Chris Redfield

Concept and design

Chris was introduced as one of the two playable protagonists, alongside his partner Jill Valentine, in Capcom's 1996 survival horror video game Resident Evil. He was created by director Shinji Mikami and designer Isao Ohishi. Designer Hideki Kamiya described Chris as a "blunt, tough-guy type", admitting that he was a fan of this archetype. Of white American descent, Chris served in the United States Air Force and later joined the Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.), a special operations unit of the Raccoon Police Department. the gameplay differs for Jill and Chris; Chris cannot carry as many items in his inventory, but he can run quicker and withstand more damage.

Chris continued to be redesigned over the course of the series. In Resident Evil 5 (2009), modeler Yosuke Yamagata said that they "made a new design that retained their signature color—green for Chris, blue for Jill—to carry over the same look from the past". The character's facial features are mainly based on the visuals in the 2002 remake of Resident Evil, with various details added to arrive at a "realistic structure". The game features Chris as a protagonist; designers opted to focus on how the character had aged since the original game. Resident Evil 5s producer Jun Takeuchi said that the series' fans want a video game featuring both Leon S. Kennedy and Chris as the protagonists at the same time, due to their popularity. Takeuchi opined that it would be "pretty dramatic" if the two characters never met before the series ended; the meeting happened in Resident Evil 6 (2012), Character designer Tsutomu Kawade noted that the team was aware of Chris' powerful arms being his most distinctive feature. Their design thus accentuated his arms, with attire in blue-tinted green that continued his concept color.

In Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017), Takeuchi said Chris was being proposed as the main character at the time and had to be developed into a hero since this was the first time we had seen him in a long time. Looking back, Takeuchi realized that developing a Resident Evil game isn't the same as creating a hero character like Chris. According to producer Masachika Kawata, the main playable character would be "totally new" rather than a "macho superhero" like Chris from Resident Evil 5. Director Kōshi Nakanishi thought that Chris' appearance in Resident Evil 6 would be "not suitable for Resident Evil 7s game engine or aesthetic". Nakanishi reasoned that "[a]lthough it is a fairly realistic impression, even if it mixes with the character of 7, it seems that a sense of incongruity will come out." Producers wanted to give the character a more "photorealistic depiction" with an entirely new design. Nakanishi felt that if Chris looked the same as in previous titles, players would get a sense of "incongruity", although commentators and players held that the changes made the character unrecognizable.

Chris appears as a major supporting character in Resident Evil Village (2021); however, he is instead shown as more nefarious in the game's trailers due to killing protagonist Ethan Winters' wife Mia Winters and kidnapping his daughter Rosemary Winters, which surprised longtime fans. Chris' actions served as a major mystery to the game before its release, which director Morimasa Sato felt was an opportunity to showcase the character's progression to fans who were already familiar with him. His appearance was again redesigned, with a new outfit incorporating a coat.

Voice-over and live-action actors

In the original Resident Evil, which uses live-action cinematics, Chris is played by Charlie Kraslavsky. Scott McCulloch voiced Chris in the original Resident Evil; Michael Filipowich voiced him in Resident Evil – Code: Veronica; Joe Whyte in the 2002 remake of Resident Evil; Kevin Dorman in Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, Resident Evil: Vendetta, and Resident Evil: Death Island; and Roger Craig Smith in Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6. David Vaughn voiced him in Resident Evil 7, while Jeff Schine took the role in Resident Evil: Village. In Japanese, Subaru Kimura voiced Chris in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.

Reuben Langdon performed Chris' motion capture in Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6, while Geordie Dandy acted as Chris for motion capture in Resident Evil 7 and Village. Wentworth Miller portrayed him in Resident Evil: Afterlife, while Robbie Amell played him in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.

Appearances

In the ''Resident Evil'' series

Every game in the series is set in the fictional American metropolitan area of Raccoon City until its destruction at the end of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. Subsequent games featuring Chris take place on an international scale, namely in Russia, Africa, and the Mediterranean Sea. The original game is set in July 1998 in a mansion on the outskirts of Raccoon City, which Chris and his team enter while searching for lost colleagues. Working with fellow S.T.A.R.S. member Rebecca Chambers, Chris discovers the property is a façade for a biological warfare laboratory operated by the Umbrella Corporation, and its undead occupants are the scientists who developed the T-virus mutagen. His commander, Albert Wesker, is revealed to be a double agent for Umbrella.

Chris did not appear in Resident Evil 2 (1998), as the production team used new protagonists (Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield) to preserve the original game's horror elements. Mikami believed Chris and Jill would be too experienced to be scared by the events in the sequel. Set three months after the events of Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil – Code: Veronica (2000) sees Chris return as the protagonist in the second half of the game. He attempts to rescue his younger sister, Claire, from the Umbrella Corporation's research facilities on Rockfort Island, a fictional island in the South Pacific Ocean. Eventually, Chris defeats antagonist Alexia Ashford and escapes with Claire before the Antarctic facility self-destructs. After that, the siblings vow to put an end to the Umbrella Corporation.

The Umbrella Chronicles occurs in 2003, when Chris and Jill join a private organization to expose Umbrella's biological warfare activities and ultimately destroy Umbrella's only remaining research facility. After the fall of the corporation, the pair become founding members of the United Nations' Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA).

Resident Evil 5 takes place in 2009 in the fictional African town of Kijuju, where terrorists are turning local residents into zombies. Chris is the protagonist and is sent to Africa by the BSAA. In the game, he investigates while looking for Jill, who is missing and declared dead. Over the course of the investigation, he finds that she has been taken hostage by Wesker, who used her as a test subject in his biological experiments. Accompanying Chris is his new partner, Sheva Alomar. Working together, the two manage to find and free Jill, and ultimately defeat and destroy Wesker, who was planning to spread the Uroboros virus across the world.

In Resident Evil 6 (2012), Chris leads a squad of BSAA soldiers to investigate a bioterrorism attack in Edonia, a fictional country in Eastern Europe. Ambushed by Carla Radames, posing as Ada Wong, they suffer severe casualties, While attempting to work with Jake Muller, the illegitimate son of Albert Wesker, who possesses the antibodies needed to stop the outbreak, Chris and Piers encounter Haos, a powerful bioweapon. Piers is grievously injured during the battle and injects himself with the C-virus to gain superhuman powers. He saves Chris, but sacrifices himself to ensure Haos is destroyed.

At the end of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017), a man identifying as "Redfield" arrives to rescue Ethan.}} Chris appeared in the downloadable content campaign Not a Hero. This subchapter focuses on Chris and his team attempting to apprehend antagonist Lucas Baker, and although he fails to save his squad, he confronts and kills Lucas.

Chris returned for the eighth main installment in the series, titled Resident Evil Village (2021). During the events of Village, Chris and his Hound Wolf squad learn that antagonist Mother Miranda is capable of shape-shifting and had posed as Mia. They promptly shoot her to protect Ethan and the Winters' daughter Rosemary, though these efforts are foiled. During extraction, a dying Ethan gives the recently rescued Rosemary to Chris before sacrificing himself to ensure the village's destruction. Mia and Rosemary are rescued, and Chris and his team head to the BSAA's European headquarters to demand explanations for the BSAA's using bio-organic weapons as frontline soldiers.

Other appearances

Chris features in several Resident Evil films. In the rejected Resident Evil film script written by George A. Romero in 1998, Chris is a Native American civilian and ultimately one of the few survivors. In director Paul W. S. Anderson's live-action Resident Evil film series, Chris appears in Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010), where he is found trapped in a maximum security cell in Los Angeles. Wentworth Miller said that he requested that the filmmakers put together a montage of noteworthy video-game scenes that elaborated on Chris' experiences and background, as this would help him understand the character. In the reboot film Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021), Chris is played by Robbie Amell. Chris is one of the main characters in Resident Evil: Vendetta (2017). He is asking Rebecca and Leon for assistance in preventing a psychopath from spreading "The Trigger Virus" throughout New York City.

Chris is a playable character in several non-canonical Resident Evil games. He features in the Resident Evil mobile game Resident Evil: Mercenaries Vs. (2011). He appears in three games in the Marvel vs. Capcom franchiseSources for Chris appearing in numerous Marvel Vs Capcom games:

• and the crossover tactical role-playing game Project X Zone 2 (2015). He is a playable character in the digital collectible card game Teppen (2019) and State of Survival (2019). He is an alternate skin in the asymmetric online multiplayer game Dead by Daylight (2016), Tom Clancy's The Division 2 (2019), and in the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster (2024) for Frank West. He has a non-playable cameo in the Fortnite Battle Royale (2017), Nintendo crossover video game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018) as one of the 'Spirit' power-ups, Dying Light 2 (2022), and a robot dressed as Chris in Astro's Playroom (2020) and Astro Bot (2024).

Chris features in novels of the films and games and plays a main role in the third novel in a series by S. D. Perry, Resident Evil: City of the Dead (1999). Several comic books based on the games were released,Sources for Chris appearing in comic books:

• and he is a character in Bandai's Resident Evil Deck Building Card Game (2011) and Steamforged Games' Resident Evil 3: The Board Game (2021). The character was featured in a Resident Evil–themed attraction at Universal Studios Japan's Halloween Horror Nights. Merchandise featuring Chris includes outfits, perfumes, gun replicas, watches, and figurines.Sources that cite Chris's merchandise include:

Critical reception

Chris has received criticism for inconsistent design and characteristics. Several game publications have noted the character's lack of consistent visual design throughout the Resident Evil franchise. Other critics have suggested that Chris used steroids. Polygons Cass Marshall noted his variations in body mass throughout the games repeatedly changing from lean to muscular and back again. GameSpy compared his design in Resident Evil 5 and said that "he look[s] a little bit like a cross between Colin Farrell and Hugh Jackman". Several Kotaku writers have referred to Chris as one of the worst of the Resident Evil heroes, calling him "bland" and "boring", and criticizing the majority of his redesigns, while Ian Walker from Kotaku compared his appearances in Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village as "transition[ing] from global bio-terrorism agent to [...] someone's henchman in a British crime comedy written and directed by Guy Ritchie." According to digital media scholars Matthew Wysocki and Steffi Shook, as we reach the end of the Resident Evil game, the return of long-time hero Chris, who is an ambiguously good or evil character, serves as part of his absolution because he is portrayed as a soldier who is performing the proverbial act of "just following orders." They additionally pointed out that he is a "lone hero of hegemonic masculinity". Rather, Chris' masculinity is capitulating, especially in the presence of strong women.

Chris has also been praised by gaming journalists. He has been named by IGN and in a Famitsu reader survey as one of the popular Resident Evil characters. His professional relationship with Jill was celebrated for its basis in loyalty rather than romance. Noting previous criticism for being a "one-dimensional" character, PC Gamers Andy Kelly praised Chris as "finally a person" in Village, opining that, as a result of the game's design, he has been "given some depth".

Chris has often been recognized for his sex appeal, particularly since his more muscular appearance debuted in Resident Evil 5. Some critics have described him as one of the sexiest video game characters. Video game critic Veerender Singh Jubbal stated in a Kotaku interview that Chris, as he appears in Resident Evil 5, "allowed [him] to understand [his] bisexuality" better; noting that his design was "different than previous iterations", Jubbal described Chris as a "large muscle-bound hunk [and] something [he] was attracted to".

Near the climax of Resident Evil 5, Chris punches a large boulder until it falls into lava. The scene became recognized as one of the most memorable within the Resident Evil series, largely due to its ridiculousness. The scene inspired fans to create internet memes that highlighted Chris' masculinity and strength. Wes Fenlon of PC Gamer said that Chris punching a boulder inside an active volcano "gave us what is truly one of the greatest moments in the history of video games" and "as a quick time event. It is perfect." In Resident Evil Village, antagonist Karl Heisenberg calls Chris a "boulder-punching asshole" during his boss fight, a reference to the aforementioned scene.

Notes

References

Bibliography

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