Resident Evil: Retribution Explained: Plot and Ending

Resident Evil: Retribution is the 2012 fifth film in Paul W. S. Anderson's live-action series, written and directed by Anderson. It came out in the US on 14 September 2012. It picks up the moment Resident Evil: Afterlife ends and adds three more characters from the games: Leon S. Kennedy, Ada Wong and Barry Burton. It's the fifth of the six Alice films and the one that sets up the finale. Full spoilers below. (Resident Evil: Retribution)

Before the story begins#

Afterlife ended with Alice, Claire Redfield and Chris Redfield on board the ship Arcadia, freshly rid of Albert Wesker, as a fleet of Umbrella aircraft arrived. Leading it was Jill Valentine, controlled by a device on her chest. (Resident Evil: Afterlife)

The main cast, from the Wikipedia credits: Milla Jovovich as Alice, Sienna Guillory as Jill, Michelle Rodriguez as Rain Ocampo, Li Bingbing as Ada Wong, Johann Urb as Leon, Kevin Durand as Barry, Boris Kodjoe as Luther, Aryana Engineer as Becky, Shawn Roberts as Wesker, Colin Salmon as One and Oded Fehr as Carlos, and Megan Charpentier as the Red Queen. (Resident Evil: Retribution)

Inside the facility#

Jill's gunships attack Arcadia and Alice is captured. Then the film cuts to a quiet suburb, where Alice lives with her husband, Todd, and their deaf daughter, Becky. The dead burst in, and the suburb turns out to be Raccoon City on the first day of the outbreak. Rain helps Alice and Becky get away by car until a truck hits them. Alice hides Becky in a house and is killed by Todd, who has turned. (Resident Evil: Retribution)

That Alice was a clone. The real Alice wakes in an underwater facility, where Jill interrogates her. The power fails, Alice breaks out, arms herself and finds she's in a copy of Shibuya in Tokyo, full of the dead. She fights her way to a control room full of dead Umbrella staff, and there she meets Ada Wong, one of Wesker's top agents. (Resident Evil: Retribution)

Wesker's offer#

Wesker appears on a screen. Neither he nor Ada works for Umbrella any more, he says, and he staged the power cut. The Red Queen, the computer that ran the Hive, was switched back on after the Hive was reopened, and now she controls Umbrella. (Resident Evil: Retribution; Resident Evil (2002 film))

The facility is a former Soviet naval base under the sea off Kamchatka. Umbrella uses it to grow clones and stage outbreaks in copies of real places, showing what the T-virus can do. Wesker has organised a rescue team, Leon, Barry and Luther West among them, which is breaking in from outside. They've planted explosives at the entrance that will go off in two hours, and the plan is to meet Alice and Ada in the suburban section. (Resident Evil: Retribution)

In a copy of New York, Alice and Ada kill two giant axe-wielding Executioners. Leon's team, meanwhile, ends up in a copy of Moscow, surrounded by dead men who carry guns and are controlled by Las Plagas. (Resident Evil: Retribution)

Becky#

In the suburb, Alice and Ada find Becky. She thinks Alice is her mother and won't let go of her. They also run into Jill, leading clones of people Alice has lost: One, the commando leader from the first film, the evil Rain, and Carlos. Ada stays behind to hold them off while Alice and Becky get away. (Resident Evil: Retribution; Resident Evil (2002 film))

In the Moscow section they meet a different Rain clone, a kind one, and Alice gives her a gun to look after Becky. Alice then saves Leon's team from the Plagas soldiers and a giant Licker. They reach the submarine pens at the facility's exit, where Jill's team is waiting. In the fight the Licker grabs Becky and the kind Rain is killed. Alice saves Becky and kills the Licker. Barry stays behind to hold off the Umbrella troops and dies so the others can escape. The explosives go off: Leon and Luther get out through the flooding facility, and Alice and Becky escape through the ventilation system. (Resident Evil: Retribution)

On the ice#

On the surface, Jill's submarine knocks their snowmobile over. Jill and the evil Rain have Ada as a hostage. In the fight, Alice tears the scarab device off Jill's chest and Jill comes back to herself. Rain, who has been given superhuman strength and healing by Las Plagas, kills Luther and knocks Leon out. Alice can't beat her, so she shoots the ice under Rain's feet, and the dead in the water drag her under. (Resident Evil: Retribution)

The ending explained#

Alice, Jill and the others travel to Washington. Wesker has turned the White House into a fortress, held by what's left of the US military. In the Oval Office he injects Alice with a new strand of the T-virus, and her powers come back. On the roof he explains why: the Red Queen is trying to wipe out humanity, and the people behind these walls are all that's left. The film ends with the soldiers getting ready to defend the White House against a vast army of monsters closing in. (Resident Evil: Retribution)

The big shift is Wesker. For two films he was the enemy, and now he's the leader of humanity's last stand and the man who gives Alice her powers back. The Red Queen, the villain from the first film, has replaced him as the threat. (Resident Evil: Retribution; Resident Evil (2002 film))

The film leaves a lot of questions. It doesn't say whether Wesker can be trusted, what became of Claire and Chris after the attack on Arcadia, or what happens to Leon and Ada. (Resident Evil: Retribution)

How it connects to The Final Chapter#

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter answers the first question. The last stand failed because Wesker betrayed them, and Alice wakes alone in the ruins of Washington. The Red Queen then contacts her with a very different story about who she's been fighting for. The Final Chapter brings Claire back but not Leon, Ada, Jill, Chris or Becky. (Resident Evil: The Final Chapter)

How it differs from the games#

Retribution brings in more game characters than any other Anderson film, and gives them smaller jobs than they have in the games. (Resident Evil: Retribution)

• Leon is a hired gun. In Resident Evil 2 he's a rookie cop on his first day, and in Resident Evil 4 a government agent rescuing the president's daughter. Here he's the leader of Wesker's rescue team. (Resident Evil 2; Resident Evil 4; Resident Evil: Retribution)
• Ada's boss is the same. In Resident Evil 4 she's sent by Wesker to get a Las Plagas sample. The film keeps her as one of his agents. (Resident Evil 4; Resident Evil: Retribution)
• Barry dies. In Resident Evil he's a S.T.A.R.S. officer who survives the mansion, and he keeps turning up in later games. The film kills him off on his first appearance. (Resident Evil; Resident Evil: Retribution)
• Las Plagas come from Resident Evil 4. The parasite controls its hosts there too, and they keep enough of their minds to use weapons. (Resident Evil 4; Resident Evil: Retribution)
• Jill's rescue is borrowed. In Resident Evil 5, Chris and Sheva Alomar tear the control device off Jill. In the film Alice does it. (Resident Evil 5; Resident Evil: Retribution)

Where it fits#

Retribution is the second-to-last Alice film and the end of the run that started with Afterlife. Its cliffhanger is resolved off screen at the start of The Final Chapter. For every film in release order, see every Resident Evil movie in order, and for the games' own story of Leon, Ada and Jill, see the Resident Evil timeline. (Resident Evil: Retribution; Resident Evil: The Final Chapter)