This article contains spoilers for 2026’s Resident Evil.
As popular as the Resident Evil video games are, the live-action movies have fallen short of expectations. Paul W.S. Anderson’s entry in 2002 followed Alice, played by Milla Jovovich, taking on the Umbrella Corporation across six movies. Although the films were full of references and elements from the video game franchise, they received mixed reactions from fans. To date, their average Rotten Tomatoes score rests between 18% and 40%, so it made it all the more satisfying when Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil entry premiered on September 18, 2026.
Cregger’s movie follows Bryan, a medical courier who’s tasked with delivering an unknown medical package to Raccoon City, Colorado. Alongside the movie’s announcement, Cregger made it clear that his story is set in modern times within the Resident Evil universe, just before the outbreak in Resident Evil 2. Like many great video game adaptations, Cregger also made sure to honor the source material in many ways. This included switching the viewer’s perspective between over-the-shoulder and first-person perspectives, similar to how players experience the game. Given the sheer number of Easter eggs Cregger incorporated into Resident Evil, the following are a few of the major ones found in the 2026 reboot.
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Bryan’s Green Medical Bag Is a Reference to Two Iconic Resident Evil Games
While fans may have opinions on how Bryan navigated the outbreak in Cregger’s Resident Evil, it’s indisputable that he was determined to get that medical bag to Raccoon City. With a color scheme of white letters on green material, it’s a memorable design, and stylistically, the bag St. George’s Hospital gives to Bryan is inspired by Rebecca Chambers’ bag in Resident Evil Zero, which also appears in Resident Evil Requiem as a relic in the S.T.A.R.S. office of the Raccoon City Police Department.
Further, the green and white colors pull directly from Resident Evil‘s 2002 remake to reference an in-game medkit found in several locations in Spencer Mansion. Similar to Bryan not fully knowing what he’s delivering, the contents of the game’s medkits can seem uncertain on the first playthrough. That said, it’s usually either a first aid spray or some sort of healing herb. Interestingly, these items also make appearances in Cregger’s Resident Evil.
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First Aid Spray & Green Herbs Were Hidden in Scenes
As Bryan escapes his first zombie attack and enters a seemingly abandoned farmhouse, those familiar with Ethan’s story from Resident Evil 7 are already on edge. Of course, this fear is justified when the house’s infected owner attacks him. But before that, our very timid hero calls his girlfriend, Michelle, which is when viewers spot the movie’s first green herb on a side table in the background. The colored herbs in Resident Evil are incredibly important, as they can restore the player’s health and can be combined for greater benefits. Here, the green herb appears in a black tin pot that’s adorned with a gold line, just as it does in the Resident Evil 2 remake. The green herb also appears in a blink-and-you-miss-it moment inside an abandoned car, when Bryan must get through a mountain tunnel on his way to Raccoon City.
Before Bryan leaves the farmhouse, he’s chased into a nearby barn by the owners’ infected dog, which is a nod to the Colmillos of Resident Evil 4. After avoiding the dog’s fangs and hustling up a ladder, Bryan escapes via the barn’s hayloft, leaps out of the bay, and longtime players may clock that Bryan passes by two white and green cans of first-aid spray. Their random placement in the barn’s second story is likely a nod to how they’re found in the Resident Evil games, but it probably would have been advantageous for Bryan to grab them before moving forward.
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The Farmhouse is a Reference to Both Resident Evil’s Item Collection and Safe Room
Fans can spot many Easter eggs in the farmhouse sequence in 2026’s Resident Evil. When Bryan first enters the farmhouse, he searches for the owners so he can ask them to use their phone. As he ascends the home’s stairs, he cautiously checks the second-floor rooms for the occupants. In his exploration, he opens a door to a small office containing books, a desk, and a classic-style typewriter. While it might seem strange to find a vintage typewriter in a modern home, this references the save points in most Resident Evil games, which Cregger designed after the Royal-10 model used in the video games.
For players, the farmhouse likely registered as a crucial area, doubling as a save point and a preparation spot that they might find in the Capcom franchise. Although the office lacked a safe for Bryan to store his items, the typewriter would let Bryan save his game. Bryan begins a frantic search for weapons to defend himself when he sees a zombie nearing the farmhouse, and in that scavenging sequence, long-time players will notice the references to both Resident Evil‘s gameplay and mechanics, as players often check drawers and the surrounding environment for items. At times, the game will also replenish players’ health items and ammo just before a major battle.
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Drag weapons to fill the grid
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The Way Bryan Obtains Weapons Mimics How Players Do in Resident Evil
Throughout the new reboot, Bryan acquires a few of the game’s iconic weapons to protect himself against the hordes of infected he encounters. At the start of his journey, he obtains a police-issue handgun, modeled after the Beretta 92FS used in the games, following the wreckage of his escort to Raccoon City. While at the farmhouse, Bryan comes across a mounted shotgun, which he uses against the home’s infected owners. Finally, in Resident Evil‘s third act, he acquires a machine gun just before reaching Raccoon City General Hospital. As he stockpiles his weapons, Bryan constantly checks his ammo, making sure he knows what he has left and how much to conserve.
While the shotgun and machine gun Bryan finds aren’t direct pulls from any specific game, the box of shotgun shells Bryan finds is a match with the games, and his weapon cache contains nods in other ways. In the Resident Evil games, shotguns can be found mounted on walls in certain areas. Thankfully, the one Bryan comes across doesn’t double as a trigger for one of the franchise’s various traps, but how he finds it strongly resembles how the shotgun is first presented in the game’s first and fourth entries. Similar to the medical bag, the machine gun Bryan finds is a stylized nod to the Heckler & Koch MP5 variants from the games. In an interesting spin, while this was noted as a weapon of choice for S.T.A.R.S., Bryan acquires it while in an Umbrella vehicle. While none of these are particularly overpowered weapons in Resident Evil, (which Bryan could have undoubtedly benefited from), Cregger did include another nod by having Bryan find them in the same order players do: pistol, shotgun, then machine gun.
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Bryan Must Get Past Padlocks To Complete His Journey
In Resident Evil, players must navigate surviving monsters as well as completing puzzles to move forward in the game’s story. These range from simple puzzles like Resident Evil 2 remake’s portable safes, which required players to remember a light pattern, to more difficult puzzles like the Tombstone Puzzle in Resident Evil: Revelations 2, which involved multiple steps to solve. Though Bryan doesn’t have to deal with anything too complicated, Cregger makes a point of showcasing his appreciation and frustration for the game’s padlocks by scattering several across Bryan’s journey, including one at the farmhouse and another blocking his way forward in a parking garage, referencing one of the sub-missions from Resident Evil 2.
“There are a lot of items from the games. He’s constantly coming up against these padlocks that are stopping him from progressing.” — Zach Cregger
In most cases, Bryan could get past a simple lock by shooting it or forcing it open. In his signature horror-comedy fashion, Cregger subverts this idea by portraying Bryan as a terrible marksman and keeping a core game mechanic that requires Bryan to open the padlock to go through it. This is evidenced when Bryan totals a Ford F150 XLT trying to ram the gate. The particular lock is another humorous nod; both the lock and its matching key, which drops in the snow after the truck is totaled, reference the classic card suit precinct keys. These are iconic to the game series and are part of a major puzzle in Resident Evil 2 and its 2019 remake. Had Bryan thought long enough to look inside the truck’s visor, he would have put the two together, resulting in a pretty nifty vehicle that may have made traveling in the movie just a little easier.
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Brian’s Mutated Form Is a Reference to William Birkin & Nyx From the Resident Evil Games
Unfortunately, Bryan is bitten while trying to rescue a little girl on the way to the hospital. Similar to Leon’s infection in Resident Evil: Requiem, this becomes important for the rest of the movie. Despite his efforts to politely convince the scientists to use the cure he’s actually been delivering since the beginning of the movie, Bryan fully succumbs to the infection. He mutates into something nightmarish (which will be henceforth known as Bryant in honor of the Tyrant monsters from the game), in classic Resident Evil fashion. An arm morphs into a claw-like appendage, tentacles sprout from his body, a bulging eyeball emerges between his head and shoulder, and a monstrous mouth forms in his abdomen. By the end of the movie, he eventually loses his humanity after killing, devouring, and absorbing the scientists.
Many Resident Evil fans pegged this as a nod to William Birkin’s infection from Resident Evil 2, as Bryant resembles the first three phases of Birkin’s G-virus infection. This makes sense since some of Birkin’s most recognizable features as a monster were the bulging eyeball on his right shoulder and his massive clawed hand, both of which remained throughout most of his mutation. However, Bryant also resembles another major creature: a bio-organic weapon by Umbrella known as Nyx, which players may know as the final boss in Resident Evil Outbreak: File #2. In short, Nyx was an incredibly tough, blob-like enemy that grew and mutated as it absorbed and assimilated its victims into its body, either through its tentacles or the mouth-like orifice in its center. Similarly, Bryant assimilated the scientists he ate into his final form, seen in the closing scene of Cregger’s Resident Evil.
It’s fair to note that while Cregger was obviously inspired by the monsters from the Resident Evil series, it’s unclear whether Bryant is directly referencing either Birkin’s G-mutations or Nyx. That said, Cregger’s final monster doesn’t need to be. His entry in the Resident Evil cinematic franchise is a stand-alone story within the Capcom series’ universe, paying homage to its source with plenty of Easter eggs and references. With a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, 2026’s Resident Evil has certainly surpassed its predecessors.
- Release Date
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September 18, 2026
- Runtime
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90 Minutes
- Director
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Zach Cregger
