Did you notice the Ashford Twins popping up in "Welcome to Raccoon City?"
What about the homage to video game voice acting's most awkward sandwich joke?
Which of these Easter eggs did you catch in the newest "Resident Evil" movie?
The zombie infection that overtakes Raccoon City doesn't suddenly transform its victims
into undead monstrosities; it slowly weakens their brains and deteriorates their bodies
until they die and are reborn as shambling flesh-eaters.
The original "Resident Evil," released in 1996, features a collectable journal called
"Keeper's Diary" that details a character's mental descent into undead madness.
They initially complain about feeling itchy all over before their speech pattern becomes
simple and barely legible.
They describe killing and eating a person, calling him "tasty."
Their final journal entry only contains two words: "Itchy.
Tasty."
In "Welcome to Raccoon City," Claire Redfield is visiting her brother's house when all hell
breaks loose in the quiet mountain town.
She is confronted by a woman who writes, in blood, the words "Itchy Tasty" on the window
of the Redfield house.
For fans of the game, the words bring back fond memories of one of the most intimate
and disturbing scares from the original "Resident Evil."
In "Welcome to Raccoon City," Claire Redfield is introduced in the passenger seat of an
18-wheel truck, having hitched a ride into Raccoon City.
When a woman wanders into the street, the truck driver is too slow to notice and runs
her down.
This sequence is a nearly shot-for-shot homage to the scene from 2019's remake of "Resident
Evil 2," right down to the truck driver's fondness for juicy hamburgers.
After hitting the woman, the man gets out of his truck to investigate, but the zombified
woman gets up and walks away from the accident while he's not looking.
In the movie, his dog licks up some of the woman's blood, unwittingly infecting itself
with the T-Virus, at which point it bites its owner.
In the game, however, the truck driver has no dog, and is instead bitten directly by
the undead woman.
The first zombie ever shown in "Resident Evil" remains one of the most memorable moments
in the history of the survival horror genre.
The iconic image of a flesh-eating zombie taking a bite out of a S.T.A.R.S.
member before slowly turning its attention to the player is seared into the brains of
generations of video game enthusiasts.
The sequence was recreated in the 2002 "Resident Evil" remake, and now it's been re-recreated
for "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City."
Agent HUNK made his video game debut in "Resident Evil 2."
He briefly appeared in a cutscene when he and his men confront William Birkin, but he
became notorious for his role in "The 4th Survivor," an unlockable mode that follows
the gas mask-wearing operative as he attempts to escape Raccoon City with limited ammo and
healing items.
The notoriously difficult mode, featured in both the original and 2019 remake, made HUNK
an instant fan favorite.
but he's only made sporadic appearances since, usually in non-canon modes like the Mercenaries,
and never without his signature face covering.
As Umbrella puts the titular town under lockdown in "Welcome to Raccoon City," a soldier is
shown in a costume nearly identical to the one worn by HUNK.
It's unlikely he's supposed to be "Mr. Death" himself, but his gas mask and all-black ensemble
are clearly meant to evoke Raccoon City's "4th Survivor."
Jill Valentine has a wicked sense of humor in "Welcome to Raccoon City."
She's introduced drawing her sidearm, seemingly willing to perform a William Tell-esque trick
shot on a sleeping Leon Kennedy.
"Haha, that's actually hilarious."
Later on, she demonstrates her twisted sense of humor yet again when she ponders the question,
"How would you rather die: being swallowed whole by a giant snake, or eaten by a great
white shark?"
Her S.T.A.R.S.
allies are disturbed by the thought, and for good reason: In the original "Resident Evil,"
both of these ghastly fates can befall Richard Aiken.
In Jill's scenario, Richard can be devoured by Yawn, a giant monster snake; in Chris'
scenario, he can be torn apart by a Neptune, a great white shark infected with the T-Virus.
"Welcome to Raccoon City" features the Raccoon City Orphanage, where Chris and Claire grew
up.
The orphanage, particularly its outer gates, looks completely identical to the location
seen in the remakes of "Resident Evil 2" and "Resident Evil 3."
In those games, like the movie, the orphanage is a front for Umbrella's twisted experiments
on innocent children.
Though the exterior is the same between game and movie, the location plays a different
role in the games.
In the "Resident Evil 2" remake, the location is visited by young Sherry Birkin, who is
chased by a more villainous Chief Brian Irons.
Meanwhile, "Welcome to Raccoon City" has a less villainous version of Irons bring Leon
and Claire to the orphanage since it contains a secret passage to the Spencer Mansion.
The orphanage isn't the only video game location recreated for "Welcome to Raccoon City."
The original Spencer Mansion has certain rooms that are reproduced with staggering detail,
including the stairwell room with all the paintings on the wall, and the piano room
and its connecting secret passage.
A character even has to play "Moonlight Sonata" on the piano in order to open up the secret
room.
On the other side of town, the foyer of the Raccoon Police Department HQ has been fully
recreated.
The S.T.A.R.S.
office is similarly reproduced, looking just as it did in the original "Resident Evil 2,"
and the holding cells, while located in a different part of the building from the original
game, look just like the original.
The protagonists of the "Resident Evil" video games would be dead a thousand times over
if not for their use of first aid spray.
This restorative item, ironically manufactured by the Umbrella Corporation, raises the player's
health to full and has been used in nearly every "RE" game since the 1996 original.
It's unclear exactly how it works, but it seems Umbrella, despite their heinous track
record of evil misdeeds, actually does make useful products that help save lives.
Eagle-eyed viewers will notice a fleeting glimpse of first aid spray in "Welcome to
Raccoon City."
While a physical can of the spray doesn't make an appearance that we noticed, the first
scene of the movie, set in the Raccoon City Orphanage, features artwork depicting the
healing item.
A PSA billboard advertises the product, and the artwork used to represent the can looks
exactly like the artwork from the classic games.
The Licker first appears in "Resident Evil 2," and has made numerous appearances since
then, popping up in "Resident Evil 5" and most of the games set during the Raccoon City
outbreak.
It also appears in three of the six Paul W.S. Anderson-directed "Resident Evil" movies—1,
2, and 5, for the record—and is one of the most instantly recognizable Resident Evil
creatures.
In "Welcome to Raccoon City," only a single specimen is seen, but it leaves a memorable
impression.
First, it stalks Leon by crawling across the ceiling, evoking the monster's intro from
"Resident Evil 2."
Then it sneaks up behind Chief Irons, lifting him up and killing him by eviscerating his
face.
When his body drops to the ground, it resembles the police officer found in a hallway in the
remake of "Resident Evil 2," whose face is similarly disfigured due to a Licker attack.
Released in 2000, "Resident Evil: Code Veronica" follows up on the events of "Resident Evil
2," with Claire Redfield still searching for her lost brother, Chris.
Her journey takes her from Paris to Rockfort Island to Antarctica.
Eventually Chris and Claire do battle with Alfred and Alexia Ashford, psychotic child
prodigy twins who developed the T-Veronica virus.
Claire first learns about the Ashford twins when she discovers a film reel showing them
as creepy children, with Alfred plucking the wings off of a dragonfly before throwing the
helpless bug into a pit of ants, where it is devoured.
This film reel is replicated, almost shot-for-shot, in "Welcome to Raccoon City," with the twins
even identified specifically as the Ashfords.
There is an edited-in shot of Dr. Birkin watching the creepy kids, implying that they might
be from Raccoon, and not one of Umbrella's European branches.
Whether the Ashfords' appearance is a mere Easter egg or a hook for a prospective sequel
remains to be seen.
The original "Resident Evil" games are akin to mazes, with locations packed with locked
doors and tricky puzzles to solve.
To help players get around, pausing the game would bring up the map screen, showing the
player's location, which doors were locked or unlocked, and which rooms had been explored.
While future games would focus more on the action and less on the puzzle-solving, the
map remained, allowing players to easily retrace their steps and figure out where to go next.
As part of his betrayal of his fellow S.T.A.R.S.
members in "Welcome to Raccoon City," Wesker is given a Palm Pilot portable device with
specific instructions and a map of the Spencer Mansion.
The map's style looks identical to those found in the early PlayStation "Resident Evil" titles,
but in monochrome black and white.
A big part of the classic "Resident Evil" formula is figuring out how to unlock the
numerous doors in any given location.
Sometimes, tasks need to be performed with Key Items, which usually unlock keys to open
specific doors.
In "Resident Evil 2," both the original and the remake, four particular keys are coded
to the four suits in a deck of cards: diamond, spade, club, and heart.
"Welcome to Raccoon City" features the same keys, which are used by Claire and Leon to
open the underground passage to reach the Spencer Mansion from the Raccoon City Orphanage.
The prop keys look identical to their video game counterparts, right down to the colors.
The original "Resident Evil" was infamous for its poor voice acting, with badly translated
lines delivered by actors who probably didn't have enough time to properly prepare or research
their characters.
There's no shortage of memeable dialogue that continues to be shared on internet message
boards to this day, but perhaps the most famous occurs after Jill is rescued from a room with
a collapsing ceiling; after saving Jill from being crushed to death, Barry Burton remarks,
"That was too close.
You were almost a Jill sandwich."
The line is retooled in the 2002 remake to
"That was close.
A second later, you would have fit nicely into a sandwich."
The replacement arguably lacks the punchy humor of the original, but at least the remake
features a Barry who can say "Jill" right.
"Welcome to Raccoon City" puts its own spin on the classic meme when Jill snatches Wesker's
sandwich off his plate before he can take a bite.
"You snooze, you lose.
It's a Jill sandwich now."
The costumes in the "Resident Evil" video games play a key role in defining the characters
who wear them.
Especially back in the days of low-polygon 3D models, effort had to be made to keep the
characters distinct.
That's why Wesker has his spiky blonde hair and sunglasses, Chris has his sleeves rolled
up, Jill has her beret, and Barry has his red vest.
As the visuals became more advanced, the characters were redesigned to be more realistic and fashionable.
Several characters in "Welcome to Raccoon City" dress in a manner that evokes their
classic costumes.
Claire wears clothes that are nigh-identical to her outfit from the "RE2" remake, and Chris
is dressed just like he did in the original game, with his sleeves rolled up to show off
his beefy arms.
Likewise, Wesker wears an all-black ensemble, and the post-credits scene gives him his character's
signature sunglasses.
Said post-credits scene also features the debut of Ada Wong, who wears the same trench
coat she sports in the "RE2" remake.
Even Leon looks a little more like his classic video game counterpart once Claire instructs
him to don a set of RPD body armor.
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