Oswell E. Spencer, Earl Spencer

However, all was lost with Raccoon City...

Ozwell E. Spencer is a character shrouded in much mystery. However, he is most notably recognized as the president of the Umbrella Corporation. Furthermore, he is the owner of the Spencer Mansion and Spencer Rain. Additionally, he served as the main antagonist of the series alongside Albert Wesker.

Background


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, and his body eventually used for T-Virus testing, eventually becoming the "Crimson Head Elder".

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
When the Zombie outbreak affected Raccoon City, Spencer ordered that all of Umbrella's data be backed up to the U.M.F.-13, an act which was carried out and overseen by his most loyal employee, Sergei Vladimir. Spencer then calmly waited until the last moment to leave Raccoon City, which was scheduled to be destroyed by a Government launched missile. He and Sergei flew out by helicopter with the U.M.F.-13 in tow. During the Death's Door scenario in the Umbrella Chronicles, Wesker contacted his injured partner, Ada Wong, in Raccoon City and informed her of the situation and that Spencer's helicopter was leaving the city, being her only way out. Since she carried a sample of the G-Virus, it was important to Wesker that she escaped. Using a newly acquired grapple gun, Ada was able to hitch a ride on the helicopter, perching on the U.M.F.-13 below it without Spencer even knowing. In the helicopter, Sergei and Spencer talked about Sergei's "reckless" and "unstable" behavior in his actions as put by Spencer. Sergei simply stated "people who go down in history as its heroes are never stable".

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".

Resident Evil 5
In Resident Evil 5, Spencer appeared in the TGS 2008 trailer talking to Wesker. They were shown talking in an unknown castle with lightning flashing in the background. This castle may be Spencer's home and hiding place during the Government's hunt for him. In the Play God trailer, at the very end, Wesker was shown standing at one of the castle's windows in the same room from the other trailer. It could be seen that Spencer's empty wheelchair was sitting next to Wesker and Spencer himself was lying on the floor, hinting that Wesker may have planned to kill him. His role in the game is as of yet unknown, but it will more than likely be revealed what Wesker's ultimate plans are and he will reveal them to Spencer.

The Play God trailer also hinted that the castle was Spencer's Umbrella Headquarters, as words appear over the screen during the castle shots, one of which stated that it will take place "right where it all began". Chris Redfield was also shown dusting off a stone tablet with the Umbrella symbol on it as well fighting Wesker in the room with Spencer's dead body.

Traits
In his first appearence in Umbrella Chronicles, Spencer's face was not shown, but his mouth and back head were. He was shown to have light and yet slightly wrinkly, elderly skin, as well as a life support machine, despite the fact that he had blonde hair. This could be a hint that Spencer may have had a health alteration from the virus when it spread. In the TGS trailer for Resident Evil 5, he is much older, has completely white hair, and breaths very heavy while he speaks as well as sits in a wheelchair. He is also attached to wires from a console on the chair. 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 officialy.