Venom Snake

Venom Snake is a major character in in the Metal Gear series, serving as a minor character in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, the main protagonist of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and the secondary antagonist of the original Metal Gear game.
He was voiced by Kiefer Sutherland, who also played Jack Bauer in the 24 tv series. Erik Brown did motion capture, and Rudy McCollum did so for The Phantom Pain in the prologue. In Japanese, he was voiced by Akio Ōtsuka, who previously voiced Prince Hans/The Nutcracker in The Nutcracker Prince and Solid Snake. Both Sutherland and Ōtsuka also voiced his template Big Boss in Metal Gear Solid V.
==History==
===Pre-Events===
The medic was born in 1932 in California, and served as a member of Militaries Sans Frontières (MSF), and was combat medic. According to Big Boss, the medic was "always the best man we had", implying he was a phenomenal soldier, and his undying loyalty to Big Boss became one of the many reasons he was chosen as his body double.
===Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes===
On 16th March 1975, the Medic was part of the secret mission to rescue POW's Paz and Chico from Camp Omega, stationed aboard an MSF helicopter. During the flight back to Mother Base, the medic identified that a bomb had been planted in Paz's abdomen and was forced to perform surgery without an aesthetic to remove it. After successfully removing the bomb, and Paz passed out due to the agonizing pain, the medic ensured her breathing was stable, then stitched her back up. When they returned to Mother Base however, it was being attacked by XOF. The medic remained aboard to provide medical aid to Paz and Chico as several MSF soldiers escaped onto the chopper, including Kazuhira Miller. 
As they escaped, the medic had to hold back the paranoid and angry Miller from attacking Paz. However, Paz awoke, and revealed she had a second bomb in her body, and to the medic and Big Boss's horror dived from the chopper just before it exploded. The medic dove in front of Big Boss to shield him from the blast, and the helicopter was thrown into a collision with a nearby XOF chopper. The medic and Big Boss survived the crash, but both were rendered comatose and the medic lost his arm in the process. 
===Becoming Big Boss===
The medic suffered extensive injuries from the crash, with 108 foreign agents embedded in his body while his left arm had to be amputated several inches above the wrist. His brain was also left damaged, with no memories of his original life. The medic briefly awoke in Dhekelia Hospital, and witnessed Big Boss fall into a coma. Afterward, he was put into an artificial coma. Major Zero conceived of a plan to turn the medic into a memetic clone of Big Boss, becoming mentally and physically identical to him. Cipher and Revolver Ocelot used induced hypnagogia and hypnotherapy, aided by his altered state of consciousness, to implant Big Boss's memories into his mind. He also was presumably blinded in his right eye, the same as Big Boss. In 1977, a weakening Zero visited the two Boss's, seeing that neither had woken in three years. 
===Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain===
====Awakening====
The 26th February 1984, Venom Snake awoke, fully believing himself to be Big Boss. Over the next few days, he was acclimatized by the medical staff, falling unconscious from shock on the 29th after discovering he had been asleep for 9 years, and on 4th March after discovering his lost left arm. On 9th March, Snake was told that his face would be changed to escape his enemies, being named Ahab. They successfully gave him plastic surgery over the next 48 hours, making him physically identical to Big Boss, although Snake did not notice any difference due to his brainwashing. The nurse and the Doctor were killed by an female XOF assassin, before he was attacked by her. Before being killed himself, he was saved by "Ishmael", a patient who claimed to be a savior, in reality the real Big Boss. Ishmael gave Snake a shot of digoxin to raise his heartbeat and get him moving faster. 
Ishmael proceeded to escort Snake, heading for the elevator, but they were attacked by the supernatural Tretij Rebenok and the Man on Fire. Hiding from the XOF strike teams, and witnessing their slaughter of the hospital inhabitants, Snake was retrained in firearms by Ishmael. 
They managed to escape in an ambulance, but after gunfire from a helicopter, they crashed into a river bank. While unconscious, Ishmael escaped the wreckage. Snake was later saved by Revolver Ocelot on horseback from the Man on Fire. Once Snake and Ocelot managed to escape the fiery being's pursuit, Ocelot told him that their next destination would be Afghanistan, where they rescue the missing Kazuhira Miller. The two boarded a whaling ship headed towards Afghanistan, during which Snake gained a replacement custom bionic arm, and the codename Venom Snake. Ocelot caught him up on the events of the previous nine years.
====Chapter 1: Revenge====
In Northern Kabul, Afghanistan, Venom Snake was sent to find and rescue Miller from the Soviets. After discovering Miller's location, Snake successfully infiltrated Da Ghwandai Khar and rescued him. Snake carried Miller out, but they were ambushed by the Parasite Unit, who had captured him in the first place. After evading their pursuit, Snake and Miller escaped the area via helicopter. After rescuing Miller, Venom Snake was given command over the mercenary unit Diamond Dogs, which had been founded by Kaz as a successor to MSF.
On a mission, Venom found a puppy, who he took back to Mother Base, and named him DD. Venom would visit the pup after each mission, and DD would later join him on missions. Snake accepted a mission from the CIA related to the disappearance of Hamid fighters in Da Smasei Laman. The CIA had been supplying the Mujahideen there with a new rocket launcher, the Honey Bee, and were worried that the Soviets would find the weapon. After saving the Soviets lone mute prisoner, who would join Diamond Dogs as Silent Basilisk, Snake succeeded in locating and procuring the Honey Bee hidden at Da Smasei Laman. Curiously, the area did not seem to have suffered any damage from bombing, implying there was more to the story than was told. Upon moving to escape the fort, Snake was ambushed by XOF's leader, Skull Face, finding himself in the grasp of a massive mechanical arm from within the mist. When the arm released Snake, he found himself again surrounded by the Parasite Unit, who had turned all Soviet soldiers in the base into their undead puppets. Snake defeated the Parasite Unit and escaped.
Some time after, it was revealed that several MSF soldiers who were off-base during XOF's attack were still out there, wandering the battlefields in a maddened state. Snake could restore them to their senses and recruit them, and after extracting the first soldier, Komodo Dragon, he gave Snake a photo from the MSF era. Snake found a room on Mother Base's Medical Platform where he apparently met an amnesiac Paz, who had curiously survived the bombs implanted in her. Ocelot and Miller confirmed that they indeed managed to remove it in time, albeit with Paz left with amnesia due to the trauma. As Snake continued to find old MSF soldiers, he would bring their photos to Paz in an attempt to jog her memory. 
At OKB Zero Venom Snake confronted Skull Face, who, instead of battling him, insisted Snake join him to see Sahelanthropus’ official reveal to the world. On a Jeep together Skull Face passionately revealed his past, and his scheme to destroy Major Zero's plans by destroying the English language and replacing it with the language of nuclear weapons and revenge. Skull Face revealed the finished Sahelanthropus and pitted the Man on Fire against Snake. However, Tretij Rebenok suddenly appeared, being influenced by Eli instead of Skull Face, and activated Sahelanthropus, which attacked XOF. Snake and Diamond Dogs battled Sahelanthropus, and rendered it inoperable, forcing Eli and Rebenok to give up. Upon defeating the Metal Gear, Snake finally took vengeance on Skull Face alongside Kaz. Both Venom Snake and Kaz decided to leave Skull Face alive to suffer from his pain, but he was killed by Huey Emmerich. Afterwards, Sahelanthropus was taken back to Mother Base, where Venom was haunted by the spectre of their collective phantom pain. 
====Chapter 2: Race====
Snake later discovered from Ocelot that Soviets had retrieved the Man on Fire's body and placed it at the Yakho Oboo Supply outpost, and that he suspected that the Man was the vengeful re-animated Colonel Volgin. Snake infiltrated the outpost and neutralized the Soviets to find Volgin's burned body. Before being extracted, the Man on Fire attacked Snake, pinning him down. However, after the Man looked at him closely, for reasons Snake would not understand until later, he briefly reverted to Volgin's appearance and died for good. 
Snake was later informed of a second vocal cord parasite outbreak had occurred at Mother Base, with a new strain that had been mutated by radiation, making the wolbachia useless. In the quarantine platform, Snake he discovered that the quarantined soldiers had begun in-fighting, and found a researcher who had managed to make an SOS transmission, who told him to use night-vision goggles to identify the infected. As the parasites were driving the infected to escape the platform, and thus led the birds outside spread them to the rest of the world, Snake held back the infected, and a bomb was dropped on them. Left with no other choice, Snake was forced to euthanize his rest of the infected, with those with early signs being able to accept their deaths with dignity. Snake tried to save one survivor, but found it was too late for him too. Snake was horrified at his actions, and fell to his knees in despair. Later, while the bodies were cremated at the funeral, the guilty Snake initially wanted to scatter the ashes to the sea. Instead, he changed his mind, smothering the ashes onto his face, revealing to all present that he planned to make diamonds from their ashes, to memorialize them. 
It was later discovered that Huey waga baga bo bo was the one responsible for the radiation leak. During his trial, his many crimes came out, such as his abuse of his family and selling out MSF. While Kaz and the Diamond Dogs formed a lynch mob, Snake instead insisted that they should only exile him, with Snake telling Miller that were not qualified to judge an enemy. At some point Snake re-lived Paz's death by implanted bomb in the medical platform, making him realize Paz was a hallucination brought on by his guilt at being unable to save her. He later listened to her 'final tape', which urged him to move on, and to really "live". Shortly after, he eventually remembered his past after his hypnotherapy began to wear off, including the real version of the Hospital Escape. He was given Big Boss's "From The Man Who Sold The World" tape, which confirmed his memories, and thanked him for his role in the deception. With "Ishmael" dubbing Snake Big Boss, just as much as he was, Venom darkly smiled as he accepted his role. 
===Metal Gear===
Venom Snake went on to command the military fortress of Outer Heaven during the time the real Big Boss returned to FOXHOUND. In 1995, Venom Snake was killed by Solid Snake, one of Big Boss's sons, in an operation commanded by the real Big Boss himself.
==Personality==
After undergoing his brainwashing, Venom Snake gained many of the personality traits of the original Big Boss. He was a strong-willed figure with a somewhat grim, realistic outlook on the world. He preferred to work alone, but still cared for those around him. In contrast to Big Boss, Venom Snake was far more reserved, rarely speaking and letting his body language speak for him. He was far less witty than Big Boss, making less jokes, and the only recreational activities he frequently enjoyed were petting animals or spending time with Quiet. 
He and Big Boss shared similarities in their compassion for enemies, such as only imprisoning Quiet. Venom Snake also viewed Paz in a more positive light than Big Boss, sympathizing with Paz and was fond of her gentle personality, mostly unaware of her true intentions. Even with those who went too far, like Huey, he was humane, making it clear that Diamond Dogs is not to pass judgment on Huey until after they'd found irrefutable evidence of Huey's role in XOF's attack. 
Venom Snake seemed to have closer connection to his fellow soldiers than Big Boss did, loving them more than simple employees. He upheld an ethical code that comrades in Diamond Dogs were also family and that they should not draw weapons on each other, as he explained to Eli when the latter tried to attack him. However, Snake was forced to break this code himself when he had no choice but to kill all the Diamond Dogs soldiers infected with the vocal cord parasites because of Huey's actions.
Although not sadistic like Ocelot, and not as angry and vengeful to the same degree as Miller, Snake did display a vengeful and angry side when he mutilated Skull Face, leaving Skull Face to die slowly and painfully. Snake was clearly disgusted by Huey, while it wasn't as apparent with Ocelot and Miller. Despite this, Venom Snake could exercise restraint with his authority, opting to exile Huey from Mother Base rather than let Diamond Dogs execute him. 
After fully recovering his memory and listening to Big Boss' tape, Venom Snake was initially horrified, being at his most visibly shaken. However, after Big Boss thanked him for playing his role, Venom took the news with grim acceptance. He seemed pleased to hear Big Boss call him "friend", and smirked when he was officially handed the mantle of Big Boss for them to share. From this point until his death Venom abandoned any moral reservations about his actions, and was fully committed to the role, even intending to die in Outer Heaven and take Solid Snake with him.
==Quotes==
==Trivia==
*Though named Punished Snake, he is referred to as Venom Snake, and Snake or Boss.
*The fact that he is the Big Boss killed in Metal Gear is only revealed at the end of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
*There is a lot of foreshadowing that Venom Snake isn't Big Boss:
**The player has to create an avatar, but it changes back to Big Boss' face when playing the prologue.
** Both Miller and Ocelot remind him of many events, indicating the memory transfer didn't go all the way through.
**Venom Snake doesn't speak much, unlike Big Boss, and didn't process fluency in languages such as Russian.
**A bit later in the game, a DNA test shows that Eli (Or rather Liquid Snake) is not blood related in any way to him unlike the real Big Boss, who Eli is a clone of.
*In direct contrast to John, the original Big Boss, Venom Snake takes a moral high ground on issues, such as showing mercy to enemies such as Quiet and Huey. Indeed, he knew that killing Huey during his trial would only be a temporary relief for the phantom pain he, Kaz, and Diamond Dogs carry. However, after hearing John's message, praising him in his role as Big Boss, Venom abandons any morality he may have had to act as John's pawn, marking him becoming a villain.
==External links==
*Venom Snake on Villains Wiki
*Venom Snake on Metal Gear Wiki
* on Wikipedia
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