George A. Romero's other Resident Evil scripts still exist!

[Ark2000]

Oh he still does it on his Youtube channel, one every month. He just did one few days ago about John Carter of Mars. Here's the full playlist of all his episodes;

You must be registered for see links

He said couple times he wasn't happy with how his Resident Evil episode turned out, so maybe if he revisits it again you can ask him can you be a guest on the episode, if you want to get back on Youtube. He always does a great job with the podcast and listening him and his guests talking **** about some of the lesser scripts they read is hilarious. Since we already talked about bad video game movie scripts here, i'd recommend listening his Tomb Raider episodes. If you thought McElroy's RE script was bad, wait till you hear about some of the early TR scripts from 90's.

 

[Hardware]

Since I cannot accept that McElroy's script was crap (although I'd still love to read it myself, just for the experience) and I cannot stop thinking about what it would've been like to have a RE movie coming out in the late 90s, I went through Romero's script (the one draft that leaked a lifetime ago): while some of the stuff in there was intriguing, it was undeniably bad. It too took forever to get to the point. The problem with Romero's style of screenwriting is that he never cared for proper formatting and he kept writing scripts the same way he used to write them when he was an indie filmmaker in Pittsburgh in the early 70s, so at times the text is very dense and makes it harder to sort out how long the hypothetic movie would've been - but it was definitely going to be long, way longer than the 107 minutes the number of pages would imply (from personal experience, I can tell you the rule "1 page = 1 minute" is a lie anyway: scenes can be stretched or compressed depending on how you shoot and cut them). I'd say that what happens on page 35 would've probably been at around 40 minutes into the movie. While the copy in my possession (well, in everyone's possession) was most likely re-typed by someone else (there's plenty of typos), by having also read the scripts for DAWN OF THE DEAD, DAY OF THE DEAD (the unfilmed version) and LAND OF THE DEAD I can attest they were faithful to Romero's maverick screenwriting. So, yeah, it is as bad as I remembered it, but what pains me the most is that you can very often see where it could've been improved (mostly by just trimming stuff)...I really hope Bran's documentary will get made and it will shed as much light as possible on this aborted project.

 

[Bran]

Since I cannot accept that McElroy's script was crap (although I'd still love to read it myself, just for the experience) and I cannot stop thinking about what it would've been like to have a RE movie coming out in the late 90s, I went through Romero's script (the one draft that leaked a lifetime ago): while some of the stuff in there was intriguing, it was undeniably bad. It too took forever to get to the point. The problem with Romero's style of screenwriting is that he never cared for proper formatting and he kept writing scripts the same way he used to write them when he was an indie filmmaker in Pittsburgh in the early 70s, so at times the text is very dense and makes it harder to sort out how long the hypothetic movie would've been - but it was definitely going to be long, way longer than the 107 minutes the number of pages would imply (from personal experience, I can tell you the rule "1 page = 1 minute" is a lie anyway: scenes can be stretched or compressed depending on how you shoot and cut them). I'd say that what happens on page 35 would've probably been at around 40 minutes into the movie. While the copy in my possession (well, in everyone's possession) was most likely re-typed by someone else (there's plenty of typos), by having also read the scripts for DAWN OF THE DEAD, DAY OF THE DEAD (the unfilmed version) and LAND OF THE DEAD I can attest they were faithful to Romero's maverick screenwriting. So, yeah, it is as bad as I remembered it, but what pains me the most is that you can very often see where it could've been improved (mostly by just trimming stuff)...I really hope Bran's documentary will get made and it will shed as much light as possible on this aborted project.

Well, Romero’s first drafts aren't always polished, and consistently you can see he gets the story where it needs to be in later drafts. The dialogue I was never worried about, because again, he usually edits as he goes, and he allows his actors the opportunity to improvise. He was a very kind person, and from speaking with those that worked with him on productions (I'm friends with quite a few) it was said that you were treated like family by him.

As for the documentary, things are speeding along, but nothing I can speak of in public. Hopefully, I'll have news in the near future.

 

[Ark2000]

When i first read it long ago, i remember i also wasn't really big fan of Romero's RE script, but over the years, the more i read it, i grew to like it more and more, and some of the problems i had with it didn't bother me anymore. Yes, like others have said, we only have his first draft which are never meant to be close to final film, but even based on just that, i always thought what his script needed the most is major revision focusing mostly on dialogue, either by him or, why not, some other writer. I wouldn't mind some action scenes to be re-worked as well, but i never thought ones in the script were bad, in fact i actually like how Romero's wrote those. And of course, i think the entire "nuclear bomb" inside the labs and destruction of Raccoon City parts/ending should have been cut in order to leave some direction for the best possible sequel. I liked the new film, but personally (Spoilers!) one of the problems i had with it is that city gets destroyed in the ending, because i think there were few different story directions they could have went with in the sequel. I don't know why Romero never checked into anything about second game, considering it came out months before he wrote the script, so that he would know how the ending which he wrote wouldn't really be the best, in my opinion. Or who knows, maybe he did knew about it, but made his decision to go with that ending. This would have been shame because i always wondered what would his take on second and third game be like.

I'm with you Hardware, even though it does sounds bad, based on those two synopsis we have, i'd still like to read McElroy's script and judge it for myself, and i too just can't believe it was that bad. I read several of his (produced and unproduced) scripts and never had any problems with his writing, that's why before we found out more about his RE script, i thought it actually sounded pretty good. Even now i think what Constantin should have done is maybe try and have him working with Romero on the new script when he got involved. Maybe two of them working together would ended up with much better script.

 

[Hardware]

I'm with you Hardware, even though it does sounds bad, based on those two synopsis we have, i'd still like to read McElroy's script and judge it for myself, and i too just can't believe it was that bad. I read several of his (produced and unproduced) scripts and never had any problems with his writing, that's why before we found out more about his RE script, i thought it actually sounded pretty good. Even now i think what Constantin should have done is maybe try and have him working with Romero on the new script when he got involved. Maybe two of them working together would ended up with much better script.

I am pretty sure Bran's report and impressions are right - there must be a reason why McElroy was dropped after only two drafts, after all. I used to believe (hope?), like most fans, that his script was a basic horror movie (Aliens with zombies - which is what RE1 essentially is), and that the dumb producers didn't think it was good enough...but, unless his second draft will ever turn out to be a major improvement (like zombies instead of mad cannibals, no giant dogs, etc.), I reckon they just did the right thing. Maybe they wouldn't have liked a faithful adaptation anyway (I mean, they went for Anderson did they?), but...who knows?

He was a very kind person, and from speaking with those that worked with him on productions (I'm friends with quite a few) it was said that you were treated like family by him.

That's what everyone says about him. The only person I heard (well, read) talking ill about him was associate producer David Ball in the book "The Making of George A. Romero's Day of the Dead", who essentially labeled him as unprofessional and insecure - but in the same book Mr. Ball comes across as a bean counter (he more or less pictures himself that way), so I can see why he and Romero, who was used to do things the independent way, couldn't like each other. In the same book, it appears that Romero was also grudgy and insensitive towards his long-time cinematographer Michael Gornick...but, anyway, I don't see how him being a nice guy to most people he met\worked with has to do with this.

I honestly see Romero's script as a step in the right direction, but at the same time, it needed A LOT of editing\reworking and I am not sure he would've accepted that. The cast is overcrowded (some scenes have like a dozen characters on screen and only 2 or 3 of them do anything) and all his original characters were unnecessary and should've been dropped. There are too many set pieces and creatures to honestly make it work as a movie. The intro is way too long and even expensive (Wesker putting the city under quarantine and his storm of choppers alone would've been so costly). Above all, Chris and Jill's romance (although sort of hinted at in one of the game's endings) just gets in the way of the main story and I don't really see how it really defines them as characters: sure, it gives them an arch, but was it really needed in something like this? I am not talking about character arches in general, I am talking about the one revolving around their relationship.

Quite frankly, the more I think of it, the more I believe a much simpler approach to the same basic ideas (STARS gets trapped in the lab) would've been better. I can see why Chris was made into a civilian and I used to believe it was a good way to introduce non-gamers to the story, but, after giving much thought about it (and keeping in mind how nobody outside of the fandom really complained about Anderson's "liberal" approach), I see no reason to prevent him from being a STARS member. One of the things I liked about WTRC is that it doesn't really bother with what STARS is and it doesn't **** too much around with the reason why they have to go investigate.

I guess just showing the leads going into the woods either because they received a distress call or because they have to go in and secure the lab\rescue a scientist without much fanfare was more than enough. Then, when they are in, they discover that the place is way more dangerous than expected, that they are essentially guinea pigs in an experiment, and that Wesker even has his own agenda.

As for the dialogues, they don't really bother me: dialogues always suck in first drafts (unless the script is being written by someone whose main talent is churning out witty\funny lines), and from personal experience, I can say they are not set in stone until it comes to actually film them...and sometimes lines can be altered in post (as long as you don't see the actor's mouth and face, you can do miracles with ADR). Most script supervisors have a hard time accepting it, but who gives a damn about the script supervisor's opinion unless it is about continuity?

 

[Gun Powder B]

I honestly see Romero's script as a step in the right direction, but at the same time, it needed A LOT of editing\reworking and I am not sure he would've accepted that. The cast is overcrowded (some scenes have like a dozen characters on screen and only 2 or 3 of them do anything) and all his original characters were unnecessary and should've been dropped. There are too many set pieces and creatures to honestly make it work as a movie. The intro is way too long and even expensive (Wesker putting the city under quarantine and his storm of choppers alone would've been so costly). Above all, Chris and Jill's romance (although sort of hinted at in one of the game's endings) just gets in the way of the main story and I don't really see how it really defines them as characters: sure, it gives them an arch, but was it really needed in something like this? I am not talking about character arches in general, I am talking about the one revolving around their relationship.

Romero's script had lots of potential and I don't see why they couldn't do a 'Star Wars' scenario with it, as in, Romero writes the drafts and directs it but the producers and perhaps some fans of the series step in and alter it a bit to make it more viewer/fan friendly. That's how it was with George Lucas in 1975-76 filming Star Wars, he had a lot of really dumb ideas for the film but the producers told him 'no' and the end results were great.

Lucas had 100% control of Ep 1,2 and 3 and they sucked. Go figure. At that particular time though Lucas was viewed as some kind of movie God and hero worshipped to the extreme so that's what happens when people think ONE person can achieve excellence on their own and nobody steps in with different viewpoints. He's basically a loser now...lol

As for Romero himself, what has he achieved of significance since 'Dawn of the Dead'? Not sure his personality regarding allowing others to tell him 'No' but I think if he played his cards right and worked with the producers 'Resident Evil' could have been a great way to end his career. Of course I wasn't there and don't have in depth knowledge on the what happened during that time period but the fact that he did not get green lit could demonstrate unwillingness to cooperate.

Spawn was not that great of a movie imo so I'm not surprised the McElroy script sucks and never really thought much of it so I'm kinda baffled as to why some had high hopes for it...

 

[Hardware]

As for Romero himself, what has he achieved of significance since 'Dawn of the Dead'? Not sure his personality regarding allowing others to tell him 'No' but I think if he played his cards right and worked with the producers 'Resident Evil' could have been a great way to end his career. Of course I wasn't there and don't have in depth knowledge on the what happened during that time period but the fact that he did not get green lit could demonstrate unwillingness to cooperate.

Spawn was not that great of a movie imo so I'm not surprised the McElroy script sucks and never really thought much of it so I'm kinda baffled as to why some had high hopes for it...

Romero is dead so any questions regarding him should be in the past tense. The man single-handily created the zombie genre as we know it (there were other zombie movies before "Night of the Living Dead", but Romero's zombies are their own thing) and his work still casts a very long shadow - we wouldn't have shows like "The Walking Dead" or games like "Resident Evil" had it not been for him. In the 80s (i.e. after "Dawn of the Dead" - which was his most successful film) he went on to direct at least two cult movies, "Creepshow" and "Day of the Dead" (which is actually my favorite in the trilogy - the ones that followed don't count). The 90s were a bad decade for him after the fiasco of "The Dark Half" (a movie that suffered from the producers interfering too much and the fact the studio went bankrupt while they were shooting) and the lukewarm reception of the remake of "Night of the Living Dead", but, around the time "Resident Evil - the movie" was announced with him at the helm, he was still considered a bonafide master of horror - by moviegoers, at least. In industry circles, he was never very well-seen because he had always wanted to stay independent and, by his own admission, didn't care about Hollywood and its politics - he spent most of his directorial life making movies in Pittsburgh, after all (even though he had already moved to Florida by the time he made "Day of the Dead" - and eventually moved to Canada). He actually demonstrated to be able to work with studios with "Land of the Dead", which was his most expensive movie ever made and has a few scenes that scream "Hey, I would've been able to properly do Resident Evil, you know?".

 

[Gun Powder B]

Be that as it may Romero's RE draft left something to be desired and I'm definitely an RE fan before I am a Romero fan so I have no qualms about criticizing his work on the movie adaptation for the game acknowledging the fact that it could have been improved with some outside assistance.

Hollywood sucks if you're not part of their club, but then again I haven't seen too many independent film makers come out with anything good recently either so whatevs. I'd say the golden era of filming was probably the late 1960's to the mid 1980's, from spaghetti westerns to 'The Terminator' and 'Aliens', then things started going downhill all the way to the extremely boring and dull 'Welcome to Raccoon City'. That movie literally killed my desire to watch anything at least in the near future, it reminded me of those boring 'Noir' films of the 1940's (The ones with Humphrey Bogart like 'Casablanca' and 'The Maltese Falcon' were pretty good though) and was shocked to see that they actually had the following even to this day. We need a cultural phenomenon or something idk.

 

[Ark2000]

Spawn was not that great of a movie imo so I'm not surprised the McElroy script sucks and never really thought much of it so I'm kinda baffled as to why some had high hopes for it...

Not to defend Spawn, but it did had somewhat of a troubled production, and many changes were made on the story and script during filming (based on some drafts i know, it seems like Mark Dippe did some revisions on the script after McElroy wrote original), and more changes and cuts were made in post. Like i said, i'm not defending the film since i never really cared for it, but McElroy did also wrote original comic books and animated series which were received much better by fans. I don't know about anyone else, but i had high hopes for his RE script because i really like few films he wrote (Halloween 4, Rapid Fire, Wrong Turn). But that was during 90's, if we were to talk about his later work, like his WWE films or Left Behind... i understand why people wouldn't exactly hope for anything good from him. However, i don't blame him for **** like Ballistic: Ecks Vs Sever, his original script was much better before it went through re-write hell by others, but he still got the only credit, and therefore the honor of writing one of the worst action movies and box office bombs ever.

 

[Hardware]

. I don't know about anyone else, but i had high hopes for his RE script because i really like few films he wrote (Halloween 4, Rapid Fire, Wrong Turn).

I am a huge "Wrong Turn" fan - the first one, the sequels (including the otherwise much-praised Wrong Turn 2) are terrible IMHO. I was one of the few people defending it when everyone else trashed it and I don't even understand why they did so since it was a bona-fide 1970s survival\horror movie in the vein of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "The Hills Have Eyes", "Deliverance" and even early-80s slashers like "Just Before Dawn" made a few years everyone and their brothers started remaking them (maybe that's the reason why). Anyway, my appreciation of that movie alone was more than enough for me to get all hyped at the idea of someday reading that elusive first draft. Who knows? Maybe he didn't understand the material or thought that zombies were too cliché. Or maybe most of his scripts that got made into movies got through the hands of some good script doctors.

 

[Ark2000]

I am a huge "Wrong Turn" fan - the first one, the sequels (including the otherwise much-praised Wrong Turn 2) are terrible IMHO. I was one of the few people defending it when everyone else trashed it and I don't even understand why they did so since it was a bona-fide 1970s survival\horror movie in the vein of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "The Hills Have Eyes", "Deliverance" and even early-80s slashers like "Just Before Dawn" made a few years everyone and their brothers started remaking them (maybe that's the reason why). Anyway, my appreciation of that movie alone was more than enough for me to get all hyped at the idea of someday reading that elusive first draft. Who knows? Maybe he didn't understand the material or thought that zombies were too cliché. Or maybe most of his scripts that got made into movies got through the hands of some good script doctors.

From what i can tell you for example, Halloween 4 was all his although he did had to include few bits and pieces from earlier rejected scripts by other writers (scene where several people wear Shape masks, town loses its electrical power, Michael getting shot by bunch of cops in ending...), i guess because Moustapha Akkad told him and director to do that. I never read any draft of Rapid Fire, but other than the title change (Moving Target) i always heard from fans who did read the script how it's basically exactly like the movie, but with some extra scenes. McElroy himself made changes on Wrong Turn once it was picked up, originally his script was titled Blur and it was about bank robber on the run who has to fight against inbred mountain men after he escapes into the woods. But that doesn't mean he sometimes worked better without someone helping him. I read Journey Of Death which he wrote with John Milius, and for a story which was supposed to be another WWE produced film starring Triple H, i remember it wasn't that bad, but i think Milius probably deserves more credit for that one.

I think i mentioned this on other posts, but maybe McElroy just had too much projects to work on while he was writing his Resident Evil script, so he couldn't focus on writing more better first draft. He was working on at least three different comic book adaptations, one of the first scripts for Doom adaptation, re-writing his own script to turn it into Die Hard 4, some of his own specs and maybe even more. If he had more time later to fix up his RE script, i think it's possible his second draft that PSM reviewed was better. Like you said, we already know it did have mansion, zombies, and "normal" zombie dogs, so that's something which could confirm that.

And Hardware, if you're fan of Wrong Turn and similar films, i recommend tracking down John Carpenter's unproduced mid 70's script Prey, i think you'll might like it.

 

[Hardware]

And Hardware, if you're fan of Wrong Turn and similar films, i recommend tracking down John Carpenter's unproduced mid 70's script Prey, i think you'll might like it.

The survival\horror movie he wrote as a spec script in the 70s? Is it actually available?

 

[Ark2000]

Yeah but damn it, looks like it's not anywhere online. There are only few reviews of it. I think Script Shadow used to have link for it, but i don't know what happened with it. I'd try sending a link myself, but of course, ****ing Google messed something up with my drive, and no matter what i do i can't access it.

 

[Hardware]

I am only seeing reviews (and I already read one several years ago), no pages actually offering it to buy or download.

 

[Maverick1]

Early draft of Welcome To Racoon City was actually really good overall, in fact I was shocked by how good it was considering Roberts' previous works, it was maybe second best video-game adaptation ever written after John Logan's Bioshock and obviously much better than any previous RE adaptation, produced or unproduced. It took one-dimensional cartoons and turned them into real human beings with personal stakes, Racoon felt like a real place with its own history and not just scenery. It was like an early John Carpenter's film. I wouldn't blame Roberts for what happened with the final product because he was given a miserable budget to work with (almost twice less (if we consider inflation) than Paul W. S. Anderson's first movie that had much smaller scale) and it affected execution across the board. They had to cut down scale, cut character development, cut action, use cheap CGI and a lot of darkness and close-ups. And they also changed some backstories and motivations for worse, dialogues became noticeably worse and I felt they made wrong emphasis. So Constantin Film is to blame for most of the film's failures, they ruined what could've been a really good film.

McElroy's draft on the other hand sounds absolutely terrible.

 

[Ark2000]

Early draft of Welcome To Racoon City was actually really good overall, in fact I was shocked by how good it was considering Roberts' previous works, it was maybe second best video-game adaptation ever written after John Logan's Bioshock and obviously much better than any previous RE adaptation, produced or unproduced. It took one-dimensional cartoons and turned them into real human beings with personal stakes, Racoon felt like a real place with its own history and not just scenery. It was like an early John Carpenter's film. I wouldn't blame Roberts for what happened with the final product because he was given a miserable budget to work with (almost twice less (if we consider inflation) than Paul W. S. Anderson's first movie that had much smaller scale) and it affected execution across the board. They had to cut down scale, cut character development, cut action, use cheap CGI and a lot of darkness and close-ups. And they also changed some backstories and motivations for worse, dialogues became noticeably worse and I felt they made wrong emphasis. So Constantin Film is to blame for most of the film's failures, they ruined what could've been a really good film.

McElroy's draft on the other hand sounds absolutely terrible.

Not the first time i hear that about original script for WTRC. Speaking as someone who didn't mind the film, it did made me think how it looked like scaled down version of what was supposed to be different and longer story, and if this is true, then it explains a lot. It really needed to be full two hours long movie, and it could have used a bigger budget, i think there were reports how it was going to have $40 million but it ended up having $25 million budget.

Early draft of Welcome To Racoon City was actually really good overall, in fact I was shocked by how good it was considering Roberts' previous works, it was maybe second best video-game adaptation ever written after John Logan's Bioshock and obviously much better than any previous RE adaptation, produced or unproduced.

I only skipped through Logan's Bioshock once (i think) year or two ago, but i remember liking it (like lot of other people it seems), and i really should read the full script since i am huge fan of his unproduced I Am Legend script from August of 1997, which i personally think is one of the best unproduced scripts i ever read.

 

[Maverick1]

Not the first time i hear that about original script for WTRC. Speaking as someone who didn't mind the film, it did made me think how it looked like scaled down version of what was supposed to be different and longer story, and if this is true, then it explains a lot. It really needed to be full two hours long movie, and it could have used a bigger budget, i think there were reports how it was going to have $40 million but it ended up having $25 million budget.

Exactly. It needed full 2 hour runtime and at least 40 mln budget (better 50). 25 mln (and that probably includes Covid-related expenses), is just extremely low for this movie, it's kind of impressive they even managed to make anything out of this budget.

I only skipped through Logan's Bioshock once (i think) year or two ago, but i remember liking it (like lot of other people it seems), and i really should read the full script since i am huge fan of his unproduced I Am Legend script from August of 1997, which i personally think is one of the best unproduced scripts i ever read.

There are two drafts of Bioshock, shorter one that leaked publicly and longer one that was reviewed by BMD. Longer one is superior, they decided to cut or change many small details in shorter draft that made it worse, especially in one key dramatic moment. But longer version was a great script overall, the only downside is last 2 pages (of both versions), that ending just didn't work and made no sense at all considering what happened in the rest of the script, but weak ending and some logical gaps could be fixed very easily and the rest of the script is probably the best video-game adaptation ever written, such a shame it didn't happen, it could've been an all-timer with great execution.

 

[Bran]

I wouldn't mind reading the early Resident Evil draft.

 

[Ark2000]

Me too. And while it probably wasn't much better (based on his Mortal Kombat drafts) i wouldn't mind reading Greg Russo's script. But i think reading what WTRC was supposed to be originally would be more interesting. I keep checking around for info about any leaked drafts, but as far as i know, there are only some rumors and no confirmation.

 

[Maverick1]

Unfortunately I'm not allowed to share the script, but I can post differences between early Roberts' draft and the final movie. As far as I remember:
- Claire arrived to Raccoon City just to get her brother out of the dying town, she didn't show him Ben Bertolucci tape and didn't tell him any conspiracy theories, she doesn't know what's going on in Racoon outside of all the weird and scary stuff that she saw when she arrived or when she escaped The Raccoon City Orphanage when she was a kid. She also didn't know Ben Bertolucci personally, Ben was a TV reporter in Raccoon who claimed that Umbrella poisoned water in the city.
- Truck driver tried to sexually assault Clarie, but she quickly "disarmed" him and it didn't go any further. Part of the scene is actually in the film.
- Leon had more character development and kind of a character arc. There was an extra scene when Leon woke up in hangover, his father called him and expressed his disappointment in him after that accident with Leon's partner and that he hopes Leon won't embarass him even more on a new job. Leon was really embarassed he let down his big name father as he watched their family photo from Leon's police academy graduation. He was still kind of comedy relief character, but I thought it worked in the context of the story, he had an underdog hero's journey arc. He's incompetent, but gets better and in the end saves the day by killing mutated Birkin and I guess making his father proud. There was an emphasis on this arc that I felt was missing in the final film.
- Dialogues were noticeably better with a lot less exposition and character names dumps.
- Raccoon felt more developed in the script and there was no exposition text, with bigger emphasis on build up to what's coming.
- Rebecca Chambers and a bunch of other characters had cameos in a caffee instead of Wesker and Jill. One of the cops (not Wesker) tried to make fun of Leon because of his backstory with shooting his partner, but Rebecca calmed her teammate down and was really nice to Leon. Wesker, Jill and Chris actually made fun of Leon in the police station by putting different things on him while he was peacefully sleeping after hangover. They had some extra interractions where Chris and Jill were foolling around the police station while Wesker watched them (it's implied that Wesker has feelings for Jill, just like Chris, but they are just close friends since school)
- There was Barry Burton instead of Richard Aiken and he played the same role, so it was more of a character name change.
- There was an extra scene with Ada Wong. People complained that Wesker was dumb in the final film and was manipulated by phone messages, but in the script he secretely met Ada in the police station behind his friends' backs, to discuss what he has to do in Spencer Mansion, right before they board the chopper to fly there.
- Jill was a bit less aggressive and rock-n-roll, probably closer to games.
- During chief Irons' briefing in the police station he reported that Chambers' team didn't come back after they went to check reports of animal attack near the Spencer Mansion and he also got audio messages with screams and shooting. There was a funny scene where Barry, after hearing those messages and a long pause, assumed it was a bear and everyone in the room rolled their eyes and looked at him like he's an idiot.
- Chief Irons was such a coward he was ready to leave his family in Raccoon and tried to escape the city without them as his wife tried to call him to find out what's going on in the city, even though Irons felt guilt about that. There was a very similar scene to Resident Evil: Apocalypse where large crowds of people and cars gathered near the walls with Umbrella's mercenaries. Irons tried to use his status to escape, but mercenaries wouldn't let him. Then mercenaries opened fire at people when they saw first infected folks in those crowds and Irons had to drive back to police station to find some other way to escape. It was probably cut because of budget constraints.
- Wesker's betrayal was better written. After Jill saved Wesker from the fallen chopper, a bunch of zomies started moving towards them and Wesker grabbed Jill's hand and took her to the room with a piano. Then he opened the tunnel to the lab and told her about his secret connections and real plans in the mansion (steal Birkin's documents, earn a lot of money and escape the city using the underground train). Jill told him that she actually knew about his secret meetings and the same people tried to make the same deal with her, but she would never agree to betray her friends, so he should just forget about this nonsense and come with her to save Chris. Wesker thinks that Chris is probably dead and that risk of coming back is not worth it. Jill doesn't believe what she hears and pulls Wesker to come with her (come to light in a symbolic way). He hesitates for a second, lets her pull him, but then says no and leaves, entering the tunnel to the lab, betraying his friends to save his ass. Jill on the other hand runs to find Chris, she saves him from zombies and they both fight their way to the tunnel. In the contrasting moment, wounded Jill asks Chris to leave her to save himself, but he point-blank refuses to leave her.
- Wesker reluctantly threatened Birkin and his family to give him documents and was really surprised he took his wife and daughter here. Birkin ouright refuses to give the work of his life and opens fire at Wesker. Wesker returns fire and mortally wounds Birkin. Annett Birkin calms her dying husband, then suddenly grabs husband's pistol and wounds Wekser. Wesker docks to cover and blindly shoots back, killing Annett. Wesker is shocked by what he just did, he never killed anyone before. He really regrets it, calls Birkin a madman because forced him to do this and screams to Sherry that he didn't want to kill her parents. But there's no turning back.
- Wesker was "killed" by mutated Birkin, not Jill. Chris and Jill came to Birkin's lab a bit later and found Wesker's body.
- Birkin was a bit more likable and scenes with his family life were different and a bit longer.
- Birkin had no personal connection to Chris at all, he took no part in his education/growing up and they probably hadn't seen each other since orphanage.
- Lisa Trevor showed up in the final battle to help our heroes and attacked fully mutated Birkin on the train. She jumped him like raptors vs T-Rex in Jurassic Park, but after some fight Birkin killed her.
- After our heroes escaped Raccoon, they had a conversation that Umbrella must be stopped and the world must find out what really happened in Racoon. Leon sighs and says he needs a drink. That was actually the only "save the world" dialogue, all characters' motivations throught the script were personal.
- Wesker's ressurection was part of the ending and not post-credit scene, but it's word to word the same as in the script.