Big Boss (Metal Gear)

This article is about the video game character. For the film starring Bruce Lee, see The Big Boss.

For the Indian version of the international reality television series Big Brother, see Bigg Boss.

Big Boss
Metal Gear series character
File:Big boss.jpg Illustration of Big Boss by Yoji Shinkawa for Metal Gear Solid. Although, already dead in the game, his legacy plays a key role in the game's storyline
First game	Metal Gear
Created by	Hideo Kojima

Big Boss is a central character in the Metal Gear video game series .

First introduced in Metal Gear as Solid Snake's commanding officer and leader of FOXHOUND, a high-tech special forces unit founded by the United States government. Initially, Big Boss helps Snake through the wireless radio, serving as a guide in Snake's mission to infiltrate Outer Heaven, the terrorist organization in the game. By the end of the game, Big Boss' true nature is revealed as the leader of Outer Heaven, and confronts Snake as the final boss. Big Boss continued his antagonistic role in the sequel, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, where he confronts Snake for the second and final time.

Big Boss’ legacy plays a major role in the back story for the sequels Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Big Boss' origins are explored in the prequel Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and the upcoming Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.

History

As an antagonist

Big Boss' original backstory establishes him as a professional mercenary whose military career dates back to his service with the LRRP during the Vietnam War. Following this, he served the Green Berets, SOG and the Wild Geese, as well as the SAS and the GSG9. He then became a mercenary during the 1980s, 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 the usage of 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.

Big Boss, circa 1999. (MSX2 version)	Big Boss circa 1999. (Mobile Phone version)
Big Boss in Metal Gear 2. In the original MSX2 version (left), he was originally designed after the likeness of actor Sean Connery.

Big Boss returns in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Like many characters in the game, Big Boss was modeled after a celebrity figure; in this case, Sean Connery. 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. Ultimately, Big Boss is defeated and burned to death.

As a legend

File:Deadbigboss.JPG

A character study illustration from The Art of Metal Gear Solid, depicting Big Boss' remains in a lab.

Though dead by the time Metal Gear Solid takes place, Big Boss' legacy plays a major role in the game's plot. His relationship with Solid Snake is retconned, revealing that Big Boss is not only Solid Snake's biological father, but that Solid and his nemesis, Liquid Snake, are actually clones of Big Boss created from a secret government project in the 1970s 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 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 (three) clones: Solid and Liquid. Solid is raised in the United States, while Liquid is adopted by the British government.

After Big Boss' death, his body was recovered by a clean-up crew and used for gene therapy experiments. "Soldier genes" were isolated from his cells and then planted into the members of the Next Generation Special Forces, the Genome Soldiers which serve as Snake's most common foe in the game. The Genome Soldiers have augmented senses and reflexes, but suffer from genetic defects from these experiments. In order to cure the Genome Army from their defects, Liquid demands Big Boss' remains as part of his ransom. Liquid and the Genome take over the Shadow Moses island base, establishing themselves as the Sons of Big Boss.

File:Solds 02.jpg

Solidus Snake in MGS2, his appearance bears a striking resemblance to the aged Big Boss

In the end of Metal Gear Solid, it is revealed that Solid and Liquid were not the only survivors of the Les Enfants Terribles project, and that a third clone, Solidus Snake, also exists. It is also revealed that Solidus was the President of the United States during the events of the original Metal Gear Solid, and the true mastermind behind the Shadow Moses incident.

Solidus is later introduced as the main antagonist of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Since he suffers from advanced cellular degeneration, Solidus looks much older than Solid Snake and already resembles the aged Big Boss with his white hair and beard. At first, Solidus has both of his eyes, but is forced to wear an eyepatch when he suffers an injury during the course of the game. However, unlike Big Boss, he loses his left eye rather than his right. As part of the S3 Plan, Solidus Snake's relationship with the protagonist, Raiden, is meant to parallel the relationship between Solid Snake and Big Boss, as Raiden is Solidus Snake's foster son and mortal enemy.

As a protagonist

Naked Snake in Metal Gear Solid 3. The young Big Boss was designed to resemble his genetic descendant, Solid Snake, including trademarked bandanna, which originally belonged to The Boss.

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 (a fictional branch of the CIA). In his youth, Jack resembles Solid Snake, and was trained by a legendary soldier, The Boss, who taught him survival, and with Jack was the co-inventer of Close Quarters Combat. In his inaugural mission as a FOX agent, the Virtuous Mission, Jack is assigned the codename of Naked Snake and goes on a mission to infiltrate the fictional Soviet region of "Tselinoyarsk" and extract a defecting Soviet scientist named Sokolov, who is secretly making a new weapon known as the Shagohod. The mission goes smoothly until The Boss defects and provides her new benefactor, Colonel Volgin with two miniature nuclear shells ("Davey Crockett"). Sokolov is captured by GRU and Snake is heavily injured in combat with The Boss.

Snake is then sent out on a follow-up mission, "Operation Snake Eater." This time, his mission objective is to infiltrate Groznyj Grad, assassinate The Boss and Volgin, and destroy the "Shagohod". To this end, he teams up with a KGB spy named EVA, who has infiltrated the GRU ranks as Volgin's lover, Tatyana. In addition to confronting GRU forces, Snake also has to fight off the "Cobra unit" (The Boss' former unit) and a young Ocelot, who becomes both the fiercest rival and most devoted admirer of Snake. 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 completing his mission by destroying the Shagohod (along with Volgin) and then killing The Boss in combat.

However, after returning to his home country, EVA (who reveals herself to be a spy for the Peoples' Republic of China) informs Snake that his mission was a ruse, and that The Boss' defection was orchestrated by the United States government, also revealing that 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 bonus. Snake is awarded the title of Big Boss by President Johnson, but displays open resentment towards his superiors, especially with the DCI, who was the one who planned The Boss' death. The game ends with Big Boss saluting the grave of his fallen mentor.

Future appearances

File:MPOSnake.jpg

Naked Snake in the upcoming Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.

Big Boss will be the protagonist of the upcoming Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (MPO), a direct sequel to Snake Eater set six years after the events of the game. Though he is now officially titled "Big Boss," he still goes by his old codename, Naked Snake, since he does not feel like he has surpassed The Boss yet. In the game, Big Boss is forced to clear his name, when his former unit revolts and takes over a South American base where a new version of the Shagohod is being developed. He recruits several allies and forms FOXHOUND to combat the now-corrupt FOX unit. Instead of a battle dress uniform with varying camo patterns, Naked Snake now wears a "Close Quarter Combative Enhancer" suit. The game will explore Big Boss' reasons for establishing Outer Heaven.

Big Boss' naked body 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 in the NES versions

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 shephard boy who turned to terrorism". Likewise, Snake's commanding officer is mentioned to be a man named "Commander South". Neither character are actually mentioned in-game.

In the apocryphal 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.

The missing eye

File:MG1 Boss.jpg

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

One big discrenpacy 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 1980's 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 be 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 shot by Ocelot in 1964 while in captivity. This is now considered the definite canonical version.