Paul W.S. Anderson’s Resident Evil franchise may be based on the Capcom game series of the same name, but they break from the canon to create their own alternate timeline. Starting in 2002, Anderson's Resident Evil movies explored the evil Umbrella Corporation, the T-virus, and how people manage to survive and fight back through the catastrophic fallout. Even when watching the Resident Evil movies in order the timeline can get a bit confusing though. Here's the complete Paul W.S. Anderson' Resident Evil timeline from Resident Evil through to Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.
The movies follow a main character not found in the Capcom games, Alice (Milla Jovovich), as she discovers who she is and fights back against the Umbrella Corporation. While most of the Resident Evil movies follow a straightforward progression from one installment to the next, there are certain events that are left out and later revealed in flashbacks or through character dialogue.
Once all of the loose story ends were wrapped up in The Final Chapter, some fans were left confused as to what actually happened throughout the series. Additionally, the speed at which some pieces of plot are presented amidst the action, as well as the myriad experiments and research projects conducted by Umbrella throughout the films can be difficult to keep track of. Here's the full Resident Evil movie timeline, explained.
Before The First Resident Evil - The T-Virus Is Developed
While most well-known as a pharmaceutical and tech company, Umbrella, the company that caused Resident Evil's outbreak, receives most of its funds through covert military research and development. With the company’s resources, Dr. James Marcus started to research a cure for his daughter’s Progeria, which was revealed in Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. Ultimately, this led to the creation of the T-virus, a compound that is able to regenerate cells being destroyed by the disease.
Unfortunately, the T-virus has certain unforeseen side effects. It turns people into zombies if they aren't given the antivirus, though they can also be sustained with frequent injections of the antivirus, which was shown in Resident Evil: Apocalypse when Alice meets Dr. Ashford’s young daughter, Angela. Umbrella takes ownership of the virus and begins experimentation with it in an effort to create a variety of different compounds from pharmaceuticals to bioweapons.
Before the First Resident Evil - Project Alice Begins
Prior to the first Resident Evil movie, Project Alice was begun. This was a mission to create clones of the young Alicia Marcus and modify her DNA to remove the progeria disease that was slowly taking her life, while also using the clones to perform essential Umbrella Corp duties.
After this, with no memory of her childhood but enough training and humanity to be entirely functional as a person, the adult Alice becomes the head of security at a secret, underground Umbrella facility in Raccoon City known as the Hive. She and Spence Parks, another Umbrella agent, are then both placed in a mansion undercover as a married couple and guard the Hive's secret entrance.
Before the First Resident Evil - Releasing the T-Virus
In her job as head of security at the Hive, Alice has higher clearance than most employees. As a result of her ability to see into the many projects being conducted by Umbrella researchers, she discovers the T-virus (a movie connection the Resident Evil game) and the many illegal and immoral applications that Umbrella is planning to use it for.
When she’s approached by environmental activist and investigative journalist, Lisa, Alice sees her opportunity to bring Umbrella to justice. Lisa asks Alice to smuggle out a sample of the virus to her so that she can prove that what Umbrella’s been doing is highly illegal, and Alice agrees on the condition that Lisa promises to bring Umbrella down. Unfortunately, during this conversation, Alice and Lisa are overheard by Spence, Alice’s partner.
Spence decides to take action ahead of Alice and sets out to steal the virus himself, releasing it into the Hive and shutting down the entire facility. It’s at this point that the Red Queen AI shuts down all access to the Hive and releases gas into the mansion and connecting tram, knocking out both Alice and Spence, which gives them temporary memory loss.
Between Resident Evil & Apocalypse - The T-Virus Gets Out
At the end of Resident Evil, Alice is shown being captured by Umbrella personnel and then later escaping to find herself in an abandoned city. Resident Evil: Apocalypse picks back up at this point as the audience learns that between films — despite the Red Queen’s best efforts — the T-virus has made it out of the Hive and infected Raccoon City. In The Final Chapter, it's revealed that this is because the Umbrella Board of Directors manufactured the apocalypse to manually refresh the Earth, leaving themselves largely unaffected.
Umbrella sets out to evacuate its most important employees as the government tries to stop the spread by sealing off Raccoon City, the setting of the new Resident Evil reboot, from the rest of the country. At the end of Resident Evil: Apocalypse, the government decides that Raccoon City cannot be saved and blow it up, killing any remaining survivors along with many of the zombies.
Between Resident Evil & Apocalypse - The Nemesis Project
At the end of Resident Evil, Alice and Matt are taken away by Umbrella scientists. Alice overhears one of them saying that Matt is wanted for the “Nemesis Project”. In Resident Evil: Apocalypse, an enemy called Nemesis appears wielding a rocket launder and minigun. At the end of the film, Alice learns that this creature was once Matt, and has been so experimented on that he’s transformed into this Nemesis monster and has been programmed as a loyal Umbrella minion.
Between the two films — like Alice — Matt was experimented on and entered into a project that would bond his DNA with the T-virus in such a way that a new entity would be formed. While Alice bonded perfectly with the T-virus and essentially gained superpowers, Matt had a much harsher reaction, swiftly mutating and changing as the virus took over his mind and body.
Between Apocalypse & Extinction - Humanity Falls & Alice is Cloned
After the events of Apocalypse, despite Raccoon City’s destruction, the T-virus spread across the world and ravaged humanity. Fewer and fewer human survivors remain as groups band together to try and make it through the epidemic. Meanwhile, Umbrella is taking the opportunity to continue their experiments, copying Alice in clone form as an attempt to find another individual with her unique powers.
Resident Evil: Afterlife - Alice Makes a Clone Army & Loses Her Powers
After finding the secret Umbrella facility in the middle of the desert at the end of Extinction, Alice also locates the hundreds of clones that researchers had been creating in an attempt to create a stronger, better Alice that they could control for themselves.
At the beginning of Afterlife, Alice has gathered these clones to create an army that she uses to storm the Umbrella headquarters in Tokyo. Coming after Albert Wesker, she manages to take out all the personnel in the entire facility, but fan-favorite Resident Evil character Wesker escapes, initiating the base’s self-destruct sequence as he flies away. Fortunately, the original Alice is stowed away on Wesker’s helicopter, and she attacks him. However, he’s ready for her and injects her with a serum that nullifies the T-virus in her system, effectively making her mortal once again and removing her powers.
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter - Alice Saves the World
In Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, the Red Queen AI learns that Umbrella Corporation manufactured the apocalypse caused by the T-virus. At the same time, Umbrella had been developing an airborne form of the antidote for the T-virus. It would destroy all infected tissue and leave healthy tissue unaffected.
The Red Queen, changing her allegiance, presents Resident Evil 6's apocalyptic endgame to Alice, claiming that in just a few hours, the last human survivors will be defeated and Umbrella will have won - she has to return to Raccoon City, breach the Hive, and release the antidote to save the world. She’s also told that because she’s technically infected with the T-virus, she’ll die when the cure is released.
Ultimately, Alice is able to bring the antidote to the surface and release it, saving the world and surviving despite believing that she will die. The Red Queen explains that this is because the antidote only destroys infected tissue, leaving healthy tissue untouched — she simply told Alice that she would die because she needed to prove that Alice was pure enough to complete the mission.
While there are a lot of plot threads presented throughout the series and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter's ending does its best to tie these up in a cohesive narrative, there’s a lot to keep track of between all of the films. As the movies present a timeline separate from the Resident Evil games, this timeline doesn't cover all lore in the Resident Evil franchise.
How Much Time es During The Resident Evil Movies
According to the official timeline set out in the movies themselves, ten years during the events of the 6 Resident Evil films. Resident Evil and Apocalypse take place in 2002. The Final Chapter is officially supposed to take place a decade later in 2012, as revealed by Alice in an intro voiceover. However, fans have pointed out this isn't possible. Extinction takes place 5 years after the initial 2002 outbreak (so 2007), and Afterlife was officially set 18 months later with Retribution following directly after (so 2009). The Final Chapter also is supposed to start only three weeks after Retribution ends. That means only 6-7 years have ed since 2002, placing the end of the Resident Evil movie timeline around 2009.
Where Do Welcome To Raccoon City And Resident Evil Netflix Series Fit In The Timeline?
The 2021 reboot Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City and the 2022 Resident Evil Netflix series aren't connected to Paul W.S. Anderson's Resident Evil movies. Welcome To Raccoon City was intended as a hard reboot that followed the Capcom games more closely. Resident Evil on Netflix is technically canon in the game timeline, although how its poor reception and cancelation may change its status. The Resident Evil Netflix show is set in 2022 and 2036 in the future post-apocalypse timeline. Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City is set in 1998 as per the first few Resident Evil games. Since the Netflix Resident Evil was canceled after season 1 and there's no news of a Welcome To Raccoon City sequel, the Anderson timeline remains the most complete on-screen Resident Evil accessible to fans (even if it's the least true to the games).
Why The Resident Evil Movie Timeline Is Different From The Games
The Resident Evil movie timeline can be confusing, but it's got nothing on the games. Capcom, the developer of the Resident Evil. The Paul W. S. Anderson movies may have their own timeline, but it's one that perhaps works much better on the screen than the Japanese video-game chronology created by Capcom would in a non-interactive medium.
