I said this was going to be an analysis, but this is going to be me part-analyzing, part-going fucking insane because I did not expect a Leon in a goddamn Porsche moment and I am incapable of self-control, apparently. So without further ado, here we go. Lock the fuck in 'cause this is about to be longer than the fucking bible:
First, I have to address the black-leather-wearing elephant in the room. HE'S HERE! I mean, we knew he would be, but it's so glad to finally see him. And he looks even more... kinda goth... than usual. I think the fact that Leon's in all-black when the game's tag line is "Requiem for the dead. Nightmare for the living." is very noticeable. I see what you did there Capcom. It's also interesting since Leon's color pallet seems to be getting darker-- he wears dark clothes frequently, but all black? That's new. And this jacket looks remarkably similar to Chris' from RE8... hardlaunching my crack theory that Leon raided his closet because what the fuck.
We open with an extension of a scene from the previous trailer, where Grace happens upon Viktor Gideon. Later in the trailer (presumably by Hunnigan), we're told he bought up a building after Umbrella collapsed (seemingly a nod to the outcome of the Raccoon Trails), and dialog from later in the trailer reveals he's a Doctor. So we've got a mad scientist guy, associated with Umbrella, who's undoubtedly doing some fucked up experiments seemingly tied to Project Elpis, but more on that later. The real thing I want to point out here is Viktor's vest, which seems rather interesting. It doesn't really looking like a clothing item, it looks almost like one of those post-surgical compression binders they use after chest surgeries, particularly top surgery. Now I'm not saying that's what Viktor had done, and there is a slight gap in the fabric where there probably wouldn't be one on a real compression binder, but I think that might've been the vibe here. And considering the scar running down his chest... yeah, this does make me curious. The song playing in this scene seems to be an original, or at least if it is something notable, it couldn't be picked up by my phone's song-detection feature.
We then get to Grace's investigation, where someone (who I presume is Hunnigan talking to Leon even though Grace is the one being shown on screen because Hunnigan is FOS and that's tied to the DSO specifically, not the FBI) asks if they're sure it's not postmortem lividity (medical term that essentially means the pulling of the blood to the lowest centers of gravity in the body since the heart has stopped beating; it's part of how coroner's determine the cause of death since they can better tell what position the body was in when the person died based on these marks)
Remember how I said we'd come back to Elpis? Ok, now we're back and I'm about to go full nerd here:
Obligatory mention of hacker-Leon, who's in a dark blue shirt. This shit? Fucking fascinating. As soon as I saw the diagrams and shit I had to pause and zoom in. Now I'm not a chemist, my area of study was neurology and psychology, but I did have to take a few chemistry classes and I'm fairly certain the chemical compound shown at the bottom is not one that currently exists. Whatever this is, at least based on my chemistry knowledge (so people when chem degrees, please chime in and elaborate further) but based on the bonds that looks... unstable? Definitely highly experimental to say the least. Regardless, we've got some chemical compound and what's certainly a highly-unethical medical experiment.
Whatever Elpis is, Viktor seemingly needs Grace for it, and we know it's connected to the RCI due to the pop-up redacted message from the government. So it appears the government was even more involved in this than we already knew, and I wouldn't be shocked if Elpis turned out to be a government-run R&D program conducted by Umbrella. My sorta-crack theory for now is that, after they did that missile strike on the city, the gov sent the military in to collect the bodies and they were doing experiments on the remains of the victims.
We also know Leon ends up at this investigation as well. I would assume both him and Grace are assigned to this case together since he has often operated as the resident (lol) "BOWs might be suspected, so we're sending our BOW guy" liaison. He gets gloves (full-coverage gloves! that's a first!) and a new version of his PDA device. Notably, this takes place before he gets out of the car since you can see the steering wheel.
Leon is also at the Sanitarium, which might be the building Hunnigan referenced earlier. I also think this woman is greeting Leon because she's looking up at someone it seems, and Grace is relatively short so, I think this is after Leon's arrival. And, if that's true, and Viktor had been expecting Leon too... perhaps whatever Grace has that Viktor needs for Elpis is something Leon has too, or this is otherwise some sort of set-up. Also the idea of Leon having to visit a sanitarium is funny to me.
And Leon finds, what appears to be maybe Viktor's office? The color scheme seems consistent with the sanitarium. And promptly puts his ass on the desk, very cunty of him, I love it. We get a very classic RE Evil Doctor portrait, which appears to be a much-younger Viktor and his staff, perhaps opening the sanitarium originally, based on the door in the background.
Assuming these scenes do happen in the order they appear, this looks like a direct call-back to when Marvin saved Leon from the zombie toward the start of 2R, except now Leon's in Marvin's position and Grace is Leon. Parallels... hehe. And, notably, Grace runs toward Leon so by this point they have to know each other.
But now let's talk about Leon's car because unfortunately I am a car guy and I never thought we were gonna see cool cars in RE but holy fuck. Just like with his jeep in 2R, the cars in RE are very heavily based on real cars, but they're not an exact 1:1 due to licensing, copyright, and all that jazz. This, to me, looks like a Porsche Cayenne. Definitely a Porsche based on the back end of it. But if you pause right when the lightning flashes, we can see his license plate is "ND - 9642." [Update: the numbers are the game's he's been in-- 9, 6, 4, 2. Credit to cloudstrifebackshots for putting that together!] Usually, license plates in RE tend to be easter eggs/references of sorts, but nothing comes to mind here. Admittedly, I thought this was a muscle car at first, and these might be two different cars since the soccer mom car looking one appears to be more of a blueish-gray while the one he has when he goes to the sanitarium looks more black to me. But maybe that's due to his fuckass LED headlights lmfao. At least he knows how to use paddle shifters, apparently.
Update: it's confirmed to be a Porsche Cayenne! Thanks to everyone who sent me Capcom's post <3
"Don't do anything stupid" right as Leon RUNS OUT IN FRONT OF A FUCKING CAR, Hunnigan don't waste your breath girl 😭Also he starts fucking killing zombies with an axe... Leon you are unhinged I love you.
Please excuse me while I go insane...
Ok girl, I see you. I love the design but the what I think might be angel wings feels like an omen...
And last but not least, we did get the real, updated deluxe version contents. Looking at Leon's outfits, we've got: his fucked up wrinkled suit (which I'd argue is probably a nod to Infinite Darkness since it's especially wrinkled in the prequel comic), his 4R outfit (a given), and another titty strap outfit. It looks very Damnation-esque and I am LOVING the subtle nods to the CGI productions.
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