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's true name is unknown. In Metal Gear Solid 3, he is called "Jack" by some while he introduced 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.
Internet rumors also suggest that promotional materials that were handed out by Konami at the Electronic Entertainment Expo indicated that Naked Snake's full name is Jack 'T' Miles. However, no such materials exist, as the rumor was started as a joke by a member of MetalGearSolid.org Forums, and has since been taken as fact.
History
Early Life
Big Boss's 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.
Eater of Snakes
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: Shagohod.
During this mission, he lost his right eye while enduring torture. However, he succeeded in completing the mission, and killed his mentor The Boss and Colonel Volgin. For this, he was given the title of "Big Boss" by President Johnson.
Later Career
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 the tradition of the FOX unit. In 1972, Big Boss was found in a coma after a wild mission. The U.S. Government brought his unconscious body to a lab where his genes were extracted to make genetically enhanced soldiers. This project would be known as "Les Enfants Terribles". Liquid Snake, Solid Snake, and Solidus Snake were produced in this program, and were known as the "Sons of Big Boss".
Metal Gear and the End of the Big Boss
In the nineties, Big Boss used the exorbitant amount of money he had collected over the years 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, 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 Grey Fox; once Grey 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, but 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 disbanding Outer Heaven, recovering the Metal Gear research data, 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. Even in his advanced age, Big Boss proved fast and dangerous, but Solid Snake eventually managed to defeat and apparently kill him with repeated rocket launcher shots to the head.
In reality, Big Boss managed to escape Outer Heaven. Years later, he took control of another nation known as Zanzibar Land (not to be confused with 'Zanzibar'). 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 managed to turn Gray Fox, Solid Snake's best friend and FOXHOUND's greatest soldier, to his cause. To ensure Zanzibarland's success, Big Boss once again commissioned the creation of a more advanced Metal Gear prototype.
Solid Snake once again managed to infilitrate the enemy nation and destroy Metal Gear. Snake eventually killed Gray Fox in unarmed combat and, bruised and weapon-less, was once again confronted by a machine gun-wielding Big Boss. Having spent his entire life on the battlefield, Big Boss could not conceive of a world without war, and attacked Solid Snake in one final battle. Although Snake was unarmed, he managed to cobble together a makeshift flamethrower using a can of hair spray and a cigarette lighter, which he used to incinerate Big Boss. And thus the "world's greatest soldier" died an ignoble death, as many would consider it, burnt to a crisp by a can of hair spray.
Big Boss's corpse was recovered by the U.S. Government, and his genome was used to discover "soldier genes", which the US government gave to the Next Generation Special Forces via gene therapy.
Snake's Revenge
Big Boss also appears as the second-to-last boss in the western sequel to the original Metal Gear, Snake's Revenge. He guards the final fortress where Metal Gear is located. At first, he fights with a machine gun just as he did in the original Metal Gear. 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 12-foot tall RoboCop-like robot, and proceeds to chase Solid Snake around while spitting fireballs at him.
While Snake's Revenge is non-canonical, it should be noted that the final battles against Big Boss in Snake's Revenge and Metal Gear 2 are quite similar. In both games, Big Boss can use doors to chase the player around from one screen to another. The only difference between the two games' sequences is that Big Boss doesn't transform into a cyborg in the canonical sequel, Metal Gear 2.
In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, when the player calls George Kessler during the final battle, he mentions a rumor about Big Boss receiving a cybernetic "snatcher" implant from Dr. Petrovich after losing most of his limbs in battle. While some fans interpret this as a jab directed at Snake's Revenge, in reality it's a reference to Kojima's previous game, Snatcher. Dr. Petrovich appears in Snatcher as the founder of the snatcher project.