Metal Gear

Metal Gear is a series of video games by Konami Computer Entertainment. The Metal Gear series centers around Solid Snake, a genetically engineered super-soldier. As a member of an elite task force FOX-HOUND, Snake penetrated and destroyed several terrorist organizations, including one led by Big Boss, his genetic father.

Further adventures involve his disarming a nuclear crisis on a remote island in Alaska (and killing his genetic brother in doing so), and helping, as a part of his NGO, Philanthropy, to document and eradicate Metal Gears, including Arsenal Gear, a supercenter for information and warfare built in the New York Harbor by the Patriots.

Metal Gear Solid

Solid Snake

• Unfortunately, killing is just one of those things that gets easier the more you do it.

• [to Psycho Mantis] A strong doesn't need to read his future, he makes his own.

Gray Fox / Frank Jaeger

• We're not tools of the government or anyone else! Fighting was the only thing... the only thing I was good at, but... At least I always fought for what I believed in...

Otacon / Hal Emmerich

• The whole reason I got into science in the first place was because I was no good with people. I was scared of them. I was scared of life. I thought that I could never understand them because they're so illogical. But I've finally learned how to like people. I'm not afraid anymore.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Solid Snake

• [voice-over] Life isn't just about passing on your genes. We can leave behind much more than just DNA. Through speech, music, literature and movies...what we've seen, heard, felt...anger, joy and sorrow...these are the things I will pass on. That's what I live for. We need to pass the torch, and let our children read our messy and sad history by its light.We have all the magic of the digital age to do that with. The human race will probably come to an end some time, and new species may rule over this planet. Earth may not be forever, but we still have the responsibility to leave what traces of life we can. Building the future and keeping the past alive are one and the same thing.

Solidus Snake / George Sears

• We're all born with an expiration date. No one lasts forever. Life is nothing but a grace period for turning our genetic material into the next generation. The data of life is transferred from parent to child. That's how it works. But we have no heirs, no legacy. Cloned from our father with the ability to reproduce conveniently engineered out. What is our legacy if we cannot pass the torch? Proof of our existence a mark of some sort When the torch is passed on from parent to child... It extends beyond DNA, information is imparted as well. All I want is to be remembered. By other people, by history. The Patriots are trying to protect their power, their own interests, by controlling the digital flow of information. I want my memory, my existence to remain. Unlike an intron of history, I will be remembered as an exon. That will be my legacy, my mark on history. But the Patriots would deny us even that, I will triumph over the Patriots, and liberate us all. And we will become the "Sons of Liberty"!

Fatman

• Bombs tell the time with every moment of their existence. And nothing else announces its own end with such a fanfare.

Dialogue

Solid Snake: Find something to believe in. And find it for yourself. And when you do, pass it on to the future.

Raiden: Believe in what ?

Solid Snake: That's your problem.

---

Solid Snake: The memories you have and the role you were assigned are burdens you have to carry. It doesn't matter if they were real or not, that's never the point. There's no such thing in the world as absolute reality. Most of what they call real is actually fiction. What you think you see is only as real as your brain tells you it is.

Raiden: Then, what am I supposed to believe in ? What am I going to leave behind when I'm through ?

Solid Snake: We can tell other people about -- having faith. What we had faith in. What we found important enough to fight for. It's not whether you were right or wrong, but how much faith you were willing to have, that decides the future.

---

Raiden: ... genes aren't the only thing you pass on. There are too many things that aren't written into our DNA. It's up to us to teach that to our children.

Rose: What kind of things ?

Raiden: About the environment, our ideas, our culture... poetry... compassion... sorrow...joy... We'll tell them eerything...together."

Rose: Is that a -- proposal ?

Raiden: This is for your ears -- only.

---

AI-Rose: We've always kept records of our lives. Through words, pictures, symbols... from tablets to books...

AI-Colonel: But not all the information was inherited by later generations. A small percentage of the whole was selected and processed, then passed on. Not unlike genes, really.

AI-Rose: That's what history is, Jack.

AI-Colonel: But in the current, digitized world, trivial information is accumulating every second, preserved in all its triteness. Never fading, always accessible.

---

AI-Colonel: The digital society furthers human flaws and selectively rewards development of convenient half-truths. Just look at the strange juxtapositions of morality around you.

AI-Rose: Billions spent on new weapons in order to humanely murder other humans.

AI-Colonel: Rights of criminals are given more respect than the privacy of their victims.

AI-Rose: Although there are people suffering in poverty, huge donations are made to protect endangered species. Everyone grows up being told the same thing.

AI-Colonel: Be nice to other people...

AI-Rose: But beat out the competition!

AI-Colonel: "You're special." "Believe in yourself and you will succeed."

AI-Rose: But it's obvious from the start that only a few can succeed...

AI-Colonel: You exercise your right to "freedom" and this is the result. All rhetoric to avoid conflict and protect each other from hurt. The untested truths spun by different interests continue to churn and accumulate in the sandbox of political correctness and value systems.

---

AI-Rose: Not even natural selection can take place here. The world is being engulfed in "truth."

AI-Colonel: And this is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper.

---

Otacon: Snake, you there? It's me. I've finished going over that disc.

Snake: Did you find the Patriots' list?

Otacon: Of course. It contains the personal data of twelve people. There was a name on it-- Snake, it was one of our biggest contributors.

Snake: What's going on around here?

Otacon: I don't know...

Snake: ...Anyway, where are they?

Otacon: Well, we were right about them being on Manhattan, but...

Snake: But what?

Otacon: They're already dead. All twelve of them.

Snake: When did it happen?

Otacon: Well, ah... about a hundred years ago.

Snake: What the hell...

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Eva

• There's a world of difference between this country and America. But it's only a difference of position. A difference of perspective. Coming here made me realize something. Half of what I'd been told was a complete and utter lie... the other half was a conveniently constructed lie.
• Scholars tell us that the first spy in history was the snake in the Book of Genesis. In that story it was Eve who was tempted by the snake in the garden of Eden. But this time around it was I who tempted the snake and got away with the forbidden fruit of knowledge. Forgive me, Snake.

The Boss

• Sooner or later, your conscience is going to bother you. In the end, you have to choose whether you're going to live as a soldier, or just another man with a gun.
• What about you, Jack? What's it going to be? Loyalty to your country, or loyalty to me? Your country, or your old mentor? The mission, or your beliefs? Your duty to your unit, or your personal feelings? You don't know the truth yet. But sooner or later you'll have to choose.
• Life's end... isn't it beautiful? It's almost tragic. When life ends, it gives off a final, lingering aroma. Light is but a farewell gift from the darkness to those on their way to die. I've been waiting, Snake, for a long time. Waiting for your birth, your growth, and the finality of today.
• It was November 1st 1951. I was in the Nevada desert, participating in atomic testing... The name "nevadas" is derived from Spanish; "covered in snow, white as snow"... And snow is exactly what I saw in that Nevada desert; it froze my blood white.
• I could see the planet as it appeared from space... That's when it finally hit me... Space exploration is nothing but another game in the power struggle between the US and the USSR. Politics, economics, the arms race... They're all just arenas for meaningless competition. I'm sure you can see that. But the world itself has no boundries - no East, no West, no Cold War...

Epilogue

EVA: [voiceover] Good morning, Snake. I hope you slept well. First of all, I have to apologize. I wasn't sent by Khrushchev. I'm not a KGB spy and I never worked for the NSA. I am an agent of the People's Republic of China... For the General HQ Second Department of the People's Liberation Army... It was all a lie. I tricked you... and I'm sorry. The Philosophers still exist in China, too. You see, my mission was to find out where Volgin was hiding the Philosopher's Legacy and steal it, so I infiltrated his base as a KGB spy. The two NSA code breakers who defected in 1960... were actually both men. The real ADAM never showed up at the meeting place, saving me the trouble of having to eliminate him. I sneaked in by pretending I was EVA, and you and Sokolov and Volgin... you all believed me.

---

EVA: [voiceover] The Boss was the only one I couldn't fool. She was the only one who knew I was a fake. She told me everything. Why did she open her heart to me like that? At the time, I couldn't understand it. But now I think I do. Snake... she wanted you to know the truth. She chose me to tell you. That's why she saved my life. I've lied to you so many times. But not this time. My orders from the government were to obtain the Legacy... and to eliminate everyone who knew the truth about what happened. In other words, I'm supposed to kill you. But I can't do it. Not because we loved each other. And not because you saved my life. But because I made a promise to the Boss, and I intend to keep it. I just wanted you to know. And... you have to live.

---

EVA: [voiceover] Snake, listen to me. She didn't betray the United States. No, far from it. She was a hero who died for her country. She carried out her mission knowing full well what was going to happen. Self-sacrifice... because that was her duty.

[Snake is being honoured at the White House]

Lyndon B. Johnson: You are above even the Boss... I hereby award you the title of Big Boss. You are a true patriot.

[Snake shakes Johnson's hand and walks out, past army officials and his team, without fanfare]

Unnamed bureaucrat: You know, we could use an infiltration unit like FOX in the army. Someone like him to handle our top-secret sneaking missions for us: a man who combines the qualities of a soldier and an agent.

EVA: [voiceover] The Boss' defection was a ruse set up by the US government. It was all a big drama staged by Washington so they could get their hands on the Philosopher's Legacy, and the Boss was the star of the show. They planned it so that they could get the Legacy that Colonel Volgin inherited and destroy the Shagohod at the same time. Only a legendary hero like The Boss could have earned Volgin's trust. Finding out where the Philosopher's Legacy was hidden was to be her greatest mission. Everything was going according to plan... but then something happened that no one could have predicted. Colonel Volgin fired an American-made nuclear warhead at Sokolov's research facility. Khrushchev demanded that the US government provide proof that it wasn't involved. They couldn't just abort the operation to steal the Legacy, so the operation itself was greatly expanded and revised. The authorities in Washington knew that in order to prove its innocence they'd have to get rid of The Boss and that one of their own would have to do the job. The public couldn't be allowed to find out about it, not ever. This, they concluded, would be the best way to keep the whole thing under wraps. The Boss wouldn't be allowed to come back home alive. And she wouldn't be allowed to kill herself. Her life would be ended by her most beloved disciple... that was the way the government wanted it. That was the mission she was given. And she had no choice but to carry it out... her death at your hands was duty she had to fulfill. Out of duty, she turned her back on her own comrades. A lesser woman would have been crushed by such a burden. [Snake walks through a cemetery with a bunch of flowers] The taint of disgrace will follow her to her grave. Future generations will revile her: In America, as a despicable traitor with no sense of honor; and in Russia, as a monster who unleashed a nuclear catastrophe. She will go down in official history as a war criminal, and no one will ever understand her... that was her final mission. And like a true soldier, she saw it through the end. But I think she wanted you, of all people to know the truth. She wanted to live on in your memory. Not as a soldier, but as a woman. But... she was forbidden to tell you herself. And that's why she told me. [Snake puts his flowers and the Patriot by a headstone marked "In memory of a patriot who save the world: 192?-1964"] Snake, history will never know what she did. No one will ever learn the truth. Her story, her debriefing... will endure only in your heart. [tearfully] Everything she did, she did for her country. She sacrificed her life and her honor for her native land. She was a real hero. She was a true patriot. [A tearful Snake salutes the headstone]

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Other characters

• Mei Ling: The tongues of dying men enforce attention like deep harmony. Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain for they breathe truth that breathe their words - in pain.
  • Taken from Richard II by William Shakespeare, Act II, Scene i.
• Raiden: I am lightning, the rain transformed.

Old Snake

• War has changed. It's no longer about nations, ideologies or ethnicity. It's an endless series of proxy battles, fought by mercenaries and machines. War, and its consumption of life, has become a well-oiled machine. War has changed. ID tagged soldiers carry ID tagged weapons, use ID tagged gear. Nanomachines inside their bodies enhance and regulate their abilities. Genetic control. Information control. Emotion control. Battlefield control. Everything is monitored, and kept under control. War has changed. The age of deterrence has become the age of control. All in the name of averting catastrophe from weapons of mass destruction. And he who controls the battlefield, controls history. War has changed. When the battlefield is under total control, war... becomes routine.
• I'm no hero. Never was, never will be. I'm just an old killer, hired to do some wet work.
• There won't be any happy "Beauty and the Beast"-ending for me. What little time I have left will be spent living as a beast. A shadow of the inside, of the old age.

Big Boss

• It all began with a bunch of old fools. Now... they've all passed away. Their era of folly is over. I'm the only one left, and soon I'll be gone, too.
• Everything has its beginning. But doesn't start at "one." It starts long before that, in chaos. The world is born... from zero. The moment zero becomes one is the moment the world springs to life. One becomes two, two becomes ten, ten becomes 100. Taking it all back to one solves nothing. So long as zero remains, one... will eventually grow to 100 again. And so our goal was to erase Zero. Even the mighty Patriots began with a single man. That one man's desires grew huge, bloated; absorbed technology; began to manipulate the economy. We realized too late that we had created a beast. We had helped turn Zero into 100. His sin... was ours. And for that reason, I'm taking it upon myself to send Zero... back to nothing.
• I never thought of you as a son. But... I always respected you, as a soldier... and as a man.
• Ever since the day I killed The Boss, with my own hands, I... was already dead.
• It's not about changing the world. It's about doing our best to leave the world the way it is. It's about respecting the will of others and believing in your own... Isn't that... what... you fought for? At last, I understand the meaning of what you did... At last, I understand the truth behind your courage.
• Know this, Zero and I... Liquid and Solidus... We all fought a long, bloody war for our liberty to free ourselves from systems, nations, norms and ages, but no matter how hard we fought, the only liberty we found was on the inside, trapped within those limits... The Boss and I may have taken different paths but in the end, we were both trapped inside the same cage... "Liberty."
• Boss... you only need one Snake. No... the world would be better off without Snakes.
• [Last words] This is good... isn't it?

Liquid Ocelot

• [to Old Snake] Brother, Rejoice! We're not copies of our father, after all!
• Do you see this, Zero? We are victorious! Behold! Guns of the Patriots!
• This is only the beginning, Snake. America will descend into chaos... It'll be the Wild West all over again. No law, no order. Fire will spread across the world. The people will fight... and through battle, they will know the fullness of life. At last... our father's will... his Outer Heaven... is complete.
• This is the liberty we've won for ourselves: Outer Haven! And with this weapon I will destroy JD! Then, everything ends, and everything begins! But as for you, brother, you'll stay here to mark this island's watery grave!

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

Naked Snake/Big Boss

• It was four years ago, in Mozambique. There was a child soldier fighting with a guerrilla group in the struggle for independence. He killed dozens of government soldiers with just a single knife. He'd throw the enemy off guard with the innocent frankness of a young boy. Then he'd prey on them with the cold cruelty of a hunter. He spoke a little German so his enemies called him, "Frank Jaeger"... the frank hunter.

Gene

• Open your eyes, Snake. This is our calling. It's all part of a greater mission. Compared to this calling, the individual wills of individual soldiers are meaningless. Those who have no calling must be given one by those who do. They must follow the teachings of those with a greater will.

• [reverbing intensely] Soldiers, hear my words! The Cold War will soon be over. For the United States and the Soviet Union no longer have the strength or authority to shape the world as they seem fit. Even as America sinks deeper into the quagmire of the Vietnam War, her allies in the West have achieved tremendous economic growth. And with the collapse of its planned economy, Russia can no longer keep up with the financial demands of her vast army. But the end of the Cold War does not mean that peace will follow. Freed from the domination of the world's superpowers, nationalism will soon be the driving force behind global politics. And the ever-widening gap between rich and poor will fan the flames of hatred between nations. Nuclear weapons will slip from the superpowers' grasp and spread throughout the world. Soon no one will know when or where the nukes will come from. Today's ally may be tomorrow's bitter enemy. Or worse: the time may come when soldiers of the same country will kill their brothers, just like you are now. Who of you can say that tomorrow you won't be aiming your rifles at your neighbors? Your comrades? Your families? Is there no one who has a grudge against you? No one who mocks you? No one who really needs you? Is there truly no one out there who would kill you? One of my men is standing amongst you right now. His instructions are to kill you - for your betrayal. Your enemy is standing right beside you. Is it you?... Or perhaps you?... This planet is like a giant bomb. See how easily it blows itself to bits with a single nuclear warhead. Or rather, a single bullet. [laughs] There he is... It's the enemy!
• I don't have to kill anyone. These men are quite capable of doing it themselves. Humans are fragile, foolish, violent creatures. See for yourself, Snake. See what mankind truly is.
• Chaos will be created on an unprecedented scale. Worst case scenario: America ceases to exist as a nation. The existing world order crumbles. And Russia won't escape unscathed, either. Metal Gear will have been launched from a Soviet nuclear missile base. Under a storm of international criticism, the Warsaw Pact will lose its sway over the Third World. It may even faced armed conflict with NATO.

Null

• Why are you still alive? I used to get dreams, about my comrades. They would save me with strong arms and laughing voices. When I woke up from these dreams, I had nothing. No joy, no sorrow, no hatred, no memory. When I woke up from the darkness, all I saw were the bodies of men I've killed, lying in front of me. I know. Everyone dies. Crime. Disease. Accidents. War. No matter how good a man you are, no matter how good a soldier, there are no exceptions. Even if I don't kill them, they die. This world is full of death and yet you won't be killed. Why? Why do you still live? What do you hope to accomplish by living?

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake

• Big Boss: The nightmares? They never go away, Snake. Once you've been on the battlefield, tasted the exhilaration, the tension... it all becomes part of you. Once you've awakened the warrior within... it never sleeps again. You crave ever bigger tensions, ever bigger thrills. As a mercenary, I'd think you would have realized that by now. You care nothing for power, or money, or even sex. The only thing that satisfies your cravings is war! All I've done is give you a place for it. I've given you a reason to live.

See also

• Last words in Metal Gear series games

External links

• Official MGS site
• Official MPO Website
• Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Reviews at Metacritic
• Game Script of Metal Gear Solid 3