Anime / Resident Evil: Damnation

Resident Evil: Damnation is the second full-length CGI film for the Resident Evil franchise, following 2008's Degeneration. Unlike the live-action films, Damnation is firmly set within the games' continuity, and serves as a bridge between Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6.

A civil war is raging in the fictional Eastern Slav Republic, between the oligarchy that's seized control of the country and the freedom fighters that represent the lower class. The military sat out the war and grew powerful, and after a cease-fire was declared, the military broke it in order to seize natural resources discovered in the freedom fighters' territory. In an attempt to even the odds, the freedom fighters have begun using black-market bioweapons.

The U.S. government sends in Leon S. Kennedy to investigate, as both the U.S. and Russia are planning to intervene in the war. After entering the field, Leon is ordered to pull right back out, but after seeing the destruction the B.O.W.s are causing, he goes rogue in an effort to stop them.

Damnation was released on DVD and Blu-ray in late September 2012, with a cinematic release in Shinjuku at the end of October. It was leaked a couple of weeks early on streaming video networks like the Xbox Live Marketplace, presumably in an attempt to capitalize on the release of Resident Evil: Retribution.

A second sequel, Resident Evil: Vendetta was released late May 2017.

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Resident Evil: Damnation provides examples of the following tropes:

• Action Girl: Ada Wong makes a comeback. Given her history in the series, not much else has to be said except for how her martial art skills have improved since the Illuminadoes incident.
• All for Nothing: What everyone's actions in the ultimately amounted to.
  • Leon defied orders to leave the country in order to put a stop to the bio-terror attacks, only to discover that the order came about because a massive surprise invasion was in the works to deal with the matter themselves.
  • Sasha and the other rebels became bioterrorists because their leaders, the elders, provided it to them. After Sasha infects himself with a plaga, dooming himself to eventually become a ganado for the cause, Svetlana gleefully reveals that she had convinced the Elders to betray the rebels in exchange for a share of the oil profits, and the bioweapons were all part of a scheme to wipe out the faction once and for all.
  • Ironically, Svetlana herself becomes a victim of this. Everything she did, she did to wipe out the rebels and make herself look like the hero who defeated a bio-terrorist organisation, thereby convincing the United Nations to allow her country to join them. This was all for naught from the very beginning, as an American spy discovered she was secretly producing bioweapons and reported it to his superiors, who proceed to invade the Eastern Slav Republic at the end of the movie, forcing her to leave the presidential office in disgrace.
• All-CGI Movie: Just like its predecessor, Damnation is rendered entirely in 3D CG.
• America Saves the Day: Downplayed, At the end, Leon and Buddy are saved from the two Tyrants by American and Russian forces invading and blowing everything up.
• Badass Boast:
  • Svetlana delivers one to Ada when the latter realizes that the rumors of her being a former instructor are true.
    Ada: So... it's true what they said about you being a former instructor.
    Svetlana: Former? I still am an instructor.
  • Svetlana also hands out a boast to Leon when he is holding her hostage during the standoff under the palace.
    Svetlana: Do you have any idea who you are pointing your gun at?
    Leon: Let me see... you're the Beekeeper?
    Svetlana: The Beekeeper?
    Leon: The person who released the Plaga.
    Svetlana: Just as I thought. You haven't a clue. I am the President... of this country.
• Badass Normal: Leon is a master of this. Ada is also quite the badass. Svetlana is a former fighting instructor, and holds her own in a battle with Ada, and Leon so she counts as well.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • In the end, the good guys triumph and peace reaches Eastern Slav once again, but at what cost? Tons of people are dead, including JD. Sasha is paralyzed from waist down though he's human again and has a new life to look forward to thanks to Leon. Svetlana is forced to step down from her presidency but that's kinda lenient considering all the shit she has done. And Leon's definitely pissed off and burnt out from his experiences there considering his higher-ups actually knew about the entire incident but pulled out last minute to join forces with the Russians to take back the country. Only all this still resulted a lot of casualties, and Leon suspects that America only came to save the day to protect themselves from the public backlash of having initially supported Svetlana. No wonder he looked so gruff in RE 6.
  • The whole conflict between Svetlana and the rebels began because of petroleum in the area the rebels lived. It's made abundantly clear the Americans and Russians used the B.O.W.s as an excuse to take said area for themselves, likely once more because of Simmons and his family. This means Sasha and the rebels' fight and JD's death were all for nothing.
• Blocking Stops All Damage: Leon manages to survive a Tyrant punching him by blocking the hit. While he is hurt by the hit, the tyrant proves to be strong enough to stop a tank.
• Body Horror:
  • Getting a Plaga parasite stuffed down your throat is pure Nightmare Fuel. Especially what happens afterwards. And remember; the Lickers and the Tyrants were human once.
  • The Ganados heads still explode into a whirling mass of blade-tipped tentacles like they did in Resident Evil 4, only this time in highly-detailed CGI. We even get to see it happening to someone in a slow, gradual manner before their heads explode. Poor JD.
  • Near the end of the film, a Tyrant gets hit by the 30mm cannon of an A-10 gunship. When the dust clears, we see that everything from the waist up has been obliterated, leaving only a bit of meat and the shredded remains of its spinal column and ribs.
• Boom, Headshot!: Seeing as how a good portion of the bad guys are Ganados, this is par for the course. Also how Leon and Buddy kill a Super Tyrant, with the 100mm main cannon of a BMP-3.
• Captain Ersatz: The way the Plagas reproduce seems to be inspired by Mind Flayers. But here, they latch onto the spinal cord rather than eating and displacing the host's brain. Also, Sacha is Ark Thompson with a different name; they even have the same haircut. Although this is a subversion, due to the fact that he and Leon are not friends.
• Cat Fight: Ada vs. Svetlana.
• Chekhov's Gun: Leon mentions early on in the film that removing a Plagas at best results in paralysis. Buddy ends up paralyzed but alive at the end of the film after a fake-out Mercy Kill.
• Clothing Damage: During Ada's knife fight with Svetlana, the latter slashes Ada's shirt, giving everyone a convenient look at Ada's bra and cleavage.
• Combat Stilettos: Ada spends most of the movie doing handsprings, backflips, and roundhouse kicks, and does it all in a pair of high heels. The heels on her shoes actually are combat stilettos: she uses a spring-loaded knife in one of the heels to cut herself down from a rope.
• Continuity Nod: A few to RE2, RE4 and RE5:
  • Ada's fight with Svetlana is sort of a nod to her fight with Annette Birkin. Although this one is more intense (and sexy).
  • Leon noticing drops coming from a ceiling revealing two Lickers revealing themselves in the same way they did in RE2.
  • Leon coming prepared and bringing a Rocket Launcher to kill the Tyrant. Too bad it doesn't work this time around.
  • Two of the Ganados have their head explode, revealing the tentacled Plaga abominations within, just like in RE4.
  • The way we saw the first onscreen victim of the Plaga get infected is similar to 5's.
  • Ada obviously took Leon's advice in regards to knives and close encounters. Too bad it didn't do her any good against Svetlana.
  • Once again, Leon gets captured, tied down and loses a cool article of clothing (in this case, a tactical vest).
  • Also, Ada gets captured by the bad guys. Unlike the last time, she's smart enough to keep a hidden blade handy to cut herself free.
  • A near-dead soldier grabs Leon's ankle, just as how a downed female zombie did to Leon 15 years earlier.
• Cool vs. Awesome: Lickers vs Tyrants.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Most fights against the Lickers end up this way, with the local militia at best getting one or two kills onscreen. Reversed when the Tyrants are unleashed.
  • Said Tyrants get wiped off the face of the Earth in seconds by A-10 gunships.
• Crazy-Prepared: When Ada is captured by the enemy and tied to a pole by her hands, she reveals a hidden blade inside one of her high heels and uses it to cut herself loose, all while berating her captors for not even bothering to "pat her down."
• Deadpan Snarker: By this time, it's pretty obvious Leon uses humor to get through the increasingly horrifying life-or-death situations he finds himself in. He does know when to rein it back, though.
• Did They or Didn't They?: The way Ada asks Leon about when they might "carry on from where [they] left off that night" leaves it ambiguous as to how far they got, but it clearly hasn't resolved anything between them.
• Disney Death: A Licker is on the receiving end of one. Subverted with the two Tyrants inside the elevator.
• Dying as Yourself: Several infected characters attempt to do this, or have others do it for them before they turn.
• Early-Bird Cameo: At the very end of the film when Ada gives the Plagas sample to her client, said client is Derek C. Simmons hidden in shadow who has her wanted status removed due to his high position in power. This would foreshadow his existence for Resident Evil 6.
• Elite Mooks:
  • The Lickers.
  • The guards in riot gear who protect the underground facility as well.
• Expy: Buddy◊ bears an uncanny resemblance to the poster boy◊ for Final Fantasy XIV.
• Fanservice: The aforementioned clothing damage scene, as well as a Shirtless Scene for Svetlana, ostensibly to show off several scars she has on her body. How she got them is never revealed.
• Foreshadowing: When JD asks Leon about a cure for the plaga, he says that about the only thing anyone can do is sever their spinal cord. However, he also says that they'll at best, be crippled, or at worst, die. He does this to Buddy at the end. Although he loses the use of his legs, he seems to be cured of the plaga he injected himself with earlier.
• From Bad to Worse: As if the civil war wasn't bad enough, Lickers being controlled by a human start fighting with government troops in the underground lair, two Tyrants also show up. They promptly destroy every Licker that attempts to fight them.
• Government Conspiracy: U.S. and Russia's involvement in Eastern Slav Republic's conflict is very dubious. Turns out that the Eastern Slav government aren't just fighting B.O.W.s. They are actively producing them for black market sale. Svetlana also makes a secret deal with the leaders of the rebels to share in the profits, only to kill them when they cease being useful and to look good in front of the international community. When the Americans and Russians found out, they backed out of the conflict and came back as a joint invasion to put an end to the war, possibly to protect themselves from the public backlash that would ensure from supporting the Eastern Slav government in the first place.
• Gunship Rescue: Just when it looks like Buddy and Leon are about to die at the hands of a pair of Super Tyrants, two A-10 Thunderbolt II's of the U.S. Air Force swoop in and save the day.
• Half the Man He Used to Be:
  • One of the Tyrants rips a Licker in half with his bare hands.
  • Also, a Tyrant gets shredded in half by an A-10 Warthog's Avenger main gun.
• Hero-Tracking Failure: When the government troops fire on Leon in the underground facility. Hilariously they hit their own men, although it's justified as they had him completely surrounded at the time, so were in the line of fire of other soldiers when the room went dark.
• Hive Mind: Every Plagas infected is controlled by a Dominant-strain Plaga.
• Humanoid Abomination: The T-013 Tyrant is certainly humanoid. Until his power limiter became damaged, and he mutated. A little less humanoid, but still with a human face.
• Idiot Ball: The Eastern Slav Republic government receives a consultant from the BSAA, offering advice on their current bioterrorism problem. They let her right in and allow her access to the President herself as well as her council. It takes them a full day to realize that her credentials aren't legit and that she's an infiltrator. All this during a civil war in which the President herself is under constant threat of assassination. Add to this the fact that they don't put a security detail on her to prevent her from discovering their own sizable B.O.W. armament. The narrative makes a big deal out of Svetlana's bad ass credentials, and yet she and her staff are shown to be blitheringly incompetent by this oversight.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: The soldiers who fight the Lickers cannot hit even one. The armored soldiers in the facility do a modest bit better (even if Armor Is Useless), but they're packing SR-2M sub-machineguns, which are rather small alongside Leon's Kalashnikov.
• Implacable Man: The Tyrants.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Leon carries a flask full of booze. Buddy and JD also help themselves to Leon's booze.
• Karma Houdini: Svetlana (possibly to keep her quiet), and arguably Buddy.
• Lady of War: Svetlana, the President of the Eastern Slav Republic, looks like a standard-issue Western politician. She's a former combat instructor and can effortlessly hold her own in a fistfight with Ada and Leon.
• Large and in Charge: The Tyrants.
• Life-or-Limb Decision: It's mentioned with how deeply the Plaga embeds in the central nervous system, a host's only options to avoid becoming a Ganado are suicide or removal, which will at best result in paralysis. Buddy tries to choose death but, after Leon's intervention, is seen in a wheelchair in the final scene.
• Lightning Bruiser: In contrast to their usual portrayal in the games, the Tyrant variants in the film are this. Oh, Mr. X isn't all that bad, Mr. Kennedy? Here: have Mr. X at a dead run.
• Love the Product, Hate the Producer: JD lives and fights against the government of an East Slav Republic, but voices extreme love for American Fast Food and Movies to the point of Foreign Culture Fetish. When asked by Leon, JD admits he hates America and its government but absolutely adores the stuff it produces.
• Kung-Shui: Ada punts a table at Svetlana. She later knocks a pitcher full of water at her.
• Made of Iron: Leon must be made of this. He gets smacked around by a Tyrant, and smashed against a pillar, and he just gets up and keeps going.
• Magic Skirt: Semi-averted with Ada. Played straight with Svetlana.
• Mission Control: Ingrid Hunnigan is once again Leon's handler.
• Mooks: The Ganado.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Listen carefully during the first scene in the church: the background music is the save room music from either the classic games or Resident Evil 4 in particular.
  • The Tyrants look a lot like the established T-103 line of Tyrants that includes Mr. X from Resident Evil 2, the Tyrant from Code: Veronica, and others.
  • invoked The fact that the three Super Tyrants are dispatched with a tank and by attack jets could be a Genius Bonus one: in The Umbrella Chronicles, one of the files notes that Tyrants (specifically the Tyrant-Armored Lethal Organic System) are much less effective against armored vehicles and aerial vehicles.
  • The scene of Leon wandering around in the underground tunnels with a flashlight for a few minutes before he comes across J.D. looks like the gameplay footage of an early, scrapped version of Resident Evil 4.
• No One Gets Left Behind: Leon, who is out of ammo, tries to take on two Super Tyrants with only a knife rather than run away and leave Buddy, who can't run unaided, even though Buddy left him for dead earlier and has been an ally for just minutes. Thankfully, a couple of fighter jets blast the Tyrants before Leon and Buddy can get smashed to a pulp. Still borders on Honor Before Reason, though.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Both Leon and Buddy when the Tyrants are unleashed upon them.
  • You can just imagine the look on Leon's face when the Super Tyrant not only dodges the first RPG, but actually catches the second one and sends it towards Leon as a makeshift mortar.
  • Ada has one when Svetlana steps in and takes the fight to her.
  • Svetlana has one when she is notified that the Americans and Russians have invaded the country.
• Ominous Walk: The Tyrants' default movement.
• One-Winged Angel: The Tyrants when their limiters are damaged/removed.
• Our Zombies Are Different:
  • The Ganados are of the Type PS variety.
  • Lickers are a heavily mutated Type P.
• Out of the Inferno: The Tyrants. Twice. One also had its Power Limiter suit removed because of this.
• Power Degeneration: The Lickers in the ESR are under humans' direct control. Plagas have been used to provide a master-slave relationship, allowing a human to inject a parasite and control the Lickers via direct ultrasonic commands. Unfortunately, doing so will eventually turn the human into a Ganado.
• Power Limiter: The suits worn by the Tyrants initially. However, once it comes off...
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Leon delivers a real snarky one to the Tyrant before blowing its head off.
  Leon: This might hurt a little.
• Punch Catch: During their fight, Ada appears to successfully punch Svetlana in the face. Svetlana's head snaps to the side... and then the camera pans to reveal that she actually caught Ada's fist.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: ESR President Svetlana Belikova holds her own against Resident Evil mainstays Leon S. Kennedy and Ada Wong without breaking a sweat. The Boss would be very proud.
• Rasputinian Death: One of the Tyrants is repeatedly shot, swarmed by Lickers, blown up by exploding fuel tanks, blown up with an exploding fuel truck, shot with an RPG, and finally run over and shot at point-blank range by a tank. Then run over again for good measure.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Buddy, and whoever else has the Master Plagas.
• Red Shirt: The Lickers again, fighting the Tyrants to save Leon. The audience won't believe how relieved they are seeing a wave of Lickers coming Leon's way. Unfortunately, they get easily killed by the Tyrants.
• Ruritania: As with most of the recent Resident Evil games, Damnation is set in a fictional country. This time, it's somewhere in war-torn Eastern Europe. With a dose of No Communities Were Harmed as Capcom confirmed that the Eastern Slav Republic is a counterpart of Ukraine.
• Scenery Censor: One shot during Ada's cartwheel is blocked by a gun that is kicked up towards the ceiling.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Basically Leon's entire reason for disobeying his order to pull out.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: In the end, it was revealed that the American and Russian government were aware that Svetlana was secretly manufacturing B.O.W.s behind their backs, therefore, by the beginning of the story, they were already secretly planning a coordinated military intervention against the Eastern Slav Republic to overthrow Svetlana's government and put an end to the civil war. This means that aside from saving Buddy's life at the cost of crippling his legs, everything would have happened almost exactly the same even without his intervention.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: While Leon is still a constant source of deadpan comedy, JD is killed off halfway through the movie.
• Shoot the Fuel Tank: Leon tries this to kill the attacking Tyrant. It just damages its limiter. He actually does it correctly by shooting tracer rounds into the fuel that is leaking out and causing it to catch on fire.
• Shout-Out: Leon's CIA contact uses the codename "Scarecrow". After finding him, he makes several allusions to The Wizard of Oz, including calling a Licker a "cowardly lion".
• Shown Their Work: An impressive amount of research must have went into this film.
  • For starters, almost all of the weapons depicted would likely be encountered in Eastern Europe, despite several having been rarely or never shown in a film before and are modeled to an impressive level of detail.
  • The opening credits make heavy use of Cyrilic, which is also consistently seen on signs and billboards throughout the film.
  • Leon empties his gun's magazine and properly reloads it with tracer rounds to set off a tanker truck explosion.
  • The Russian troops at the end of the film are using accurately-depicted weapons, camouflage and vehicles. Normally, even big-budget Hollywood films get at least one of these wrong. And this is coming from a company that, a decade and a half previously, made reference to "The United States Federal Police Department" and "The Federal Council."
• Stomp on Them While They Are Down: The Tyrants squash a couple of Lickers under their boots with gruesome results.
• Tank Goodness: Kozachenko commandeers a tank to fight off the Super Tyrant.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
  • The way the Tyrant kills some of the Lickers. It sometimes makes you feel sorry for them.
  • About two dozen or so of Svetlana's elite troops open up with sub-machine guns on a single Licker. It still manages to take a swipe at the mook who checks to see if it's dead.
• Tragic Keepsake: Buddy is seen with JD's flask in the ending.
• Tranquil Fury: Svetlana while telling Leon exactly who and what she is. She's clearly angry, but maintains her cool while doing so.
• Use Their Own Weapon Against Them: During her fight with Svetlana, Ada grabs knife from a display case to use as a weapon. Svetlana easily evades Ada's attacks and grabs the knife from her, using it to slash at Ada's top.
• The Worf Effect:
  • Svetlana demonstrates this by easily defeating Ada Wong, whom is often portrayed as one of the strongest and most calculating characters in Resident Evil.
  • Lickers pose a challenge to infantry and ordinary people like Leon. However, Lickers easily get curb-stomped by Tyrants to show that Leon has harder threats to deal with.
• Villainous Rescue:
  • Leon is saved a couple of times from the Tyrants by the Lickers controlled by Buddy.
    Leon: Never thought I'd be saved by B.O.W.'s.
  • Svetlana stating that she has disposed of the Elders, thus making sure none remains in the post-war Eastern Slav Republic.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Alluded to. JD tries telling Leon that he wouldn't understand why the rebels are doing what they are doing. Leon cuts him off and says that they won't see eye to eye on the issue.
• Zerg Rush: Kozachenko sends wave after wave of Lickers after his pursuing tyrant. They barely slow it down.

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