Solid Snake is the sole playable protagonist of the first three Metal Gear entries. In Metal Gear Solid 2 you control him for the beginning before Raiden takes charge. However, his father, Big Boss, is the playable character for Metal Gear Solid 3, Portable Ops, Peace Walker, and Ground Zeroes.
We’re tempted to include The Phantom Pain, but there is a narrative reason why this is inaccurate. Our point is, Big Boss turns out to be one of the most important characters in the franchise. Despite this, there are some few key details regarding both the lore and the character’s creation many fans do not know.
10 Kojima Wanted Kurt Russell To Play Him
David Hayter plays Big Boss in most of the games except for Metal Gear Solid 4, Ground Zeroes, and the Phantom Pain. We suppose it is logical for the same voice actor to play a son and a father generations apart. However, if Kojima had his wish, Kurt Russell would have played Naked Snake in Metal Gear Solid 3. Imagine a world where the legendary actor plays one of gaming’s most iconic faces.
9 He Is Modeled After Sean Connery In Metal Gear 2
Metal Gear 2 uses actors’ and historical figures’ likenesses for many of the characters’ faces. Solid Snake is modeled after Mel Gibson, for example. The team picked an interesting choice for Big Boss. The original James Bond, Sean Connery, is the face of Big Boss in the second mainline entry. These faces were all changed in subsequent re-releases. Since the game did not release in the west until 2005’s Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, U.S. gamers never got to see this version.
8 His Eyepatch Was Once On The Other Eye
Losing an eye is a huge disadvantage for a soldier. It impairs one’s peripheral vision and depth perception. It did little to impede Big Boss’s exemplary skill, however, since he still managed to become a legend.
Oddly enough, the original MSX instruction manual art for the debut entry shows the eyepatch covering his left eye instead of his right. One has to wonder if the artist made a mistake, he originally lost his left eye, or if the image somehow became flipped during the process of putting the art into the manual.
7 He Was A Cyborg In A Non-Canon Game
In between the first two mainline games, a western developer made an NES game called Snake’s Revenge. Without Hideo Kojima’s involvement, the game is obviously non-canon. It is a good thing, too, because some wild things happen. Big Boss was turned into a cyborg and transforms into a more robotic form to fight snake. To be fair, people becoming cyborgs is not such a wild idea for the Metal Gear Solid franchise. Almost all the entries have a cyborg ninja of some sort.
6 In America He Was In A Coma, In Japan He Was Sterile
In Metal Gear Solid, Liquid Snake says Big Boss was in a coma during the Les Enfants Terribles project. However, the same line in Japan simply says he was incapable of having children in a natural way. We doubt the former is canon, considering he was in a coma from 1975 to 1984. With the project having happened in 1972, we doubt he was also in a coma during this time period too.
5 You Don’t Fight Him In The Original Metal Gear
Big Boss is the final battle in the original Metal Gear from 1987. However, it is not the same Big Boss who was once Naked Snake and killed his mentor, the Boss. This one is the one players control in the Phantom Pain.
As detailed in 2015’s The Phantom Pain, an MSF nurse was transformed into the legend while the real Big Boss fought his shadow war against the Patriots. It is a good thing Solid Snake does not bring this up during their final conversation in Metal Gear Solid 4; it definitely could have gotten awkward.
4 He Never Tells Solid Snake That He’s His Father
When fans go back to the original two games, either on the original hardware or through the re-releases, they are probably expecting a big dramatic moment where Big Boss tells Snake the truth. However, such a moment never actually occurs. Big Boss dies those two times and never reveals Snake’s lineage. Only the 1998 PS1 classic Metal Gear Solid reveals that Snake found out sometime in the past. We can let this retcon or inconsistency slide.
3 He Has Had Several Different Biographies Throughout The Years
Up until Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, the character remained quite an enigma. Other than his part in the first two games, details about his background were scarce. Because of this, several different sources reported described different upbringings. The Metal Gear Solid strategy guide says he was born in Hawaii and had a Japanese-American background. The MSX instruction manual says he served in the SAS. All of the above mentioned details are now considered non-canon
2 He Is Scared Of Bats And Vampires
One would expect a soldier like Big Boss to be completely devoid of fear. However, a radio conversation in Metal Gear Solid 3 reveals his two big phobias; bats and vampires. He tells Para-Medic that even mentioning either of those things gives him nightmares. He definitely runs into bats while in the jungle, but he should have no worries about encountering vampires. He probably would not have been good friend with Vamp from MGS2, however.
1 He Was Born In 1935
In Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, the 2010 PSP game, it is revealed that he was 29 at the time of Snake Eater in 1964. This would mean he was born in 1935, making him 79 years old by the time he dies in Metal Gear Solid 4, which takes place in 2014. With the nine years between Ground Zeroes and the Phantom Pain and the fifteen years between Metal Gear 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4, the character spent almost a third of his life in a coma.
