Austin Abrams on the 'Gutsy' Resident Evil Ending

Austin Abrams tells The Hollywood Reporter that Zach Cregger's monster-origin twist ending is 'risky and gutsy,' speaking after the film's $60M debut.

Abrams explains that his character Bryan, a medical courier, delivers the key ingredient for a cure to Umbrella scientists at Raccoon City General, only for the scientists to fail to finish the antidote before his infection takes hold. Bryan kills them one by one and becomes the very amalgamation monster that stalked him since the farmhouse scene. Abrams says he found the twist 'crazy and shocking' when he first read the script.

Abrams notes that in an era of unremitting test screenings and CinemaScores, downer endings typically score lower, and he praises Cregger and Sony for refusing to soften the blow. 'With a lot of movies nowadays, they're a little too afraid to do something like that — to kill off a character you really like,' Abrams says. The final beat also denies Michelle any knowledge that Bryan changed his mind about fatherhood, a tragedy Abrams calls 'beautiful and tragic.'

Deadline reports the R-rated reboot opened to $60 million domestically, a record for both the 24-year-old franchise and for Cregger, whose previous best was Weapons at $43.5 million. Deadline also notes the film earned a 96% certified fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, the best of Cregger's career, and the franchise's first-ever B+ CinemaScore. The Guardian's review calls the movie a 'wild rollercoaster ride,' singling out Abrams' everyman turn as an avatar who learns the game's rules as he goes. That critical and commercial cushion is what Abrams says gave the ending room to land.

The Hollywood Reporter frames the ending as a reframing of the whole franchise: viewers watch the origin story of a monster gamers typically mow down without a second thought to who they were before the outbreak. Cregger thematically ties it to change arriving whether we are ready for it or not, per Abrams' reading. The Guardian adds that Cregger falters slightly late, flirting with monster-movie territory without fully exploring the humanity underneath, which makes the choice to abandon Bryan's arc a genuine creative gamble rather than a tidy payoff. Abrams says he loves that Cregger would take that chance.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Abrams headlines again in the survival thriller Whalefall, directed by genre specialist Brian Duffield, arriving October 16 — meaning two major studio one-man crucibles in a single month, playing a courier in a zombie outbreak and a scuba diver swallowed by a sperm whale. Abrams tells the outlet that both roles were 'really challenging,' though Resident Evil's comedy lightened the load. Deadline reports Universal's horror entry Other Mommy from Rob Savage arrives October 9, meaning Cregger's success now sets the bar for the only other major-studio horror release of the fall season.