Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Resident Evil - Degeneration (Hero's Journey)

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1. Ordinary World


The ordinary world that I see in the beginning of the movie is in the airport were Clair Redfield (main character) introduces herself to Ronny (child), this is a world (setting) that does not contain the evil zombie bad guy, YET.


2. The Call to Adventure

The call to adventure starts when Clair realizes that the airport is becoming over infested with zombies. She was asked by Ronny's Aunt to watch Ronny while she went to get the limo, so it is now her responsibility to care and protect.

3. Refusal of the Call

What I think was her refusal was either when she did not really want to help Sen. Ron Davis but in a way felt obligated because without her help the poor sap would have been killed almost instantaneously. She really didn't want to do it, and that is what makes this the refusal.

4. Meeting with the Mentor

When Clair is in the VIP room and hears something outside the room and goes to check the noise. It turns out to be Kennedy and his group, Clair is trapped and ducks to avoid getting bit, Kennedy fires and take the zombie out. She is kneeling down and looks up to see Leon Kennedy there and says.. "Leon, what are you doing...." let's get out of here responds Leon, implying that they have not only been around each other before but that it looks like Leon is who taught Clair what she knows about the zombies and guns.

5. Crossing the First Threshold

The first threshold that Clair crossed was when Leon Kennedy was in the process of getting the group out of VIP room. They are surrounded by zombies and Leon just can't make it to save her. Clair so far had been very timid and laid back until she needed to get in there and save Ronny's life. Leon throws her the gun from across the room, Clair catches it and starts kicking ass. 4 or 5 zombies go down, she grabs the girl and they high tail out of there. This could also be Enemies, and I may add it there also but I felt this is an important stepping stone for Clair.

6. Tests, Allies, Enemies

This being resident evil there were tones of fight scenes where it was human vs. zombie. The bigger scenes had help from supporting characters. The main character Clair was not the toughest of all of the allies so for the big acts it involved Leon and Angela doing most of the fighting. Resident Evil is good about that, they spread out the character development across three sometimes four different characters.

7. Approach to the Inmost Cave

The approach to the inmost cave would have to be when Leon and Angela are in the middle of a virus transformation at the WilPharma facility. This is also part of the ordeal; please see below at the ordeal line.


8. Ordeal

Angela’s brother has a strand of the G-Virus and transforms into a huge, big scary monster… (see above). Angel has to cross a bridge and realize that it is no longer her brother and she must shoot to kill him to save her own life. Leon comes to help rescue her because it takes her awhile to realize that he will kill her if she doesn’t kill him first.

9. The Road Back

The road back started about 3/4 of the way into the movie. They first were trapped in the airport, then sent to the facility and then made there way home. This is shown in the very end when Leon asked if she need a ride and she says “I have a limo waiting on me”, if you recall back to the very beginning, the aunt says she is going to get the limo pulled up.

10. Resurrection


Zombies are zombies… there were like 100 resurrections in this movie. The final fight scene between Angela w/ Leon and her brother, I counted the times he came back, he resurrected six, count ‘em SIX times. Every time he died there was more and more blood and guts, but he was a persistent monster.

There is also a brief moment in the end that they are cleaning up the facility and one of the workers finds part of the brothers hand / claw, this means that there is now another trace of the G-Virus.

11. Return with the Elixir

There was no elixir they found or returned with. Instead they captured the guy with the virus and brought him to justice. One other small part may have been when they captured all of it on video. This was the way of showing the world what existed and what had been done by the WilPharma company.