The first official trailer for the live action film Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is out now, with the movie coming exclusively to cinemas soon. The film roughly follows the events of the first two Resident Evil games, prominently featuring both Raccoon City as well as the Spencer mansion. The official trailer gives fans a detailed look at Claire and Leon, as well as some of the movie’s CGI zombies and monsters.
While there are several versions of the trailer, some of them aren’t the best at portraying what the film will offer. Sony Pictures Malaysia uploaded an international trailer via YouTube, which starts off with Claire Redfield (played by Kaya Scodelario) hitching a ride on a semi-truck. As in the Resident Evil 2 REmake, the trucker accidentally hits a passerby who turns out to be a zombie. Unlike past games, Claire eventually meets her brother Chris Redfield (played by Robbie Amell) in Raccoon City and attempts to warn her brother about Umbrella Corporation.
There are a few other notable changes from the games in the trailer, such as a helicopter that crashes into the Spencer Mansion. Police chief Brian Irons also appears beside Claire and Leon, though the characters did not ever appear together in Resident Evil 2.
For the most part, however, the scenes seem to follow closely with the core story elements of the first two games, even recreating the iconic first zombie encounter scene from the original Resident Evil, as well as a number of other deep-cut Easter eggs for fans of the franchise. It’s at least much closer to the games than the Milla Jovovich-starring Resident Evil series of films. Furthermore, the trailer gives us glimpses into story elements that were implied but not shown in the actual games, such as the biological experiments conducted by William Birkin (played by Neal McDonough).
You can check out the Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City official international trailer below:
As mentioned above, there are actually two versions of the trailer. The one above is for international audiences, while the one below is the arguably more action-packed US version of the trailer:
While there’s a bit of overlap in scenes shown, both trailers taken together give us a very good picture of what Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City has to offer.
In a previous interview, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City director Johannes Roberts stated that the cast was selected in order to “embody the spirit and energy of the characters.” Rather than appealing to the Resident Evil action films of the past, Roberts stated that the film was influenced by horror titles such as The Exorcist and The Shining. Particularly, Roberts said that he was influenced by Resident Evil 2’s remake.
[Source: YouTube]
