Chad Kaplan

 is a fictional commando and a supporting character in the Resident Evil multimedia franchise. Played by actor Martin Crewes, he was featured in the 2002 film adaptation of Resident Evil.

Biography
Chad Kaplan was a Caucasian male with dark hair who appeared to be in his mid-thirties. He was a military commando and a tech specialist for the Umbrella Security Service division of the Umbrella Corporation, based out of a Raccoon City. He was part of the U.S.S. sanitation unit.

In September of 2002, the Umbrella Corporation responded to a crisis situation taking place at their underground research facility, the Hive. The team's mission was to deactivate the facility's artificial intelligence, the Red Queen, which had gone "homicidal" and had killed everyone at the laboratory. The group was not provided information relating to the true nature of the Red Queen's actions, in that it was trying to quarantine a deadly outbreak of the T-Virus. As the tech specialist for the unit, it was Kaplan's responsibility to assemble a device that would deliver an electromagnetic pulse to the Red Queen, shutting down its systems temporarily.

Kaplan and the other members of the team arrived at the safe house, Arklay Mansion, which was occupied by fellow security specialists Alice Abernathy and Spence Parks. They found Alice, who had been suffering from amnesia. They also apprehended a man named Matt Addison, who claimed to have worked for the Raccoon City Police Department.

The team took the Alexi-5000 train down through the lower levels into the Hive underground. While on the train, they found another amnesiac security agent named Spence Parks. Once inside the Hive, Kaplan used his computer wrist-display to navigate through the facility towards the Red Queen Chamber. As Kaplan began setting up his equipment, the Red Queen sealed off each end of a corridor, cutting Kaplan, Alice and several others off from the advance unit. When he noticed that the Red Queen had activated her defense systems, Kaplan labored to bypass the security codes to the corridor to get the rest of his team out. A laser grid swept through the corridor, cutting down each member of the group. Kaplan succeeded in opening the door, but he was too late to save four members of the group, which included two commandos, a medic and unit commander James Shade.

They finally got to the computer mainframe where Alice and he began assembling the EMP device. The Red Queen generated a holographic avatar of herself, imploring them to abandon this tactic. Kaplan warned the others that the Red Queen would lie and say anything to prevent them from shutting her down. Once the computer realized that they were not going to abandon their plan, she coldly warned them, "You are all going to die down here". After shutting her down, Kaplan removed the computer's mother board, preventing her from immediately rebooting.

Unfortunately, Kaplan's actions yielded disastrous results. The remaining members of the team, which consisted of Spence, Matt, Alice, and two commandos named Rain Ocampo and J.D. Salinas were inside Dining Hall B, which was actually a storage bay filled with containment pods for the Hive's Bio Organic Weapon (B.O.W.) specimens. Shutting down the systems, all shut down the power to the pods, making them unstable. This resulted in releasing one of the Hive's more monstrous mutations called a Licker.

Before even learning about the Licker however, the group faced more pressing problems. The release of the T-Virus turned all of the site's personnel into zombies. Waves of the undead began pouring into the dining hall and attacked the group. While the others fought for their lives, Kaplan worked to find the code to bypass the security locks on the doors. Upon doing so, they were able to get out of the immediate danger area, though J.D. Salinas lost his life at this time as he was overwhelmed by zombies.

The group tried escaping through a utility tunnel, but the lower levels were swarming with zombies. They climbed atop some pipes hanging from the ceiling, but the combined weight of the group was too much and the pipes began to collapse. Kaplan fell behind and was bitten by a zombie. He urged the group to continue on without him, citing that he would never be able to keep up. As Alice and the others crawled away through a shaft, Chad remained behind ready to meet his fate. At the last moment however, he decided that he wanted to live, and pushed his way into a ventilation shaft, shouting at the clawing zombies that they would "have to work for their meal". He later caught up with the others and used his scientific expertise to free Alice, Matt and Rain from being sealed off in the Red Queen Chamber with the hungry Licker only seconds away from clawing its way inside. Things appeared hopeful for Kaplan as Alice revealed that there was an antivirus to the infection. Unfortunately, the antivirus was in the possession of Spence Parks, who had betrayed the group, and stolen the steel case containing the vials.

They made their way back to Loading Bay B where the train was stationed, only to find that Spence had now become a zombie. After Alice dispatched him, they boarded the train, and Kaplan drove it back towards the mansion. Unfortunately, the Licker had managed to climb aboard the outside of the Alexi-5000. Using its huge claws, it tore through the side of the train, grabbing Kaplan and throwing him outside to his doom. Whether Chad Kaplan survived this final assault or died on the train tracks remains unknown.

Notes & Trivia

 * The character is unique to the continuity of the Resident Evil film series and does not have a counterpart in the video game series by Capcom.


 * In Resident Evil, is identified only as Kaplan. His first name, as well as elements of his history prior to the Hive incident were revealed in the Resident Evil novelization of the film, which was published by Pocket Books under the title, Resident Evil: Genesis, by author Keith R.A. DeCandido in 2004.


 * Chad Kaplan's call sign is Twelve.


 * Chad Kaplan is the final victim in the movie, having been pulled from the Alexi-5000 train by the Licker. Though it is safe to assume that Kaplan died at this time, it is also possible that he may have survived being thrown from the train. An early script treatment for Resident Evil: Extinction posited the notion that Kaplan would have survived his ordeal with the Licker, but would have been infected with the T-Virus and becomes a zombie who attacks the Umbrella scientists led by William Birkin.


 * In original drafts for the movie, Kaplan's name was going to be Isaib Tagawa Mercurio.


 * Playing the role of Chad Kaplan is Martin Crewes' first work in a feature film.