METAL GEAR SOLID Big Boss Conspiracy FAQ v. 1.01 by Nich Maragos (nichm@thegia.com) ----------------------------------- All the principal players from past Metal Gear games return in Metal Gear Solid. Solid Snake, Gray Fox, Col. Roy Campbell, and Metal Gear itself. However, there's one figure conspicuously missing from the latest installment--Big Boss himself. Sure, his corpse is a major part of the terrorists' demands, but he's not behind the scenes controlling the action, as he should be ... but maybe he really *is* there. The following is a list of evidence that he may be in the game after all ... * In the "good ending," Revolver Ocelot telephones/radios his superior and mentions in a throwaway line that "My cover wasn't blown--nobody knows who I really am." (Or something--that's the spirit of the line, anyway.) * Revolver is untouched by SnakeDie. It's known that Big Boss' DNA contains the cure for this selective disease, so why would someone unrelated to Big Boss survive it? It even killed Liquid, who was a clone (albeit an imperfect one) of Big Boss. So it's hard to believe that anyone but the real deal (and, for some reason, Snake) could walk through unscathed. * Early in the game, Revolver states that he's in FOX-HOUND to make Russia strong again. If you sit through the torture scenes long enough, Revolver says that only Liquid "is the one man who would make my dream into a reality." Later in the game, though, Liquid professes not to care at all about reviving Russia--and Ocelot doesn't blink an eye. Liquid then announces that his intention is to resurrect Outer Heaven, which was was precisely Big Boss' goal in the first two games. * Revolver "accidentally" kills Donald Anderson on the torture machine, which leads to the whole Decoy Octopus shenanigan. In the ending, it's implied that this was no accident, but a deliberate murder to prevent Anderson--who knew Revolver's identity-- from talking to Snake. As DARPA chief, Anderson would surely have recognized Revolver as Big Boss. * If you look at the manual for the game and compare character illustrations of Big Boss and Revolver Ocelot, the two are strikingly similar in appearance, even down to the attire. The only difference is the eyepatch Big Boss sports that Revolver Ocelot is missing--a ruse, perhaps? If this is so (and I am sure it is) then it raises the coolness level of MGS's plot by about 50 notches, as it means that Big Boss was once again the true enemy all the time-- and this time, he managed to win as evidenced by the cryptic phone conversation at the end. Seen in this light, Snake and Liquid were both pawns, perfectly carrying out the mission that the President and their own father envisioned. More than a little neat, I'd say. --------- Thanks to Arpad Korossy (arpad@thegia.com) for the reminder about Liquid ignoring Russia. If you have more evidence to offer, or any observations on the theory in general, please send them to nichm@thegia.com for future versions of this FAQ.