Claire Redfield

I just wanted to see your face one last time!

Claire Redfield is one of the main characters in the Resident Evil series appearing in Resident Evil 2 and later in Resident Evil Code: Veronica and Resident Evil: Degeneration. She is an avid motorcyclist, and a member of Terra Save. She was present in Raccoon City during the t-Virus outbreak, and was a fundamental figure in the anti-umbrella movement.

Raccoon City Outbreak
You lose, big guy!

Claire is the younger sister of Chris Redfield, who was one of the main characters from the original game. She comes to Raccoon City in search of her brother, but finds something much worse. After she is saved from nearly being eaten alive by a virus carrier, Claire and Leon S. Kennedy hatch a plan to get out Raccoon City as soon as they can. After they are separated, Claire explores the deserted police station, eventually running into the corrupt Chief Irons and Sherry Birkin, the daughter of two important Umbrella researchers, William Birkin & Annette Birkin. As Sherry and Claire look for a way out of the city, they are stalked by the inhuman T-103. The monster follows them all the way to Umbrella's underground lab until it is tricked into jumping into a massive smelting pot by Claire. In the process of preparing the escape train out the facility, the T-103 returns in it's true form and is defeated by Claire, thanks to a mysterious assistant. As Claire sets the train in motion, Leon appears and jumps aboard. After a brief battle with Birkin, the trio runs from the escape train, clearing the escape tunnel before the entire thing detonates. Not long after their escape, Leon urges her to leave them and go search for her brother.

Rockfort Island and Antarctica


Chris, promise me, please promise that you won't leave me alone again

Three months after her escape from Raccoon City, Claire headed over to Europe to finally find her lost brother Chris. Having no luck, she even got imprisoned at a small island far off in the sea. Due to her strong will to survive and to find her brother she is able to again find her way through the island once it has been attacked by an unknown enemy. Another viral outbreak happened on the island.

Harvardville
Claire had joined a non-government organization called Terra Save, which campaigned against Bio-terrorism. She arrived at Harvardville Airport to meet a friend who too was part of Terra Save, but was caught up in a Bio-terrorism event herself.

Stuck in the airport, Claire tries to find a way to escape with the others in her party, which includes Rani Chawla, Ron Davis, and an unknown woman. She calls 911 and waits for help until all of a sudden, she hears gunshots. She goes into the hallways to find who it was, until she met up with Leon. After escaping the aiport, Claire headed to WilPharma with Frederick Downing. Once there she learned that the G-Virus was kept there. As she calls Leon, a time bomb set off, causing her to have a bad leg wound. While escaping WilPharma, Claire tries to help Leon and Angela Miller from Curtis Miller, who is now a in the stage of the G-Virus. After Curtis was killed, Leon, Angela, and Claire escaped WilPharma only to find out that Frederick was resposible for the attacks in both India and in Harvardville Airport.

Wardrobe


Claire's original outfit in Resident Evil 2 consisted of a black short sleeved, short legged cycling skinsuit worn under a red vest with a "Made in Heaven" design (which she gives to Sherry during the course of the game), red-coloured shorts, brown boots, and black riding gloves. Her alternate outfit in the game consists of a leather jacket and trousers with a "Let Me Live" design on the back and a red bandanna. In the N64 version, this outfit is coloured purple and features the Angels Studio logo (the company that designed the N64 port) on the back.

In Resident Evil Code: Veronica, she wears a different red vest (this time with a "Let Me Live" design) over a short black T-shirt with jeans as her standard outfit. She wears an alternate outfit in the game's Battle Mode consisting of red and black hot pants and tank top with Umbrella's logo on the sides, and white boots. Claire is also shown wearing a third costume consisting of a red skin-tight unitard in the game's unlockable art gallery, but she never appeared in-game in this outfit.

The titles on the back of her jackets (in her original outfits and alternate ones as well) are homages to songs by the band, Queen. One of the games designers was once questioned about this link in an interview and expressed that they were indeed fans of the band and felt that the titles tied in so well with the theme of the games.

In Resident Evil: Degeneration, Claire wears a tan, short-sleeved shirt with a red, long-sleeved shirt underneath it, along with khaki pants.

Resident Evil: Extinction
Claire appears in the movie continuity, where she is portrayed by Ali Larter.

In the third film of the movie trilogy, Claire appears as the leader of a convoy of survivors traveling across the ruins of the United States in the wake of the t-Virus pandemic that swept the globe. At the end of the film, she takes the survivors and flies to Alaska in an Umbrella helicopter.

Trivia

 * In Resident Evil 1.5 (the original prototype version of Resident Evil 2), a blonde-haired motorcyclist named Elza Walker was featured as the heroine of the game instead of Claire Redfield. She was unrelated to Chris Redfield and was instead a college student attending Raccoon University and wore a red and white leather suit with the Raccoon University logo (probably a uniform). Otherwise, the character was identical to Claire Redfield and the two even shared the same personal data. According to Research on Biohazard 2: Final Edition, Elza's backstory was similar to Claire's, in which she comes to Raccoon in search for a missing person. In Resident Evil 1.5, Elza's supporting characters were Sherry Birkin (like in the released version) and an early version of Robert Kendo (the gun shop owner). The reason for transforming Elza Walker into Claire Redfield was done to create a greater tie between the original game and the sequel without reusing an old character.


 * In the Nintendo DS game Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble there is a picture of one of the enemy foot-soldiers dressed as Claire.


 * Although it is assumed she was trained in self-defense by her brother, there is no actual mention of Claire receiving any kind of military training prior to the events of Resident Evil 2. She appears to be the only protagonist in the series to be thrown into the events of the games with no formal preparation to defend herself. It seems she is a talented natural, able to adapt to the situation. This makes her the most "normal" protagonist of the series (aside from the Outbreak series protagonists).


 * Leon kept in touch with Claire Redfield through the Anti-Umbrella movement.