Umbrella Corporation

Infobox_Company
company_name = Umbrella Corporation
company_
company_type = Fictional corporation and laboratory
foundation = 1968 |location = Europe
founder = Ozwell E. Spencer
key_people = Ozwell E. Spencer
James Marcus
Edward Ashford
num_employees =
industry/projects = Thousands, exact figure unknown
products = Pharmacy products
Bio-Organic weapons
revenue =
homepage =

The Umbrella Corporation is a fictional bioengineering pharmaceutical company appearing in the "Resident Evil" series of survival horror games by Capcom and in its film adaptions. [Jeremy Parish, "UMBRELLA CORP.," "Electronic Gaming Monthly" 224 (January 2008), 100.] It is a major international player in a number of markets including pharmaceuticals, medical hardware, defense, and computers along with more clandestine operations utilizing genetic engineering and bio-weaponry. The company also has a more public face, producing cosmetics, consumer products and foods.

One of Umbrella's subsidiaries is a private military contractor with a highly-trained security force capable of rescue, reconnaissance, and para-military operations. The corporation uses the force to secure and protect its assets and high profile employees.

History

Formation

The Umbrella Corporation was founded in 1968 by Ozwell E. Spencer, Dr. James Marcus and Edward Ashford under the name "Umbrella Chemical Inc.". All three were also involved in the formation of the company, but they were far more interested in the potential uses of the "Progenitor Virus", a new type of virus the three men had discovered during the 1960s.

When Ashford died in 1968, Spencer was able to largely sideline Marcus at the corporation's Raccoon City facilities while he maintained control over the company for the next thirty years. Soon Umbrella had multiple research facilities and various research being done on various bioweapon viruses - T-Virus, Nemesis parasite, etc - but it was the Arklay Research Facility that became the most prominent together with nearby Arklay Training Facility, which was used to train Umbrella personnel and also contained laboratory installation. However, it was noted by researcher Albert Wesker that the military potential of the T-Virus would never make up for the cost of research and production, and that the Arklay facility seemed to be deliberately placed in an area where any leak would cause an uncontrollable outbreak.

Spencer eventually grew distrustful of Marcus, as he was worried that the scientist, who had recently started to make a comeback with his research project, might endanger his position as the Umbrella's key figure. Spencer arranged for his assassination by Wesker and William Birkin in 1988. Birkin took over Marcus' research soon after and was credited as the inventor of the T-virus.

Outbreaks

Ten years after Marcus' assassination, however, a disaster struck the Umbrella Corporation. Despite having seemingly been killed, Marcus came back to life through the Progenitor Virus. Marcus exacted his revenge on Spencer and Umbrella by releasing the T-Virus into the Arklay facilities, turning the personnel into zombies and leaving the facilities in complete chaos, allowing dangerous research specimens to escape into the surrounding area. Included in his anti-Umbrella activities, he also released the virus in the only Management Facility, which Umbrella was refurbishing for possible re-use. A train transporting Umbrella personel across the Raccoon Forest was a third target.

Birkin and Wesker used this as a diversion for their own plans to leave Umbrella, taking their research with them. Wesker, having formed Raccoon Police Department's (RPD) STARS two years earlier, would develop a plan to lure the unit to the Arklay Research Facility to obtain battle data from the conflict that would follow with the STARS and various Bio-Organic Weapons (BOWs). Of the two STARS teams, the first to be deployed was Bravo team, and it was Bravo team's Rebecca Chambers' and Billy Coen's intervention that eventually stopped Marcus' plans for revenge within the Arklay Training Facility, resulting in the facility's destruction.

Bravo team was followed by Alpha team. Both suffered heavy losses while battling the BOWs. In the Arklay Research Facility, one of Umbrella's most potent BOWs, the Tyrant, was released, resulting in unforeseen side-effects for Wesker. In the end, both the laboratory and the rampaging Tyrant were destroyed by STARS.

Wesker was forced to go into hiding for a number of months, using his operative Ada Wong to carry out his objectives, including the recovery of Birkin's ultimate creation, the G-Virus. Several months after the Arklay incident, Birkin finally perfected the G-Virus. Birkin planned to use the virus to force the Umbrella Corporation into allowing him on to their executive board.

Umbrella deployed its UBCS in a bid to steal a G-virus sample from Birkin. Although Birkin was mortally wounded in the ensuing conflict, and the G-Virus was successfully recovered by Umbrella, he was able to inject the G-Virus into his own body and kill most of the team before it could make its escape.

This event was directly responsible for unleashing the T-Virus on Raccoon City. While the Arklay incident had been relatively isolated and concealed from the public, and Umbrella's control over key government and law enforcement personnel had ensured that any record of what had occurred could be safely swept into obscurity, they were now faced with an entire city infected with the T-Virus and a trail leading directly back to the Umbrella Corporation.

Decline

Umbrella's fortunes failed to improve after the Raccoon City incident. The US government was forced to take extreme measures to ensure the spread of the T-Virus was stopped. "Mission: Code XX" was approved, and Raccoon City was annihilated by a missile strike. [Resident Evil 3 Digest 2, '] [Eradication Operation Notes, '] Despite the apparent disastrous effects this would bring for Umbrella, Spencer used his immense wealth and assets in an attempt to cover up the catastrophe as the result of a government conspiracy. [ [http://www.rehorror.net/thirdeye06/reuc_spoilers.php Resident Evil Horror / - Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles ] ] Because most of the evidence of Umbrella's involvement had been destroyed by the strike, Umbrella managed to drag out the legal proceedings. Witnesses like Yoko Suzuki were called to testify against the company, but Umbrella still managed to evade conviction and endure for another five years.

Shortly after the Raccoon City incident, the US government began a formal investigation of Umbrella's business practices. Several further disasters virtually ensured Umbrella's eventual collapse: On Sheena Island, an Umbrella senior executive, Vincent Goldman, unleashed the T-Virus on its citizens in a bid to cover up his business on the island that had not been accepted by Umbrella's executive board and emerge as the sole survivor of the incident, bringing vital research data regarding the new Tyrant project-- Hypnos T-Type --with him. However, an undercover investigator Ark Thompson, operating on behalf of Leon S. Kennedy, a survivor of the Raccoon City incident, succeeded in stopping Goldman's plans, resulting in his death and the loss of data regarding the new Tyrant type. Thompson emerged as a survivor of the incident along with two local children.

Shortly afterwards, Claire Redfield, sister of STARS Alpha team member Chris Redfield and also a survivor of the Raccoon City incident, broke into Umbrella's Paris facilities in search of her brother. She was captured and sent to Umbrella's facility on Rockfort Island. While there, she witnessed Wesker attack the island in search of the T-Veronica Virus, another derivative of the T-Virus. Escaping the island, she found herself trapped at the Antarctic Transport Terminal, another Umbrella Facility, where Edward Ashford's granddaughter, Alexia Ashford, awoke from a self-induced coma with a desire to establish a new order. Alexia was eventually killed and the Facility destroyed by Chris and Claire Redfield.

The end

Due to the series of disasters plaguing the company, and the ongoing legal proceedings against them, Umbrella's stock prices plummeted. By the early 21st century, the Umbrella Corporation's ruin was nearly absolute. Umbrella retained one last major stronghold located in southern Russia. Following Spencer's disappearance, this facility was placed under the leadership of Sergei Vladimir, and now housed the UMF-013, a supercomputer containing all of the company's data.

In 2003, Umbrella's stronghold came under attack by special forces troops led by Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, along with an unrelated attack by Albert Wesker. While the special forces secured the facility and destroyed the Talos project, Wesker infiltrated the facility and assassinated Vladimir, stealing all the data from the UMF-013. Wesker then turned incriminating data over to the prosecutors working against Umbrella, and testified, under the guise as a friend of Ozwell. Five years after Raccoon City's destruction, Umbrella was finally found guilty on all charges of its involvement in that massacre and an international manhunt by the FBI and the Russian equivalent was begun to bring Spencer to justice.

Paramilitary units

Throughout the "Resident Evil" series, several Umbrella-owned paramilitary units were introduced, driving the plot and providing new enemies and allies.

Umbrella Special Forces Unit

The Umbrella Special Forces Unit (USFU) were first introduced in "Resident Evil 2". USFU Alpha team attempted to steal a sample of the G-Virus, causing the city-wide outbreak in the game. Delta team appeared in the prequel "Resident Evil Zero"; Delta team was sent in to blow up the Ecliptic Express after the trouble occurred, but was overwhelmed by the leeches and wiped out. Delta team was under the direct command of Wesker and Birkin.

Other games give further background for the Umbrella Special Forces. According to "Code: Veronica", USFU agents are trained at the Rockfort Island facility.

One of the more notable members of the USFU, HUNK, appears first in a minigame in "Resident Evil 2", where he is given the mission of retrieving the G-virus from the research facility under Raccoon City. Canonically, he is the only survivor of his squad's mission.

USFU agents are always depicted in solid-color gray fatigues, wearing protective vests and gas masks (except in Resident Evil: Apocalypse, where they are depicted in solid black fatigues, vests, and a type of enclosed helmet). They report directly to the highest ranking officers in Umbrella. Unlike the UBCS which performs more visible missions such as rescuing civilians, this unit maintains total secrecy and a small size.

Umbrella Security Service

The Umbrella Security Service (USS) was introduced in the "Resident Evil Outbreak" series. They are typically depicted as wearing the same uniform as the USFU, which leads to confusion concerning whether the two are one and the same. However, unlike the USFU, the USS is not tasked with top-secret missions and focuses more on asset protection, employee evacuation and so on. They appear to handle the same tasks that the UBCS are supposedly used to deal with. Except in the USS' case, they are not deemed expendable. In "Resident Evil Outbreak File 2", a lone rogue member of the USS, Rodriguez, manages to steal the Nyx prototype, supposedly in a bid to sell it off.

Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service

The Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service (UBCS) was introduced in "Resident Evil 3". Numerous squads of UBCS soldiers are deployed to Raccoon City, supposedly to search for survivors and to help contain the zombie epidemic. In fact, they were deployed so that Umbrella could gain reliable combat data regarding their biological weapons—a fact known only to their supervisors. One of their members, Carlos Oliveira, is a main character in the game. UBCS members are also depicted in "Resident Evil Outbreak"-Files #1 and #2- and "The Umbrella Chronicles".

The UBCS was founded by former Soviet Colonel Sergei Vladimir. The service is mainly composed of "nightmen", mostly former mercenaries and war criminals recruited by Umbrella and trained to deal with "problems caused by illegal products." In "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" and "Extinction" they are referred to as the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Force.

upervisors

The Supervisors are introduced in "Resident Evil 3" and further fleshed out by documents in "The Umbrella Chronicles", where they are referred as "Monitor". They are also known as "Observers" in the book "Resident Evil: Archives". The Supervisors are part of an internal espionage organization within Umbrella meant to monitor suspicious activity among its own employees. Supervisors are usually placed throughout the corporation and maintain the image of normal employees in order to help them conduct their spy activities. Several Supervisors were placed among the UBCS, one of whom was Nicholai Ginovaef and Arthur Ashcroft. Their orders range from spying on fellow employees and destroying evidence to cleanup operations, including assassinations if required.

Umbrella Trashsweepers unit

' includes a force known as the Umbrella Trashsweepers"', also known as the Undertakers or Cleaners. Cleaners appear to have uniforms similar to those of Umbrella's Special Forces Unit, with body armor, gas masks, and gray battle dress uniforms. Their role is to destroy all evidence of a viral outbreak, including survivors.

References