Who Is Bryan in ‘Resident Evil’? Meet Austin Abrams’ Terrified Hero at the Center of Zach Cregger’s Franchise Reboot
Zach Cregger’s take on ‘Resident Evil‘ has finally hit theaters, and audiences are meeting a protagonist who feels nothing like the franchise’s past leads. His name is Bryan, and he is not a special forces operative or a government agent with years of combat training behind him.
Bryan is a medical courier who finds himself experiencing the worst case scenario, at the center of a deadly viral outbreak causing living beings to mutate into grotesque monsters. He is played by Austin Abrams, and his ordinary job is exactly what makes this new ‘Resident Evil’ so unnerving to watch.
Austin Abrams Brings Bryan To Life
Austin Abrams, known to many viewers from ‘Euphoria,’ takes on the role of Bryan as the movie’s protagonist, a medical courier who’s thrown into a desperate and lonely struggle for survival. He is joined in the cast by Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, Paul Walter Hauser, Johnno Wilson, Shaun W. Loeser, and Devon Deshaun Stewart, rounding out the survivors caught up in the same nightmare.
Critics have already zeroed in on how much of the film rests on Abrams’ shoulders. One Rotten Tomatoes review noted that Abrams is rarely offscreen except in point of view shots, giving a performance which is both low key and virtuoso in its way, with realistic squeals of terror that are especially funny.
Another critic wrote that Abrams plays comedic and emotional desperation with a deceptively fine tuned subtlety, and his act of survival is visceral and immediate, and by turns goofy and wry.
That balance of humor and dread seems to be exactly what Cregger was chasing. Fans who grew up associating ‘Resident Evil’ with Milla Jovovich’s stylized gunplay are instead getting a courier who screams, stumbles, and barely survives, which is a deliberate departure the director has been open about.
Bryan’s Mission in Raccoon City
The plot kicks off with something almost mundane. Bryan has limited time to deliver his package, with the entirety of Raccoon City between him and his destination, and he finds himself face to face with true evil as he attempts to come out of his blood soaked quest alive. That single delivery run becomes the entire engine of the movie.
Rotten Tomatoes describes the setup similarly, noting that Bryan is a medical courier who unwittingly finds himself in an action packed, non stop race for survival as one fateful, horrifying night collapses around him in chaos. There is no elaborate mythology dump before the chaos starts. The infection has already begun, and Bryan is simply the wrong person, in the wrong van, at the wrong time.
Wikipedia notes that the story is set during events paralleling the game Resident Evil 2, albeit in a modern era, following Bryan as he must fight through a viral outbreak of infected monsters in Raccoon City during a delivery. Cherry, Reis, Wilson, and Hauser all appear in supporting roles as people Bryan crosses paths with along the way.
Zach Cregger’s Vision for a Reinvented ‘Resident Evil’
Cregger, fresh off directing ‘Weapons’ and ‘Barbarian,’ has made it clear he did not want to simply remake the video games for the screen. Speaking to IGN at San Diego Comic Con, Cregger explained his approach directly. “I am not trying to adapt a video game, I’m not using the characters from the games,” he said, adding that he felt Leon and Claire already exist so perfectly in the games that casting them for his film would only work to the detriment of what he was trying to do.
That is why ‘Resident Evil’ introduces an entirely new character in Bryan rather than leaning on Leon Kennedy or Claire Redfield. Rotten Tomatoes’ official synopsis reinforces this fresh angle, describing the film as coming from the mind of visionary filmmaker Zach Cregger, a thrilling and terrifying reinvention of the Resident Evil franchise.
Early reception suggests the gamble paid off, with critics calling it one of the most compelling video game adaptations of all time, designed to thrill and frighten, injecting the spirit of the game but running wild with it through the Cregger lens, managing to be both terrifying and something else entirely.
Why Bryan Could Be a Turning Point for the Franchise
The choice to center ‘Resident Evil’ on an unassuming courier instead of a trained hero appears to be resonating commercially as well as critically. Industry tracking site Box Office Pro has the film positioned for a record breaking franchise debut, with the film charting fifty one percent awareness and fifty two percent interest, and analysts projecting it could be the biggest opening for both the Resident Evil franchise and for Cregger personally.
For context on just how significant that would be, no previous Resident Evil film has crossed twenty seven million dollars in its opening frame, with Afterlife holding the record at 26.65 million from 2010, Extinction and Apocalypse both around 23 million, the 2002 original at 17.7 million, and Welcome to Raccoon City the lowest at 5.3 million. A courier with no combat background may end up doing what soldiers and special agents in earlier films could not.
Bryan’s ordinary, breakable humanity seems to be exactly what has pulled longtime fans and new viewers alike into this version of Raccoon City. Now that his blood soaked delivery run is finally playing out on the big screen, do you think Bryan deserves to become the new face of ‘Resident Evil,’ or are you still holding out hope for Leon and Claire’s eventual return?
