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Raccoon City (ラクーンシティ, Rakūn Shiti) is a fictional city for the Resident Evil series of survival horror video games developed by Capcom. It was the primary setting for Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, and the spin-offs Resident Evil: Outbreak and Resident Evil: Outbreak: File 2. The city appears as the main setting for the first film adaptation and its sequel. Raccoon City is one of the mods in Left 4 Dead as a playable map.

Overview

Raccoon City is a fictional city in the United States and serves as the setting for many Resident Evil video games. The city and its outlying areas house several bioengineering laboratories belonging to the Umbrella Corporation. These laboratories develop viruses that can mutate humans and animals. One of the laboratories, unnamed throughout the video game series and referred to as "The Hive" in the film adaptations, is located under Raccoon City and is the producer of the T-virus. These viruses are the plot devices driving the story behind the games; sabotage and security failures have unleashed these viruses and infected creatures in Raccoon City, and players have to escape the city. During game play, Raccoon City appears mostly devastated due to the panic and fighting caused by the viral outbreak. Small fires, crashed vehicles and other barricades frequently impede players' progress through the city. Throughout the series, there are various renditions of Raccoon City. With each appearance Raccoon City is destroyed by a strategic weapon. As a result, it is declared a restricted area and biological hazard.

Appearances

In films

Raccoon City is depicted in the films as a 21st-century cosmopolitan city with an infrastructure largely funded by the Umbrella Corporation. The first film features the Hive as a secret laboratory under the city. Housing more than 500 employees, the facility has an artificial intelligence, the Red Queen, controlling its security. The theft and deliberate release of the T-virus starts the chain of events depicted in the opening of the first film. Although the Hive is sealed off at the end of the film, it is reopened in Resident Evil: Apocalypse, the second film, by the Umbrella Corporation. Infected creatures spread out of the re-opened Hive into Raccoon City and Umbrella places the city under quarantine. In an attempt to stop the spread of the T-virus, Umbrella destroys Raccoon City with a nuclear missile near the end of the film. In the third film) it is revealed that this does not stop the virus from spreading; within five years the human race is on the verge of extinction, and the vast majority of the Earth is a barren wasteland crawling with zombies and mutated animals.

Instead of creating large sets for Raccoon City and the Hive, the film crew filmed on location at Toronto, Canada and Berlin, Germany. Due to the fictional city being located in the Midwestern United States, the film's director Paul Anderson chose Toronto to serve as the fictional city. In the third installment, Extinction, there is a brief shot of Racoon City: the camera zooms out from Raccoon city to a view of the Earth - in this shot, Racoon City is depicted somewhere in either Illinios, Indiana, Michigan, or Ohio. The city was filmed untouched; many of its prominent features, such as its city hall and the CN Tower, are visible. For the underground train station in the Hive, Anderson chose to film in the Berlin U-Bahn. He said the atmosphere of the underground labyrinth structure was conducive to the acting and promoted a sense of realism and mood in the production. Resident Evil: Extinction features another Hive in Death Valley, which is used for the research of a cure to the T-virus and of the Tyrant Program.

The Hive

The Hive is a fictional underground research facility located beneath Raccoon City and operated by the Umbrella Corporation. The Hive is the primary location for the development of the T-virus. In Resident Evil, the Hive is the location of the outbreak, contrary to the video game series where the outbreak began in the mansion facility. Prior to the destruction of Raccoon City and the virus outbreak, the Hive became defunct.

Citations

Footnotes

1. Mitchell, Richard (19-06-09). "Raccoon City recreated in Left 4 Dead, full RE3 campaign on the way". Joystiq. Retrieved 2010-05-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
2. Damien Waples (2007-11-13). Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles Official Game Guide. California, United States: Prima Games. pp. pp. 58–73. ISBN 0-761-55845-4. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
3. Paul W.S. Anderson (Director) (2002-07-30). Resident Evil Special Edition (DVD). Sony Pictures Entertainment.
4. ^ Patrick Lee (March 18, 2002). "Paul W.S. Anderson reanimates a game group of zombies in Resident Evil". Sci Fi Weekly (256). Retrieved 2008-07-16.
5. Dave Kehr (2004-09-10). "Call to Arms, With Trouble Right Here in Zombie City". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-07-17.

• Fictional populated places in the United States
• Resident Evil
• Toronto in fiction