Resident Evil’s Bryan Nearly Took a 150-Pound Hit During Filming
Zach Cregger said a practical blood-bag effect missed Austin Abrams by inches, and the dangerous take remains in the finished film.
Austin Abrams nearly suffered a fatal accident while filming Zach Cregger’s upcoming Resident Evil movie. The actor was running through a street as stunt bodies fell from nearby rooftops, and one of the practical effects detonated far earlier than planned.
Cregger described the sequence during an interview with Dread Central. Abrams’ character, Bryan, runs while zombie bodies leap from buildings on both sides of the street. Rather than rely on visual effects, the production used cranes, blood bags built to the size and weight of human bodies, and repeated rehearsals to coordinate the timing.
According to Cregger, the bags weighed roughly 150 pounds. One released too soon and missed Abrams by only a few inches. Had he taken a step to the right, the director said, the impact could have killed him.
“And it’s in the movie. So it’s fucking worth it,” Cregger said.
Abrams was safe after the incident, although the source material notes that he sustained minor injuries at other points during production. Cregger directed the film from a screenplay written with Shay Hatten. Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, and Paul Walter Hauser are also part of the cast.
Austin Abrams Plays Bryan
Abrams, known for Euphoria and Cregger’s Weapons, plays Bryan, a medical courier delivering a package to Raccoon City General Hospital when an outbreak turns the trip into a fight for survival.
A behind-closed-doors San Diego Comic-Con screening showed Bryan stopping near a wrecked police car before confronting a fast-moving zombie woman. Cregger’s film is also taking a different route from the games by focusing on original characters rather than Leon S. Kennedy, as covered in the movie’s original-character approach.
Resident Evil is scheduled to hit theaters on September 18. The practical stunt may make that rooftop chase especially tense once audiences see how close the effect came to Abrams.
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