Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is a 2021 action horror film based on the Resident Evil video game series by Capcom. It is the seventh live-action film of the Resident Evil film series, and serves as a reboot. Written and directed by Johannes Roberts, the film stars Kaya Scodelario, Hannah John-Kamen, Robbie Amell, Tom Hopper, Avan Jogia, Donal Logue, and Neal McDonough. Set in 1998 and primarily adapting the first and second games, it follows a group of survivors during a zombie outbreak in Raccoon City. It is the first live-action film in the series not to feature Milla Jovovich in the lead role of her character Alice.
Development took place in early 2017, after Resident Evil: The Final Chapter was released, with producer James Wan expressing interest in the project. Later, Constantin Film chairman Martin Moszkowicz said that a reboot of the film series was in development. In the same month, Wan was called to produce the reboot with a script by Greg Russo; subsequently, Roberts was hired as both writer and director and both Wan and Russo left the project. Principal photography took place in Ontario, Canada from October to December 2020, followed by reshoots in May 2021.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City had its world premiere at the Grand Rex in Paris on November 19, 2021, and was theatrically released on November 24, 2021, in the United States by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film grossed $42 million worldwide on a $25 million budget and received mixed reviews from critics. A sequel was planned but cancelled due to the film's commercial failure. Another reboot, Resident Evil, was released on September 18, 2026.
Plot
In the 1980s, Claire Redfield and her older brother Chris live at the Raccoon City Orphanage. Claire befriends Lisa Trevor, a disfigured girl experimented on by Dr. William Birkin, an employee of the Umbrella Corporation who uses children in his research. Claire eventually escapes the orphanage.
In 1998, Claire returns to Raccoon City by hitchhiking in a semi-truck. After the driver accidentally hits a woman who disappears, his Dobermann licks her blood and gradually becomes erratic. At a diner, rookie police officer Leon S. Kennedy notices the owner bleeding from her eyes. Claire warns Chris about Umbrella's experiments, citing journalist Ben Bertolucci as her source. After Chris leaves, a child fleeing his mother breaks into the house; both are erratic and bloody, forcing Claire to escape.
At the police station, the STARS Alpha team meets Chief Brian Irons, who explains that the Bravo team disappeared while investigating a death at the remote Spencer Mansion. The Alpha team—Chris, Jill Valentine, Richard Aiken, Brad Vickers, and Albert Wesker—is sent to investigate. Unknown to the others, Wesker is secretly working for an unidentified party and has been ordered to steal William's virus. Inside the mansion, the team encounters zombies eating the Bravo team's bodies. Brad is bitten and crashes the helicopter, while Richard is killed. Chris and Jill escape through a secret passage that Wesker unlocked.
The truck driver, infected by his dog, transforms into a zombie and crashes outside the police station. Chief Irons attempts to flee the city but is fired upon by Umbrella guards trying to contain the outbreak, forcing him to return. Claire and Leon find Bertolucci locked in a cell, but he is bitten by a zombie inmate as the station becomes overrun. Leon, Claire, and Irons escape to the Orphanage in search of a secret Umbrella tunnel leading to the mansion.
A Licker kills Irons and attacks Leon, but Lisa saves him. Recognizing Claire, she gives them the keys to the secret passage. They discover an underground laboratory where Umbrella has experimented on children. Wesker confronts William and his family there, killing William's wife in self-defense during a shootout. Jill shoots Wesker, who appears to die but tells her to escape by underground train before Umbrella destroys the city. William injects himself with the "G-Virus" and mutates.
Chris, Jill, Claire, Leon, and William's daughter Sherry board the train, but it derails when Raccoon City is destroyed, allowing a monstrous William to reach them. Leon kills the creature with a rocket launcher. Although the Corporation reports zero civilian survivors, the five emerge from the train tunnel and leave Raccoon City behind.
In the mid-credits scene, Wesker awakens inside a body bag, unable to see. A mysterious woman gives him sunglasses and introduces herself as Ada Wong.
Cast
Production Writing Greg Russo's version Pre-production took place in early 2017 while Resident Evil: The Final Chapter was still in theatres, with Constantin Film chairman Martin Moszkowicz saying that a reboot of the series was in development, and producer James Wan expressing interest in the project. Greg Russo was attached as writer in 2017. Russo, who was also attached to write the script for Mortal Kombat (2021) at the time, worked with Wan in creating a Resident Evil story he considered to be "brutal and horrifying", and drew inspiration from the 2017 video game Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, though he would later clarify he only drew on the tones of the game—"scary, isolated, alone"—rather than the story itself. Russo wanted Moonlight Sonata, a composition featured in several Resident Evil games, to feature in the opening credits. Constantin was unimpressed with this script, feeling the game was too recent and its potential failure could harm film sales. Seeking alternate story ideas, Constantin proposed the incorporation at one point of a time travel subplot. Ultimately, Wan and Russo decided to leave the project citing creative differences and their departures were confirmed in December 2018.
Johannes Roberts' version
In December 2018, it was announced that Johannes Roberts was attached to write and direct the film. In August 2019, Roberts told Screen Rant that the reboot would be "super, super scary" and more faithful to the games than the previous films. In a statement to Deadline Hollywood, Roberts said the film would be based on Resident Evil (1996) and Resident Evil 2 (1998).
Roberts said he wanted to give the film a darker tone. Inspired by John Carpenter's films, including Halloween, Assault on Precinct 13, and The Fog, the filmmaker explained that the story was divided between two main locations: Spencer Mansion from the first game and the Raccoon Police Department, which first appeared in Resident Evil 2. Roberts chose the tone for the remake of the second game as a model for the film. Although director Paul W. S. Anderson and Milla Jovovich released six commercially successful films based on the games between 2002 and 2017, Roberts emphasized that his version was different from the series that preceded it:
In early drafts, the screenplay was ambitious, incorporating a variety of mutants from the first two games into the narrative even if only passively. The story was from the start intended as an ensemble piece comparable to Resident Evil: Apocalypse, following several major characters in the film as their paths converge. Over the course of 2019 and 2020, the film script was repeatedly altered, keeping the main story but removing a number of CG-heavy elements, condensing the supporting cast and tweaking the protagonists' arcs. Earlier drafts also included more original characters, monsters and locations from the games, before Roberts had to make changes to his script after the budget was cut from $40 million to $25 million. Some of the cuts and changes were made so late that most of the concept artwork done by Daniel Carrasco for the monsters to be featured was finished, including Hunters, Chimeras, Crimson Heads, Pale Heads, giant spiders, Neptune (giant shark), Tyrant (aka Mr. X), and others.
Originally, Claire and Chris had no connection with Birkin or Ben Bertolucci, this was added later to help streamline the story after other script changes. The characters were also closer to their original video game versions; Jill was not written as a reckless wildcard and Claire was not a conspiracy theorist who already knew of Umbrella's intentions. Barry Burton, Rebecca Chambers and other characters from the games were originally in the scripts, and some had death scenes written for them. Some of the action scenes were cut down or changed, mostly due to budget cuts, such as a scene where Lisa Trevor sacrifices herself attacking Birkin while everyone else escapes on the train.
Casting In early 2020, casting was underway but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. On October 6, Deadline Hollywood reported that Scodelario and Hannah John-Kamen had been cast as Claire Redfield and Jill Valentine, alongside Robbie Amell, Tom Hopper, Avan Jogia, and Neal McDonough as Chris Redfield, Albert Wesker, Leon S. Kennedy, and William Birkin, respectively. That November, Donal Logue was cast as Chief Brian Irons, alongside Chad Rook as Richard Aiken, and Lily Gao as Ada Wong.
In Japan, Capcom later confirmed the characters will be dubbed by voice actors different from the Anderson films. For example, Chris and Claire are voiced by Subaru Kimura and Fairouz Ai instead of Hiroki Tōchi and Hiroe Oka.
Filming Principal photography began in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, on October 17, 2020, with Maxime Alexandre serving as cinematographer. Filming was completed on December 24, 2020. In March 2021, Roberts revealed the full title as Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. In May 2021, Amell revealed that the film was undergoing reshoots in Toronto and Hamilton.
Music
The film score was composed by Mark Korven. Milan Records and Sony Classical released the soundtrack.
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Release Marketing Official images of the film were released on August 31, 2021, and were met with a mixed response. A trailer was released on October 7, 2021, and was met with mixed reaction from fans, who praised its faithfulness to the first two games, but criticized its casting and special effects. Prior to the film's release, the characters were criticized by Metro based on the film's trailer, who called them "bad cosplay" and further said that their acting was "too authentic to the games". Summarizing the film's marketing results, RelishMix said fans of the franchise noticed Milla Jovovich absence while "questioning the logic, the look of the effects, and comparing the film to the game's CGI."
Theatrical Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City had its world premiere at the Grand Rex in Paris, France, on November 19, 2021, and was theatrically released on November 24, 2021, by Sony Pictures Releasing in the United States. It was delayed from its original release dates of September 3 and 9, 2021. The film was a modest financial success.
Home media Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City was released on video-on-demand on December 21, 2021, and was the top-rented film on Vudu during its first weekend. The film was released on DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray on February 8, 2022, by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The film grossed over $3.6 million from North America video sales.
Reception Box office Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City grossed $17 million in the United States and Canada, and $25 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $42 million.