Feature
Let's Remember The Time Chris Redfield Punched That Boulder
Resident Evil 5 asks players to accept a volcano, a mutating Albert Wesker and a plane crash. The thing nobody could accept was a man punching a rock out of the way.
Resident Evil is now more than twenty years old, and Chris Redfield has come a long way. In the 1996 original he was the character most players knew least about. He had fewer inventory slots than Jill Valentine, so choosing him felt like a decision for experts.
He has also become one of the series’ defining faces. Chris is playable in Resident Evil, Code Veronica, Resident Evil 5, Resident Evil 6, Revelations and the Not a Hero DLC for Resident Evil 7, before counting The Umbrella Chronicles, The Darkside Chronicles and the Mercenaries modes. Early on he did not stand out from any other tough-guy cop: a flat-top haircut, a cigarette, the full stereotype.
Chris Redfield changes
People change in twenty years. Tastes in music move on, social awkwardness fades, grey hair arrives. Somewhere along the way, though, Chris Redfield seems to have crossed over to the dark side.
Anyone who has spent time around bodybuilders knows the signs. Someone bulks up at an inhuman rate, gets angrier and more aggressive, and starts commenting on everyone else’s calves. Consider the evidence against Chris. He spends his days travelling the world with the BSAA, fighting people like Albert Wesker. When would he train? Arms that size do not come from a few push-ups. Building that much muscle takes huge numbers of calories and careful nutrition, yet in no Resident Evil game is he ever seen eating. He does, however, consume herbs constantly. Then compare the before and after pictures.
It is hard to condemn him. The temptation of a bigger physique and a heavier bench press is easy to understand. And any doubts would have vanished the moment he met his greatest opponent.
The boulder
Not just any boulder. That boulder. The one balanced conveniently on the edge of a drop in an active volcano, ready to be punched. The one that got there with no human help at all. The one standing between Chris and Sheva.
His first push does nothing. (A note on technique: he should be driving with his legs and core.) The boulder did not know what was coming next, and the quick-time event followed: a few body shots to soften it up, then a right hook, and down it went, rolling out of the way.
Without that burst of rage there might have been no Resident Evil 6, which would not have been a great loss. There would also have been no Resident Evil 7, which would have been a real one.
In defence of Resident Evil 5
Resident Evil 5 deserves a fairer hearing than it usually gets. It is often dismissed because it followed one of the greatest games ever made and leaned harder into action than horror. Played alone, it is weak. With a partner in co-op, it is one of the better cooperative games of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 generation.
Resident Evil 4 had already moved the series from survival horror to survival action. It worked: RE4 is among the highest-rated games ever made and won several Game of the Year awards. RE5 is in many ways the same game, yet received far less praise. As the action grew, so did the firepower, the quick-time events and the explosions, until Resident Evil 6 might as well have been directed by Michael Bay.
Jumping the shark
By that point in RE5 the player has survived chases, giant monsters and a plane crash. The crash ends inside an active volcano, where a Matrix-style Albert Wesker punches through a canister of the Uroboros virus and mutates into a giant with swollen arms. Of everything Capcom asked players to believe, the hardest was that Chris could punch a boulder hard enough to roll it away.
Television shows “jump the shark”. For Resident Evil, this was the moment, and it is a strong candidate for the most famous shark-jump in any game series. That is quite a claim in a medium that also contains Metal Gear.
Questions readers ask
In which game does Chris Redfield punch a boulder?
Resident Evil 5 (2009), during the volcano sequence near the end of the game, when Chris clears a fallen boulder in a quick-time event to reach Sheva.
Why is Chris Redfield so muscular in Resident Evil 5?
Capcom never gave an in-story reason. Chris simply bulked up between Resident Evil: Code Veronica and RE5, and the change became one of the most joked-about character redesigns in the series.
Which games is Chris Redfield playable in?
Resident Evil, Code Veronica, Resident Evil 5, Resident Evil 6, Revelations and the Not a Hero DLC for Resident Evil 7, plus spinoffs such as The Umbrella Chronicles and The Darkside Chronicles and various Mercenaries modes.