Barry Burton: the S.T.A.R.S. Weapons Expert, Blackmail Victim and Father

Barry Burton is the backup man and weapons expert of the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha Team, a big, bearded family man who knows more about guns than anyone in the unit. He partners Jill Valentine in the original Resident Evil, where Albert Wesker forces him to work against her, and he's a playable lead seventeen years later in Resident Evil: Revelations 2. (Resident Evil; Resident Evil: Revelations 2)

Who is Barry Burton?#

Barry spent years in the US Air Force, where he became friends with Chris Redfield, then moved to a police SWAT team before joining S.T.A.R.S. in Raccoon City. When Chris drifted after leaving the Air Force, Barry talked him into joining. He's the unit's gun man, and the original game gives him a family photo of his wife and daughters that he carries everywhere. That photo matters later. (Resident Evil)

The Spencer Mansion and Wesker's blackmail (Resident Evil, 1998)#

In Jill's scenario of Resident Evil, Barry is her partner through the mansion. He turns up just in time to save her more than once, including from a crushing ceiling trap, which is where the famous "Jill sandwich" line comes from in the 1996 version. (Resident Evil)

He's also acting strangely. Barry keeps disappearing, asks Jill to wait while he checks things alone, and at one point leads her into danger. The reason is Wesker. The Alpha Team captain was working for Umbrella and had told Barry his family would die unless he helped hide evidence and keep the others away from the truth. (Resident Evil)

The two outcomes depend on Jill's choices. If she trusts him, Barry confronts Wesker in the underground lab after Wesker admits the threat against his family was a bluff. Barry knocks him down, and he gets out on the helicopter with the other survivors. If she doesn't, Barry can die before the end and isn't on the helicopter. The later games follow the version where he survives. (Resident Evil)

Raccoon City (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)#

After the mansion, Barry, Chris and Jill kept investigating Umbrella on their own. Barry sent his wife and daughters out of town to keep them safe. When Raccoon City fell to the t-Virus in late September 1998, Jill was still inside. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)

In one version of the original Resident Evil 3: Nemesis ending, Barry is the one who gets her out; in the other, Jill and Carlos leave without him. His epilogue says he couldn't get past the military blockade at first, hired a helicopter and waited until the cordon lifted for the missile strike. On 1 October he reached Jill and the Umbrella mercenary Carlos Oliveira and flew them clear just before the city was destroyed. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)

The 2020 remake of Resident Evil 3 leaves Barry out completely. Jill and Carlos escape the city without him. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)

Between the outbreaks#

By 2011 Barry was back home with his family. (Resident Evil: Revelations 2)

That didn't go well at home. Revelations 2 explains that Barry once left a pistol unsecured, and Moira, playing with her younger sister Polly, accidentally shot her. Polly survived, but Moira was left terrified of guns, and the guilt and blame split father and daughter for years. By 2011 she called him Barry, not Dad. (Resident Evil: Revelations 2)

Sein Island (Resident Evil: Revelations 2, 2011)#

Moira joined TerraSave, the anti-bioterror group Claire Redfield worked for. In 2011 both of them were kidnapped and taken to Sein Island. Claire escaped, but she believed Moira had died there. Barry refused to accept it. Six months later he picked up a distress call from Moira and went to the island alone. (Resident Evil: Revelations 2)

On the beach he met Natalia Korda, a little girl who could sense monsters and hidden items, and the two travelled together. Barry learned that the island's tower was home to Alex Wesker, a woman raised under the same programme as Albert. She'd infected herself with the Uroboros virus to cheat death. Barry fought her mutated form in her lab. (Resident Evil: Revelations 2)

In the good ending, Moira turned out to be alive and saved Natalia at the last moment. Claire arrived by helicopter and took the girls aboard, Barry held Alex off with his magnum, and at his call Claire finished her with a rocket launcher. Father and daughter made up on the way home, and Barry took Natalia in. (Resident Evil: Revelations 2)

How has Barry changed between versions?#

The 2002 remake of Resident Evil keeps his blackmail plot but cleans up his dialogue, so the "Jill sandwich" line doesn't make it across. The remake also adds a scene where Barry has to deal with Lisa Trevor alongside Jill. Beyond that his story is the same in both versions. (Resident Evil)