Milla Jovovich plays Alice, the leader of a special military unit sent into the underground bunker of the multi-national Umbrella Corporation. DNA research accidentally created a deadly virus and the central computer, the Red Queen, locked down the establishment and gassed all the workers: Alice and her team are to find out what happened and disable the computer. But as well as facing the weaponry of the computer, they also discover the virus has re-animated the staff as the living dead. Now they have just three hours to get to the core, disable the Red Queen and stop the virus escaping into the outside world.
Inevitably, only a handful survive in this fast-moving action/ thriller/ horror, which is jammed with special effects, desperate fights and equally desperate flights as the survivors battle to complete their task. Jovovich, who leapt to fame in The Fifth Element and has since appeared in The Claim and Zoolander, is the all-action heroine, clad in a tight red mini-dress, but she's run close by Michelle Rodriguez (The Fast and the Furious, Lost).
Originally, George Romero was slated to direct but when he dropped out, Paul W.S. Anderson took over. The film, based on the popular computer game, isn't his first such adaptation: he also directed Mortal Kombat.
Resident Evil is a Film programme that first aired in 2002 and has been classified a 15 certificate.
