The fight sequences in Resident Evil: Retribution are by far the biggest in the history of the franchise. Jovovich and the rest of the cast spent long hours training in order to meet the physical demands of the film. The intricately choreographed fight sequences meant that everyone had to be at the top of their game, according to Powell, who employed a number of styles of martial arts as well as kick-boxing and wire work. “It takes many hours of practice to learn the movements,” he explains. “Nothing should look rehearsed. All the movements should be controlled with a smooth and continuous rhythm.”
Powell has high praise for the fighting skills of the film’s leading lady. “Milla is very capable,” says Powell. “She is extremely well coordinated and has done this for such a long time that she picks up choreography very quickly. So with her, it’s always how big can we go before it gets too big? To what point can we physically take it without it getting too crazy?”
Jovovich says that working on Resident Evil: Retribution was her biggest physical undertaking to date. “With each Resident Evil film, we’ve raised the bar. I don’t want to keep repeating myself and neither does Paul. Our audience doesn’t want to go see the same movie over and over again. These are definitely some of the most challenging fight sequences I’ve ever done in any movie.”
One of the film’s most complicated sequences is the climactic fight between Jovovich’s Alice and Guillory’s Jill Valentine. The pair put hours of work into preparing and filming the action. “The fight has almost 200 moves,” says Guillory. “It’s immense and brilliant. Milla and I worked on it every day. It’s actually a very beautiful fight. It incorporates things that we had never done before with weapons and lots of aerial moves.”
As a former athlete, Boris Kodjoe enjoyed the discipline and challenges of the fight scenes. “A big part of being in Resident Evil is the training,” he says. “It was been an amazing experience working with Nick and his team. I love to get in there and get physical. It’s fun for me to sell it and to make the audience really believe that we’re engaging in a true battle.”
Filming in 3D also had to be taken into consideration as far as stunts were concerned. “3-D is definitely a challenge, not only for the actors but for the stunt people as well,” says Jovovich. “I’ve been trained to punch and miss so that it sells to camera, but with 3-D, you almost have to make contact to sell a fight. It takes it into dangerous territory and makes it quite exhilarating.”
All of this adds up to what Anderson intends to be “a bigger and better Resident Evil.” “I wanted to make the first epic post-apocalyptic movie,” he says. “I wanted it to have many dramatic, international locations. I wanted to show for the first time that this is a global infection. I also wanted it to be a huge action movie. I think the movie delivers all of that. These films have become bigger as they go along, but I think this is definitely a step into new territory.”
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