Ozwell E. Spencer
From Resident Evil Wiki
| Ozwell E. Spencer | |
| |
| Date of birth: | 1917 |
| Date of death: | 2006 (age 89) |
| Gender: | Male |
| Race/Ethnicity: | Caucasian |
| Occupation: | CEO of Umbrella Chemical, Inc. (formerly) |
| Status: | Deceased |
| Voice: | Adam Clark (RE5) |
| Mocap: | Adam Clark (RE5) |
| “ | I was to become a god! Creating a new world, with an advanced race of human beings... | ” |
Ozwell E. Spencer was the primary antagonist for much of the Resident Evil series, most notably recognized as the CEO of the Umbrella Corporation. He was descended from the British Royal Family. He had a vision to remake the world and lead it into a new era, as the world's current state was less than ideal to Spencer. He intended to use the research of Bio-Organic Weapons to carry out his vision and mold a utopia for mankind. After founding Umbrella alongside his close friends James Marcus and Edward Ashford, Spencer came up with a new project. He would use natural selection to form his own replacement for a doomed humanity. These beings, called the Wesker children, were brought into existence when Umbrella kidnapped thousands of children worldwide with superior intelligence in their genes. Spencer made it so these children were raised to believe in his values and effectively have personalities like his. His goal was to remake the world into his image, with the Wesker children serving as his elite enforcers. Albert Wesker, an employee of Umbrella, would eventually prove to be the only successful Wesker child, and after the Raccoon City Incident, Umbrella's downfall, and Spencer's fall from grace, he succeeded him as the complete main villain, having already had a major role in the events Spencer wasn't involved in. Spencer and Umbrella were identified as responsible for to horrific events involving the Tyrant virus and the killing of thousands of innocents who became Zombies. It was the very survivors of Raccoon City, along with the treacherous Wesker, who were responsible for Spencer's defeat. For most of the series, Spencer did not make a physical appearance. He was first mentioned as one of the mysterious founders of Umbrella in Resident Evil - CODE: Veronica. His personality was molded by documents found in further installments that showed him as a treasonous, megalomaniac and ambitious individual. However, his ego betrayed him, leading to his downfall. After years of the franchise only mentioning the mastermind, Spencer made his first official on-screen debut in Resident Evil 5, and like Wesker, he had been manipulating events from behind-the-scenes.
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[edit] History
While Spencer is most notable known for his role as the president of the Umbrella Corporation, he was also one of the three scientists that discovered the Progenitor virus. Accompanied by his esteemed colleague and good friend Edward Ashford and prominent researcher James Marcus, Spencer was able to make the ground breaking find on December 4th, 1968. After much experimentation with the virus, Spencer was given a vision for the future of the world, which over the years manifested into "Project W", a top secret Umbrella project that would become the reason for every action Spencer took.
While driven by their insights to create a powerful viral biological weapon, Spencer and his colleagues established the Umbrella Corporation, a company that appeared to create pharmaceutical products, to disguise their sinister motives. Around the same time, Spencer hired the well-known architect George Trevor to design a special mansion in the Arklay Mountains, which would camouflage a secret research laboratory complex in the Mansion’s basement. After realizing that George may disclose of the secrets of the mansion in the future, Spencer had his wife Jessica and their daughter Lisa kidnapped and used as Progenitor virus test-subjects. George was imprisoned within the walls of the Mansion he built. Able to remember most of the traps and passages he created, he managed to escape. However, he could not leave the grounds due to the guards and so hid in the caves below the estate. All known information about him stopped after he ceased writing in his diary in December, some time after falling down a hole, where a grave had been prepared for him by Spencer.
Also occurring in that year, Spencer established the Umbrella Management Training Facility for further research of the Progenitor virus, and appointed co-founder James Marcus as the first general manager. After Marcus successfully created the Tyrant virus by introducing the Progenitor virus to a Leech[1], Spencer began to grow paranoid of Marcus' new found reputation. Ultimately, Spencer ordered Marcus' former apprentices, Albert Wesker and William Birkin, to assassinate him. In the aftermath, Spencer appointed Birkin to take over the tyrant virus project. Following the mysterious death of Ashford, Spencer was left as the sole remaining founding member of the Umbrella Corporation, and easily able to monopolize the company for himself.
[edit] Spencer's Fate
| “ | When one buries a treasure, one should not leave behind a map... | ” |
When the Zombie outbreak affected Raccoon City, Spencer ordered that all of Umbrella's data be backed up to the U.M.F.-013 computer core, an act which was carried out and overseen by his loyal employee, Sergei Vladimir. Sergei and an unidentified Umbrella officer (possibly Spencer himself) carried the computer core out of the city via helicopter. Raccoon City was leveled by a U.S. Government missile within moments of Sergei's escape. Spencer later received word that the city had been completely wiped out and made an entry about it in his journal. He also placed Sergei in charge of Umbrella's remaining structure, and went into hiding.
Following the aftermath of the incidents in the Arklay Mountains and Raccoon City, Spencer brought forth top lawyers and false witnesses to the Supreme Court to shift blame for the events of Raccoon City to the Government, which kept Umbrella afloat for another five years. In actuality, US governers were involved with Umbrella's dealings.[2] Ultimately, Albert Wesker sealed Umbrella's fate by submitting all of Umbrella's secret information (B.O.W.s, Viral Samples, Tactical Training, etc.). The information had been downloaded onto a special disk from the U.M.F.-013, one of Umbrella's biggest archives. Wesker even went so far as to personally testify against Spencer, detailing what role he had in the events of Raccoon City. Immediately afterwards, Umbrella's business license was revoked and a global manhunt was begun with the goal of finding Spencer, who mysteriously vanished following Umbrella's destruction. Wesker vowed to meet Spencer again before the conclusion of the drama transpiring and to reveal to him the history he would "write for this world".
[edit] Death
| “ | Now my candle burns dimly! Ironic, isn't it? For one who has the right to be a god! To face his own mortality... | ” |
In the following years Spencer went into hiding, making sure he had little contact with the outside world. His hiding place had been his European estate, a castle along the coast of an undisclosed ocean. Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine were given information from a reliable source on Spencer's location, hoping to arrest Spencer and get information on Wesker's whereabouts. Minutes before they arrived, Wesker himself paid a visit to Spencer, who was expecting him, much to Wesker's shock. Wesker realized that Spencer had been in control of everything that had been occurring over the years, even his own actions, and the two discussed Wesker's origins. Wesker was the result of genetic experimentation with the Progenitor virus along with thousands of others, known as the "Wesker children". Spencer revealed that his goal was to create a new breed of humans -Albert included- and thus become a god over a new world. However, Albert was the only one that survived out of other individuals who were "manufactured" such as him, and the research itself was destroyed along with Raccoon City. As Spencer stood from his wheelchair to confront Wesker face to face, Wesker violently thrusted his hand through Spencer's chest, whispering to him that the right to become a god was now his, and had never been Spencer's. Wesker viciously removed his hand from his chest, allowing him to topple down on the steps of the chamber. As Jill and Chris entered the room, they unexpectadly found Spencer's corpse, with Wesker turning to face them and smiling. After a battle in the Spencer Estate, Wesker and Jill disappeared, and were presumed dead. Spencer's corpse was left lying on the floor of his castle.
[edit] Appearance
Spencer's only confirmed appearence was in Resident Evil 5. He was shown to be an elderly man, well into his late eighties. He had light blue eyes and completely white, curly hair. He wore a purple evening robe with purple slippers, though he may have just been settling into more comfortable attire for the night. He was shown in a portrait wearing more formal attire, albeit with an older-age sense in his fashion. He was slightly confined to a wheelchair, which he was connected to through wires, though he was able to stand up and face Wesker during the last moments of his life, at the same time disconnecting himself from his life support. The chair kept track of his heart rate. Spencer would break into racked coughing at random times while speaking, and also seemed to have breathing problems. Since he has never been seen before his incredibly old state, when Spencer's health problems began is currently unknown.
[edit] Trivia
- The unnamed Umbrella official in Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles is heavily believed to be Spencer, due to the minimal facial details shown revealing him to be very old, and him being connected to life-support.
- Spencer was greatly comparable to Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious, primary antagonist of the Star Wars film series. Both served as one of the two main villains of their series (the second being Darth Vader in Star Wars), were of elderly age, betrayed many of their allies with no remorse, often manipulated events from behind-the-scenes, and had a past history that was left largely ambiguous. Adam Clark's voice performance of Spencer was also remarkably similar to Ian McDiarmid's of Sidious. In a guest panel for Devil May Cry, another Capcom published game, Reuben Langdon and Daniel Southworth stated that Clark was a huge fan of Star Wars [citation needed].
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources
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