Albert Wesker

Albert Wesker is the diabolical former leader of the S.T.A.R.S. team and the main antagonist of the Resident Evil video games.

Early Life
Albert Wesker was born to parents who possessed genes intellectually superior to others. He and a dozen other children were raised as the “Wesker children”, a project by the Umbrella Corporation, which gave Albert his surname. He demonstrated even greater promise than the others, which greatly pleased Ozwell E. Spencer, Umbrella’s president, who saw that the boy had what his children needed. Albert became one of Umbrella’s employees at age 17 and became a promising member of the corporation, under the watchful eye of Spencer, unaware of the president’s true intentions or his origins. Wesker became a researcher at the Management Training Facility under Dr. James Marcus in 1977. While there, he befriended William Birkin, another trainee who would also be his rival, and the pair acted as comrades and accomplices for years afterwards. Marcus found Wesker and Birkin to be his two best apprentices and the two were some of the few people he trusted. When the Training Facility was shut down, the two were transferred to the research facility in the Arklay Mountains where they continued research on the tyrant virus for 13 years. Wesker and Birkin went though 3 stages of the T-Virus during their research finally culminating the third stage, the Tyrant, in 1988. The two then received orders to eliminate Dr. James Marcus and steal his research on the T-Virus. Later, when Spencer approved Birkin’s research into the G-Virus in 1991, Wesker began to have his doubts about the president’s intentions and requested to be transferred into Umbrella’s Intelligence Bureau.

Traitor of the S.T.A.R.S.
Five years later, Wesker joined a newly founded branch of the Raccoon City Police Department (whom he decided to call the "Special Tactics and Resue Squad". or "S.T.A.R.S for short.) He acted as a double agent for Umbrella, giving them information on any police investigations, so that their illegal actions would not be discovered. In 1998, a series of cannibalistic homicides were springing up in the Arklay Mountains, which were originally thought to be the work of a cult. However Wesker and Umbrella knew that this was really the sign of a T-virus outbreak. Though originally ordered by Umbrella to keep the S.T.A.R.S. team out of the situation public outcry forced Wesker to send them in. Then new orders were given, dispatch S.T.A.R.S. to the outbreak area and use them as test subjects against the B.O.W.s. Wesker first sent in the Bravo Team and he and Birkin were then ordered to retake control of the Umbrella Training Facility. Realizing this was impossible thanks to the resurrected James Marcus, Wesker decided to destroy the facility and came to the realization that this was the perfect time to leave Umbrella and pursue his own interests. He encountered and destroyed the failure experiment, the T-001, before running into Sergei Vladimir, head of Umbrella’s paramilitary organizations and Spencer’s trusted colonel. He reminded Wesker that his mission was to reclaim the facility, though Wesker pointed out that the T-Virus outbreak had infected too much of the area and that he intended to destroy the facility, since it no longer had any use. Sergei reminded Wesker that he wasn’t the one in charge and that he couldn’t just do what he wanted. He then ordered his Ivan Tyrant to attack Wesker, who battled the B.O.W. quite happily, seeing it as a chance for some real entertainment. During the fight, the explosions in the facility began to go off, allowing Wesker to take his leave. The next day, all contact with the Bravo Team had been lost and so Wesker sent in the Alpha Team. Upon arriving at the location, they were attacked by a pack of Cerberus (dogs infected with the T-Virus) and found themselves abandoned by their pilot, Brad Vickers. They were forced to retreat into a nearby mansion, the one where Wesker had previously worked. After ordering everyone to split up, Wesker disappeared and left the survivors, Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, and Barry Burton, to fend for themselves. There were only six S.T.A.R.S members remaining at this point, consisting of the surviving members of Alpha Team and the last two Bravo Team members, Rebecca Chambers and Enrico Marini. To ensure his success, Wesker got Barry to follow his commands by threatening his family. However Jill found Enrico, who had discovered what was going on, but before he could compromise Wesker’s operation, Wesker killed him. Despite this Chris and Jill eventually managed to learn the truth and destroyed the T-002 Tyrant, along with the facility. However, unknown to everyone else, Wesker had injected an experimental virus into himself that he had obtained from William Birkin.

He allowed the tyrant to seemingly kill him and, when everyone was gone, the virus reanimated him, giving him superhuman strength, agility, speed, and regeneration. However the virus resulted in the loss of most of Wesker’s humanity, turning his eyes a burning color with cat-like slits for pupils. Upon his reanimation, he realized his tyrant had been destroyed and attempted to steal the data from the facility. But Wesker found that the data had been transferred to the base in Russia and that he had been locked out by the advanced computer program, the Red Queen. Swearing vengeance on S.T.A.R.S. and the Red Queen, Wesker made his escape from the facility, sweeping aside the remaining B.O.W.S. without much effort, marveling at his new powers. However as he was escaping, Wesker found himself pursued by Lisa Trevor, who seemed determined to destroy the man who had experimented on her and deformed her. Noting how she seemed almost invincible after he emptied all his weapons into her, Wesker used his new abilities to shoot down a chandelier onto Lisa, finally putting her to rest.

Raccoon City Outbreak
Though much of his plot had failed, Wesker still managed to find a high-ranking position in one of Umbrella’s mysterious rivals “The Organization”. Deciding to maintain his illusion of death, Wesker operated through spies and the Organization. When the T-Virus outbreak hit Raccoon City, he sent in a spy, Ada Wong, to retrieve a sample of Birkin’s G-Virus. She was successful, much to Wesker and the Organization’s pleasure.

Rockfort Island/Antarctic Lab Incident
Wesker led an assault by the H.C.F, a heavily armed assault team, in an attack on the Umbrella facility on Rockfort Island, releasing the T-Virus in the process. The intent was to gain a sample of the T-Veronica virus, the creation of Alexia Ashford. With the T-Virus contaminating the area and the B.O.W.s released from containment, Wesker was easily able to move throughout the facility freely and look for his objective. However he and his men found no sign of Alexia Ashford, who was the only known person to host the virus. Wesker set out to find the Antarctic Facility, which had also suffered a T-virus outbreak from the employees who fled there from the Rockfort Facility. While there, Wesker ran into his old subordinate, Chris Redfield, who had come looking for his sister Claire. After attempting to force Alexia to surrender a T-Veronica virus sample, he was driven back by Alexia’s own abilities. Wesker then left Chris to take care of Alexia and succeeded in securing a sample of the virus from the body of Steve Burnside. After the base started its self-destruct sequence, Wesker captured Claire so as to force Chris to fight him. While he managed to dominate the battle with his superhuman abilities, Chris refused to give him an easy kill. Wesker was about to strike him down when an explosion sent a flaming pillar between them. He stated that Chris was lucky and that next time, luck would not be enough to save him. Wesker escaped into an Organization Submarine and it wouldn’t be until 8 years later, he and Chris would meet again.

Business with Javier Hidalgo
Four years later, Wesker received a contact from Javier Hidalgo, who was leader of a South American drug cartel, “The Sacred Snakes”. Javier’s wife, Hilda, had contracted a fatal disease ten years before and a former Umbrella researcher had supplied him with T-Virus to help her. Now his daughter, Manuela, had contracted the same disease and Javier wanted Wesker’s help. In exchange for a large sum of money and a share in his dealings, Javier was supplied with T-Veronica virus, as well as specific instructions on how to use it. Wesker later watched Javier’s mutated body fall through binoculars after he mutated himself and was killed by Leon S. Kennedy and Jack Krauser.

Russian Facility Incident
One year later, Wesker infiltrated the Umbrella Facility in Russia while Chris and Jill were launching an assault on it in order to destroy the new B.O.W., T.A.L.O.S. Wesker fought his way through the sub-levels until he finally confronted Sergei Vladimir again, who ordered his two Ivan Tyrants to kill Wesker. With his new superhuman abilities, he defeated the two Ivans without much effort and continued into the facility, eventually ending up in the Red Queen control room. While Jill and Chris fought and destroyed T.A.L.O.S., Wesker took on Sergei, who mutated himself with the T-Virus. He then downloaded the files form the Red Queen, before deleting the computer’s memory. Shortly afterwards, Wesker presented strong evidence against Umbrella in court, claiming he was a personal friend of the CEO, insuring the company was shut down. With all the information he needed at hand, Wesker swore that he and Spencer would meet again and that he would be the one to usher in a new future.

Joining with Tricell
Wesker later contacted Tricell, another pharmaceutical company, who generously compensated him for all of Umbrella’s information. He then secretly began working with them and began further, independent work that he kept secret from the Organization. One person who caught Wesker’s interest was Excella Gionne, a Tricell employee and a descendant of the company’s original founders, thanks to her intellect and ambition, very much like his own. After deciding she could prove to be a valuable asset, Wesker helped Excella to climb up Tricell’s corporate ladder. She was also intrigued by Wesker to the point where she was romantically attracted to him. He didn’t return these feelings due to his callous personality, but he didn’t let Excella know this so as to keep her on his side.

Stealing Las Plagas
After Umbrella’s fall, Wesker began creating a new Umbrella using the information he had retrieved from Umbrella’s Caucasus Facility. But to bring it to fruition, he was going to need a great deal of resources and wealth, so he began selling samples of Umbrella’s viruses to their competitors. He kept his plans secret to his superiors in the Organization, but they had begun to grow suspicious of Wesker’s actions. Tricell had recently become interested in the newly discovered Las Plagas parasite and sought to acquire an advanced Control Plaga, which had been developed by Osmund Saddler. Wesker struck a deal with them and sent in his old subordinate, Ada Wong to steal a sample, while he monitored her with a digital video feed, contacting her for reports and information and to give her new orders. Because of the deadline they were on, Wesker sent in his new recruit, Jack Krauser to help her. It is unknown if he trusted one more than the other, but viewed them simply as expendable pawns. Eventually Ada returned successful but double crossed Wesker, giving him a modified Subordinate Plaga while sending the real one to the Organization. This only stalled his plans slightly since Tricell still gave him great compensation for this different sample. Wesker left the Organization soon afterwards, easily managing to hide from them since he had been doing it for years from Umbrella.

Final Meeting with Spencer
Wesker had everything he needed, money, resources, and a sample of every parasitic and viral agent in the world. However, he still wanted to know why Spencer had created the B.O.W.s and fortunately for him, he caught a leak of information as to Spencer’s whereabouts.

Wesker headed there on one stormy night in Autumn and slaughtered his former employer’s bodyguards, before confronting Spencer himself. He expected this to surprise Umbrella’s CEO, but the old man actually expected to see him. It was then that Wesker realized Spencer had arranged for the information leak and had wanted this meeting. In fact he had controlled everything from the start, including Wesker’s actions. Spencer revealed that the reason he had created B.O.W.s was to force humanity to evolve through viruses, creating a superior human race with himself as its god. Spencer had needed three things to accomplish this, the Progenitor virus as a primary viral base, the Umbrella corporation for funds, and people who would share his ideals. Much to Wesker’s surprise, he had been born from that third need.

In what was known as the Wesker Plan, Spencer had gathered hundreds of children born of parents with superior intellect. The children’s surnames all became Wesker, named for the chief researcher of the project and, through indoctrination and manipulation, Spencer installed his values them. Afterwards each child was placed in controlled environments all around the world with Umbrella watching over them, who also saw to it each received a high-class education. One of them eventually was sent to the Umbrella training facility, Albert Wesker. Spencer then saw to it each children was given an experimental virus, in Albert’s case it was the virus he got from Birkin. However, he was the only one to survive it. But now that Wesker knew this, he also knew that the only thing preventing him from ascending to the level of a god was a dying old man. He killed his “creator” by driving his arm through Spencer’s chest and let his bleeding body topple to the floor. Wesker then pondered on how arrogant Spencer had been, to think an old man could become a god. He then stated that only one with the capability of becoming a god had the right to be one. Wesker then decided that a pharmaceutical company could not bring him the godly power he desired and to carry on his former master’s dream of creating a world with a superior breed of humans. Wesker was then confronted by his old enemies, Jill and Chris, who had learned of Spencer’s location and hoped he could lead them to their former leader, but instead found Spencer dead and Wesker smiling over his body. He took their appearance as a sign, “The weak would always resist the will of the Chosen”. A fight ensued with Wesker easily evaded their gunfire and then beating them around using his powers. In the fight, he knocked Jill away after she attempted to pull a knife on him and was about to finally finish off his most hated enemy enemy, Chris. However Jill threw herself at Wesker and knocked them both of them out of the window they were in front of into a chasm below. Though declared dead, they both survived and Jill was placed in cryogenic sleep by Wesker, who intended to use her against Chris.

Uruboros
Wesker worked with Tricell again and formed a complete partnership with Excella, who came to share his vision of a new world. With his help, she continued to rise to more and more powerful positions in Tricell eventually becoming CEO of the Africa Division. They reopened the abandoned Africa Research Center of Umbrella and found the source of the Progenitor virus. With all of the viral agents at his command, Wesker created the most powerful of all, the Uruboros virus. At first the virus proved deadly to any human, but he found a way to counter this through Jill. After becoming briefly infected by the T-Virus, Jill had developed powerful antibodies that Wesker used to perfect Uruboros. He then commissioned a Tricell tanker within which he placed a specialized stealth bomber. With use of the newly created chemical, P30, Wesker placed a device on Jill’s chest that would continuously pump it into her system, bending her to his will and enhancing her abilities, creating a perfect asset to assist him and a form of revenge against Chris. Wesker began placing Uruboros virus into missiles so that he could release them into the planet’s atmosphere. He and Excella then placed Las Plagas into the residents of Kijuju, bringing them under their control. Everything seemed perfect for Wesker until Chris, along with another B.S.A.A. agent, Sheva Alomar, showed up to investigate what was going on. After the two took out Ricardo Irving, who sold B.O.W.s on the black market and was presumably the one who supplied Wesker and Excella with Las Plagas, they pursued a disguised Jill. When she reported Chris and Sheva’s arrival in their facility, Excella stated that she “sensed concern” from Wesker, but he simply stated that he was not going to accept failure at this stage of the plan. While Excella and Jill went to deal with Chris and Sheva, Wesker thanked Spencer for providing him with a greater vision for the future and the means of becoming the god that Spencer never could be. He then went to the Monarch room to prepare for his upcoming confrontation with Chris. After sending one of Tricell’s advanced Uruboros mutants against their enemies, Excella and Jill joined him. Upon Chris and Sheeva’s arrival, they were attacked by and fought against the cloaked person they had been pursuing, only for Wesker to appear. He called this “one big family reunion” and that Chris should be “happier to see us.”

Wesker then revealed that the hooded woman was Jill and the four engaged in a two on two fight while Excella went to prepare the tanker. After his spare time was expended Wesker left Chris and Sheva to Jill, but the two managed to free Jill by pulling the device off her chest. With Excella finally having outlived her usefulness, Wesker infected her with Uruboros, which killed her, and left her on the deck of the ship. This resulted in an enormous monstrosity after it absorbed dead bodies scattered across the deck. Chris and Sheva managed to destroy it and were then informed by Jill that Wesker needed to inject a special serum into himself so as to keep the virus inside him stable. However this dosage needed to be exact so if there was too much in his system at once, Wesker would weaken. Sheva had managed to get vials of the serum in an earlier encounter with Excella and so she and Chris pursued Wesker into the hold of the tanker, where they realized his plan to use the stealth bomber to release Uruboros into the atmosphere. They engaged Wesker in a final confrontation, gaining an advantage by turning off the lights around the platform they were fighting on. By working together Chris and Sheva manage to inject some of the serum into Wesker’s neck. Though he was weakened, he was far from out and attempted to flee using his jet, only for Chris and Sheva to board as well just before takeoff. As the jet continued to gain altitude, Wesker continued to fight them, only to get injected again by Chris, who called him, “another Umbrella reject.” and opened the bomber’s underside hatch. The lost of pressure caused the jet to crash into an active volcano. By some miracle, they all survived and Wesker stated that he should have finished Chris years ago. Chris replied by telling him that it was his mistake and that his plans were over, only for Wesker to chuckle menacingly and say “Over? I’m just getting started!”

He turned to an Uruboros missile and punched into it, absorbing his creation into him, yet maintaining control of the infection it caused. The tendrils wrapped around several metal shards and gave him a powerful tentacle like appendage to swipe with. Wesker proceeded to attack Chris and Sheva, all the while ranting on about natural selection, superior DNA, and his loathing of the current state of the human race. It was clear that his calm, refined, and collected exterior was gone, along with what remained of his sanity. As the fight went on, Wesker’s other arm succumbed to the Uruboros, but he managed to keep the rest of himself intact. Finally the fight ended up on the last platform on the lava river and Wesker roared Chris’s name, then entered the final battle. But Chris and Sheva managed to stab him from both sides of his one weakpoint and the ground gave way beneath him, dropping him into the lava. Chris and Sheva managed to grab onto a ladder from a helicopter piloted by Josh Stone and Jill. Refusing to accept death and obsessed with finally killing Chris, Wesker grabbed the helicopter with his tentacles, determined to take them down with him. But Chris and Sheva fired a pair of RPG’s at him that went right through his head, sending up a wave of lava that consumed Wesker’s body. Finally the malicious mastermind that had been so hellbent on world domination had been destroyed.

Personality
Albert Wesker is power-hungry, cunning and manipulative and seeks power and dominance over everything. He is a Machiavellian schemer, constantly plotting to achieve his own goals and everything he does is meant to serve his purposes. Wesker works constantly behind the scenes, often using others to do his dirty work for him. He maintains a calm and collected manner most of the time and is always looking to payback anyone who wrongs him. Wesker is able to manipulate others to work for him, but doesn't care for anyone except himself. He believes that he is destined to be the god of a new world, one that he would create by purifying it.

Abilities
Thanks to his injecting himself with that experimental virus, Wesker has superhuman strenth, reflexes, speed, and agility and seems to take great pleasure in demonstrating his power so as to intimidate his foes. Wesker's speed and reflexes are perhaps his most notable abilities since they allow him to dodge bullets at almost point blank range, perform short dashes of speed faster than the brain could comprehend, giving him the appearance of teleporting, and leap great heights. Wesker's strength is so much so that he can throw large missiles with one hand, lift steel girders off his body, and kill a chimera B.O.W. with one strike. However, his own serum proves to be his biggest weakness, as overdoses of it weaken him significantly.

The injection also resulted in his developing of a rapid healing factor that, when combined with his great endurance, makes him almost invincible. A rocket exploding in his hands only incapacitated Wesker for a moment, thousands of pounds of steel falling on him from a few stories dazed him from a few seconds, and he quickly healed from his face getting hideously burned.

Despite Wesker mainly relying on his physical abilities, he is a skilled gunman from his days as a S.T.A.R.S. member and keeps his Samurai Edge pistol holstered with him at all times, since Wesker never, never, lets his guard down.

Trivia

 * Wesker has the most appearances throughout the Resident Evil series, appearing in 7 games in total.
 * IGN cited Wesker as number three on their Top 10 Most Memorable Villains, saying that "Res Evil fans know that when Wesker shows up, trouble isn't far behind."
 * In one of the endings in Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, Wesker's eyes are seen as the normal blue instead of burning with cat like slits, though this may be a production error.
 * In Resident Evil 5: The Mercenaries and the Versus Mode, Wesker had a move called "Tiger Uppercut", named after a move used by Sagat, as well as one called the "Jaguar Kick", named after one used by Sagat's apprentice, Adon, who are both from another popular Capcom series, Street Fighter.