Dr. Alexander Isaacs is a fictional character of the Resident Evil film franchise who appeared as the main antagonist in the series. He served as a minor antagonist in Resident Evil: Apocalypse and the main antagonist in the Resident Evil: Extinction and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. He was the CEO and co-founder of Umbrella Corporation, with two of his clones being in charge of the Nemesis Program and later the Umbrella Science Division and overseeing the final stages of his apocalyptic plan. He was portrayed by Iain Glen.
History[]
Early Life[]
Dr. Alexander Isaacs was one of the co-founders of the Umbrella Corporation, along with Dr. James Marcus. Soon after Dr. Marcus created the T-virus to be used a regenerative tool for his daughter Alicia, Dr. Isaacs proposed to use it for military purposes. When Dr. Marcus denied this, he had his subordinate Albert Wesker murder Dr. Marcus. This in turn made Dr. Isaacs the majority shareholder whereas Dr. Marcus's daughter became the second majority shareholder. He even chose to raise Alicia in the absence of her father.
Orchestrating an Apocalypse[]
Prior to the Raccoon City outbreak, Dr. Isaacs held a meeting with the Umbrella High Command and the company co-owner Alicia Marcus. He convinced them that the Apocalypse was inevitable and proposed a method by which they could create an Apocalypse using the T-Virus. With the virus, Umbrella could wipe out most of humanity, preserving its infrastructure and what remained of the Earth's resources while removing the excess population. They could then release an airborne anti-virus to kill off the Undead around the world before releasing Umbrella's officers from stasis to repopulate and rebuild.
First clone (Apocalypse - Extinction)[]
After Isaacs went into stasis, one of his clones took up a position as the head of Umbrella's main research division while Albert Wesker took over as Chairman in his stead. In 2002, Umbrella arranged for a series of T-Virus "containment leaks" at various facilities across the world, including the Hive located beneath Raccoon City. Following the bombing of Raccoon City, the Isaacs clone recovered the body of Alice, a clone of Alicia Marcus who had been assigned to protect the Hive, from the wreckage of the helicopter she used to escape, and moved her to an Umbrella facility in Detroit. After three weeks of experiments, Alice was revived with incredible new powers. Unfortunately, she retained her memories and escaped, being rescued by Jill Valentine, Carlos Olivera, and Lloyd Jefferson Wayne. But Isaacs had one last trick up his sleeve, and as Alice mades her escape, he activated "Program: Alice". This brought Alice under computerised control, uplinking her to an Umbrella orbital satellite. This way, Isaacs could monitor Alice's every move and take control of her whenever he wished.
Following the destruction of Raccoon City, the T-Virus had begun spreading across the globe. No definite source of the outbreak could be confirmed, but Umbrella had in fact triggered multiple outbreaks at different sites worldwide. The world was overrun in short order, the only survivors being the civilians who stayed on the road, and Umbrella Corporation employees, who took shelter in underground facilities across the planet. Isaacs himself took charge of an underground lab in the Nevada desert, trying vainly to track Alice across the wasteland that North America had become over the span of five years. All the while, he maintained a combative relationship with Umbrella's de facto Chairman Wesker.
Isaacs, who had begun a cloning program to recreate Alice, attempted to use the clones' blood to "domesticate" the Undead, making them tame enough to allow humans to return to the surface. This was possible because, as he discovered, while the zombies hungered for human flesh, they derived no actual sustenance from it, and could remain active for decades. The results did succeed in raising the intelligence of the test subjects, but resulted in a stronger infection. Finally realizing that only the real Alice could bring him success, Isaacs falsified orders from Wesker and took a strike team into the wastes to deactivate and retrieve her. He made camp in the ruins of Las Vegas, setting a trap with the Enhanced Zombies to kill her so they could retrieve her corpse and take a sample of her blood.
The first Isaacs clone mutated into a "Tyrant"
The scheme did not go as he had planned. Alice massacred the strike team with incredible speed. After an unsuccessful attempt at deactivating her, Isaacs was bitten by an Enhanced Zombie. He returned to the lab and was placed under house arrest. He injected himself with large quantities of the anti-virus, but his condition continued to deteriorate. Wesker, meanwhile, had enough and ordered Isaacs' immediate termination. Alexander Slater carried out the order, shooting the scientist in the heart and leaving him for dead. However, it was too late, as Isaacs had already begun to mutate, transforming into a grotesque, tentacled monster who then proceeded to slaughter everyone in the facility, beginning with Slater. Taking action, the facility's AI, the White Queen sealed him in the lower levels. Some time later, Alice entered the facility, and after consulting with the White Queen, descended into the lower levels to kill the mutated Isaacs. They fought in a replica of the Arklay mansion, their fight eventually moving into the reconstructed "Laser Corridor."
Isaacs taunted Alice, telling her that she was not the future as he had previously thought, saying "I am the future." Alice responded by saying "No, you're just another asshole.", and that they were both going to die down there. As Isaacs moved in for the kill, the laser grid activated, controlled by a newly-awakened Alice clone, and sliced him into cubes. As far as Alice was aware, she had killed Isaacs for good, but had no idea that the real Isaacs remained in storage beneath the ruins of Raccoon City.
Second clone (Final Chapter)[]
The second Isaacs clone
Some time after the death of the first Isaacs clone, Umbrella created another to continue with the eradication of humanity. This clone appeared to be a religious zealot, commanding Umbrella's forces with fanatical charisma and ruthlessness.
In the final year of the T-Virus pandemic, this copy of Isaacs managed to capture Alice after she had escaped from Washington D.C. and discovered that she knew about the airborne anti-virus. Uncertain as to how she had found out, Isaacs tried to force the information out of her by tying her to the back of his armoured truck and forcing her to run across the road amidst a horde of Undead. Alice was able to get back aboard the truck and fought Isaacs, cutting off his hand with a combat knife and stealing a motorcycle.
Alice was able to reach Raccoon City before Isaacs and helped Claire Redfield and Doc defend an outpost of survivors from a zombie attack. She then embarked down into the Hive in search of Wesker and the anti-virus. Meanwhile, the Isaacs clone reconvened with another squad of Umbrella troops and killed them all, commandeering their armoured vehicle and attempted to herd another horde of Undead toward the Hive.
Reawakening[]
The real Isaacs
Alice would reach the lowest level of the Hive where she would confront Wesker, but to her surprise she also encountered the real Dr. Isaacs, recently awoken from cryo-stasis. With them was also Alicia Marcus, co-owner of Umbrella and Alice's genetic template. Isaacs revealed that Alice was merely a clone of Alicia and proceeded to gloat over his imminent victory, but Alicia states that while Isaacs controls half the company, Wesker is only an employee and she then fires him. This allows the Red Queen AI to take action against Wesker as he is no longer an Umbrella employee and closes a blast door on him, severing his arm. As Alice and Claire attack, Isaacs flees with the anti-virus, only needing to keep it away from them long enough for the last human settlement to be destroyed to win.
Isaacs enters an elevator where he forces the Red Queen to deactivate herself. As the Red Queen does so, she taunts "Doctor Isaacs, you and the Umbrella High Command. You are all going to die down here." Alice and Claire enter the elevator where Isaacs' technological enhancements enable him to predict their moves and dodge their bullets. Isaacs' fight with Alice takes them to the laser grid which he activates. When Alice dodges the lasers, Isaacs engages her hand-to-hand in the room, proving more than a match for Alice. Isaacs throws Alice around and even cuts off the fingers of her left hand with the lasers before discovering that she has dropped an activated grenade in his pocket. The grenade seriously wounds Isaacs who apparently dies moments later. Alice then takes the anti-virus and heads for the surface.
Death[]
Shortly after Alice departs, Isaacs is revived by a life-support system within his body and makes his way to the surface just before the Hive is destroyed by explosives planted by Alice. As Alice drops the anti-virus, Isaacs appears and catches it, holding Alice at gunpoint. Before Isaacs can kill Alice, his clone appears with an Undead army and is shocked to see himself there. Isaacs informs his clone that he's the real Alexander Isaacs while the clone is just a copy. Enraged and refusing to believe Isaacs, the clone attacks him, stabbing Isaacs repeatedly with a knife. His clone's attack causes Isaacs' life support system to fail, killing him. Isaacs' clone is killed moments later when the Undead swarm and devour him, allowing Alice to retrieve and release the anti-virus.