Resident Evil: The Final Chapter - The Official Movie Novelization

Resident Evil #5

by Tim Waggoner

EVIL COMES HOME

As the only survivor of what was meant to be humanity's final stand against the undead hordes, Alice must return to where the nightmare began--Raccoon City, where the Umbrella Corporation is gathering its forces for a final strike against the only remaining survivors of the apocalypse. In a race against time Alice will join forces with old friends, and an unlikely ally, in an action packed battle with undead hordes and new mutant monsters. Between regaining her superhuman abilities at Wesker's hand and Umbrella's impending attack, this will be Alice's most difficult adventure as she fights to save humanity, which is on the brink of oblivion.

MY NAME IS ALICE. THIS IS THE END OF MY STORY.

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Fiction, Media Tie In, Zombies

315 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 31, 2017

About the author

Tim Waggoner's first novel came out in 2001, and since then, he's published over sixty novels and eight collections of short stories. He writes original dark fantasy and horror, as well as media tie-ins. He's written tie-in fiction based on Supernatural, The X-Files, Alien, Doctor Who, Conan the Barbarian, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Grimm, and Transformers, among others, and he's written novelizations for films such as Ti West’s X-Trilogy, Halloween Kills, Terrifier 2 and 3, and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. He’s also the author of the award-winning guide to horror Writing in the Dark. He’s a four-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award, a one-time winner of the Scribe Award, and he’s been a two-time finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award and a one-time finalist for the Splatterpunk Award. He’s also a full-time tenured professor who teaches creative writing and composition at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio.

Reviews

[Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

[Aishu Rehman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book I had just watched the movie and loved it. The Book has answered the questions we all wanted to know since the beginning. Who is "Alice"? , What actually happened in Raccoon City? , What happens to.certain characters that we didn't see in the movie. The endings for the book and movie are different. (Spoiler Alert ) The end of the movie ends with Alice driving off with several of the flying creatures after her. This ending in the book is different and definitely gives an ending to the series. But there is an epilogue at the end which teases this might not be the end.

[The Last Coffe Bender · Rating 5 out of 5]

Açıkcası Resident Evil film serisinden çok fazla keyif alamamıştım. Bunun en büyük sebebi seçilen oyuncuların hepsinin oyundaki karakterlerle zerre bir benzerliği olmamasıydı. Son filmi izlemek için var olan tereddütlerimin imdadına filmin kitap uyarlaması yetişti. Kitap oldukça güzel uyarlanmış. Özelliklede hem filme sadık kalınıp hemde Resident Evil severlere keyif alınabilecek mükemmel bir kurgu ortaya çıkarılmış Serinin finali olduğu için aksiyon oldukça yüksekti. Bir ara kendimi tekrardan oyunun içindeymiş gibi hissedip gerim gerim gerildim. Filmin oyuncu seçimlerinden memnun değildim ama kitabın karakter betimlemeleri mükemmel. Her karakter o kadar ince ayrıntılarla betimlenmişki buda kitaba odaklanma katsayınızı artırmış. Senaryodan kitaplaştıran yazarın mükemmelliğinin yanında çevirmenide kocaman tebrik etmek istiyorum çünkü kesinlikle kitaba bir oyun havası verecek bir dil ile Türkçeye çevirmiş. Şimdi bu seriyi, daha doğrusu Resident Evil hastasıysanız kesinlikle bu kitabı okumalısınız!

[Mark Dickson · Rating 1 out of 5]

As much as this book is as tragically and horrifically written as you might expect of the novelisation of a critically maligned movie franchise, I loved every minute of it.

As a far-too hardcore fan of the movies, I ordered this book as a final farewell to the franchise that I've adored over the years, arguably far more than they deserve. However, after leaving the actual movie feeling cheated, I put this book to the side for a while.

However, after picking up this book and plowing through it because, let's be honest, it's a book that's very easy to read, it has all of the entertainment and batshit insanity that I wanted from this final film.

It fills in a lot of the plotholes that were introduced by the movie, even though I might be the only person who cares enough to actually notice, with throwaway lines that I latched onto with all of my heart. It shifts the focus away from the suddenly focal, but dreadfully boring, Dr Isaacs and gives the almighty Wesker some of his agency back.

However, what this book does not capture well is the charisma and attitude that Mila Jovovich so famously brought to the role of Alice. Alice is the bland and boring to the utmost degree, but functions perfectly adequately as a plug-and-play protagonist to drive the story forwards.

Let's be honest, you already know what you're going to be getting from a book like this and you already know if you're going to like it. Is it good? Absolutely not. Was I entertained?

From the moment that I picked it up until the second that I put it down.

[Taisynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished the final book of the Resident Evil novelizations in one sitting in a matter of hours; I was hooked to this until 4AM. The book was good, and filled in so many details the movies did not. It gave me a new appreciation for many of the characters.

I will say, at the risk of giving some spoilers, that the sudden appropriation of Angie’s story from the second movie/novelization into Alice feels odd. Instead of the Red Queen being a representation of Dr. Ashford’s daughter, we’re instead based on co-founder’s Dr. Marcus’s daughter Alicia. Not only that, the Red Queen is still alive and is in fact also the White Queen. It’s kind of destroys the build up of the previous novelizations, but perhaps they were out of ideas or regretted losing Angie as a character.

There’s some continuity issues, such as instead of having a male president like in the previous novelizations, we’re told the president was female.

Either way, I still enjoyed the ride and thrill of this novel. I loved finding out about the fate of Becky, and the results of the airborne antivirus giving the T-Virus it’s final absolution; well, except for what survived underground in the labs. Perhaps they were hoping for a continuation of the movie series later down the line.

Also, loved the humor of Alicia and Wesker in their final moments. He deserved what he got.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you love the RE franchise, I would definitely recommend picking up this book. There is enough added content to make it more than just a rehash of The Final Chapter script, including nice character moments and motivations. The best thing about it is the way in which it really presents TFC as an immediate continuation of RE: Retribution, tying up all the loose ends from that film and the franchise in general. My favorite thing was the addition of Becky and finally finding out her fate.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I'm not a fan of the movies, I'm still on for anything that is Resident Evil related thus, I have to read this book and if you have watched the movie, you will notice that there are quite a bit of content that was not shown in the movie which was revealed in the book. I think that is a nice touch to the book as it makes Resident Evil: The Final Chapter more complete as compared to the movie.

[Adrian Santiago · Rating 1 out of 5]

A list of everything WRONG with this novelization, story and changes within the changes which also makes obvius the author didn't even search info before starting:

*Alice HAD a story and life before "waking up" in Umbrella in the first novelization. And now she is a "clon" for a VERY bad plot twist.
*The red queen had shown emotions on the first novel, and now they say she didn't have, until an "Alicia" sabotaged her comands.
*On the first novel there's actually a very long description of the one who created the red queen (even tide to Lissa for a good plot). And now Isaacs and Marcus did it.
*They don't just mention Isaacs related to reopening the Hive, but they remark he did it himself and had the meaning to.
*There's actually a lot of "explosives" left behind by the team on the first movie/novel that now are here. Which actually never happened, which they would have used on the mirrors room to scape, to blow up the red queen or to open an scape from the hive.
*There's actually also granades from the team that are still working more than 10 years later.
*If the red queen "had been helping Alice" from the start, why she didn't left guns for the team while they entered the hive?
*K-mart just dissapeared even if in the end they mention her as dead.
*VERY POOR plot on Isaacs becoming a religious madman.
*You just don't make the last chapter about a character that was just mentioned two or three times on the novel.
*If on the same chapter Beckie is mentioned to walk searching food, cover and so on, why the red queen said she didn't found her, until the end of the novel.
*Killing Jill, Leon and Ada just as secondary characters in a paragraph is an absolute INSULT to the fans of the saga. And a very poor and stupid why of doing it.
*Which is also stupid is how this massive giant thing that killed them is never mentioned again.
*How the fuck did Claire survived the explosion while still being under the hive?
*Whatever happened to the other Umbrella members, and the two convoys still riding?
*Sure, a cure can spread and act just in 2 seconds...

I have a lot more of points, but whatever. It's not just a poor script of the worst movie on the franchise, it's also a demostration of the VERY poor skills of the author as a writer.
There's no excuse.

[luna ☾ · Rating 3 out of 5]

✧ Completed: 12 January 2023
✧ TW: Blood and Gore depiction
✧ Review Type: In-Depth / Good vs. Bad / Quickfire / General

✧ Read for: 🍭 2023 Popsugar Reading Challenge 🍭
↠ A book based on a popular movie

Zombies are always fun.
_______________

【★★★★☆】✧ Plot
↠ It's been a little while since I watched the movies (which I loved) but this book really added a lot more context to the story than the movies were able to! I mean it was almost identical to the corresponding movie but this book added some extra scenes and dialogue and also insight into the thought processing of some of the characters it focused on which really added to the whole thing.

【★★★★☆】✧ Characters & Relationships

【★★★★☆】✧ Conflict

【★★★☆☆】✧ World-building
↠ There are names for the different zombie variations, y'all. This whole time I was just like "it's that really tall zombie with the massive fucking axe/hammer thing" or "the zombie with tentacles coming out of the mouth" and meanwhile, they had names x.x

Other than that, the book didn't really add much more to the world-building (background story building?) that already existed in the movies so I can't really credit that to the book.

EXCEPT for that last chapter????? hELLO? That last bit made me o research if another movie was coming kjashhdsak. The answer is no: there will be no further movies in this specific vein of the resident evil universe. But if they wanna prove me wrong? I will not complain.

【★★★☆☆】✧ Writing Style / Pace / Dialogue

【★★★☆☆】✧ Reader engagement
↠ Ngl, if I didn't already know what was happening or what was going to happen, I probably would have lagged in interest.

【★★★☆☆】✧ Enjoyment

【★★★☆☆】✧ Impact

_______________

【★★★☆☆】✧ Final rating
I loved reading this and having the actual movie playing out in my head. Alice and Clare has literally been my sheroes since I was little T-T

[Don Kyo · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF page 65

I can't really blame anyone but myself for not liking this book. I have not read the previous four Resident Evil books, nor seen the movies, nor played any of the games. I picked this up at a Dollar Tree because I thought it would be funny to read.

And yeah, it's as ridiculous as I thought it would be, which is a positive. The book drops us in the middle of the White House as Alice (the main character), Wesker, Jill Valentine, and Leon Kennedy face down hoards of zombies. Absolute insanity. Like I said, never played the games, but I know who the last three characters are. I have played Marvel vs Capcom. Which is why it really caught me off guard when Leon and Jill die back to back in an anticlimactic fashion. But still, this is not why I stopped reading.

I stopped reading because the writing is bad! It's 100% descriptive, no emotion is put anywhere in this book. Things happen, we are told how they happen, occasionally we are told what Alice feels, but it's never... written? There's just no punch or weight to anything. It's why Jill and Leon's deaths felt so sudden. I just couldn't make it through this novel, I'm sorry Resident Evil stans.

[Nadhirah Nazarudin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Resident Evil is one of my favourite movie franchise and this book does not disappoint me. It gives a better understanding of the movie with bits and pieces of back stories, scattered throughout the book. The introduction of the book also tells about the first ever patient that became the Undead before the release of the T-Virus from the Hive in Racoon City.

It also manage to capture all the essences of the Final Chapter. Even the fight scenes are written nicely without any dragging. Loved it!

[Andreea M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy to read. I love the Resident Evil saga. It completes the story and can work as a stand alone as well.

However there are a lot of characters that might not make sense for those who only read this book. There's an entire universe to explore.

Nevertheless I stil recommend this book to anyone who likes horror, zombie, apocaliptic scenarios packed with fast paced action.

[Nina Gliza · Rating 5 out of 5]

✨4.5/5✨

Wonderful. The final book is nothing short of masterful for me, and kept me engaged with each chapter that passed. As someone who has grown up watching the Resident Evil Movies, Alice has become an important figure to me. She's a badass, and she is much more than who people perceive her to be. I'm glad to be closing this journey with her.

[Shaun Filion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent retelling of the movie. It was even better having extra stories of characters, and what happened to them, that were not shown in the movie. Although previous novelizations of the previous movies, did delve a little deeper into focusing on other characters. A couple of plot points were still a bit odd, as they were in the movie. But still a fun read overall.

[nico · Rating 1 out of 5]

would've rated 2 stars if it weren't for the fact that by the end alice finds becky again but there's absolutely no mention of claire ?? missed out on the opportunity to make alice and claire becky's mom's and have them be a happy family

[Jean-Francois Boivin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is what a novelization should be! On top of being well-written and researched (Waggoner actually knows about the previous movies in the series), it is 100% faithful to the script. Best of all, this book adds a lot of new elements not seen in the movie.

After the flashback intro (about the early history of Umbrella and the T-virus), pages 35-70 recount the events right from the end of Retribution to the opening of the movie The Final Chapter in Washington, D.C., so we actually find out what happens to Jill Valentine, Leon Kennedy and Ada Wong, and why Wesker suddenly turned from being an apparent ally back to a villain once more. Those events are not even mentioned in the movie, so I found these sequences fascinating.

The middle part if an accurate depiction of the scenes and dialogue from the movie, although one early fight scene between Alice and a flying creature (Infector?) is omitted. Without spoiling it, the movie covers the story of Alice and her relationship to the Red Queen, her fight against Isaacs, Wesker and Umbrella, and her fight to save the Human race (with help from Claire Redfield and other new friends).

Another sub-plot gets resolved in the final chapter which takes place after the movie's ending, where we find out what happened to Becky the little clone girl that Alice "adopted" in the last movie, and who also doesn't get mentioned in the movie.

This is a great read for fans of the movies, and I recommend at least to read the early chapters to know what happens between the two movies!

[Nicholas Killinen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably my least favorite read out of all the books. Which is unfortunate, I was hoping the book would be better then the movie.

[Rroyce333 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for more of a novel description of the movie instead of a separate work kind of like the movie.

[Martein Joaquim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was expecting this to be the last movie I guess not of Resident Evil The Final Chapter

[Jane Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/10 - 5

[Antonio Galarza · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Kind of a later review. I've been busy.)

Really entertaining from start to finish. The characters that did not appear in the film were due to the artists being in other projects when the film was suspended due to the pregnancy of the main actress. Therefore the beginning of the film was cut. A pity really, it was the part with the most action.

All your questions are answered in this great novel. I would give it three stars because it was good but nothing shocking or new that I have seen before. That's not to say it was a bad book. There is no such thing. Even the most poorly written book takes work to write. Never play on such things without writing a book first.

Well anyway, I give it four stars for the epilogue which was completely unexpected but welcome. Should the author continue these novels and write a sequel in the future - or contact me and I'll write it - it would be a great one to tell.

[David Griffith · Rating 5 out of 5]

It tied up the series well, the book even had some differences from the film, like showing the Whitehouse battle and showing you what happened to the characters from the end of the last installment. (Which while what happened to them irked me some, the rest of the story makes up for it.) The author even does a good job trying to make sense of the series's convoluted plot line as well as even trying to make sense of what continuity errors cropped up throughout the series. While it's not perfect it's a fun ride and an epic enough end to the series.