**This article contains spoilers for Resident Evil**
It’s been over 25 years since the original release of Resident Evil. With Resident Evil 9 finally here, it’s time for a crash course on the franchise’s need-to-know lore!
To understand Resident Evil, you start with the Umbrella Corporation: a mega-pharmaceutical company led by Oswell E. Spencer that secretly engineers bioweapons, aiming to create “superior” humans while profiting from governments and terrorist groups.
The first virus Umbrella creates is the T-Virus, a pathogen derived from an ancient virus found in an African flower, meant to turn people into super-soldiers, but causes rapid cellular decay, death, and aggression (zombies!).
Resident Evil
The main story begins outside Raccoon City, a Midwestern city built around a research facility and controlled by Umbrella. Umbrella’s experiments leaked from this factory into the city’s water supply, causing an outbreak of “zombies” and the events of the very first game of the franchise: Resident Evil.
In Resident Evil, members of Raccoon City’s elite police force, “S.T.A.R.S,” are tasked with investigating a string of murders and end up trapped inside a mansion. A few of these characters are Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, and Albert Wesker, who you’ll see throughout the franchise. Whose mansion are they trapped in? None other than Oswell Spencer’s.
Within the Spencer Mansion, you uncover a laboratory dedicated to Oswell’s viral experiments, along with infected creatures crawling about. The twist is that the captain of S.T.A.R.S., Albert Wesker, is secretly working for Umbrella!
Wesker, intending to steal the data, betrays the team before injecting himself with a virus, faking his death as the mansion is destroyed, and becoming one of the franchise’s most infamous villains.
Resident Evil 2
The virus doesn’t stay contained for long, and Raccoon City becomes ground zero as it explodes across the city. The game follows my favorite character, Leon S. Kennedy, a rookie cop on his first day at the Raccoon City Police Department, as well as Claire Redfield, who’s searching for her brother, Chris. These characters investigate the police station as it’s overrun by infected, and eventually they discover the “G-Virus.”
The G-Virus was created by Dr. William Birkin, a virologist who worked for Umbrella before being attacked by them for trying to sell the U.S. Government this very same G-Virus. Unlike the T-Virus, Birkin’s invention forced rapid cellular repair and violent mutations. I think you can sense a common theme happening here.
While exploring, you find clues with the help of Ada Wong, a mercenary posing as an FBI agent who’s at the station to steal the G-Virus sample hidden within. You also come across some major antagonists, including Birkin, who injected himself with the G-Virus and has transformed into a grotesque monster, and Mr. X, a trenchcoat-wearing bio-organic weapon, or B.O.W., developed by Umbrella.
Eventually, Leon and Claire rescue Sherry, William Birkin’s young daughter, who holds a G-Virus sample. The characters manage to reach a train that they use to escape, though not without obstacles, as Leon fights Mr. X, assisted by Ada Wong with a rocket launcher (where she got this, I couldn’t tell you).
The characters escape the station having secured the G-Virus sample; however, the city was later nuked by the government to stop the infection from spreading, marking the beginning of Umbrella’s end.
Resident Evil 3
The events of Resident Evil 3 occur simultaneously with Resident Evil 2, following Jill Valentine as she’s hunted across Raccoon City by another of Umbrella’s creations named Nemesis. Nemesis is another B.O.W. programmed to eliminate surviving S.T.A.R.S. members.
Jill is infected with the T-Virus and cured with the help of Carlos Oliveira, a member of the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service (UBCS). The two manage to navigate the city, defeat Nemsis, and escape just as it’s destroyed by the nuke.
Resident Evil 4, 5, and 6
The following three games in the franchise shift the threat from Raccoon City to overseas, introducing a new bioweapon called Las Plagas, an ancient parasite that infects and mind controls its host… gross.
In Resident Evil 4, Leon, now a government agent, is tasked with rescuing Ashley Graham, the President’s daughter, who’s been kidnapped by a cult called Los Illuminados. Leon travels to a rural Spanish village infected by Las Plagas and even becomes infected himself.
Ada Wong is back, and helps Leon take down Osmond Saddler, the cult leader who’s been using Las Plagas to control villagers, rescue Ashley, and remove the parasite from their bodies. She also steals a sample of the parasite for herself and sets the cult base to self-destruct.
Resident Evil 5 follows Chris Redfield as he travels to Africa to investigate an advanced Las Plagas outbreak and, along the way, comes across Jill Valentine, who’s alive but under the infamous Albert Wesker’s mind control. Here, Wesker intends to release a new virus, Uroboros, into the atmosphere to force human evolution, killing the “weak” and creating new superhumans.
Now, if you think three viruses are a lot, you’ll think I’m crazy when I say there are upwards of 18 viruses within the franchise. Yikes! Chris and Jill ultimately chase Wesker to a volcano and destroy him, ending Spencer’s legacy.
Resident Evil 6 escalates into multiple stories focusing on a global C-Virus outbreak orchestrated by Neo-Umbrella, a group branching off Umbrella. Leon Kennedy, Chris Redfield, Ada Wong, and others take down Derek Simmons, a U.S. official who unleashed the outbreaks, after he infects himself with the C-Virus.
Resident Evil 7 and 8
Resident Evil 7 introduces Ethan Winters, an ordinary man looking for his missing wife, Mia, in Louisiana. He meets the Bakers, a local family infected and controlled by a bio-engineered child named Eveline via a superorganism called “the Mold.”
Ethan finds Mia, who’s been infected too, in the Baker’s basement, and manages to escape and cure her after destroying the family. Ethan also manages to kill Eveline with help from Chris Redfield, and ultimately escapes.
Resident Evil 8 continues a few years later with Chris seemingly murdering Mia, kidnapping Ethan’s daughter, Rosemary, and abducting Ethan. After crashing, Ethan wakes up in a European village plagued by creatures called Lycans and ruled by four “lords” serving a mysterious leader: Mother Miranda.
These lords are mutated by the Mold’s advanced form known as the Cadou parasite. Miranda uses Cadou to experiment on villagers in hopes of creating a vessel for her deceased daughter, Eva. You later find out that the “Mia” Chris killed was a shapeshifted Miranda trying to use Rose as a vessel.
Here’s the major connection: decades before founding Umbrella, Oswell Spencer met Mother Miranda and was inspired by her research into the Mold to revive her daughter. Her ideas directly influenced Spencer’s later work with the T-Virus.
The game also reveals that Ethan is more deeply connected to the Mold than we realized: he died in RE7 and has been unknowingly kept alive by the Mold ever since. In the climax, Ethan sacrifices himself to destroy Miranda and prevent the Mold from spreading, saving Rose.
Now that you’re officially caught up, the new Resident Evil 9 should feel a lot less confusing and a lot more chaotic in the best way possible!
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