Leon Kennedy
Background (#Background)
Basic Overview
Age: 40 (born 1977)
Height: 5’ 11” (180 cm)
Weight: 155 lbs. (70.2 kg)
First day on the job as a police officer, had to fight off a zombie-infested city.
Recruited and trained by US government to deal with B.O.W. threats around the world.
One of the more divisive hairstyles in fiction.
At the age of 21, after having just graduated from the police academy, Leon Kennedy was assigned to Raccoon City. He arrived a day late, and, luckily or unluckily for him (depending on how you look at it), a day after the t-virus outbreak that consumed the city and turned almost the entire population into flesh-eating zombies and biologically enhanced superhuman monsters. His first day on the force was spent cleaning up that mess alongside Claire Redfield, sister of recurring series protagonist Chris Redfield. After meeting up with femme fatale Ada Wong, fighting an army of undead ghouls, uncovering a larger conspiracy by the Umbrella Corporation, and defeating both the G-virus infected William Birkin and a T-00 Tyrant, Leon (and co.) managed to escape Raccoon City and declared he would take down Umbrella.
After this, Leon was interrogated by the US military and then recruited due to his first-hand experience of surviving a zombie apocalypse. He was trained by the government in both armed and unarmed combat and molded into a world-class special agent and effective super soldier with the mission of taking down B.O.W.s (Bio-Organic Weapons), and the people who manufacture them wherever they pop up around the globe, as well as other top-level assignments. His last canonical appearance was in Resident Evil: Vendetta, but as there is no reason to believe otherwise, he is still alive as of the most recent title in the timeline, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.
Resident Evil Universe Background Information
In order to understand the events of the numerous Resident Evil games that Leon is a part of, it’s necessary to understand some basic information about the origin of Umbrella, the various lettered viruses, and all the ancillary characters, so I’ll do my best to summarize.
Any history of Resident Evil is going to be a history of the Umbrella corporation. Umbrella was founded in 1968 after the discovery of the Progenitor virus, a West African virus that, after being combined with leech DNA, became the t-virus, a viral agent that turns people into zombies. The creator of the t-virus and co-founder of Umbrella, James Marcus, was then murdered by his assistants, William Birkin and Albert Wesker, at the behest of other Umbrella co-founder Oswell E. Spencer, and Marcus’s experiments were continued in Spencer’s mansion/underground laboratory in the Arklay mountains near Raccoon City. Research then shifted towards the creation of B.O.W.s, first using animals, but then later humans, all the while Umbrella maintained an outer image of a friendly pharmaceutical company. The many experiments created by the Arklay facility eventually escaped into the woods near the mansion (set loose by a resurrected Marcus), leading to an investigation by S.T.A.R.S., and the events of the first Resident Evil.
Another underground research facility had been constructed underneath neighboring Raccoon City, and became Birkin’s primary residence, who around this time completed the Golgotha virus (or G-virus) which turned those infected by it into large superhuman mutant monsters. Concerned Birkin was unwilling to turn over his virus, Umbrella sent in a strike team to assassinate him and steal the G-virus, which was successful until Birkin injected himself with the virus, murdered all but one of the strike team, and inadvertently infected the city’s water supply with samples of the t-virus, leading to another zombie outbreak only two months before the last. This outbreak would cover the events of Resident Evil 2, including Leon’s introduction.
Operation Javier (Darkside Chronicles)
In 2002, after the events of Raccoon City and his subsequent training, Leon was sent on a mission with ex-USSOCOM Jack Krauser to infiltrate a small South American country and find Javier Hidalgo, a drug lord in the area who later turned out to be responsible for a t-virus outbreak there as well, which Leon and Krauser were forced to fight their way through.
Los Illuminados (Resident Evil 4)
In 2004, Leon is sent on a mission to retrieve the President’s daughter who had been kidnapped by members of a rural Spanish cult known as Los Illuminados. Once there, Leon found out that the population of the cult had all been infected by a parasite known as Las Plagas which zombifies its victims in similar ways to the t-virus. Leon managed to rescue Ashley, defeat the cult leader (as well as Krauser, who was Ashley’s original captor), and escape.
Harvardville/WilPharma (Degeneration)
In 2005, Leon was called into assist with rescuing the survivors of a t-virus outbreak in Harvardville airport. After doing so, he defeated the G-virus infected B.O.W. Curtis Miller and exposed the culprit behind the outbreak, Frederic Downing.
Eastern Slav Republic (Damnation)
In 2011, Leon is sent into the Eastern Slav Republic to determine whether or not the rebel forces in the civil war were using B.O.W.s (they were). Despite being ordered to leave soon after his arrival by his government superiors, Leon discovered evidence of B.O.W. use in the war, as well as a plot by the Eastern Slav Republic government to breed Las Plagas and use them to win the war. After defeating a Super Tyrant, the US and Russian militaries invaded the country and put an end to the civil war.
Tall Oaks, U.S.A./Lanshiang, China (Resident Evil 6)
After a bio-terrorist attack hits Tall Oaks, U.S.A., and turns the entire population of the town (and the US President) into zombies, Leon and partner Helena Harper have to escape the city. They manage to uncover the underground laboratory where the new C-virus was developed, and are framed by National Security Advisor Derek Simmons for the assassination of the President (despite it being Simmons who organized the attack).
The duo made their way to Lanshiang, China, which became host to another C-virus outbreak. They managed to track down Simmons, who himself became infected with the C-virus and transformed into a giant mutated monster that Leon eventually defeated.
New York City (Vendetta)
After a botched mission that resulted in the deaths of every man under his command, Leon fell into a deep, alcoholic depression. Chris Redfield and Rebecca Chambers recruit him to help take down black market dealer and bio-terrorist Glenn Arias, who developed the new A-virus and then releases it into NYC, turning half the population into zombies. After Rebecca is kidnapped by Arias’s goons, Chris and Leon work together to save her, stop Arias, and avert the zombie apocalypse. They are successful, and, in a series (and possibly genre) first, revert the zombified population back to normal.
Experience
Basic Overview
Has fought B.O.W.s for 19 years, and survived at least eight zombie outbreaks.
Training focused on martial arts, knife combat, marksmanship, physicals, etc.
Fought everything from zombies to super soldiers to building-sized monsters.
Length of Time
As you can tell from the above, Leon has had almost two decades of experience fighting zombies and B.O.W.s around the world, and his increased age hasn’t seemed to slow him down at all. From the Raccoon City outbreak in 1998 to the events of RE7 (which he was not apart of, but is still alive for), Leon’s had 19 years of experience, and has been a part of eight separate zombie outbreaks: Raccoon City, Operation Javier, Los Illuminados, Harvardville/WhilPharma, Eastern Slav Republic, Tall Oaks, Lanshiang, and New York City.
And it should be noted that although he is shown taking occasional vacations, it’s never mentioned anywhere that he’s gone into lengthy retirements, and there’s never been a point when he’s been “rusty” after returning to the fight after a long break; he’s been doing this pretty consistently.
Training
While his feats during the Raccoon City outbreak are impressive, it’s really his training by the government that turned him into the threat he is today. There’s almost no information on the specifics of that training; the only things we know are from its results: increased weapon proficiency, like the combat knife, hand-to-hand combat mastery, expert marksmanship, and superhuman levels of strength, speed, durability, and agility. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Leon became a super soldier sans serum. The fact that he has also been elevated to positions of direct contact with multiple sitting Presidents (literally being the personal bodyguard for the President’s family in RE4) also speaks to his level expertise.
*Found the source of his training - Leon is
Enemies Faced
The enemies Leon has faced over the years range greatly from your standard t-virus zombies and las plagas infested villagers, to the much more powerful Tyrants, Super Tyrants, and B.O.W.s infected by the G-virus, and everything in between. Although all are superhuman to a degree, the latter few examples grow massive in size (to the size of buildings in some cases), and display matching feats of strength and durability. Despite being smaller and weaker than most of the bosses he faces, Leon has managed to take them all down through a combination of speed, agility, intelligence, his arsenal, keeping his distance, and patience. He’s been able to combine these through the years to avoid their attacks and then either wear them down or force them into compromising situations.
Arsenal (#Arsenal)
Basic Overview
Weapons: Pistols, shotguns, machine guns, assault/sniper rifles, rocket launchers, etc.
Armor: Tactical vest
Misc. tools: Grappling hook, portable tracer, healing items.
Weapons
As befitting his governmental training, and the threat level he comes up against, Leon carries around a bevy of guns for every kind of occasion. Below, I’ll list out all the weapons he carries throughout his main games and give quick descriptions for each. It should be noted that in RE4, almost all of his guns have laser sights to improve accuracy, and can be upgraded to increase their power, capacity, firing speed, and reload speed.
Resident Evil 2
Knife: Just a regular knife used to cut through zombies when ammo runs out.
H&K VP70: Handgun that uses 9mm parabellum rounds, can be upgraded for burst fire.
Remington M1100/P: Standard shotgun that can take down groups of zombies in a single blast, P version has a shorter barrel for more spread and less range.
MAC11 Submachine Gun: A compact machine gun with high firing rate.
Desert Eagle 50A.E: An extremely strong handgun that can one-shot most enemies.
Flamethrower: Sets things on fire and has a limited fuel supply.
Rocket Launcher: One-shot weapon strong enough to blow a Super Tyrant to pieces.
Gatling Gun: Powerful machine gun with unlimited ammo. It’s only received after the game is completed, so its canonicity is questionable.
Resident Evil 4
Combat Knife: Another knife, this time Leon also uses it as a throwing weapon.
Handgun: Standard 9mm handgun.
Red 9: More powerful handgun with slower reload and smaller capacity.
Punisher: A handgun powerful enough to “blast a hole through two enemies,” and can be upgraded to pierce five in one shot.
Blacktail: A 9mm handgun that has great handling and is stronger than the Punisher
Matilda: A handgun with burst fire capability and a stock for stability.
Broken Butterfly: A Dirty Harry-esque revolver that uses .45mm magnum ammo.
Killer 7: Less powerful than the Broken Butterfly, but twice as fast to reload and higher capacity. Also uses Magnum ammo.
Handcannon: Uses .50 magnum ammo, making it the strongest handgun in the game and has infinite ammo, but can only be achieved after completing the game, making its canonicity questionable.
Shotgun: A 12-gauge pump-action shotgun.
Riot Gun: A better version of the first shotgun in every way.
Striker: Another shotgun that trades range for spread, making it more powerful up close.
Rifle: A bolt-action rifle that comes equipped with a zoomable scope.
Semi-Auto Rifle: Same as above but is semi-automatic and comes with optional infrared scope. Looks like a Steyr AUG.
TMP: A submachine gun that comes with a stock for improved accuracy.
Mine Thrower: Launches “mine darts” that sticks to opponents and detonates with the same power as the hand grenade after a few seconds. After being upgraded, the mine darts home in on enemies and it comes with a scope.
Chicago Typewriter: A very powerful Tommy gun, though Leon only gets it after completing the game, so its canonicity is questionable.
Rocket Launcher: A single-shot RPG-7 powerful enough to one-shot most bosses, with a blast radius of 8 meters.
Special Rocket Launcher: Identical to the regular rocket launcher, save for having a more powerful red-tipped warhead used to defeat the final boss.
Infinite Rocket Launcher: A rocket launcher that has infinite ammo. This is only received after the game has been beaten, so its inclusion in the episode is debatable.
P.R.L. 412: The Plaga Removal Laser is a cool sci-fi laser gun, but like the Unmaker in Doom, it only works on those possessed by the Plaga parasite.
Hand Grenade: A thrown explosive with a blast radius of 6 meters.
Flash Grenade: Will blind opponents for a few seconds.
Incendiary Grenade: Causes opponents it explodes near to burst into flames.
Resident Evil 6
Survival Knife: Same as before.
Wing Shooters: Dual pistols with a higher ammo count than other handguns.
Shotgun: Same as before.
Lightning Hawk: Very powerful handgun that uses .50 Action Express magnum ammo.
Semi-Auto Sniper Rifle: A semi-automatic sniper rifle that has a zoomable scope.
Assault Rifle RN: As standard assault rifle that comes with a bayonet attached.
Rocket Launcher: The classic, same as before.
Remote Bomb: A powerful bomb that can be placed and detonated at will.
Armor
Leon doesn’t usually wear too much armor, other than the Tactical Vest that reduces damage by 30% and is bullet-proof (probably lined with kevlar) and comes with numerous pouches and elbow pads. Other than that, he prefers regular street clothes that give him enough flexibility to fight and that doesn’t restrict his speed and agility.
Misc. tools
Some other important tools that Leon has used include:
A grappling hook, which can hook onto walls (and which he used as a distraction against Krauser).
A portable tracer, which he can subtly attach to people to use to track their location.
And First Aid Spray, a portable cannister which heals all his wounds in one use.
Abilities
Basic Overview
Superhuman stats: strength, speed, durability, etc.
Martial arts: hand-to-hand and knife combat
Expert gunplay and marksmanship
Intelligence and survival skills
Physical Abilities
I’ll cover this is in more detail in the feats section, but despite Resident Evil’s portrayal of Leon (and the main cast in general) as “peak humans,” their feats say otherwise. Leon has displayed numerous examples of superhuman strength, speed, and durability that put him far beyond any normal human physically. On top of that, many of his opponents have demonstrated similar (often superior) physical displays, leaving no question to the consistency of his feats.
Martial Arts
Leon is a master of hand-to-hand combat, and while it is unclear which he has been taught (whether it be some named forms, or just general military hand-to-hand combat), it is clear that he utilizes strikes, kicks, takedowns, grapples, and sometimes suplexes to defeat his enemies. He also uses a combat knife and is highly proficient with it, even stating that he prefers it up close. He’s also quite adept at throwing it, able to throw it quickly and accurately with ease.
Weapons Proficiency
Leon is a master of using every weapon he has, whether it be a simple handgun, a sniper rifle, or a heavy duty rocket launcher. He’s an expert marksman, capable of pulling off headshots with ease (in fact, his experience fighting zombies, who can only be killed by destroying their brains, has trained him in pulling off headshots specifically), and from great distances. He has also incorporated gun use into his martial arts, achieving a sort of John Wick-esque quality to his gunplay when up close.
Intelligence
Leon possesses an almost uncanny intelligence and improvisational ability in combat. Often times he’s found himself in nearly unwinnable situations and has escaped through cleverly deducing the key to victory. His wits are just as important a weapon to him as his weapons and his physical strengths are. His record of surviving Raccoon City despite almost no formal experience is testament to that, but his capability at thinking critically in desperate situations has only increased since then, leading to some pretty hilarious action-movie moments.
Feats
Strength (#StrengthFeat)
(Resident Evil 6, 2:40:10) Leon and Helena move a massive, multi-ton boulder a few feet and then off a cliff. This feat is repeated a few minutes later
(Resident Evil 4, Part 1, 25:40) Three ganados push a larger boulder off a cliff as well, and Leon can grapple with and overpower them
(Resident Evil 6, 3:29:03) Fights Chris Redfield in hand-to-hand combat, who also pushed a similarly-sized boulder. All this is to say, feats like this are very consistent in the Resident Evil-verse. (calc #2d: 113.5 tons)
(Resident Evil 6, 2:47:14) Pries open a giant mutated shark’s mouth and holds it open with one arm while underwater (calc #2c: 2 tons per arm).
(Resident Evil: Degeneration, 1:17:30) Holds up Angela and the B.O.W. Curtis Miller from falling with one arm. Judging by the latter’s size, he’s got to weigh at least a ton.
Can elbow (Resident Evil 4, Part 1, 14:28) and kick (Part 2, 7:32) hard enough to make ganados’ heads explode.
(Part 1, 16:32) Kicks hard enough to send three ganados falling back.
(Part 8, 2:19) Kicks down a metal gate.
(Resident Evil: The Official Comic Magazine, Issue #4, pg. 12) Stabs a vampire monster in the mouth, then kicks the knife through its head to stab another vampire monster behind it. This was mostly just hilarious.
Speed (#SpeedFeat)
(Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles, Memories of a Lost City, 2:49) Runs several meters to block a bullet coming towards Ada after the bullet was fired. Even assuming he started moving before it was fired, he still would have had to cross on-screen to cover Ada while the bullet was in flight (calc #5: 0.025 seconds)
(Resident Evil: The Official Comic Magazine, Issue #2, pg. 14) He replicates the feat here, and it again involves him moving after the bullet was fired.
(Resident Evil 6, 3:34:20) Dodging gunfire w/ Helena after the bullets are fired (first shot is of the bullets being fired, next is of them dodging). It looks kind of ridiculous from our perspective, but they were aiming right at them before they fired.
(Resident Evil 4, Part 15, 7:00) Throws a knife across a room fast enough that Salazar didn’t notice until he felt the pain from his impaled hand.
(7:10) Then he dodges his own knife as its thrown back at him.
(Part 1, 25:42) Outruns a giant boulder Indiana Jones-style.
(Part 4, 21:03) Runs out of the way of crossbow bolts mid-flight.
(Part 18, 5:32) Leaps out of the way of Krauser’s attack when the latter is only a foot away (though he does get a small cut across the cheek).
(Part 19, 5:19) Avoids Krauser’s automatic gunfire. It’s not true bullet-timing, but still notable as he’s avoiding being shot.
(Resident Evil: Damnation, 1:01:58) Similarly, he avoids gunfire from over a dozen soldiers with machine guns at once.
(Resident Evil: Vendetta, 45:34) Again, does the same.
(Resident Evil 6, 2:51:36) Aims at and shoots a barrel of dynamite in slow motion.
(Resident Evil: The Official Comic Magazine, Issue #2, pg. 3) He and Claire leap out of a car before an oncoming truck, literally inches away, hits them.
Durability (#DurabilityFeat)
(Resident Evil 2, Leon A Part 3, 0:12) Leon gets shot about midway through RE2, and while he’s out of commission for a while, he eventually heals and continues with a bullet wound for the rest of the game.
Similarly, early on in RE4, Leon is infected with a plaga parasite, and continues on just fine despite it causing him to intermittently cough up blood and pass out.
(Leon A Part 3, 10:27) Took a hit from the mutated William Birkin. Though they are strong enough to kill him, Leon has tanked hits from many giant super-strong monsters like Birkin throughout his career, including:
Tyrant (Leon B Part 3, 10:40)
Super Tyrant (Resident Evil: Damnation, 1:17:05)
El Gigante (Resident Evil 4, Part 4, 12:01)
Bitores Mendez (Part 6, 18:08)
U3 (Part 18, 17:06)
Osmund Saddler (Part 20, 33:41)
Chris Redfield (Resident Evil 6, 3:29:03)
Derek C. Simmons (4:26:36)
Curtis Miller (Resident Evil: Degeneration, 1:14:35)
and a Shoryuken from Glenn Arias (Resident Evil: Vendetta, 1:23:13)
(Resident Evil 4, Part 1, 18:40) Drops from a three-story tower on his legs and is fine.
(Part 13, 16:51) Survives being bathed in a Novistador’s corrosive acid spit.
(Part 20, 19:31) Stabbed in the leg and kneed in the crotch, but walks it off.
(Resident Evil 6, 29:40) Gets into a car crash, car flips over three times and explodes, and he’s fine.
(1:10:15) Stuck in a school bus that’s teetering on the edge of a cliff before an eighteen-wheeler collides with him head-on, sending him off the cliff. He crawls out, only for it to explode a few feet away from him.
(3:59:14) Sent flying by a massive gasoline explosion, knocked out briefly, and then gets up to fight zombies minutes later.
(4:17:24) Eats a point-blank explosion.
(4:23:05) Shot multiple times by Simmons’ machine gun-like attack (are they supposed to be bones?) and is fine.
(Resident Evil: Damnation, 8:31) Survived an explosion in an underground parking lot.
(Resident Evil: Vendetta, 1:25:26) A few feet away from a rail gun shot that ripped apart at least 5 skyscrapers. He didn’t tank it head on, but considering the area of effect it has (the size of the explosions it created when going through those buildings), he was very much within its destructive range.
Skill (#SkillFeat)
(Resident Evil 4, Part 18, 9:36) Dodges a series of deadly lasers by leaping through them at Matrix-esque angles, finishing the sequence off by running up the side of the wall and backflipping over them.
(Resident Evil: Damnation 1:01:34) Fights against Svetlana Belikova, probably the most impressive martial artist in the RE-verse to date. She chucks him several feet through the air, but he recovers mid-air.
(Resident Evil 4, 32:29) Fights Ada. He’s able to twist around and pin her arm behind her despite her sticking a gun to his back, and is able to pull out his knife and stick it to her throat in the time it took her gun to land back in her hand.
(Resident Evil 6, 4:19:18) Has pulled off many headshots in his career, and can do so from over 50 meters away. Other impressive headshots include:
(Resident Evil: Degeneration, 19:37) Can headshot 5 zombies in 2 seconds.
(27:01) Can headshot without a scope from a couple dozen meters.
(Resident Evil 4, Part 14, 15:08) Leaps an enormous distance, at least 20 feet, probably more.
(Part 18, 5:22) Intuits that Krauser is about to attack before he does.
Knife fights with Krauser twice (Part 18, 6:27 and Part 19, 6:05).
(Part 15, 7:00) Is incredibly accurate with his knife throws, including when he pinned Salazar’s hand to the wall from across the room.
(Part 21, 2:44) Or when he cut a rope holding Ada up in one throw.
(Resident Evil 6, 3:44:10) Dodges a piece of metal that Simmons kicks at him and Helena, and shoots at it in slow-mo to deflect it out of Helena’s way.
(Resident Evil: Damnation, 1:00:30) Shot at soldiers dressed in all black in the dark and managed to hit some.
(1:17:05) Accurately shot the hole in the gas tank the Tyrant created from what looks like almost 100 meters away.
(Resident Evil: Vendetta, 1:06:07) Fought zombie dogs while riding a motorcycle down a busy freeway, as well as dodged their attacks.
(1:13:14) Killing a mob of zombies with his gun up close (John Wick-style).
(1:23:31) Recovers mid air from an uppercut from Glenn and starts shooting at him while falling, then dodges a punch midair as he’s coming down, and converts it into a kick to the face.
(1:26:25) Drives his motorcycle at Glenn (who is holding onto a helicopter spinning in mid-air), and launches it at him off the roof the building, embedding it in him, and then shooting its gas tank to blow him up.
Weaknesses (#Weakness)
Leon doesn’t have any notable physical weaknesses. His arsenal is dependent on ammo to varying degrees (the Rocket Launcher has only one shot unless he can find another missile), and if he runs out he’ll have to rely on his knife and fists. And as intelligent as he is, he has been tricked by wilier opponents in the past like Ada Wong (though it should be noted that his puppy dog infatuation with her probably played a part in that). He’s also totally committed to saving as many lives as possible, and has put himself in harm’s way to do so. Overall though, as durable as he is, he’s still human. Against someone physically superior, he will tire eventually, and though his durability feats are numerous, he’s not bulletproof.
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