Umbrella Corporation (RE films)

"At the beginning of the 21st century, the Umbrella Corporation had become the largest commercial entity in the United States.

''Nine out of every ten homes contain its products. Its political and financial influence is felt everywhere.''

In public, it is the world's leading supplier of computer technology, medical products and healthcare.

Unknown, even to its own employees, its massive profits are generated by military technology, genetic experimentation and viral weaponry." - Opening Narration, Resident Evil (2002)

The Umbrella Corporation was the main antagonistic force in the Resident Evil film series directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. Based on the company of the same name from the Resident Evil games, Umbrella was depicted as the largest and most powerful commercial entity in the world. As far as the public and even most of its own employees knew, Umbrella developed healthcare and pharmaceutical products. This was merely their cover, however; in reality, Umbrella made most of its profits by developing weaponized viral agents, not only for the United States but for other countries as well. Chief among these viral weapons was the T-virus, a mutagenic agent originally developed for medicinal purposes. Capable of reanimating dead cells, the T-virus was supposed to be a miracle cure, but a catastrophic side effect of the virus was that it killed its hosts and reanimated them as cannibalistic Undead monsters. Umbrella saw more value in the T-virus as weapon and continued to research it, but their experiments would eventually lead to a worldwide outbreak that would bring humanity to the brink of extinction.

The Hive incident
In 2002, Umbrella's secret underground laboratory known as the Hive was locked down when someone intentionally released the T-virus into the complex's air-conditioning system. The Red Queen, the supercomputer that controlled the Hive, sealed off the complex in order to prevent the virus from spreading and activated interior defence systems, killing the 500 staff members trapped inside. By this point, the entire staff had been unknowingly infected and shortly after death they reanimated as mindless zombies that hungered for living flesh. With the doors all sealed, the Undead staff had nowhere to go.

Uncertain of what had happened in the Hive, Umbrella dispatched a paramilitary security force to enter the complex and investigate. The team arrived at the mansion that covered the Hive's emergency entrance where they found Alice, the head of security. However, Alice had lost her memory after the Red Queen released a nerve gas into the house. Along with Alice, the team also found Matt Addison, an anti-Umbrella activist who was posing as a Raccoon City cop, and Spence Parks, Alice's partner and the man who had caused the outbreak to begin with. Like Alice, Spence had also lost his memory. The team took Alice, Matt and Spence with them as they descended into the Hive.

As the Umbrella Security team approached the Red Queen's mainframe chamber, they tripped a laser defence grid in the adjoining corridor. While the team's techie Chad Kaplan managed to shut the lasers down, four of the soldiers had already been killed, including the team leader One. Alice and Kaplan entered the Queen's chamber in order to shut her down, but a holographic avatar of the Red Queen appeared and warned them against it. Ignoring her, Kaplan went ahead and shut the computer down, but unknowingly unlocked all the doors throughout the Hive, releasing the zombified staff. The Undead horde, drawn by the presence of living flesh, found their way to the team's location. Alice and the others struggled to survive against the tide of Undead and were forced to reactivate the Red Queen in order to find a way out of the Hive before its blast doors sealed shut. However, not only did they have the Undead to deal with, but the betrayal of Spence and a Licker bio-weapon that had escaped containment. In the end, only Alice and Matt managed to get out alive, but Matt had been wounded by the Licker and infected with the T-virus. Just then, a team of Umbrella scientists wearing hazmat suits entered the mansion and captured Alice and Matt.

The fall of Raccoon City
After capturing Alice and Matt, Umbrella reopened the Hive in order to find out what happened down there. The team that were sent in were quickly attacked and killed by the zombies and other infected creatures within which would then escape the complex and spread the T-virus into Raccoon City. Within 24 hours, Raccoon City became hell on earth as the T-virus spread like wildfire, turning most of the population into zombies. In order to keep the virus from spreading beyond the city limits, Umbrella hastily constructed a wall around Raccoon with the Raven's Gate Bridge being the only way out. Citizens that came to the gate were screened for the virus before being allowed to leave, but after an infected man attacked a S.T.A.R.S. member near the gate, the city was sealed off completely and the remaining citizens were forced away from the gate at gunpoint.

As T-virus contamination reached critical levels, Umbrella continued to monitor events inside the city. Seeing the outbreak as the ideal opportunity to test new bio-weapons, Major Timothy Cain ordered the activation of Nemesis, a near-invulnerable super-soldier armed with heavy weaponry. Discovering that most of the Raccoon Police Department's elite Special Tactics & Rescue Squad were still alive, Cain ordered Nemesis to hunt them down and eliminate them as a test of its abilities. Nemesis easily slaughtered the S.T.A.R.S. members gathered in a gun store and would soon after encounter Peyton Wells and Jill Valentine. Accompanying the two S.T.A.R.S. survivors was Alice, the Hive's former security chief whom Umbrella had conducted experiments on just prior to the outbreak. Nemesis killed Peyton before attacking Alice, who lured it away from Jill. Alice was able to evade Nemesis for a time, but would encounter the monster again after she and her companions went to City Hall in order to take a helicopter out of the city.

With no means of controlling the spread of infection, Umbrella decided that Raccoon City was to be sanitized and arranged for the launch of a 5-kiloton nuclear missile to annihilate the city and all evidence of the outbreak. Alice and her friends confronted Major Cain and Nemesis at City Hall as the missile strike was ordered. At this point, Nemesis (revealed to have been a mutated Matt Addison) broke free of Umbrella's programming and joined Alice and co. in attacking Cain's men. Nemesis was killed after shooting down an Umbrella attack helicopter which crashed upon him. Alice, Jill, and their associates hijacked Cain's chopper, leaving the major to die as a swarm of Undead besieged City Hall. When the missile struck Raccoon City, the chopper was rocked by the blast wave and forced to crash-land somewhere in the Arklay Mountains.

Several weeks after the destruction of Raccoon City, Jill Valentine, Carlos Olivera and L.J. Wayne were on the run after Umbrella had used their media connections to dismiss a video recording of the outbreak. Alice, on the other hand, had been captured by Umbrella and was being experimented on at their facility in San Fransisco by Dr. Alexander Isaacs, Umbrella's top scientist. Enhanced with superhuman strength, agility, reflexes and even telekinetic powers, Alice managed to escape captivity just as Jill, Carlos and L.J. arrived at the facility undercover in order to rescue her. However, they had no idea that Dr. Isaacs had implanted Alice with a device that would allow him to monitor her every move and even seize control of her when he wished.

Orchestrated apocalypse
Prior to the incident in the Hive, the members of Umbrella High Command had met in secret to discuss not only the future of the company, but of the very world itself. Dr. Isaacs, chief scientist and co-founder of Umbrella, had determined that mankind was nearing the brink of annihilation due to its continued neglect of the planet. Isaacs proposed a plan to High Command, but not a plan to save the world, but rather to end it on Umbrella's terms. In his proposal, Isaacs suggested releasing the T-virus on the unsuspecting populace and allowing it to spread worldwide, wiping out the majority of humanity while leaving much of its infrastructure intact. While the virus spread across the globe, the members of Umbrella's leadership and thousands of their staff would remain underground in cryogenic stasis, waiting for the cleansing to be complete. Once the human population had been completely wiped out and only the Undead remained, Umbrella would release an airborne anti-virus that would spread across the planet, killing every life-form infected with the T-virus and leaving the planet clear for Umbrella to claim and remake in its own image. Umbrella's orchestrated apocalypse was set in motion around the time of the T-virus outbreak in Raccoon City. While very few people left the city, a handful were allowed to leave after being screened for infection and declared clean. However, at least one of these screenings proved to be false and resulted in another outbreak elsewhere. In the months to come, a number of Umbrella facilities went dark after a series of "accidents" resulted in the T-virus being released in multiple areas of the United States. While Umbrella continuously denied responsibility and offered its support in trying to stop the infection spreading, they secretly undermined government containment efforts and allowed the virus to spread with impunity. Within five years, human society had collapsed and only small groups of survivors remained, remaining mobile in order to evade the ever-growing Undead legions.

Project: Alice
As the T-virus spread across the planet, most of Umbrella High Command went into cryogenic stasis in the Hive beneath the ruins of Raccoon City. Several of them allowed themselves to be cloned and these clones were tasked with managing Umbrella's remaining assets around the world, continuing to research the virus and its mutations. One such clone, that of Dr. Isaacs, took charge of an underground facility in Nevada and was tasked with monitoring Project: Alice. Alice, who had previously escaped Umbrella, had been implanted with surveillance and control systems that allowed Umbrella to monitor her every move and take control of her when they wished. After locating her and a convoy of survivors travelling towards the buried city of Las Vegas, Isaacs attempted to capture Alice and kill her friends using a pack of enhanced Undead. However, during this attempt, Alice's advanced telekinetic powers allowed her to short out the control devices in her brain, disconnecting her from the Umbrella satellite in orbit.

Alice would lead Claire Redfield's convoy back towards Isaac's base where they commandeered a helicopter to take them to a supposed safe-zone. Claire and the others fled, but Alice ventured into the underground base where she confronted Dr. Isaacs. Isaacs had been bitten by an enhanced zombie during his attack and attempted to cure himself with the anti-virus, but the enhanced viral strain caused him to mutate into a horrific creature. Alice fought against the mutated Isaacs inside a facsimile of the Hive complex, complete with defensive lasers that she used to cut Isaacs to pieces.

Discovering that Isaacs had been cloning her in order to develop a new antigen for the virus, Alice took control of the cloning facility and released all the remaining clones of her. She and the clones would then travel to Japan where they attacked Umbrella Headquarters. The Alice clones were all killed when Albert Wesker activated the facility's self-destruct system, imploding the entire complex and turning a large portion of Tokyo into a smoldering crater. Alice had survived and boarded Wesker's escape craft, attempting to ambush him. However, Wesker was able to inject Alice with a serum that destroyed the T-virus cells in her body, robbing her of her superhuman powers. During the struggle, the aircraft crashed into a mountainside. Alice survived, though Wesker had seemingly perished.

Internal struggle
Wesker had survived the plane crash due to injecting himself with the T-virus. Rather than turning him Undead, the virus blessed Wesker with superhuman strength and speed. However, it also caused Wesker to resort to cannibalism as he fought to maintain self-control. Arriving at the Umbrella research vessel Arcadia, Wesker took command of the ship and began feeding on its crew in order to keep the virus in check. Not long after Wesker's arrival, the rest of the crew abandoned ship, fearing that Wesker would kill them too.

Several months later, the Arcadia arrived off the coast of Los Angeles where Alice had been located. The Arcadia had previously been broadcasting a repeating message promising sanctuary from the infection, so Wesker knew that Alice would come. Alice came along with Chris and Claire Redfield and Wesker stated his intention was to devour Alice. Since Alice had bonded with the T-virus on a cellular level, Wesker believed that ingesting her would allow him to regain control of his body. He fought against Alice and the Redfield siblings, but even with his new powers he was unable to defeat them. Although the trio appeared to have killed him, Wesker regenerated from his injuries and escaped aboard a plane, activating the Arcadia's self-destruct charge. However, Alice had found the charge before fighting Wesker and put it aboard his plane in case he fled. Wesker noticed the bomb just before it went off and jumped from the plane using a parachute.

Shortly after Alice's battle with Wesker, the Arcadia was attacked by a fleet of Umbrella aircraft. Most of the survivors imprisoned aboard were killed and those who survived were captured, including Alice. Alice would awaken an unknown time later within Umbrella Prime, Umbrella's primary bio-weapons testing facility in Russia. Aided by rogue Umbrella agent Ada Wong, Alice was freed from captivity and sought to escape from the base. Ada revealed that neither she nor Wesker were working for Umbrella any longer, that the corporation's remaining assets were now being directed by the Red Queen, the same artificial intelligence believed to have been destroyed back in the Hive years ago.

As Alice and Wesker's group of anti-Umbrella mercenaries made their way through the facility, they encountered numerous cloned soldiers, Undead and bio-weapons. Umbrella had even brainwashed Alice's former friend from Raccoon City, Jill Valentine, turning her into a loyal minion and deadly commando. Fortunately, Alice was able to free Jill from the Red Queen's control and saved her as she and the others fled the collapsing Umbrella Prime facility.

Betrayal
After escaping Umbrella Prime, Alice and her allies arrived in Washington D.C. where an anti-Umbrella resistance had established a stronghold in the White House. Wesker as supposedly leading the resistance and when Alice stepped into the Oval Office, he greeted her by injecting her with a T-virus serum that restored her superhuman powers.

However, Wesker had actually infiltrated the resistance on the order of Dr. Alexander Isaacs, the man whom Alice believed that she had killed in Nevada. At some point following Alice's arrival, Wesker sabotaged the resistance from within, weakening their defences and allowing Umbrella forces to storm the White House and destroy it. The entire resistance was seemingly wiped out, all except for Alice who was once again returned to a normal human state.

The end of Umbrella
After awakening within the ruins of the White House, Alice located a functional computer terminal through which she was contacted by the Red Queen. The AI explained to Alice that she was not controlling Umbrella's forces according to her own will, that she was still very much under their control. She offered her help to Alice, informing her that she could not directly oppose Umbrella, but was capable of operating with a limited degree of freedom, enough that she could provide information to Alice that would help her end Umbrella once and for all.

The Red Queen told Alice that Umbrella had developed a new airborne variant of the T-virus antigen and could release it whenever they chose to, wiping out the worldwide infection. However, Umbrella had opted to wait until the remaining human population had been wiped out before releasing the cure. The Red Queen revealed that the cure was being developed in the Hive, where everything had begun. Alice had only a matter of days to reach the Hive and release the antivirus before Umbrella destroyed the last remaining human settlements.

On her way to Raccoon City, Alice was ambushed by Umbrella forces being led by Dr. Isaacs. (This was later revealed to be just another clone of Isaacs.) Having established himself as a sort of messianic figure among his troops, Isaacs declared Alice a blasphemer and tried to have her executed. Alice was lucky enough to escape from Isaacs' convoy and steal a motorbike that would get her to Raccoon City ahead of the convoy.

Alice made it to Raccoon where she encountered a group of survivors being led by none other than Claire Redfield, who had somehow managed to escape from Arcadia. Alice and Claire led a team into the crater in the centre of the ruined city where they gained entrance to the Hive. Fighting their way through automated defences and grotesque bio-weapons, the group planted a series of explosive charges in the cryostasis chamber where the Umbrella High Command were stored. They then confronted both Wesker and the real Dr. Isaacs within the facility's depths.

Isaacs taunted Alice by brandishing the canister containing the antivirus, threatening to drop it there and then if Alice didn't surrender. However, Isaacs wasn't the only member of Umbrella's High Command to have been awoken from stasis: Alicia Marcus, Umbrella's true owner, had also been awakened, just so that Isaacs could gloat over her while he reshaped the world in his image. This was a grave error on Isaacs' part as Alicia used her authority to fire Wesker. With Wesker immediately stricken from the company's personnel, the Red Queen was allowed to act against him and slammed a blast door on him, severing his arm and leaving him bleeding to death.

While Claire escaped from the Hive, Alice fought against Dr. Isaacs who had been augmented in some fashion. Alice was able to overpower Isaacs and take the antivirus from him, escaping to the surface just as the explosives went off, destroying the Hive and killing all of the Umbrella staff in stasis. Isaacs managed to get out before the explosion and confronted Alice, but at that same moment his clone arrived with an army of zombies not far behind him. The Isaacs clone refused to accept that he was a fake and violently stabbed his template to death before being attacked by the Undead. Alice then grabbed the antivirus canister and smashed it to the ground, releasing the cure into the air. All of the zombies surrounding her died immediately and Alice herself temporarily lost consciousness. She then awoke to find both Claire and a projection of the Red Queen standing over her, informing her that Umbrella's remaining forces had ceased their attacks on the remaining human settlements and that the cure was killing off all T-virus infected life-forms in its path. It would take years for the cure to spread across the whole planet, but now mankind had a chance to survive and rebuild while Umbrella had been destroyed for good.

Known Umbrella personnel

 * James Marcus - Co-founder of Umbrella and creator of the T-virus. He had founded the company on the ideals of improving the quality of human health and had developed the T-virus as a miracle cure. After discovering the virus' lethal side effects, Marcus demanded that all of Umbrella's viral research be brought to a halt, but his partner Alexander Isaacs saw massive potential for profit by selling the virus as a weapon and had Albert Wesker assassinate Marcus.
 * Alicia Marcus - Daughter of James Marcus. She was afflicted with a rare genetic condition that caused her to age rapidly and her father had developed the T-virus in order to cure her. The virus did work, but only temporarily and Alicia's disease reasserted itself by the time she was 18. After her father died, Alicia the majority share of Umbrella's holdings, owning 51% of the company. However, she had little authority among the Umbrella High Command and could not prevent them from carrying out their orchestrated apocalypse. Before going into cryostasis, Alicia's DNA was sampled to create a clone of her. This clone would become known as 'Alice'. Alicia was released from cryostasis towards the end of the T-virus pandemic and died when the Hive was destroyed by explosive charges.
 * Alexander Isaacs - Co-founder and chairman of Umbrella. Believing that mankind was on the path to self-annihilation, Isaacs devised a plan to destroy human civilisation in order to save the planet by releasing the T-virus across the world. While Isaacs went into stasis during the outbreak, he left a number of clones of himself to continue researching the virus and appointed Albert Wesker as acting chairman. He was killed by one of his clones towards the end of the pandemic.
 * First Clone - Isaacs' first known clone was appointed as the head of Umbrella's viral research while the T-virus spread across the planet. Operating out of a facility in Nevada, he attempted to develop a cure derived from Alice's blood as well as domesticate the Undead. After being bitten by an Enhanced Undead, Isaacs began to mutate into a superhuman monster. He was killed when Alice cut him to pieces with a laser grid.
 * Second Clone - The second known clone of Isaacs had seemingly developed a sense of zealotry, establishing himself as some form of religious leader. He led Umbrella's remaining militia forces as they carried out the extermination of Earth's remaining human population. He killed the original Isaacs shortly before being killed himself by a horde of Undead.
 * Albert Wesker - Dr. Isaacs' henchman and acting chairman of Umbrella during the outbreak. He had operated out of the company's headquarters in Tokyo before it was destroyed by Alice. For a time, Wesker had infiltrated an anti-Umbrella resistance group in order to sabotage them and leave them vulnerable to attack. After this, he returned to the Hive and released Dr. Isaacs from stasis. He died after having his arm severed and bleeding to death.
 * Alexander Slater - An Umbrella executive who worked alongside Dr. Isaacs' first clone at the Umbrella Nevada base. He distrusted Isaacs and reported his activities to Wesker. He was killed by Isaacs when the doctor began mutating into his 'Tyrant' phase.
 * Charles Ashford - An Umbrella scientist who had taken charge of Umbrella's viral research after the death of James Marcus. He was in Raccoon City when the outbreak occurred and discreetly tried to help Alice and several other survivors escape from the city in exchange for the safe return of his daughter. His treachery was discovered by Major Timothy Cain who then shot him.
 * Timothy Cain - Former Major in the United States Army, later hired by Umbrella to lead their private military. He oversaw Umbrella's operations during the Raccoon City outbreak and was head of the Nemesis Program. He was killed after Alice left him to die in Raccoon when a swarm of zombies devoured him.
 * Spence Parks - Former head of security at the Hive, working alongside Alice to guard the Hive's entrance. He was responsible for causing the T-virus outbreak in the Hive when he attempted to steal the virus and sell it on the black market. He was killed by a Licker and reanimated as a zombie, only to later be decapitated by Alice.
 * Alice - Also known as Alice Abernathy or Janus Prospero. A clone of Alicia Marcus, she began her life as security chief of the Hive. After befriending a member of the Hive's staff who was secretly gathering information on Umbrella's illegal activities, Alice learned of the corporation's horrific crimes and vowed to bring them down. She has occasionally wielded superhuman abilities due to her genes bonding with the T-virus on the cellular level.
 * The Red Queen - An advanced artificial intelligence that controls all of Umbrella's computerised assets. She was created by James Marcus who modelled her holographic avatar after his own daughter. Though she was responsible for killing off the staff within the Hive, the Red Queen possessed the capacity for conscience and actually helped Alice bring down Umbrella and end the T-virus pandemic.

Umbrella facilities

 * Umbrella Headquarters - Located in Japan, beneath the streets of Tokyo. This was the center of Umbrella operations during the global outbreak. It was destroyed when Albert Wesker detonated the self-destruct device in order to wipe out Alice's army of clones.
 * The Hive - Located beneath Raccoon City in the United States, the Hive housed over 500 technicians, support staff and scientists. It was here that Umbrella's most sensitive viral research was carried out and is believed to be where the pandemic first began.
 * Umbrella Nevada - An underground facility similar to the Hive, this was where Dr. Isaacs' first clone carried out research on the Undead in an effort to domesticate them. This base was left abandoned after Isaacs transformed into a monster and slaughtered all of his staff.
 * Arcadia - A freight ship converted into a mobile laboratory. Wesker had taken command of this vessel after escaping Tokyo and used it to lure in survivors of the outbreak with the promise of safety from the infection. The ship was destroyed by Umbrella forces controlled by the Red Queen.
 * Umbrella Prime - Located in the Beiring Straits, this facility was Umbrella's main bio-weapons testing area. It contained several facsimiles of real-world cities where the company conducted various viral outbreak scenarios, populating their simulations with clones based on Umbrella's paramilitary staff.