As the highest-grossing and most popular horror franchise across all forms of media, Resident Evil manages to stay in business around the year, bringing out animated projects, live-action series, or game announcements, never letting fans starve for brand-new grotesque content. Through two and a half decades, the franchise has revolutionized the zombie-horror genre to the point where the name itself has become synonymous with the concept. The recently released Resident Evil: Dead Island is the fifth entry to the CG animated Resident Evil movie universe, which also acts as filler content for the main game series, and for the first time, we get to see all the mainstay characters banding together to take down another T-virus-induced global catastrophe.
By now, the lore of Resident Evil has established a pretty straightforward narrative structure with all its tropes and distinctive characteristics. Edward Ashford, Oswell Spencer, and James Marcus founded the pharmaceutical company known as Umbrella Corporation during the 1960s, which, in reality, was a company dedicated to synthesizing biological weapons. During the same period, scientists came to know about the Sonnentreppe flower of West Africa, which contained a certain primitive Progenitor virus, which, in its active condition, has the highest mortality rate of any organism it comes into contact with but can also revive completely dead cells. Gradually, two important characters of the franchise, Albert Wesker and William Birkin, joined the research of the Umbrella Corporation as well, and soon enough, Marcus was able to synthesize a T-virus strain of the Progenitor virus that supposedly had a lower mortality rate. Under Spencer’s command, Wesker kills Marcus.
The research of Umbrella Corporation continued in their largest, most secretive facility in Raccoon City, where a T-virus outbreak started and turned humans into zombified monstrosities. Through the years, characters like Leon Kennedy, Jill Valentine, and Chris and Claire Redfield, as part of external law enforcement, have tried to put a stop to the heinous machinations of the company and contain their bioterrorist activities. Albert Wesker has proven to be their worst adversary over a long period of time, and the global expansion of Umbrella Corporation’s activities of spreading various strains of T-virus to create horrible anomalies has been the focal point of each entry.
Back To Raccoon City: Who Is Dylan Blake?
As the episode begins, viewers are taken back to the very beginning of RE lore, when the outbreak first began, as a military vehicle full of Umbrella Corps mercenaries make its way to Raccoon City. JJ and his friend Dylan Blake are among the mercenaries, and they wonder what situation might have cropped up to bring them, on sudden notice, even though they were off duty. They are updated about the mission by their superior officer; the city itself is in complete lockdown, and their job is to securely evacuate the Umbrella Corps executives and government officials only; no civilians are to be allowed out of the city at any cost.
After a while, most of the mercenaries retreat to a facility where almost all of them, save Dylan and JJ, are seen to be bitten and infected by a violent, unhinged mob. On the comms, the superiors give the order to terminate anyone who has been bitten, a command that shocks both JJ and Dylan. Despite a mentally traumatized Dylan constantly pleading to his friend not to open fire on their colleagues, JJ carries out the order but gets bitten in the process himself. As the command reminds him to carry out his mission, a distraught Dylan takes it upon himself to kill his friend, as after the brief struggle, in an almost catatonic state, he violently bashes JJ’s skull to death. To protect the warmongers and profiteers, Dylan had to murder his friend, an event that understandably scarred him for life.
A Visit To Alcatraz: How Did The Key Players Meet On The Prison Island?
The scene shifts to 2015, where now a member of the Department of Security Operations, Leon Kennedy, is searching for Dr. Antonio Taylor, a leading scientist in robotics engineering who is accused of leaking confidential information to rival nations and has been abducted by an unknown bunch of militants. Revving up his bike, Leon chases the van carrying Dr. Taylor through the highways of San Francisco but faces adversity when a female biker topples his ride, letting the abductors escape. The biker is none other than Maria Gomez, a friend of the rogue CIA agent/bioterrorist Glenn Arias and daughter of his right-hand man Diego Gomez, both of whom perished during the events of Resident Evil: Vendetta thanks to Chris and Leon’s combined effort.
On the other hand, BSAA agents Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine investigate a new strain of T-virus outbreak in San Francisco that isn’t being transmitted through bites or physical scars. Jill is still traumatized by the memories of the period when she tried to kill her former partner Chris after being brainwashed by Wesker (Resident Evil 5 reference) and is pushing herself hard in order to make amends for her past actions. Agency researcher Dr. Rebecca Chambers deduces that the only common factor among the victims is that they visited Alcatraz Island at some point in time. We also meet Chris’ sister, Claire Redfield, another OG character of the franchise, now a member of an NGO named Terrasave, which is trying to mend the harms caused by bioterrorism by investigating repeated instances of Orca deaths caused by vicious bite marks, which seems to also be stemming from the area surrounding Alcatraz Island. Claire shares her observations with Chris and Jill, and the trio decides to visit Alcatraz Island while Rebecca stays behind to synthesize a cure.
Horrors Of Alcatraz Island: Who Is Behind The New Outbreak?
As soon as Jill, Chris, and Claire arrive at Alcatraz, they witness a rapidly spreading viral outbreak taking place. The trickiest part is that the infection is spreading without even physical contact of any sort and is selective as it doesn’t affect the investigator trio. It is revealed that the aforementioned mercenary, Dylan Blake, who later became a close acquaintance of Arias and is now assisted by Maria, is the abductor of Dr. Taylor. Using Taylor’s expertise, Dylan is scheming to launch a selective infection on a global scale, which is his form of revenge on the responsible authorities and people with power, whose callousness resulted in him taking his friend’s life. Soon the entire bunch of tourists and prison guards on the island turn into zombified humanoids. Somehow the trio manages to take them down, but in the process, Jill gets separated from Chris and Claire. Taylor managed to escape Dylan and hide, using the chaotic outbreak as an opportunity.
In the underground tunnels of the prison, Jill is reunited with Leon, whose mission to retrieve Dr. Taylor has brought him to Alcatraz as well. The duo kills a bunch of zombies and Lickers (an advanced stage of T-virus infection) and comes across a secret facility that showcases the blueprint of a plan to spread the infection worldwide using mosquito-like bio-drones. Meanwhile, Chris and Claire rescue Dr. Taylor, who hides his identity from them, but all three get captured as Dylan uses his bio-drones to knock them out. Before Jill and Leon can destroy the research, they are informed about their friends’ status by Dylan and forced to regroup with them.
Did Leon and Co. Manage To Stop The Biodrones?
Jill and Leon find Chris, Claire, and Dr. Taylor captured in holding cells in the main section of the prison, where Dylan introduces himself to the group, acknowledging the entire catastrophe as his handiwork. Dylan blames the operatives for protecting the rich and powerful while the truly helpless ones fall victim to their schemes and seeks to formulate an exemplary punishment for them by injecting all of them except Jill with a slowed-down version of the T-virus strain. Dylan orders her to kill an infected Claire, who is in the same holding cell as the uninfected Dr. Taylor, but as she refuses to follow his command, he shoots Taylor by himself. Leon creates a distraction by detonating a flash bang, which allows Jill to escape. Certain about the deaths of the operatives, Dylan and Maria proceed to launch the final stage of his operation and leave the area. In the meantime, Rebecca, who has managed to synthesize the cure, arrives on the island with a SWAT team, but she remains the only survivor when a T-virus strain mutated shark monstrosity devours the entire team in front of the jetty.
Even in the face of the greatest odds, Chris, Claire, and Leon stay optimistic about their success and determined about their motive of saving the world instead of the easier, nihilistic approach sought out by Dylan. Moved by their positive, altruistic motive, an apologetic Dr. Taylor seeks to somewhat redeem himself before his death by giving Claire a security bypass to the biodrone network, which can control and stop them entirely. Wishing the team the best in their endeavor, Dr. Taylor breathes his last. Jill meets with Rebecca and sends her to the holding cells to help their friends by injecting them with the cure.
Dylan launches the biodrones across the world, injects himself with a T-virus strain, and fuses with the shark monster to create a mutated giant monstrosity. Leon faces Maria in close combat that ends with Maria getting impaled by mechanical protrusions. The entire team congregates in the docking bay where the monstrous shark-Dylan Blake hybrid has emerged from the seas, and a prolonged battle ensues. Using the security bypass given by Dr. Taylor, Rebecca and Claire control the drones and use them to overload the monstrosity’s system with viral input, which slows it down. Finally, using a rocket launcher, plasma rifle, and other armaments, Jill, Leon, and Chris kill the monstrosity once and for all.
The next day, as the rescue helicopters arrive, the group rejoices in yet another success in preventing global catastrophe, knowing full well that they will face such threats in the future in other unexpected forms. Jill has managed to lower her burden of guilt after valiantly saving her friends and the world in the process, and she is ready to take on as many menacing adversaries that may come their way.
