The Stunt That Went Wrong On The Set Of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
Most movie-loving gamers would freely tell you that adapting popular video games into high-quality feature films has so far proven a bit of a fool's errand. Even as most critics continue to question the merits of the "Resident Evil" films (based on the wildly popular video game series), the six films comprising the franchise have undoubtedly been a rare success story, raking in north of $1 billion at the global box office.
The lucrative universe is soon to get a full reboot later this year when "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City" makes its way to a movie theater near you. For the record, that reboot isn't happening because the franchise was flagging after its sixth chapter. 2016's "Resident Evil: The Final Chapter" actually was the end of the road for the original narrative, likely bringing to an end the ongoing adventures of Milla Jovovich's ass-kicking femme Alice Marcus.
Not surprisingly, the "Resident Evil" franchise went out with a fittingly bloody bang, with "The Final Chapter" outdoing every film before it in terms of shocking twists, ultraviolent action, and truly massive set pieces. Unfortunately, in the course of production, one of the film's stunt-centric set pieces went seriously wrong and left the brave stuntwoman performing it with life-threatening injuries.
A daring Resident Evil: The Final Chapter motorcycle stunt went horribly wrong for the woman performing it
That stuntwoman's name is Olivia Jackson, and prior to landing her gig "Resident Evil: The Final Chapter," she'd made a name for herself in the Hollywood stunt community for her work on "Guardians of the Galaxy," "Avengers: Age of Ultron," and "Mad Max: Fury Road." Given her experience on those films, one has to marvel that what likely seemed a relatively simple stunt is the one that nearly cost Jackson her life on "Resident Evil: The Final Chapter."
As Jackson detailed in her ABC News interview, that stunt involved her riding a motorcycle at a high speed toward a crane-bound camera, which was meant to lift over her had as she passed it. However, the camera didn't lift fast enough, causing Jackson to lose control of the motorcycle and spin out into a horrifying crash. The severity of Jackson's injuries reportedly led doctors to put her into a medically-induced coma for 17 days while she healed, and ultimately cost her not only her burgeoning career as a stuntwoman, but also her left arm, which tragically required amputation.
The career-ending events left Jackson little recourse but to pursue legal action against the film's production companies, and she claims they offered almost no support with her mounting pile of medical bills. The former stunt professional earned a legal win in South African courts early in 2020 (per The Hollywood Reporter), though the financial details of her victory have not been made public.