The Resident Evil 4 Remake reimagined one of the most iconic stories in the horror franchise to an exceptional degree, breathing new life into an already popular staple in videogame pop culture. While certain narrative and structural changes made adjustments to the story in a noticeable way — in some cases deviating from the corny and camp towards more realistic tones — it hardly infringed in a manner that made any kind of negative impact. To get insight into how Leon Kennedy’s most memorable zombie adventure adapted well over a decade later, here is our guide to the full plot and ending in Resident Evil 4 Remake.
Story of Resident Evil 4 Remake
The Shadow of Umbrella Corporation Follows Leon Kennedy to Rural Europe
In much the same manner as the original, the game’s story opens with Leon Kennedy musing over the fallout from the infection and destruction of Raccoon City, where he was once stationed as a rookie police officer. The life-changing, traumatic event pulled back the curtain on the true motives of pharmaceutical giant Umbrella Corporation, once considered the frontline of life-saving medicine.
Leon’s firsthand experience of the viral outbreak left a permanent scar on his conscience and trust of those in power. His resolve to protect others didn’t waver, however, and he saw a new chance to do that when recruited by the US government. Rather, given his experience in combat and as a living witness to the biggest biological catastrophe in the country’s history, they forced him into a top-secret government program. It conditioned him essentially into a super soldier under the training of Major Jack Krauser, until a mission called Operation Javier went awry two years ago.
After recovering from that, Leon was personally approached with the task of rescuing the President’s daughter, Ashley Graham, who went missing and was last seen being held captive in a rural area of Spain. With the assistance of Ingrid Hunnigan, Leon is dispatched alone to conduct a covert rescue mission, and is escorted by two Spanish police officers to the most recent location where Ashley was taken.
During a pit stop, one of the officers goes missing for a long time and Leon decides to go and investigate. Going deep into the woods, he comes upon a seemingly abandoned farmhouse and searches there for any traces of activity. Inside he encounters a local villager who doesn’t seem very mentally fit. Leon asks if he’s seen a police officer around, but the villager ignores him. When Leon looks around and finds the blood-stained ID of the officer on the floor, the villager attacks. Leon swiftly eliminates him and presumes that he’s on the right track.
Upon exploring the house further, Leon finds the body of the police officer in the basement and then once again gets attacked by the same man, broken neck and all. Deciding that he was evidently under the control of something, Leon decides to travel deeper into the village to find out. He ends up fighting his way through a horde of aggressive villagers who all show the same symptoms, and gets a reprieve when they’re summoned via a bell to a nearby town hall. Leon soon learns that the locals have all been infected by a parasite known as Las Plagas, with a cult known as the Los Illuminados (“The Enlightened Ones”) at the center of it all.
As Leon continues his search for Ashley he meets Luis Sera, a smooth-talking man who doesn’t seem keen to disclose his true identity. He expresses interest in helping Leon, but Ingrid reveals that Luis actually once worked for Umbrella. This causes Leon to inherently distrust Luis until he proves otherwise. The two are ambushed by Village Chief Bitores Mendez, who captures them with relative ease. Mendez injects Leon with the Plagas parasite while he’s unconscious, and the two later awaken and go their separate ways. Unbeknownst to Leon, however, Luis goes to rendezvous with Ada Wong, who is also on a secret mission of her own.
Rescuing Ashley From the Church and Fighting Off the Village Nightmares
Leon manages to track down Ashley’s whereabouts to another local church and makes his way there. Initially the door is locked tight and Leon goes off to search for the key that will open it. His trek takes him to the nearby lake, where he confronts a giant mutated salamander known as Del Lago that lives in its depths. After defeating it he starts to feel unwell, noticing a strange discoloration in his skin. He throws up blood and soon passes out.
Awakening nearly three hours later to a panicked radio call from Hunnigan, he brushes off what happened and resumes his search for the key. Soon managing to retrieve it from a nearby cavern off the lake, he makes his way back to the church. On the way he runs into a mutated, infected giant known by the locals as El Gigante, forced to fight him as he breaks out of his cage. Fatally stabbing the giant Plagas parasite dwelling inside the giant and defeating it, Leon continues his return once more to the church.
Finally reaching it, he uses the key to get inside and manages to find a seemingly healthy Ashley locked in a room. He assures her he’s come to rescue her on behalf of her father, which comforts Ashley and she agrees to go with him. However, it turns out that she’s also been infected with the Plagas parasite just like Leon, and starts to experience similar symptoms.
The two struggle to make their way out of the village through the torrential rain to the extraction point set up by Hunnigan, and to make matters worse, Village Chief Mendez resumes his pursuit of them. He traps them inside a barn and confronts Leon in his mutated Plagas form. Leon manages to defeat him just before the barn burns down completely, and he flees with Ashley. Hunnigan makes contact and laments that the helicopter can’t reach them yet due to the inclement weather. Needing to get out of the village before its inhabitants ultimately recapture them, Leon and Ashley decide to take shelter in a nearby castle.
A Deadly Detour Into the Salazar Family Castle
However, this castle turns out to not be much of a refuge as the two are soon ambushed by robed zealots and the pompadoured resident castellan Ramon Salazar. Also part of the Los Illuminados, he swiftly captures Ashley, leaving Leon tasked with rescuing her once more. Making his way through the castle, he encounters some truly gruesome and barbaric sights, and monsters who all are subjected to the Plagas parasite.
At one point, he meets up with Ada for the first time since Raccoon City, making for an awkward and strange reunion. She eloquently avoids his questions of why she’s there and her secret mission seemingly for Umbrella, or rather someone affliated with it. She abruptly vanishes, instead preferring to continue helping Leon from the shadows while fulfilling her own ends.
Leon continues deeper into the castle and briefly manages to reunite with Ashley, who is being forced by Ramon to undergo a ritual as the Plagas mutates inside her. The two fight their way through more hordes of zealots, at one point getting separated with Ashley needing to find a way to get Leon out of a jail trap. After narrowly avoiding numerous dangers inside the castle’s library and the basement underneath it, she emerges and frees Leon.
Fighting Ramon’s Right Hand and Finding Luis
However, Ashley is soon recaptured once again and Leon is forced to confront one of Ramon’s cloaked henchmen, Verdugo, down in the deepest, cavernous depths of the castle. Fighting with all resources available to him including liquid nitrogen, Leon overcomes the powerful monster and tries to find a way out.
Leon soon runs into Luis, who offers him a suppressant for the parasite inside him and Ashley. He claims it only puts off the inevitable and vaguely alludes that there could be a way to eradicate it. Leon questions him about why he’s doing this, given his former employment. Luis insists that he simply wants to atone for his past with Umbrella, and help undo the destruction wrought by the Plagas, as well as the threats still to come.
The two team up once again to fight their way back to the surface and find Ashley. Along the way they come across a gigantic hive full of aggressive, mutated bugs known as Novistadors, also subjected to the parasite. They make use of minecarts to traverse the winding tunnels and fight through countless more Plagas hordes. Leon questions why there’s such a large-scale mining operation going on, and Luis discloses that the underground area is actually the most sacred of all to the cult.
The True Origin of the Plagas Comes to Light
It’s here where a substance known as “the amber” was dug up, which is linked to the origin of the Plagas. It turns out that the Plagas parasite was buried deep in the earth beneath the Salazar family castle for possibly thousands of years, hidden inside giant masses of amber crystals. It was initially discovered by the Los Illuminados, however the first Salazar castellan at the time opposed the cult and blocked access to the parasite beneath his castle.
When Ramon ascended as the eighth castellan, he was convinced by Osmund Saddler, the cult leader, to join Los Illuminados and break the seal that concealed the Plagas. Together they tasked local villagers with mining the amber to retrieve the parasites, and those miners gradually became infected from the spores released. From there, the parasitic indoctrination grew exponentially, with the ultimate motive of spreading it across the world.
On their way to the surface, Leon and Luis encounter Jack Krauser, Leon’s former superior who trained him in various forms of combat. He’s since defected to the Los Illuminados in pursuit of power, and was a key orchestrator in Ashley’s kidnapping. Luis is fatally stabbed by Krauser, who then turns to Leon and engages him in a brutal knife fight. He almost overcomes Leon until Luis shoots him, forcing Krauser to retreat. Before he succumbs to his wounds, Luis gives Leon the key to his lab where the Plagas can be removed.
Leon makes his way out of the mines and back into the castle. Ada contacts him again and hints that Ashley’s been relocated to the Clock Tower. Fighting his way past countless more enemies, Leon forces his way into a ritual chamber nearby where Ashley has just again been moved. Ramon confronts him and unleashes his horrifying power of the Plagas to kill him.
Leon manages to destroy him, ending the reign of the Salazar family and its connection to the cult. He pursues Krauser who has taken Ashley on a boat to a nearby island. Making his way down to the coast, he finds a second boat to use but no key. Ada then appears with the key in hand, offering it in exchange for a ride.
An Island Full of Horrors and Past Demons
On the way to the island, Leon attempts to question her once again about her motives and where her alliegance lies. As usual, Ada gives a puzzle of an answer which only frustrates him further. When they arrive, she uses her hookshot gun to make her own entrance, leaving the boat to Leon. He sails to a quiet, covert spot for entry and and slowly advances through the first lines of defense. The island proves to be just as dangerous if not more so, full of military artillery, construction equipment, and science facilities likely connected to Umbrella. The cultists here brandish weapons and armor like that of soldiers, tasked with stopping Leon at all costs.
Going deeper into the island, Leon traverses through the cargo depot, a maze of underground bunkers and soon enough he finds Ashley once more, unconcious and lying on a cot locked up in a saferoom. He tracks down a keycard to access the room, which is found inside a dark, unsettling bioresearch facility filled with disturbing experiments using the Plagas. The most noteworthy is a humanoid monster called the Regenerador, which as its name suggests possess infinite regenerative abilities unless the Plagas in it are destroyed. Leon is forced to battle these monsters while recovering the keycard, which he then brings back to free Ashley from captivity.
Having been subjected to Saddler’s crippling power over the Plagas, she’s still unconscious. Leon gives her the other suppressant provided by Luis to stave off the infection as long as possible. She soon awakens and they make their way through the underground bunkers back up to the surface. Seeking an escape route, a giant cement wall blocks their way to the industrial lift that can take them all the way up for a helicopter extraction.
As luck would have it, a giant wrecking ball machine sits nearby. Ashley takes the wheel and brings down the wall while Leon protects them from unwanted attention. Accessing the lift soon after, they reach the top of the island and proceed through a warehouse. Saddler ambushes them and uses the Plagas to incapacitate them, at one point trying to force Ashley to shoot Leon in the head. She manages to resist but still is brought under Saddler’s control and taken elsewhere again. Leon struggles against the growing infection inside him to pursue her.
Krauser Buries His Past With Power
Soon he comes across an area full of military tents and equipment, which apparently was where Krauser was stationed during the kidnapping operation. Leon discovers files detailing the plans, and personal notes that reveal Krauser’s overwhelming resentment towards the US government after Operation Javier, a failed mission in which numerous soldiers perished with no help from their superiors. Leon and Krauser both barely escaped, but the consequences were felt. Krauser left a recording for Leon, exclaiming that he set up a field of battle just for them and to come find him.
Leon makes his way to a maze of old stone ruins, which Krauser has meticulously booby trapped as a means of welcome. The two of them engage in a close and long-ranged combat battle that comes to a head when Krauser willfully mutates into his Plagas form, boasting the power he’s acquired. Leon insists that he’s lost his honor and his identity completely, ultimately subduing his former comrade. Krauser demands he end it with a knife in his heart, which Leon obliges, knowing he can’t leave the disillusioned man alive to endanger anyone else.
He makes his way forward to the next line of defense and via binoculars spots Ashley being taken into a old building deemed their sanctuary. Once more he fights through hordes of enemies — armed to the teeth this time — and unexpectedly receives some air support from Mike, courtesy of Hunnigan at HQ. Mike unleashes barrages of missiles and helicopter fire to help clear the way for Leon. Able to get through the area much quicker, Leon runs for an extraction point. However, Mike gets ambushed by a horde of Novistador bugs that end up crashing the helicopter, killing him in the process. On his own once more, Leon continues onward to the “sanctuary”.
Leon and Ashley Escape the Terror Inside Them
Inside he finds Ashley unconscious on a pedestal, but Saddler invokes his power before he can reach her. Ada suddenly appears and intervenes, drawing Saddler away with gunfire so Leon can take Ashley and escape. Leon carries her towards Luis’ lab, but starts to become overwhelmed by the infection, experiencing vivid hallucinations. He fights with every fiber against the parasite and gets Ashley to the lab, putting her in the operating chair. He boots up the program to remove the Plagas and starts the painful process. Ashley is soon rid of her infection and Leon passes out next to her.
He later awakens to find himself in the chair, and Ashley awake and relieved. She says she gave him the same operation, and now they’re both rid of the parasite and Saddler’s control. Rejuvenated, they make their way to a docking facility to find a way out. Leon spots Ada tied up and hanging from a tower beam, assuming that it’s bait to lure him out.
Ending Saddler’s Reign and That of the Plagas
He takes it regardless and shoots Ada free, joining her just as Saddler emerges for a final confrontation. He assumes his enormous, mutated Plagas form to kill Leon once and for all. However, Leon manages to shoot all of Saddler’s weak points and reveal the core of the monster he’s become. With a special rocket launcher provided by Ada, he takes out the core, killing Saddler and the hive mind control he had over all of the infected inhabitants.
Ada makes her way to her own helicopter escort and offers Leon a ride. He turns it down, concerned only about getting Ashley home safe. Ada shrugs and boards the chopper, throwing Leon one last parting gift in the form of keys to a jetski. With the island self-destructing, Leon quickly gets the idea and runs back to collect Ashley and get to their escape route. Upon reaching the jetski, the two of them flee across the water through an underground cavern, dodging debris as it starts to cave in from the implosions.
A New Threat Looms From a Former Ally
Leon gets them out to sea unscathed, finally free of the clutches of the cult. Ashley is overjoyed and eagerly offers to approach her father about enlisting Leon to her personal security detail. He turns it down, simply glad he was able to get her out safely.
Ada makes contact with Albert Wesker aboard the helicopter, the person she’s actually been taking orders from. He took control of what remained of Umbrella Corporation after the collapse of Raccoon City, and tasked Ada with retrieving the Plagas sample in tandem with Leon’s rescue mission. Ada asks Wesker what he plans to do with it, to which he replies that a “new dawn” will be approaching. She further inquires about casualties, and he exclaims that it will be the global population. Disgusted, she discreetly ends the call and forces the chopper pilot to change course, clearly deciding on a different plan. With that, the story comes to an end.
That concludes our guide to the full plot and ending in Resident Evil 4 Remake. We hope that it helped provide more insight into this iconic game. Let us know what you think of the remake so far.
Be sure to check out all of our other guides for everything Resident Evil 4 Remake.
