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The is a fictional biotech 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 bioweaponry. 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. The force uses HUMVEEs, a fleet of UH-60 Blackhawks, C-130 water-landing capable cargo planes, CH-46 Sea Knight cargo helicopters for transporting B.O.W.s, and Hughes H-6 "Little Bird" attack helicopters, It also has Harrier VTOL jets for escapes or air attacks and Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor for examinating danger zones with its camera. History of Umbrella Formation The Umbrella Corporation was founded by Lord Ozwell E. Spencer, a descendant of the British Royal Family, in the 1960s. Dr. James Marcus and Sir 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. 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. 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 surgical 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 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. Company Motto & Slogan Products
Manufactured Firearms There are many other products seen briefly throughout all of the Resident Evil games including soft drinks, cosmetics, and firearms. North America
Other 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/ 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. A lone agent, named Rodriguez, appears in the game Resident Evil Outbreak: File 2. 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 , 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. 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. 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. Other uses of the term "umbrella corporation" (not connected to the videogame)
Umbrella Corporation in other media 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 employee's, 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 under go blood tests and analysis. Matt Addison was taken away by William Birkin and placed into the Nemesis program. Umbrella began preparations in sending a specialised team to re-open the facility. Resident Evil: Apocalypse In the 2004 film Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Umbrella is shown as mega corporation that runs 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 familes 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. | |||||||||||||
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