Raccoon City (Anderson)

In the Resident Evil film series, Raccoon City was a huge metropolis built by the Umbrella Corporation and was used for conducting scientific research and experimentation. The Raccoon City in the films was much larger than in the games, with a population approaching 1 million people and a sprawling city center.

Resident Evil
In the 2002 film Resident Evil, Raccoon City was built by the Umbrella Corporation and staged research in a large top-secret underground facility called The Hive. Most of its 853,200 residents were oblivious to the experiments beneath its streets.

In 2002, the t-Virus escaped into the ventilation systems. Then, the giant supercomputer known as The Red Queen shut down The Hive, gassed some of its employees with Halon, dropped the occupied elevators at high speed, and drowned the others. Umbrella later sent in a special elite team of commandos in order to retrieve information about what had happened.

The team entered The Hive through a secret passage located within a mansion. It is later revealed, that the viral outbreak was intentionally done in order to smuggle out the t-Virus and sell it on the black market. Just hours later, only two survivors emerged from The Hive, Matt Addison and Alice. Both were seized by Umbrella's scientists and taken to the Raccoon City Hospital for quarantine and experimentation.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse
In the 2004 film Resident Evil: Apocalypse, the Umbrella Corporation sent in a research team to re-open The Hive. The team's insertion point was the main entrance beneath Raccoon City. Shortly after entering The Hive the entire team was slaughtered by t-Virus zombies that had been sealed within the complex. With the entrance now open, Umbrella realized that before long, these highly infectious zombies would make their way to the surface and begin an unstoppable amplification of the infection.

Knowing that containing the outbreak would be nearly impossible, an emergency plan to evacuate key Umbrella personnel from the city was activated. Important researchers and administrators were collected by two-man teams and removed from the city. After the completion of this operation, the city was sealed. Raccoon City was considered a loss, and to keep the infection from spreading past the city limits, gates at the entry and egress points of the city were closed. Traffic into and out of the city was halted.

A screening center was established at one such point, Raven's Gate Bridge, the city's primary traffic artery. Manned by medics and heavily armed corporate soldiers, this checkpoint was a minor effort to save some civilians from the rapidly expanding disaster. Uninfected civilians were permitted to pass, and control of the increasingly panicked population was maintained by Raccoon City Police units and Umbrella soldiers. However, once an infected civilian did reach the blockade (and was subsequently killed), orders were given to completely seal the city. The gates were closed and locked down, stranding the helpless civilians still within the city limits.

Mercenary soldiers working for Umbrella attempted, and failed, to turn the tide of the zombie onslaught. Losses were staggering and not effective. With nearly all of the units dead, Umbrella's last-line plan was put into motion.

Shortly before dawn on September 30, 2002, a cruise missile equipped with a thermonuclear warhead was launched into the heart of downtown Raccoon City. Umbrella Corporation public relations spin doctors were able to feed a convincing story to the media, who then reported that the city's destruction was due to a terrible accident at the Raccoon City Nuclear Power Facility nearby. Attempts by some of the survivors to spread the truth about what had really happened, met with failure.

Resident Evil: Retribution
As seen in scenes at the beginning and the middle of Resident Evil: Retribution, Raccoon City was rebuilt by Umbrella underground in a new facility to use as a testing ground for bio-terror outbreaks. The part of the rebuilt Raccoon City is the suburban location where Angela and Charles Ashford resided in Apocalypse. The area contains rebuilt houses, streets, and a subway station from Raccoon City, along with Raccoon City Police cars, Raccoon City News choppers, and more. "Good Rain", "Suburban Alice", "Suburban Carlos" and Becky all reside in the Suburban area. Suburban Carlos is attacked by a zombie and yells for Suburban Alice to take Becky away. They break into the attic and eventually manage to make their escape. As they run out, they are saved by Good Rain. Driving away in her car, they are suddenly struck by semi as they talk. Suburban Alice and Becky escape unharmed, but they are unable to save Good Rain, who was knocked unconscious.

They escape into a house and into a girl's bedroom and hide in the closet. A zombie enters the room and Suburban Alice tells Becky she loves her, then opens the closet and runs out to try to kill the zombie. Suburban Alice is almost killed by a zombie, but she knocks it down the steps and kills it. However, a zombified Suburban Carlos attacks Suburban Alice, killing her by knocking her down the stairs as well. Later, Alice and Ada enter the house, and Alice finds Suburban Alice's body. They find Becky as well, who mistakes Alice for her mother, causing Alice to take it upon herself to protect Becky. They leave the house but One, Jill, Bad Carlos and Bad Rain all are outside. Bad Rain informs Alice that she must surrender or they will open fire. However, Ada shoots an Umbrella officer. She tells Alice and Becky to run and escapes into a vent under the fake house. Later on, Alice and Becky find Good Rain again and leave the area together.