Carlos Oliveira: the Umbrella Mercenary Who Saved Jill in Resident Evil 3

Carlos Oliveira is a corporal in Umbrella's private army, the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service (U.B.C.S.), and Jill Valentine's partner in Resident Evil 3. Sent into Raccoon City believing he was there to save people, he watched his unit die, learned who was really to blame, and kept Jill alive when the Nemesis nearly killed her. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis; Resident Evil 3 (2020))

Who is Carlos Oliveira?#

Carlos was a soldier long before Umbrella hired him. His profile in The Umbrella Chronicles describes a South American guerrilla fighter who joined the U.B.C.S. after his group was wiped out. The U.B.C.S. was built from men like him: experienced fighters with nowhere else to go, paid to clean up when Umbrella's bioweapons got loose. In his squad Carlos handled heavy weapons. (Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles; Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)

He's younger and warmer than most of his comrades, quick with a joke and sure of himself with women, and Jill's first impression of him isn't good. What matters is that he believed the cover story. As far as he knew, the mercenaries were in Raccoon City to rescue civilians. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)

Raccoon City and Jill Valentine#

The U.B.C.S. went into the city in late September 1998, and the outbreak was far worse than anyone had been told. Most of the mercenaries were dead or turned within hours. Carlos survived with a handful of his platoon under Captain Mikhail Victor, who was badly wounded, and Sergeant Nikolai Zinoviev. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)

On 28 September he met Jill downtown. She didn't want help from an Umbrella soldier, but he saved her life, and they agreed to work together. Mikhail's plan was to reach the Saint Michael Clock Tower, where a helicopter would come if someone rang the bell. Carlos and Jill got a tram running to take them there. When the Nemesis attacked the tram, Mikhail sacrificed himself to stop it. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)

At the clock tower the Nemesis shot down the helicopter. Jill fought it off, but it infected her with the t-Virus, and she collapsed. Carlos carried her inside and watched over her. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)

The vaccine and Nikolai#

To save Jill, Carlos went alone to the city hospital. There he found a dying comrade, Tyrell, who told him Nikolai had shot him. Nikolai was one of Umbrella's supervisors, planted in the U.B.C.S. to watch the mercenaries fight its bioweapons, and he was killing the others so he would be the only one left to sell the data. He made a vaccine with the hospital's equipment, escaped before the building was destroyed, and cured Jill. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)

On 1 October, with the government about to destroy the city with a missile, he and Jill headed for an abandoned Umbrella plant on the edge of town. Jill finished the Nemesis, and the two of them flew out by helicopter as the sun rose. In one ending their pilot is Barry Burton, who had come back for Jill. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)

Carlos also leads one of the playable teams in the original's bonus mode, The Mercenaries, alongside Mikhail and Nikolai. The Umbrella Chronicles retells his escape with Jill in its Raccoon City chapters. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis; Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles)

How the 2020 remake changes Carlos#

The remake gives Carlos a bigger part and makes him playable for two long stretches. He first meets Jill when the Nemesis drags her off a building and he helps knock it down. His squad is guarding a subway train full of civilians, and he talks Jill through restoring the power to get it moving. (Resident Evil 3 (2020))

He doesn't ride the train. Mikhail sends Carlos and Tyrell Patrick to the police station to find Nathaniel Bard, the Umbrella scientist working on a vaccine. There, in the early hours of 29 September, Carlos fights through the station and sees Lieutenant Marvin Branagh bitten, which links straight into Marvin's wound in the Resident Evil 2 remake. (Resident Evil 3 (2020); Resident Evil 2 (2019))

When Jill is infected at the clock tower, Carlos takes her to the hospital, finds Bard already dead, and cures her with Bard's vaccine. Reading Bard's files, he learns Umbrella caused the outbreak and that Jill knew all along. In the finale under the hospital, Carlos is knocked out and Nikolai uses him as bait. Carlos comes round in time to grab Nikolai, Jill shoots the traitor, and they leave him behind and fly out as the city is destroyed. (Resident Evil 3 (2020))

What happened to Carlos?#

Resident Evil 3 is the end of his story in the games. He doesn't appear in Resident Evil 4 or later numbered games, and the series has never shown where he went after Raccoon City. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis; Resident Evil 3 (2020))

Carlos Olivera in the films#

In Paul W. S. Anderson's live-action films the character is spelt Carlos Olivera and played by Oded Fehr. In Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) he's a U.B.C.S. soldier left to die in Raccoon City who joins Alice and Jill to escape. Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) has him leading a convoy of survivors across the desert. Bitten, he drives a fuel tanker packed with explosives into a horde of undead to clear the way, and dies in the blast. Fehr returns in Resident Evil: Retribution (2012) as Umbrella clones of the character. The films are their own continuity; see the Anderson films. (Resident Evil: Apocalypse; Resident Evil: Extinction; Resident Evil: Retribution)