Dead Rising/Characters

Frank West
""Remember that name... 'cause the whole world's gonna know it in three days.""

The protagonist of the game, a photojournalist who has "Covered wars, y'know". Upon hearing that something big was going down in the town of Willamette, Frank charters a helicopter in order to investigate and leave with the "scoop of a lifetime". He tells the pilot to drop him off on the roof of the Willamette Parkview Mall, and return for him in 3 days.

Frank proves himself to be incredibly competent fighter and photographer, and his determination in getting his story allows many dark truths to come to light.

{{quote|Brad: You're one hell of a journalist aren't you, Frank? A hotheaded, underhanded, hotshot paparazzi with nothing better to do than to invade people's privacy. Frank: I try... you got a point? }}
 * : He's not exactly thrilled at.
 * Badass Normal: And how! Armed with nothing but what lays around him in the store and fighting skills he learns as he levels up, Frank uncovers a government conspiracy, fights his way through thousands of zombies, takes on psychotic humans including a Monster Clown, a trio of escaped convicts in a jeep armed with a minigun, a sniper family, and a cult leader as well as his flock, stops a terrorist plot, and even {{spoiler|takes on a military official in unarmed conflict... and wins.
 * Bishonen: Averted, Keiji Inafune designed him to be average-looking intentionally.
 * Charles Atlas Superpower: To an extent, Frank is able to hoist heavy items like benches and toss them and swing them around quite easily, and can get the ability to grab zombies and humans alike, lift them over his head, and fling them across the mall.
 * Crazy Survivalist: In Infinity Mode, where you must kill other survivors for their food.
 * Cross Dresser: Frank can put on women's outfits along with mens, and has no problem with it. Hell, he does a seductive pose and whistles indicating that he's pretty into it.
 * Determinator: Nothing, not even 53,594 zombies, insane clowns, hispanic terrorists, and U.S. Special Forces soldiers will stop Frank from getting his story. Except, of course, the actions of the player.
 * Improbable Aiming Skills: Despite having minimal experience with guns (And having never shot another person before fighting Carlito), he can get headshots just fine.
 * Insult Backfire:
 * Intrepid Reporter
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Rough around the edges, but is eager to help save other people trapped in the mall...usually.
 * Laughing Mad: After he learns from Isabela that {{spoiler|He's been bitten by a zombie and only has hours until he turns.}}
 * Only Sane Man: Is this when confronted with the game's various psychopaths, usually reacting with stunned silence by their antics (He does call out a couple of them: Jo, Steven, and Larry).
 * Took a Level In Badass: 50 of them, to be precise.
 * Wrestler in All of Us: A lot of Frank's hand-to-hand skills involve various wrestling moves: including double lariats, face-to-floor slams, as well as grabbing others and simply tossing them. Fittingly, Frank ends up getting into zombie wrestling in the non-canon reimagining of Dead Rising 2: Off the Record.
 * {{spoiler|Zombie Infectee}}: Happens to him over the course of the game.

Brad Garrison
""I just want you to appreciate the situation.""

DHS agent, assigned to the investigation of the Willamette incident alongside fellow agent Jessica McCarney. At first he is distrustful of Frank and expresses his displeasure of his trade. But after fighting alongside him against Carlito, fetching him medicine from the Supermarket and ensuring a helicopter ride out of the mall, Brad comes to trust Frank as a formidable ally.

Level-headed, Brad assumes responsibility over re-stocking the security room with supplies, and looking after his younger colleague.


 * A Father to His Men: Very protective of his colleague, Jessie, assuming full responsibility when
 * Angry Black Man: Averted. For the most part, he is cool and collected. He is rather intimidating at times, though.
 * Bald Black Leader Guy: He is quick to take charge of the situation and instruct the others.
 * Only a Flesh Wound: He's bedridden for the most part of 5 hours from a gunshot wound, but recovers quickly after you get him some medicine.
 * Reasonable Authority Figure: While he initially starts off annoyed by Frank's persistence to find out what's going behind the zombie outbreak, he still allows Frank to tag along and help him fight off Carlito and quickly brings him up to speed after realizing that Frank's more than capable of handling himself.
 * Only a Flesh Wound: He's bedridden for the most part of 5 hours from a gunshot wound, but recovers quickly after you get him some medicine.
 * Reasonable Authority Figure: While he initially starts off annoyed by Frank's persistence to find out what's going behind the zombie outbreak, he still allows Frank to tag along and help him fight off Carlito and quickly brings him up to speed after realizing that Frank's more than capable of handling himself.

Jessica McCarney
A DHS agent who accompanies Brad to the mall. She initially goes to assist Brad, but due to a sprained ankle she is forced to leave saving him up to Frank. Like Brad, she is at first distrustful of Frank due to being part of the press and tells him minimum amount of information such as her name and Brad's; however, she grows to trust him. While she does spend most of the game holed up in the saferoom she still manages to provide help from time to time and does have a lot of significance to the plot.


 * Meganekko: As if she wasn't cute enough already, she also wears glasses.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Huge boobs? Check. Nice ass? Check. Cute glasses? Check. Taking a photo of her in just the right angle gives the best erotica bonus in the game? Double check.
 * Twisted Ankle: Her ankle. Nice job breaking it Frank.
 * Twisted Ankle: Her ankle. Nice job breaking it Frank.

Otis Washington
"Don't cut me off like that, its rude!"

An aged mall employee who serves as Mission Control for most of the game before He is silent... at least during cutscenes. During the actual game he can't seem to shut the fuck up even while Frank is getting his arm chewed off by a zombie.


 * Cool Old Guy: For all the trouble he causes you, he actually ends up helping you a lot more than he hinders you. Without him Frank wouldn't know about half the stuff going on in the mall and would have
 * Mission Control: One of the more annoying ones.
 * Stop Helping Me!: Okay Otis, I get that I should check out the Monster Clown on the other side of the mall, but if you call me one more time while I'm trying to get 3 idiot survivors through a sea of zombies and 3 deranged convicts I'm going to reach into the t.v. and strangle you with the cord on my wired controller.
 * The Voiceless: He's completely silent in the one cutscene featuring him, but he talks (Not voiced, only in dialogue boxes) a lot during gameplay. A hell of a lot.

Carlito Keyes
""This, my friend... is hell!""

A mysterious man, first met on the heliport of the mall. After numerous run-ins with Frank and Brad, it is revealed that he orchestrated the Willamette outbreak A dangerous man with many back-up plans, he eventually

With access to heavy firepower and a radio jammer, Carlito is the most frequent boss you face in-game.


 * Affably Evil: He comes off as genuinely friendly and polite towards Frank when they first meet, though it is before he's revealed to be the Big Bad.
 * Arc Words: "Pachamama" - "Mother Earth".
 * Big Bad: For most of the game, taking an active role trying to kill Frank and friends at every turn while the military takes a backseat until the very end.
 * Big Bad Wannabe: Ultimately comes off as this, as his plans are foiled by Frank at every turn, he ends up
 * Cold Sniper: Wields a different gun in his first two boss fights, with the second being a proper sniper rifle!
 * Even Evil Has Loved Ones: For as much of an irredeemable bastard as he is, he genuinely loves his sister Isabela
 * Evil Sounds Deep: Has a pretty low-sounding Spanish accent.
 * Irony:
 * Lack of Empathy:.
 * Mr. Fanservice: Tall, dark, handsome, possesseses a lovely voice... it's clear that attractiveness runs in his family.
 * My God, What Have I Done?: When he calms down after
 * Villainous Breakdown: As his plan is ruined beyond all belief, he gets crazier and crazier.
 * Would Hurt a Child: His ultimate plan involves
 * Villainous Breakdown: As his plan is ruined beyond all belief, he gets crazier and crazier.
 * Would Hurt a Child: His ultimate plan involves
 * Would Hurt a Child: His ultimate plan involves

Isabela Keyes
""Fine. I'll explain why all of this is your fault.""

A mysterious woman first encountered in the Entrance Plaza before the zombies break in. It turns out that she's Carlito's little sister, and co-conspirator in the Willamette Outbreak. After a few encounters with Frank, she agrees to help him get his story by asking Carlito to be interviewed by him. Turns out that she


 * Action Girl: Like Carlito, she's a terrorist who is able to go toe-to-toe with Frank
 * Badass Biker: During her boss battle.
 * Bare Your Midriff
 * The Dragon: To Carlito.
 * Hot Scientist
 * Morality Pet: To Carlito, as they're close-knit siblings.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Quite sexy indeed, and is established as this in-game as Frank checks her out when they first meet.
 * Only Sane Man: Not just to Carlito, but to most of the Psychopaths in general.
 * The Smart Gal:
 * That One Boss: Thanks to very flawed game design, she's MUCH more difficult than she should be.
 * Only Sane Man: Not just to Carlito, but to most of the Psychopaths in general.
 * The Smart Gal:
 * That One Boss: Thanks to very flawed game design, she's MUCH more difficult than she should be.

Brock Mason
""I'd say this mission isn't quite over yet.""

Sadistic US special forces officer responsible for "mopping up" the Willamette outbreak.

""This is as far as you go!""
 * Armies Are Evil: Comes naturally for a guy whose army specializes in wiping out all life from a zombie-infested area, including survivors.
 * Bald of Evil
 * Big Bad: He's ultimately this for the first game, but also doubles as the Bigger Bad since Carlito is more involved with the game's plot with him only making an appearance at the end, not to mention that
 * Bigger Bad You could make a case for him being this to the entire series, as he
 * Complete Monster: The worst individual in the game bar-none, and one of the more repulsive ones in the series as a whole.
 * Evil Laugh: And you can photograph it for drama Prestiege Points.
 * Fisticuffs Boss: It can definitely throw off an unprepared newcomer to the game, so make sure to practice your hand-to-hand combat!
 * General Ripper: A rather nasty, bloodthirsty one too.
 * Knight Templar: He does what he does to help the government cover it's more unscrupulous deeds up from the public eye.
 * Lack of Empathy: Shows no concern over slaughtering innocent survivors as long as it means covering the government's collective ass. He also shows more annoyance than grief over the fact that many of his men died at Frank's hands.
 * Neck Snap: Can use one of these on a weakened Frank as a finishing move.

"Frank: That's all it was to you, huh? A mission. What about the innocent people who had to pay for mistakes commited by OUR GOVERNMENT and its- Brock: OUR MISTAKES HAVE NOT BEGUN WITH THIS OPERATION!"
 * Nietzsche Wannabe: His view on humanity is that as a whole it's stupid and clumsy, and that making mistakes and humongous blunders such as are what humanity truly excels at.
 * Shut Up, Kirk


 * Smoking Is Cool: When confronting Frank and, he smokes a cigar until Frank punches it out of his mouth to begin the final fight.
 * Sociopathic Soldier: He takes a smug satisfaction about the work he does, treating the slaughter of innocent people as well as zombies as a "cleanup operation".
 * Tank Goodness: The first part of his fight involves him chasing you in a high tech tank. After disabling it Frank then finishes him off in a fistfight atop said tank.
 * True Final Boss
 * That One Boss: He's quite the efficient hand-to-hand fighter, and will absolutely murder someone not expecting to have to fight him barehanded, especially if you've neglected learning how to execute your different moves. It doesn't help that there are no food items to recover health with, you're fighting on a tank with minimal space to move around on that's surrounded by zombies, and he's capable of one hit killing you.

Jo Slade
A fat female cop who has captured several women that she tortures and degrades.


 * Complete Monster: Unlike most psychopaths who are either insane or paranoid, she's fully aware of what she's doing, and is a rapist to boot. Unlike other psychopaths, she'll actively attack her hostages if you're too far away.
 * Degraded Boss: She's a really powerful zombie in Chop Till You Drop, there's actually two Jos in this game, one that's got two tazers, and the other is brown and has a tazer and a hand gun.
 * Dirty Cop: Instead of helping survivors, she opts to find attractive women and rape them.
 * Fat Bitch: She's almost as big as Larry, and is quite the repulsive piece of work to boot.
 * For the Evulz: She rapes women and kills men that try to interfere pretty much because she likes to do it.
 * Psycho Lesbian: She's seen molesting her female victims with a nightstick.
 * Rape as Drama: Whatever she was doing with that nightstick, it couldn't have been pleasant...
 * This Cannot Be!: How she takes her death at the hands of Frank.

Steven Chapman
The insane owner of "Seon's food and stuff." He is willing to use any means to protect his store from intruders... even lethal force.


 * Absurdly Sharp Blade: His shopping cart weapon has tons of these sticking out.
 * Axe Crazy: Dear god. He could write the book on paranoia!
 * Bald of Evil: More like balding of evil, but you get the picture.
 * Bullfight Boss: His demon shopping cart looks scary... but is really easy to avoid.
 * Foreshadowing: He tells the player that Isabela was looking for medicine just as Frank was for his ally Brad.
 * Improvised Weapon: A shopping cart with lots of blades tied to the front.
 * Large Ham: "THIS IS MY STOOOORRREEE!!!"
 * Married to the Job: Who cares about all those zombies walking about? A man's gotta protect his store.
 * Nightmare Face: While Steven comes off as humorous thanks to his mannerisms, his face is permanently contorted in a hateful, psychotic stare that makes him look seriously creepy, not helped at all by the constant closeups on his face.
 * No Indoor Voice: A good 80% of his dialogue consists of him screaming at the top of his lungs.
 * Serious Business: His goddamn STOOOORRREEE!
 * Shopping Cart Antics
 * Shotguns Are Just Better: Sometimes whips out a shotgun if his ramming attack misses.
 * Shotguns Are Just Better: Sometimes whips out a shotgun if his ramming attack misses.

Larry Chiang
An obese butcher who this the zombies are spoiled meat and people are fresh meat.


 * Acrofatic: Just how the hell does a guy who looks like he could bitch slap a sumo wrestler into a coma move so freaking fast?!
 * Affably Evil: As creepy as he may be, he is genuinely polite to Frank and actually won't attack you until you make the first move, being more than happy to fiddle with his meat cleavers.
 * Ax Crazy: Clearly insane and cannibalistic, he also waves around a massive cleaver with nonchalance.
 * Bilingual Bonus: The tattoo on his neck is the chinese for "meat".
 * Disc One Final Boss: Surprisingly is this instead of Carlito, due to being the final opponent Frank faces before heading to the rescue helicopter
 * Fat Bastard
 * Fridge Brilliance:
 * Fridge Horror: Considering his tendencies, exactly for how long was he working in Willamette?
 * Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: Along with Steve, he's one of two mandatory story bosses who aren't aligned with either Carlito or the military. Unlike Steven however who at least gets some foreshadowing and appears at a part that makes sense, he pretty much comes out of nowhere and
 * Giggling Villain: And rather unpleasant too.
 * Grievous Harm With A Body: One of his attacks consists of slamming Frank with the carcass of something we're better not knowing the identity of.
 * I Am a Humanitarian
 * Trust Me, I'm an X: "Trust me, I'm a butcher!"

Cletus Samson
A gun shop owner with severe trust issues. Instead of aiding the survivors by giving them guns he shoots at anyone (zombie or human) who gets too close to his store.


 * The Alcoholic: He even drinks in the middle of his fight with Frank. If you get a shot of him downing a bottle its worth a ton of PP.
 * Beard of Evil: A very thick, bushy one.
 * Charles Atlas Superpower: He may not look like it, but he's strong enough to hoist Frank over his head and toss him, which he WILL do if you decide to hop the counter and take him down with a melee weapon.
 * Crazy Survivalist: Making him distrustful of everyone.
 * Deep South: His heavy accent, quick trigger finger, bushy beard, and drinking habit make him come across as a crazed prospector.
 * Dirty Coward: As soon as you defeat him he starts pleading for mercy and assuming you wanted his guns so bad you'd kill for them. This is of course right after he shoots an unarmed survivor for daring to suggest he share his guns.
 * Karmic Death:
 * Heel Face Turn:
 * Shotguns Are Just Better: Which makes him That One Boss to many players.
 * That One Boss: One of the most noteworthy ones in the game. While even the Convicts get easy once you're used to them, Cletus can be an absolutely nightmarish pain in the ass even with experience!

Kent Swanson
Another photographer and rival to Frank.


 * Ambiguously Bi: While he does have a thing for getting sexy shots of women, he also is heavily hinted to have a strange sort of psychotic crush on Frank, with heavily hinting towards this.
 * Annoying Laugh: As if he wasn't annoying enough already...
 * Beard of Evil: Though it's more of a goatee of evil.
 * Degraded Boss: He's just a zombie type in Chop Till You Drop.
 * Expy: Appearance-wise, he reminds a lot of people of Larry Butz, another Capcom character.
 * Jerkass: He does nothing but belittle and insult Frank during the first stage of his photo challenge, and gets even worse when he opts to zombify someone for the sake of getting the moment on camera.
 * Karmic Death: Funny enough, you can actually kill him before he tries to pull the Moral Event Horizon, and you're not penalized for it.
 * Moral Event Horizon:
 * Nightmare Fetishist: Even before he crosses the Moral Event Horizon, he already has an unhealthy obsession with getting pictures of disturbing content like people getting shot or an upskirt of a frightened woman.
 * The Rival: To Frank for most of the game. When Frank starts one-uping him he takes things too far...

The Convicts
A trio of escaped criminals who have somehow gotten ahold of a vehicle with a mounted machine gun. Rather then trying to survive or escape the mall, all they seem to care about is having fun while they can. Unfortunately, their definition of fun seems to be to assault/kill anyone they come across. Their names aren't given in-game, but they're officially known as Reginald Jenkins (The driver), Miguel Sanchez (The batter), and Sam Franklin (The gunner).


 * Batter Up: The convict who isn't driving or using the turret (Miguel Sanchez) wields a baseball bat unless the driver is killed. If that happens he will move over and keep the jeep moving himself.
 * Drives Like Crazy: Reginald Jenkins (And Miguel Sanchez should Reginald die before him) drives the jeep very erratically. While dodging it can be a pain in the ass especially with survivors in tow, you can take advantage of this by getting him to ram into a tree and attacking them (preferably with a gun) while Reginald/Miguel tries to get the jeep back in motion.
 * Equal Opportunity Evil: All three convicts in the trio are a different race: Reginald Jenkins (the driver) is white, Miguel Sanchez (the batter) is Hispanic, and Sam Franklin (the gunner) is black.
 * Establishing Character Moment: The first thing they do is take a swing at Frank when he steps out into the mall's park. When the guy with the bat (Miguel Zanchez) misses they then decide to go after two other survivors. Sadly, Frank can only save one of them as the guy doesn't miss a second time. This lets you know early on that they're all a bunch of sick bastards.
 * For the Evulz: This is hinted to be why they hang around and go after anyone who walks into the park.
 * Quick Time Event/Press X to Not Die: Chop Till You Drop changes them into one long event, even if one hates this, it's a lot better than the alternative.
 * Leitmotif: Gone Guru by Lifeseeker. It serves as an early warning if they're in the area when you enter.
 * More Dakka: Sam Franklin is the gunner of the group, and his minigun hurts.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: It probably wasn't intentional, but fans have noticed that Reginald and Miguel heavily resemble Steve-O and Danny Trejo respectively.
 * That One Boss: You'll have to fight them sooner or later unless you plan to spend a lot of time avoiding gunfire or getting ran over. To make matters worse, if you enter another area to grab health items and come back any that you've killed come back to life.
 * Unexplained Recovery: They respawn each day with a new vehicle and everything. This is never explained or elaborated upon.

Adam MacIntyre
A clown who was hired to entertain the people visiting the mall and went insane when the zombies killed his audience. Wields two chainsaws and uses various tricks in combat.


 * Ax Crazy: With emphasis on "Crazy"
 * Chainsaw Good: You even get to take them if you beat him.
 * Dual-Wielding: Chainsaws.
 * Hoist by His Own Petard: He can inflate and toss at you some baloons filled with gas, but if they explode next to him he'll be damaged instead.
 * Knife Nut: If Frank gets too far away from him he'll start tossing throwing knives at him.
 * Large Ham: Well, he IS a clown... and insane...
 * Laughing Mad: Even as he dies.
 * Monster Clown: As if the hordes of zombies weren't bad enough...
 * Shout-Out: Can be seen wearing a servbot button during cutscenes.

Cliff Hudson
A Vietnam veteran who is undergoing flashbacks after He is one of the few psychopaths who shows any regret for what he has done.


 * Badass Grandpa
 * Degraded Boss: Tragically, he ends up as a zombie type in Chop Till You Drop, becoming one of the very things.
 * Machete Mayhem
 * Shell Shocked Senior: He thinks everyone around him is a Vietcong.
 * Tear Jerker: He's probably the only psychopath you'll regret killing.
 * Teleport Spam: Can use some trapdoors in the rooms to move around.
 * Tragic Villain

The Hall family
A father and his two sons who are snipers that have taken refuge in the entrance plaza and shoot at anyone who passes by.


 * Anti-Villain: The youngest one, he's also the one fans wished they could save.
 * Cold Sniper: Although that doesn't stop them from congratulating each other on a well-aimed shot or doing a high five as Franks rushes them with a chainsaw...
 * Death Glare: Roger. Jesus dude...
 * Dirty Coward: They spend the whole fighting running and aren't above shooting Frank in the back.
 * Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Roger.
 * Older Than They Look: Roger and his sons are all adults. Really.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: If you kill the other two, no matter what, the last will try to kill you.
 * Shout-Out: Jack and Roger share names with the antagonists of The Lord of the Flies, like how Jack and Roger persuaded boys to join their tribe and kill Ralph, Jack and Roger Hall threaten and persuade Thomas to shoot Frank.

Sean Keanan
The leader of the "True Eye" cult who believes that spilling the blood of the nonbelievers will stop the zombies. He disappears after his introduction cutscene, but can later be found in the movie theater.


 * Badass Grandpa: Despite being one of the oldest people in the mall he moves extremely fast and swings a huge sword around during his boss fight.
 * Cool Sword
 * Evil Old Folks
 * : His death.
 * Four Is Death: You fight him and the last members of his cult in theater number 4.
 * Human Sacrifice: What he and his cult attempt to do when Frank first meets them.
 * Karmic Death: In the end he "saw" the light...
 * Large Ham
 * Lightning Bruiser: He may be old, but he can keep up with Frank with ease, even with that big sword of his.

Paul Carson
A young pyromaniac who uses molotov cocktails when fighting.


 * Groin Attack: Self-inflicted, no less.
 * Guide Dang It:
 * Kill It with Fire: He even manages to catch himself on fire.
 * Mad Bomber: In addition to his molotov's he'll also throw bombs at Frank and send explosive toy cars after him.
 * Meaningful Name: Just drop the C off his last name.
 * Molotov Cocktail: His main weapon.
 * Molotov Cocktail: His main weapon.