Colt M1911

The Colt M1911 is a well known semi-automatic, recoil operated handgun that fires the .45 ACP cartridge, also called the "1911," "Colt," "Colt .45," or simply, "The .45". It was used by US forces until the late eighties, and is still utilized by some special forces units, in addition to being widely used by law enforcement and civilians. It is occasionally seen in the Resident Evil series, though rarely in its original form or in the shape of weapons utilizing the 1911 design. Due to the sheer number of variants, all of which exhibit the same basic features, all M1911 derivatives seen in Resident Evil will be listed on this page.

Resident Evil: Outbreak / File 2
Called the .45 Auto in-game, the M1911 is Kevin Ryman's personal handgun. Ryman is one of the few characters to canonically carry a conventional M1911A1 style pistol. He carries it as his personal item with a spare magazine in his inventory. It fires .45 Auto Rounds that comes in silver boxes and has a 7 round magazine. It is effectively a medium-level handgun bridging the gap between common handguns and magnums, being the most powerful non-magnum handgun in-game. Kevin can use his "Pot-Shot" ability to take more careful aim, and increase the damage by 2x.

Resident Evil 0
The "Army Handgun" is a weapon carried by Billy Coen in Resident Evil 0. It is a 9mm handgun. This version features the uncommon modification of a Beretta-style cutaway slide and a stainless steel frame, along with a full-length guide rod for smoother cycling. It also features adjustable sights instead of typical fixed ones. The trigger pull is extremely light trigger pull, and the wood grip is described as fitting Billy's hand perfectly, as if it were hand-made for him. However, it has a single-stack frame, which would hold only 9 rounds in 9mm chambering. It was given a 15 round magazine for the sake of balance, however.

These modifications indicate the gun made mainly for limited-class competition use rather than use as a combat pistol. It is never explained how Billy retrieved the gun in-game, but in the novelization, Billy finds it amongst the cargo in the Ecliptic Express and it is mentioned how the MPs were issued an identical pistol. This, however clashes with the fact that all branches of the US military are issued the M9 (Beretta 92) or M11 (Sig P228) pistol unless they are part of a special unit. The weapon is only seen once in the series, and only used by Billy.

The "Army Handgun" is slightly more powerful and has a higher critical headshot rate than Rebecca's Beretta 92F Samurai Edge Handgun, as well as having a duller "boom" when fired. This is a bit of a realism slip, as they both use the same 9x19mm Parabellum/Luger rounds and fire them from similar length barrels. It is highly accurate and is perhaps more useful over Rebecca's 'Samurai Edge'. In Resident Evil 0, custom parts can be collected and added to the handgun to increase it's chance of a decapitation attack.

Similar In-Game Weapons
The .50 caliber Sporting Int. Magnum Custom Edition is an odd hybrid of a 1911-style frame coupled with the controls and overall lines of the Desert Eagle.
 * Resident Evil 0:

The handgun Jill can assemble from parts dropped by the Nemesis (Tyrant) is the STI Eagle 6.0, which is a double-stack variation of the 1911 meant for competition use. It utilizes a polymer lower frame to cut down on grip size, a problem with some high-capacity 1911s.
 * Resident Evil 3:

The second magnum available is the Killer7, which is essentially a standard M1911A1 with a laser sight.
 * Resident Evil 4:

In the early trailers for RE5, Chris Redfield used what appeared to be a 1911-Beretta 92F hybrid pistol. It was seen to have a 1911 slide and hammer, but it's frame and magazine release were extremely similar to that of the Beretta 92F. the magazines on Chris's belt were also of single-stack 1911 design. It might have been a Kendo Custom pistol similar to the previous Silver Ghost design, with a similar fictional premise, threaded barrel and laser sight. It's removal was likely done to keep armament uniform for Chris and Sheva.
 * Resident Evil 5:

Resident Evil (film)
A Springfield Armory Mil-Spec M1911A1 was seen as Matt's weapon, but was taken from him and was later used by Rain, Alice and Spence Parks.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Two Para-Ordinance P14 Limited, are Alice's weapons of choice, which she dual wields akimbo-style. The only modification from the original design is a wider frame and double stack magazine. However, it is considered a pretty uncomfortable pistol, making it a bit impractical to use if one has small hands, especially in an akimbo style.

Resident Evil: Extinction
Alice's P14s are replaced by two Para Ordinance PXT LDA with rails. The LDA is unique amongst 1911s as a double action only designs, where almost all 1911 pistols are single action. It was directed mainly at the police market, where a light trigger could lead to accidents.

コルト M1911