Big Boss (Metal Gear)

Naked Snake Big Boss
Metal Gear character
First appearance	Metal Gear (1987)
Created by	Hideo Kojima
Designed by	Yoji Shinkawa
Voiced by	English David Hayter (Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Super Bomberman R) Richard Doyle (Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots) Kiefer Sutherland (Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain) Japanese Akio Ōtsuka (Metal Gear Solid 3, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Metal Gear Solid V and Super Bomberman R) Chikao Ōtsuka (Metal Gear Solid 4)
Motion capture	Various Mizuho Yoshida (Metal Gear Solid 3) Akio Ōtsuka (Metal Gear Solid 4) Miou Tanaka (Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker) Erik Brown (Metal Gear Solid V) Kiefer Sutherland (Metal Gear Solid V [facial only])

Big Boss (Japanese: ビッグ・ボス, Hepburn: Biggu Bosu) is a fictional character from the Metal Gear series created by Hideo Kojima and developed and published by Konami. appearing as the main antagonist in many of the games of the series.

He was first introduced in the 1987 Metal Gear game as the commanding officer and father of Solid Snake. He is later featured in the prequel games (starting with Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater) as a younger version of the character named Naked Snake (ネイキッド・スネーク, Neikiddo Sunēku), an American Special Forces Operator and decorated war hero. Political manipulations cause him to be disillusioned when facing his own mentor, and he gradually develops his own private mercenary company.

The concept of Naked Snake was an attempt to distance him from Solid Snake, despite both being physically similar through their characterizations. He has been voiced by Akio Ōtsuka in the Japanese version, and by David Hayter and Kiefer Sutherland in the English translation. Critical reception to Big Boss has been positive, due to his role as a villain and his enmity with Solid Snake. His younger persona has been praised as likeable, with critics generally enjoying the execution of his character development in the series designed to shape him into the villainous icon.

Appearances

Video Games

Metal Gear & Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake

Big Boss is introduced in the original Metal Gear game as the Special Forces Unit FOXHOUND's leader and Solid Snake's commanding officer. He initially acts as a radio contact who provides Snake with information about mission objectives involving Outer Heaven, a mercenary nation in South Africa. After Snake destroys TX-55 Metal Gear, Big Boss confronts Snake near the base's escape route in a final battle, only to be defeated. Outer Heaven is destroyed and Big Boss vows revenge.

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake showcases Big Boss having taken control of Zanzibar Land, a fortified nation in Central Asia, with Metal Gear D as a deterrent. Solid Snake confronts Big Boss once again while escaping from Zanzibar Land's detention camp, with Snake incinerating Big Boss.

Metal Gear Solid/The Twin Snakes

Despite his apparent death, Big Boss's presence figures prominently in Metal Gear Solid and its remake where his DNA was revealed to have been used to create the genetically-altered clones as part of the secret "Les Enfants Terribles" government project (French for "The Terrible Children"): Solid Snake, Liquid Snake, and Solidus Snake.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

The prequel Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, set in 1964, depicts a younger incarnation of the character, under the codename Naked Snake, as a member of the CIA special forces unit FOX headed by Major Zero. Snake is sent on assignment in the Soviet Union to thwart the uprising of GRU colonel Volgin, rescue weapons researcher Nikolai Sokolov, destroy the Shagohod prototype, and kill The Boss (his mentor who defected to the Soviet Union) to avert a nuclear war. Over the course of the mission, he has encounters with Major Ocelot, is supported by the mysterious EVA and FOX operatives Para-Medic and Sigint, as well as fights and defeats the Cobra Unit (consisting of The Pain, The Fear, The End, The Fury and The Sorrow). Snake completes his mission and kills The Boss, but learns that the defection was orchestrated by the US government and who had ordered her death to prevent war. The political motives behind the operation do not sit well with Snake, especially after he is awarded the "Big Boss" title for his actions which he initially rejects, and prompts him to retire from active service.

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops portrays Big Boss still under his former codename of Naked Snake, believing that he has yet to surpass The Boss as a warrior. Having spent six years wandering the globe, Snake finds himself involved in an armed uprising caused by Gene's rogue FOX unit in the (fictional) San Hieronymo peninsula in Colombia and learns that he has been convicted for instigating the revolt. Hoping to clear his name, Snake forms his own team of specialists, FOXHOUND, by recruiting both old allies and defecting enemy soldiers to his cause. He faces not only the members of the FOX unit, but also Metal Gear's first prototype. After he learns that The Boss's death had been planned all along, Snake eventually defeats Gene and obtains the funds for Army's Heaven.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, set in 2014, reveals that, following The Boss's death, Big Boss and Zero became divided over how to realize her final will: a world where soldiers are free to choose their own fights on their own terms, and not at the whim of a government. Having initially sided with Zero, Big Boss is discouraged when Zero interprets the will as imposing order and control over the world. Big Boss further despises his role as a figurehead since Zero's vision places no value on loyalty to ideals and people, which The Boss treasured above all else. Big Boss ultimately leaves when he learns that his own DNA was used for Zero's "Les Enfants Terribles" project. He later stages the coup d'état with Outer Heaven and Zanzibar Land against the Patriots created by Zero. Surviving his encounter with Solid Snake in Zanzibar, Big Boss is placed in an artificially induced coma with his genetic code used for an ID recognition system, the use of which allows access to the AIs that make up the Patriots. His body is recovered and reconstructed using parts from the bodies of both Liquid and Solidus, and he awakens from his coma after the fall of the Patriots' AIs. Big Boss appears before Solid Snake (now dubbed "Old Snake") with an elderly catatonic Zero to reveal the truth about the Patriots, before shutting off Zero's life support system, killing him. He comes to terms with his feelings regarding The Boss, and reconciles with Snake before dying from exposure to the new strain of FOXDIE virus.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Following Portable Ops, Naked Snake's past again serves as the scenario in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker after he and his business partner Kazuhira "Kaz" Miller establishes the mercenary force Militaires Sans Frontières (French for "Soldiers Without Borders"), made up of expatriate soldiers recruited to his cause. He intends to use MSF to live out The Boss's final will. Student Paz Ortega Andrade and Professor Vladimir Zadornov seek to hire MSF to remove Coldman's CIA Peace Sentinel unit that has established bases in Costa Rica. Snake reluctantly accepts the mission, to which the MSF takes over an offshore research platform in the Caribbean as a "Mother Base" in a bid to expand the group's capabilities. Snake comes to learn about the true purpose of Coldman's Peace Walker prototypes (Pupa, Chrysalis, Cocoon and Peace Walker) and gradually lets go of his guilt for The Boss's death after encountering an AI replica, finally accepting his Big Boss title. Big Boss later has Huey Emmerich create Metal Gear ZEKE as a weapon to defend his interests, with no desire to use it offensively. Zadornov reveals himself to be a KGB operative, and Snake kills him in self-defense. Snake then learns Paz was allied with Zadornov and is an agent of Cipher (a precursor to the Patriots). She pilots ZEKE and threatens to launch a nuclear strike on the United States, but Big Boss stops ZEKE and Paz falls into the Caribbean Sea. Kaz tells Big Boss of being aware of Zadornov and Paz's intentions from the beginning, and used it to spur MSF's growth. Kaz realizes they will no longer be able to hide from the outside world unless they reveal their true nature, but Big Boss rejects this idea and chooses to live differently from The Boss. Afterwards, he gives a speech to the MSF soldiers, telling them that if the times demand it, they will be vigilantes, criminals and terrorists, but they alone will be the ones to choose their battles and causes.

Metal Gear Solid V

Set months after Peace Walker, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes sees Big Boss sent to rescue ally Chico and Paz from an American black site on Cuban soil; Big Boss believes that Paz can be converted to MSF's cause and can reveal more about Cipher. After Snake successfully extracts them, an MSF medic finds a bomb in Paz's abdomen and removes it. They return to find Mother Base under attack by the XOF paramilitary force led by Skull Face. Shortly after escaping, Paz awakens and reveals a second bomb, jumping out of the helicopter seconds before it explodes. The helicopter crashes, placing Big Boss and the medic in a coma.

In Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, set nine years later, Big Boss awakens while the unconscious medic becomes his doppelgänger through brainwashing and facial reconstruction as part of a plan to draw attention away from Big Boss. When the medic awakes, Big Boss poses as "Ishmael", a patient in the hospital, and aids in helping the medic escape when it is attacked by Skull Face's forces. The medic (now dubbed "Venom Snake") ventures into Soviet-controlled Afghanistan and the Angola–Zaire border region using the newly-formed Diamond Dogs mercenary force to combat Skull Face, while Big Boss works elsewhere in his plan for the true Outer Heaven's development.

Other video games and media

In Snake's Revenge, a sequel to the original Metal Gear for the NES released for the western market in 1990 and developed without Kojima's involvement. Big Boss returns as the leader of the enemy organization, having survived the injuries he sustained in the original game as a cyborg. He fights Solid Snake as a boss prior to reaching the new Metal Gear prototype and has two forms: his human form and a fire-breathing cyborg form. Naked Snake also appears as a playable character in Super Bomberman R.

In December 2020, Monster Hunter director Paul W. S. Anderson stated that the film's storyline had been primarily based on a 2010 crossover event between Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, in which Big Boss' military squad briefly faced the monsters from the Monster Hunter series, with the film characters of Natalie Artemis (portrayed by Milla Jovovich) and the Hunter (portrayed by Tony Jaa) respectively replacing the video game roles of Big Boss/Naked Snake and Trenya, with Anderson stating that "I thought this was great imagery to juxtapose a man with a machine gun [Naked Snake] against the creatures [of Monster Hunter].".

Creation and design

In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Big Boss' visual appearance was inspired by actor Sean Connery. However, for the ports of the game's re-released version, the original design was replaced by Yoji Shinkawa's design.

During the making of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Hideo Kojima asked Shinkawa to make Naked Snake similar to Solid Snake, but with the differences that unlike Solid Snake, Naked Snake was a rookie and thus acted more naive. Shinkawa stated having no difficulties in designing Naked Snake as basically a revised version of Solid Snake. As a result, Naked Snake is virtually identical to Solid Snake from the previous Metal Gear Solid games in terms of appearance. The love scene between Naked Snake and EVA was inspired by the first Pink Panther. Kojima and Shinkawa watched the movie but the former stated it might have come different from the original version. Since the game's trailers did not state that Naked Snake was Big Boss, Kojima often gave vague answers to the character's true identity. Although the ending of Metal Gear Solid 3 reveals Naked Snake was given the Big Boss title, Kojima stated "he's not really the Big Boss yet". With Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, he wanted to explain how Naked Snake became the man who appeared in the original Metal Gear games as Solid Snake's enemy.

Naked Snake as portrayed in Metal Gear Solid 3 shares the same voice actor as Solid Snake did in the first two Metal Gear Solid games, being voiced by Akio Otsuka in the Japanese version and David Hayter in the English version. Both actors would return to provide Snake's voice in Portable Ops and Peace Walker. The elderly version of Big Boss who appears in the end of Metal Gear Solid 4 is voiced by Chikao Otsuka (Akio Otsuka's real-life father) in Japanese and by Richard Doyle in English. Originally, Naked Snake was planned to have been voiced by Kurt Russell due to Kojima's request but the actor refused.

On June 6, 2013, during Konami's third annual pre-E3 show, it was announced that Kiefer Sutherland would be portraying Snake in Metal Gear Solid V, replacing David Hayter (Akio Otsuka was unaffected by this casting change and continued to portrayed Snake in the Japanese dub). Sutherland plays the original Big Boss (who serves as the playable character in the stand-alone prologue Ground Zeroes), as well as Venom Snake (a new version of the character who serves as the protagonist in the main game The Phantom Pain). In addition to the voice, Sutherland also provided facial capture for the character. Sutherland was assigned the role after a suggestion to Kojima from Hollywood producer and director Avi Arad; Kojima's reason was to "have a more subdued performance expressed through subtle facial movements and tone of voice rather than words", and that he "needed someone who could genuinely convey both the facial and vocal qualities of a man in his late 40s".

Reception

Big Boss' character has been well-received, with IGN ranking him number 32 on their 2010 list of top video game villains, and as the fourth top Metal Gear villains. In 2010, IGN's Jesse Schedeen found the character one of the most important characters from the franchise to the point his "influence is felt in every Metal Gear game, even if he isn't always present in the flesh". Ken Gagne of Computerworld named Big Boss as one of the most creative "badass villains" in video games, citing the complexity of his betrayal of Solid Snake, fueled by Solid Snake being his genetic heir. Additionally, Joe Dodson of GameSpot listed Big Boss as one of the 20 best Metal Gear bosses with focus on his importance within the series' plot. He was ranked as the 28th "coolest" video game villain by Complex in 2012. Naked Snake's transition to Big Boss was listed as the second hero who turned evil by What Culture with the writer finding the character more interesting than Solid Snake based on his progression across Big Boss' video games. Various gaming sites such as 1UP.com, Game Informer and Kotaku placed his character as one of the worst fathers in video games due to his poor relationship with Solid Snake and the attempts to murder his own son.

The inclusion of Naked Snake's role in Metal Gear Solid 3 has also received praise from critics. Prior to the game's release, Naked Snake was often called 'Solid Snake' or simply 'Snake' by critics due to his resemblance with Solid Snake, although some still were not sure about his true identity. Additionally, early speculation of the playable character's identity from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was listed by IGN as one top ten rumors on the PlayStation 2. Benjamin Turner of GameSpy further noted that various fans started making theories about Naked Snake's identity before the game's release as while they thought it was Solid Snake, the setting from the game made it impossible for Solid Snake to be the game's main protagonist due to their difference of years. Finding the revelation of Naked Snake's identity was considered by GameSpy as "the single coolest thing Kojima could have done in MGS3" because of [Naked Snake's] differences from [Solid Snake] in regards to their personality as well as because it made fans wonder how Naked Snake would become the series antagonist Big Boss. Another comparison between Big Boss' and Solid Snake's character was made by IGN's Phil Pirrello in article titled "Stars Thunderdome: Snake vs. Big Boss." Despite the similarities between Naked Snake and Solid Snake, Rich Stanton of Eurogamer praised how different is they are from each other in terms of experience within the battlefield but also liked how Naked looks after the Boss despite the game placing them as enemies. Dave Meikleham of GamesRadar placed his relationship with EVA in his top list of disastrous game romances due to how it was ruined by the two's different roles in the story. Play editor Nick Jones listed Naked Snake's final fight against The Boss in such game as the second best moment from the franchise, citing the emotional focus from their characters. David Hayter's performance as Naked Snake's English voice actor in Metal Gear Solid 3 has been criticized by Edge while discussing the dialogues from the game.

Joe Dodson, writing for GameRevolution, disliked Big Boss' character in Portable Ops due to his process of kidnapping and indoctrinating enemy soldiers through "confusing rants" about the idea of loyalty. Rob Fahey of Eurogamer found that Snake remained likeable from carrying over traits shown in Snake Eater and praised Hayter's performance. Charles Herold of The New York Times described Snake as a tragic character based on the events shown in Snake Eater, and with Portable Ops had been forced to face a new conflict despite retirement. Greg Kasavin of GameSpot praised the handling of Snake's character in Portable Ops due to his interactions with his former partners from the FOX unit. Jeff Haynes of IGN noted how the game presented major plot twists and exposition that would affect Snake's characterization and lay the groundwork for important items shown later in the series.

Oli Welsh of Eurogamer criticized Big Boss' characterization in Peace Walker as confusing in the wider context of the series, with mixed comments being given to Hayter's performance. Jonathan Holmes of Destructoid enjoyed how Peace Walker further developed Big Boss' character from Portable Ops by completing his journey from lone soldier to leader and cementing him as the icon he would become. Greg Miller of IGN also found the game's story was one of the most enjoyable and least-convoluted by focusing purely on Big Boss' emotions and his quest to discover more about his fallen mentor, The Boss, similar sentiments of which were shared by Ramón Varela of Vandal and Randy Nelson of Engadget. Jason Schreier of Kotaku disliked the plot twist in The Phantom Pain which revealed that the player character, Venom Snake, was not Big Boss, feeling it cheapened the emotional crux of the story and that it failed to explain Big Boss' motivations for becoming a villain.