Break star plays Chris Redfield in the 2010 film Resident Evil: Afterlife?

Wentworth Miller first appears as a caged man whom the other survivors take for the last inmate of a Los Angeles jail ringed by the undead.

Which Game of Thrones actor plays the scheming scientist Dr. Isaacs in the Resident Evil film series?

Iain Glen, later famous as Jorah Mormont, returned for The Final Chapter, where Alice learns that the Isaacs she had killed earlier was only a clone.

Which production company bought the screen rights to Resident Evil in 1997, five years before its cinema debut?

Constantin Film's head personally rejected a draft by a famous horror director, though it had supporters inside the company. Its chairman later announced the reboot of the series.

What nickname describes the early Resident Evil control scheme, where left and right rotate the character on the spot?

Tank controls mean that pressing up always moves the character in the direction they face. Resident Evil 6 finally abandoned the scheme by letting players move while aiming and shooting.

The first three Resident Evil games show each room through what kind of camera, later dropped by Resident Evil 4?

Fixed angles show each room against a pre-rendered background, and the series creator felt they made the games scarier. The fourth game switched to a tracking camera.

In the original Resident Evil, the heroes reach the mansion while searching for which missing S.T.A.R.S. unit?

Bravo Team had been sent into the forest to investigate a string of cannibalistic murders, and its helicopter is found crashed. Field medic Rebecca Chambers is its only survivor.

Which designer, who later created Okami and Bayonetta, directed the 1998 game Resident Evil 2?

Hideki Kamiya led a team of about 50 that built the sequel in 21 months. The first game's director moved up to producer, and the two often disagreed in the early stages.

What nickname is given to the giant bio-weapon air-dropped into the police station in Resident Evil 2?

Mr. X is a Tyrant sent to seek a virus sample. In the 2019 remake he cannot be killed, only stunned, and he follows the player everywhere except into safe rooms.

Which scientist created the G-virus and becomes the mutating monster that hunts the heroes in Resident Evil 2?

William Birkin developed it with his wife and colleague Annette, who is later fatally wounded by her mutated husband. Their young daughter is caught up in the chase.

Which console received a 1999 port of Resident Evil 2 that squeezed two CDs of game onto one cartridge?

Nintendo 64 owners got one of the few games on the console with full-motion video, the cutscenes compressed to fit the limited space of a Game Pak.

Which mercenary, known only by a codename, must reach a rescue helicopter in Resident Evil 2's mode The 4th Survivor?

Hunk starts in the sewers and fights through a gauntlet of enemies to an extraction point outside the police station. In the 2019 remake the mode unlocks after the story's second run.

Which co-founder of the pharmaceutical giant in Resident Evil gives his name to the mansion of the first game?

Oswell Spencer built the estate to hide a research laboratory beneath it. He founded the company in 1968 with two partners after they discovered the Progenitor virus.

What is the first name of the US president's daughter whom Leon Kennedy must rescue in Resident Evil 4?

Ashley Graham is more than a hostage: the cult's leader has had her injected with a parasite and plans to send her home to infect her own father.

Which henchman of the cult leader owns the trap-filled castle that Leon must fight through in Resident Evil 4?

Ramon Salazar commands the cultists who ambush Leon when he seeks refuge there. The village chief who captured Leon earlier is another of the leader's lieutenants.

In Resident Evil 4, Leon Kennedy arranges his weapons and items on a grid inside what kind of container?

An attaché case holds everything he carries, and each item takes up a set number of its spaces, so packing it well becomes a small puzzle of its own.

Which gaming term describes the on-screen button prompts Leon must hit to dodge danger in Resident Evil 4?

Quick time events ask for a fast button press to wrestle free of an enemy or survive a sudden hazard. They first appeared in an abandoned early version of the game and carried over to the final release.

In Resident Evil 5, which virus does the villain load onto a bomber's missiles to spread across the globe?

Uroboros is meant to sweep the world so that a chosen few survivors can be ruled as a new breed of humanity. The heroes disable the bomber, which crash-lands in a volcano.

In Resident Evil Village, Ethan Winters fights through the village to rescue which kidnapped member of his family?

His baby, a girl just six months old, is carried off when armed men storm the family home. The van transporting her crashes just outside the village.

Which lord in Resident Evil Village can manipulate magnetic fields and commands an army from a factory?

Karl Heisenberg leads an army of Soldat simulacra and invites Ethan to join him in overthrowing the priestess who rules the lords. Ethan refuses and escapes.

Resident Evil – Code: Veronica moves from a remote prison island to a research facility on which continent?

Antarctica hides a second company base, reached when a villain switches the heroes' escape plane to autopilot. The prison island itself lies in the Southern Ocean.

Which family, including the twins Alfred and Alexia, developed the T-Veronica virus in Resident Evil – Code: Veronica?

The Ashfords are represented by Alfred, the unstable commander of the prison island, who switches between his own personality and that of his sister, long hidden in cryogenic sleep.

In Resident Evil 6, Leon fakes his death and pursues the villain to Lanshiang, a fictional city in which country?

China is where Leon and his partner follow the man who framed them for an attack that left the US president infected. The earlier chapters unfold in an American town called Tall Oaks.

Resident Evil Zero, the 2002 prequel, begins when a swarm of leeches attacks what kind of vehicle?

A train called the Ecliptic Express, owned by the series' pharmaceutical company, is where medic Rebecca Chambers meets the fugitive who becomes her partner.

Most of Resident Evil: Revelations, the 2012 handheld game starring Jill Valentine, is set aboard what kind of vessel?

A cruise ship called the Queen Zenobia, found abandoned, is where she goes looking for two missing fellow agents. The plot turns on a plan to infect the oceans with a virus.

Which 2003 spin-off was the first Resident Evil game to offer online multiplayer, for up to four players?

Outbreak lets a player who succumbs to the virus online turn into a zombie and attack the others. The online mode was never offered in the PAL versions of the game.

Which 2008 animated film reunited Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield for the first time since Resident Evil 2?

Degeneration opens with a virus attack on an airport and had its premiere at the Tokyo Game Show. It was the franchise's first full-length motion-capture animated feature.

The Netflix animated series Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness sees zombies attack which famous building?

The White House is targeted after a hacking incident is uncovered there, and Leon Kennedy is sent in to investigate. The story sits between the fourth and fifth main games.

In the animated film Resident Evil: Death Island, Jill and the Redfields pose as tourists at which former prison?

Alcatraz draws them because every victim of a strange new infection had visited it before dying. They are separated when zombies suddenly overrun the place.

Which fellow inmate teams up with Claire Redfield to escape the prison island in Resident Evil – Code: Veronica?

Steve Burnside is another inmate looking for a way out, and the pair soon confront the island's unstable commander. Steve is also playable in the game's unlockable Battle Mode.

Which actress plays the agent Ada Wong, who helps Alice escape, in the 2012 film Resident Evil: Retribution?

Li Bingbing's character meets Alice in a control room, and the two set out to rendezvous with a rescue crew.

Which British actress plays Jill Valentine in the 2004 film Resident Evil: Apocalypse?

Sienna Guillory's character is introduced as a disgraced officer urging her colleagues to evacuate the city. She came back to the role in two later films of the series.

An artist on Resident Evil 2 based the look of rookie cop Leon Kennedy on which breed of dog he owned?

A bloodhound belonging to the character artist inspired Leon's look, and the same artist modelled one of the game's scientists on the actress Jodie Foster.

Which Orange Is the New Black star plays the survivor Abigail in Resident Evil: The Final Chapter?

Ruby Rose's Abigail is one of the survivors who join Alice's attack on the underground lab. The character is killed by one of its traps.