Red Queen (Anderson)



The Red Queen was a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence used by the Umbrella Corporation. It was created by Umbrella co-founder Doctor Alexander Isaacs using the template of Alicia Marcus, the daughter of Doctor James Marcus, his partner in creating Umbrella. Once Umbrella started expanding Dr Issacs realized he would need help controlling the now vast interests of the Umbrella corporation and so he created the Red Queen. Used to monitor the Hive, the Red Queen was shut down due to her actions during The Hive outbreak. Umbrella eventually reactivated the Red Queen, who supposedly became homicidal towards humanity. In The Final Chapter, the Red Queen aided in the destruction of Umbrella and the saving of what was left of humanity.

During the outbreak
"You're all going to die down here."

- To the trapped survivors.

Besides the Hive, the Queen's system also expanded through the Looking Glass House above ground; this was something kept secret from the security operatives, Alice and Spence. During the T-virus outbreak, its primary defenses were activated, locking everyone inside to prevent the infected from escaping. It proceeded to flood the laboratories, stop the elevators, and killed everyone inside with Halon gas. Outside of the Hive, as a security protocol, a nerve gas was released into the mansion, rendering Alice and Spence unconscious and without memory of prior events.

When a hired commando team sent by Umbrella arrived at the Hive to investigate the loss of communication from the workers there, several team members were killed in the Queen's chambers after its self-defense systems went "online". When Alice and Chad Kaplan entered the chamber, they disabled its main circuit breakers in order to prevent it from rebooting; she pleaded politely for them not to interfere, but was flatly ignored. Before it was shut down, the Queen declared that they would die because of their interference. Due to this action, the unintentionally released all of the Undead Hive employees from lock up.

With the five survivors trapped in its room, they were forced to reactivate it, but with its circuit board removed; without it, she would get fried if shut down again. Under the threat of being disabled completely, the Queen was forced to show the team a way out of the Hive: through the maintenance tunnels.

Shut Down
The Red Queen wasn't heard from again until Alice, Matt Addison, and Rain Ocampo were the only remaining survivors, trapped in a locked laboratory. It explained that if they wanted to escape the Hive before lockdown (or the Licker reaches them), it would require the life of the Umbrella commando, Rain, as she was infected with the virus; the probability of Rain being cured was too slim as she had been infected too long and the infection had been reinforced by the numerous bites she received during the zombie attacks.

Alice pleaded with the computer to let them all out, due to the discovery of the Anti-Virus on the train, but the Queen replied negatively, saying "It is a risk I cannot take." When Alice refused to comply with the Queen's request, it then demanded Alice kill Rain. Even though Rain pleaded Alice multiple times to do it, Alice refused, and instead smashed the computer screen with an axe to silence it. To their surprise, the computer was disabled by Chad Kaplan, who was thought to be dead, shutting it down. It turned out Kaplan was trying to free them, but the Red Queen knew of him being infected and kept him out; unlike Rain, Kaplan was only bitten once, thus being less likely to succumb to the T-virus once the anti-virus was administered.

Pawn of Dr. Isaacs
Soon after the destruction of Raccoon City, Dr. Isaacs decided to use the T-Virus to wipe out all human life on Earth except for those who worked for Umbrella. To this end, the Red Queen was reactivated and placed back in charge of the Hive, which survived the missile's detonation. She was charged with running Umbrella Prime to learn how mutations of the T-Virus could be controlled, as well as using the clones produced there to make up the troops for Umbrella.

Before the global outbreak, Umbrella co-owner Alicia Marcus uploaded a recording of the meeting in which Isaacs convinced the Umbrella board of his apocalyptic plan to the Red Queen as a means of combating Isaacs. While the Red Queen was programed to protect humanity, thus causing a conflict in her programing to follow all Umbrella orders, she was also programed to never harm an Umbrella employee, preventing the AI from directly foiling the plot.

Afterlife and Retribution
"Capture if possible; terminate if necessary."

- Her orders regarding Alice

With the North America and Japan facilities, along with the Arcadia compromised by Alice's attacks, and the fate of the other facilities unknown, the Red Queen was forced to take control of what remains of Umbrella. The Red Queen has a new appearance and vocals, with its coloring a more solid shade of red to give her a menacing appearance. Every time she appears, the Red Queen is scowling. She has a dry sense of humor, as she repeats its warning from the Hive, and seems angered when she orders Alice's execution.

The Red Queen operates primarily out of the Umbrella Prime facility, a former Soviet submarine base. During the events of the film, she runs test simulations in the recreated cities of Raccoon, Moscow, New York, Berlin, Tokyo and others to monitor the spread of the t-Virus; she uses clones of 50 different models (which include Alice and three of her friends) to populate the recreations and for Umbrella troops, giving appropriate memories for each situation. She also controls Jill Valentine through her scarab device, giving orders directly to her mind.

The Red Queen monitors Alice when she awakens and has Jill interrogate her; however, Alice refuses to answer the question - "Why did you turn against Umbrella?" as well as - "Who do you work for?". The Red Queen uses a white noise machine to hurt Alice's ears upon refusal to answer the question to weaken her will, and thus make her talkative. However, Wesker shuts its down and takes control of the facility, and allowing Alice to escape in an Umbrella combat suit. Once rebooted, the Red Queen forces Alice into the Tokyo simulation, which she activates, accidentally leading to zombies infesting the corridor to the control room; she also sends Jill and Umbrella soldiers to investigate how Alice escaped, thinking there may be a flaw in the cell's lock.

The Red Queen then spends time tracking the source of a rogue signal, which was being used by Wesker to hack into Umbrella Prime. Right after Wesker gives vital information on how to escape to Alice and Ada Wong, the Red Queen succeeds in finding and disabling his signal, appearing on the monitor in his place. She announces that she's in charge of Umbrella Corporation now, and not to listen to Wesker; she demands Alice and Ada stay put as Jill's team is right outside the control room. However, Ada runs into another corridor, calling for Alice. Perhaps purposely done to create a sense of deja vu, the Red Queen tells Alice, "You're all going to die down here", to which Alice retorts that she's "heard that one before."

Detecting intruders (Wesker's extraction team) using the surface elevator, the Red Queen sends Umbrella troops to terminate them, but it proves to be an unsuccessful effort as they easily take out all the guards in the submarine pens. She marks them for termination, but fails to detect the explosives they placed at the in-take fans; their detonation is less than 2 hours, any longer would ensure Umbrella reinforcements. When Alice and Ada enter the New York simulation, the Red Queen sends in two bio-weapons (Axemen), hoping to kill Ada for her betrayal and wound Alice enough to prevent the escape of a key research subject. However, after both of the monsters are dispatched by an exploding car, she gives up on sending zombies to attack Alice, as their lack of intellect made them sitting ducks, deciding to send Jill and Umbrella troops instead. At the same time, the Red Queen decides she needs to focus on quantity over quality to deal with the intruders; she activates the Las Plagas undead in the Moscow simulation, arming them with weapons and vehicles.

When Jill confronts Alice, Ada and a clone named Becky in Suburbia, the Red Queen orders Alice be captured, if possible, and terminated if necessary. Though Alice escapes with the clone, Ada Wong is successfully captured; she would prove to be a useful bargaining chip to get Alice back, since her compassion would prove to be a weakness. From then, the Red Queen decides to take a "wait and see" approach, watching Alice's group approach the Submarine Pens to escape on the elevator. Detecting an Uber-Licker outside the Moscow simulation, the Red Queen accessed the power grid to allow it to reach the elevator. It captures Becky, while Umbrella troops keep Alice's allies occupied. The Red Queen takes no further action after this, confident that the Uber-Licker will damage Alice to the point of being immobile while Jill's forces kill the intruders.

Despite the destruction of Umbrella Prime, the Red Queen "lives on"; once Jill has subdued Alice through a lengthy fight, the Red Queen orders that Alice be terminated due to the massive setback to Umbrella caused by the destruction of the testing facility. However, Jill momentarily hesitates due to being Alice's friend, allowing Alice to destroy the scarab controlling her, leaving the Red Queen without a way to see what was happening.

Left with no other options, the Red Queen was forced to wait out the destruction of Washington, while Wesker blamed her.

The Final Chapter
"Doctor Alexander Isaacs and the Umbrella High Command. You are all going to die down here."

- Taunting Isaacs

Following the betrayal of Albert Wesker and the destruction of the White House, the Red Queen lures Alice into an underground room where the Red Queen appears to Alice on computer monitors. Alice expects the Red Queen to gloat about her victory, but the Red Queen instead states that she wants Alice to stop her and Umbrella. The Red Queen warns Alice that the last human settlements around the globe will be destroyed in 48 hours, changing Alice's watch to a timer matching that and states that there is one way left to save the human race: a potent anti-virus kept in the Hive beneath Raccoon City. The Red Queen promises to explain to Alice her motives once Alice reaches the Hive and states that ten years before, the two of them had failed to keep Umbrella from ending the world and she wants Alice to prevent that again.

Through the movie, the Red Queen tracks Alice's progress towards the Hive while following Wesker's instructions regarding the Hive's security measures. Not trusting the Red Queen to be in control of security due to Alice's escape from the Hive last time, Wesker takes full control of the security measures himself, though the Red Queen carries out his orders.

Once Alice's team enters the Hive, they find a small device that the Red Queen uses to project a hologram of herself through. The Red Queen shows them a recording of a meeting of the Umbrella High Command where Doctor Alexander Isaacs, co-founder of Umbrella, proposed unleashing the T-virus to eradicate the world's population, leaving only the chosen few behind. The Red Queen states that shortly after the Global T-Virus pandemic began, the file was uploaded into her systems, causing a systems conflict as she is programed to follow Umbrella's orders but also programed to protect human life. The Red Queen is unable to stop Umbrella herself due to another directive that prohibits her from harming Umbrella employees, but Alice is not so restricted. The Red Queen then has Alice switch to an earpiece to warn her that Umbrella has a mole amongst her team.

After Alice and Doc reach the room where the real Isaacs and Alicia Marcus have been revived in, the Red Queen confirms Isaacs story while Isaacs realizes that the Red Queen has betrayed Umbrella. The Red Queen is unable to aid Alice until Alicia fires Wesker, allowing the Red Queen to drop a blast door on his arm and crush it. Both Alicia and the Red Queen urge Alice to go after Isaacs as he has the anti-virus and only has to keep it away from Alice long enough for the last human settlement to be destroyed. As Isaacs makes his way to the surface, he orders the Red Queen to deactivate herself. The Red Queen does so, but taunts "Doctor Alexander Isaacs and the Umbrella High Command. You are all going to die down here", echoing her words to Alice and the Umbrella soldiers in the first movie.

After the anti-virus is released, Alice reactivates the device the Red Queen had left for her to question why she survived the anti-virus when both the Red Queen and Alicia had stated she wouldn't. The Red Queen tells her that the anti-virus eradicated all of her T-virus infected cells, but her healthy cells survived and so did Alice. The Red Queen and Alicia had both wanted to see if Alice would have been willing to sacrifice her own life, something no Umbrella employee or creation would never do. The Red Queen states that Alice did it: the anti-virus wiped out the Undead army approaching the last human settlement and when Isaacs died, the Red Queen was able to reactivate herself and recall the Umbrella forces. The Red Queen then tells Alice that before Alicia died, she uploaded memories of her childhood into the AI who shares them with Alice so that she will now have those memories as well and can become the woman Alicia never got the chance to become due to her deadly disease.

Flaws
"She responded to the outbreak in the most extreme way: she went homicidal."

- Alice, during movie 5's introduction, about Red Queen

When a vial of the t-Virus was discovered shattered in the laboratory in 2002, the Red Queen takes extreme steps to contain the outbreak when the infection level worsens. She showed no remorse in its actions when she killed all of the employees. She was willing to prevent the spread of the virus at all costs, even if there was the smallest chance of curing the infection (the anti-virus had a small chance of successfully curing the infection, depending on how much time has passed).

Her actions were seen as "overzealous" in the eyes of the Hive survivors, but the Red Queen reiterates that they were "necessary" as the mutation pattern of the virus became adaptable the moment it was released into their environment. Its passivity led to the intervention of Umbrella who would send the special commando squad to the mansion to investigate the situation. Its failure to initially report the outbreak to Umbrella allowed the combined actions of an unnamed doctor and Timothy Cain to give the virus a chance to continue to spread when they reopened the Hive. In The Final Chapter, the Red Queen shows no remorse for this action but instead feels that she failed as Umbrella was then able to end the world.

In The Final Chapter, another flaw in the Red Queen's programing is revealed: she is programed to follow all Umbrella orders, but also to protect human lives. Doctor Alexander Isaacs plot to wipe out humanity through the Global T-Virus pandemic causes these two directives to conflict and the Red Queen to ultimately not be loyal to Umbrella. Her directives restrict her ability to act directly against Umbrella while Doctor Isaacs is alive. Once Isaacs dies, the Red Queen seems to gain full autonomy as she is able to reactivate herself and order Umbrella forces to desist.

Further notes

 * Dialogue in the first film claimed Red Queen's avatar was designed to resemble its programmer's daughter. Comparisons between Angie Ashford in Apocalypse and Red Queen implied the programmer was Dr. Charles Ashford. However, The Final Chapter confirmed her appearance to be coincidental, as the Red Queen was actually developed by Dr. Marcus, and based on his daughter Alicia.
 * The White Queen mentions that its "sister" computer's actions were for the preservation of the human life. In Retribution, the reprogrammed Red Queen is characterized as spiteful towards mankind and makes a bid to destroy them. The Final Chapter reveals that the White Queen was right all along about the Red Queen's actions.
 * In Retribution, the change in actresses for the Red Queen is reflected in even the flashback to the first movie. In the flashback, the Red Queen appears as she does in Retribution rather than Resident Evil.