If you think Resident Evil is just zombies, guns, and Milla Jovovich kicking Umbrella’s ass, the movies have a few surprises for you. The franchise has three very different continuities, from Alice’s wild six-film apocalypse to animated stories that actually connect to the games.
So here are the Resident Evil movies in order, covering all 12 films and separating each timeline so you can watch the chaos without wondering how Leon, Alice, and Raccoon City somehow ended up in the same franchise.
Resident Evil Movies in Order: Original Live-Action Saga
The six movies starring Milla Jovovich as Alice are basically a case study in how far a zombie movie can drift from its survival-horror roots without completely losing its identity.
1. Resident Evil (2002)
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| Release Date | Runtime | Director | IMDb Rating |
| March 15, 2002 | 1h 40m | Paul W. S. Anderson | 6.6/10 |
Before Alice became an apocalypse-killing machine, she was just a woman waking up with absolutely no idea what the hell was happening. The first movie keeps the scale tight around a secret Umbrella lab, a murderous security system, zombies getting loose, and one very nasty laser corridor. It doesn’t copy the game, but it understands the horror elements pretty well.
2. Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
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| Release Date | Runtime | Director | IMDb Rating |
| September 10, 2004 | 1h 34m | Alexander Witt | 6.1/10 |
Raccoon City has officially gone to hell. Apocalypse takes the outbreak above ground and turns the franchise into a full-blown zombie war, with Alice crossing paths with Jill Valentine, Nemesis, and enough undead carnage to make the first film look positively restrained.
3. Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)
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| Release Date | Runtime | Director | IMDb Rating |
| September 21, 2007 | 1h 34m | Russell Mulcahy | 6.2/10 |
Raccoon City was only the beginning. Now the entire world has become one giant infected wasteland, and Alice is crossing the Nevada desert with a convoy of survivors while Umbrella keeps experimenting on the T-virus. This is the movie where the series fully embraces its post-apocalyptic side.
4. Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)
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| Release Date | Runtime | Director | IMDb Rating |
| September 10, 2010 | 1h 36m | Paul W. S. Anderson | 5.8/10 |
By Afterlife, Alice is raiding Umbrella facilities, hunting for survivors, and throwing herself into increasingly ridiculous action sequences, including that executioner fight. The story heads toward Los Angeles and a supposed safe haven called Arcadia, while the movie starts looking less like horror and more like a glossy video-game cutscene.
5. Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)
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| Release Date | Runtime | Director | IMDb Rating |
| September 14, 2012 | 1h 35m | Paul W. S. Anderson | 5.3/10 |
Alice wakes up inside another Umbrella nightmare, except this time the corporation has built entire environments to simulate outbreaks around the world. Jill Valentine, Ada Wong, Leon Kennedy, and other familiar faces pile into the madness, making Retribution feel like somebody emptied the Resident Evil character select screen into one movie.
6. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016)
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| Release Date | Runtime | Director | IMDb Rating |
| January 27, 2017 | 1h 46m | Paul W. S. Anderson | 5.5/10 |
The title says Final Chapter, and for once, they actually mean it. Alice returns to Raccoon City for one last assault on Umbrella, dragging the franchise back toward the place where its cinematic apocalypse began.
Resident Evil Movies in Order: Animated Canon
If Alice’s movies are Resident Evil after Hollywood got hold of it, these four are Resident Evil with the games still firmly in the driver’s seat. They follow the game continuity, bring back familiar protagonists, and go much harder on the Umbrella-style conspiracies and grotesque B.O.W.s.
7. Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008)
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| Release Date | Runtime | Director | IMDb Rating |
| October 17, 2008 | 1h 37m | Makoto Kamiya | 6.4/10 |
Degeneration brings Leon and Claire back together for an airport outbreak that quickly exposes another Umbrella-linked mess. It feels like a Resident Evil game translated almost directly into CG movie form, complete with locked-down spaces, shady corporations, and B.O.W. chaos.
8. Resident Evil: Damnation (2012)
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| Release Date | Runtime | Director | IMDb Rating |
| September 25, 2012 | 1h 40m | Makoto Kamiya | 6.4/10 |
Leon walks into a civil war and discovers that someone brought bioweapons to the party. Damnation swaps the usual mansion corridors for a war-torn Eastern European setting, but keeps the franchise’s favorite ingredients intact: conspiracies, parasites, grotesque B.O.W.s, and Leon somehow surviving situations that should absolutely kill him.
9. Resident Evil: Vendetta (2017)
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| Release Date | Runtime | Director | IMDb Rating |
| May 27, 2017 | 1h 37m | Takanori Tsujimoto | 6.2/10 |
Leon is back, Chris is back, Rebecca is back, and the emotional damage is very much back too. Vendetta is where the animated series really embraces ridiculous action, turning familiar game characters into near-superhuman action heroes without losing the B.O.W. madness.
10. Resident Evil: Death Island (2023)
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| Release Date | Runtime | Director | IMDb Rating |
| July 7, 2023 | 1h 31m | Eiichirō Hasumi | 5.7/10 |
Set around an outbreak on Alcatraz Island, Death Island finally gives several of the series’ biggest game protagonists the crossover treatment fans have wanted for years. Jill’s return is the real kicker, and seeing this entire crew tackle one B.O.W. nightmare together is the movie’s biggest appeal.
Resident Evil Movies in Order: Reboots
The Resident Evil movies eventually hit the reset button (twice, depending on how you’re counting). Welcome to Raccoon City tries to get much closer to the games, while the 2026 reboot is starting from scratch again.
11. Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)
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| Release Date | Runtime | Director | IMDb Rating |
| November 24, 2021 | 1h 47m | Johannes Roberts | 5.2/10 |
Welcome to Raccoon City pulls heavily from Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2, bringing Claire, Chris, Jill, Leon, and Raccoon City’s infamous Spencer Mansion into the same story. It’s rough around the edges, but game fans will have fun spotting the references and familiar locations.
12. Resident Evil (2026)
| Release Date | Runtime | Director | IMDb Rating |
| September 18, 2026 | 1h 30m | Zach Cregger | N/A |
The newest reboot is going even further away from Alice’s world. Directed by Weapons filmmaker Zach Cregger, the 2026 movie is being positioned as a fresh take on the survival-horror franchise, with no need to know the previous movies.
Which Resident Evil Movies Should You Watch?
If you’re here for Alice and over-the-top zombie action, stick with the six original movies. Or, if you want something closer to the games, the four animated films are the better pick.
Then there are the reboots, which start fresh rather than continuing either story.
Basically, don’t try to turn all 12 movies into one timeline. Pick the version of Resident Evil you actually want to watch and go from there.
Writer. Dreamer. Journalist (maybe?). Anime lover (definitely). I turn curiosity into stories and everyday life into a narrative worth reading.
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