Big Boss (Metal Gear)

This article refers to Big Boss the video game character. For the movie starring Bruce Lee, see The Big Boss.

Big Boss is a fictional character in the Metal Gear video game series created by Hideo Kojima and published by Konami. Template:Spoiler

Appearances

Big Boss first appeared in the original Metal Gear. While Big Boss initially serves as the player's (Solid Snake's) commanding officer (giving orders and advice to the player through the transceiver), he eventually begins giving false information to the player that leads to traps. It is then revealed at the end that Big Boss is actually the terrorist leader and the last boss in the game. In the MSX2 version of the game, the player receives a final threat from Big Boss after the closing credits.

In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, it is revealed that Big Boss survived his previous confrontation with Snake and is once again the main villain. Big Boss appears only at the end of the game to confront an unarmed Snake, leading the player to improvise and create a weapon out of ordinary materials. According to his profile in the game's manual, he is 180cm tall (6') and weighs 89kg (196 pounds). In the original MSX2 version of the game, he was modeled after the likeness of actor Sean Connery.

While already dead at the beginning of the game, Big Boss' presence plays a large role in Metal Gear Solid, where his remains become a terrorist's demand for genetic research. It is revealed in the game that Solid Snake and his nemesis, Liquid Snake, are actually the sons (or more precisely, genetic clones) of Big Boss himself. It is also retroactively revealed that Big Boss already told this information to Liquid Snake during (if not prior to) the events of Metal Gear 2.

In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (which takes place, chronologically, before any of the previous Metal Gear titles), the player takes the role of a character named Naked Snake, who is revealed at the end of the game to be a younger version of Big Boss during the Cold War.

Big Boss has been confirmed to play a focal role in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. A conceptual drawing of what appears to be Big Boss' naked body, (previously seen in the book, Art of Metal Gear Solid) can be seen on a promotional image for the game that was released during the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2005. Big Boss' actual role in the game is unknown, and not much other information has been released.

The upcoming title of Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops will be featuring Big Boss as its main character as well.

Motives

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Big Boss was changed following the events of Operation: Snake Eater. He was no longer content with being just a disposable pawn.

Big Boss was originally a loyal and faithful soldier, but after Operation Snake Eater, in which he was ordered to kill his old mentor The Boss, who was actually working undercover for the United States government at that time, he realized for himself that even the finest of soldiers are ultimately nothing but the disposable tools in the hands of politicians. While founding and leading the new FOXHOUND unit for the US government, he secretly established Outer Heaven in order to create a nation where today's soldiers could be honored (and employed) as the traditional warriors of old, rather than becoming the mere pawns of The Patriots.

Big Boss learned of the plans for the Metal Gear superweapon after meeting Director Aleksandr Leonovitch Granin during Operation Snake Eater, when he attempted to learn how to locate and destroy the Shagohod, the predecessor to the "Metal Gear" technology.

He hoped to use the Metal Gear design to attempt to disrupt the control of The Patriots, as well as to create a world of strife, destroying the delicate balance of détente and throwing the world into chaos, the only world where soldiers could professionally truly thrive. He passed this view on to others, such as Gray Fox, and they opted to follow him to Zanzibar Land. In his ultimate confrontation with Solid Snake, he paraphrases The Boss's final speech to him, claiming that "Whoever wins, our battle does not end. The loser is freed from the battlefield; the winner must remain there, and the survivor must live his life as the warrior until he dies.”

After Big Boss' death many of his mercenaries were recruited by the US government, continuing the FOXHOUND unit, and establishing the Next Generation Special Forces as reserves. However, they still remained loyal to Big Boss and captured the Shadow Moses Nuclear Disposal Facility, and the new type Metal Gear that was under development there, calling themselves "the Sons of Big Boss". The team leader Liquid Snake, actually a clone of Big Boss, and the NGSF who had undergone extensive gene-therapy using Big Boss's DNA, followed in their "father’s" legacy and tried to establish a new Outer Heaven base on Shadow Moses Island. They were foiled by Solid Snake however, making this the third time Snake has single-handedly dismantled a fortress armed with Metal Gear.

Despite all these questionable actions, the theme of soldiers being pawns of the government has ostensibly remained one of the central themes of all of the Metal Gear games. Countless times throughout history, soldiers have been lied to and betrayed by their superiors. This fact, coupled with the sympathetic beginnings uncovered in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, may even elevate Big Boss to the level of anti-hero, as opposed to an out-and-out antagonist.

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, being set in the 1970s and revolving around the early beginnings of the FOXHOUND unit, is expected to delve deeper into this subject.

Name

Big Boss's true name is "Jack", though during certain scenes in Metal Gear Solid 3, he occasionally introduces himself as "John" (see Name Debate for info). His official codename in the game is "Naked Snake," but he is just referred to as "Snake" for the sake of convenience. He does not receive the title of "Big Boss" until after the events of Metal Gear Solid 3 upon completing his mission.

Name debate

Near the end of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Naked Snake tells Ocelot that his name is "John" before engaging in a gunfight. While some believe this to be an allusion to an earlier event (at the beginning of the Virtuous Mission, Snake introduced himself to Para-Medic as "John Doe," a common and purposely ambiguous name, presumably as a joke instead of revealing his true name), others point out that "Jack" (Snake's nickname) is commonly a nickname for American men named "John." ("Jack" is also used as a distinct given name in itself.) Others note that The Boss, a longtime mentor to Naked Snake, refers to him as "Jack," and it would be unlikely that she would not call him by his real name. Major Zero, Naked Snake's commander, also calls him Jack during the flashback of Naked Snake's briefing. Still others make reference to the fact that Snake's dialogue with Ocelot closely parallels a similar scene from Metal Gear Solid in which Solid Snake revealed his real name to be David.

For the benefit of international readers, it should be noted that in the United States, "John Doe" is by no means a common name, though it is indeed a generic name. "John Doe," often followed by a sequential number or a date for disambiguation purposes, is a designation normally used in police reports, post-mortem examinations, hospital records, grave markers, and the like, to identify an individual whose true identity is unknown. As such, the name is only common among victims of murder or accidental death, or among people who are found unconscious with no identification, or who are otherwise unable to communicate their identity. "John Doe" is ideally used as a temporary name for the sake of convenience, until a person's true identity can be established.

In the Metal Gear Solid 3: Shedding booklet included with the Official DVD: The Extreme Box DVD set (authored by Hideo Kojima himself), Naked Snake's real name is listed as "Jack," contradicting the information supplied to Konami's official website and other published sources stating that Jack is only a nickname.[1]

The debate was finally settled in the eighth session of the Kojima Productions Report, when Kojima himself revealed in an interview that both names are valid as Jack and John are common nicknames for each other. [2]

False names

When the original Metal Gear was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America and Europe, the instruction manual written by Konami of America makes no mention of Big Boss in it. Instead, Snake's commander is named "Commander South," while the main villain is identified as "Vermon CaTaffy" (a play on Muammar al-Qaddafi). However, the English language script used within the actual NES game makes no mention of either CaTaffy or South, and provides the correct name for Big Boss while keeping his identity as the true leader of Outer Heaven a secret until the end. Konami of America was very notorious for this practice, often including information in their instruction manuals which contradicted the game designers' original intentions. The NES game Snake's Revenge also went through the same process, this time with the name Higharolla Kockamamie (a play on Ruhollah Khomeini).

Some fans of the series suggest the idea that Vernon CaTaffy was the alias used by Big Boss during his role as mercenary leader of Outer Heaven to explain the inconsistencies, but this is strictly fanon, as the name Vermon CaTaffy was never used officially outside of Konami of America's packaging and manual materials.

In the original Metal Gear Solid, the character Sniper Wolf refers to Big Boss as Saladin during her death scene in the game. Wolf, being a Kurd herself, compares Big Boss to Saladin out of respect and admiration towards him, although the name Saladin is erroneously attributed to Big Boss as an alias used by him when no other character in the series calls him by that name.

History

Early life

Big Boss' history prior to joining the armed forces and becoming a disciple of The Boss is a complete mystery. His military career dates back as far as 1950. During this time, he became The Boss' apprentice and developed the CQC fighting style with her. In 1956, Jack was involved in the Bikini Atoll testing of the first airborne detonation of a hydrogen bomb. The Boss and Jack went their separate ways on June 12th, 1959, and later met for the first time in five years during Jack's first field mission in the FOX unit, on August 24th, 1964.

Virtuous Mission

In the year 1964, a man by the name of 'Jack' was recruited by the fledgling FOX unit (Force Operation X - which was the immediate predecessor of the high-tech special forces unit 'FOXHOUND') and underwent an operation titled the Virtuous Mission, in which he was to rescue and extract a defecting Soviet scientist, Dr. Nikolai Stephanovich Sokolov, from deep within mountainous Soviet territory. 'Jack' was given the codename of 'Naked Snake' for this mission.

The mission failed however, due to the defection of The Boss, a female soldier and a living legend who had originally led the Allies to victory in World War II, who indirectly had been responsible for the founding of the first US Special Forces units, and who had also been Jack's own mentor.

Operation Snake Eater

Big Boss, circa 1964. At the time, he was known under the codename "Naked Snake".

A week after the incidents of the Virtuous Mission, the FOX unit and 'Naked Snake' were forcefully assigned 'Operation Snake Eater', in which the objective was to eliminate The Boss and her Cobra Unit, assassinate her new Soviet ally and host, a hawk GRU colonel by the name of Yevgeny Borisovitch Volgin, as well as to destroy the prototype of the Soviet's superweapon Shagohod and to rescue its chief engineer, Dr. Sokolov. It was during this same mission that 'Naked Snake' came across what would be the first prototype designs for a 'Metal Gear' bipedal tank from Director Aleksandr Leonovitch Granin, who was sending the documents to a friend and colleague in America (none other than the grandfather of Hal Emmerich), out of resentment for his superiors for their decision to adopt Sokolov's Shagohod project over that of his own bipedal tank research.

'Naked Snake' accidentally lost his right eye to a misplaced bullet from Revolver Ocelot's revolver during this operation, while enduring torture at the hands of colonel Volgin after having been taken captive. However, he eventually escaped and would succeed in completing the mission in full, killing both The Boss and colonel Volgin as well as eliminating the entire Cobra Unit and destroying the already completed Shagohod prototype. For these highly impressive feats, he became considered to be "above even The Boss" by the government and subsequently received the title of 'Big Boss' as well as being awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by President Lyndon B. Johnson, during an official reception at the White House following the success of 'Operation Snake Eater'.

However, Big Boss was also a man who would be changed forever following the outcome of his landmark operation. He learned from his former cooperative EVA that The Boss had never actually intended to betray her country and had, in fact, willingly died for it as a scapegoat under orders of the US government, for the nuclear destruction of OKB-754 caused by colonel Volgin in his continued attempts to have tensions escalate between the United States of America and the Soviet Union. This knowledge would stun Big Boss's patriotism and he began developing a powerful, but veiled, resentment towards his superiors.

During the same reception at the White House, Big Boss stoically yet openly ignored an invitation to shake hands with the CIA Director who had ordered The Boss' death, and very nearly with President Johnson himself as well, a subtle warning sign of things to come.

Later career

When direct American involvement in the Vietnam War started the following year, Big Boss participated in Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) as a mercenary, along with teams of Green Berets and Army Rangers. His skills in combat earned him the "great legendary soldier" moniker. Once the conflict had ended, Big Boss took part in more than 70 missions attached to groups such as the SOG (Studies and Observations Group), the Wild Geese, and Delta Force. He also adopted a war orphan named Frank Jaeger (who would later become FOXHOUND member Gray Fox) in Vietnam. By 1971, a year after the FOX unit was disbanded; Big Boss formed his own unit, FOXHOUND, to carry on in FOX's tradition.

An abundance of governments, military organizations, and terrorist groups contacted Big Boss to recruit him. However, he declined many (often well-paid) missions, and only participated in conflicts where people's liberation was concerned. This drew attention from journalists, who championed this perfect killer.

In 1972 the U.S. Government brought Big Boss' unconscious body (he was rendered comatose from a battle) to a lab where his genes were extracted to make genetically enhanced soldiers. This project would be known as "Les Enfants Terribles". The goal was to create genetically perfected soldiers based on Big Boss' DNA. All three offspring of the project were given "Snake" codenames when they reached adulthood.

The Outer Heaven Uprising

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Big Boss at the time of the Outer Heaven Uprising, circa 1995.

In the 1990s, Big Boss used the exorbitant amount of money he had collected over the years from mercenary work to covertly create the fortress nation Outer Heaven, an organization opposed to the Western Powers (and, by proxy, the Patriots who controlled them), all the while ostensibly remaining the commander of the U.S.'s elite FOXHOUND unit. Big Boss also funded the development of the first Metal Gear prototype, called Metal Gear TX-55. It was a weapon system designed to give Outer Heaven military supremacy over the West.

When FOXHOUND was commissioned by the U.S. to infiltrate Outer Heaven and destroy Metal Gear, Big Boss first sent in his most trusted soldier, Gray Fox. Once Gray Fox was captured, Big Boss sent in Solid Snake, at that time FOXHOUND's greenest, least experienced member. Big Boss figured that there was no way that a rookie like Solid Snake could fulfill such a mission, that his efforts would delay further action by the West and buy Big Boss enough time to complete Metal Gear's development.

However, much to Big Boss's surprise, Solid Snake succeeded in defeating Outer Heaven's elite mercenaries and destroying Metal Gear itself. Faced with the failure of his plans, Big Boss confronted Solid Snake in the heart of Outer Heaven and revealed his identity as Outer Heaven's mastermind. After Big Boss activated the base's self-destruct countdown, the two of them engaged in one-on-one combat, dodging between crates and firing at each other. Even in his advanced age, Big Boss proved fast and dangerous, but Solid Snake eventually managed to defeat him.

The Zanzibar Land Disturbance

Big Boss, circa 1999
Big Boss, circa 1999. (MSX2 version)	Big Boss circa 1999. (Mobile Phone version)

Big Boss survived his battle with Snake and managed to escape Outer Heaven during its destruction. Two years later, he took control of another nation known as Zanzibar Land after his involvement in the War of Mercenaries. Recruiting war orphans from across the Third World and raising them as soldiers, Big Boss hoped to create a nation dedicated to the ideals of warfare and battle. Big Boss also recruited Gray Fox to his cause. To ensure Zanzibar Land's success, Big Boss once again commissioned the creation of a Metal Gear, known as Metal Gear D. This time, Dr. Madnar (the scientist who was forced to develop the original Metal Gear prototype in Outer Heaven) developed the new model of his own free will, after being ostracized by the academic community in the U.S.

Solid Snake once again managed to infiltrate the enemy nation and destroy Metal Gear. Snake eventually defeated Fox in hand-to-hand combat and, bruised and unarmed, was once again confronted by a gun-wielding Big Boss. Having spent his entire life on the battlefield, Big Boss could not conceive of a world without war, and attacked Snake in one final battle. Snake managed to create a makeshift flamethrower using an aerosol can and a cigarette lighter, using it to defeat Big Boss.

Legacy

Big Boss's genes would be used in a pair of secret projects to make the ultimate super-soldiers, one based on genetic information taken while he was in a coma, the other after his death.

Les Enfants Terribles Project

Big Boss with Solid and Liquid Snake, two of the three surviving offspring’s of the Les Enfants Terribles project.

In 1972, the Patriots set out a plan to artificially create the most powerful super soldier possible through genetics, in a project called 'Les Enfants Terribles' (a French phrase, literally meaning "the terrible children"). Big Boss at the time was wounded in combat and in a coma, and being regarded as the world's greatest soldier, he was chosen as the project's model. His cells were collected.

Clones were created from collected cells, combining 20th century analog cloning, and the Super Baby method. An egg was fertilized with one of the cells, and was then let divide into eight. The embryos were then transferred into a surrogate mother's uterus. When the eight embryos matured into foetus, five were intentionally aborted to encourage the three remaining foetus strong fetal growth. Two of them were Solid and Liquid Snake. While both brothers are identical at the genetic level, Liquid is led to (wrongly) believe that he is an inferior clone with recessive phenotypes. The technology to alter a gene's phenotype did not exist during the 1970s

In a different batch, a third offspring was soon created after the other two: Solidus Snake.

Solid Snake, with his natural self-confidence and determination, seemed to be the best clone. Liquid, having been told that he has the "flawed, recessive genes", exhibited low self-esteem. However, a short telephone conversation between the President Sears (Solidus) and Ocelot revealed that Solid Snake is "inferior" compared to Liquid, who is considered to be the superior clone.

Following their births, the 'Snakes' were separated and raised in different places. Liquid was sent to the UK, while Solid Snake remained in the US. It is unknown where Solidus was raised, but he did train child-soldiers in the Liberian Civil War in the late 1980s.

The lives of all three clones each ostensibly suffer from accelerated aging, a result of their vintage genetic material (the speed of this aging is evident with Solidus Snake, whom in his thirties already resembled Big Boss in his seventies). As of 2009, only Solid Snake is still alive as a whole being, while Liquid's consciousness lives inside Revolver Ocelot. Solidus Snake died at the outcome of the Big Shell incident, killed in a sword fight by his foster son Raiden.

The Three Snakes

• Solid Snake - Called Snake for short instead of Solid, due to the fact that he is the most known of the three Snakes as a result of his heroic actions as a FOXHOUND operative, and later as an independent agent. The clone who was raised in the U.S. became an agent of FOXHOUND. As a FOXHOUND agent, he defeated Big Boss in the Outer Heaven Crisis and later killing Big Boss in the Zanzibar Land Uprising (where Solid Snake learned that Big Boss was his "father"). After the events of Shadow Moses, he and Metal Gear REX designer, Hal Emmerich, along with Mei Ling, a Communications Expert who helped Snake during the Shadow Moses Incident (as well as invented the Codec and Radar which Snake, and later Raiden, use) and Nastasha Romanenko form Philanthropy - a group whose main objective is to prevent proliferation of Metal Gear-type weapons. His most known mission with Otacon in Philanthropy is the Tanker incident in 2007.
• Liquid Snake - The second of the clones was raised in the U.K. He is commonly referred to simply as Liquid. He began harboring hatred towards Solid Snake, whom he believes to be the superior clone (Though it is later confirmed that Liquid was superior to Snake, still Snake manages to beat him in a hand-to-hand fight.) During the Shadow Moses Island incident, Liquid took over the nuclear disposal site where Metal Gear REX was being developed while serving as field commander of FOXHOUND. He was afflicted with the virus FOXDIE unknowingly by Solid Snake, which was made to attack people with specific genetic codes. Liquid was killed by the virus. Snake survived due to the wildcard value Naomi assigned to his incubation period, which still leaves him vulnerable to an outbreak at any random moment. Liquid was later revived as a consciousness dwelling inside Revolver Ocelot after Liquid's right arm was grafted unto Ocelot to replace the one he lost.
• Solidus Snake - The third of the clones, he expressed a "perfect balance" of both recessive and dominant genes. As with Liquid, he is commonly referred to as Solidus. Solidus served as President of the U.S. during the Shadow Moses incident under the name George Sears. Later, he became the leader of a terrorist group known as The Sons of Liberty, in the Big Shell takeover. He was killed by his long lost foster son Raiden.

Genome Soldiers

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Big Boss, post-mortem. His corpse was used by the government for gene therapy experiments.

After the death of Big Boss and the downfall of Zanzibar Land, members of Big Boss' mercenary dispatching company, (Outer Heaven), are integrated into the Next Generation Special Forces after the U.S. Government purchases their contracts. The team is subsequently merged with Task Force 21 and are given VR training. Members of the team are also secretly enhanced with Big Boss' "soldier" genes, giving them augmented senses and reflexes.

In 2005, the Genome Soldiers took part in what was scheduled to have been a routine training exercise in Shadow Moses Island. The Genome Soldiers and FOXHOUND (under Liquid Snake's command) instead stage a revolt on the island, taking over the nuclear facility (where Metal Gear REX was secretly developed), along with a few hostages. The terrorists (calling themselves the Sons of Big Boss) threaten to launch a nuclear strike if the remains of Big Boss were not delivered to them in less than 24 hours. It is revealed that the Genome Soldiers are suffering from genetic defects as a result of their gene therapy treatments and that Big Boss' remains are the key to their survival.

After the destruction of REX by operative Solid Snake and the death of Liquid, the surviving Genome Soldiers are transferred to the Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire, where they are imprisoned for treason. One Genome Soldier named Johnny Sasaki however managed to avoid being arrested and joined Sergei Gurlukovich's group.

Miscellaneous

Big Boss in Snake's Revenge

Big Boss also appears as the second-to-last boss in the non-canonical sequel to the original Metal Gear, Snake's Revenge. He guards the final fortress where Metal Gear is located. At first, he appears as a normal human armed with a gun. After being shot several times, Big Boss reveals that he survived his injuries from Outer Heaven through surgeries that turned him into a cyborg; he then transforms into a tall RoboCop-like creature and proceeds to chase Solid Snake around while spitting fireballs at him. The only way for Snake to defeat this form is to lure him out of his life-support room and place landmines on his path (his soles are his weakspots).

In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, if the player calls George Kasler during the final battle, he mentions a rumor about Big Boss receiving cybernetic "snatcher" organs from Dr. Madnar after losing his limbs, right ear and right eye (which was already missing in the original game) in battle. Due to the many incongruities in Kasler's statement, it is most likely a joke intended to break the fourth wall rather than a serious plot point. While the conversation is actually a reference to Kojima's previous game, Snatcher (in which a character with Pettrovich Madnar's namesake appears as the founder of the snatcher project), some have interpreted the conversation as an in-joke to Big Boss' role in Snake's Revenge.