Zombie Kill of the Week: Resident Evil

This week’s zombie kill is an interspecies double whammy brought to you by the lovely but always deadly Mila Jovovich of Resident Evil. For Mila’s first truly inspiring zombie kill, she takes down a total of eight zombie Dobermans transformed into vicious killing machines by the spread of the T-virus.

Stuck on one of the lower levels of the Hive, Umbrella’s underground research facility, she narrowly escapes being eaten by one zombie dog. After shutting a metal door in its face she breathes a sigh of relief, but it’s shortlived as she turns around to face a pack of seven zombified dogs with nasty looking teeth and claws. Luckily Mila is a quick draw, and she takes them out one by one with her handy Umbrella issue handgun.

But just when she’s run out of bullets, the first zombie Doberman crashes into the room through an unsecured glass window. Out of ammo, Mila chucks her gun and uses the wall to catapult herself into the air. With a kung fu kick, she punts the undead beast as it leaps at her, sending zombie Fido the way of Old Yeller.

Mila’s second noteworthy kill comes nearing the film’s conclusion. James Purefoy’s character has stolen the antidote to the T-virus and left the remaining survivors behind to die. He makes a break for the train that will lead him to the surface, but is brutally killed and partially devoured by the Licker. As Mila arrives with the other survivors, Purefoy’s zombified corpse attacks her and Mila finishes him off with an axe.

Now I know what you’re thinking. Aside from the revenge angle, how could this kill even compare to Mila’s high wire acrobatics and slick marksmanship with the dogs just minutes before? For the answer we need to go behind the scenes.

The cast and filmmaker’s audio commentary that accompanies the deluxe version of the Resident Evil DVD features the stars of the film, Mila Jovovich and Michelle Rodriquez with Director Paul Anderson having a discussion about this particular zombie kill:

Paul Anderson: And also Mila should probably tell us about what happened in this scene.
Mila Jovovich: Ahh this was so horrendous.
Michelle Rodriguez: You hit him hard didn’t you?
Mila Jovovich: I did not hit him hard! At all!
Michelle Rodriguez: You hit everybody hard! What are you talking about?
Mila Jovovich: Okay, listen. First of all, I did not hit him hard. It was a plastic axe.
Michelle Rodriguez: It was a very hard plastic axe, if I recall. I was playing with that thing
Paul Anderson: I got calls from his agent.
Mila Jovovich: Yeah I’m sure you did, because all these male actors are such pussies.
Michelle Rodriguez: You’re kidding me… he got?… Yeah! I remember he was kinda pissed that day.
Mila Jovovich: He screamed at me so loud.
Michelle Rodriguez: Because it is kind of fucked up Mila. I mean come on.
Mila Jovovich: You know what, we are making a movie like this, accidents happen…
Michelle Rodriguez: Let me guess, you got into the role (laughs).
Mila Jovovich: I’d like to see him try to do this whole thing in a mini skirt.
Paul Anderson: I wouldn’t like to see that.
Michelle Rodriguez: She was PMS-ing that day James.
(Michelle Rodriguez & Paul Anderson make pained noises as they watch Mila finish off Purefoy on screen).
Michelle Rodriguez & Paul Anderson: Owww!
Mila Jovovich: Yeah, that’s right. Hurt, hurt, hurt asshole, hurt.
Paul Anderson: If we let that shot go on for another second you can see that she nailed him right in the head.
Mila Jovovich: You know what, he got so pissed at me and I’m sorry. It was an accident people.
Michelle Rodriguez: Shit happens
Mila Jovovich: It’s not like I wanted to do that. I should have for the all the shit he gave me.
Michelle Rodriguez: (to the audio tech) You can cut that right?