Umbrella Corporation
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| The Umbrella Corporation | |
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| Type | (Fictional) Corporation Laboratory |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1960s |
| Headquarters | Paris, France  |
| Key people | Ozwell E. Spencer James Marcus Edward Ashford |
| Products | Pharmacy products Bio-Organic weapons |
The Umbrella Corporation is a fictional biological engineering megacorp company set in the Resident Evil (Biohazard in Japan) videogame series. In the videogames, 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 weapons. The company also has a more public face, producing cosmetics and consumer products.
One of Umbrella's subsidiaries is a private military company with a highly-trained security force capable of rescue, reconnaissance, and para-military operations. The corporation utilizes the force to secure and protect its assets and high profile employees.
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[edit] History of Umbrella
[edit] Formation
The Umbrella Corporation was founded by Sir Ozwell E. Spencer, a descendant of the European Noble Family, in the 1960s. Dr.James Marcus and Lord Edward Ashford were also involved in the formation of the company, but they were far more interested in the potential uses of the newly-discovered Progenitor Virus.
When Ashford died in 1968, Spencer was able to largely sideline Marcus at the 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 et al - but it was the Arklay Research Facility that became the most prominent. 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 & 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 might supplant him as Umbrella's CEO. Spencer arranged for his assassination by Wesker and William Birkin. Birkin would subsequently take over all of Marcus' research, including the studies on the Progenitor Virus.
[edit] Arklay Outbreak
Ten years after his death, Marcus was completely restored by the Queen Leech (see James Marcus for more information regarding this event). Marcus would exact his revenge on Spencer and Umbrella by releasing the T-Virus into the Arklay Research Facility's water supply, turning the facility personnel into zombies and leaving the laboratory and mansion in complete chaos, allowing for the team's extremely dangerous research specimens to escape into the surrounding area.
Birkin and Wesker used this as a diversion for their own plans to leave Umbrella, taking their research with them. Wesker, having formed Raccoon City's elite S.T.A.R.S. unit two years previous, would develop a plan to lure the team to the Spencer Mansion to obtain battle data from the conflict that would surely follow. Spencer Mansion had been constructed above the actual laboratory to conceal it from negative interests such as the government and local populace, and was now crawling with infected researchers and experiments wandering its halls. Although the Tyrant was deployed, resulting in unforseen side-effects for Wesker, both the laboratory and the rampaging Tyrant were destroyed by S.T.A.R.S. Alpha Team before making its escape back to Raccoon City with a single Bravo Team survivor.
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, William Birkin finally perfected the viral strain that he'd been toiling to achieve since obtaining Marcus' research so many years earlier, the G-Virus. Birkin planned to use the virus to force the Umbrella Corporation into allowing him onto their executive board, but then changed his plans when he found that selling it directly to the U.S. Government would prove far more profitable.
Umbrella deployed its elite U.S.S. team (a para-military black-operations unit created for Umbrella's most clandestine purposes) in a desperate bid to stop Birkin from handing over his ultimate creation. 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 devastate most of the team before it could make its escape.
This event would be indirectly 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. This would prove exceedingly difficult, even for Umbrella, to simply disappear.
[edit] Decline and Collapse
In the videogame, Umbrella's fortunes failed to improve after the Raccoon City incident. The U.S. Government was forced to take extreme measures to ensure the spread of the T-Virus was stopped for good. Mission Code XX was approved for immediate deployment, and Raccoon City was annihilated via an air-to-surface nuclear missile strike. Contrary to popular belief, there was no cover-up following the incident.
After escaping to the city limits with the USS member Rodrigez and Umbrella researcher Linda, Yoko Suzuki's amnesia finally lifted, and all of the evil deeds she had witnessed and helped Umbrella keep secret came flooding back. With her newly regained memories, Yoko decided it was time the world was told the truth, and that doing so would start her down a better path. Linda and Yoko were brought forward as key witnesses to Umbrella's atrocities in the Supreme Court, and all was made known.
Shortly after the Raccoon City incident, the U.S. Government suspended Umbrella's market trading rights in the United States pending an investigation into their business practices. While this investigation must have already provided Umbrella with severe financial problems, several further disasters virtually ensured their eventual collapse. On Sheena Island, undercover investigator, Ark Thompson, operating on behalf of Leon S. Kennedy, succeeded in destroying Umbrella's Tyrant production plant after Umbrella's senior executive assigned to the island unleashed the T-Virus on its citizens.
Shortly afterwards, when Claire Redfield broke into Umbrella's Paris facilities in search of her brother, she was captured and sent to Umbrella's illegal prison camp on Rockfort Island. While there, she witnessed Albert Wesker attack the island in search of the T-Veronica Virus, another relative of the now infamous T-Virus. Escaping the island, she found herself trapped at the South Pole Facility, where Edward Ashford's granddaughter, Alexia Ashford, awoke from a self-induced coma with a desire to establish a new order.
With the destruction of Sheena Island, Rockfort Island and the South Pole Facility, most of Umbrella's illegitimate operations had been shut down. This, combined with the loss of so many of Umbrella's research and security personnel throughout each of the disastrous incidents, left Umbrella with little chance of reforming said operations or regaining the years of research lost thus far.
With trading suspended, Umbrella's shares quickly collapsed, and the company was virtually bankrupt. Umbrella became largely fragmented, with power struggles between senior executives becoming a constant occurrence. The U.S. STRATCOM was mainly involved in clean-up operations, such as the theft of the T/G-Virus by former Umbrella executive in R&D, Morpheus D. Duvall, and his plans to create a new order based around his obsessive ideals of 'beauty'. By the early 21st century, the Umbrella Corporation's bankruptcy was absolute, and the U.S. government had completed the process of fully dismantling the remnants of the organization. However, in Resident Evil 4, it was revealed that Albert Wesker's grand scheme involves the resurrection of the Umbrella Corporation.
[edit] Company Motto & Slogan
- In the video game Resident Evil Zero, the Umbrella's 'employee pledge' is stated as being "Obedience Breeds Discipline, Discipline Breeds Unity, Unity Breeds Power, Power is Life". It is unknown if this is the motto for the public or if it is used purely within the company. In the second movie, a commercial for the product "Regenerate" runs which has the slogan "Umbrella: Our business is life itself."
[edit] Products
In the video game, a contributing factor to Umbrella's success is their non-lethal commercial products. Such products include:
- Adravil: An apparently ibuprofen-based analgesic. May be an analog of the real drug Advil.
- Safsprin: Another of Umbrella's three main public products. Aspirin based, it can be used as treatment for various common, daily illnesses.
- Uspirim: Another Umbrella Aspirin-based product, introduced in Alyssa Ashcroft's good ending in Resident Evil: Outbreak.
- Prospirm: A Product Manufactured by Umbrella as an anti depressant,
- Aqua Cure: Umbrella's crowning public achievement, Aqua Cure is an ointment used on open wounds that made the company famous worldwide. It is considered to be Umbrella's primary public product and is very effective. Most likely the recurring item First Aid Spray that appears throughout the series. It is assumed that the T-Virus is used on this product to reaccommodate the damaged cells, though no side-effect has been shown from this product.
- Valifin: A non-canon medication mentioned in the novelization Resident Evil: Zero Hour by S.D. Perry, Valifin is a pediatric heart medication that has a side-effect of renal failure.
- First Aid Spray: While not techically an Umbrella product, it is highly implied that the Umbrella Corp. manufactures this.
[edit] Manufactured Firearms
- Sporting Int. Magnum Custom Edition A weapon inheriting features from the Colt M1911-A1 and the IMI Desert Eagle. Chambered in .50 Action Express. Appears in Resident Evil 0.
- Incinerator Unit A weapon that uses some parts of the Colt M4A1 Carbine and fires a long range flame. Appears in Resident Evil, Resident Evil 2.
- Semi-Automatic Anti-Tank Rifle A large rifle used to destroy light armored vehicles. Appears in Resident Evil, Resident Evil 0.
- Spark Shot A gun that fires electric shocks to control experimental animals. Appears in Resident Evil 2.
- Mine Thrower A gun with specialized bullets that will detonate if something pass near them, or attach themselves to a creature. Appears in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
- Mine Thrower Similar to the above but this version uses a box-style magazine instead of a cylinder magazine. The bullets will detonate after a period of time, rather then by detecting motion. It is capable of having a laser or scope attached, increasing accuracy. Appears in Resident Evil 4.
- Elite Python A modification for a Colt Python made by Umbrella.
- Linear Launcher A Shoulder-Mounted cannon that fires an extremely powerful blast of plasma. Appears in Resident Evil Code Veronica X.
- Charged Particle Rifle A gun that charges particles with negative or positive shocks that can electrocute living things or deactivate electric shields and damage electric artifacts due to the electro-magnetic pulse emitted by it. Appears in Resident Evil Dead Aim.
There are many other products seen briefly throughout all of the Resident Evil games including soft drinks, cosmetics, and firearms.
[edit] Known Facilities
[edit] North America
- Arklay Research Facility: A research facility located in Raccoon Forest, camouflaged by a mansion designed by George Trevor for Ozwell E. Spencer. Umbrella conducted most of its T-Virus experiments there, including the creation of the Tyrant. The facility was destroyed in 1998 after a localized T-Virus Outbreak.
- Umbrella Research Center: Also known as the Management Training Facility, this building was managed by James Marcus for the purpose of training future Umbrella employees. It was officially closed down in 1978, though Marcus continued his research there until his assassination in 1988. An investigative unit was sent in 1998 to inspect the facility for reopening purposes. It was destroyed by William Birkin.
- Unnamed Chicago Research Facility: The facility John, Ada Wong's deceased boyfriend, worked for before transferring to Arklay Research Facility. William Birkin used to visit this branch to conduct a monthly training seminar.
- Raccoon City Underground Laboratory: A facility established during the late 1980s for the sole purpose of William Birkin's G-Virus project. It can only be entered through a cable car system within Raccoon City's sewers, and is also connected to the Management Training Facility.
- Disposal Facility: A facility hidden within an abandoned factory in Raccoon City, used to chemically destroy dead and unusable specimens. Potent contributor to the release of the virus into the city.
- Raccoon City Corporate Headquarters: A large facility used to test the combat capabilities of BOWs. An experimental serum was developed there to combat the T-Virus.
- Raccoon City Hospital: Umbrella maintained a small laboratory in the basement of the city hospital. This lab contained MA-124 Hunters in containment tanks, as well as equipment capable of synthesizing a vaccine against the T-Virus.
- Classified Research and Testing Facility: Located in the area of what used to be Raccoon City, this facility was built after the area was destroyed and gated off. Not much is known about this facility. But what is known is that Umbrella conducts testing and research there and monitors the gated area and surrounding area for any possible biohazard threats or trespassers. The facility is inaccessible to all means of transportation except helicopter, and is built on a steel boom in the crater.
[edit] Other
- Sheena Island: A small European island privately owned by Umbrella. It housed a community of researchers working for the company and was secretly the site of a Tyrant Plant which was mass-producing the T-103 models (mr X's).
- Umbrella Medical, Paris: The headquarters of Umbrella in Europe. Claire Redfield infiltrates this facility briefly, only to be captured by its chief of security, Rodrigo Juan Raval.
- Umbrella Europe Sixth Laboratory: The facility responsible for the creation of the NE-T parasitic organism that allowed for the production of the Nemesis.
- Rockfort Island: A solitary island which served as the site of Alfred Ashford's private residence and palace after he purchased the land and drove the villagers out. It also housed an "inescapable" prison camp, a military training facility for the Umbrella Special Forces Unit (including a lab used to create BOWs) and an airport.
- Umbrella Antarctic Facility: A facility established by Alexander Ashford for his Code: Veronica project. Later, Alexia Ashford, an offspring of the project, used the facility for her T-Veronica research.
- Umbrella Atlantic Facility: A waste disposal facility on an unnamed island in the Atlantic Ocean. It was to this facility that Umbrella sent some of its worst failed experiments to be disposed of, but for unknown reasons the facility shut down. It was used as a base of operations by renegade Umbrella executive Morpheus D. Duvall.
[edit] Paramilitary units
Throughout the Resident Evil series, several Umbrella-owned paramilitary units were introduced, driving the plot and providing new enemies and allies.
[edit] Umbrella Special Forces Unit/ Umbrella Security Service
The Umbrella Special Forces Unit (also known as the Umbrella Security Service) was first introduced in Resident Evil 2. A squad of commandos known as Alpha Team belonging to this force attempt to steal a sample of the G-Virus, causing the city-wide outbreak of the game.
Another squad, Delta Team, later appears in the prequel game Resident Evil 0; Delta Team is eliminated by monsters aboard an Umbrella-owned train. Delta squad was under the direct control of Wesker and Birkin who sat safely in Birkins underground lab. The squad was ordered to destroy the train but was incidently killed before they could do so.
A lone agent, named Rodriguez, appears in the game Resident Evil Outbreak: File 2. Rodriguez shows how the U.S.S. is under direct Umbrella Exec. orders.
Other games give further background for the Umbrella Special Forces Unit. In Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, a document alludes to them as a "paramilitary unit [intended] to counter corporate terrorism and V.I.P. abduction." According to the game Code: Veronica, USS agents are trained at the Rockfort Island facility, which is also home to a descendant of one of Umbrella's founders.
One member of the Umbrella Special Forces Unit, Agent HUNK, appears first in a mini-game in Resident Evil 2, where his goal is to reach an evacuation point with a sample of the G-virus. Canonically, he is the only survivor of his squad's mission. HUNK later appears in another mini-game in Resident Evil 4, where his goal is simply to eliminate as many Ganados as possible before his rescue helicopter evacuates him. Despite his relatively small role in the series, HUNK has become a popular character among many Resident Evil fans.
Umbrella Special Forces Unit agents are always depicted in solid-color gray fatigues, wearing protective vests and gas masks. They are shown in FMV sequences as using MP5 submachine guns; however, in HUNK's minigame, he is armed with weapons identical to those of the game's main characters. In Outbreak File 2, the USFU had some Claymore mines in possessions when they were deployed in order to halt the advance of zombies and other monsters from wandering further to any place in Raccoon City during the Outbreak crisis.
[edit] Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service
The Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service, or UBCS, is introduced in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. In that game, 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 field-combat data regarding their biological weapons—a fact known only to their supervisors. One of their number, Carlos Oliveira, is a main character in the game. UBCS members are also depicted in the Resident Evil Outbreak games.
According to files in Resident Evil 3, the UBCS is composed of "nightmen," mostly former mercenaries and war criminals, recruited by Umbrella and trained to deal with "problems caused by illegal products." Their uniform consists of tactical vests, green shirts and tan or creme-colored slacks. They are usually armed with M4 Carbines.
[edit] The UT unit
The game Resident Evil: Survivor includes a special force of shock troopers 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 kevlar vests, gas masks, and gray BDUs; however, they are clearly inhuman. They have unnaturally long arms, they are incapable of speech, and when they are killed, they dissolve into green ichor. According to the game, their role is to destroy all evidence of a viral outbreak, including survivors. The Brady strategy guide describes them as "robotic special forces troops" which dissolve when destroyed so as not to leave evidence of their existence.
[edit] Other uses of the term "umbrella corporation" (not connected to the videogame)
- See also: Umbrella (disambiguation)
- An umbrella corporation is an agency which supports several member organizations, usual working in a specific program area.
- Citigroup, the largest financial firm in the world, is an umbrella corporation in terms of the organisational definition of the phrase. Its logo is also the side view of a red umbrella, originally from the firm's roots in the Travelers Group. As of 2007 Travelers has reacquired the red Umbrella Logo from Citigroup. Another financial firm, Skandia, has a top view of a blue umbrella as its logo; that umbrella has 10 sections insead of 8.
- Umbrella and its UBCS logo shares a nearly identical design to that of the shoulder sleeve insignia patch for the U.S. Eighth Army.
- Umbrella company
[edit] Umbrella Corporation in other media
[edit] Resident Evil
In the 2002 film Resident Evil, Umbrella is one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies. It is also one of several leading suppliers of the viral weaponry to the United States Army. Unknown to Umbrella's employees, profits are generated by sales of the t-virus and conduction of genetic research and modification. During the 2002 viral outbreak in one of Umbrella's secret underground laboratory in Raccoon City known as The Hive, the Red Queen (the artificial intelligence used for the Hive's security) sealed off the complex and went homicidal by gassing everyone in the complex with Halon, drowning some of the employees, and even beheading a woman using elevator doors.
When Umbrella received the news, they sent a division of special operatives to investigate the facility. When the operatives failed to respond, Umbrella began quarantine procedures around the one of two emergency entrances into facility (Spencer Mansion). When two survivors Alice and Matt Addison emerged from the mansion, both were seized and taken into Raccoon City Hospital to undergo blood tests and analysis. Matt Addison was taken away by William Birkin and placed into the Nemesis program. Umbrella began preparations in sending a specialized team to re-open the facility.
[edit] Resident Evil: Apocalypse
In the 2004 film Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Umbrella is shown as mega corporation that owns the majority of Raccoon City. Upon sending a team to re-open The Hive, Umbrella scientists accessed entry into the facility via the city's emergency entrance. When managing to gain entrance, the scientists were attacked by zombies.
When Umbrella officials in Raccoon City heard of the incident, they arranged an evacuation plan to escort out important scientists and employees. One of several families that are arranged to be evacuated are the Ashford's. Dr. Charles Ashford is one of Umbrella's highest priority scientists that worked in the development process of the t-virus. Once the t-virus had reached the city gates the Umbrella Corporation sealed all exits out of the city, to contain the virus.
[edit] References in Popular Culture
- Gaia Online features an organization called G-Corp, developing a substance similar to the T-virus
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas features a parody company called Zombotech, which is based in San Fierro.
- In the english translation of volume 13 of Excel Saga the doctor creates "The Virus (which will turn everyone into zombies who rejected me) or the T-Virus for short".
