Austin Abrams is defending the bleak final twist of “Resident Evil,” telling The Hollywood Reporter that his character’s death-by-infection was the choice that made director Zach Cregger’s reboot work. (Spoilers follow for the film’s ending.)
Abrams plays Bryan, a medical courier whose one last delivery before returning to his pregnant girlfriend spirals into a night of chaos in Raccoon City. After being bitten and racing to secure a cure, Bryan arrives too late and transforms into a monster on screen, denying the film a conventional survivor’s send-off. “I’ve been living with it for a while now, but I thought it was crazy and shocking when I first read it,” Abrams said.
He called Cregger’s willingness to sacrifice a character audiences had followed for the entire runtime “risky and gutsy,” adding that the choice echoes the kind of ending mainstream horror rarely attempts anymore. Asked whether he pictures a future for Bryan beyond the final frame, Abrams declined to speculate, saying only that the story should serve whatever direction works best rather than his own theories.
The role reunited Abrams with Cregger following 2025’s “Weapons,” a collaboration the actor pursued even after losing his initial “Weapons” casting slot to strike-related scheduling problems. Abrams told the outlet the two films presented comparable challenges on set, though “Resident Evil” carried more comic relief to offset its darker turns.
Cregger’s take on the video game franchise has become the best-reviewed entry in the series, holding a 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes alongside strong audience marks. It also broke the franchise’s domestic box office record, pulling in roughly $53 million over its opening weekend against a $75 million budget, easily surpassing “Resident Evil: Afterlife’s” previous high of $26.6 million from 2010.
The result cements Cregger’s run of commercial hits following “Barbarian” and “Weapons,” the latter of which grossed $151 million worldwide. Whether Bryan’s fate closes the door on further stories set in this version of Raccoon City remains an open question, one Sony has yet to address as the film continues its theatrical run into the Halloween season.
