A cloned Alice (Milla Jovovich) awakens in a mansion and wanders through the house, escaping booby traps as she goes. In the process, she kills a security guard and discovers she has telekinetic abilities. But she is killed by an explosive device and her body is dumped into a pit with 85 other Alice clones. Meanwhile, the T-virus released by the Umbrella Corporation is spreading around the world, destroying both the human population and the global environment in five years. The real Alice is wandering the wasteland that was once the southwest U.S. She fights off zombie dogs owned by a family of marauders and finds a notebook that mentions an uninfected area in Alaska. She discovers in herself the same powers as in her clones.
A convoy of survivors led by Claire Renfield (Ali Larter) and Raccoon City survivors Carlos Oliviera (Oded Fehr) and L.S. Wade (Mike Epps) is also wandering the countryside. While searching a motel, L.J. is bitten by a zombie but is afraid to tell the others. The next morning, the convoy is attacked by a flock of zombie crows that think nothing of crashing through bus windows. Alice appears and uses her T.K. powers on the crows. Then she passes out from the strain. When she awakes, she tells Claire about the notebook and convinces her to take the convoy to Alaska.
Doctor Alexander Isaacs (Iain Glen) was the head scientist of Umbrella Corporation’s North American facility and is responsible for both the Nemesis Program and the Alice Program. He now has created a new zombie breed. Captain Alex Slater (Matthew Marsden) reports him to Umbrella. Albert Wesker (Jason O’Mara), the chairman of Umbrella, asks Slater to keep an eye on Isaacs and kill him if he disobeys orders again. Umbrella, it seems, can trace Alice’s use of her T.K. powers and triangulate her location. Doctor Isaacs wants her back and sends new zombies out to get her and the convoy. In Las Vegas, most of the convoy is killed and L.J. turns, biting Carlos. Umbrella tries to shut down Alice but she breaks free. Isaacs arrives but is bitten as he takes off in a helicopter. Alice and K-Mart (Spencer Locke), a young girl who had been found in a store, use Isaacs’ computer to track the copter to Umbrella’s underground facility.
They smash their way in through a horde of zombies, and the convoy heads toward Alaska with the stolen helicopter. Alice descends into the complex and meets a holograph of the Red Queen’s sister A.I. the White Queen (Madeline Carroll), who tells Alice that her blood can cure the T-virus. Alice breaks one of her clones out of a tank, who dies suddenly. She discovers Isaacs, now horribly mutated because of his bite from a super-zombie and his own self-overdose of antivirus. Alice tricks and defeats him. The system is deactivated by the still-living Alice clone just in time to save Alice’s life. In Tokyo, Wesker reports to Umbrella that the North American facility is lost. Alice appears and says she is coming with some friends. We see hundreds of Alice clones in the complex.
The film was directed by Russell Mulcahy and written by Paul W.S. Anderson, the third film in the series based on the video game. It was mostly filmed in Mexico. It was severely lambasted by critics but made a fortune in theaters—starting with 23 million dollars the first weekend. Director Mulcahy had done a couple of Highland pictures, The Shadow, and Ricochet. The film owes a lot to The Road Warrior, Damnation Alley, and even The Birds, but was criticized as “more of the same” I think they were crazy. In my opinion, the whole series is constantly changing up the zombie apocalypse sub-genre, which has always been pretty much the same-old everywhere but here. It is fast-paced and full of action. Milla Jovovich is kick-ass great no matter what she’s wearing or isn’t wearing. In this case, something from her own fashion company Jovovich-Hawk.
We find out that Alice’s real name is Janice Prospero. It was the director’s idea to film in bright sunshine instead of creepy darkness, but it’s still creepy and the special effects are good enough to work in the light. Jovovich had almost quit after the critical disappointment of Apocalypse but came back after reading the script for Extinction. Besides, she was married to the writer-producer. The movie was released about the same time that Jovovich and Anderson had their first child. Raccoon City is clearly Detroit. The crew suffered from dehydration after working in 130-degree temperatures. K-Mart’s real name is Elizabeth Jane Case. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received 24% positive from critics and 58% positive from audiences. So I guess all of us who enjoyed it are pretty stupid.