The Stunt That Almost Killed Resident Evil's Lead Star

What happens when a director chooses real explosions over CGI? Chaos. That choice nearly cost an actor his life.

In a candid conversation with SlashFilm, director Zack Kruger pulled back the curtain on a hair-raising sequence from the new Resident Evil movie: a rooftop assault of leaping zombies, timed practical explosions and Austin Abrams sprinting down a city street with debris and bodies collapsing all around him. The goal was simple — make it feel lived-in, raw, dangerous — but the execution left almost no room for error.

Kruger explained why he refused to hide behind computer effects. CGI can look clean. It can also look flat. He wanted weight. He wanted the thud of falling bodies and the unpredictable sting of real pyrotechnics. So the team built choreography where physical stunts and timed charges replaced pixels. What followed was a delicate choreography of danger: actors, stunt performers and pyrotechnicians moving to a fraction of a second.

Risk is part of filmmaking. Risk becomes a decision. One wrong step can become tragic. According to Kruger, that razor-thin margin was never hypothetical. If Austin Abrams had shifted even a single stride to the right at a critical beat, the blast pattern would have intersected his path. The director admitted the shot was so unforgiving that it could easily have been fatal.

If Austin Abrams had taken one step to the right, it might have cost him his life.

Still, the scene survived. It made the final cut. And it made an impression: a visceral moment that reads as chaotic onscreen because it was chaotic on set. Kruger reflected on the collaborative nature of pulling off such a high-risk idea — how a wild concept in a director's head becomes a shared gamble between crew and cast. He said the experience taught him a lot about filmmaking and left him proud of what they achieved.

The film itself is the second theatrical reboot of the Resident Evil franchise and takes place in 1998 during the events of Resident Evil 2. It follows Peaky — a character trapped in Raccoon City as a deadly virus turns the streets into a nightmare of zombies and mutated creatures. Alongside Austin Abrams, the cast includes Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, Janu Wilson and Paul Walter Hauser.

Practical effects versus CGI. Stunt coordination at the edge of safety. An on-set scare that became one of the movie's most talked-about moments. You don't need to love horror to sense the pulse of risk that beats under this production. The film opens in theaters on September 18, 2026. Will audiences feel every second of danger when they watch it unfold?