Will’s Unpopular Opinion – President Evil: The Final Rapture – 2-1-17
A week ago, ‘Resident Evil: The Final Chapter’ hit theaters in what can only be described as a 2 hour long montage of guns n’ guts, gone haywire. The movie, which promised to be the “final” installation in the RE series, has been met with tepid reviews. It’s at 38% on Rotten Tomato, and is being hailed as the highest rated iteration of the series thus far, nearly doubling the RT ratings of others in the anthology. Clearly, it’s a low bar… I don’t generally do movie reviews here at ‘WUO’, but upon finishing this final installment, I noticed an odd parallel with Trump’s first week as “Not My President”. So, I thought it’d make an interesting topic for this weeks article.
*SPOILERS*
RE: The Final Chapter, or “RE6” for short, somehow tells a sharp yet nuanced version of ‘Dante’s Inferno’. The base of the story involves Milla Jovovich and friends traveling through multiple rounds of hell on earth, as they inevitably submerge themselves lower and lower into a pit of despair. Both figuratively and literally. The crew is first met at the top circle with waves and waves of the undead. This presumably would be the “Limbo” circle of lost souls. [Which whether purposefully or not, seemed to be a conspicuous representation of Trump’s assumed immigrant “problem”, storming the gates.] At one point, Milla lowers a draw bridge in hopes of rescuing a helpless woman, and quickly learns the folly of her ways as millions of zombies use it as an exercise in shameless border crossing. Clearly they missed that episode of ‘Game of Thrones’ with John Snow’s little brother. However, Iain Greg didn’t, and used it to his advantage. All of the zombies are then torched with the help of a machine that has an amazing resemblance to Ripley’s PowerLoader from ‘Aliens’.
On their continued descent downward, the cast soon comes face to face with “Cerebus”. A somewhat plainly obvious nod to anyone who’s familiar with ‘The Divine Comedy’. Although not 3-headed, a pack of ravenous zombie dogs chomp at the bit to make mincemeat out of their unwanted guests. But as expected, the dogs do a perfunctory job of guarding the gates to hell. As the journey continues, the Red Queen appears as a holographic representation of the character Virgil. She imparts secret advice unto Alice (for her ears only) on how to survive the gauntlet while attempting to abscond her crew from danger.
Eventually the team sinks further into abyss, and starts to lose it’s roster one by one. Ruby Rose goes as quickly as she comes. There’s a guy who’s doing his best “Rick Grimes” impersonation, who I honestly believe is W.S. Anderson’s version of the tin wearer from The Walking Dead. He literally gets the shaft. And finally, after what comes off as basic video-game level design 101, we reach the inner sanctum where Dr. Isaacs is playing puppet master to a scheme come full circle. When introduced, he’s in cryostasis. I assume this is the final circle of hell; a cold frigid layer where Satan himself is known to be chained for eternity.
It’s around this point that story goes bat shit crazy. (Surprisingly) It sort of retcons the plot of the entire 2nd movie, ‘Resident Evil: Apocalypse’. But it doesn’t completely nullify it. I guess Jared Harris could have been an unknowing clone? The narrative doesn’t go as far is to define why things are; instead it just moves passed it without over explaining it. It becomes obvious at this point that the entirety of the series is comprised of two separate but similar trilogies: the first 3 movies, and the last 3 movies. The 2nd trilogy retelling the 1st trilogy.
Resident Evil (1 and 4)
Alice is stuck in a compound with a group of ragtag fighters who keep secrets from each other and do their very best to escape unscathed. Of course that doesn’t happen, resulting in only a few getting out alive. But when they escape, they’re presented with an even bigger problem. The movie then ends on a cliff hanger that leads directly into the next flick.
Resident Evil (2 and 5)
Alice sets out on a mission with a new group of followers as they navigate through an outbreak of the T-virus (One simulated. One not.) They try to escape via helicopter while doing their best to save a newly orphaned little girl. (A girl that’s never seen again btw) (Mostly…)
Resident Evil (3 and 6)
Alice is suddenly on her own, thrust into a post apocalyptic US (not thoroughly explained in either film) when she runs into a group of survivors who are faced with the option to help her take down the Umbrella Corp. once and for all. Both films involve Dr. Isaacs in an exposed elaborate plan for world domination, and touch on the concept of cloning as well as reentering some deadlier version of the “Hive” later in the film.
Although these movies all tend to borrow from each other on a broad spectrum, they also pay homage directly to the series that started the entire genre. George Romero’s ‘Dead Trilogy’ is filled with satirical thought provoking themes. Each, (sometimes heavy handed) were based off of whatever the social political climate was at the time they were released. A message in a film doesn’t need to be approached in sophisticated undertones to be poignant. But how does this relate to today’s modern Trumpland politics?
Films like this often help with the escapism needed in today’s politically fueled, anger induced fervor. It’s difficult when watching this movie not to see a direct correlation when zombies begin rushing a compound without simultaneously laughing at Trump’s proposed border wall, or noticing the overt comparisons to a blonde headed elitist smarmy douchebag playing the villain role as though it was a chore to be decent. Themes of racism and xenophobia (especially when dealing with today’s Muslim ban) tend to be oddly relevant in a movie about building a new world full of rich white people.
This past week has taken a ghastly look inside the White House’s, what not to do when you’re the one calling the shots, playbook. Trump’s initiatives and attempts at silencing his critics begin to incite a clear dialog from his opponents; that people will rise up together and become violent if need be to quell an administration that seems to care more about it’s elite, over the people they pretend to represent. In the movie, crowds and crowds of the walking dead eventually engulf Dr. Isaacs at the end of the film, tearing him apart; but not before he meets his own undoing by what are essentially his own hands. Maybe there’s something to be said about that on a meta self referential level, not initially realized. Millions and millions of protestors rising all over the world, as they voice outrage, is our reality’s current version of hordes of the undead, looking to tear down the world they currently live in. The only difference is, unlike the zombies that voted in Trump, today’s protestors actually have some brains.
-Will Valle
