Oswell E. Spencer, Earl Spencer

I was to become a god!

Ozwell E. Spencer is a character shrouded in much mystery. He is most notably recognized as the president of the Umbrella Corporation and the owner of the Spencer Estate and Spencer Rain.

History


While Spencer is most notably known for his role as the president of the Umbrella Corporation, he was also one of the three scientists that discovered the Progenitor virus. Accompanied by his esteemed colleague and good friend Edward Ashford and prominent researcher James Marcus, Spencer was able to make the ground breaking find on December 4th, 1968.

While driven by their insights to create a powerful viral biological weapon, Spencer and his colleagues established the Umbrella Corporation, a company that appeared to create pharmaceutical products, to disguise their sinister motives. Around the same time, Spencer hired the well-known architect George Trevor to design a special mansion in the Arklay Mountains, which would camouflage a secret research laboratory complex in the Mansion’s basement. After realizing that George may disclose of the secrets of the mansion in the future, Spencer had his wife Jessica and their daughter Lisa kidnapped and used as Progenitor Virus test-subjects. George was imprisoned within the walls of the Mansion he built. Able to remember most of the traps and passages he created, he managed to escape. However, he could not leave the grounds due to the guards and so hid in the caves below the estate. Eventually, he would die some time after falling down a hole, where a grave had been prepared for him by Spencer.

Also occurring in that year, Spencer established the Umbrella Management Training Facility for further research of the Progenitor virus, and appointed co-founder James Marcus as the first general manager. After Marcus successfully created the t-virus by introducing the Progenitor virus to a Leech, Spencer began to grow paranoid of Marcus’ new found reputation. Ultimately, Spencer ordered Marcus’ former apprentices, Albert Wesker and William Birkin, to assassinate him. In the aftermath, Spencer appointed Birkin to take over the t-virus project. Following the mysterious death of Ashford, Spencer was left as the sole remaining founding member of the Umbrella Corporation, and easily able to monopolize the company for himself.

Spencer's Fate
The Wesker children were entrusted with endless potential

When the Zombie outbreak affected Raccoon City, Spencer ordered that all of Umbrella's data be backed up to the U.M.F.-13 computer core, an act which was carried out and overseen by his most loyal employee, Sergei Vladimir. In the final minutes of Raccoon's existence, Albert Wesker contacted his injured partner, Ada Wong and informed her of the situation and that an Umbrella officer's helicopter was leaving the city, being her only way out. Since she carried a sample of the G-virus from William Birkin, it was important to Wesker that she escaped. Using a newly acquired Hookshot, Ada was able to hitch a ride on the helicopter, perching on the U.M.F.-13 below it without anyone on the helicopter noticing. In the helicopter, Sergei and Spencer talked about Sergei's "reckless" and "unstable" behaviour in his actions as put by the latter. Sergei saw himself and Spencer to be people to go down as heroes of history, with Umbrella rising from the ashes into a world for them to control. Spencer himself, however, was only to receive word that Raccoon City had been wiped out by the United States government following the last evacuation by Umbrella from the city.

Following the aftermath of the incidents of the Arklay Mountains and Raccoon City, Spencer brought forth top lawyers and false witnesses to the Supreme Court to make the events of Raccoon City look like a Government Conspiracy, which kept Umbrella afloat for another five years. Ultimately, Albert Wesker seals Umbrella's fate by submitting ALL of Umbrella's secret information (B.O.W.s, Viral Samples, Tactical Training, etc.). The information had been downloaded onto a disk from the U.M.F.-13, one of Umbrellas' biggest archives. Wesker even went so far as to personally testify against Spencer, detailing what role he had in the events of Raccoon City. Immediately afterwards, Umbrella's business license is revoked and a global manhunt is started in the goal of finding Spencer, who mysteriously vanished following Umbrella's destruction. Wesker vowed to meet Spencer again before the conclusion of the drama transpiring and to reveal to him the history he would "write for this world".

Death
However all was lost with Raccoon City!



In the following years Spencer went into hiding, making sure he had little contact with the outside world. Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine were given information from a reliable source on Spencer's location. Minutes before they arrive, Wesker himself paid a visit to Spencer. The two discussed Wesker's origins on how he was the result of genetic experimentation with the Progenitor Virus. Spencer revealed that his goal was to create a new breed of humans such as Wesker, and thus become a god. However, Wesker was the only one that survived out of several other individuals who were "manufactured" such as him; but the research was destroyed along with Raccoon City. As Spencer stands from his wheelchair to confront Wesker face to face, Wesker violently thrusts his hand through Spencer's chest, whispering to him that the right to become a god is now his, and not Spencer's. Wesker viciously removes his hand from his chest, allowing him to topple down and bleed to death onto the steps of his estate. As Jill and Chris enter the room and prepare to arrest Spencer, they instead find his corpse, with Wesker staring out the window.

Appearance


In his only confirmed appearance in Resident Evil 5, he was shown to be an elderly man with completely white hair, well into his late 80s early 90s, as well as breathing very heavily while he spoke. He also appeared sitting in a wheelchair, which he was connected to through wires from a console. Although speculated on for many months as to whether or not Spencer had truly appeared, a page on the Japanese gaming magazine "FAMITSU," revealed it officially.

Spencer sounds remarkably similar to Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars series. In a guest panel for Devil May Cry, Reuben Langdon and Daniel Southworth stated that Adam Clark (Spencer's voice actor) is a huge fan of Star Wars.