Big Boss (Metal Gear)
Big Boss is a fictional character in the Metal Gear video game series created by Hideo Kojima and published by Konami. Template:Spoiler
Games Featuring Big Boss
Non-Playable
The character of Big Boss appears in the following games, but is not a playable character:
Playable
The character of Big Boss appears in the following games as a playable character:
Name
Big Boss' true name is unknown. In Metal Gear Solid 3, he is called "Jack" by some and he introduce himself as "John" to others (see Name Debate for info). His official codename in the game is "Naked Snake", but is just referred to as "Snake" for the sake of convenience. He does not receive the rank of "Big Boss" until after the events of Metal Gear Solid 3 (which takes place, chronologically, before any of the previous Metal Gear games).
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 jokingly introduced himself to Para-Medic as "John Doe", a commonly and purposefully ambiguous name, instead of revealing his true name), others point out that "Jack" (Snake's nickname) is commonly a nickname for American men named John.
Still others make reference to the fact that Snake's dialog with Ocelot closely parallels a similar scene from Metal Gear Solid in which Solid Snake revealed his real name to be David.
History
Big Boss' history prior to joining the armed forces and becoming a disciple of The Boss is a complete mystery. According to some sources, Big Boss was born as a third generation Japanese-American. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he lied about his age and joined the United States Army, and first saw action fighting in France. After the war, he remained in the military, and fought for it again in the Korean War. In 1956, Jack was involved in the Bikini Atoll testing of the first airborne detonation of a hydrogen bomb. In between the Korean and Vietnam Wars, he fought alongside the Green Berets, as well as served under his mentor The Boss. He also helped her develop CQC during this time. In 1964, he was recruited by the fledgling FOX (Force Operations X) unit, and underwent an operation titled Virtuous Mission, in which he was to rescue a defecting Soviet scientist. It was during this mission that Jack was given the codename "Naked Snake".
However, this mission failed, due to the defection of Snake's mentor, The Boss. A week later, FOX unit and Snake were assigned Operation Snake Eater, in which the objective was to eliminate The Boss and her new Soviet ally Colonel Volgin, as well as rescue the same Soviet scientist. It was during this mission that Snake came across the prototype designs for Metal Gear.
During this mission, he lost his right eye while enduring torture. However, he succeeded in completing the mission, and killed his mentor The Boss. For this, he was given the title of "Big Boss" by President Johnson. When direct American involvement in the Vietnam conflict started the following year, Big Boss participated in Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) along with teams of Green Berets and Army Rangers. His skills in combat earned him the "great mythological soldier" moniker. Once the Vietnam conflict had ended, Big Boss took part in more than 70 missions attached to groups such as the SOG (Special Operations Group), the Wild Geese, and Delta Force.
It was around this time that Big Boss was found to be sterile due to the Bikini Atoll testing he had taken part in years earlier. In 1970, the FOX unit was disbanded, and the following year, Big Boss formed his own unit, FOXHOUND, to carry on its tradition. In 1972 the United States government hired Big Boss to take part in a fertilization program known as "Les Enfant Terrible". Liquid Snake, Solid Snake, and Solidus Snake were produced in this program, and were known as the "Sons of Big Boss".
In the nineties, Big Boss used the exorbitant amount of money he had collected over the years to create the fortress nation Outer Heaven. However, Solid Snake disbanded the nation, and defeated Big Boss in one-on-one combat. Big Boss escaped, and took control of another nation known as Zanzibar Land (not to be confused with 'Zanzibar'). Solid Snake again faced Big Boss in battle, and killed him. Big Boss' corpse was recovered by the US government, and his genome was used to discover "soldier genes", which the US government gave to the Next Generation Special Forces via gene therapy.