Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)

The Nemesis was created by makeup effects artist Paul Jones, whose credits include Ginger Snaps and Bride of Chucky.

Armed with a new, lethal rail gun as well as his trademark rocket launcher, the Nemesis design was based precisely on the most dangerous and popular killer in the Resident Evil game series.

The Nemesis costume was built around actor Matthew G. Taylor, a 6’7”-foot-tall former police officer and bodybuilder. From a full body cast, Jones and his team crafted a multi-piece body suit of silicone, polyurethane, leather and metal to transform the actor into the movie’s most menacing monstrosity.

“I used silicone for the Nemesis’s skin because it has a unique translucent luminosity,” explains Jones. “It actually photographs like human skin. To heighten his presence on the screen and accentuate the details of the surfaces, we kept his flesh constantly coated with fine layer of slime which was made of modified methocellulose, a substance more commonly used as a food additive.”

His leather and metal armor were created in a series of panels each with greater numbers of bullet holes. Unlike the creature, the armor does not regenerate after bullet hits. To increase his already towering stature, steel platforms were built into his boots, raising him an additional five inches.

The greatest challenge in creating the Nemesis was the grotesquely misshapen face. A noseless mass of slimy sinew and exposed bone held together with crude clamps, Nemesis bears only a hint that it had once been human.

To achieve the effect, Jones created an articulated fiberglass underskull molded for the actor’s head. From inside the skull, Taylor could open and close the mouth. The bulk of the creature’s expressiveness was delivered by five servo-motors implanted beneath the silicone skin and operated by remote control. As in the game, Nemesis uses his trademark rocket launcher to cause death and destruction. For the movie, his arsenal includes the unique and deadly rail gun.

“The rail gun is just something fresh and incredibly devastating,” says Anderson. “I had this image in my mind of this guy walking around with a gigantic, powerful weapon in each hand and almost indecisive as to which one to use. Of course, in some of my favorite action scenes in the movie he uses both.”

This high-powered gun was created by the movie armament, Charles Taylor, as a modification of a General Electric M134 Mini Gun. Originally designed to be mounted on military helicopters (as seen in Black Hawk Down), the gun fires 6,000 rounds per minute.

Taylor deconstructed the weapon, shortening the six rotating barrels to 14” and adding muzzle brakes which divert the burning gunpowder to create a unique plasma effect when firing. The countdown display and Umbrella insignia were added as were the grip and arm brace. The finished weapon weighs in at sixty pounds. RESIDENT EVIL: Apocalypse marks the first time a weapon of this type has ever been fired from one hand.

On the set, the Nemesis’ gun was fired for the first time in a narrow corridor of the Raccoon City Police Station. In three seconds, 150 rounds discharged in an ear-splitting display that created a remarkable vortex by ripping every piece of paper off the walls and creating so much pressure that two dolly grips on the far end of the corridor were pushed backwards. Nobody had ever experienced anything like this before.

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