Starliner is finally home. But its crew — astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — are not. Could Starliner have safely carried them?

The Boeing spacecraft’s initial 8-day flight ballooned into a months-long saga shortly after launch. The aerospace company and NASA, who are collaborating for the agency’s Commercial Crew Program to bring low-cost astronaut rides to and from space, had tense discussions. Boeing argued their spacecraft was sound enough to return the crew. NASA was uncomfortable signing off. Starliner therefore landed shortly past midnight Eastern time early Saturday without Wilmore and Williams.

But in hindsight, would it have been fine?

Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, doesn’t beat about the bush on this point: “It would have been a safe successful landing with the crew onboard, had we have had Butch and Suni onboard.”

These comments came during a media conference NASA held after landing — noticeably without Boeing officials, who did not participate in the event. Stich explained that “if there was a crew onboard, it would have flown the same back-away sequence, and the same orbit return, and executed the same entry.”

Resident Evil: Apocalypse might have been destined for disaster from the very beginning.

“Unfortunately, it was a tough shoot,” director Alexander Witt tells Inverse. “I started with a DP that the producers wanted. And then after the first couple of days, I said, ‘Look this is not going to work, it’s not looking good. He doesn't know what he's doing.”

A sequel to 2002’s Resident Evil, Apocalypse starred only one actor from the first film — Milla Jovovich as Alice — while original director Paul W.S. Anderson had to step away because of his commitments to Alien vs. Predator. Only Anderson’s script remained, but in stepped cinematographer and second unit director Alexander Witt, who made his feature directorial debut with the 2004 zombie-action flick.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the movie, Inverse caught up with director Alexander Witt to get his insight into Resident Evil: Apocalyse’s unlikely journey — and how the true hero of this movie is hiding in plain sight.