Characters Who Survived The Raccoon City Incident In Resident Evil

Key Takeaways

• The Raccoon City Incident was the most infamous in Resident Evil history, devastating the city with a zombie virus.
• Characters like Jill, Carlos, and Sherry faced challenges and betrayals during the outbreak.
• Ada, Leon, and HUNK navigate dangerous situations in Raccoon City, forever being changed by the harrowing experience.

The Raccoon City Incident is the most infamous event in the history of Resident Evil. While the Spencer Mansion may have been the first zombie-infested area players explore in the series, the stakes were made much higher in Resident Evil 2 and 3 when a virus infests an entire city, turning almost the entire local population into flesh-hungry zombies.

Considering that the police force was wiped out almost immediately after the outbreak began and that the government eventually bombed the entire city not long after, only a handful of people managed to escape with their lives intact. These individuals may be lucky to have gotten out of the nightmare safely, but the haunting memories of Raccoon will likely never leave their minds for as long as they live.

8 Alyssa Ashcroft

Alyssa’s Experiences In Raccoon City Can Be Uncovered In A Newspaper Article In Resident Evil 7

Alyssa Ashcroft is a character from Resident Evil Outbreak whose main concern throughout the incident was to get to the bottom of who was behind it and expose them to the world. Her mission doesn’t go as well as she would have hoped, though, once she realizes she’s already been infected and is yet to become a full zombie.

As she makes her way through the city, narrowly dodging the swarms of zombies that lurk around every corner, she eventually reaches the hospital where Umbrella’s involvement in the outbreak becomes clear as day. Just moments after the bombs land on Raccoon City, Alyssa manages to escape with the knowledge of Umbrella’s wrongdoing. If players snoop around a little in Resident Evil 7, they can actually find a newspaper article written by Alyssa, which exposes Umbrella’s antics, proving that she eventually succeeded in her mission.

7 Ada Wong

Ada Owes A Lot To Leon For Allowing Her To Escape In One Piece

When Ada first shows up in Raccoon City, she pretends to be an FBI agent to earn the trust of Leon, whom she sticks close to for a fair share of the outbreak. Though Ada has a secret mission that she’s trying to achieve, her and Leon are constantly thrown into dangerous scenarios, which Leon saves her from every time, even going as far as to take a bullet for her.

By the end, Ada falls down a chasm but miraculously survives to reappear in Resident Evil 4. Raccoon City clearly changed Ada, primarily in showing her how she shouldn’t always try to use those around her as tools for her own selfish gain. Leon went above and beyond to protect her and even saved her life. So, while Ada is still the mysterious rogue spy she’s always been, the outbreak has clearly made her see people and their worth a lot differently.

6 Jill Valentine

Jill Had To Overcome Zombies, Umbrella Agents, And The Nemesis To Escape The Nightmare

Trying to escape a city full of zombies is already hard enough, but when there’s also an obsessive behemoth stalking the hopeful escapee the entire way, it makes things even more difficult. Though Jill is based in Raccoon City to try and find out more information about Umbrella, she’s eventually hunted down by the Nemesis, a monster dedicated to wiping out every member of S.T.A.R.S. before they are able to leave and spread any information about what happened.

Unlike Claire and Leon, Jill actually has some prior experience with handling zombies, so it makes sense how she was able to take on so many of them. However, being able to avoid Nemesis was more luck than skill, since Jill comes very close to biting the bullet on more than a few occasions. Jill also owes a lot to Carlos, who was willing to venture through the city just to find a cure for her; otherwise, she never would have made it.

5 HUNK

The ‘Grim Reaper’ Was Determined To Carry Out His Mission No Matter What

HUNK earned the’ Grim Reaper’ codename because of his miraculous ability to embark on a suicide mission and, somehow, come out in one piece, with the Raccoon City incident being a prime example of this. HUNK’s initial mission was to secure a sample of the G-Virus from William Birkin, only for things to go array once Birkin lashes out at HUNK and his team.

HUNK was the only one to survive Birkin’s attacks, but rather than finding a way out of the city, he instead decided to stay put in order to find a sample for his superiors. Clearly, HUNK is a man who’s dedicated to carrying out his mission, no matter how dire things get, and though many survivors look back on Raccoon City in horror, HUNK probably saw it as just another one of the many life-threatening missions he’s embarked on throughout his career.

4 Carlos

Carlos Goes From Naive Mercenary To A Hero During The Outbreak

The reason for Carlos being in Raccoon City during the outbreak was to serve his duty as a loyal member of the U.B.C.S., a group of mercenaries under the control of Umbrella. Since Carlos had no idea Umbrella was behind the whole fiasco, he was kept largely in the dark, but upon meeting Jill and helping her escape, things start to become a lot clearer.

After putting the pieces together and discovering Umbrella’s role in creating the outbreak, Carlos dedicates himself to saving those who are still alive, including Jill. Carlos risks going through the Spencer Hospital just to find a cure for Jill after she becomes infected, making him a pretty heroic character who is credited for saving the life of a series fan-favorite. Carlos hasn’t been seen since Raccoon City’s destruction, but one thing is clear: He’s definitely not going to be working with Umbrella again.

3 Sherry Birkin

The Events Of Raccoon City Still Haunt Sherry Many Years Later

Abandoned by her parents and forced to fend for herself, Sherry is initially hesitant to go along with Claire after the latter runs into her in the R.P.D. Eventually, though, Sherry realizes that there’s not much she can do by herself, and she decides to tag along with Claire, relying on her for protection. Sherry still goes through quite an ordeal, though, being scolded by her own mother, seeing her father become a grotesque monster, and even becoming infected herself.

At the very last moment, Claire was able to retrieve a cure to help Sherry, before then escaping from the city by train. In Resident Evil 6, Sherry reflects on her time in Raccoon City and, specifically, the two friends she made along the way, Leon and Claire, who ultimately saved her life that day. She also comments that she can never forget that her father’s obsession with his work led to his demise, which is something that drives her to stop the same kind of experimental horrors from breaking out elsewhere in the world.

2 Claire Redfield

After Raccoon City, Claire Decides To Support Other Fellow Bioterror Victims By Joining TerraSave

In the hopes of finding her brother, Chris, Claire makes what should have been a quick journey to Raccoon City to see what’s going on. Little did she know that she would be plunging herself head-first into a living nightmare once she entered the city, being forced to take shelter in the R.P.D. to avoid the hordes of zombies who patrol the streets.

Once Claire discovers Chris is actually on ‘vacation,’ she turns her attention to Sherry, becoming her guardian and vowing to keep her safe so that the two can make it out alive. Claire not only takes on Mr. X, but she also has more than a few run-ins with Chief Irons, who is constantly plotting to get her killed. The horrors of Raccoon City encouraged her to join TerraSave, an organization based around helping and supporting victims of bioterror incidents, just like herself.

1 Leon S. Kennedy

A Hellish First Day On The Job That Weighs Heavily On Leon’s Conscience

Leon probably had the worst first day on a job in human history. As the rookie cop arrives at his post, he begins to realize that something’s gone very wrong with the city after seeing burning buildings and mountains of corpses scattered across the road. Things only get worse when he enters the R.P.D., only to find that virtually all of his future colleagues have been torn to shreds, forcing him to fend for himself.

Leon manages to avoid certain death multiple times throughout his journey, including when he narrowly escapes a giant alligator in the sewers and escapes the behemoth known as Mr. X. However, Leon’s inability to save others, especially Ada Wong, causes him to harbor deep regrets about the incident, resulting in him pushing himself twice as hard to save Ashley in Resident Evil 4.