Resident Evil Ending Explained: What Does Bryan Become After Losing the Cure?

Resident Evil, directed by Zack Cregger, is neither a continuation of the Milla Jovovich movies (my guilty pleasure) nor a direct retelling of one of the games by Capcom. It tells an original story, which I think freed Cregger (though it did not shield him from fan backlash). We follow a medical courier, Bryan Hodukavich (Austin Abrams), whose disastrous overnight assignment unfolds around the same time as the events of Resident Evil 2. Familiar franchise heroes such as Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield are elsewhere in Raccoon City, but Bryan is fighting his own battle on its snowy outskirts.

Throughout the movie, Bryan survives infected residents, grotesque mutations, several accidents of his own making, and more. He reaches Raccoon City General Hospital. But sadly, there is no victory for him at the end, and I believe he did earn one. He discovers that his package contains the final ingredient needed to create a cure. But he succumbs to the infection before it can save him.

Why Does Bryan Transform Into a Monster?

Bryan becomes infected while trying to get around the blocked road leading to Raccoon City. Inside a camper van, he finds a frightened girl who says her mother bit her foot. He tries to help, but the infection has already transformed her. Her face splits open before she attacks and bites his arm.

The symptoms initially progress slowly, allowing Bryan to continue his journey. By the time he enters Raccoon City General through its parking garage, however, the deformity has spread across his arm.

Bryan’s final push takes him through a maternity ward filled with infected patients. He releases the horde upon the amalgamated creature pursuing him, knocking it from the hospital. It is a rare instance in which one of his improvised plans works.

Unfortunately, Bryan has almost completely turned by the time he reaches Umbrella’s laboratory on the 28th floor towards the end of Resident Evil. The scientists use the substance in his case to synthesize the cure, but tentacles erupt from his arm before they can inject him.

Bryan remains conscious long enough to beg for help, but his body no longer obeys him. It kills the scientists and absorbs them through a mouth forming across his torso. The man who delivered Raccoon City’s salvation becomes its most dangerous monster.

Does the Cure Survive the Fall?

The scientists intend to deliver the prepared cure to the roof where the National Guard is ready to pick it up. One of the surviving scientists manages to escape the first blow from Bryan and deliver the syringe to the hospital’s sky bridge.

After Bryan turns into a creature, there is only one small chance of giving him the injection. It takes place like the typical scene in which the hero is saved, and disaster averted just in the nick of time.

​However, Cregger chose subversion. It reminded me of that Kong: Skull Island scene wherein the Alpha Skullcrawler spoils the heroic sacrifice of Shea Wingham’s character (via YouTube). Bryan hits the syringe out of the scientist’s hands. It falls down the bridge into the abyss dozens of floors down.

The National Guard appears with the intention of receiving a cure and encounters Bryan raging at its helicopters.

Is Bryan’s Final Form the Nyx?

The film does not name the creature Bryan becomes. Nevertheless, its appearance strongly evokes Nyx. If you don’t know, Nyx was the Bio-Organic Weapon introduced in Resident Evil Outbreak: File #2.

Nyx grows by absorbing other beings into its body. It also possesses tentacles and a large exposed eye, all features shared by Bryan’s final form. The amalgamated creature pursuing him earlier in the film operates similarly, fusing its victims into one expanding mass.

However, the connection remains an interpretation rather than a confirmed reveal. Bryan’s mutation also resembles William Birkin’s transformations in Resident Evil 2, while the exposed eye is a familiar weakness among several bosses from Capcom’s games. The film never officially identifies Bryan as Nyx.

Either way, the final scene places Bryan in the role normally occupied by a Resident Evil boss. The difference is that audiences have spent the movie following him rather than preparing to defeat him.

His survival gives a potential sequel an obvious returning threat. No follow-up has been announced, although Cregger has said he has ideas about where the story could go next. There is also no post-credits scene. For now, the movie ends with the cure possibly lost, the National Guard confronting a new monster, and Raccoon City’s disaster only beginning. Easily the best among all the Resident Evil movies, and I hope we get a sequel.

What did you make of Bryan’s transformation and the fate of the cure? Share your theories in the comments.