Ali Larter missed seven episodes of her TV series Heroes (2006) in order to appear in the film.

The weird creatures with the flower-like mouths are called Majini. They are lifted directly from the game Resident Evil 5 (2009). It is interesting to note that in the game, the Majini are not the result of infection with the T-virus, but with a parasitic organism created by Umbrella's rival Tricell Inc that's based on the arachnid Las Plaga parasite discovered in Resident Evil 4 (2005). The movie does not provide an explanation for the majini's appearance, and implies it is simply a new feature of the T-virus. Although the Plaga parasite would eventually be introduced in the next film Resident Evil: Retribution (2012), it has very different characteristics from the games.

After seeing footage of James Cameron's Avatar (2009), Paul W.S. Anderson was sold on the idea of making the film in 3D. He and his crew spent two weeks in pre-production learning how to properly use the 3D camera system.

During filming, Milla Jovovich accidentally shot out a $100,000 camera.

Claire Redfield wears a red vest, her primary outfit from her game appearances.

With a gross of around $300 million worldwide, the film is the highest-grossing Canadian film and also the highest-grossing entry in the Resident Evil film series until the sixth and final entry in the series Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016) grossed $321 million.

The production was set to shoot on one of Toronto's largest studios but the day before they were due to begin filming, it burned down.

The added size and weight of the 3D cameras meant the filmmakers were unable to use a Steadicam rig. Instead, the camera operator filmed the moving and tracking shots on a Segway.

The sequence in Tokyo after the helicopter crash was extended. According to the script, Alice would search through the debris and would discover the body of Albert Wesker. She would shoot him repeatedly to ensure he died. After Alice left, Wesker's body would begin to regenerate and even start forming the Majini mouth.

During the intro, one of the snipers remarks "Biohazard terminated." 'Biohazard' is the original title of the Resident Evil series, and it was called that in Japan.

Although never mentioned explicitly in the final cut, the script clarifies that despite Wesker's injection, Alice's blood system continues to fight off the antibodies, perhaps explaining why she is not completely reduced to normal.

The name of this movie "Afterlife" is the same working title that was used in the previous movie before it became "Extinction".

The back-story reveals that the trip of Claire and K-Mart from Nevada to Alaska took a lot longer than they had anticipated. When Alice finds the abandoned chopper and reads the diary, there are notes written by K-Mart describing their course. They made many stops for refueling and new supplies and they eventually arrived at Alaska a few days before Alice.

Shawn Roberts was originally set to audition for the part of Chris Redfield before Wentworth Miller took the role. Roberts landed the part of Albert Wesker instead, played in Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) by Jason O'Mara who wasn't available to reprise the role.

Boris Kodjoe trained for six weeks to perform his own stunts. During filming, he dislocated his knee performing one of these stunts.

In the movie, the BOW (bio-organic weapon) that wields a heavy ax is called the Axeman, but in Resident Evil 5 (2009), they're called Executioners.

The only film in the series to feature Chris Redfield, a character from the video games. Ironically, Chris is one of the most featured elements in the games, showing up as a playable character in most of the main series games.

This marks the fourth time that Paul W.S. Anderson has written the script for a Resident Evil movie. He has written all of them since the first one. This also marks the second time Anderson has directed a Resident Evil movie, something no other director has done. In an interview, Anderson stated that his dissatisfaction with Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997) (with which he had no affiliation) had led to him stay with the Resident Evil franchise, so that he could be responsible for how future movies turned out.

Filming in 3D added 20% to the budget.

The ship used for Arcadia scenes was actually moored on the docks in Toronto the entire time during the shoot. The docks were then all removed digitally.

The first 'Resident Evil' film to be released in IMAX.

When Alice lands at the Alaskan airfield filled with planes, there was in reality only 7 planes in the shot. The rest were added in digitally.

The fact that Japan is one of the last areas on the planet to be infected provides a viable explanation as to why the main headquarters of Umbrella would take refuge in Tokyo.

This is the first live-action movie based on a video game to be in 3-D.

The plane Alice flies is a Russian-built Yakovlev Yak-52.

The first film in the series with main credits in the beginning displaying the names of cast and crew. The previous three films had only end credits.

The opening scene in the movie is quite symbolic - all people are carrying umbrellas in the rain except the zombie girl. "Umbrella" is also the name of the corporation who is responsible for the creation and spread of the T-Virus, on which the main plot of the Resident Evil series is based.

The film was released on the same day as Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) six years earlier.

Principal photography took place over a period of 55 days.

The first Resident Evil movie not to feature nudity.

Milla Jovovich's first Resident Evil movie since becoming a mother.

This is the only Resident Evil film in this series that doesn't have a novelization.

In past Resident Evil movies Alice has yellow-blond hair with some of her natural brown color, but in this movie, Alice's hair is not yellow-blond, but entirely brown-black.

Survivors being stuck inside of a building with a sea of zombies outside is a reference to George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978).

Johnny Messner auditioned for the role of Chris Redfield.

This was the first film to feature Smith and Wesson's new .460 Magnum revolver, which replaced the .454 Casul as the second most powerful production handgun in the world after the .500 Smith and Wesson Magnum.

Wentworth Miller jokingly admits he was nervous about his character Chris Redfield being similar to his Prison Break (2005) character Michael Scoffield: in both cases, he is in a prison and his first lines are "I know a way out of here".

A crank handle is seen flying past the camera, this is a subtle nod to the crank handles prominently featured in all of the resident evil games.

The final tease that plays in the midst of the end credits with Sienna Guillory reprising her role as Jill Valentine was actually the very first scene shot.

The scarab devices strapped to the survivors and the giant zombie Axeman are lifted from the video game Resident Evil 5 (2009).

The intention of writer/director Paul W.S. Anderson was that this would be the first film in the series to have an optimistic ending. The producers, however, wanted an intense cliffhanger as the ending. The director added the massive attack, leaving the film open ended.

Despite prominent billing for actress Spencer Locke, her screen time is very limited since she appears briefly at the end. Additionally, the character of K-Mart does not utter a single line of dialogue during the entire film (excluding archive footage from Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)).

Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory), who shows up in the mid-credits scene, is being manipulated through a device she is wearing on her chest. The same thing happened to Jill in the game Resident Evil 5 (2009).  Also, in both cases, Jill wears a blue battle suit and has blond hair.

The first entry in the series where Alice is never seen naked. At one point, she does prepare to take her clothes off and have a shower, but immediately stops undressing after noticing a peeping tom. In the original script however, she had a shower scene during which she would be watched by someone or something before being attacked by monsters.

Originally the film would end on a positive note with Alice's transmission on the Arcadia radio and the newly freed survivors assembling on the ship's platform.

Claire Redfield (played by Ali Larter) running away from the ax-wielding BOW (bio-organic weapon) as it slashes at her and breaks down much of the surrounding is a visual reference to Resident Evil - Code: Veronica (2000). In that game, Claire runs away from a mutated Steve as he tries to hit her with his ax.

The fight between Chris and Claire against Wesker is almost identical to the fight in Resident Evil 5 (2009), where Wesker battles Chris and Sheva on a giant ship. Many of the moves and pieces of dialogue are nearly shot-for-shot the same, and Wesker is wearing the same costume.

First film where Chris and Jill are both present. However, they never meet or share any scenes in the film, unlike the Resident Evil games where the two are very close colleagues. In fact, the couple have worked together in Resident Evil (1996), Resident Evil: Revelations (2012) and Resident Evil 5 (2009).

Chris and Claire confronting Wesker is slightly reminiscent of Resident Evil - Code: Veronica (2000), where Wesker uses Claire as bait to get revenge on her brother Chris. Coincidently, in Code Veronica, Wesker also shows his superhuman powers during fights with both Chris and Claire separately, and at the end, a fight with Chris leaves him with severe burns on his face, similar to the confrontation with Alice in the first act of the movie.

Mistakes

When the Axe zombie hits the prison gates, he receives a few shots in the head and at least one hole in the cloth covering his face. When later he appears in the prison bathroom, there are holes in the cloth only on the back of his head.

When Alice confronts Wesker at the end of the movie, we notice that Chris follows her. However, when we see Chris and Claire later, they appear behind Wesker, even though they took the same path as Alice, who ended up in front of him.

The Yak 52 airplane Alice lands in Alaska has a counter weighted prop, but when she lands on the roof in California the Yak has a standard prop.

When Alice is on the beach, she is sitting next to the Umbrella helicopter that Claire used in Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) to take her group to Alaska. In "Extinction" and the flashback seen in this movie, the helicopter is a single engine AS 350, but the helicopter seen sitting on the beach is the 350's successor the twin engine AS 355 F2. The difference can clearly be seen when looking at the exhaust area of each model.

When Alice tied up Claire after a fight, Claire's hair is untidy, her face and arms are dirty and and her clothes are ruined. Later, in the plane, Clair is perfectly coiffed, clean and made-up. It seems that she also has new clothes, yet the two were only on a small airfield with no infrastructure around.

At the beginning of the movie when Alice lands in Alaska, she walks over to the beach, places her camera on a log, and sits down in front of it. Initially, the camera is angled at a lower position and could not possibly be recording her face. As she continues with her filmed monologue, the camera changes angles and is positioned toward her upper body as it should have been to begin with.

When Alice is in the shower room, she hears a noise and points her gun while investigating. In some shots the shower behind her is running but as it cuts to a different angle the water isn't running but it sounds like it is.

When Claire is chased by the huge Axe Zombie in the shower room he can be seen cutting several shower posts in half just behind Claire's back, but in the next scene while she is still running in a straight line, the posts in front of her are also destroyed and fountaining water, although neither have passed them yet.

The clones of Alice in the beginning go from a slight platform heel to flats and back and forth during the action scene.

When they enter the "cargo hold" on the Arcadia and the light turns on, the camera shows the room is empty and completely white. When Alice reaches the other end a few min later there is a blood trail along the floor into another room.

Right after Alice lands on top of the prison, she makes three skid-marks on the roof: one with each wheel. These are seen best in the shots which show the front of the plane. But in the overhead shots, the skid-marks are gone. This can be best seen in the shot where Luther grabs hold of the tail wing.

When Alice makes the first approach to land on the roof of the prison, Luther shouts "Down!", and they all duck. In the close up shot of the group, you can see that Angel and Bennett are facing the same way as Luther and Kim. But in the wide shot, they are facing in the opposite direction.

When Alice kicks the table full of knives at Wesker, you can see Bennet 5 meters away, but in the very next moment he is conveniently 1 meter away, close enough to have his gun kicked away.

When Alice is knocked out by the Axeman, she lands on her back with a few broken tiles on her chest. When we get the far shot with the Axeman, there are suddenly a lot more tiles.

After Wesker flees Arcadia in the Umbrella chopper, though he himself has the ability to heal extremely quickly, his clothes no longer have bullet holes in them.

During the initial fight scene, the clone who survives the Needle Dive is later on shot by Wesker, upon which she drops two grenades. Where did she pull those grenades from? Right before she jumps out of the window, you can see that there are no grenades dangling from a belt, and there isn't much room to hide something like that in a skintight catsuit.

When Alice is shining her flashlight into the tunnel, in the far shot from the inside of the tunnel, she is leaning on a rock, on her elbows. But in the shot directly afterwards, she is still leaning on the same rock, only now on her hand.

Bennett stabs Alice in her lower arm, from the top to bottom, probably between the bones. But in the revolving shot which reveals Wesker, the knife is suddenly facing side to side, meaning the knife would be going over the bones.

After the Needle dive, Alice lands on a table. When she is shot by Wesker, the table is covered in blood. In the overhead shot afterwards, the amount of blood changes drastically.

Just when Alice jumps off the roof, pay close attention to the zombie directly to her right. You can see how he slows down and stops on the ledge. But in the shot directly afterwards, all of the zombies are jumping after Alice, and none are stopping where the roof ends.

In the after titles sequence, when Jill is addressing the group in the plane, she is walking with her hands on her back. When she turns around, heading towards the tail, in the long shot her hands are on her hips.

When Alice is shining her flashlight into the tunnel, note that the shower column is on the right side of the tunnel entrance. In the shots on the outside of the tunnel, that same column is on the left side of the entrance.

During the initial fight scene, one of the Alice clones takes cover behind a pillar, which is fully intact. When the shot cuts to show her and the other clone, there are three bullet holes that have mysteriously appeared in the pillar.

Alice ties Claire up to a double engine plane. In the satellite shot, it changes to a single engined plane.

When Luther ducks to avoid getting hit by Alice's plane, his gun falls out of his pants. He then picks it up again just before he runs off to clear the roof. But in the shot where Angel runs away, his gun is still lying in the middle of the "E" in HELP US on the floor.

When the elevator hits the water, it starts to tilt over to one side. This contradicts the shot which shows it falling, where it fits very snugly in its shaft.

When Bennett bends over to pick up Alice's shotgun, you can see that the floor on which it rests is covered in glass. But when K-Mart picks it up moments later, the glass is gone.

In the flashback when Claire remembers what really happened on the beach where they landed the chopper, the Umbrella guard slams the spider-shaped device on her chest. In the next two shots, the device is gone, but when Alice finds her 18 months later, it's back on.

When Alice lands the plain on the roof, she has no guns on her back, yet when she climbs out of the plain two large shotguns are holstered on her back.

When Bennett shoots Angel, the blood covers Kim's right shoulder. We then get a shot of Bennett, and when the camera cuts back to Kim, some of the blood has already dried up, in less then a second.

When K-Mart throws Alice's shotgun to her right before she shoots Wesker in the mouth, between the slow-motion shots, the gun switches position in mid-air before Alice catches it. K-Mart throws it with the barrel facing towards Alice but when she catches it its barrel is facing away from her.

When Alice kicks Bennett away, he lands one one of the dead bodies, sliding it back significantly. But in the shot where the dog is splitting its head, you can see the head of the body in the top right corner of the screen. And it definitely is the one Bennett landed, seeing how that was the one next to the shotguns. And in later shots, you can see that all of the bodies are in their original positions.

Luther shoots the Axeman in the head, just above where his left eye should be. When the Axeman reaches the shower, the hole in the burlap sack and the blood are gone.

After the Tower Swing, Alice fires a bunch of quarters through two zombies, most of which end up in the wall around Luther. But when he has closed the door, we get an overhead shot of the wall, which has a bullet hole in it - and no quarters.

During the fight scene with the Axeman, Claire slides between his legs while gunning him down with Alice's shotgun. But watch his axe. In the far shot he is holding it up, like he is ready to strike, but in the shot where he is falling, the axe is leaning on the ground all of a sudden.

The inside of the Arcadia does not match the exterior of the vessel in either shape or size.

When Alice frees Chris and Claire from their pods, Chris manages to get out of his pod and across to Claire far too quickly (if you listen carefully his pod is still disengaging when he is about to crouch next to her pod).

The quarters Alice loads her shotgun with as ammo are bigger than the barrel of the shotgun.  A size of US quarters is .955 inches, and the size of Alice's shotgun barrel is .729 inches.  Those quarters are too big to fit.

In the scene where Alice lands the plane on the roof of the prison the length of the roof is far too short to have landed in that distance at the speed they were traveling. The wings also impact several solid objects during the landing which would have damaged them, if not severed them completely. At the end of the landing the nose smashes through a solid concrete ledge at the end of the run. The propeller is too fragile and should have shattered in an impact that forceful but instead remains completely unscratched.

Alice blows up the wires of the elevator to bring it down as quickly as possible. But all elevators have emergency brakes to prevent precisely that from happening. The chances of them being damaged by rust are also very slim: they are covered in grease.

When the Alice clones attack Umbrella Corporation HQ, they fire thousands of rounds from sub-machine guns without reloading. The TMP machine pistol they were using can only be fired for about 4 seconds before emptying.

An aircraft propeller is not a scythe. If a plane's blades strike a solid object (or objects) it will bend, deform or even shatter. When the plane dives from the top of the jail and then strikes a swath of zombies below, that action should have destroyed the prop and cause the airplane to crash.

Alice isn't superhuman in the scene of the Tower Swing. But at the rate she is falling, she would both hit the ground before the cable would be under tension, and even if the prison was high enough, it would probably still cause serious injury when it does become tensioned.

After Alice lands in what she thinks is Arcadia, and after her video-log, while investigating the "mysterious figure" she readies both her revolvers and points them right at the camera. There are no bullets in the chambers. Also, even if the chamber behind the barrel of each gun WAS loaded, when she pulled the trigger, the cylinder would revolve and the hammer would strike the next (and obviously empty) chamber.

Alice plans to escape the prison by leaving through the storm drains in order to access the sewer through which she and the other survivors will reach the ocean. Storm drains do not drain into the sewer, and sewers do not drain into the ocean. Sewers are specifically designed to prevent contamination of storm water and are never designed to drain directly into the ocean, which would result in raw untreated sewage contaminating the ocean.

When Claire and Chris Redfield shoot Wesker with their pistols, one can clearly see that the muzzle flash and weapon recoil are not synchronized.

When Wesker flips Claire Redfield, during the brief sequence from the side when she lands on her back, a TCR timecode is visible in the lower-left of the frame for a single frame before it cuts to the sequence with Alice cornered by dogs.

In Jill Valentine's ending credits scene, we can see the cloudy sky through the window of the Osprey, but in the reflection on the floor, we can see the green screen.

Just before the Axeman throws his axe at Claire and Alice, we get of shot of Claire turning around. But pay close attention to the wall behind her. You can already see the crack which is going to hold up his axe before he throws it. And it isn't an old crack, because when Alice is about to take a shower, all the walls are perfectly fine.

When fighting the Executioner, Alice is thrown into a wall by its axe and drops one of her shotguns. Upon impact you can see the entire wall wobble.

When Alice's plane lands on the roof and crashes through the wall the propeller is undamaged.

When Alice and Claire land on top of the prison in the plane, Angel pulls a cable across the roof to help the plane slow down. As he pulls it tight the angle at which the camera is at wobbles due to the cable knocking it.

Just after the Tower Swing, Alice shoots with her Smith and Wesson at a load of zombies. But when she fires the last two shots (the ones in slow-motion) pay close attention to the gun in HER right hand. The chamber doesn't start to turn until after she has fired the shot, meaning that the hammer would strike a spent bullet.

After Bennett takes off, Luther jumps on the edge of the prison. When he hits it, you can see the seemingly solid concrete edge wobble.

When Alice arrives in Alaska, she says that it is the 3rd May (so the middle of spring in the northern hemisphere) yet none of the trees have leaves on them.

When the Umbrella guards are lining up in front of the elevator, we get a few close-up shot of the level counter. During those close-ups, you can see the ribbed rear wall of the elevator when the dial is still only at level 3. Compare the wall to when the doors open, it is exactly the same. This means that the elevator isn't moving at all, and that it is just the dial.

During the bathroom fight between Alice and the Axeman, she violently hits a wall. Under the shock the wall undulates, indicating it's fake.

The Axeman wields an axe which is composed of a blade and an engine block on its heel. Even if the Axeman had superhuman strength, the total mass of the axe that's he's wielding has to exceed his own, meaning he would move in the direction of travel every time that he swung the axe. This doesn't occur. This is especially apparent when the floor in the shower room is wet and when the Axeman is kneeling and then hurls his axe.

In the end, when Alice talks on the radio to give out new coordinates, she says "118.30 west and 34.05 north" which places it right on Normandie Ave in Los Angeles. Not on the cargo ship floating on the waters off LA as was shown.

When Chris explains to the group what the UPV stands for, he refers to it as a "sixteen-wheeler", whereas the vehicle seen in the garage is actually an eight-wheeler with double tires in the back.

At the end, when everyone is on the deck of Arcadia, Umbrella helicopters are heard by the heroes and they look at them. On the other hand, none of the civilians in white clothes bother to look at the helicopters as it's a usual thing. They continue their actions.