Big Boss (Metal Gear)

Big Boss
Metal Gear series character
File:Big Boss (Metal Gear).jpg Big Boss as illustrated in Metal Gear Solid by Yoji Shinkawa, depicted in his elderly look from the early Metal Gear games.
First game	Metal Gear
Created by	Hideo Kojima

Big Boss (ビッグ・ボス, Biggu Bosu) is a central character in the Metal Gear video game series. He is first introduced in the original Metal Gear, where he is the founder and commanding officer of FOXHOUND as his codename indicates, but is later revealed to be the terrorist leader in the end of the game. He returns to resume his antagonistic role for the second and last time in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. In this incarnation, Big Boss is depicted as an elderly mercenary with white facial hair and an eye-patch over his right eye. In Metal Gear 2, he bears a facial likeness to actor Sean Connery. His rivalry with series protagonist Solid Snake is further explored in Metal Gear Solid, where he is revealed to be the biological father of Snake and his clone brothers, Liquid and Solidus.

Big Boss' past is explored in the prequels Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, where he serves as the protagonist under the codename of Naked Snake (ネイキッド・スネーク, Neikiddo Sunēku). In these prequels, Naked Snake not only resembles his genetic successor (Solid Snake), but is also voiced by the same voice actor (David Hayter in English and Akio Ōtsuka in Japanese).

History

As an antagonist

Big Boss' original backstory establishes him as a professional mercenary whose military career dates back to his service with the Green Berets, and LRRP during the Vietnam War. Following this, he served under the SOG and the Wild Geese, as well as the SAS and the GSG9. He first became a mercenary during the 1970s, participating in regional conflicts and race liberation wars, earning his fame as a legendary war hero among the press. He was later re-appointed as commander-in-chief of High-Tech Special Forces Unit FOXHOUND.

Big Boss first appears in the original Metal Gear as Solid Snake's commanding officer, and initially acts as a radio contact during his infiltration of Outer Heaven, providing Snake with information about mission objectives, as well as weapons and equipment.

However, near the end of the game as Snake approaches the final base where Metal Gear is stored, Big Boss begins to give false advice, leading Snake into death traps instead. After finally destroying Metal Gear TX-55, Big Boss confronts Snake on the escape route of the base, exposing himself as the leader of Outer Heaven. He reveals that Outer Heaven is actually a private military contractor which he established with the funds he amassed during his work as a mercenary, and that he was attempting to gain military superiority over the Western powers with the development of Metal Gear. Big Boss chose Solid Snake for the mission because as his most inexperienced soldier, he believed that Snake would fail. His underestimation of Snake causes him to have to fight him himself, as the self-destruct mechanism of Outer Heaven is activated. Snake defeats Big Boss and leaves him for dead as the base is destroyed. After the ending credits, a message from Big Boss is displayed swearing revenge against Snake.

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Big Boss in the MSX (left) and PlayStation 2 (right) releases of Metal Gear 2

Big Boss returns in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. He is revealed to have survived his battle with Snake in Outer Heaven, and has since taken control of another fortified nation in Central Asia - Zanzibar Land. This time, he establishes a military force along with his trusted lieutenant, Gray Fox, and commissions the development of a new Metal Gear model, Metal Gear D. Big Boss' ambition is to create a world full of war where soldiers are always in demand.

After Solid Snake destroys Metal Gear and defeats Gray Fox, he confronts Big Boss once again while escaping from the Zanzibar Land detention camp. Having lost all of his weapons in his earlier battle with Fox, Snake is forced to improvise and create a makeshift flamethrower from an aerosol can and a lighter. Before the final battle, Big Boss gives an ominous final speech that would haunt Solid Snake for the rest of his life, "Whoever wins the battle does not end. The loser is set free from the battlefield, while the winner must remain there. And the survivor will live out his life as the warrior until the day he dies." Ultimately, Big Boss is defeated and burned to death, seemingly content with the thought of finally leaving the battlefield. Like many characters in the game, Big Boss was designed to resemble a celebrity figure; in this case, Sean Connery.

Legacy

Though dead by the time Metal Gear Solid takes place, Big Boss' legacy plays a major role in the over-arching plot of each subsequent game. His relationship with Solid Snake is retconned: Big Boss is not just Solid Snake's biological father, but a DNA template from which Snake was cloned.

As revealed near the end of Metal Gear Solid, both Solid Snake and his nemesis, Liquid Snake, are actually clones of Big Boss created in the 70s from a secret government experiment known as the Les Enfants Terribles project (French for The Terrible Children). While recovering from a war injury, Big Boss' cell samples were extracted and then reproduced through analog cloning and the fictional Super Baby method. The cells were fertilized into an ovum, resulting in eight clone babies, and then planted into a surrogate mother. Six of the babies (later revealed to had only been five) were then intentionally aborted to encourage strong fetal growth with the remaining two (later found out to be three) clones: Solid and Liquid (and Solidus). Solid Snake was raised in the United States, while Liquid was adopted by the British government.

Following Big Boss' death in Zanzibar Land, his body was recovered by the United States military and used for gene therapy experiments. Superior hereditary traits known as "soldier genes" were isolated from his cells and then transplanted into members of the Next Generation Special Forces. Those who underwent this experimentation became known as the Genome Soldiers, who serve as Snake's most common foe in MGS1. The Genome Soldiers have augmented senses and reflexes, but are gradually dying due to genetic instabilities created by the gene therapy process (though what these genetic problems are is never made clear, perhaps a result of the atomic defects caused by Big Boss's exposure to radiation). In order to research a cure of the Genome Army's defects, Liquid demands Big Boss' remains as part of his ransom demands to the U.S. government. Liquid and the Genome Army take over the Shadow Moses island base, referring to themselves as the Sons of Big Boss.

As a protagonist

Naked Snake in Metal Gear Solid 3. The young Big Boss is almost identical in appearance to his genetic descendant, Solid Snake, right down to his trademark bandana.

Much of Big Boss' previously established past is retroactively continued through Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, a prequel to the entire series set in 1964. Following up on the revelation that Big Boss is Solid Snake's father, the game reintroduces Big Boss as a young patriotic soldier named Jack, a former Green Beret and the first field operative for the newly established FOX unit. Jack is virtually identical to Solid Snake in terms of appearances and has been trained by a legendary soldier, The Boss, who taught him survival skills. The Boss also collaborated with Jack to invent Close Quarters Combat. During the introductory segment of the game, the Virtuous Mission, Jack is given the codename of Naked Snake. Snake's initial mission is to infiltrate the fictional Soviet region of Tselinoyarsk and extract a defecting Soviet scientist named Sokolov, who is being forced to design a new weapon called the Shagohod. The mission goes relatively smoothly until The Boss appears and announces her defection, providing her new benefactor Colonel Volgin with two miniature nuclear shells ("Davy Crockett"). Sokolov is captured by the reformed Cobra Unit, and Snake is heavily injured in combat with The Boss.

In the main portion of the game, Snake is sent out on a follow-up mission title "Operation Snake Eater" a week after the Virtuous Mission's failure. His objectives this time are to infiltrate Groznyj Grad, assassinate The Boss, Colonel Volgin, and destroy the Shagohod. He teams up with a KGB spy named EVA, who has infiltrated the GRU ranks as Tatyana. In addition to confronting GRU forces, Snake is also instructed to assassinate each member of the Cobras (The Boss' former unit). Snake experiences many hardships during his mission, including undergoing extreme torture by Volgin, and losing his right eye to Ocelot, but is ultimately successful in slaying the Cobras, destroying the Shagohod (along with Volgin) and then killing The Boss in combat.

However, in the game's conclusion, EVA (who reveals herself to be a spy for the People's Republic of China) informs Snake via a recording that his mission was a ruse; The Boss' defection was orchestrated by the United States government, and The Boss was merely used as a scapegoat for the destruction of OKB-754, caused by Volgin with the American-made shells provided by The Boss. The main purpose of the entire operation was the recovery of the Philosopher's Legacy, with the destruction of the Shagohod as a side benefit. Upon arriving at Langley, VA, Snake is awarded the title of Big Boss and a Distinguished Service Cross by President Johnson, but displays open resentment towards his superiors, especially with the DCI (an unnamed fictional character who bears a resemblance to the real life DCI at the time, John McCone) who was the official who ordered the Boss's death in order to recover the Philosopher's Legacy. The game ends with Big Boss saluting The Boss's final resting place, an anonymous gravestone among acres of others.

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Naked Snake in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.

Big Boss would return once again in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, set six years after the events of Snake Eater. Instead of a battle dress uniform with changeable camo patterns, Naked Snake wears a "Close Quarter Combative Enhancer" suit, which is a rough combination of Snake's battle dress uniform in Snake Eater with The Boss' sneaking suit and Volgin's red suit according to a conceptual sketch by Yoji Shinkawa. Though he is now officially titled "Big Boss," he refuses to accept this new title, since he does not feel like he has surpassed The Boss yet, and thus still goes by his old codename. In Portable Ops, Naked Snake is forced to clear his name when his former unit FOX revolts and takes over a former Soviet-owned base located at the fictional San Hieronymo peninsula in Colombia. The first Metal Gear prototype (codename RAXA) is being developed, threatening to ignite a nuclear war much like the Shagohod had in Snake Eater. Widely renowned as The Boss' greatest peer, Naked Snake's charismatic presence allows him to recruit several defecting soldiers as allies to "hunt" down the rogue FOX unit (laying the groundwork for FOXHOUND).

As the story progresses, Naked Snake is caught in a power struggle between the CIA and the DOD to obtain the missing half of the Philosopher's Legacy. Resenting his role as a pawn, Snake declares to his adversaries that his loyalty is with neither; the CIA nor the DOD, but to himself, and that he will not live his life like The Boss did. In the end, Snake defeats the new leader of FOX, Gene, and obtains from him a microfilm with the funds for "Army's Heaven", an ideal nation by Gene for soldiers.

After the ending credits, a short telephone conversation is played between Ocelot and an unknown third party. Ocelot agrees to help the mysterious person, but only on the condition he be allowed to invite Big Boss to join them in becoming the Patriots.

Future appearances

Big Boss' naked corpse also appeared in an early promotional artwork for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. During an interview with Hideo Kojima in Game Informer, when asked about Big Boss' presence in the promotional artwork, he said that it was Yoji Shinkawa's decision and not his to draw him in the image. It is unknown what role Big Boss will play in the upcoming game, if any.

Miscellaneous

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 the Metal Gear 2 mecha 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. 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' portrayal in Snake's Revenge.

Discrepancies (NES games)

When the first Metal Gear was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System, Big Boss' role remained unchanged within the actual game, from his initial introduction as Snake's commanding officer to the final revelation as the main villain. However, the English-language manual for the North American and European release of the game makes no attempt at keeping the main villain's identity a secret, nor does it mention Big Boss at all. Instead, the main villain is mentioned to be Vermon CaTaffy (a play on Muammar al-Gaddafi), who is described as a "once traquil shepherd boy who turned to terrorism". Likewise, Snake's commanding officer is mentioned to be a man named "Commander South" (a play on Colonel Oliver North). Neither character is actually mentioned in-game.

The non-canonical Snake's Revenge, which also features Big Boss as the main villain, does not mention him in the manual either. Instead, the manual makes mention of a "Higharolla Kockamamie" (a play on Ayatollah Khomeini), who got the plans for Metal Gear from CaTaffy himself.

This practice was not uncommon for many Konami games published in North America at the time, as the writers of Konami's manuals often took liberties with the game's plot, going against the game designers' original intentions, in an attempt to inject humor into their writing.

Missing eye

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Drawing of Big Boss from the Japanese instruction manual for Metal Gear. Note that his eye patch is over his left eye instead of his usual right.

One big discrepancy in the early Metal Gear games was Big Boss' missing eye. In Big Boss' character illustration for the Japanese instruction manual of the first Metal Gear, the eyepatch is on Big Boss' left eye. However, Big Boss in-game sprite clearly depicts the eyepatch on his right side of his face. All subsequent depictions of Big Boss showed his eyepatch on his right eye. In the manual for Metal Gear 2, it is stated that Big Boss lost his right eye during the 1980s and was the cause of his retirement. However, an in-game radio call with George Kasler during the final battle states a rumor that Big Boss actually lost his right eye to Snake in Outer Heaven (only in the MSX2 and Subsistence versions however. The mobile phone version only states that Big Boss lost his right limbs). The backstory written in the Metal Gear 2 manual would have been the most commonly accepted version of Big Boss' loss of his eye.

Metal Gear Solid 3, however, changes this by depicting the loss of Big Boss's eye on-screen. Rather than losing his eye during the 80s, Big Boss has his right eye accidentally damaged by a bullet fired from Ocelot's revolver in 1964 while in captivity. This is made clear according to the Hideo Kojima updated commentary to MGS3. This is now considered the true version, having Big Boss' eye lost in the 80's been retconned.