Albert Wesker – Resident Evil 0-5, Umbrella Chronicles
“The right to be a god is now mine.” – Albert Wesker, Resident Evil
♦ Bio:
Of all the enemies that stalk the world of Resident Evil, Albert Wesker is the apex predator. Cool, ambitious, and brilliant, he would be a formidable opponent even if he was a 100% normal human. He’s not. In him lives a virus that gifts him with superhuman speed, strength, endurance, resistance, reflexes, and regeneration abilities. This makes him far superior to any Bio Organic Weapon, even the monstrous tentacled beasts that require tons of explosive to destroy
From day one Umbrella Corp singled him out for special attention. As he was born to parents of superb intellect and genetics, Umbrella’s creator Oswell Spencer enrolled him in the Wesker Plan, named after the project’s founder. Albert and the other subjects would be raised and trained to be superior. Eventually they would inject themselves with an experimental virus that would either kill them or bestow superhuman abilities. All this happened without the subjects’ knowledge.
At the tender age of 17, Albert Wesker partnered with an even younger William Birkin in the Umbrella Corporation’s research division. They worked under Doctor James Marcus. They rose in ranks, eventually becoming chief researchers at the Arklay Laboratory near Racoon City. There they would mix the Ebola virus and the new t-Virus.
Finally, after 13 years of tedious experimentation, they created G-virus and the Tyrant. Then Oswell Spencer ordered Wesker and Birkin to kill Marcus, their mentor. After the murder and the monster and the mutagen, Wesker grew curious about Umbrella Corp’s true motives. Not because he had any moral qualms, of course. He pushed for and received a transfer to Umbrella’s Intelligence Bureau.
In 1996, he transferred new Special Tactics and Rescue Squad (S.T.A.R.S.) and became captain of the Alpha Team in the Raccoon Police Department. The RPD was an Umbrella pawn.
Two years later saw a rash of cannibalistic murders in the Arklay Mountains. S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team investigated. That’s code for: got stranded (don’t let Wesker around your chopper engine) and then mostly wiped out by monsters. Wesker secretly wanted to test the new Umbrella Bio Organic Weapons (BOWs) in real-life situations against trained combatants. Umbrella would appreciate the battle data.
After Bravo’s failure and the U.S.S. Delta Team‘s failure to secure Umbrella’s private employee train, the Ecliptic Express, Wesker decided to step in with his Alpha Team. While his teammates fought for their lives in the old Spencer Mansion, he destroyed evidence of his involvement with Umbrella and attempted to take data and virus samples to further his own goals. This was his way of turning in his resignation.
Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine soldiered through, though, and put Wesker in a tight spot. Solution? Inject himself with the experimental Prototype virus (unwittingly moving to the next phase of the Wesker Plan), let the Tyrant impale him, and then slip off in the confusion while Chris and Jill think he’s dead meat. It all goes even better than planned: the virus grants him speed, strength, endurance, and regeneration, along with those iconic golden cat eyes. Sure, the price tag is supposedly his humanity, but that’s not a loss, considering how little his humanity bothered him anyway.
Wesker tries to take Umbrella’s research before the facility self destructs – every evil lab must have this features, otherwise it’s not up to code – but his rival Sergei already locked him out. No matter; Wesker has the combat and research data he acquired earlier, plus the G-virus sample that freelancer Ada Wong to secured for him. With these he joins “The 3rd Organization,” a of rival of Umbrella Corp. I don’t know what happened to the other two organizations.
Resident Evil, Code: Veronica
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A few months later, he’s assembled the H.C.F. , a personal fighting force, to attack the Rockfort Island Umbrella facility. He wants the T-Veronica virus sample Alexia Ashford developed. He finds Chris’s little sister Claire Redfield instead. Later, he runs into Chris himself but doesn’t kill him. Time’s ticking. No time to kill your arch rival.
Next stop, the Antarctic Base in search of Alexia. Chris tags along. Alexia is mutated thanks to her virus. Even Wesker with his new-found powers can’t match her when she refuses his request for a sample of the T-Veronica. thanks to the virus.
At the base, he and Chris fight again. Chris is no match for the new Wesker. Just as Wesker’s about to finish Chris off, Chris drops a bundle of steel girders on Wesker. Sorry, please play again! Wesker’s back up and in the ring a moment later. Only a fiery pillar falling between them – fallout from the self destruct mechanism – allows Chris to escape.
Wesker extracts a sample of the T-Veronica virus from Steve Burnside’s corpse. Play the game
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles
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2003: Wesker encounters Chris but again doesn’t kill him. I’m seeing a pattern here. Instead, he retrieves a data disk while chasing an Umbrella branch office. This data leads him to the Russian Umbrella Facility. There he faces and kills Sergei while Chris and Jill, there due to his anon tip, take down T-A.L.O.S., Umbrella’s last BOW.
Wesker takes the Umbrella Archives, which you can read as the Resident Evil Archives
Resident Evil 4
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Back to 2002: Javier Hidalgo, South American drug lord, uses the t-Virus from Umbrella – how nice of them! – to try to cure his ill wife. One guess how that ended. His daughter also sickens. Wesker is quite happy to sell him a “cure”: the T-Veronica virus and a guidebook. Wesker spots Javier Hildago’s mutated corpse later.
Wesker uses his data to get in the good graces of another evil overlord drug company: TRICELL. It wants a sample of the Dominant Species Plaga parasitic organism, which Los Iluminados and their cult leader Osmund Saddler developed. Apparently this is a cult with a nice R&D division.
Wesker contracts Ada Wong and Jack Krauser for the job. He orders his pawns about from his control room. Leon S. Kennedy interferes, but Ada has a bit of loyalty to him thanks to Raccoon City. Read the book
Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition
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Wesker sets up a bioweapons division for TRICELL. He meets Excella Gionne, a descendant of TRICELL’s founders, and assists her in becoming CEO.
2006: Questions about Spencer’s true motives with Umbrella Corp plague Wesker. Only a face to face talk will answer them, so Wesker jets to Spencer’s European castle. The guards don’t stand a chance. Old Man Spencer seems…oddly satisfied and proud at seeing Wesker. Turns out Spencer was manipulating all of Wesker’s life events, even ensuring Wesker would inject the virus. It was all for the Wesker Plan. Project W was designed to create a new breed of supermen. Spencer would populate a world free of inferiors – thanks to the viruses – with these people and rule as a god. Umbrella Corp provided the finances. The Progenitor virus provided the virus blueprint. Only Wesker and Alex Wesker survived the Project.
Being a god appealed to Wesker, who promptly killed Spencer and took over the vacant god position. Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine burst in. Wesker can do Bullet Time, though, so soon Chris is at his mercy. Jill tackles Wesker through a window and over the cliff, though. Chris thinks them both dead, but in fact Wesker survived and also saved Jill – for his own ends.
Excella Gionne and Wesker reopened the Umbrella Africa Research Center, which holds the Progenitor virus’s source. Umbrella’s founders created the base many years ago. Wesker combines his many virus samples with the Progenitor to create Uroboros. It’s sadly too deadly for its hosts, but Jill’s blood contains antibodies that weaken it (she contracted the t-Virus in Nemesis (Resident Evil #5)
Jill came in handy, as he used the chemical P30 to brainwash her to fight Chris and Sheva. The Majini, from the Type 2 Plagas and Type 3 Plagas, also fought for him. Wesker intends to detonate missiles from his stealth bomber, filling the atmosphere with the virus and achieving complete global saturation.
The BSAA sends Chris and Sheva to investigate B.O.W.s on the black market, which also puts them on Wesker’s trail. They tangle with both him and Jill before the climax.
After Chris frees Jill from the P30, she tells him Wesker needs injections of PG67A/W (a Progenitor derivative) to control his virus. Excella holds the serum.
Excella wants to rule at Wesker’s side, but he will not share his glory with another. He plays along because he wants to use her. Eventually she contracts the virus but is of course inferior host material. She mutates.
Wesker prepares take off in the bomber. A new world is about to come. Chris and Sheva disagree. The battle scenes in this game are spectacular, and this one is no exception.
They manage to inject Wesker with the PG67A/W, overdosing him. This slows him down, but he still makes the jet and takes off.
Chris and Sheva tag along. They face him in the cargo hold, where he monologues about humanity trying to destroy itself and how he’s helping it by making it evolve.
Chris opens the jet’s hatch, causing depressurization that sucks Wesker out. The plane crashes, but Chris and Sheva somehow survive. Too bad they’ve landed in a volcano. Wesker, now shirtless and hot in more ways than one, goes into a rage. He punches a missile full of Uroboros and absorbs a massive amount of the virus. He mutates. Tentacles merge with metal debris from the wreck, creating a deadly ultimate form.
Just when it appears he’ll take down Chris and Sheva, a chopper appears to rescue them. Now waist deep in lava, Wesker wraps a tentacle around the chopper’s strut. “Chriiiiiiiiissss!” he roars. Unmoved, Chris and Sheva fire RPG-7 rockets at him. The explosion and lava swallow him.
We the fans still believe we’ll have an Empty Hearse episode. In the meantime, we attend cons where his voice actor DC Douglas runs his Erotic Fan Fiction panel. Audience members cold-read dialog from select fan fics, while DC Douglas rocks the superhuman villain role. This is a bucket list panel. I’m not kidding. I’ve been, and I’ll see it any chance I get!
♦ M.O.:
Planning for the long term.
Stealing data and virus samples.
Selling resources to rival companies.
Betrayal.
Intimidation via powerful personal and cool presence.
Brainwashing via chemicals or viruses or parasites.
Preying upon people’s greed.
Using speed, strength, and agility to defeat his foes.
Outwitting/outmaneuvering his foes when he can’t break them with brute force.
Salvaging virus samples – and victory – from the wreckage.
Using stealth and covert tactics.
Using highly capable agents to achieve his designs.
Seizing every opportunity he can.
♦ Strengths:
Intimidation, Speed, Strength, Regeneration, Intelligence, Cunning, Reflexes, Agility, Wealth, Networking, Viral Research, Combat, Firearms, Acrobatics, Manipulation, Leadership, Minion Creation, Advising, Subterfuge, Fashion, Hide and Seek, Missile Throwing
♦ Weaknesses:
Underestimating the strength, fortitude, and intelligence of his opponents.
PG67A/W serum.
Lava.
RPGs.
Desiring to defeat his enemies himself in his own time.
Monologue-ing.
Pride.
♦ Notable achievements:
Become a researcher for Umbrella at age 17.
Killing Marcus.
Managing not to strangle William Birkin after working with him for so long.
Orchestrating Bravo Team’s disaster.
Betraying Alpha Team.
Surviving the Prototype virus.
“Dying” at the claws of the Tyrant.
Escaping the Mansion Incident.
Killing Sergei.
Stealing Umbrella’s data.
Collecting a full set of virus samples.
Killing Spencer.
Creating Uroboros.
Creating his own organization and fighting force.
Almost wiping out humanity and becoming a god.
Looking like a god of style in all that black leather.
♦ How Albert Wesker can help us succeed in life:
Get out while you can.
Seize every opportunity for advancement.
Make your own opportunities.
Your enemy’s enemies are your customers.
Hire the right people.
Don’t work for people who are using you and you can’t respect.
Look for victory in unexpected places.
Invest wisely.
Network widely.
Trust no one, at least not completely.
♦ Albert Wesker Quotes:
“The right to be a god. You? Arrogant even until the end. Only one truly capable of “being” a god, deserves that right. The right… With Uroboros, I have that right.”
“Every day, humans come one step closer to self destruction. I’m not destroying the world, I’m saving it!“
“Seven minutes. Seven minutes is all I can spare to play with you.”
More Wesker quotes at Resident Evil Wikia.
♦ Further reading/reports:
Villain Matrix
Villainous opportunism: How to take advantage of every opportunity, Albert Wesker-style
Understanding Albert Wesker: How he can help us succeed in life – (Part 1)
Understanding Albert Wesker: How he can help us succeed in life – (Part 2)
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