Dead Rising/Survivors

Frank West is a fictional photojournalist in the video game Dead Rising, he is also the main protagonist of the game. In Dead Rising, Frank finds himself in the biggest scoop of his career, after hearing of a small town, Willamette, Colorado, being blockaded by the National Guard. Frank hires a helicopter, and flies over the town.

Frank first suspects that the civilians are rioting, but soon discovers otherwise. Frank asks the helicopter pilot to drop him on a roof of a mall, and to pick him up in three days. He meets a strange man on the roof of the mall, and when asking the man what has happened here, he tells Frank to go in and see for himself. Once he's in the mall, he realizes though, this isn't just some riot. The town is infested with zombies, with him stuck in the middle of it. As he tries to help survivors, and win the Pulitzer Prize, he slowly starts to unravel the mystery behind the zombie infestation.

72 Hour Mode
After arriving at the mall, Frank is immediately met by a strange man named Carlito, who seems to know more than he is letting on. After the zombies infiltrate the mall, Frank ends up meeting two enigmatic survivors, Brad and Jessie, while escaping the zombies. As both of them stay secretive for a while, Frank does a little bargaining. As Jessie runs out to save Brad from an attacker, Frank accidently hurts her and Frank takes her place to save Brad. Jessie is hesitant about allowing a "civilian" to becoming involved, but she gives him her handgun after he assures her that he has experience with one by saying, "I've covered wars ya know". (Only minutes later, however, he admits that he's never actually fired a gun "at a person".)

Once reaching Brad, the attacker is the same guy he met on top of the mall, and is now continusly firing at them with a P90. After defeating him, the man takes off. While Frank presses Brad for info, Brad tells him nothing until Frank shows him a picture of an old man, which he took in the Entrance Plaze of the mall. Brad seems to have an interest in the photo. Since he does, Frank makes him a deal: Frank shows him the photo, if Brad tells him some info. Brad agrees, and Frank soon finds out both Jessie and Brad are DHS (Department of Homeland Security) agents.

Frank and Brad eventually go to find Dr. Barnaby, someone who Brad desperately tries to get him to return to the Security Room they are hiding, with him and Frank. Dr. Barnaby declines, saying he will only leave once he is guaranteed safe passage out of the city first.

Survival in the Mall
Brad leaves Frank for a while, leaving Frank to explore some of the mall. As he ends up looking for survivors, he runs into a few "Psychopaths". Some are just misguided; the stress of the situation has made them fend for themselves, making them not trust anyone or anything. Some, seem to be his directed, corrupted by the situation. Some are just completely insane, regardless of whether it was the stress of the situation that turned them that way, or if they were just insane to begin with. Throughout the game, Frank (through the choices of the players) ends up dealing with a few Psychopaths and rescuing some survivors.

The Keyes Siblings
After returning to the Security Room, Frank is just in time to see the man who was shooting at them earlier, dragging Dr. Barnaby from his hiding place. Brad takes action, Frank quickly following behind. They make their way back to the Entrance Plaza, the man now carrying a M82 rifle, firing at Brad and Frank from a far. While Frank and Brad take cover, Frank notices Dr. Barnaby is tied up and hanging in the middle of the Entrance Plaza, zombies under him, reaching for him and trying to get a meal. After some fierce combat, Frank and Brad corner the man when he is out of rifle ammo. He ditches the rifle, and he pulls out a handgun. He and Brad have a small shoot out, leaving them both wounded. Frank fires at him, but misses him completely. Frank and Brad return to the security room with the unconscious Dr. Barnaby.

Brad is seriously wounded and needs medicine from a pharmacy in the North Plaza. Before Frank can try and retrieve it, however, he's attacked by the store owner, who has a mysterious woman unconscious in his cart. Frank manages to defeat the manager, and tries to help the woman However, she breaks away from him, telling him it is "your fault, not ours" for the zombie outbreak and mentioning something about a place called "Santa Cabeza". She runs away, and Frank steals the key from the manager to get access to the pharmacy where the medicine is.

Santa Cabeza
Frank gets it, and returns to the Security Room, giving Brad the medicine. Later, Isabela reappears on the monitors in North Plaza once again, and Frank goes to question her. Not willing to trust Frank, she attacks him on her motorcycle and Frank is forced to defend himself. He manages to disable her and pin her to the ground. She tells Frank that if he wants an interview about the zombie outbreak, then Carlito is the one to speak to. She says she can "persuade" him as she is, after all, his little sister. However, when Frank shows up at their designated meeting place, Isabela is hurt and about to be killed by a zombie. Frank rescues her and he learns that Carlito, in frustration and anger, shot her. Frank carries her on his back to the Security Room where Brad and Jessie wait.

After Isabela awakes, the group discovers that she and Carlito are survivors of a similar outbreak in a Central American town called Santa Cabeza, where the US government covered up the incident. Carlito caused the outbreak in Willamette in order to expose the truth to the world and take revenge. They discover that he has set time bombs all over the Maintenance Tunnels of the mall, preparing to send the larvae that caused the zombie outbreak into the atmosphere, leaving millions at risk. Frank and Brad go about trying to collect the bombs. In the meantime, Dr Barnaby has transformed into a zombie and bites Jessie. Frank and Brad have a standoff inside of a shed in the maintenance tunnel, where Carlito becomes fatally wounded and Brad is pushed into a pack of zombies. Frank attempts to get Carlito to talk, but he dies before he says anything.

Special Forces
Meanwhile, Isabela has brought Frank to Carlitos hideout, where the two of them attempt to figure out and foil the rest of Carlito's plans. In the meantime, Jessie finally gets a line to DHS headquarters, only to find out the government has chosen to cover up this incident too. The Special Forces are on their way to "clean up" the mess--namely, they will kill everything they find: zombie or human. When the Special Forces attempt to take Jessie into custody, she turns, becomes a zombie and kills two of them. Frank arrives a short time later and puts her out of her misery.

The Special Forces sweep through the mall, cutting down all the zombies in their path. Meanwhile, Frank makes his way back to the helipad to meet his pickup. However, as the helicopter arrives, the pilot is attacked by a stowaway zombie, causing the copter to crash. Despondent, Frank collapses on the roof as zombies spill outside. Just as he's about to submit to the inevitable, Isabela arrives and rescues him.

Overtime
Frank discovers he is bitten, and Isabela tells him that there is a way to retard the larva's incubation period, albeit temporarily. Frank goes on a hunt to find the items needed to make the serum and, along the way, discovers the rest of Carlito's plans. There are a series of children, infected with larva and injected with serum, spread all over the USA. "Zombie time bombs" as Frank calls them. He and Isabela discover a way out through a long cave created by the helicopter crash. However, the cave is filled with zombies and their only protection is a pheromone Isabela made that repels zombies. After escaping the cave, Isabela and Frank have a showdown with Brock, the Special Forces commander. Frank defeats Brock and the two escape to warn the world.

What becomes of Frank after this is not known.

Appearance
Frank usually, as seen in the picture, wears a black jacket with a white button-up shirt, khaki-ish pants, and brown loafers. However, you can change Frank's appearance by visiting various shops for different clothing. One type of clothing that the player can unlock, Frank is dressed exactly in the same suit as Megaman. It is a little added bonus as the fact the director of the game is the same person who made Megaman.

Cultural impact

 * Frank West has become such a pop culture phenomenon, that there are even people dress as Frank and perform pranks.