Chris Redfield is a fictional character in the Resident Evil survival horror video game series created by the Japanese company Capcom. He was introduced as one of the two playable characters of the original Resident Evil (1996), alongside his partner Jill Valentine, as a member of the Raccoon Police Department's Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) unit. Vowing to never let any tragedies like Raccoon City happen again, Chris becomes a founding member of the United Nations' Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA). Chris is the protagonist of several Resident Evil games, novelizations, and films and has also appeared in other game franchises, including Marvel vs. Capcom, Project X Zone, and Dead by Daylight. In later games, such as Resident Evil 7 (2017) and Resident Evil: Village (2021), his features were based on New Zealand model Geordie Dandy. Several actors have portrayed Chris, including Wentworth Miller and Robbie Amell, in the live-action Resident Evil films. Chris has received a polarized reception from Video game magazines; in particular, they have taken issue with the frequent modifications to his design and inconsistent use of appearance. However, he has been recognized for his sex appeal and is considered one of the sexiest video game characters by several publications. Some critics have referred to a scene of Chris punching a boulder in Resident Evil 5 (2009) as one of the most memorable within the Resident Evil series, which was also subjected to Internet memes.

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 joined the Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) special operations unit. Although their storylines progress in "the same general direction," the gameplay differs for Jill and Chris;  Chris can't carry as many goods in his inventory, but he can run quicker, aim more precisely, and withstand more damage. Chris continued to be redesigned over the course of the series. Resident Evil 5 (2009) features Chris as a protagonist; designers opted to focus on how the character had aged since the original game. His increased muscle mass was to show that he had trained heavily in order to fight the series' powerful villain, Albert Wesker, bare-handed. Modeler Yosuke Yamagata added 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 facial structures are mainly based on the visuals of the GameCube version, and we added various details to these to develop a realistic structure." Resident Evil 5's producer Jun Takeuchi said that the series' fans "would really love" a video game featuring both Leon S. Kennedy and Chris as the protagonists due to their popularity, and at the same time, it would be "pretty dramatic" if the two characters never met before the series would end; this eventually occurred in Resident Evil 6 (2012). In Resident Evil 6, Chris has a slightly disheveled look due to his alcoholism and post-traumatic amnesia. In Resident Evil 7 (2017), Chris was given an entirely new design as the producers wanted to give him a more realistic look. The character's new design made him completely "unrecognizable", as stated by commentators and players. Director Kōshi Nakanishi stated that Resident Evil 6s Chris model "was just not suitable for Resident Evil 7s game engine or aesthetic". He further said 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." Takeuchi, the executive producer, added that they had been thinking about Chris as the primary character at the time and that, as it was the first time we had seen him in a long time, he needed to be shown as a hero. In retrospect, he also understood that creating Chris into a hero was not the same as creating a Resident Evil game. In Resident Evil Village (2021), Chris is once again redesigned, but his look closer resembles that in Resident Evil 6, due to fan backlash against his look in Resident Evil 7. According to the director of Resident Evil Village DLC, Kento Kinoshita, the production team behind the DLC for the horror sequel initially had a completely different plan in mind. "At the time of the project," he says, referencing the DLC's early days of planning, "there were some ideas that focused on Chris. But we wanted to focus on Rose Winters," disclosing that the crew had a preference for a DLC that starred Rose as the main character rather than having Chris rejoin the action.

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 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; Roger Craig Smith in Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6. David Vaughn voiced him in Resident Evil 7, while Jeff Schine in Resident Evil: Village. In Japanese, Subaru Kimura voiced him in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. Reuben Langdon did Chris' motion capture in Code: Veronica, Resident Evil 5, and Resident Evil 6, while Geordie Dandy did it in Resident Evil 7 and Village. Wentworth Miller portrayed him in Resident Evil: Afterlife. Miller said he requested that the filmmakers put together a montage of noteworthy video game scenes that related to or clarified the mythology or history of his character as part of [his] research. 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, Antarctica, China, Louisiana, Romania, 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 colleagues. Working with fellow survivor Rebecca Chambers, he 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 and Jill are among the five survivors of the incident who form a strong friendship and become passionate opponents of bioterrorism. Chris did not appear in Resident Evil 2 (1998), as the production team used new protagonists (Leon 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 five months later, Resident Evil - Code: Veronica (2000) sees Chris return as the protagonist of the second half of the game. He attempts to rescue his younger sister, Claire, from the Umbrella Corporation's research facilities on the fictional Rockfort Island and Antarctica. Upon discovering she is in Antarctica, Chris is briefly confronted by Wesker, who is revealed to have survived the events of the first game and also endowed him with enhanced strength, speed, and agility. Eventually, Chris defeats Alexia Ashford and escapes with Claire before the Antarctic facility self-destructs. After that, they vow to put an end to the Umbrella Corporation. The Umbrella Chronicles occurs in 2003, when Jill and Chris join a private organization with the goal of exposing Umbrella's biological warfare activities, leading a group to destroy their only remaining research facility. After the fall of the corporation, the pair become founding members of the United Nations' Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA). In Revelations – set two years later – Jill and her new partner Parker Luciani are sent on a mission to rescue Chris, who is allegedly being held hostage on a ghost ship in the Mediterranean. Jill and Chris then unravel a political conspiracy involving an earlier mutagenic outbreak and a botched investigation by a rival agency. 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 of the game and one of the founding members of the UN paramilitary group Bio-terrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA). In the game, he investigates in Africa, while looking for Jill, who is missing and declared dead. In fact, she was injured by the fall and taken hostage by Wesker, who then used her as a test subject in his biological experiments. Accompanying him is his new partner, Sheva Alomar. Eventually, Chris and Sheva manage to find and free Jill and ultimately defeat and destroy Wesker, who was planning to spread the Uroboros virus across the world. Resident Evil 6 (2012) sees Chris return as one of the four protagonists alongside Leon, Ada Wong, and Jake Muller, the illegitimate son of Albert Wesker. Chris leads a squad of BSAA soldiers to investigate a bio-terror attack in Europe. Ambushed by Carla Radames, posing as Ada, they suffer severe casualties. Only Chris and Piers Nivans survive the assault, with the rest of his team being killed by Carla. They travel to China to investigate bio-terror activity and find themselves in another C-virus outbreak. While attempting to work out with Jake, who possesses the antibodies needed to stop the outbreak, Chris and Piers encounter Haos, a powerful BOW. 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 himself as "Redfield" arrives to rescue protagonist Ethan Winters. While the credits refer to the character as Chris Redfield, the helicopter he arrives in is branded with the Umbrella Corporation logo, initially causing people to question the person's identity. Capcom later confirmed this character to be Chris, in spite of the noticeable change in his appearance. Chris appeared in the downloadable content campaign Not a Hero, which was released on December 12, 2017. This subchapter focuses on Chris attempting to apprehend Lucas Baker, and although he fails to save his men, 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 Mother Miranda was capable of shape-shifting and posed as Ethan's wife, Mia Winters, and they promptly shoot her in order to protect Ethan and Mia, only for his efforts to be foiled in the process. After revealing the nature of his mission to Ethan, Chris saves the real Mia, learns Miranda's connection to the late Oswell E. Spencer and helps plant a bomb on a megamycete in order to destroy the village. During extraction, a dying Ethan gives a recently rescued Rosemary to Chris before sacrificing himself to ensure the village's destruction. With Mia and Rosemary rescued, Chris and his team head to BSAA's European headquarters to demand explanations over their use of BOWs 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 the director Paul W. S. Anderson's live-action Resident Evil films. Chris appears in the Resident Evil: Afterlife, portrayed by Wentworth Miller. Miller said he prepared for the role by doing cardio for endurance. He appears in the reboot film Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021). Chris also appears in the adult animated Resident Evil films. He was one of the main characters in Resident Evil: Vendetta (2017), alongside Leon and Rebecca. Unlike the live-action films, the animated films are in the same continuity as the games. He returned in the sequel, Resident Evil: Death Island (2023). 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 franchise and the crossover tactical role-playing game Project X Zone 2. He also made a cameo appearance in Fortnite Battle Royale (2017), Nintendo crossover video game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018) as one of the 'Spirit' power-ups, Dead by Daylight (2016) and Tom Clancy's The Division 2 (2019) as an alternate skin, State of Survival (2019), digital collectible card game Teppen (2019), Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster (2024) as an outfit for Frank West, and a robot dressed as Chris makes a cameo reference in Astro's Playroom (2020) and Astro Bot (2024). Chris features in novelizations 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). Additionally, he makes an appearance in the prequel manga for Resident Evil 6, which describes Chris' activities prior to the events. Several comic books based on the games were released, and he is a character in Bandai's Resident Evil Deck Building Card Game (2011). 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 from critics for his inconsistency character design and characteristics. Some critics also mentioned that Chris' possibility of using steroids due to his hypermasculinity. Several game publications have noted the character's lack of consistent visual design for his appearances throughout the Resident Evil franchise. Polygon's Cass Marshall noted his variations in body mass throughout the games by repeatedly changing from lean to muscular and back again. GameSpy called his design in Resident Evil 5 "a cross between Colin Farrell and Hugh Jackman" in particular, and it became a source of controversy and was often ridiculed. Several Kotaku employees have referred to Chris as one of the worst of the Resident Evil heroes, calling him "bland" and "boring", and critiquing 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." Chris' characterization has been also praised by other gaming journalists. He has been named by IGN and in a Famitsu's 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 and its balance in their personalities: Chris's brawn and Jill's intellect. Despite receiving criticism for his inconsistency of character design, PC Gamer's Andy Kelly has praised that Chris is "finally a person" in Village. He opined that Chris' design is different than he has ever seen before and felt that "Chris feels like a human" and the character has "given some depth". Chris has often been recognized for his sex appeal, particularly since his more muscular appearance in Resident Evil 5. Some critics have described him as one of the sexiest video game characters. Sikh media and 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; noted that his design was "different than previous iterations", Jubbal described Chris as a "large muscle-bound hunk [and] something [he] was attracted to". However, Nathan Lim of Game Developer felt that the idea that males are violent and masculine is exemplified by Chris, which negatively influences how boys view men. Lim added that although Chris appears to be an ordinary person in the beginning of the Resident Evil series, the designers have been making his appearance "incredibly muscular" and "buff" ever since Resident Evil 5. Near the climax of Resident Evil 5, Chris punches a large boulder until it falls into the lava. The scene became recognized as one of the most memorable within the Resident Evil series, largely due to its ridiculousness. It became the subject of Internet memes, with fans using it to demonstrate Chris' masculinity. 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 videogames" and "as a quicktime event. It is perfect." In Resident Evil Village, during the boss fight with Karl Heisenberg, Karl calls Chris a "boulder-punching asshole," a reference to the aforementioned scene in Resident Evil 5.