"The right to be a god. That right... is now mine." - Albert Wesker, Resident Evil 5
Albert Wesker is the most frequently recurring villain in the Resident Evil video games. With superhuman abilities, a keen scientific mind and a towering god complex, Wesker cares only for power and domination over the entire human race. Throughout the series, he has used and betrayed many people in order to further his goals. He may appear human, but he is truly a monster of the highest order.
History[]
Origins[]
Albert Wesker was born to parents with superior intellectual genes. He also possessed a unique blood type, one that granted him immunity to various viral infections. What Wesker would not become aware of until much later in his life was that his birth, upbringing and education were all arranged and manipulated from behind the scenes by Ozwell Edward Spencer, the president and founder of the Umbrella Corporation. Young Albert was a product of an ambitious project known as the Wesker Plan, a scheme devised by Spencer to produce the ideal breed of human beings: highly intelligent and possessing physical and mental capabilities far beyond the current human norm. Several children across the world were unknowingly used as subjects in this plan, their development secretly monitored and controlled by Spencer and his scientists. All of the children were given the surname "Wesker" after the project's head researcher.
Over the course of their development, the Wesker children were each administered a special virus that was supposed to enhance their physiology. With the exception of two of the Wesker candidates, all of the children died when exposed to the virus. Albert was one of the two survivors, and he recieved his viral injection in 1998, during the Mansion Incident.
Early life[]
When Wesker came of age, Spencer arranged for him to begin working for Umbrella as one of their top researchers. During his early years with the company, he developed a friendship and rivalry with fellow researcher William Birkin, and together they worked closely on the development of the Progenitor virus and its offshoot, the Tyrant virus. As their work with the T-virus progressed, Wesker began to question Spencer's motives behind this viral research. He requested to be transferred to Umbrella's Intelligence Bureau in 1991, where he hoped he could find some sort of clarity regarding Spencer's machinations. Five years later, he would go on to establish the Raccoon City branch of the Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.), with his ties to Umbrella being kept from the public and even those within the police department itself.
The T-virus outbreak[]
In the summer of 1998, the T-virus was scattered within Umbrella's Arklay Research Center and the Spencer Mansion within Raccoon Forest. Following a rash of cannibalistic homicides in the region, the S.T.A.R.S. - under Wesker's command - were mobilised to deal with the situation. Of course, Wesker already knew the truth behind the killings and Umbrella had assigned him the task of reclaiming the Research Center and destroying the Arklay mansion after collecting combat data on the B.O.W.'s that had been developed there.
The Research Center had been taken over by the resurrected James Marcus, Umbrella's co-founder whom Spencer had Wesker assassinate ten years previously. With Marcus' swarms of infected leeches spreading the T-virus from this location, its reclamation was impossible and so Wesker and Birkin had the facility destroyed. The following day, Wesker led the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha Team into Raccoon Forest to find the missing Bravo Team, who had disappeared in the middle of their mission to apprehend the cannibal killers terrorising Raccoon City. After leading his team into the Arklay mansion, Wesker began his own investigation of the premises, collecting or destroying any data relating to Umbrella's illegal genetic research. While his mission was to return the information to his superiors, Wesker had other plans. He intended to leave Umbrella and use their research for his own purposes.
Prior to beginning his mission, Wesker had been given an experimental viral sample by Birkin. After reaching the main research level of the Arklay laboratory, he administered the sample and it rapidly took effect. When he was cornered in the Tyrant chamber by his subordinates Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, Wesker activated the T-002 to dispose of them. However, the Tyrant proved to be uncontrollable and the creature attacked Wesker, impaling him upon its huge claw.
Though Wesker appeared to have been killed by the Tyrant, the virus he had recently injected brought him back to life, regenerating his wounds and blessing him with superhuman abilities. When he regained consciousness, he found that the S.T.A.R.S. had killed the Tyrant and that the laboratory's self-destruct system had been activated. Wesker was able to escape into the forest before the mansion exploded, but his plans had been set back by the S.T.A.R.S.' interference. However, since both the S.T.A.R.S. and Umbrella now believed him to be dead, Wesker could allow himself to disappear to plan and prepare for the future.
The Organization[]
With the combat data and bio-weapon research data he acquired from the mansion, Wesker was able to secure a high-ranking employment position within one of Umbrella's mysterious opposing organizations known only as "The 3rd Organization".
Still holding the illusion of his death, Wesker avoided showing himself and instead took to being the contact between spies and the opposing organization. When Raccoon City suffered a T-Virus outbreak, Wesker sent an agent by the name of Ada Wong to retrieve a G-virus sample in the (unknowing) possession of William Birkin's only daughter Sherry Birkin, hidden within her pendant. Ada managed to retrieve the sample, much to Wesker and the opposing organization's pleasure.
Three months following the Raccoon City Destruction Incident, Wesker led an Organization strike-force to attack the Umbrella facility on Rockfort Island. Their goal was to obtain the T-Veronica virus developed by one of Umbrella's former researchers Alexia Ashford. The attack on the island was devastating and resulted in a T-virus outbreak that led to the infection of many of the base's personnel and the subsequent release of several B.O.W.'s. As it turned out, Alexia - who's body contained the only existing T-Veronica virus - was not on the island, but rather at another Umbrella facility in Antarctica. Wesker's forces moved on to the Antarctic base where they discovered that Alexia had awoken from a 15-year long cryogenic sleep, during which time her body had perfectly adapted to the virus within her body, transforming her into a creature far beyond human.
During this incident, Wesker encountered his former S.T.A.R.S. subordinate and hated rival Chris Redfield, who was searching for his sister Claire. The Redfield siblings were reunited and together they killed Alexia, robbing Wesker of his prize. However, Wesker collected a consolation prize in the form of the deceased Steve Burnside, a boy who had accompanied Claire to Antarctica and had had the misfortune to be injected by Alexia with the T-Veronica strain. Wesker's troops collected Steve's body while Wesker himself took the opportunity to take revenge on Chris for his past interference. The two adversaries fought as the base's self-destruct system counted down and Wesker's newfound powers gave him the clear advantage. However, Chris lucked out by managing to drop a crane-load of metal girders on Wesker, but even this was not enough to kill him. Another explosion rocked the area and Chris was granted the opportunity to escape with his life, but both he and Wesker knew that they would meet again one day.
The Fall of Umbrella[]
By 2003, the Umbrella Corporation was facing collapse following its indictment in the involvement of Raccoon City's destruction. The company was able to drag out the legal proceedings using its numerous connections within the US government, but thanks to Wesker the company was finally forced into bankruptcy. In February of that year, Umbrella's last remaining bio-weapons plant in Russia was attacked by an anti-Umbrella paramilitary group led by Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine. Taking advantage of the situation, Wesker made his own infiltration of the facility at the same time, eliminating swarms of B.O.W.'s before finally encountering the base's commander and the head of Umbrella's paramilitary forces, Sergei Vladimir. Sergei commanded his two Ivan bodyguards to kill Wesker, but Wesker was able to defeat both Tyrants and went on to finally confront Sergei himself.
Sergei fought Wesker after injecting himself with a T-virus strain that transformed him into a Tyrant-style creature. The two superhumans fought ferociously, but Wesker emerged triumphant and to the victor went the spoils. Wesker downloaded the core memory of Umbrella's supercomputer, the U.M.F.-013, onto a disk. The disk contained all of Umbrella's research information and B.O.W. data, and much more besides; plenty of information that could be used as evidence to incriminate Umbrella and ensure the corporation's downfall. Soon after the shutdown of the Caucasus plant, Wesker anonymously presented his evidence to the courts, guaranteeing the fall of Umbrella. With Umbrella dissolved, the company's directors became wanted fugitives and Wesker had all the information and capital he needed to rebuild Umbrella under his own control.
Quest for power[]
Wesker soon proved to be a problem for his organization's superiors. Wesker had always cherished a desire for power, prominence and domination over others, and, seeing Umbrella as power incarnate, used it to hide behind while he made plans of his own. He established a secret organization of his own, using Umbrella's infrastructure retrieved from the Caucasus Laboratory, and began recruiting agents such as Jack Krauser into it. When Umbrella folded, and the sanctuary and protection it provided ruined by the surviving Umbrella leaders' constant power struggles, Wesker decided that bringing his new Umbrella to complete fruition was his most necessary goal. He would need to amass much wealth and resources. In order to achieve this, Wesker planned to go down the list of Umbrella's other top rival corporations, sell them samples of Umbrella's viruses they desired, and finance his personal empire. He would keep this agenda secret from his Organization superiors, though they were suspicious.
Wesker began his plot with TRICELL (disguised with the name "S"), who had been interested in acquiring a sample of the newly discovered Plaga parasitic organism, preferably an advanced Dominant-strain Plaga developed by Los Illuminados cult leader, Osmund Saddler. Wesker contacted TRICELL and struck the deal. He commissioned Ada Wong, his old partner, to once again aid the field portion of the operation, while Wesker himself remained at his hideout and kept in touch with her via digital video feed. All the while, he contacted her for reports and updates in the objective. Wesker was apparently on a deadline to retrieve the sample, and made it his and Ada's most important goal. He also sent Krauser in to help Ada, though they were at conflict. Krauser thought that Ada would betray Wesker and said that neither of them trusted her, and Ada noted in her report that she wondered if Wesker had sent her to keep an eye on Krauser. Nothing suggests which of the two Wesker trusted more, though he considered them both expendable pawns.
Wesker gave Ada assignments to deal with people in the area, including Luis Sera and Leon S. Kennedy. Luis was a contact of theirs, and he was making attempts from inside the cult to steal the Dominant-strain Plaga sample. Wesker made it important for Ada to watch over Luis, but he was soon killed by Saddler, and the retrieved sample was lost. Wesker was not concerned, simply saying "There will be another time...", and didn't pity Luis. Wesker also saw Leon as an extra obstacle and ordered Ada to kill him, though she insisted he was of no trouble. She was quite reluctant to carry out Wesker's order, as she had formed a bond with Leon in Raccoon City. When Wesker later asked if she had gotten a chance to kill him, she lied and said the opportunity had not come. Wesker decided to let Leon live for the time being and allowed him to serve as further distraction for Saddler's followers. He later informed Ada of the Illuminados' panic due to Leon's actions, and decided to have Krauser kill Leon instead. Ada saved him, not playing by Wesker's rules.
Ada reported to Wesker that Krauser was dead, who found it interesting how easily Leon could avoid death. He decided to let Leon take care of Saddler himself, and told Ada to eliminate either one still standing when the fight ended. He reminded Ada that he was running the show, and required her to put a halt to whoever could stall their plans, including Leon. Ada later finds out that Krauser survived his fight with Leon and kills him for good, not wanting to fill out a large amount of paperwork should Krauser return alive.
Ada later helped Leon destroy Saddler and stole the sample without killing him, though Wesker may have been aware of this. It was revealed that Ada was not at all loyal to Wesker, but still to the Organization. She sent him a mere subordinate Plaga sample on their orders, and brought them the real sample.
While disappointed but not entirely shocked by Ada's betrayal, Wesker managed to obtain a "dead dominant species Plaga" from Krauser's corpse and began his own research, taking one big step forward to a new goal. At some point, he brought the subordinate and dominant Plaga samples he acquired to TRICELL, who began to use genetic engineering to develop evolved types.
Confrontation with Spencer[]
By 2006, Wesker had accumulated vast wealth and resources, including samples of all known viral strains and parasitic organisms, to advance his goals. And yet, he still felt his task was incomplete and was uncertain as to the final purpose behind all these acquisitions. Material wealth meant little to Wesker, what he really needed was answers. He instinctively thought of one man who might hold the answers he sought: former Umbrella president Oswell Spencer. Spencer had gone into hiding following the collapse of Umbrella, but Wesker was able to deduce where the old man might have gone to ground. He discovered that his former employer had taken up residence in his family's old European estate and he travelled there to meet with him.
Wesker meets with Oswell Spencer
When Wesker arrived at the Spencer Estate, he swiftly eliminated Spencer's bodyguards and confronted the old man in his private study. The feeble Spencer revealed that he knew Wesker was coming for him and that he was also dying, his age beginning to take its toll on him.
When Wesker confronted him, Spencer revealed everything regarding the Wesker Plan and the purpose behind the establishment of Umbrella and its viral research. Through the study and development of viruses, Spencer had hoped to eventually force the evolution of the human race, establishing a new "perfect" breed of humanity that could reshape the world that Spencer had come to regard as corrupted and doomed to a path of self-destruction. By enforcing natural selection upon humanity, Spencer believed he would become the "god" of a new world, and he had created Wesker for the purpose of bringing about his goal.
With this knowledge revealed to him, Wesker felt that the only obstacle standing between him and total power was this sickly old man before him. Deciding that godhood was now his right, Wesker stepped toward Spencer and impaled the old man through the heart with his bare hand. With his creator dead, he would now fulfill his purpose and create the new world that Spencer had envisioned.
Minutes after Wesker had killed Spencer, he found himself confronted by his old enemies Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, who had been sent by the recently-established Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance to track down both him and Spencer. Finding Spencer dead on the floor, Jill and Chris fought against Wesker, but with his superhuman speed and strength he had them both hopelessly outmatched. At one point in the fight, Wesker had Chris pinned and was ready to kill him in the same manner that he had killed Spencer. Before he could deliver the fatal blow, however, Jill tackled him and the two of them went crashing through a window and falling over a cliff.
Following this confrontation, the BSAA conducted an extensive search for Jill and Wesker's bodies, but found no trace of either of them. The two were presumed dead, but both of them had in fact survived the fall and Wesker had taken Jill captive. He took her back to TRICELL and began planning how best to use her to further his plans.
TRICELL[]
Now clear on his purpose, Wesker advanced his plans with the aid of the pharmaceutical arm of TRICELL, whom he had helped to establish their own bioweapons division by providing them with research material and viral samples. He also gained the personal trust and confidence of the head of TRICELL's pharmaceutical division, Excella Gionne, whom had come to regard Wesker with a romantic fascination. Excella was gifted in both beauty and intellect and felt enamoured by the idea of remaking the world, offering Wesker her full support. However, Wesker was not interested in Excella's romantic advances and saw her as a mere pawn in his plan, but he allowed Excella to believe that he held her in a higher regard.
Using TRICELL's technology to develop a new viral agent derived from the Progenitor virus, Wesker would eventually come to create the tool with which he needed to build his new world order: Uroboros. The Uroboros virus would be capable of enhancing a select few humans who possessed superior genes and transform them into superhumans like Wesker himself. As for humans who did not possess the required genetic makeup, the virus would kill them by consuming their bodies from within. To ensure the success of his Uroboros Project, Wesker required an army of easily controlled minions to prevent anyone from interfering with the plan's final stages. Having previously provided a sample of Las Plagas to TRICELL, they were able to create a new breed of Plaga, and Excella hired B.O.W. smuggler Ricardo Irving to release the new Plaga strain into the small African autonomous zone of Kijuju. The inhabitants of Kijuju quickly fell victim to the Plaga in large numbers and were turned into Majini, whom TRICELL were able to control and use to cause chaos and anarchy, serving as a distraction for the BSAA while Wesker conducted experiments with Uroboros.
Jill Valentine[]
The brainwashed Jill
Fully expecting his nemesis Chris Redfield to interfere again, Wesker decided to use the captive Jill as his instrument of revenge against Chris. He had kept her alive for years following their fated battle at Spencer's castle and had used her as the means of perfecting the Uroboros virus due to the presence of mutated T-virus cells inside her body, a remnant of her escape from Raccoon City years ago.
Jill, who had reviled bioweapons and devoted her life to eradicating them, was ironically being used to develop the most terrible bioweapon of all. After much research and experimentation, Wesker finally perfected the Uroboros virus. As a test subject, Jill's body went through various changes as a result of these experiments. Side effects included pale skin and blonde hair. Jill's participation in its development meant that she was no longer a suitable test subject. Pure and unadulterated antibodies with high resistance to the virus permeated her body. Wesker decided he would find a suitable use for her elsewhere. Stripped from her B.S.A.A. uniform, Jill was fitted with a skin tight battle suit and kept in observation during her stay in cryostasis. During the research into the Progenitor virus, an ancillary chemical was discovered. The researchers referred to it as simply – P30. When administered to test subjects, it would not only give them superhuman strength, but also rendered them highly susceptible to control.
P30 was the ultimate performance enhancer. The aims of the Uroboros Plan were to create a new breed of humans, so P30's application in this plan was inconsequential. However, for the time being it could be marketed as a product and garner additional funding. Research into creating the ultimate soldier who didn't resist orders was carried out simultaneously on Las Plagas and P30. Unfortunately, the latter had a severe drawback. The effects of P30 would only last for a very short time. An injection of P30 was metabolized and expelled by the body at an expeditious rate requiring re-administration of the drug at frequent intervals. This greatly lessened the viability of such a product as a long-term performance enhancer. The only counter to such a drawback was to attach a device to the subject that would continually administer the drug.
The Uroboros Project[]
In 2009, Wesker enacted his plot to unleash Uroboros upon humanity. He intended to saturate the planet's atmosphere with the virus by deploying a stealth bomber that would launch missiles into the atmosphere, spreading the virus worldwide and ensuring that no one would go uninfected. As the preparations for the global saturation were made, TRICELL's Majini forces were contending with the BSAA who were being led by Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar. Even Ricardo Irving, who had been given a dominant-strain Plaga, was unable to stop them.
When Chris and Sheva fought their way through the Uroboros research facility, Wesker felt it was time for he and Chris to be reacquainted and so he and the brainwashed Jill faced Chris and Sheva inside an adjacent temple structure. A brief fight ensued that Wesker had to be called away from as the time to deploy Uroboros neared, and so he left Jill to deal with her old partner Chris. He boarded a TRICELL tanker from where his bomber would take off, but Chris and Sheva were able to stop Jill in time to go after him and board the tanker as well. With his enemies drawing nearer, Wesker mobilised his most highly trained Majini forces to deal with them. He also decided that his accomplice Excella had served her purpose and injected her with Uroboros, knowing that the virus would reject her and transform her into a monster. Excella was consumed by the Uroboros which also consumed dozens of Majini corpses to grow to a gargantuan size, threatening to destroy the whole ship.
Chris and Sheva were able to destroy the Uroboros Aheri using a satellite laser targeting system and continued their hunt for Wesker, eventually cornering him on the ship's launchpad. Wesker fought against the two agents, all the while speaking about his purpose and how Uroboros was needed in order to save the world from being destroyed by humanity's over-population. Chris and Sheva ignored the madman's ranting and continued to fight, trying to use the darkness to their advantage by shutting off the lights surrounding the pad. Their attacks had minimal effect on the super-powered Wesker, however, who was able to withstand multiple gunshots and could even only be stunned by explosions. However, before Excella had been injected with Uroboros, she briefly confronted Chris and Sheva aboard the ship and had dropped a steel attache case as she fled. The case contained several syringes loaded with a serum that Wesker had to inject regularly in order to keep his powers constant and in check. During their fight, Chris and Sheva managed to stun Wesker and forcibly inject him with the serum, which when overdosed would act like a poison. The injection appeared to work as Wesker suddenly began to experience great pain and his vision began to blur.
Wesker abandoned his fight with Chris in order to launch his bomber, but Chris and Sheva pursued him and managed to board the plane just as it took off. The two agents fought Wesker in the rear of the aircraft and Chris was able to keep Wesker busy long enough for Sheva to override the bomber's launch protocols, preventing the Uroboros missiles from being launched. The cargo door was also opened mid-flight and Wesker, Chris and Sheva were almost sucked out of the aircraft. With the plane damaged, it descended and crashed onto a small volcanic island in the middle of the ocean. Chris and Sheva had survived the crash and saw that the bomber was too badly damaged to fly again. However, Wesker had also survived, and he wasn't finished yet...
Transformation and death[]
With his plans for world domination thwarted, all Wesker had left was revenge. With his own superhuman abilities failing him after being overdosed on the viral serum that granted him his power, Wesker resorted to infecting himself with Uroboros in order to defeat Chris and Sheva as he battled them inside the volcano. He used his bare hands to tear open the missile casing containing the virus and allowed the black, leech-like tentacles to engulf his arms and upper body. With this infection, Wesker could extend his arms to extraordinary lengths, fire oozing projectiles and create a "vortex" of tentacles to rip his enemies apart. Tangled up within the tentacles on his body were also large shards of metal ripped off from the bomber jet he had used to try and launch Uroboros into the atmosphere, which only added to his offensive capabilities. He viciously attacked Chris and Sheva, ranting and raving about the sorry state of the world and how humanity had cheated the process of natural selection. His normally cool and calculative demeanour had been consumed by pure, unadulterated hatred and rage, leaving nothing but an insane monster behind.
Wesker developed a weak spot, however, in the form of a pulsating orange growth on his torso and attacks to this area hurt him significantly. Ultimately, he was finally killed when the rocky platform he was stood upon gave way, sending him plunging into the lava. He did not die immediately due to the lingering effects of his superhuman serum coupled with the Uroboros, which had increased his endurance. That turned out not to be very beneficial in his last moments, prolonging his suffering as he thrashed about in the lava, screaming in fury and agony.
A BSAA chopper had arrived to pick up Chris and Sheva before they joined Wesker in the lava. Screaming Chris' name, Wesker used his mutated arm to reach up into the air to drag the chopper down. Using a pair of rocket launchers, Chris and Sheva finally put an end to Wesker's menace for good. The rockets struck Wesker in the head, decapitating him before hitting the lava and exploding, destroying him completely.
Legacy[]
While Albert Wesker perished in his final encounter with Chris Redfield, he has left behind a legacy in the form of a young man known as Jake Muller. About five years before the Mansion Incident, Wesker sired a son with an unknown woman from the small European nation of Edonia. Jake's conception is believed to have been accidental as Wesker was never a part of his son's life, having apparently abandoned Jake's mother immediately after their 'encounter'. The full circumstances behind Jake's birth remain unknown.
From his father, Jake inherited a special blood type that made him immune to the deleterious effects of viruses. He would not discover his heritage until 2013 when he was captured by the terrorist organisation Neo-Umbrella and became involved in thwarting their attack in Lanshiang, China.
Personality[]
Albert Wesker is cold-hearted, manipulative and treacherous. He is a Machiavellian schemer of remarkable intellect as well as a social Darwinist who believes in the purity of natural selection, which served as the motivation behind his Uroboros Plan. More than anything else, Wesker is also selfish and power-hungry; throughout his life he has used and betrayed others in order to get what he wants. He betrayed his S.T.A.R.S. team to acquire B.O.W. combat data, he betrayed Umbrella to pursue his own goals, used their rivals to gain additional information and resources, murdered his mentor Spencer and ultimately betrayed Excella Gionne after she and TRICELL had exhausted their usefulness to him.
Abilities[]
Before injecting himself with the prototype virus, Wesker seemed to be an ordinary human, save for his superior intellectual genes. He did also possess a special blood type that allowed him to resist sickness, preventing the deleterious effects of viruses while allowing him to reap their beneficial effects, which explains how he survived the prototype virus when the other Wesker children were killed by it. Other than that, he possessed superior intelligence and was remarkably proficient with martial arts and using firearms.
After being infected with the prototype virus, Wesker became what could only be described as superhuman. His muscle and bone tissue became extremely dense, greatly increasing his strength and endurance. He also developed the ability to process visual stimuli at a heightened level and gained heightened speed and reflexes to match. He was capable of moving at great speeds in short bursts, which to normal human eyes made it seem that he was teleporting. With this power, Wesker was easily able to dodge bullets. Another ability he gained was rapid healing, with minor wounds and even gunshots regenerating almost immediately.
When he infected himself with Uroboros, Wesker's strength increased even further and his mutant arms were capable of extending great lengths. He could fire projectiles of black ooze from his arms and create multiple tentacles that he used in some form of "vortex attack", surrounding himself in the rapidly spinning appendages that would instantly kill anyone that got too close.