Solid Snake

Solid Snake is a male video game character who features in Metal Gear Solid.

Biography

Solid Snake (Japanese: ソリッド・スネーク, Hepburn: Soriddo Sunēku) was a male human born as David in 1972 alongside his twin brother Eli where they were products of a top secret government project called Les Enfants Terribles. The pair were designed to be the perfect soldier and were created from the genes of the greatest warrior of the 20th century with this being the Big Boss. The twins were created as an insurance policy by the Patriots in case Big Boss every abandoned their organization. They children were created using a process of somatic cell nuclear transfer whereby eight clone embryos were created where Big Boss's DNA was inserted into the enucleated egg cells with these being donated by a healthy Japanese woman. Through the Super Baby Method, the embryos were implanted into the womb of a surrogate mother with six of the babies eventually being aborted in order to promote the growth in the remaining two offspring. The two clones were then modified on a genetic level whereby one expressed the dominant traits of Big Boss whilst the other expressed the recessive traits. Nine months later, the twins were born where they were given the code names of Solid Snake and Liquid Snake. After his birth, he was given the name David where he spent his early years being raised in the United States by a number of foster parents.

As a teenager, he was noted to had infiltrated western Iraq with a platoon of Green Berets. In 1991, he took part in a mission to infiltrate western Iraq during the Gulf War. During this time, some of the U.S. soldiers were injected with soldier genes in an attempt to replicate the results of Les Enfants Terribles.

He later came to be a recruit to the elite special forces unit known as FOXHOUND where he was given the codename 'Solid Snake'. It was then that he was put through an intensive raining regimen where he learnt a number of combat skills. In 1995, Snake was sent by Big Boss on a mission into the rogue nation known as Outer Haven in order to rescue a missing teammate named Gray Fox. He had been in a mission into the state where his last transmission spoke of something called a Metal Gear with Snake tasked with uncovering what the nature of this discovery was from the mission.

In December 1999, Snake was called upon by FOXHOUND’s new commander, Roy Campbell, for an operation into Central Asia. Apparently, a new highly militarized nation called Zanzibar Land had kidnapped Dr. Kio Marv, inventor of the oil refining microbe, OILIX. Not only that, but a new Metal Gear was believed to be under development in Zanzibar Land. Snake accepted the mission, in part to end the nightmares that he had endured since Operation Intrude N313. Snake's mission objectives were to infiltrate the seemingly impenetrable wall that surrounded Zanzibar Land, and to recover Dr. Marv and the OILIX formula, as part of Operation Intrude F014. His radio support team consisted of Colonel Campbell, former FOXHOUND instructor Master Miller, and mercenary adviser George Kasler. Snake succeeded in the first task, but complications arose when one of his allies in the mission, a CIA war coverage spy named Holly White blew her cover, and required rescuing. After freeing Holly, Snake learned how to contact Dr. Marv by radio, but after discovering that he could only speak Czech and Slovakian, he was forced to locate his STB bodyguard Gustava Heffner. However, the two were attacked by Snake's former comrade Gray Fox while attempting a rescue, after being betrayed by his supposed ally Dr. Drago Pettrovich Madnar, resulting in both Gustava and Dr. Marv's death. Despite these events, Snake succeeded in recovering the OILIX formula, utilizing the polymimetic nature of a special brooch key, bequeathed to him by Gustava on her deathbed. Deep in the heart of Zanzibar Land, Snake destroyed Metal Gear D and defeated Gray Fox, successfully thwarting the ambitions of Big Boss. As the man behind Zanzibar Land's rise to power, Big Boss returned for a final battle against his former subordinate. Snake ultimately defeated Big Boss with a makeshift flamethrower, consisting of a lighter and lacquer spray. Snake and Holly then escaped the fortress, fending off enemy troops in the jungle until they were extracted by helicopter. During the mission debriefing, Snake declined Campbell's request to rejoin FOXHOUND, stating that his nightmares were now over. Likewise, Snake also confirmed to Holly and Campbell that the cartridge he retrieved was indeed the one Marv used to store the OILIX plans, citing that Marv's signature was written backward on the MSX loading screen when used. Despite promising to have Christmas dinner with Holly following the mission, Snake stood her up and disappeared shortly afterward. Campbell also implied that this was not the first time Snake disappeared without warning.

In February 2005, Snake was called back to the U.S. military when he was deployed by his former commander Roy Campbell to Shadow Moses Island. A rebellion had taken place at Shadow Moses by rogue members of FOXHOUND, who had threatened the U.S. with a nuclear strike and demanded that the remains of Big Boss be turned over to them. Unhappy at how Campbell had sent armed soldiers after him and had his personal effects confiscated, Snake reluctantly accepted the assignment on the condition that he only take orders from Campbell, and that he be given full disclosure of all mission information. Due to his resemblance to the terrorist leader Liquid Snake, Solid Snake had his hair cut shortly before departing to Shadow Moses, to avoid being mistaken for him. Snake was charged with ascertaining their nuclear capability and rescuing their hostages: president of ArmsTech weapons manufacturer Kenneth Baker, and the DARPA Chief Donald Anderson. Snake infiltrated the base alone, but quickly gained help in the form of Metal Gear REX developer Hal Emmerich and new FOXHOUND recruit Meryl Silverburgh, Campbell's niece. Metal Gear REX was a nuclear-armed bipedal walking tank developed in secret by the U.S. Army and ArmsTech. Although he largely was in shape for the mission, he did end up exhausted after climbing the flight of stairs up to Tower A's roof, causing Campbell to briefly joke that Snake's mushing had him get out of shape. However, he ended up being tricked into activating Metal Gear due to misinformation supplied by Liquid, who had infiltrated Snake's support group by posing as Master Miller, having had him murdered three days prior. With the help of the two aforementioned, as well as his former comrade Gray Fox, Snake succeeded in destroying REX and defeating the members of FOXHOUND, including Liquid. Prior to their final battle, Liquid taunted Snake with the knowledge that he had killed many of his brothers in the Next-Generation Special Forces, who like Snake, had been experimented on to replicate Big Boss’s genes.

Snake soon learned that the mission had been a cleverly woven plot, prepared by the Pentagon. Through the secret, Pentagon-guided efforts of genetic engineer Naomi Hunter, Snake's body had become host to the artificial virus FOXDIE. Snake was outraged to hear that his mission was a government conspiracy and that he was merely sent as a carrier of the virus, which was programmed to kill Baker for knowing too much about the project, and the FOXHOUND operatives just to ensure that the bodies of the Genome Soldiers and Metal Gear REX could be recovered undamaged. He was also reminded of the possibility that he had willingly returned to the battlefield because he enjoyed war, as commented upon by Meryl, Psycho Mantis, and Liquid Snake, and echoing Big Boss's words in Zanzibar Land. Throughout the incident, Snake suspected that Campbell was concealing important information regarding the mission's true nature, although he later forgave Campbell after learning that the Pentagon had used Meryl as leverage in order to force him to cooperate with them as they had deliberately sent Meryl to Shadow Moses the same day as the revolt. Snake also discovered that Naomi was the foster sister of Gray Fox, who desired revenge for what Snake had done to her brother and had modified the FOXDIE virus so that it would kill him in addition to FOXHOUND. However, she set the virus to a 'wildcard' value, leaving him vulnerable at a later time. To enable Snake some peace, Campbell reported Snake died when his jeep sank into the ocean. This cover story was short-lived, assuming it fooled anyone at all.

Following the Shadow Moses Incident, Snake and Meryl disappeared after leaving the base, after Campbell faked their deaths by claiming that they had died after their jeep crashed into the ocean. Sometime later, Snake lost contact with Meryl. Because of his exploits at Shadow Moses, he also became a hero to the public, which greatly concerned the Patriots. Revolver Ocelot, the sole surviving member of FOXHOUND, reported the events on Shadow Moses to U.S. President George Sears, for whom he had acted as a spy throughout the entire incident. He informed Sears, that it was the inferior clone Solid Snake, who had survived, stating that Liquid had wrongly believed himself to be inferior right until his death. Ocelot also reported that the FOXDIE in Snake would activate soon, although Snake would ultimately remain unaffected due to differences between his and Liquid's genetic codes. Three weeks after the Shadow Moses Incident, Naomi escaped from confinement at a high-security facility during debriefing due to someone breaking her out. As Nastasha Romanenko and the U.S. Government believed Snake to have been the one who broke her out, the U.S. military also added Snake's supposed involvement in her escape to his rap sheet. Ocelot later sold REX's plans onto the black market, prompting Snake and Otacon to found the anti-Metal Gear NGO, Philanthropy. With the goal of eradicating all Metal Gear technology, Snake participated in investigating its development across the world, often by illegal means, which Philanthropy then exposed to the public via the Internet. His missions and activities in the group included data collection and various sabotage missions and were also extremist in nature. During one of these operations in a facility, Snake, along with Otacon, also stole Liquid Snake's corpse, which was kept in cold storage. Around 2007, Snake also began suffering the effects of accelerated aging.

Overview

Personality and attributes

He was given the name David after his birth where he was raised by a number of foster parents. After joining FOXHOUND, he was given the codename of Solid Snake with his real name and origins being classified under National Security. His successes on missions led to him being known as the Man Who Makes the Impossible Possible.

Solid Snake, a hardened career soldier, often displayed a calm and collected demeanor, rarely showing any signs of anger, aggressiveness or fear in extreme circumstances. He buried his emotions deep inside himself, causing some to see him as intense and he can often be very rude. Despite this perceived attitude Snake occasionally showed a more human side, expressing great concern for allies' wellbeing during dangerous operations and even demonstrating compassion towards fallen enemies. During the Zanzibar Land Disturbance, Snake claimed to be different from Big Boss and that he loved life. Unlike his clone brothers, Snake never displayed anger over his origins and accepted who he was.

Snake would claim that only when he was cheating death on the battlefield was the only time he truly felt alive. It was said that he loved war and did not want to stop as seeing other people die made him feel alive.

He would claim that there was no happiness to be found in death and no peace either.

It was shown that he tended to be a loner.

Powers and abilities

Solid Snake was born of Les Infant Terribles where he was created as a clone of Big Boss. He was noted for possessing an IQ of 180 and was fluent in six languages. Unknown to anyone, he was modified to show the recessive traits of Big Boss.

After joining FOXHOUND, he underwent a training regimen where Snake became an expert of high-altitude skydiving, linguistics, closed-circuit open-circuit combat diving, and free climbing. Big Boss was personally responsible for training him in the use of CQC. In addition, Big Boss also taught him the importance of having the will to survive on the battlefield.

Solid Snake was a highly skilled special operations soldier who engaged in solo stealth and espionage missions.

Notes

• Solid Snake was created by Hideo Kojima where he featured in the setting of the Metal Gear universe.

In other media

Video games

• In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Snake appeared as a playable character in the setting of the 2018 crossover fighting video game.

Appearances

• Metal Gear:
• Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake: (1987)
• Metal Gear Solid:
• Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty:
• Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots:

External Links

• Metal Gear Wiki Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.