Arklay Mansion

Arklay Mansion is a fictional residence featured in the Resident Evil multimedia franchise. It first appeared in the 1996 Japanese video game Bio Hazard, which was repackaged as Resident Evil in the United States. The mansion served as the primary setting for the events of the game. A version of the mansion was also featured in the 2002 film adaptation of Resident Evil, though it is never identified by name.

Resident Evil (2002)
Arklay Mansion is a large manor house located in the Arklay Mountains outside the suburbs of Raccoon City. The mansion was owned by the Umbrella Corporation and served as the secret access to the company's underground top-secret research facility, the Hive. Umbrella appointed two of its top security specialists, Alice Abernathy and Spence Parks to oversee security at the mansion, making sure that nothing compromises the integrity of the Hive entrance. To maintain their cover identity, Umbrella arranged a fake wedding between the two, although Alice and Spence actually did become intimate with one another over the course of the job.

Spence Parks used his credentials to access the Hive to steal a sample of the deadly T-Virus strain. To cover his tracks, he released another sample into the ventilation system, prompting the site's artificial intelligence, the Red Queen, to take drastic measures. In addition to killing all Hive personnel, the Red Queen also released a nerve gas through the remainder of the facility, including the mansion. The purpose of the gas was to render all those affected by it unconscious. When those subjected to the gas regained consciousness, they often suffered from temporary memory loss as a side effect.

Alice awakened inside the shower of the Acklay mansion with no memory of who she was. As she wandered the main hall of the house trying to get her bearings, an Umbrella Security Service sanitation team burst through the windows. The leader of the group, James Shade, tried to get Alice to report on the situation, but she was too befuddled by the gas to make an assessment. The group also managed to apprehend a man named Matt Addison, who was an anti-corporate activist who came to the mansion in search of his sister, Lisa, who was a scientist for the Hive.

The U.S.S. unit took Alice and Matt down through the secret access tunnel below the mansion to a train that brought them further underground to the Hive. What transpired down there was a tableau of blood and carnage as they discovered that the release of the T-Virus turned the entire staff into flesh-eating zombies. By the end of the affair, Alice and Matt were the only two to make it back up to the mansion alive. Matt however, was gravely injured by the infected claws of a creature known as a licker.

An Umbrella science team wearing Hazmat suits burst through the front doors into the foyer of the mansion. They took Matt to be experimented on for the Nemesis Program while Alice was taken to the Raccoon City Hospital for blood tests.

Notes & Trivia

 * In the Resident Evil feature film, Arklay Mansion is referred to only as the Mansion. This includes its identity on the Red Queen surveillance monitors.