Ada Wong: the Spy Nobody Can Pin Down

Ada Wong is a freelance spy who was sent into Raccoon City in 1998 to steal the G-Virus, and has been turning up wherever a bioweapon is worth stealing ever since. Capcom's own guidebook says nobody knows where or when she was born, her nationality, her real age or even the name she was born with. What's certain is her history with Leon S. Kennedy, which runs through most of the series. She's a major character in Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 6, with her own campaigns in the last two. (Resident Evil 2 (1998); biohazard 4 kaitaishinsho; Resident Evil 6; Resident Evil 4 (2005))

Raccoon City (1998)#

Ada had already spied on Umbrella by getting close to one of its researchers. In late September 1998 her employer, a company competing with Umbrella, sent her into Raccoon City for the G-Virus. She met Leon at the police station and told him she was looking for her boyfriend. Together they went down through the sewers to Umbrella's underground lab. (Resident Evil 2 (1998))

There she showed her hand and demanded the G-Virus sample from Leon. She was badly hurt and seemed to die in the lab as it started to self-destruct, but she survived. In one version of events she came back to throw Leon a rocket launcher to finish the Tyrant chasing them. She escaped the city with a piece of William Birkin's mutated tissue in place of the sample she'd lost. (Resident Evil 2 (1998); Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles)

How the remake changes it. The 2019 remake makes her cover story a claim to be an FBI agent and has her and Leon grow closer before the betrayal. She again seems to fall to her death and again is gone when Leon looks for her. (Resident Evil 2 (2019))

Working for Wesker (1998 to 2004)#

Her contact at the rival company was Albert Wesker, the former Umbrella man who had faked his own death. He helped her out of Raccoon City, and for years the two worked side by side and against each other. In 2002 she approached a South American drug lord who was buying Umbrella bioweapons, offering her company's products. (Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles; Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles)

Spain (2004)#

Ada was sent to Spain to get a sample of the dominant Las Plagas parasite from the cult Los Iluminados, while Leon was there to rescue the President's daughter. Wesker even ordered her to kill Leon at one point, and she didn't. Instead she saved him several times and fought Jack Krauser, Wesker's other agent on the mission. At the end she took the sample from Leon at gunpoint and escaped by helicopter, leaving him a jet ski. She kept the real sample for her employer and gave Wesker a lesser one. (Resident Evil 4 (2005))

How the remake changes it. The 2023 remake and its Separate Ways chapter keep her role and her prize but rework her scenes with Leon and Luis Sera and her dealings with Wesker. (Resident Evil 4 (2023))

Eastern Slav (2011)#

In 2011 an unknown client sent Ada into the Eastern Slav Republic during its civil war to find out where the parasites both sides were using had come from. She posed as a representative of the BSAA, ran into Leon again, was caught by the country's president and escaped with a Plaga sample. (Resident Evil: Damnation)

The double (2012 to 2013)#

Ada had once taken jobs from Derek Simmons, a senior US official, until he became dangerously obsessed with her and she cut him off. Simmons had his chief scientist, Carla Radames, turned into Ada's double with the new C-Virus. Carla, driven mad, used Ada's face to launch attacks around the world and to wipe out Chris Redfield's squad in Edonia, so Ada was blamed for everything. (Resident Evil 6)

In 2013 Ada tracked the double from a sinking submarine to Tall Oaks and Lanshiang in China. She worked with Leon and Secret Service agent Helena Harper against Simmons, saved Leon from him and outlived Carla's final mutation. Then she destroyed the last thing Carla had grown in her lab and left. (Resident Evil 6)

Relationships#

• Leon S. Kennedy. She's lied to him and taken things from him, but never let him die. (Resident Evil 2 (1998); Resident Evil 4 (2005); Resident Evil 6)
• Albert Wesker. Her contact and sometimes employer, whom she outplayed in Spain. (Resident Evil 4 (2005))
• Derek Simmons. A past client whose obsession with her led to Carla Radames. (Resident Evil 6)
• Carla Radames. The woman who wore her face. (Resident Evil 6)

In the films#

Li Bingbing played Ada in Resident Evil: Retribution (2012), from Paul W. S. Anderson's series, as an agent of Wesker sent to help Alice. Lily Gao played her in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021), where she appears in a mid-credits scene with Wesker. Ada's only CG appearance is Resident Evil: Damnation, covered above. See Welcome to Raccoon City explained and the CG films guide. (Resident Evil: Retribution; Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City; Resident Evil: Damnation)