Milla Jovovich on 'Resident Evil: The Final Chapter': 'The Story Line Comes Full Circle'
Many a long-running film franchise has released installments that vow to be the “final chapter” in the series; take 1984’s Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, 1991’s Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, and 2010’s Saw 3D: The Final Chapter. In each of those cases, an inevitable resurrection followed the saga’s supposed demise.
So it’s understandable if people express skepticism about whether Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, due in theaters Jan. 27, truly will be the last act of the video game-based franchise that’s been a reliable box-office earner since launching in 2002. As series star Milla Jovovich tells Yahoo Movies, though, The Final Chapter really does mean The Final Chapter. Maybe. “I feel like every film we’ve made has been the final film,” she says, laughing. “I’ve never thought about the next one; we make the best movie we can and then take a break and see what happens.”
Still, the actress emphasizes that The Final Chapter will definitely bring closure to the story of her alter ego, Alice, who has battled the villainous Umbrella Corporation across 14 years and six movies. “The story line comes full circle; there are a lot of questions that Alice has about herself and Umbrella that get answered in this film.”
The visual style also hearkens back to the very first Resident Evil, which took place largely indoors and underground, lending it a palpable sense of confinement that’s not always part of the more expansive later installments. “The last film, Retribution, had this really slick feeling to it. This one goes back to the very beginning with a very claustrophobic feeling. There’s also a little bit more of what we did in the third film, Extinction, where we’re out in the desert in the middle of the day seeing zombies staggering about.”
Because director Paul W.S. Anderson — who is married to Jovovich in real life and has helmed four of the six Resident Evil movies — approached this as the for-real final installment, he went all out in designing the movie’s elaborate set pieces. “These are some of the biggest action sequences I’ve ever done,” Jovovich teases. “There’s one on top of a transporter that involved almost 300 moves. And there’s this one upside-down fight that’s so conceptually and visually cool. I’d never done anything like that before.”
And she and Anderson make a point of pushing each other out of their comfort zones with each Resident Evil movie. “We’re very symbiotic — it’s one of the things I love about our relationship. I’ll say something like, “I had a dream where I was flying,” and he’ll write something like that into the script. But he’s also got such a great imagination, and loves explosions, monsters and fast cars. He’s such a kid in that sense. I’m happy to just let him go play with his toys!”
Resident Evil’s over-the-top approach to action is one of the things that has endeared the franchise to audiences around the world; Retribution, for instance, amassed a global gross of $240 million in 2012. Those are big numbers for any action series, especially one driven by a female lead. In fact, Resident Evil’s global success makes Hollywood’s skittishness about creating more female-fronted blockbusters — be it a Ghostbusters sequel or a Black Widow movie — seem even more shortsighted.
According to Jovovich, the series’ emphasis on female heroes is rooted in the video games that it’s based on. “In the Resident Evil video games, the boys always played the girls! Jill Valentine and Claire Redfield were the best characters. When my little brother and I first started playing, he would play Jill. So the series was really made for that, and there’s a lot of general goodwill towards the movies because it’s clear that we love the games.”