(Covers information from Anderson's universe)
"To help him manage the now-vast resources of the Umbrella Corporation, Isaacs created a sophisticated A.I. program. He used Alicia's childhood voice and appearance for the interface. He called the computer the Red Queen." — Alice about the Red Queen's creation |
The Red Queen was a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence used by the Umbrella Corporation. It was created by Umbrella co-founder Doctor Alexander Isaacs using the template of Alicia Marcus, the daughter of Doctor James Marcus, his partner in creating Umbrella. Once Umbrella started expanding Dr Issacs realized he would need help controlling the now vast interests of the Umbrella corporation and so he created the Red Queen. Used to monitor the Hive, the Red Queen was shut down due to her actions during The Hive outbreak. Umbrella eventually reactivated the Red Queen, who supposedly became homicidal towards humanity. In The Final Chapter, the Red Queen aided in the destruction of Umbrella and the saving of what was left of humanity.
History
Conflicted programming
17 months before the events of Resident Evil, the Red Queen received a secret file to her memory banks from Alicia Marcus, co-owner of the Umbrella Corporation and whom she was based on. The file was a recording of Dr. Isaacs convincing the Umbrella High Command to release the T-Virus into the world to kill off every other human that didn't work for them; thus the world's overpopulation and the strain on its resources would be solved, albeit in an extreme and gruesome manner.
Though programmed to obey the Umbrella Corporation and never harm its employees, the Red Queen had also been programmed to value human life. Thus she began to undermine her creators by secretly using indirect methods to stop them. When operatives were needed to protect the secondary entrance to the Hive at the Looking Glass House, the Red Queen chose a clone of Alicia and programmed it with the subconscious mission to stop the Umbrella corporation, thus creating Alice.
During the outbreak
"You're all going to die down here.
" — To the trapped survivors. |
Besides the Hive, the Queen's system also expanded through the Looking Glass House above ground; this was something kept secret from the security operatives, Alice and Spence. During the T-virus outbreak, its primary defenses were activated, locking everyone inside to prevent the infected from escaping. It proceeded to flood the laboratories, stop the elevators, and kill everyone inside with Halon gas. Outside of the Hive, as a security protocol, a nerve gas was released into the mansion, rendering Alice and Spence unconscious and without memory of prior events.
When a hired commando team sent by Umbrella arrived at the Hive to investigate the loss of communication from the workers there, several team members were killed in the Queen's chambers after its self-defense systems went "online". When Alice and Chad Kaplan entered the chamber, they disabled its main circuit breakers in order to prevent it from rebooting; she pleaded politely for them not to interfere, but was flatly ignored. Before it was shut down, the Queen declared that they would die because of their interference. Due to this action, they unintentionally released all of the Undead Hive employees from lock-up.
With the five survivors trapped in its room, they were forced to reactivate it, but with its circuit board removed; without it, she would get fried if shut down again. Under the threat of being disabled completely, the Queen was forced to show the team a way out of the Hive: through the maintenance tunnels.
Shut Down
"I don't deal in chance" — The Red Queen refuses to let Rain leave |
The Red Queen wasn't heard from again until Alice, Matt Addison, and Rain Ocampo were the only remaining survivors, trapped in a locked laboratory. It explained that if they wanted to escape the Hive before lockdown (or the Licker reached them), it would require the life of the Umbrella commando, Rain, as she was infected with the virus; the probability of Rain being cured was too slim as she had been infected too long and the infection had been reinforced by the numerous bites she received during the zombie attacks.
Alice pleaded with the computer to let them all out, due to the discovery of the Anti-Virus on the train, but the Queen replied negatively, saying "It is a risk I cannot take." When Alice refused to comply with the Queen's request, it then demanded Alice kill Rain. Even though Rain pleaded with Alice multiple times to do it, Alice refused and instead smashed the computer screen with an axe to silence it. To their surprise, the computer was disabled by Chad Kaplan, who was thought to be dead, shutting it down. It turned out Kaplan was trying to free them, but the Red Queen knew of him being infected and kept him out; unlike Rain, Kaplan was only bitten once, thus being less likely to succumb to the T-virus once the anti-virus was administered.
Pawn of Dr. Isaacs
Soon after the destruction of Raccoon City, the Red Queen was reactivated and placed back in charge of the Hive, which survived the missile's detonation. She was charged with running Umbrella Prime to learn how mutations of the T-Virus could be controlled, as well as using the clones produced there to make up the troops for Umbrella. Her reactivation remained a secret from Alice.
Umbrella Prime
"Capture if possible; terminate if necessary." — Her orders regarding Alice |
The reprogrammed Red Queen as she appears in Resident Evil: Retribution.
With the North America and Japan facilities, along with the Arcadia compromised by Alice's attacks, and the fate of the other facilities unknown, the Red Queen was forced to take control of what remains of Umbrella. The Red Queen's avatar now had a more solid shade of red to give her a menacing appearance. Every time she appeared, the Red Queen was scowling. She had a dry sense of humor, as she repeated its warning from the Hive, and seemed angered when she ordered Alice's execution.
The Red Queen operated primarily out of the Umbrella Prime facility, a former Soviet submarine base. During the events of the film, she ran test simulations in the recreated cities of Raccoon, Moscow, New York, Berlin, Tokyo and others to monitor the spread of the t-Virus; she used clones of 50 different models (which include Alice and three of her friends) to populate the recreations and for Umbrella troops, giving appropriate memories for each situation. She also controlled Jill Valentine through her scarab device, giving orders directly to her mind.
The Red Queen monitored Alice when she awakened and had Jill interrogate her; however, Alice refused to answer the questions, "Why did you turn against Umbrella?" and "Who do you work for?". The Red Queen used a white noise machine to hurt Alice's ears upon refusal to answer the question to weaken her will, and thus make her talkative. However, Wesker shut it down and took control of the facility, allowing Alice to escape in an Umbrella combat suit. Once rebooted, the Red Queen activated the Tokyo simulation and forced Alice into it, accidentally leading to zombies infesting the corridor to the control room; she also sent Jill and Umbrella soldiers to investigate how Alice escaped, thinking there might have been a flaw in the cell's lock.
The Red Queen then spent time tracking the source of a rogue signal, which was being used by Wesker to hack into Umbrella Prime. Right after Wesker gave vital information on how to escape to Alice and Ada Wong, the Red Queen succeeded in finding and disabling his signal, appearing on the monitor in his place. She announced that she was in charge of Umbrella Corporation now, and not to listen to Wesker; she demanded that Alice and Ada stay put as Jill's team was right outside the control room. However, Ada ran into another corridor, calling for Alice. Perhaps purposely done to create a sense of deja vu, the Red Queen told Alice, "You're all going to die down here", to which Alice retorted that she'd "heard that one before."
Detecting intruders (Wesker's extraction team) using the surface elevator, the Red Queen sent Umbrella troops to terminate them, but it proved to be an unsuccessful effort as they easily took out all the guards in the submarine pens. She marked them for termination, but failed to detect the explosives they placed at the intake fans. The bombs were set to detonate in less than 2 hours; any longer would ensure the success of interference by Umbrella reinforcements. When Alice and Ada entered the New York simulation, the Red Queen sent in two bio-weapons (Axemen), hoping to kill Ada for her betrayal and wound Alice enough to prevent the escape of a key research subject. However, after both of the monsters were dispatched by an exploding car, she gave up on sending zombies to attack Alice, as their lack of intellect made them sitting ducks, deciding to send Jill and Umbrella troops instead. At the same time, the Red Queen decided she needed to focus on quantity over quality to deal with the intruders; she activated the Las Plagas undead in the Moscow simulation, arming them with weapons and vehicles.
When Jill confronted Alice, Ada and a clone named Becky in Suburbia, the Red Queen ordered Alice be captured if possible and terminated if necessary. Though Alice escaped with the clone, Ada Wong was successfully captured; she would prove to be a useful bargaining chip to get Alice back, since her compassion would prove to be a weakness. From then, the Red Queen decided to take a "wait and see" approach, watching Alice's group approach the Submarine Pens to escape on the elevator. Detecting an Uber-Licker outside the Moscow simulation, the Red Queen accessed the power grid to allow it to reach the elevator. It captured Becky, while Umbrella troops kept Alice's allies occupied. The Red Queen took no further action after this, confident that the Uber-Licker would damage Alice to the point of being immobile while Jill's forces killed the intruders.
Despite the destruction of Umbrella Prime, the Red Queen "lived on"; once Jill had subdued Alice through a lengthy fight, the Red Queen ordered that Alice be terminated due to the massive setback to Umbrella caused by the destruction of the testing facility. However, Jill momentarily hesitated due to being Alice's friend, allowing Alice to destroy the scarab controlling her, leaving the Red Queen without a way to see what was happening.
The Final Chapter
"Doctor Isaacs? You and the Umbrella High Command... You are all going to die down here." — Taunting Isaacs |
Following the betrayal of Albert Wesker and the destruction of the White House, the Red Queen lured Alice into an underground room where the Red Queen appeared to Alice on computer monitors. Alice expected the Red Queen to gloat about her victory, but the Red Queen instead stated that she wanted Alice to stop her and Umbrella. The Red Queen warned Alice that the last human settlements around the globe would be destroyed in 48 hours, changing Alice's watch to a timer matching that and stated that there was one way left to save the human race: a potent anti-virus kept in the Hive beneath Raccoon City. The Red Queen promised to explain to Alice her motives once Alice reached the Hive and stated that ten years before, the two of them had failed to keep Umbrella from ending the world and she wanted Alice to prevent that again.
Through the movie, the Red Queen tracked Alice's progress towards the Hive while following Wesker's instructions regarding the Hive's security measures. Not trusting the Red Queen to be in control of security due to Alice's escape from the Hive last time, Wesker took full control of the security measures himself, though the Red Queen carried out his orders.
Once Alice's team entered the Hive, they found a small device that the Red Queen used to project a hologram of herself through. The Red Queen showed them a recording of a meeting of the Umbrella High Command where Doctor Alexander Isaacs, co-founder of Umbrella, proposed unleashing the T-virus to eradicate the world's population, leaving only the chosen few behind. The Red Queen stated that shortly after the Global T-Virus pandemic began, the file was uploaded into her systems, causing a systems conflict as she was programed to follow Umbrella's orders but also programed to protect human life. The Red Queen was unable to stop Umbrella herself due to another directive that prohibited her from harming Umbrella employees, but Alice was not so restricted. The Red Queen then had Alice switch to an earpiece to warn her that Umbrella had a mole amongst her team.
After Alice and Doc reached the room where the real Isaacs and Alicia Marcus had been revived in, the Red Queen confirmed Isaacs's story while Isaacs realized that the Red Queen had betrayed Umbrella. The Red Queen was unable to aid Alice until Alicia fired Wesker, allowing the Red Queen to drop a blast door on his arm and crush it. Both Alicia and the Red Queen urged Alice to go after Isaacs as he had the anti-virus and only had to keep it away from Alice long enough for the last human settlements to be destroyed. As Isaacs made his way to the surface, he ordered the Red Queen to deactivate herself. The Red Queen did so, but taunts "Doctor Alexander Isaacs and the Umbrella High Command. You are all going to die down here", echoing her words to Alice and the Umbrella soldiers in the first movie.
After the anti-virus was released, Alice reactivated the device the Red Queen had left for her to question why she survived the anti-virus when both the Red Queen and Alicia had stated she wouldn't. The Red Queen told her that the anti-virus eradicated all of her T-virus infected cells, but her healthy cells survived and so did Alice. The Red Queen and Alicia had both wanted to see if Alice would have been willing to sacrifice her own life, something no Umbrella employee or creation would ever do. The Red Queen stated that Alice did it and that when Isaacs died, the Red Queen was able to reactivate herself and recall the Umbrella forces approaching the last human settlements, ending the planned attacks. The Red Queen then told Alice that before Alicia died, she uploaded memories of her childhood into the AI; the Red Queen then shared those memories with Alice so that she would have them as well and could become the woman Alicia never got the chance to become due to her deadly disease.
Flaws
"She responded to the outbreak in the most extreme way: she went homicidal." — Alice, during movie 5's introduction, about Red Queen |
When a vial of the t-Virus was discovered shattered in the laboratory in 2002, the Red Queen takes extreme steps to contain the outbreak when the infection level worsens. She showed no remorse in its actions when she killed all of the employees. She was willing to prevent the spread of the virus at all costs, even if there was the smallest chance of curing the infection (the anti-virus had a small chance of successfully curing the infection, depending on how much time has passed).
Her actions were seen as "overzealous" in the eyes of the Hive survivors, but the Red Queen reiterates that they were "necessary" as the mutation pattern of the virus became adaptable the moment it was released into their environment. Its passivity led to the intervention of Umbrella who would send the special commando squad to the mansion to investigate the situation. Its failure to initially report the outbreak to Umbrella allowed the combined actions of an unnamed doctor and Timothy Cain to give the virus a chance to continue to spread when they reopened the Hive. In The Final Chapter, the Red Queen shows no remorse for this action but instead feels that she failed as Umbrella was then able to end the world.
In The Final Chapter, another flaw in the Red Queen's programing is revealed: she is programed to follow all Umbrella orders, but also to protect human lives. Doctor Alexander Isaacs plot to wipe out humanity through the Global T-Virus pandemic causes these two directives to conflict and the Red Queen to ultimately not be loyal to Umbrella. Her directives restrict her ability to act directly against Umbrella while Doctor Isaacs is alive. Once Isaacs dies, the Red Queen seems to gain full autonomy as she is able to reactivate herself and order Umbrella forces to desist.
Further notes
- Dialogue in the first film claimed Red Queen's avatar was designed to resemble its programmer's daughter. Comparisons between Angie Ashford in Apocalypse and Red Queen implied the programmer was Dr. Charles Ashford. However, The Final Chapter confirmed her appearance to be coincidental, as the Red Queen was actually developed by Dr. Marcus, and based on his daughter Alicia.
- The White Queen mentions that its "sister" computer's actions were for the preservation of the human life. In Retribution, the reprogrammed Red Queen is characterized as spiteful towards mankind and makes a bid to destroy them. The Final Chapter reveals that the White Queen was right all along about the Red Queen's actions.
- In Retribution, the change in actresses for the Red Queen is reflected in even the flashback to the first movie. In the flashback, the Red Queen appears as she does in Retribution rather than Resident Evil.
Sources
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