Barry Burton

Barry Burton was a member of S.T.A.R.S. (Special Tactics And Rescue Service) and the backup man of S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team. He first appeared in the original Resident Evil, as a side character in Jill Valentine's scenario. He was in charge of maintaining and supplying weapons for his fellow S.T.A.R.S Members.

Background
One of the most experienced members of S.T.A.R.S. along with S.T.A.R.S. Bravo team's captain, Enrico Marini, Barry has served in various armed forces since 1982. Before joining STARS, he was a SWAT team operative and briefly served in the U.S. Air Force during the mid-1990s, where he became acquainted with fellow S.T.A.R.S. operative Chris Redfield. He has a loving wife, Kathy, with two daughters named Moira and Polly.

Barry (aged 38) is also a known gun enthusiast and NRA member. When he came to Raccoon City to join S.T.A.R.S., he became friends with Gun Shop owner Robert Kendo. The two were close friends and often went fishing together in Stoneville. Due to their friendship, Barry commissioned Robert's brother, Joe, to modify most of S.T.A.R.S.' arsenal, including their side arm, the Samurai Edge.

Mansion Incident
I didn't want to do it, b-believe me I can explain!

After a confrontation with Cerberi, Barry managed to escape into the Spencer estate along with fellow Alpha team members Chris Redfield, Albert Wesker and Jill Valentine. Afterwards, he helped Jill overcome several of the mansion's traps and creatures. However, Albert Wesker, who was actually a spy working for Umbrella corporation, blackmailed Barry to do his bidding by using his family as leverage. Barry began to eliminate any evidence that implicated Wesker and began luring Jill into traps against monsters. It was because of Barry that Wesker was able to track down Enrico and murder him. During the fight against Lisa Trevor, Barry pulls his gun on Jill, but she takes his gun away. Lisa then appears, and Jill has no chice but to give Barry his gun back to fight off the moster. After this, while in the lab, Wesker reveals his control over Barry, and has him once again pull his gun on Jill. After revaling that his threat against Barry's family was a bluff in a moment of hubris, Barry whacks Wesker's head with his gun. Barry then escaped the mansion alongside Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield and Rebecca Chambers. (Please note: Both Barry and Rebecca are acknowledged as surviving the incident in Resident Evil 2 and a timeline in Resident Evil 5)

Raccoon City Incident
Are you ready to finish this?

After the Mansion incident, Barry immediately moved his family to Canada, out of Umbrella's reach in order to ensure their safety. He then left them to rejoin Chris and Jill in their Anti-Umbrella efforts. During the t-virus outbreak, when Raccoon City was facing annihilation, he took a civilian helicopter in order to locate Jill and extract her from the city.

Barry came in contact with an Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service mercenary Carlos Oliveira (who helped Jill during the outbreak) and was able to locate Jill before the missile destroyed Raccoon City. Afterwards, Jill and Barry participated in undisclosed anti-Umbrella operations until Umbrella's shutdown by the Government.

Starlight Cruiser Incident
Please note that the following section pertains to a game that has neither been confirmed canon or non-canon.

Barry, now a member of an underground Anti-Umbrella organization, was called into the office of the organization's chief. He was informed that one of their operatives, Leon S. Kennedy, had been sent to the luxury ocean cruiser, the Starlight Cruiser, to destroy a prototype B.O.W. that was supposedly among the ship's passengers and crew, but contact had been lost with him 24 hours ago. Barry was sent to find Leon and quickly discovered that there had been a t-virus outbreak on-board. Soon, Barry found a young survivor named Lucia, who was being chased by a prime candidate for the B.O.W.: a large, grey humanoid who could produce tentacles from its abdomen and transform into an amoeba. After being separated from Lucia, Barry found Leon unconscious. The two joined forces and saved Lucia again. Barry left Lucia with Leon and made contact with Umbrella, who had apparently contacted him en route to the Starlight. When found by Leon and Lucia, Barry demanded that he hand her over and took her down to an Umbrella-owned submarine. On-board, it was revealed that Barry used Umbrella to procure a means of escape from the Starlight, that Umbrella had no knowledge about the B.O.W. the three had been fighting (indicating the possibility of the involvement of Umbrella's competition) and that the B.O.W. in question was a parasite in Lucia's body. Barry demanded that the parasite be removed or else, he'd kill the captain. Upon removal, the parasite escaped and turned everyone on the submarine (except Barry and Lucia) into zombies. It was fully grown within minutes. When Barry steered the submarine back to the Starlight, the parasite jumped onboard. It used its unique ability to mimic Leon, who was in the engine room, having defeated the other B.O.W. In the end, Barry, along with Lucia and Leon, killed the parasite with a hail of gunfire. Afterwards, Barry took in Lucia as a stepdaughter, as per his accepted offer on the submarine.

Wardrobe
Barry's outfit in Resident Evil is a white T-shirt, grey pants, and a red vest over the T-shirt.

In Resident Evil 3 Barry is wearing a brown bomber vest, supposedly grey pants, white T-shirt,and black cap

Appearances
Barry made his first appearance in the original Resident Evil as one of the few surviving members of S.T.A.R.S. in the game. He would appear in various portions of Jill Valentine's scenario in order to lend a hand whenever the scene called for Barry's raw strength. Depending on the choices made by the player, one could finish the game with or without saving Barry at the end.

It's worth noting that Barry never appears in Chris' scenario after the opening intro and his disappearance is never solved in that scenario. Likewise, Rebecca (a supporting character in Chris' scenario) never appears in Jill's game, either. Despite the discrepancies between both scenarios, the series' canon suggests that both characters were involved with and survived the incident.

Barry is also famous for his awkward-sounding lines in the first game. Resident Evil notoriously suffered from a terrible and often laughable translation and much of the dialogue was reminiscent of engrish. Out of all the characters, however, Barry seems to be an enigma at the same time, the funniest character. Some of his lines included "What?! What is this?!" at the sight of a giant puddle of blood, or his infamous "The master of unlocking" line when referring to Jill's ability to use a lockpick well. By far, his most famous bad line is the legendary "You were almost a Jill Sandwich!'" line. This is said to Jill after she is rescued from a collapsing room and has been lampooned countless times, for example, in the Capcom-made zombie action game Dead Rising, one of the locations in the mall's food court is "Jill's Sandwiches". Barry's dialogue is considerably improved in the REmake, "What is this?!" and "Master of unlocking", as well as many other awkward sounding bits of dialogue, are completely cut from the remake and replaced by more natural-sounding speech, although a variation of the "Jill sandwich" line and a scene involving Barry "examining" blood remains. However, the "Master of Unlocking" line is occasionally referenced throughout the series, with the most notable being the "Masters of Removing" achievement or trophy available in Resident Evil 5.

Barry is also an extra figurine in the updated Resident Evil 5: Alternative Edition, along with Rebecca Chambers, as they appear under extra figurines. Whether or not they will physically appear or be playable in the new Mercenaries Reunion has not yet been confirmed.

Weapon of choice


Barry's signature weapon is his .44 Magnum Colt Anaconda (it was the .357 Colt Python in the original version), which he uses as a side arm during the Mansion incident instead of the Beretta 92F/FS (or Samurai Edge) used by the other members. He also uses a flamethrower to save Jill if she gets attacked by Plant 42. His version of the Samurai Edge has been modified to fire .40 S&W rounds instead of normal 9mm Luger rounds and is available (in the GameCube remake) as an unlockable weapon for Jill and Chris with unlimited ammo.

Barry is one of the playable characters in the multiplayer mode in the Nintendo DS remake of the original game, Resident Evil: Deadly Silence.

George Romero's Resident Evil Script
In Romero's unproduced script, Barry was going to fill the same role but portrayed as an African-American and was going to be killed by Wesker.