Rebecca Chambers (character)

Rebecca Chambers makes her first appearance in the original 1996 Resident Evil as a supporting character for Chris Redfield, a fellow officer in the U.S. special police force Special Tactics And Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.). She is an 18-year-old[8] rookie member of the unit's Bravo Team and serves as a field medic additionally in charge of rear security. Before she joined the force, she was a child prodigy and graduated from college at only 18 years old.[9] Rebecca arrives at the Arklay Research Facility to investigate a series of cannibalistic murders with her comrades lost and scattered across the Arklay Mountains. Her introduction and other appearances throughout the first game vary depending on the path the player chooses and she can be controlled during portions of the story. She may die an off-screen death as well. Canonically, Rebecca is ultimately rescued by Chris and the Alpha Team and she emerges as Bravo Team's sole survivor of the incident in the canon version of the story.[10]

In Resident Evil Zero, a prequel to Resident Evil, Rebecca is one of two protagonists. Shortly after Bravo Team had been dispatched to the Arklay Mountains to investigate the murders, she enters a seemingly abandoned train. Coming under attack by zombies and mutated animals, Rebecca encounters escaped death-row military prisoner Billy Coen and cooperates with him.[11][12] The two discover that the viral zombie outbreak has been masterminded by James Marcus who had been one of the Umbrella Corporation's top scientists but was assassinated on behalf of the company, only to be revived by the monsters created by him. Rebecca and Billy escape from the train and find themselves in an old underground facility of Umbrella Corporation that was overtaken by Marcus in his lust for revenge. In the end, they manage to destroy both Marcus and the facility. Rebecca allows Billy to escape, falsely reporting his death to the authorities.[13]

Rebecca appears in Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles which summarizes the events of Resident Evil Zero and details her later experiences leading up to Resident Evil. The game pairs her with fellow STARS Bravo team member Richard Aiken as they work together to fend off hordes of undead creatures.[14]

She has survived the events of Resident Evil 2,[15] in which the character makes an easter egg type cameo appearance in an undeveloped film on Wesker's desk.[16][17] Rebecca is also a playable character in Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition in its minigame mode Mercenaries Reunion,[18] as well as in Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D.[19]

Canadian stage actress Riva Di Paola voiced Rebecca in Resident Evil 0

In the original Resident Evil, Rebecca was portrayed in the game's live-action cut-scenes by an unknown actress simply credited as "Linda", and voiced by an uncredited Lynn Harris, who also worked as the voice-over director of the game.[20] The game's director Shinji Mikami said in 2014: "If I had to name the woman character I most disliked in my games it would be Rebecca Chambers. She’s submissive, she’s not independent. I didn’t want to include her but the staff wanted that kind of character in the game, for whatever reason. I’m sure it made sense to them. And in Japan, that character is pretty popular."[21] For Resident Evil 0, Rebecca's character was modeled after the J-pop star Ayumi Hamasaki, who also served as Capcom's official spokeswoman for the game in Japan.[22][23] While her standard outfit is rather androgynous, Rebecca's alternate costumes in the games "expose her midriff and voluptuous shape".[24] In the remake of RE0, Rebecca's face was remodeled[25] and pre-order bonuses included a nurse costume for her.[26]

In Zero, where she is a starting character, Rebecca is weaker than Billy and as such can absorb much less damage and cannot push heavier objects. Her unique skill is her ability to mix various chemicals.[27] In the Mercenaries mode of RE5, Rebecca is armed with an MP5 submachine gun, and her melee moves include flame spray, tear gas and taser attacks, but most of them do not instantly kill. To compensate that, she is the only character that starts with two first-aid sprays and extra ammo. In The Mercenaries 3D, Rebecca is an unlockable character with the highest recovery but with the lowest armor (her alternate nurse costume[28] makes her take recover health faster and take even more damage). She carries five healing herbs, an MP5 and a grenade launcher, and her high-damage flame spray attack is replaced by a push out move.

Rebecca plays a central role in S. D. Perry's Resident Evil novels written in 1998-2004, namely in the original stories Resident Evil: Caliban Cove and Resident Evil: Underworld, as well as in the novelizations of the games in which she appears (Resident Evil: The Umbrella Conspiracy and Resident Evil: Zero Hour).[29] In Caliban Cove, Rebecca, declared outlaw and aided by members of the Exeter, Maine branch of STARS, attempts to stop a rogue scientist from spreading a new strain of the T-virus. In Underworld, Rebecca, Leon S. Kennedy, Claire Redfield, and an original character David Trapp (from Caliban Cove) embark to find the Umbrella Corporation's new facility hidden beneath the desert in the American Southwest, which was taken over by another rogue Umbrella scientist.[30]

Rebecca makes a minor appearance in the Resident Evil comic book S.T.A.R.S. Files.[31] In George A. Romero's rejected Resident Evil film screenplay from the late 1990s, Rebecca filled the same role as she did in the first game (in this script, she was one of the four survivors).[32]

In the 2015 stage play Biohazard: The Stage, Rebecca (played by Rin Asuka)[33] has become a professor teaching at a university in western Australia. The place becomes a scene of a bio-terrorist incident, which reunites her with Chris Redfield as they once again work together.[34][35]

A computer-animated film starring Rebecca was released in 2017, titled Resident Evil: Vendetta. In the film, Rebecca, long retired as a police officer, now works in university as a professor, using her knowledge of medicine to develop possible cures for viruses. When her laboratory is attacked by bio-terrorists, Rebecca is exposed to the new A-Virus but uses her newly-researched vaccine to save herself. She is rescued by Chris and the BSAA, together enlisting Leon to help them against the surviving members of Los Illuminados (from Resident Evil 4). Rebecca is later captured by Chris' enemy Glenn Arias, who reveals that he desires to marry her because she resembles his late lover, Sara. Eventually, she is saved and cured just in time after being exposed to a stronger strain of his virus.

In 2001, toymaker Moby Dick produced an action figure of Rebecca in the Resident Evil 3: Nemesis related series even as she does not actually appear in this game (the figure is actually based on the character's depiction in the canceled Nintendo 64 version of Resident Evil Zero).[36][37] A diorama-type figure of Rebecca and the monster Hunter was released by Organic in 2009[38] and a 1/6 scale resin garage kit of Rebecca in her alternate costume from Zero was released by Vanilla Chop.[39] Capcom's theme restaurant Biohazard Cafe & Grill S.T.A.R.S. opened with "Rebecca-Style Dessert" in the menu.[40]