The Umbrella

Umbrella Corporation is a fictional American-based multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company in Capcom's Resident Evil franchise. Publicly presented as a medical and consumer-products conglomerate, Umbrella serves as a front for clandestine research into mutagenic viruses, genetically engineered organisms and biological weapons, known within the series as bio-organic weapons (B.O.Ws). Umbrella serves as the principal institutional antagonist of the franchise's early video games, in which its research causes the incidents at Spencer Mansion and Raccoon City in the United States. In the original Resident Evil, Umbrella remains largely concealed until the player discovers its underground laboratory beneath Spencer Mansion. Subsequent games progressively enlarged Umbrella's narrative role. Resident Evil 2 introduced the company's researchers and facilities within Raccoon City, while Resident Evil – Code: Veronica expanded it into an organisation with installations across the world. Later games introduced further agencies, subsidiaries and organisations associated with Umbrella's research or name. Different versions of the Umbrella corporate entity also appear throughout the franchise's film and television adaptations. Umbrella's red-and-white logo and corporate identity have also been used in Capcom's promotion of the franchise. Critics have interpreted Umbrella as an embodiment of institutional corruption, unethical scientific research and corporate control. Academic analysis of the original Resident Evil has connected the organisation with the corruption of nature, architecture and public authority, while critical commentary of the wider franchise has associated its research programmes with eugenics and the commercialisation of biological life. The live-action film iteration of Umbrella has also been analysed through its construction and surveillance of artificial environments, in which laboratories, cities, homes and their inhabitants are treated as reproducible objects.