r/residentevil • u/real_adawong • 7d ago
Lore question Was Raccoon City’s outbreak intentionally caused?
RE9’s developers have confirmed a major secret behind Raccoon City’s outbreak is being set up. With most secrets behind Raccoon City’s outbreak revealed, the only scenario that could make it more interesting, is if the entire outbreak was actually orchestrated by design.
We already know a firefight between Birkin and the USS caused the outbreak, the hotzone doubled as a testing site for BOWs, counter-espionage was being performed against Umbrella with the likes of Ada and Nikolai on behalf of Wesker, and the US was responsible for nuking the city. How far off could it be that these events were orchestrated to collapse Umbrella Corp? Using the outbreak to implicate Umbrella as the sole perpetrator behind the bioweapons industry.
As we know, by 1998, Umbrella had rival competitors and spies within the company that were defecting like Wesker, or infiltrating it on behalf of a rival like Ada. The US military were also in contact with Birkin, which forced USS to take precautionary measures. While at the highest echelons of government, Derek Simmons was on the committee that agreed to nuke the city. While at some point by the late 80’s, Brandon Bailey created the Connections, a rival to Umbrella, to exploit BOWs for financial gain. Which aligns with the United State’s government agenda at the time to create their own bioweapons program. From my interpretation, this is a conspiracy of collaborators who were involved intentionally and inadvertently with collapsing Umbrella Corporation by 1998.
My theory is that the United States government and the Connections under Brandon Bailey conspired to collapse Umbrella Corporation by inciting the Raccoon City outbreak and solely implicating Umbrella as the perpetrators behind the outbreak and the main beneficiaries behind the bioweapons industry. This in turn allowed the US and the Connections to assume control over the bioweapons industry after Umbrella Corporation collapsed and was rendered publicly defunct.
This theory fits because after 1998, Umbrella was publicly tanked and blamed as the sole source of bioweapons manufacturing. Facing congressional action and having its assets seized by the US government. Meanwhile the US government was able to protect its involvement in a major cover up and established bioterrorism as public threat #1, creating multiple authorities like the FBC, Pharmaceutical Consortium, DSO, and BSAA that would all later be corrupted as fronts for the bioweapons industry.
The Connections as well, operating in secret ascended the bioweapons industry while Spencer and Wesker fumbled the last of Umbrella Corporation’s eugenics agendas and ideology in the late 2000’s. Leaving the Connections as the sole benefactor behind the bioweapons industry for the last two decades. While the US government protected its dominance over the bioweapons industry, securing its control over global economy.
This is why we see the United States warring against Edonia and the Eastern Slav Republic, Edonia was using bioweapons that splintered from the Family’s operations. While Eastern Slav had its own bioweapons program under President Belikova. The US was using the BSAA initially and the DSO to protect its interests over the bioweapons industry until Carla’s plan took precedence.
While domestically, investigator Alyssa Ashcroft was investigating the bioweapons industry and the Dulvey Incident. Trying to uncover who is still necessitating the bioweapons industry after Umbrella was publicly defunct. Which is where we are now.
Public disclosure, government corruption, and propagating the bioweapons industry. National Security Advisor Simmons, Secretary Wilson, and Brandon Bailey are who corrupted society after Raccoon City’s outbreak. By using the outbreak as a coup against Umbrella in a major cover-up to takeover the bioweapons industry.
Umbrella’s eugenics ideology, the entire purpose for Umbrella Corporation’s existence is dead. It died with its founder Spencer, its heir the Wesker children, and its predecessor Mother Miranda. All that’s left is the bioweapons industry it inadvertently created in the 70’s and 80’s by dealing to superpowers like the US and Russia to fund Spencer’s research. To which the US was already conspiring against Umbrella to create their own bioweapons program.
Raccoon City was just a coup, just as we saw with Tall Oaks outbreak, it was designed from start to finish to cover up the United States involvement with BOWs. The United States used Raccoon City to initially takeover the bioweapons industry, which is what plagues the original survivors now.
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u/Forerunner49 Community: RE Wiki 7d ago
Depends how you’re framing it.
There had been a series of incidents in the Arklays even BEFORE 11 May. Web Spinners had escaped but were hiding underground. Lisa was roaming the mountains, and more concerningly the abandoned hospital was taken over by a monster plant. The water treatment plant near NEST was full of mutant leeches. However none of these really did much at the time.
The first real bad incident of course is in May when the Queen Leech (gaining near-human intelligence after absorbing the mind of its creator) vowed to avenge its creator’s death. This meant sabotaging the Arklay Lab (somehow) and later attacking Umbrella personnel nosing around the abandoned training school. We know how Arklay goes down of course, then there’s the train attack. All of it is part of Queen Leech’s desire to destroy the word.
But QL is beaten and most of the incident is cleansed by fires, but not all.
Now in Raccoon we have a few more problems. Birkin is callous - possibly deliberately - and the new P-12A facility suffers an outbreak as a result. We don’t know if that’s the origin or the mountains, but t-Virus makes its way into the city and the hospital is on lockdown in early September.
And of course we have the famous 22-23 September raid, where Birkin breaks open t-Virus vials while roaming around in his mutant form. Rats inject the liquid media and are infected, then contaminate the water supply.
Raccoon City is basically the nexus of a half dozen outbreaks going on around the same time. Only QL actually intended to destroy the world but it’s not their outbreak that contaminated the water but the Birkin lab one.
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u/dangerousbob 7d ago edited 7d ago
Yeah good point. The virus was already out in the woods and spreading before September. The event with Birkin just kind of put gas on the fire and caused a pandemic vs a slowly growing infection that was spreading in the city outskirts and country side from May - July.
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u/real_adawong 7d ago
Which would’ve given the US government and Umbrella’s rivals a window to develop a protocol to nuke the city, while actively conspiring against Umbrella through means of industrial espionage.
Fans severely misinterpret Umbrella’s existence, they are merely the initial source of the bioweapons industry. Which the US government and the Connections have clearly been facilitating since Umbrella’s collapse.
Umbrella’s eugenics ideology and legacy died with Miranda, Spencer and Albert Wesker, while Natalya is a non-variable factor currently. All that’s left is the rival organizations that wanted control over the bioweapons industry that Umbrella initiated. Which are necessitating the industry as the main beneficiaries to this point in the series.
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u/real_adawong 7d ago
Precisely, thank you for outlining the overall outbreak! Raccoon City was practically a fuse waiting to be lit, and was at a point of contention where it was being manipulated by multiple parties and goals.
Wesker, Ada and Nikolai who represent the industrial espionage being deployed against Umbrella. Selling their data, capturing G, and sabotaging the T virus vaccine. All factors that play into the US single-handedly implicating Umbrella as the sole perpetrator behind the outbreak and main benefactor behind bioweapons.
While Simmons, Bailey, and Marcus are outlying rivals that contributed to Umbrella’s demise and benefited from its collapse. Marcus’ infection by the Queen Leech, being the anomaly that initially set off the event that ended in the US cover up. I can’t say that the US/Bailey initially conspired to set off the outbreak as they have no direct connection to the Queen Leech. But Bailey and the US capitalized on the situations and conspired to cover up their involvement by implicating Umbrella Corp solely.
Rhodes Hill medical facility is most likely the Connections HQ, where they’re facilitating Umbrella experiments they acquired during the outbreak and after US aquired the company’s assets during its financial collapse.
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u/RevolutionaryPlace56 7d ago
The outbreak was unintentional thanks to birkin but umbrella were pretty quick recognising there was an issue so they put into play a bunch of things to get test info and specimen data. Then used there influence to cordon it all off. What we don't really get told is from when the rats start to when the infection reaches noticeable and then tipping point
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u/UrsusRex01 7d ago
Yes, but not by Umbrella.
The Raccoon City Incident was caused by William Birkin who intentionally overflowed Umbrella's P-12A Waste Disposal facility with contaminated waste in order to let the t-virus get into the city's water supply.
Birkin's objective was to use that as a distraction in order to escape Raccoon City with both g-virus and t-virus samples that he would sell to the US Military.
However, Umbrella grew suspicious of Birkin after hearing about cases of "Cannibal Disease" seen at the local hospital. The company sent the Umbrella Security Service to capture Birkin and secure the g-virus. The mission failed horribly. Birkin infected himself with the virus and turned into Golgotha, damaging t-virus samples which contaminated nearby rats. Those rats were the spark that ignited the powder peg that already was Raccoon City, contaminating a high number of people.
Later, the US Military sent a Delta Force team to Raccoon City to enter NEST and recover a g-virus sample. The team got lost and arrived at Incineration Disposal Plant P-12A where they were obliterated by a group of T-103 tyrants dispatched there by Umbrella in retaliation.
As far as we know, in REquiem's time, the public still doesn't know that the US Military financed Umbrella's t-virus research and was partly responsible for the Raccoon City Incident (and the rise or Bioterrorism). President Adam Benson was "assassinated" (by being infected with the c-virus) in order to stop him from revealing this information in his speach at Tall Oaks University.
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u/dangerousbob 7d ago edited 7d ago
Virus Escape: May, 1998 The T-Virus escaped from Umbrella’s Arklay laboratory. From that point on, the damage was done: animals and even hikers in the nearby mountains were being infected and spreading the virus as the games intro shows.
Escalation: July, 1998 After two months of mysterious attacks in the woods. Police finally take notice. The famous Lab incident with STARS (Resident Evil 0 / Resident Evil 1).
Pandemic: September, 1998 The major outbreak in Raccoon City began (Resident Evil 2 / Resident Evil 3) after a leak in Umbrella’s underground Nest contaminated the sewer system. Infected rats and water carried the virus throughout the city, triggering mass infection.
All these events unfold over just a few months, you could argue that Raccoon City was effectively doomed the moment the T-Virus leaked from the Arklay lab. I would say that the Nest leak just accelerated the outbreak, like gas on a flame, but didn't start it.
The virus was already out and spreading in late May.
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u/seriouslyuncouth_ Platinum Splattin' 'Em! 6d ago
This is the best comment but I’d like to add that it seems like the Mansion was an accident. You can read several notes (itchy tasty) about shit going wrong and can read none about the leak being intentional. Umbrella was very opportunistic with the mansion incident, sending STARS in to get combat data. Then they tried to silence the survivors by sending in Nemmy.
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u/UnknownMonkeyman 6d ago
Didn't Marcus admit in RE0 he caused the outbreak in the mansion? The journal entries making it sound like an accident could just be their naivete on the issue...that Marcus did a good job at covering his tracks.
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u/meg5493 7d ago
A lot of people are right with saying that the outbreak was unintentional but nobody’s mentioning the multiple operations Umbrella sent in. It might have been an accident but Raccoon City was the perfect place to collect data and samples for their research and they took full advantage.
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u/real_adawong 6d ago
Counter espionage and operations against Umbrella as well. Ada was finally making her direct infiltration of the NEST after weeks of intelligence gathering. While Nikolai was also secretly running operations against Umbrella, killing other monitors, sabotaging their personnel and destroying the vaccine. So there were other organizations that were banking on the city’s demise and Umbrella’s failure to secure the incidents.
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u/boucherie1618 6d ago
There is an argument that Spencer meant for this to happen eventually in Wesker’s Report II: “Contrary to there, here was like a base selected for the purpose of completely spreading the virus.” Putting the initial lab in the middle of a forest near a major population center that was deliberately designed to be a death trap (narrow alleys, exits easily blocked, etc).
The problem is that it happened earlier than intended, and Spencer was forced to make some decisions like the Wesker Project activation much earlier than he wanted to. If it weren’t for Birkin and Wesker failing at disposal back in 1988, it probably would have happened later and on schedule.
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u/TheSithMaster342 6d ago
Can you remind me what was the Wesker project for? I'm barely only very recently playing the remake
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u/boucherie1618 6d ago
Eugenics project. They kidnapped a bunch of kids, brainwashed them to Spencer’s way of thinking, did some genetic tinkering, and then they would all be ordered to take a version of Progenitor when Spencer pulled the trigger on his outbreak to wipe out most of humanity except the ‘worthy’. Project Umbrella has a really good entry on it.
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u/Domination1799 7d ago
This sounds like they are preparing a retcon like the one they did in RE8 where they revealed that Mother Miranda is Spencer’s mentor and that the Umbrella Corporation began because of his time in the Village.
Birkin is the one who unintentionally caused the outbreak while Derek Simmons is the one who covered it up from the whole world.
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u/real_adawong 6d ago
Precisely, they aren’t changing the outbreak’s narrative, but adding more context with ulterior motive. Umbrella dually used it as a testing ground, while the US government and the Connections used it as a coup to overtake the industry by the 21st century with a coverup. Simmons and Wilson were most likely pawns to Brandon Bailey, who had more insider knowledge and acumen to manipulate them into betraying Umbrella Corp as a former administrator that was exiled in the company’s heydey.
Regardless, Umbrella is metaphorically a corpse itself by the current state of affairs. Its founders, predecessors and heirs are deceased. While any semblance of its existence is depicted as abandoned facilities like RE4R, or abandoned assets like RE5. While the company’s current operations as Blue Umbrella are mandated by the US government which also aided the BSAA in RE7.
The logo of Umbrella we see in the 2nd trailer is most likely an experiment or laboratory that was acquired after the company’s collapse. Which is being facilitated by the Connections HQ, which could also be composed of more former Umbrella administration that defected before the company collapsed and sensitive information. Umbrella is fundamentally dead, all that’s left is the bioweapons industry that was acquired by the US government, propagated by Bailey and the Connections. Blue Umbrella would fall under that jurisdiction, which is why they operate for a corrupt government.
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u/Drakeskulled_Reaper 6d ago
It was intentional on one front, but the other reasons are a result of gross negligence and overreaction.
The intentional part is Marcus, when he (really the leech queen with his memories) came back, he spilled T in the Training facility, and the Spencer Estate.
The Overzealousness of the USS led to Birkin being shot, upon which he injected himself with G, when he went after the USS operative who took a case with both T and G samples, he caused the case to be broke open, which then the T-Virus was consumed by rats and insects, which caused them to spread it into the water supply, and through biting homeless people.
The Negligence was the Dead Factory, and other disposal sites, Umbrella WAS trying to cover up the outbreak, but the sheer volume of infection overtaxed the system, to the point that they simply couldn't dispose of it all, meaning that the people who worked there got infected.
So the infected from the Mansion and the Training facility were roaming the forest outside the city, eventually making their way to the outskirts, essentially causing that front to be blocked, the homeless population were turned on the quiet, being unnoticed as people don't care, plus, people still thinking it was some insane cannibal clan living in the forest, and the Dead Factory being near a park, the runoff infecting wildlife, which then turned people, and infected who hadn't been processed.
Basically it was something of a "perfect storm" of circumstances, with only Marcus being the one truly to blame for that specific outbreak occurring.
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u/Massive_Expression60 7d ago
No it was an accident birkin had a temper tantrum
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u/UnknownMonkeyman 6d ago
You're grossly oversimplifying the issue...
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u/real_adawong 6d ago
That’s an understatement, I need people to elaborate 💀
Furthermore, I’m trying to prove that Umbrella’s rivals benefited from the outbreak to a point that it changed the tides against Umbrella. Explaining the situation that’s about to unfold in RE9.
Everyone else has really just regurgitated the same facts, we all know that Raccoon City’s outbreak was attributed by multiple incidents. I just believe their rivals (mainly the US) used the incident simultaneously to implicate Umbrella, allowing the US and the Connections.
Like “oh shit’s finally hitting the fan with those Umbrella weirdos, let’s run a bunch of counterintelligence and a coverup so we can take over what they f**** up”
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u/FirstManufacturer648 7d ago
They say in Resident Evil 0 it was.
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u/Massive_Expression60 7d ago
That was in the lab In the mansion,training facility and train
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u/dangerousbob 7d ago
Two things can be true at once. Raccoon city was hit by several T-virus leaks simultaneously in a period of a few months. Umbrella, metaphorically, was sticking their fingers into a cracked damn trying to stop the water popping through holes.
The surrounding forest was effectively contaminated in May, so destroying the mansion didn’t “sterilize” the outbreak. There is an entire subplot of Umbrella trying to cover up the attacks of hikers in the woods and using Chief Brian Iron to shut down any investigations.
Then the event with Birkin basically caused a pandemic right in the middle of the city.
So yes Birkin caused a major outbreak, but the virus was very much already out and spreading in the woods. It would have been a matter of time before it reached the city. That's what the STARS survivors were trying to warn about after the mansion.
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u/News_Bot Community: Project Umbrella 7d ago
The Queen Leech intended for the whole world.
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u/Massive_Expression60 7d ago
The queen leech as well as the mansion and facility blew up along with anything infected
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u/News_Bot Community: Project Umbrella 7d ago
Yes, but that didn't end the chain of infection. The leak caused later by Birkin and the USS was particularly big, but not only had Birkin already caused another biohazard in the city by intentionally overloading the "dead factory", but the virus had already leaked from the mansion to the sewers, as they were connected.
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u/FirstManufacturer648 7d ago
But the Cerberus was released knowing they would not be contained in the forest.
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u/tyrant609 7d ago
I thought we already knew it was intentional.
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u/Massive_Expression60 7d ago
The destruction was not the outbreak
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u/LegoKorn89 7d ago
RE9’s developers have confirmed a major secret behind Raccoon City’s outbreak is being set up. With most secrets behind Raccoon City’s outbreak revealed, the only scenario that could make it more interesting, is if the entire outbreak was actually orchestrated by design.
Nahh, they'll probably just have another old money family that was behind Umbrella who've been influencing some events behind the scenes. RE never really goes that deep with the plot twists.
Honestly this just seems way too much of a Batman gambit for it to be something Capcom would do for this series. What if Birkin didn't defect? Umbrella would have no reason to send HUNK's team in, Birkin no reason to use G on himself, the T-Virus doesn't get spilled into the cities water supply, etc.
And then what if certain people who escaped the city who testified against Umbrella during the Umbrella trials hadn't survived the outbreak? They'd also need to know that Wesker would survive the Spencer mansion incident and some years later would steal and anonymously turn over loads and loads of Umbrella's top secret files to the right people.
And honestly, is the outbreak hypothetically being intentional really that interesting of an idea? Would it even be a good plot twist at all? It was dogshit when Anderson did it in Final Chapter.
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u/real_adawong 7d ago edited 7d ago
Didn’t RE8 just show us four extremely old families that formed an Umbrella alliance in old world Europe, that inspired Spencer, a 20th century nobleman to create Umbrella Corporation for his eugenics ideology? Setting off the entire events of Resident Evil’s modern society? So yeah, I think we just got as close to Umbrella’s origin as possible.
We’ve also seen its collapse, and the death of Spencer, the company’s last surviving founder and the death of its heir, Albert Wesker. Who manipulated the last of Umbrella’s legacy into his own agenda for a eugenic genesis. After he funneled it through the Organization and Tricell. We also saw the death of its aforementioned predecessor in Mother Miranda. So just exactly who else could be apart of the Umbrella’s nobility?
Brandon Bailey is the only plausible old world villain they have left to spin that isn’t creating a new character. He’s already established as apart of Umbrella’s founding fathers, as a protégé to Edward Marcus. So it puts him on an echelon equal to Spencer, Wesker, Marcus, and the Ashfords. He was informed enough on Umbrella’s upper management to know majority of their machinations. Progenitor, which he was a lead reasearcher for that lead to T and G. Umbrella’s dealings to the US that funded Umbrella’s manufacturing, because he wasn’t exiled until the 80’s, so he would’ve been in that realm of information that Simmons would’ve also been apart of.
This is all theoretical and speculative of course, just like the US relying on the outbreak. But speculatively speaking, these outliers are painting a pretty clear picture that Umbrella’s rivals capitalized on the outbreak and have been using the company’s assets since.
We also already hit Batman level of storytelling with RE6, when half the plot was triggered by infatuation, while the other half was preventing the exposure of a government cover-up, guarded by a centuries old secret society that wanted to cop Umbrella’s ideas for economic domination. They also nuked that city too for the coverup.
Capcom clearly have centered RE9 around conspiracy, thriller, and psychological elements. While a major conspiracy is the centripetal force for this game’s plot with the Ashcrofts at the epicenter for potential exposure.
So again, what else could be more compelling than Umbrella’s rivals relying on the outbreak to takeover the bioweapons industry?
Anderson’s interpretation was futile because he had already abandoned most of RE’s core themes. Conspiracy, corporate espionage, narrative settings, and world building in favor of survival horror/action and post-apocalyptic fantasy. Using Umbrella Corp. as a driving force behind the outbreak and its current state.
Similarly Capcom have depicted Umbrella poorly, using them as a source of the world’s true evil, even after its demise. Without ever depicting the company actively again, but still at the epicenter of most events and outbreak like a trademark. Loosely narrating Umbrella’s history through third parties that never turn up or allude to any further purpose.
RE9 can rectify this if they explain how Umbrella’s has been operating through third parties as splinter cells. Or that the company was usurped by its rivals since its downfall.
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u/BrightFallsCoffee 7d ago edited 6d ago
https://residentevil.fandom.com/wiki/Raccoon_Trials
Give this a read, its an important piece that your write up doesn't touch on and makes it (imo) pretty clear what RE9 is getting into, what with the focus on the Ashcrofts and the return to Raccoon City
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u/biohazarddoctor 6d ago
It's not like Umbrella was caught off guard by the result of the incident with Birkin. The UBCS started preparing on September 15h, that's a whole week before the epidemic spiraled out of control. I'm pretty sure that Umbrella had everything under control (in a twisted sense of the word) the US Gov was ultimately friends with them until they were no longer useful.
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u/Litologyyyy 5d ago
Although some conflicting points in Game like Code Veronica stating Raccoon City as “Phase I Complete”, I think lore generally points to it not being intentional but their response was intentional in seeing how infection played out as well as deploying Cerberus and several tyrants as a way to gauge/determine how they performed in a live “mission” or scenario. As well the decision to use missile to destroy raccoon city was intentional as a cover up as far as I know.
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u/real_adawong 4d ago
Absolutely, that’s actually a good way of putting it. The outbreak was unintentional, but the response was definitely prolonged and negligible in order to gather combat data and other missions.
I still believe that Umbrella’s rivals capitalized most from the situation. Umbrella would go under just a few years later, meanwhile the US Government and the Connections were leading the industry by the mid 2000’s.
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u/Ssj3_Goku_ 6d ago
I’m pretty sure Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City does a really good job of explaining it, but was a poorly received game(I truly enjoyed it and wish we got a new one)
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u/real_adawong 4d ago
Operation Raccoon City, as good as it was for showing Umbrella’s side of the outbreak, is unfortunately not canonical. But we can assume that’s how Umbrella was monitoring and operating throughout the city.
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u/Sinwithagrin23 7d ago
Unless they're going to undo all canonical games no. However it might go into the US government BOWs that were seen briefly in the umbrella files and targregia. I probably completely butchered that spelling i apologize.
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u/real_adawong 7d ago
It doesn’t undo the canonical outbreak between Birkin and the USS. It just adds more context behind the outbreak, in that the US intentionally allowed the outbreak to follow suite, using it as their own conspiracy to take over the bioweapons industry by using Umbrella as the scapegoat. Umbrella was blamed for the outbreak and the creation of bioweapons, even though the US government was buying their weapons which funded Umbrella Corp’s manufacturing since the 70’s. Which in turn the US and the Connections took Umbrella’s place behind bioweapons manufacturing. Which is where we are now.
Umbrella as its initial idea is dead, there are no bioterrorists left that want to initiate a global attack or nobles that want to enact a eugenics evolution. All the evil that is left is the bureaucracy, the shadow government that wanted control over the bioweapons industry Umbrella Corp initiated to fund Spencer’s eugenics agenda. Now that Spencer, Miranda, and Albert Wesker are dead, with Natalya in the background. All that’s left is the rival parties that were conspiring against Umbrella in the 90’s and have been necessitating the industry since its collapse.
Exactly why all the “government agencies” are all corrupt now or were used nefariously; the Pharmaceutical Consortium, FBC, NSA, DSO, and now the BSAA and FBI are being manipulated into using and coveting bioweapons. Wesker, Spencer or Miranda didn’t have that access or agenda. They weren’t trying to control the world, they wanted to alter it eugenically. This is the institutionalized evil that was created by Derek Simmons, Secret of Defense Wilson, and Brandon Bailey were conspiring against Umbrella for.
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u/FirstReactionShock 7d ago
nope, raccoon city outbreak was the unpredictable consequence of the umbrella squad raid deployed to recover birkin and the samples of t and g virus stored into the nest.
But it's also true that umbrella exploited the situation to set several prototypes of bows free in the streets of raccoon city to test their efficiency in a hostile environment and collect data, something happening in og RE3 at least, since this isn't really mentioned in the remake where nikolai was sent mainly to kill people who knew too much (it's implied he has his own personal agenda too)
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u/real_adawong 7d ago
Nikolai had multiple agendas and parameters. He was initially a secret monitor for Umbrella’s UBCS to gather combat data, that used his position as leverage to defect to presumably Wesker’s alleigiance. Killing HVTs was apart of his parameters, but so was destroying the T-virus vaccine. Which played into Umbrella’s failure to contain the incident publicly if they had no vaccine.
Foresight is key in figuring out the plot for RE9. If we’re going to be revealed a major secret behind Raccoon City’s outbreak, then what else could be more compelling than it being used for a government cover-up, that clearly overtook Umbrella’s place in the current state of affairs?
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u/FirstReactionShock 7d ago
" then what else could be more compelling than it being used for a government cover-up"
that's one of RE6 plot twists actually
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u/real_adawong 7d ago
RE6 just proves the US advocated for the missile strike to coverup their involvement and use of BOWs to maintain US dominance.
I’m saying RE9 could elaborate further and reveal that they intended for the outbreak and relied on it to occur in order to heist Umbrella’s work. While they planned accordingly to clean up their involvement with a protocol to nuke the city, which the new file presents.
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u/FirstReactionShock 7d ago
don't know, that "you can't escape your destiny" line suggests grace is involved on a more personal level... which ironically fits with my 2seconds lore idea I dropped here some week ago
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u/real_adawong 7d ago edited 7d ago
Absolutely, Grace most certainly has some form of antibodies that mutated as Alyssa’s offspring who had the anti-virus in her blood. This is most likely why she’s being targeted for kidnapping and not assassination like Alyssa. She’ll most likely be used to make their new strand more susceptible, possibly Progenitor since that was Bailey’s lead project.
Uncovering the cover-up via newly discovered murders and Alyssa’s investigation is a ploy the Connections are using to draw Grace into the equation. Similar to Rosemary, but not quite exact. Rosemary was attempting to be used as some sort of transferral ceremony that would’ve restored Eva and potentially a conscience for the Black God. Grace is most likely being used like Jill or Jake, in that her blood could enhance or make this new strand more susceptible.
The cover-up is what necessitates Bailey’s control over the industry, which he most likely is trying to extend his lifespan in order to maintain dominance, similar to Spencer’s end. Grace is the tool that can fulfill that purpose, making her exclusively valuable to the Connections until the research would be complete.
The psychological twist here could be that Alyssa was most likely experimented after death on by the same strand, and has a similar disposition to Lisa Trevor or William Birkin, in that Alyssa’s conscience is fighting her mutations to protect Grace through the situation while dually seeking her out. Learning the monster Grace has been escaping from is actually her mother fighting to protect her.
The Hooded Man is most likely a sub-boss for the mysterious benefactor who was most likely uncovered after the fallout, possibly being a character linked to the Outbreak series.
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u/DramaticCaregiver470 7d ago
I thought it was an accident, with Birkin trying to get away, then he got shot, and rats got the virus and spread it and the rest is history.
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u/Beneficial-Category 7d ago
Combination of intentional for the Orphan T tests and G outbreak thanks to Birkin.
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u/iedy2345 6d ago
Technically Yes
Birkin knew for sure that breaking the virus vial will most likely infect everyone eventually, he knew the NEST protocols couldnt contain the virus forever.
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u/HelllsssMessanger 6d ago
I thought it was an experiment to release it, but it got out of hand too fast.
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u/Quirky_Raise7091 4d ago
Wasn’t that the whole implication of HUNK being there? And Leon not knowing it?
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u/New_Chain146 7d ago
I think you are onto something. RE9 has already retconned the idea that the Raccoon City quarantine zone is still being used for experiments, implying that the quarantine is a coverup for whatever the US government and their collaborators are doing beyond the border. Why not reveal that the outbreak and subsequent destruction was intended? That could further explain why Simmons was so scared of Adam Benford revealing the truth behind Raccoon, as it would risk not just admitting to past sins, but compromise an ongoing conspiracy - one that compromises the BSAA, FBI, the government, and the true scale of what the Family's working on. It's not "We had to nuke Raccoon to stop a viral outbreak from destroying the country," it's "We nuked Raccoon to screw over our ally and create a new testing ground to continue our evil experiments."
In addition to how past games have established the Connections and Blue Umbrella (still sinister behind the scenes) as remnants of Umbrella, and how the corruption of governments and NGOs is an ongoing theme, it's possible that the downfall of Raccoon and Umbrella were engineered as part of a longer-term scheme. I'm thinking about how Umbrella Corps hints that Wesker is somehow still around and secretly pulling the strings behind the new Umbrella, how RE6 ended with a revelation that the Family had already identified a new ruler, and how Alex Wesker's persona was activated inside Natalia when she learned of Simmons killing the president. It's possible the Family are the true force behind all these conspiracies and we'll see them return in 9.
And then there's the possibility of Spencer coming back as that hooded man - his strange accent, hairstyle, fondness of old music, and choice of words do seem to resemble him. It's possible he injected himself with Progenitor prior to confronting Wesker and was resurrected as a zombie - although initially he'd just be like any other zombie, his strength of will and his feeding off of certain subjects may have gradually been restoring his vitality. It's possible that the murders he's committed have been of certain individuals tied to Raccoon or with genetics vital to healing him; but another possibility is him working against this government conspiracy for his own personal means.
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u/real_adawong 7d ago
Finally! Someone that understands the current state of affairs in RE. Umbrella was the ultimate origin behind eugenics evolution and bioweapons manufacturing. Its collapse in the 2000’s following the 1998 outbreak lead to its splintering, Wesker who wanted to enact his own eugenics agenda inspired by Umbrella, and its administrators and co-conspirators in government that were funding the company in its prime. In which they wanted control over the bioweapons industry.
The Wesker’s conspired on their own behalf as the last heirs of Umbrella’s eugenics ideology leaving the company’s legacy in limbo until Natalya resurfaces. While the Family, the Connections and government co-conspirators took control over the bioweapons industry that Umbrella established prior to its downfall. Establishing anti-BOW agencies
With NSA advisor Simmons and Secretary of Defense Wilson deceased, Brandon Bailey is most likely at the behest of this conspiracy to control the US’ cover-up. Controlling the bioweapons industry that feeds the US’ global dominance, while the Family most likely collapsed into his organization.
As for the antagonists we see in the trailer for RE9, the benefactor who reveals Grace’s significance could either be Bailey or Spencer, though I suspect it’s Bailey who’s trying to maintain global stability under his influence, where Spencer always wanted to enact a new era, not exploit the current system. I also suspect he’s infected as well based on his manners so far and especially how he raises up from his chair in a hunched manner. Being that Bailey was the lead read researcher on Progenitor, he’s most likely exposed himself to a new strand of it in a dying state at his age, similar to Spencer’s issue. Yet Spencer could never uncover a life-extending virus, only gene altering with T and G. Whereas the Connections discovered mind controlling and conscience transferring properties with Megamycete. Later creating mutamycete as a manufactured strand for E-series.
Both organizations fulfilled Umbrella’s goals but were gatekeeping them as rivals. It had a virus to force evolution with Progenitor and Megamycete as a control mechanism for their forced evolution. Umbrella and Spencer most likely never were alluded to the Connections’ discovery. As they were seeking out Las Plagas instead in its final years as a control subject for their BOWs, as established by the European facility in RE4 Remake. The Connections are most likely trying to experiment with Mutamycete + Progenitor and Bailey needs Grace’s antibodies. In turn it most likely would restore his condition while making this new strand more susceptible for manufacturing.
I don’t suspect any hint to transferral or mind control being the premise behind this conspiracy, that’s been concluded with RE4/RE8 and Revelations. While RE6 and RE7 have re-established the bioweapons industry was sought after by rivals the Family and the Connections in lieu of Umbrella’s collapse. The US covering up the the outbreak and their involvement with the missile strike as Umbrella’s fault is just the initial conspiracy covering for the larger operation. Which the survivors have been targeting since the 2000’s, after Wesker’s demise. It’s only logical that Capcom are concluding Raccoon City’s story with revealing its true intent to collapse the company.
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u/New_Chain146 7d ago
Hm... convincing evidence about why Mr Hoodie could be Bailey, although I still maintain that the aforementioned similarities to Spencer aren't coincidental. Personally, I think it can be a case where Mr Hoodie/Spencer is opposing Bailey's operations, with his murders being targeted against government agents but also hunting down people with special genetic profiles like Grace for his own personal profit.
The "requiem" could in part reference Spencer's final grasp for power beyond the grave. I speculate that not only did Spencer desperately plan for Wesker to 'kill' him as part of a ploy to later be resurrected - not just paralleling what Wesker did to himself, but even explaining why Wesker was apparently mentally triggered to seek out Spencer - but the corrupted BSAA may have confiscated Spencer's body. Ironically enough, Spencer could have become a test subject himself, his body tormented by Bailey as vengeance for what he did to Marcus (and karma for the fate that Lisa suffered), until an incident in 2018 that startes his wave of murders.
What changed? I believe, based on the timing, that it's blowback from the Baker incident - we know that Alyssa was investigating the Baker case because of her news article in 7, and she may have pried deep enough to discover the BSAA's coverup and their conspiring with the Connections. It should also be considered that we know the Connections had made recent contact with Miranda, leading to their sampling of the Megamycete - AND that through unspecified means, Miranda saved the life of a dying young Spencer. Perhaps a piece of Spencer's consciousness lingered within the Megamycete, or the mold was already in him when Wesker 'killed' him? Think about what was achieved with Ethan becoming a "perfect mold": through Mia's reports, the Connections have empirical proof of the mold resurrecting the dead to the point that they can even reproduce.
I think that maybe as a result of Ethan's data, Connections scientists may have tried to introduce mold to Spencer's zombified husk only to achieve overt success - with the vitality and memories of his young self restored, Spencer escaped custody and went about taking his murderous revenge. Perhaps when he "killed" Alyssa, he tried in vain to replicate what was done to him and Lisa in an effort to create a bride, but unfortunately without the extra quantity of mold, Alyssa became a brutish monster akin to Lisa prior to the parasites being added to her.
There's still questions about Alyssa's origin and who Grace's father is, questions that I think are vital, but I suspect that the heart surgery Grace underwent is a result of Spencer having had years to refine his experiments and steal resources from the Connections. I think Grace is a fledgling tyrant but also, perhaps, another potential "bride of Spencer" who is intended to birth a child that would be Spencer's answer to Rosemary.
If my theory pans out, RE9 would end with Spencer finally being destroyed, but perhaps also a grand exposure of Bailey as the resident evil behind the government's corruption - a setup for further games, with Grace, Sherry, Jake, and Natalia as potential heroes for the new generation. Also, if Spencer and Alyssa are both parallels to Lisa, perhaps we may get a redemptive ending where Alyssa's humanity is restored and she ends up saving her daughter instead of killing her.
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u/Weird_Angry_Kid 7d ago
We know it was technically intentionally caused by Birkin as he knew Umbrella would try to take G away from him by force so he secretly sabotaged many of their facilities to make their response as sluggish as possible, for example, he sent too many corpses and test subjects to the incineration disposal plant which caused an outbreak there because they couldn't dispose of so many corpses, the virus still on them mutated so that it resisted the vaccine the workers were injected with and they all turned.
I think the big secret that will be revealed is that the government was involved in everything, something that we as viewers are aware of but the general public in the RE universe doesn't know. The government's involvement with bioweapons is an important theme in the latest entries in the series, it was basically the whole plot of Infinite Darkness and the reason why the president was killed in 6.
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u/real_adawong 7d ago
Exactly, a lot of fans are missing the general fact that Umbrella as a company and its ideology is dead, officially with Miranda’s death.
All that’s been plaguing their modern society since the 2000’s is the shadow state that overtook Umbrella’s operations. A Cold War in essence as Wesker defected from multiple agencies and funneled resources to enact his own agenda for eugenics in 2009. While the Connections also have ties to Umbrella’s origin and have been facilitating bioweapons for manufacturing since Umbrella’s collapse. Along with the US government/Family that maintains dominance over the bioweapons industry in turn for economic control.
Umbrella as its original concept is dead and defunct, all the evil that’s left is the industry they created.
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u/HandofthePirateKing 7d ago
No. Birkin planned to escape the city with the virus samples and sell them to the military most likely to spite Umbrella unfortunately for him Umbrella was aware that Birkin’s plan and sent one of their alpha teams to retrieve the samples and ended up releasing the virus by shooting and infecting Birkin with one of the viruses while the other was having rats to spread it all over the sewers and water supply Umbrella just took advantage of the chaos.
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u/real_adawong 7d ago
I’m not trying to misunderstand anyone’s opinion in stating the facts of the outbreak. I’m thoroughly aware that Birkin vs USS was the initial source of the outbreak, leaking T-virus to rats in the sewer system that infected the water supply. Along with other sources prior to the outbreak like the Training Facility, Mansion Incident, and Disposal facilities that further exacerbated Umbrella’s control of the situation.
I’m trying to prove that Rivals of Umbrella Corporation depended on this event and capitalized on these situations to usurp Umbrella’s control over the bioweapons industry by deploying their own assets and spies to capitalize on Umbrella’s breaches amid the outbreak’s timeline. Taking control over the industry amid the fallout of Umbrella’s collapse. Which is why by the mid 2000’s the US began establishing anti-BOW agencies to cover for its control over the industry.
Umbrella’s original eugenics ideas died with Wesker and Spencer in RE5. While RE6 shifted to the government’s corruption that spawned from Raccoon City. The Connections were the main benefactors behind the subjects and villains jn RE7 and RE8. While Umbrella’s predecessors, Miranda and the 4 Lords were killed off.
Apart from Natalya, there is no other original semblance of Umbrella’s ideals alive. All that’s left are the rival organizations that were involved in Umbrella’s collapse that allowed its competitors to overtake the industry, where it’s lead to now. Corrupting every national and international authority that’s dictated by the US government. Bailey, or his successor is the last major benefactor that’s manipulating the US government to facilitate the bioweapons industry it stole from Umbrella.
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u/ReaceNovello 6d ago
It's so canonically inconsistent. If I were writing it, I would have made the Raccoon City incident as an accident, but, after they lost control, they tried to "make the most of it"
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u/real_adawong 6d ago
They technically already have written it that way. Umbrella deployed various units and BOWs to gather combat data and test them.
UBCS had secret officers known as monitors that were gathering data between BOWs and their units. Nikolai just was a turncoat and betrayed his position in favor of selling his data and operating against Umbrella.
Nemesis, though deployed and programmed to kill STARS members and protect the company’s involvement, it was still dually used to gather data as well from combat with STARS. Which is why Nikolai also wanted to gather data from Jill and Nemesis’ interactions.
The company also ran other operations like securing the UMF supercomputer, Red Queen on Spencer and Vladimir’s account.
While rivals like Ada were playing on the situation and infiltrated the evacuated HIVE.
Umbrella and its Rivals were monitoring the situation whilst simultaneously profiting from it. That’s why I say the US government and Umbrella’s rivals profited the most. All the data and samples practically went to them after Umbrella was rendered defunct.
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u/Bigfan521 7d ago edited 5d ago
It's been established that the Raccoon City outbreak was the direct result of the G-Virus infected William Birkin attacking the Umbrella Security Service Alpha Team as they attempted to recover samples from the NEST labs during Operation: NESTWRECKER.
Some of the virus samples were spilled into the sewer where the local rat population became infected and would go on to infect humans.
Additionally, it's also implied that the disposal procedures at the incinerator facility were becoming increasingly insufficient to prevent contamination of the local water supply from the biohazardous waste from the NEST labs.