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The topic of this article may not meet Misplaced Pages's general notability guideline. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. Find sources: "Raccoon City" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Raccoon City is a fictional midwestern city depicted in the Resident Evil series of survival horror video games created by Capcom. It serves as the primary setting for Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, as well as the Outbreak series. The city also serves as the setting in the films Resident Evil, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, and is referenced in Resident Evil: Extinction. Raccoon City is depicted as an archetypal industrialized midwestern American city.

Geography and Characteristics

In video games

Template:Vg-in-universe Raccoon City was governed by Mayor Michael Warren, who was elected in 1987 and served in that position for eleven years.

A series of bizarre cannibal homicides occurred in the forests of the Arklay Mountains north of the city, beginning in May 1998 and continuing through the following months. Victims, usually hikers, picnickers or couples at romance spots appeared to have been mauled by dogs and partially eaten by humans or other unidentified creatures.

Umbrella scientist James Marcus released the T-Virus at the mansion after being assassinated by Albert Wesker and William Birkin.

By September 29, nearly everyone in the city had either been killed by the monsters and bio-weapons released from Umbrella's laboratories, or had succumbed to the T-Virus and become zombies. The military barricades surrounding the city had begun to fail in some places, allowing unwary visitors to enter the city, and allowing some of the city's few survivors to escape.

Some time between the night of September 30 and dawn of October 1, 1998, the United States government decided to sterilize Raccoon City by completely destroying everything and everyone inside with strategic weapons. The entire area of Raccoon City was incinerated, and the death toll was estimated to have exceeded 100,000.

What was left of Raccoon City and the surrounding area was searched and categorized thoroughly for any possible survivors and biohazard threats by US military HAZMAT teams and Umbrella in early October 1998. By late February 2000, the search and categorizing operation ended with no survivors found. But there were small traces of active T-Virus and G-Virus strains found. The ruins of Raccoon City and twenty miles around it were declared a possible biohazard threat and became a highly-classified restricted area that only the US government and Umbrella personnel could enter.

In film

and Resident Evil: Apocalypse

Raccoon City is depicted in film as a modern cosmopolitan city with an infrastructure largely funded by the Umbrella Corporation. Underneath the city is a top secret underground laboratory known as The Hive. The promotional faux newspaper The Raccoon City Times depicted civil unrest and concern regarding scientific research and experimentation in Raccoon City. Much of the exterior visuals depicting Raccoon City were shot on location in Ontario, Canada. The Toronto City Hall served as Raccoon City Hall. The New York Times applauded the filmmakers' portrayal of the city in Resident Evil: Apocalypse stating "Raccoon City is played, for once, by a proud, undisguised Toronto, complete with CN Tower." USA Today, however, referred to the city's name in the film as "the most inane moniker of any metropolis on the planet."

Raccoon City in popular culture

In Lust for Puppets, an episode of the the animated Cartoon Network show Robot Chicken, Raccoon City along with Vice City are parodied.

References

1. Jeremy Parish, "“WTFiction!? Deciphering silly stories: RACCOON CITY," Electronic Gaming Monthly 224 (January 2008), 100.
2. Damein Waples, "Raccoon's Destruction 1," "Raccoon's Destruction 2," and "Raccoon's Destruction 3," Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles Official Game Guide (Roseville: Prima Games, 2007), 58-73.
3. "The Raccoon City Times" (PDF). Screen Gems. Summer/Fall 2004. Retrieved 2008-07-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
4. DAVE KEHR, "Call to Arms, With Trouble Right Here in Zombie City: Review of RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE," The New York Times (September 10, 2004).
5. Claudia Puig, "Resident Evil gives undead a bad name," USA Today: Life, Pg. 06d (09/10/2004).
6. Seth Green (Writer and Director) (2006-11-05). "Robot Chicken". Cartoon Network. {{cite episode}}: Missing or empty |series= (help); Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help)

• Articles with topics of unclear notability from July 2008
• Fictional cities and towns in the United States
• Resident Evil locations