James Shade

James Shade is a fictional military soldier and a supporting character in the Resident Evil multimedia franchise. Played by actor Colin Salmon, he was introduced in the 2002 film adaptation of Resident Evil. Colin Salmon also played a clone of James Shade, who appeared in the 2012 movie, Resident Evil: Retribution.

Biography
James Shade was an African American male who appeared to be his late thirties or early forties in the early 2000s. He was a member of the Umbrella Security Service division of the Umbrella Corporation, based out of a Raccoon City, and was the leader of a commando unit.

In 2002, the Umbrella Corporation responded to a crisis at their underground research facility, the Hive. One's mission was to deactivate the facility's artificial intelligence, the Red Queen, who had gone "homicidal" and had killed everyone at the laboratory. He 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.

Shade and his unit broke into the safe house mansion 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.

Shade took Alice and Matt with them as they went underground and boarded a train that took them to the Hive. They made their way to the Red Queen Chamber armed with equipment designed to shut down all of its systems. As his crew began setting up their equipment, the Red Queen sealed off each ends of a corridor, cutting Shade and his group off from Alice as well as the team's tech specialist, Chad Kaplan and a commando named Rain Ocampo.

Commando Alfonso Warner was the first to take note of the laser defense grid. A horizontal beam traveled down the length of the corridor. James Shade pushed a commando named Vance Drew out of the way, but the laser still managed to cut off his fingers. The team's medic, a Russian woman named Olga Danilova was standing behind them and was decapitated as the beam sliced through her neck. A second beam came down the hall and Alfonso Warner tried jumping to avoid it. The beam changed direction, catching him right in the mid-section, slicing him in half. With only James Shade left standing, he succeeded in jumping up and catching onto some handholds in the ceiling to avoid the next beam. However, on the following attack, the defense system changed its configuration, creating a laser grid that swept the entirety of the corridor. Chad Kaplan managed to deactivate the system, but he was too late as the grid passed through Shade, cutting him into cubits.

Notes & Trivia



 * In Resident Evil, James Shade is identified only by his call sign, "One". His real 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.


 * James Shade was the last of four U.S.S. personnel to be killed by the Red Queen in the Red Queen Chamber corridor.


 * James Shade was a close friend and colleague of Major Timothy Cain, who was played by Thomas Kretschmann in Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The two served together in Afghanistan during Operation: Desert Storm.


 * The Umbrella Corporation created a clone of James Shade, who served under Jill Valentine. He was killed by Barry Burton in a stand-off.