Jill Valentine: the S.T.A.R.S. Survivor Who Outran Nemesis

Jill Valentine is a member of the Raccoon City police's elite S.T.A.R.S. unit who survived the outbreak at the Spencer Mansion, escaped the destruction of Raccoon City while being hunted by Nemesis, and became a founding member of the BSAA. She's one of the two original playable characters in the series, alongside Chris Redfield. She leads Resident Evil with Chris, Resident Evil 3 and Resident Evil: Revelations, and is at the heart of Resident Evil 5. (Resident Evil (1996); Resident Evil 3: Nemesis; Resident Evil: Revelations; Resident Evil 5)

The Spencer Mansion (1998)#

In July 1998 Jill's Alpha Team flew into the Arklay Mountains to find the missing Bravo Team. Attacked by infected dogs, they ran into a mansion in the forest, which turned out to be the cover for an Umbrella research lab. Jill worked her way through it with Barry Burton, not knowing their captain, Albert Wesker, was blackmailing Barry by threatening his family. In the labs Wesker revealed he worked for Umbrella and released a Tyrant, which killed him, or seemed to. Jill, Chris, Barry and Rebecca Chambers escaped by helicopter as the mansion blew up. (Resident Evil (1996))

How the remake changes it. The 2002 remake keeps the same story and adds Lisa Trevor, a girl Umbrella experimented on for decades, whose fate is tied to the mansion's history. It also fills out the lab files on Wesker's role. (Resident Evil (2002))

Raccoon City and Nemesis (1998)#

Nobody in authority believed the survivors. Jill stayed in Raccoon City to keep investigating Umbrella, and in late September the t-Virus broke out across the city. Umbrella sent a new bioweapon, Nemesis, to wipe out the remaining S.T.A.R.S. members. It killed Brad Vickers in front of her and chased her across the city. She teamed up with Carlos Oliveira, a mercenary in Umbrella's own rescue unit. Nemesis infected her during a fight, and Carlos found a vaccine to save her. They escaped as the government's missile strike destroyed the city. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)

How the remake changes it. The 2020 remake keeps the outline of the story but cuts or moves several locations, removes the choice moments of the original, and has Nemesis hunt Jill from the first minutes in her apartment. Its ending also plays out differently. (Resident Evil 3 (2020))

Umbrella's end and the BSAA (2003 to 2005)#

In 2003 Jill and Chris raided Umbrella's last major facility in Russia, which helped bring the company down. Both were among the original members of the BSAA, the anti-bioterror alliance that grew out of that work. (Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles; Resident Evil 5)

In 2005 she went looking for Chris after contact with him was lost, and found herself on the cruise liner Queen Zenobia, overrun by creatures made with a new virus. The trail led to a cover-up by the head of an anti-bioterror agency. (Resident Evil: Revelations)

Lost in Nightmares (2006)#

In 2006 Jill and Chris raided the European estate of Oswell E. Spencer, Umbrella's founder, to arrest him. They found him already dead and Wesker standing over the body. Wesker was too strong for both of them. When he was about to kill Chris, Jill threw herself at Wesker and carried them both out of a window and over a cliff. She was listed as missing, presumed dead. (Resident Evil 5: Lost in Nightmares)

Wesker's prisoner (2006 to 2009)#

Wesker survived the fall and kept Jill alive. The t-Virus she'd been infected with in 1998 had left antibodies in her body, and Wesker used them in developing his Uroboros virus. The experiments drained the colour from her hair. Later he fitted a device to her chest that injected an experimental mind-control drug, and used her as a masked bodyguard. (Resident Evil 5)

In 2009 Chris and his partner Sheva Alomar found her in Africa. They fought her and tore the device from her chest. Freed, she warned Chris that an overdose of the drug Wesker took to keep his own powers stable would kill him, and helped end his plan. (Resident Evil 5)

Death Island (2015)#

After years of tests and rehab, Jill went back to the field, but she was reckless, driven by guilt over the things she'd done under Wesker's control. In 2015 a string of strange infections in San Francisco led her, Chris and Claire Redfield to Alcatraz, where they met Leon S. Kennedy and found ex-mercenary Dylan Blake planning to spread a new t-Virus strain with insect-like drones. Blake infected Leon, Chris and Claire but spared Jill so she'd have to watch her friends die, the way he'd watched his own unit die in Raccoon City. Rebecca reached them with a vaccine, and Jill helped the group bring Blake down. As they waited for rescue, Chris praised what she'd done. (Resident Evil: Death Island)

Relationships#

• Chris Redfield. Her S.T.A.R.S. teammate and BSAA partner. He kept looking for her after 2006 when everyone else had given up. (Resident Evil 5: Lost in Nightmares; Resident Evil 5)
• Barry Burton. A close friend from the S.T.A.R.S. days, even after Wesker forced him to betray the team. (Resident Evil (1996))
• Albert Wesker. Her old captain, her jailer for three years, and the man she helped kill. (Resident Evil (1996); Resident Evil 5)
• Carlos Oliveira. Her ally in the last days of Raccoon City. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)

In the films#

Sienna Guillory played Jill in Paul W. S. Anderson's live-action series. She's a disgraced police officer fighting through the outbreak in Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), reappears in a post-credits scene in Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010), and in Resident Evil: Retribution (2012) she's brainwashed by Umbrella with a device on her chest, a nod to Resident Evil 5. Hannah John-Kamen played her in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021), which puts her on S.T.A.R.S. at the mansion. Jill's only CG film is Death Island, covered above. See Welcome to Raccoon City explained and the CG films guide. (Resident Evil: Apocalypse; Resident Evil: Afterlife; Resident Evil: Retribution; Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City)