Welcome to Gaia! ::

=============================================================
1. Introduction, Legal Stuff, Disclaimers, and Update History
=============================================================

And just like the movies
We play out our last scene
I won't cry, you won't scream
-- Alien Ant Farm, "Movies"

Dan Birlew began this thesis in 1998. I lucked across it in
1999, just when I was starting to get good and obsessed with
Resident Evil, and found it to be a useful resource.

After the release of Resident Evil 2 for the N64, I wrote a
transcription of the EX Files from that game, combined with
some notes on the RE storyline for the sake of the N64 crowd.
That transcription is currently hosted by gameFAQs.com (among
others), and after I wrote it, I got a lot of e-mail from N64
owners asking about the finer points of the storyline.

After about the twelfth e-mail I got, I went back to look
at Birlew's analysis for help, and wound up deciding that it
needed an update; rather than answering a flood tide of
e-mail, I could just point at this document and say, "Lo!
I have come down from the mount with answers!"

Birlew had already told me earlier that he wasn't planning on
updating this document and, in fact, was legally prohibited
from doing so. I asked him if I could do it. Please note the
following, which was not extracted under duress of any sort:

> Thomas Wilde has my full permission to continue the
> Resident Evil Thesis in my place. He has full permission
> from me to use any materials from my former versions that
> he sees fit. I relinquish these materials to him, since I
> am unable to continue or update the Thesis due to certain
> agreements I have made with certain companies.
>
> Sincerely,
> Dan Birlew
> formerly known as "President Evil"

Every time I say "me" or "I" in this document, it's Thomas
talking; every time I say "we," I refer to the audience of RE
as a whole. This document is copyright 2000-2003, Thomas Wilde,
except for those clearly labeled parts that are copyright 1998,
Dan Birlew. All recognizable concepts from the Resident Evil
series are copyright Capcom, and their usage in this document
does not constitute a challenge to that copyright. And so on.
And so forth. All rights reserved; violators will be fed to
the Neptune.

+------------ READING THIS DISCLAIMER *COULD* SAVE YOUR LIFE -----------+
| |
| Before we begin, I'd like to issue a general disclaimer. I don't |
| mind people e-mailing me to ask questions that aren't covered in |
| this FAQ, but: |
| |
| I'M NOT INTERESTED IN YOUR "THEORIES." |
| I'M NOT INTERESTED IN "ANONYMOUS SOURCES." |
| I'M NOT INTERESTED IN INFORMATION "FROM THE RE STAFF." |
| |
| This document deals in actual, documented, in-game plotline |
| information. Don't send me your dissertation on why Rebecca is a |
| spy, don't tell me anything that you got out of one of S.D. Perry's |
| novels, don't tell me anything that a friend of a friend was told by |
| a friend who had a friend who delivered pizza to the RE staff, and |
| don't e-mail me naked pictures of your sister because "she looks |
| just like Jill" (wait... actually, go ahead and send those). |
| I don't mind questions, but I do mind having my time wasted. |
| If you *do* send me a theory, don't expect me to reply. |
| If I don't reply, don't get upset. I warned you. |
| Read this entire document before you send me any questions. |
| If you send me some kind of outlandish claim, have an |
| official source ready to back it up. |
| |
| Please note that for my purposes, an "official source" does not |
| mean that you make something up about there being someone who |
| works for Capcom who is willing to risk his job by answering |
| spoilery questions about one of their flagship series at the |
| behest of some dork with no noticeable English skills and an |
| AOL account. I am comfortably certain that anyone who writes me |
| to claim that they have such an acquaintance is lying to me, |
| in an attempt to get my attention. I would like to point |
| out that not only am I wise to this scam, but there is an |
| an entire wing built onto Bellevue to house the surviving |
| morons who tried, and succeeded, to get my attention by |
| acting stupid. Trust me; you and I both have better |
| things to do. Seriously. |
| |
| All power to the people, and ban the $%#&ing bomb. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

+-------- NOT READING THIS DISCLAIMER CAUSES CANCER IN LAB RATS --------+
| |
| This is a *storyline* FAQ. It deals strictly with plot |
| elements of the Resident Evil series. It is not a gameplay |
| FAQ. If you're having trouble getting through the game, I |
| encourage you to seek out the various online FAQs written |
| for the Resident Evil games (particularly those by Dan |
| "President Evil" Birlew, Brett "Nemesis" Franklin, Vincent |
| Merken, Henry LaPierre, Vesther Fauransy [although I recommend |
| him with slight reservations; his FAQs are a little weird], |
| and "Stinger 3:16"). They are all available on www.gameFAQs.com, |
| among other places, and can probably be found at the same place |
| where you found this document. |
| |
| In short, send the gameplay questions to one of those |
| talented gentlemen, and/or check out their FAQs. They're |
| very well-written, and have helped me with my own |
| gameplay problems in the past. |
| |
| I *WILL NOT* reply to e-mail asking for gameplay information, Game |
| Shark codes, cheats, secrets, or file transcriptions. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

+-- IF YOU DON'T READ THIS DISCLAIMER, I GET TO HIT YOU WITH A PICKAX --+
| |
| No, you are *not* Shinji Mikami. I'm comfortably certain that |
| you don't work for Capcom of Japan, either, especially if you're |
| e-mailing me from an America Online account. Please do not assume, |
| dear readers, that I am an idiot. If you wish to converse with |
| idiots, get an AOL subscription and go buck wild. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

=======
Updates
=======

[Old updates deleted.]

February 12th, 2003:
-- I got back from the holidays to find forty new messages
about the plot analysis, a refreshingly small percentage
of which were from people who haven't actually read the
plot analysis. It has, however, forced me to give the
movie its own section in the FAQs. I also fixed a musing
in the RE2 section, after Michael Soo pointed out it was
now out of date.

February 16th, 2003:
-- the mailbag's been struck by a fresh wave of PS2 fanboys,
who're trying to find loopholes in the exclusivity contract
or something. I attempt to pour a bucket of cold water onto
their collective heads, via the utilization of a handy FAQ.

April 7th, 2003:
-- a new FAQ in RE0, and some tweaks to the rest.

June 5th, 2003:
-- hi! Did you see me at E3? I was the guy wandering around
with a laptop bag on his back, looking vaguely like he'd
been hit in the face with a brick. I have updated with
my impressions of the playable Resident Evil: Outbreak,
formerly simply known as Resident Evil Online.

June 30th, 2003:
-- Resident Evil: Dead Aim is both easy and now in the analysis.
It's Resident Evil... in the *future*.

September 13th, 2003:
-- letters, I get letters. And they make me tweak things.
For example, I screwed up on a Dead Aim FAQ; it's fixed
now.

===============================================
i. A Summary of the Basic Plot of RESIDENT EVIL
===============================================

Following the strange deaths of a number of citizens of Raccoon
City, the local police department has put the Special Tactics
and Rescue Squad, a special force dedicated to stopping local
terrorist activity, on the case. The STARS immediately sent
its Bravo team, led by Enrico Marini, into the Raccoon Forest,
where several of the murders occurred.

The Bravo team promptly disappears. On the night of July 24th,
the STARS Alpha team follows the Bravos into the forest by
helicopter, looking for clues as to their disappearance.

They soon find the Bravo team's helicopter... and the helicopter's
pilot, dead and mangled beyond recognition. The architects of this
massacre, a pack of wild dogs, soon spring an ambush, which kills
Joseph Frost, a member of the Alpha team. The rest of the team
attempts to fight the dogs off, but the dogs don't seem to mind
gunshot wounds.

The whole situation proves too much for Brad Vickers, also known
as "Chickenheart," the helicopter pilot for the Alpha team. He
panics, and takes off, leaving the rest of the Alpha team stranded
on the ground. After a headlong flight through the woods, the Alpha
team takes shelter inside the nearby Spencer mansion, an old estate
which was supposedly abandoned.

The player's role in the game begins at this point. As either Chris
Redfield or Jill Valentine, two of the five survivors of the Alpha
team, the player must find out just what's happening here, while
defending himself against the mansion's current inhabitants. Chris
will run into Rebecca Chambers, the field medic and lone survivor
of the STARS Bravo team, while Jill will be assisted by Barry Burton,
a police veteran and fellow Alpha team member. The game unfolds
differently depending on which character is chosen.

The character's investigation of the mansion begins with Albert Wesker,
the captain of the STARS Alpha team, instructing the character to
check out the source of a nearby gunshot. Upon investigating, the
character finds Kenneth Sullivan, a member of the Bravo team, dead
on the floor... and crouching over him is the zombie that killed him.
When the character tries to report back to Wesker, he's vanished.

Wesker's disappearance is the beginning of a long stretch of bad luck.
The mansion is inhabited by hordes of flesh-eating zombies, killer
crows, more dogs, and a giant snake. Even worse, the zombies must
be decapitated or incinerated, or a second "death" will simply cause
a zombie's mutation into the berserk clawed monster that the mansion's
former inhabitants have nicknamed a "Crimson Head." Fortunately,
there are more powerful weapons and ammunition hidden within the
mansion, as well as stores of kerosene to use against the zombies.

As the character advances through the mansion and the outlying
buildings, discarded papers and uncovered journals begin to hint
at what's really happened here. Apparently, the people who once
lived here were working on some kind of experiment, and that
experiment has gone awry. Notes from the mansion's original
architect, George Trevor, reveal how the mansion's new owners
left him to die in the mansion's hidden labyrinths, and how
they may have tortured his wife and daughter in a similar fashion.

Eventually, the character manages to unlock a door at the back
of the mansion, opening the way to the graveyard and dormitories.
Here, in an isolated cabin, the character is ambushed by a twisted
parody of a woman. Clad in a tattered dress and shuffling towards
the character on legs that have been chained together, the creature
screams as it attacks. Conventional weapons do no good, and the
character is forced to retreat.

In the scientists' lodgings, the mystery only deepens. Other
experiments have produced a massive, bloodthirsty plant, codenamed
Plant-42, as well as a trio of mutated sharks. The character manages
to dispatch the plant with the help of the scientists' notes, and
the sharks die easily enough when the flooded observatory is drained.
It's in the dormitories that new clues to the nature of this mansion
are discovered; the powerful Umbrella corporation would appear to
have something to do with these scientists, and for whatever reason,
the scientists are very interested in the STARS.

After Plant-42 is dispatched, Wesker reappears, claiming to have
been separated from the rest of the team following a monster
attack. He tells the character to return to the mansion and finish
the investigation there.

Upon the character's return to the mansion, a new monster joins
him. These "Hunters" are powerful and relentless, and rarely show
up alone. Evading this new threat, the character is able to visit
areas in the mansion that were previously locked, using a key
found in the dormitories, and is thus able to find the materials
to reactivate an elevator in the courtyard behind the mansion.

The elevator lets the character through a secret door, which leads
to an old series of mining tunnels, the purpose of which is unknown.
At one end of the tunnels, hiding in a darkened dead end, the
character finds Enrico Marini, the captain of the Bravo team. He's
wounded, and tells the character to stay away. STARS, he says, has
been betrayed. Just as he's about to reveal the identity of the
traitor, a single gunshot rings out from behind the character,
killing Enrice. The character gives chase to Enrico's assassin,
but the arrival of a pack of Hunters covers the assassin's escape.

At the tunnels' end, yet another elevator takes the character to
an underground river and a loading dock. After another encounter
with the twisted creature from the cabin, the character unlocks
yet another door, this one leading to a candle-lit hideaway.

In this hideaway, which looks like nothing so much as a young
girl's room, the character finds the last thing he needs to
open the last door back in the mansion. A ladder in the hideaway
leads back up to the cabin in the graveyard, where the twisted
creature was first encountered. When combined with the information
in Trevor's letters, and recently discovered research notes, a
sick suspicion may begin to grow in the player's mind.

The last door in the mansion leads down a long flight of stairs,
to the crypt of Jessica Trevor. It is guarded by the twisted
creature from the cabin, which has somehow reached this area
by unknown means. The character, assisted by either Barry or
Wesker, manages to open Jessica Trevor's sarcophagus, and the
creature jumps into a nearby pit after taking Jessica's skull.
A letter in the coffin removes all doubt; the twisted creature
is, in fact, Lisa Trevor, who was experimented on by Umbrella's
scientists. She has spent the last thirty years in agonizing
pain, locked inside a constantly mutating body that cannot
die, and has been driven quite insane.

The character proceeds on alone. Trevor's crypt leads directly
to an ornate fountain, which conceals the entrance to the real
laboratories, deep underneath the Spencer estate. The character
descends, into the dank corridors of the laboratory, where more
surprises await.

Not only has Wesker betrayed the STARS, but he has been complicit
in this mansion's experiments all along. A slideshow in the lab's
audiovisual room identifies Wesker, wearing his characteristic
sunglasses, as one of the leaders of this group. He has been
instructed by his supervisors at the megacorporation Umbrella
to sacrifice the STARS, in the name of covering up the accident
and generating combat data on Umbrella's monsters. As if that
wasn't enough, the team member that Wesker claimed to be
"separated" from was instead taken prisoner. He or she is
inside a dark cell in the laboratory, awaiting release.

Wesker himself is preparing for his last and greatest betrayal,
deep in the laboratory's storage room. He explains himself to
the character, almost as if he needs someone to tell his
secrets to. He plans to doublecross Umbrella by blowing up
the mansion and all its secrets; the betrayal of STARS was
simply to cover his tracks as well as the company's. To this
end, he's blackmailed Barry Burton to help him destroy evidence.

As the horrified character watches, Wesker unleashes the
most powerful bioweapon in Umbrella's arsenal: the Tyrant,
a humanoid creature built to kill. Unfortunately for Wesker,
it isn't very good at taking orders, and its first act is
to turn on the man who thought he was its master. Its second
is to come after the player's character, who will discover
that for all the Tyrant's power, it has a glass jaw. A few
Magnum rounds or acid grenades drop it in its tracks.

The character must now run for his life. The laboratory's
self-destruct sequence has been activated (either by Wesker
or by a well-meaning Rebecca), and very little time remains
before the entire mansion is blown sky-high. Rescuing the
captive STARS member in the back room, the character runs
out to the mansion's helipad and signals Brad "Chickenheart"
Vickers. Brad has been circling above the forest all this
time, awaiting word from one of his teammates, and upon seeing
the character's signal flare, he begins to descend to the
helipad.

Of course, nothing is ever that easy. With two minutes to
go until the mansion's destruction, the Tyrant bursts from
the rooftop. It has shaken off the sluggishness from its
months of storage, and now moves with the controlled strength
and speed of a freight train. Even with help from Barry or
Rebecca, the character is barely able to stay alive.

With seconds to go before detonation, Brad Vickers drops a
rocket launcher onto the helipad. An anti-tank rocket proves
to be more than even the Tyrant can handle, and it's blown
to pieces.

The surviving STARS climb onto Brad's helicopter. As Brad
lifts off, the Spencer estate explodes into a pillar of
flame. The STARS are left battered and bloodied, but alive...
with a story to tell that no one will believe.

==============================================================
iii. Differences Between RESIDENT EVIL and RESIDENT EVIL "2.0"
==============================================================

1. If you're a veteran player of the first game, the remake is
expressly designed to mess with your head. In the event that
a puzzle or ambush has carried over to the remake from the
first game, there's usually a different solution, another
wrinkle to the puzzle, or monsters come from completely
unexpected directions. (Zombies and Hunters can open doors.)

2. Richard Aiken would die no matter what you did in the
first game, regardless of how quickly you brought him the
serum. In the remake, saving Richard will let him survive
until you fight the giant snake (Jill's game) or enter the
Aqua Ring (Chris's game), whereupon something large will
eat him. If you save him, he'll give you his radio, and
you'll be able to take his combat shotgun after his death.
Richard's death also affects what options you have when
you deal with Plant-42.

3. The Chimera that haunt the power room now look a great
deal like RE3's drain deimos.

4. As mentioned above, zombies that are "killed" without
being decapitated must be incinerated. Otherwise, they'll
eventually rise again as the vicious Crimson Heads.

5. It is *much* easier to get your support character killed
in the remake.

6. Naturally, the biggest addition to the remake is that of
the unfortunate Lisa Trevor, as mentioned above. More about
Lisa can be found by reading Wesker's Report 2, as detailed
below.

7. If Wesker "dies" in the encounter with the Tyrant, you
can search his body to find a file written by William
Birkin. In it, he writes about how the G-Virus is almost
finished, and how he wishes he could rub his success in
Alexia Ashford's face.

8. If your support character manages to make it to the end
of the game, he'll help you in the final battle with the
Tyrant, on the helipad. During this time, if the Tyrant
manages to knock your character down, it'll leave you
alone in favor of grabbing your support character and
lifting him into the air by his neck (I use the male pronoun
so I don't have to type "he or she" a lot). Unless you
shoot the Tyrant at this point, it'll kill your support
character, which will cue the fifth possible ending.

9. In the original game's best ending for Jill, you could
return to the power room after the self-destruct sequence,
and you'd find a Chimera standing over Wesker's dead body.
Such is no longer the case with the remake; the power room
is empty.

10. The mansion wardrobe is now hidden in the darkened
closet in the east statue room. Check the large painting
against the back wall. It's actually a door.

11. Chris meets Rebecca for the first time when he enters
the mansion attic with the Shield Key; she is no longer
lurking evilly in the infirmary with a can of bug spray.
In REv.2, this is the first time Chris and Rebecca meet,
period, since as we learn in RE0, the Raccoon Forest
investigation is Rebecca's first case as a member of STARS.

12. In the helipad encounter, the Tyrant can, and will,
bat an incoming rocket out of the way with its claw.

=====================
3i. The Plot Thickens
=====================

The original Resident Evil is a relatively straightforward
horror game. Its sequels have been entirely different,
mixing horror with equal parts of action, mystery, and
conspiracy. Each RE game since the second has had an
intricate series of subplots, as well as at least a few
independent mysteries to solve. Furthermore, each game
has left a lot of questions unanswered at the end. In other
words, things get a lot more complicated from here on out.

One of the stranger wrinkles in the RE storyline is the
weird way that RE2 and RE3 relate to each other. I have the
two games listed separately here for the sake of maintaining
some kind of order, but in actuality, half of RE3 takes
place before RE2, and the other half takes place well
afterwards. This is noted in RE3's plot summary, below.

====================================================
3iii. A Summary of the Basic Plot of RESIDENT EVIL 2
by Dan Birlew
====================================================

On the night of September 29th, 1998, Claire Redfield
motorbikes into Raccoon City. She is a college student, and
is searching for clues in the disappearance of her older
brother Chris. On the other side of town, Raccoon Police
Department recruit Leon Kennedy is making his way to the
Precinct for his first day of duty. Stopping to investigate
a mysterious corpse in the middle of the street, he fails to
notice the figures closing in behind him. Claire pulls up to
a diner for a late meal, but finds that she is intended to
be the next course.

Both characters are surrounded by zombies. They collide in
the alley behind the diner, where Leon saves Claire. Finding
an abandoned police cruiser, they make a run for it.

In the car they get acquainted, while Claire finds a gun in
the glove compartment. But they are not alone. In an amazing
sequence, a zombie leaps out of the backseat and struggles with
Leon. The rookie loses control of the vehicle and they crash into
a wall. The zombie flies through the windshield. Before they can
catch a breath, a dying trucker bears down on them in a massive
gas tanker. The two leap out of the wreck as the tanker collides
and flips over, exploding in a huge ball of flame. The characters
are separated by the blaze, and each must make their individual
way through the game.

This is the point at which the player begins, choosing which
character to assume based on which of the 2 game disks are
loaded. When the player finishes with one character's adventure,
the save file enables the player to approach the same game from
the other character's perspective, in a reverse game. Thus, the
scenarios progress as either Claire A & Leon B, or Leon A &
Claire B. There are differences in each game, and there are
differences in each combination. In addition, whatever the
first character does in their scenario affects the second
character's game.

For the purpose of brevity, this synopsis will follow the
plot as it occurs in the Claire A & Leon B combination, by
far the more structurally sound of the two scenario
combinations.

Claire begins on the Raccoon City streets, now overrun by the
zombies who have come out due to the crash. By baiting them
in a certain direction, she figures out that she can create
openings in their ranks and slip past them. She ducks into a
gun shop, hoping to find ammo for her weapon.

Inside, the clerk points a crossbow at her. After she
convinces him that she's not a zombie, he locks his door.
With a slightly sexist attitude, he admits he doesn't know
what is happening in Raccoon City or where the zombies have
come from. Claire finds some ammunition for her gun and
starts to move on just as the undead lay siege to the store.
Crashing through the display window, they tackle the shop's
employee and chew him to pieces on the floor. Unable to save
the man, Claire's only hope is to run through the back door.
(In the N64 RE2 'port, we find out this man's name is Robert
Kendo, and he's the owner of the gun shop.)

Weaving her way through the slow moving ghouls, she makes
her way to the police station. S.T.A.R.S. helicopter pilot Brad
Vickers is encountered near the precinct, recently deceased
and come back by diabolic means. Executing this former hero,
Claire enters the Raccoon Police Department. She finds that
the place has been electronically locked and barricaded
against an apparent siege by the undead.

Leon finds himself directly behind the Police Department. He
has a shorter run than Claire, but must find the key to get
into the maintenance shed at the back of the Precinct. All
the while, flesh eaters converge on him. He gets lucky and
finds a back stairway to the roof of the station, but he
witnesses a rescue attempt fail.

A helicopter appears overhead. There is a lone precinct
survivor on the roof, signaling to it. Zombies attack the
unfortunate wretch. He sprays random machine gun fire
everywhere, accidentally killing the helicopter's pilot.
The helicopter crashes into the station and explodes into
flames. There's a water tank near the wreckage that can be
used to put out the fire, but Leon will need a valve handle.

Claire finds a cop lying on the floor of an office, seriously
wounded and dying. (In RE3, we learn that the cop's name is
Marvin Branagh.) In a brief speech, he tells Claire that her
brother Chris, and the other S.T.A.R.S., tried to get them to
believe that they'd encountered zombies in the woods outside
Raccoon, but no one would listen to them. He gives her the
card key that will open the electronic locks in the Precinct.
He tells her to rescue the other survivors in the police
station and get out. When she starts to protest, the
half-disemboweled officer sticks a gun in her face and
rudely orders her out. He locks the door behind her. Claire
accesses the computer in the main hall, unlocks the doors,
and continues on.

In the zombie-infested office on the first floor, Leon finds
the necessary tool to put out the fire. When he opens the
water tank and douses the blaze, another helicopter appears
overhead. This one is towing a rack of huge cylinders. One
of them detaches and drops. The bomb-like container blows
apart, revealing a huge humanoid creature. The giant crashes
through the roof of the precinct. The trenchcoated menace
heads right for Leon, who empties his weapon into the
stalking monstrosity before it falls. When Leon leaves the
room, the sinister intruder rises... and follows. Little
does Leon know, but anyone who had survived the mansion
incident might recognize this creature as a new and improved
version of the Tyrant.

At the same time on different sides of the station, Claire
and Leon both encounter a new and deadly lifeform.
Amphibious and spider-like, these creatures look like
crawling people turned inside out. They lash out with claws
and an incredibly long and sharp tongue. Police documents
refer to these creatures as "lickers," and no one knows
where they came from.

On the second floor of the west wing of the precinct house,
Claire finds the S.T.A.R.S. office and the log kept by her big
brother Chris. This document explains that he and the other
S.T.A.R.S. members had no luck investigating the involvement
of the Umbrella Corporation in the mansion lab incident. They
departed for Europe to search for Umbrella's main
headquarters. Suddenly a fax comes in, addressed to Chris. A
federal investigation on Umbrella has yielded naught for
clues, but an inquiry posted to the internal affairs
division by Chris regarding Raccoon Police Chief Brian Irons
has been answered. By his record, the Chief would appear to
be a deranged genius and former rapist.

Back outside the office, Claire catches sight of a young
girl being pursued by a zombie. While Claire dispatches this
thing, the fleeing little girl bumps into Leon. Frightened
out of her mind, she ducks into a small opening in a broken
door before he can stop her. Leon and Claire reunite. Leon
admits that this place is dangerous, and Claire suggests
that they split up and look for the girl and a safe exit. The
rookie cop gives her a radio so they can keep in contact.

Leon finds the two parts of a police operation report,
detailing the events of the past few days. The courageous
citizens of Raccoon made a grim standoff in the precinct
house against the flesh-eating undead. But some escaped the
precinct through the exit to the basement in the east wing.
He also finds a note addressed to him from the RPD, and the
party favors for a surprise welcome party they were planning
to throw for him. It seems his party has been cancelled.

He heads for the basement while Claire is startled by a
woman's screaming on the second floor. In order to save
whoever's in trouble, she needs a bomb to clear the helicopter
wreckage. Nearby, she finds the key to unlock the door
downstairs and save the wounded cop. When she returns to
him, he has been fighting off zombies unsuccessfully. Claire
now learns why he rudely forced her to leave him. He
rises, transforms into a zombie, and attacks her. Sadly,
Claire incinerates him. She finds a detonator and a chunk
of plastique, and heads back upstairs.

In the basement, Leon is fired upon by a beautiful woman
named Ada Wong. She's looking for a reporter named Ben
Bertolucci in one of the basement jail cells. After Leon
graciously helps her clear some wreckage out of the way, she
ditches him. He tries to catch up to her, but instead finds
the incarcerated reporter in one of the jail cells. Ada
catches up to them now, but where she went first is a
mystery. Questioning Ben, Ada reveals that she's looking for
her boyfriend John, who works out of an Umbrella branch
office in Chicago. He disappeared in this area some months
ago. Ben refuses to tell her what he knows about what's
happening in Raccoon City. Just then, a monstrous roar fills
the air. Ben has locked himself in his cell for protection
and refuses to leave, but directs the others how to get out
of the Precinct. Ada takes off, and Leon runs after her.

Claire detonates the plastique near the helicopter wreckage
upstairs. She finds an office full of stuffed trophy
animals... and a more gruesome trophy on the desk. The
Mayor's daughter lies sprawled out, a medium-sized wound at
her abdomen. Behind the desk sits Police Chief Brian Irons.
He has completely lost his mind. Although the girl's wound
looks like a bullet hole, he claims that she was attacked by
a zombie, and that she will resurrect within an hour. The
only way to stop the zombification is to decapitate the
victim or put a bullet through the brain. He admits that
taxidermy used to be his hobby (which links him to the
Umbrella mansion, because of all the stuffed trophies found
by the S.T.A.R.S. team there). He asks to be left alone,
and Claire is only too willing to get away from him.

In the room next to the Chief's office, Claire hears the quick
footsteps of someone fleeing from her. She finds the little
girl crouched in the dark. She radios Leon to let him know
that she cleared the helicopter wreckage and found the
little girl. The little girl says her name is Sherry Birkin,
and her parents work at the Umbrella plant. Her mother
called her during the T-virus outbreak and instructed her to
go to the police station for safety. She has heard her
father's voice in the station, but can't find him. Also, a
creature is stalking her. A mighty roar emanates from
nearby. Sherry runs off, and Claire tries to pursue her. In
the office, the Chief and the dead woman's body have
disappeared. However, he has left behind his diary detailing
the extents of his depravity. Thanks to Irons, there are
no survivors of the RPD's siege besides himself.

Leon has found the sewer system that runs under the city. In
the processing plant, he comes across what appears to be the
exit door but doesn't have all the necessary keys to get
through. Going back, he finds Ada also investigating the
sewage plant. She has found an open vent shaft that she can
get through with a boost. She hits the ground on the other
side, startling the same little girl Leon and Claire
encountered previously. As she runs off, Ada notices that
the little girl dropped her pendant. Amused, she decides to
keep it in case they meet again. After a quick search, she
finds a precinct key and returns to where Leon waits. She
throws the key back through the vent, but she can't get back
herself because the vent is too high. Once again, Ada runs
off on her own against Leon's orders.

Leon returns to the precinct house, searching for the last
few keys he needs to get out. While looking for clues on the
first floor, the horrible Tyrant bursts through the wall, and
only falls after Leon empties his shotgun into it. Leon races
upstairs and finds more items he needs. The Tyrant follows.
Again, Leon is forced to shoot it out with this brute. The
thing is finally subdued, even if only for the moment.

After gathering several keys of her own, Claire finally
catches up to Sherry in the Chief's office. Behind the desk
is a secret elevator, and Claire makes Sherry stay behind
while she goes to investigate. The elevator lowers her into some
kind of custom dungeon beneath the precinct, lit by flickering
torches. As Claire cautiously creeps down the hall, she hears
the Chief scream.

In his private chamber, Chief Irons is backed into a corner
by a hideous mutating creature. Something shoots out of this
thing's hand and down Irons's throat.

In a hideous torture room, Claire finds the Chief, ranting,
raving, and armed. He explains to Claire that his town has
been torn apart by the experimental monsters of the Umbrella
corporation. He tells her that a man named William Birkin is
to blame. Claire recognizes the name. Irons states that
Sherry is Birkin's daughter. Completely paranoid, the Chief
is ready to kill Claire. Before he can execute her, something
bursts through his upper torso from within. A small creature
leaps out of Irons and falls down an open chute nearby. Claire
follows this thing, only to see it quickly grow into some kind
of horrible infant. The thing attacks her, but she destroys it
fairly easily. She runs back to the second floor to get Sherry;
their escape route is now clear.

Leon makes his way to the precinct's clock tower where he
finds the final piece in the Chief's bizarre architectural
puzzle. Now able to exit the police station, he finds an
open dust chute and slides back down to the basement. Upon
landing, he hears Ben screaming in the jail cell nearby.
Leon runs to the reporter's aid, but is too late. The same
thing that impregnated Irons has gutted Ben. The dying
reporter gives Leon a document which entangles Raccoon
City's chief of police in a government conspiracy. In terrible
pain, Ben dies. Ada finally catches up to Leon, and they
read this document together. It is a series of letters from
William Birkin to the police chief, describing in detail how
Umbrella was bribing the chief to keep secret their actions
in the town. Birkin had learned that Umbrella sent spies to
steal his research. Ada then rushes off, explaining only
that she has to find John. She thinks he's in the chemical
plant. Leon is prevented from following by another call from
Claire. She has found a different exit from the precinct and
will join him in the sewers.

Leon runs after Ada, but in the sewage plant, he is
confronted by the mutating Dr. Birkin. The scientist wrenches
a steel pipe off of the wall and attacks Leon with it. Leon
empties a full clip of Magnum bullets into the scientist,
who doesn't fall. Instead, Birkin dives into the muck of
the sewers.

In the sewer beneath the station, Sherry is separated from
Claire when a drainage chute opens and sucks her into a
lower level. Sherry runs for safety, finding herself in a
garbage room. Just when she finds a nice shiny trinket, the
floor springs open and dumps her into the garbage hold.
Knocked unconscious, she fails to see a monster slouch out
of the darkness. Birkin has found his daughter at last.

Ada abruptly rejoins Leon, and he admonishes her for
running off. She agrees to stick with him, for now.

Searching everywhere to find Sherry, Claire runs into her
mother, Annette. The suspicious woman worked with her
husband William on a bioweapon called the G-Virus, a
mutagenic substance that turns whatever it infects into
a giant monster. Birkin injected himself with the virus when
armed Umbrella agents seized the virus from him. When Birkin
was accidentally shot, he used the virus to keep himself
alive. The G-Virus rejuvenates dead cells, but it also
mutates them. He became a monster, a "G-Type," and hunted
his killers down. The T-Virus leaked from his laboratory
after the attack, and was carried into Raccoon City by the
rats in the sewers.

The G-Virus seeks to spread by finding other host bodies.
When Annette learns that Sherry is in the chemical plant,
she becomes upset. The virus can only be spread through a
complimentary genetic host. Birkin will try to find and
impregnate Sherry with a virus embryo. From somewhere close,
they hear the little girl scream. Claire sends Annette
searching in the opposite direction and continues on.

Leon and Ada search the chemical plant for weapons and
ammunition. They bump into the frantic Annette. Ada chases
the armed scientist. Annette turns and fires on her pursuer,
but Leon jumps in front of Ada and takes the bullet. While
Leon lies unconscious and seriously wounded, Ada chooses to
run after Annette.

Claire finds the garbage dump and spots Sherry, lying
unconscious on a heap of rubble. She calls out to the little
girl, but a gigantic alligator hears her and attacks. Claire
runs back down the corridor and finds a switch to release a
gas canister. When the alligator grabs the canister in its
huge maw, Claire shoots the cylinder. The resulting
explosion flings chunks of the sewer beast's head
everywhere. Moving to Sherry, Claire spots some sort of red
worm slithering away; it is one of William's embryos. Stirring,
Sherry complains of stomach pains. Claire assures her that
everything will be all right. She leads Sherry out of the
spider-infested sewers, past the bodies of several soldiers
wearing gas masks...

Ada hounds the scientist through the sewers to the central
control area. Annette blasts Ada's gun out of her hand, an
adept shot for a scientist. She advances on Ada,
interrogating her. Learning that Ada is looking for her
boyfriend John, Annette realizes that she's talking about
one of the researchers at the mansion lab. She knows that
John turned into a zombie, and then died when the lab was
destroyed. She makes it seem that William was working at the
mansion as well, and that he developed the G-Virus there.
Annette starts to explain the new G-Virus to Ada when she
spots her daughter's pendant around the woman's neck. In a
suddenly aggressive manner, she demands to have it. A cat
fight ensues, ending with Ada punching Annette and sending
her flying over the rail. Inside Sherry's pendant, Ada finds
a secret compartment containing a sample of the G-Virus.

Claire and Sherry discover an underground tramcar. After
powering it up, they ride for some distance to an unknown dock.
Apparently they aren't out of danger yet, as the grunts of
the undead are heard nearby. Claire blasts through corridors
full of zombies. They arrive at a train turntable platform.
Inside the engine car, Claire finds the key to the control
panel outside. An alarm sounds upon activation, and the
girls run back inside the car. The entire platform
disengages and drops. It seems they have found some sort of
large secret elevator. Sherry is overcome by her stomach
pains and passes out. Her monstrous father shows up,
threatening to smash the traincar to pieces. Claire runs
outside and ducks a steel rod flung at her by William. The
screaming madman mutates, growing a new head and a
vicious-looking claw. Claire quickly pelts the thing with
enough flame grenades to burn down a forest. When the G-Type
is finally face down in a pool of its own blood, Claire runs
back into the train car. The elevator finishes its descent,
and she carries the unconscious girl into an Umbrella
loading dock. It would seem she has discovered a large
underground laboratory.

A slightly delirious Leon awakens and hunts for Ada. He
finds her in the subterranean garbage dump. After bandaging
his bullet wound, she lets him know that John is dead. She
doesn't seem terribly upset though, and insists they get out
of the sewage plant. At the tram platform, Leon recalls the
car. They board and head for the train elevator. On route,
they are attacked by the G-Type, which isn't dead yet. It
stabs one gigantic claw through the ceiling over and over,
seeking the passengers. Ada fires at the hand, blowing off
one of the fingers. The monster retreats. The two slip out
of the tram and make for the train platform.

Claire sets Sherry on a cot in the security office. She
gives Sherry her vest to keep her warm. The girl stirs, and
lets Claire know that she trusts her and depends on her.
Claire assures her that she will find something to cure her.

Leon has to recall the train elevator platform. Leaving Ada
in the control room, he descends to a secret security room
and there finds the necessary key. When he flips on the
surveillance camera aimed at the door he just entered, he
sees Umbrella's ugliest and most fearsome agent hot on his
trail. After one more battle with this 'Mr. X', Leon returns
to the upper control room to find Ada unharmed. He recalls
the elevator from there and they descend to the lab. But
their moment alone is not to be enjoyed. William is back,
and he exacts a terrible revenge against Ada. His claw
shoots through the wall, stabbing her in the back. She
passes out, and Leon goes out to fight William. The
G-Virulent has grown two new arms and doubled in size. Leon
pumps the thing full of shotgun blasts before it does any
good. Bleeding heavily, William leaps onto the elevator
shaft wall and leaves Leon alone.

In the lab, Claire figures out that the main power conduit
has been shut down. She finds a fuse for power connection,
and then she is free to explore the lab. Umbrella has
conducted further experiments with plant vegetation, as a
titanic vine grows up from the bottom of one shaft. Its
offspring slide along the ground, spitting acid at her. Worse,
there is an even stronger variety of the "lickers" here than
those encountered before.

The elevator platform's engine overheats, and it stops on an
upper floor of the lab. Leon leaves the wounded Ada in the
train car while he goes searching for something to patch her
wound. He crawls through a vent duct and drops into a
corridor. The elevator platform restarts and continues to
descend. Leon has lost Ada again. He finds an emergency
elevator that will take him down to where Ada has gone, but
it needs power. He finds a door to a "Power Room," but it is
locked. In a room with a huge smelting pit, he fights his
way through the tougher new breed of "lickers." He connects
the emergency elevator's power and goes up to the lab. In
what is obviously William Birkin's former experiment room,
he finds the power room key and goes back to the first level.

Leon runs off the elevator, but not very far. Annette Birkin
somehow sneaks up on him, brandishing a pistol and a vial
of blue liquid. She accuses him of being a spy, just like
the girl he's with. Leon denies that Ada is a spy, and Annette
laughs. She's done a background check on Ada, and has discovered
that Ada works for "the Agency." She's an undercover agent,
using her relationship with John, the researcher, to gather
information on Umbrella. Annette declares that no one will
take her husband's virus from her, and prepares to shoot
Leon. Mr. X suddenly crashes through the ceiling behind Leon.
Annette flees. Evading the powerful giant, Leon gets to the
power room and unlocks it. The monster has followed him, and
now the rookie cop is cornered. Shots ring out. Ada is back,
blasting away at the unholy behemoth. Unfortunately, she runs
out of bullets. As she reloads, the Tyrant seizes her and
lifts her into the air. Ada fires several rounds point blank
into his face. Temporarily blinded, the giant swings Ada into
a control panel, denting the panel and probably breaking every
bone in her body. Blood gushing from his face, Mr. X falls off
the platform into the smelting pit. Leon runs to Ada's side.
In her last moments, she tells him that she's fallen in love
with him. Leon kisses her passionately. Ada goes limp and dies.
Leon screams in grief. Near Ada's body, Leon finds a master key
that fell out of Ada's pocket when Mr. X dropped her.

After Claire finds a keycard in the research room, Annette
pops up again. She's still armed and dangerous, and somehow
knows that Claire tried to kill William. After Claire tells
Annette that Sherry has been infected by the G-Type, the
monster growls nearby. Excited, Annette runs after him.
William crashes out of the ceiling, still alive. More
monster than human now, he cuts his own wife down with one
terrible claw swipe. When Claire rounds the corner he leaps
back up into the ceiling. A dying Annette begs Claire to
save her daughter, giving her detailed instructions on how
to create an antidote to the G-Virus, using materials that
can be found somewhere in the lab.

The damaged central unit in the power room is wracked by
explosions. Lightning bolts course up and down the huge
column. A computer voice comes online to announce that the
self-destruct sequence has been activated, and all personnel
should evacuate to the cargo train platform at the lowest
floor of the lab.

At the edge of the iron smelting pit, a gigantic clawed hand
emerges from the red hot pool. Mr. X isn't down for good
yet, and he may be more dangerous than ever.

Claire runs out to the monitor room. A motion detector
alerts her that someone else is in the lab. Leon is
onscreen, emerging from the power room. Claire tells him to
go back to the security office to rescue Sherry while she
creates the G-virus antidote.

Leon rides the elevator back down into the lab, and retrieves
the barely conscious girl. He uses the master key in the
elevator to take the emergency access tube and reach the
lab's escape route, a high-speed train.

Following the instructions for the G-Virus vaccine, Claire
rushes to the VAM room on the Lab's fourth floor. Killing
several last zombies, she finds a vaccine cartridge. Reading
the instructions for the "Devil" vaccine, she inserts the
cartridge into the machine and starts it up, allowing the
base vaccine to be synthesized. She takes the cartridge and
heads back down to Birkin's lab.

Leon finds the train without power. Laying Sherry on the cot
inside, he finds a platform key at the back of the train and
hurries to power up their escape transport.

Claire inserts the base vaccine into the virus antidote
synthesizer in Birkin's lab, and the machine creates the
"Devil" automatically. On her way back out, she accesses a
corridor to the experimental containment room, where she
finds a huge cargo elevator that will take her down to the
train platform.

An explosion rocks the entire lab. The computer announces
that the self-destruct sequence has begun. There are only
five minutes remaining until total detonation.

Leon races across a bridge over the train to the opposite
platform. There he unlocks the containment chamber for the
power plugs for the train's generator. He takes the plugs
into the next room and inserts them into the power grid. The
computer warns him that the power will be completely shut
down momentarily in order to power up the train. In the
blackout, a huge creature lands behind him. A transformed
Mr. X is ablaze from his dip in the molten vat. With two
huge claws, he charges at Leon, knocking the poor guy from
one end of the room to the other. Suddenly another familiar
shape appears, at the top of the gantry over them. Still
wearing Sherry's pendant, Ada drops Leon a rocket launcher.
The cop recognizes her, but doesn't have a moment to spare.
He dives for the launcher, scoops it up, and fires at his
vicious adversary. The creature explodes into a dozen body
parts. The power comes back on and so do the lights. With
two minutes until detonation, Leon runs back to the train.

Waiting patiently for the elevator to reach her floor,
Claire's thoughts are suddenly interrupted as something
smashes through the ceiling right above her. She backs up
just in time to avoid being squashed as the G-Type drops
into the room. She fires several grenades into the genetic
monstrosity, but all she does is trigger yet another mutation.
The creature's newest form is doglike, pursuing Claire on
four legs and slashing at her with a mouthful of jagged
fangs. Claire runs around the room, playing matador as it
charges at her. Finally, her weapons have an impact on the
thing, and it dissolves into a puddle of genetic jelly.
Claire's elevator arrives, right on cue, and she descends
to the train loading platform.

Leon finds the train platform crawling with naked zombies.
Blowing their heads off left and right, he fights his way
to the switch that opens the gate blocking the train's path,
and throws it. As the gates open, he returns to the train
and starts it up. Slowly, the train comes to life.

Claire gets to the platform just as the train is taking off.
She sees Leon, leaning out an open door, yelling for her to
get on. She misses that opportunity, but luckily there is
another open door.

Once she's inside, the Umbrella lab completes its detonation
sequence in a huge explosion. The train rocks, throwing a
still-unconscious Sherry to the floor. Claire quickly
administers the vaccine to her and they wait. Finally, Sherry
comes to and thanks Claire for saving her. Leon thinks that
the danger is over, but Claire disagrees. She still has to
find her brother. Leon moves up into the cockpit. Still upset,
he says goodbye to Ada.

The train suddenly lurches. Leon moves back into the cabin
with the girls. No one can figure out what the disturbance
was. Leon runs toward the back of the train. The train is
equipped with the same computer system as the lab. The
computer warns them that a bio-hazardous material has been
detected on board. The train will detonate in just two
minutes. The cabin is locked, and Leon is unable to get back
to Sherry and Claire. He runs to the back of the train to
search the cargo compartments.

At the rear, giant tentacles smash through the ceiling. Leon
races back to the front as the G-Type makes an encore
appearance. Birkin is now nothing more than a gigantic black
blob, pulling itself forward with four huge tentacles. Leon
blasts the thing until it loses solidity once more. Then he
heads back toward the cabin.

===========================================================
3v. Differences Between Claire A/Leon B and Leon A/Claire B
===========================================================

If you play the game in the opposite order, starting with
Leon first, the plot is different in several respects:

1. Sherry keeps her pendant throughout the game. This means
that Ada never obtains the pendant or the G-Virus sample it
contains. Also, Mr. X wants the G-Virus, so he goes after
Sherry and Claire and not Leon and Ada.

2. Annette explains William's mutation and the cause of the
outbreak to Ada, rather than to Claire. Claire finds Annette
after Ada knocks her over the rail, and Annette falls
unconscious soon afterwards.

3. Sherry is never impregnated with a G-Type embryo, so
Claire doesn't have to create a G-Virus antidote. Thus, no
mention of an antidote is heard.

4. Ben Bertolucci is impregnated by Birkin with a G-Type
embryo that later bursts out of him. Why Birkin would
implant him with this is never discussed or explained.

5. Chief Irons is ripped in half by Birkin instead of
implanted.

6. Annette is fatally wounded when the G-Type pounds on the
ceiling in the lab and drops a pipe on her head. Leon takes
the G-Virus sample that she is holding.

7. Leon confronts Ada about being a spy. Annette, barely
alive, shoots Ada. Leon's love falls over the rail into a
deep chasm. Enraged, Leon tosses the G-Virus after her.

8. In the game's finales, Leon confronts the G-Type while
Claire battles Mr. X. Likewise, while escaping from the RPD,
Claire fights the G-Type embryo and Leon is attacked by
Dr. Birkin.

9. In Claire's final confrontations with Mr. X, she lures
him into the smelting pool by tossing Sherry's pendant with
the G-Virus over the side. On the trainpower platform, Claire
is aided in her battle against the mutated Mr. X by Ada. This
provides a larger mystery than the previously explored
scenario. How did Ada survive such a fall?

10. At the end of the closing movie, it is Claire instead of
Leon who leads them off, saying, "Chris... I have to find you."

Perhaps the reasons why the previous plot summary focused on
Claire A/ Leon B are now clear. The focus scenario is much
richer in plot and explanations. There is not as great a
leap of faith required to believe that Ada still lives.

Resident Evil 2 is a game much richer in story than its
predecessor, as is evidenced by the number of pages needed
to summarize the plot versus that of the original Resident
Evil. In this chapter of the story, questions are raised.
Some are answered, while others may never be solved.

==========================================
3vii. A Brief Summary of The 4th Survivor
==========================================

The game begins in a total blackout. Someone is thinking,
"G-...G-Virus... I have to deliver it to Umbrella..." The
scene opens at the end of the sewer station, sometime after
Ada and Leon have made their way to the Lab, but before the
end of the regular game. A body floats face down in the
muck, one of the Umbrella infiltrators sent to steal the
G-Virus from renegade scientist William Birkin. The body
stirs, shifts, and shows signs of life. Slowly, Hunk regains
consciousness and rises.

After a quick look around, Hunk pulls out his radio. "Alpha
team here," he says through his gas mask, "Mission
accomplished." "Roger," confirms another agent on the radio.
"We'll meet at the rendezvous point."

A map cuts in. A blinking beacon light shows Hunk that he
has to get to the second floor roof of the RPD precinct house
in order to be airlifted out. Hunk takes off up the stairs.

Between this stealthy agent and his goal is a small army of
the evil dead. Zombies plague his flight, along with giant
spiders, killer dogs, and slithering botanical experiments.
He has only a limited amount of ammunition, and must balance
his present needs against what he may encounter in the future.
Luckily he has some herbs to heal himself and treat poisons,
but it's not a lot. Leon and Claire have already taken all of
the ammunition from the RPD, so Hunk is stuck with what he has.

The zombies have retaken the Precinct in greater numbers
than ever before, and have laid several traps for the
unfortunate Umbrella agent. With some skill, he just barely
avoids these. But as he nears his goal, the insanity grows.
Each room bears an ever-greater horde of ghouls, quickly
converging on the lone survivalist. Shaking off his
attackers, he clears a pathway out with the barrel of his
gore-splattered gun.

After several close calls, Hunk tops a staircase to the
second floor of the RPD. He's halfway home, but the
nightmare is not yet over. Stomping toward him is a
monstrosity he has only heard rumors about at his agency. At
long last, Umbrella has perfected the Tyrant, and they've
sent it after the G-Virus. Somehow able to sense that Hunk
possesses a sample, the monster attacks him. Reasoning with
the beast would be no use, so Hunk evades the slowly
advancing thing and moves on.

In the final hallway, Hunk meets the Tyrant once again. How
it got over here so quickly is a real mystery, one Hunk
doesn't have time to solve. Evading the hulk yet again, the
agent reaches the roof and lights his last flare to signal
for a rescue.

The pick-up chopper swoops overhead immediately, as if it
has only been a block away this entire time. It hovers over
the precinct for an unbearably long mo
ment, then a bright
spotlight is trained on Hunk. Impatiently, he waves for them
to come down and get him. The helicopter quickly lands and
airlifts the tired and wounded operative. As the Umbrella
chopper soars off into the ominous skies, a brief epilogue
appears on the screen. The agent has delivered the virus to
Umbrella, promising that this is the end of one nightmare,
but only the beginning of another.