Big Boss is a majorMetal Gearcharacter, as he has appeared in a majority of the franchise’s games. He is seen in the first twoMetal Geartitles,Metal Gear Solid 3,Metal Gear Solid:Portable Ops,Metal Gear Solid 4,Metal Gear Solid:Peace Walker,Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes,andMetal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.With Solid Snake, Liquid Snake, and Solidus Snake all being his clones, it is no wonder that he has shown up so much. He has had many names throughout the series, too, such as Jack, Naked Snake, Saladin, Ishmael, The Legendary Soldier, The Man Who Sold the World, and more.
The seasoned soldier meets his ultimate fate inMetal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriotsduring the long epilogue at the Arlington Cemetary. What confused many fans, however, is that Big Boss was already thought to be dead. He even had a gravestone that said he died in 1999, but he re-appears to talk toSolid Snakein 2014 before succumbing to FOXDIE next to The Boss’s grave. On top of this ending being confusing, not every fan has played all the games that reveal Big Boss' past with Snake, making it seem even more strange.
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Big Boss’s Fake Death
Big Boss was thought to be left dead by Snake in 1999 during the events ofMetal Gear 2: Solid Snakein Zanzibar Land. In that game, Big Boss was enemy number one and Snake set out to defeat him, Eventually, he succeeded in doing so, burning Big Boss to death with a makeshift flamethrower.
However, Big Boss’s still-living body was recovered bythe Patriots. They injected him with nanomachines and put him under an induced coma. From there, they used him while he was comatose for gene therapy, designing the Next-Generation Special Forces. His comatose body was later discovered Raiden, as information on its location was stored in the GW AI created by the Patriots. He gives this information to EVA (also known as Big Mama), and she uses body parts from Liquid and Solidus to restore Big Boss’s body. However, due to the unremovable nanomachines, he remained in a coma.
Big Boss’s Awakening and Death
Big Boss awoke from his nanomachine-induced coma thanks to a computer virus, FOXALIVE. The virus was created by Naomi Hunter and then given to Sunny. Sunny finished Naomi’s work with the help of Emma Emmerich’s old research. Once complete, FOXALIVE was put into the GW AI and got rid of the Patriots' control of the world in every sense. This included their control over Big Boss' coma.
Immediately after he awoke,Big Boss looked for Zero, the other founding member of the Patriots. He saw that Zero was now about 105-years-old and in a vegetative state. He took Zero out to visit The Boss’s grave at the Arlington National Cemetary. It is at the cemetery where Big Boss meets Solid Snake again. They speak after Snake decides to not end his own life. The two make amends despite their turbulent past and even share a hug. Big Boss shuts down Zero’s air supply machine, peacefully killing him and thus truly ending the Patriots.
Then, Big Boss has a steady death. The cause is the new FOXDIE virus, which he contracted from Solid Snake. This virus kills specific people based on recognizing DNA, and Snake got a new strain from Drebin so that he could use any weapons purchased from him. The strain was programmed to killformer Patriotssuch as Big Mama, Liquid Ocelot, and Big Boss. As such, it was this Patriot-killing FOXDIE virus that ultimately killed Big Boss. He lied by The Boss’s grave and had a final smoke, told Snake to live the rest of his life in peace, and utters his last words: “This is good . . . Isn’t it?” While Big Boss was a complicated character who made some reprehensible choices in theMetal Gearseries, the morally grey character still ends up getting a peaceful death.
