Though he may be an amalgamated parody of a couple of iconic action movie heroes, Solid Snake shot to stardom on PlayStation, reviving the Metal Gear franchise with style and deadly precision. He’s a soldier, he’s an assassin, he’s a secret agent, he’s even been considered a terrorist. He’s many things, but he’s certainly not boring.
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Conception
Solid Snake was created by Hideo Kojima and designed by Yoji Shinkawa. He was apparently named after the fictional special forces operative Snake Plissken, Kurt Russell’s character in Escape from New York. However, Kojima revealed in March 2014 that the character’s name had another meaning. According to Kojima, he was given the “Snake” name because snakes are a symbol of stealth. Additionally, the “Solid” part of his code-name was to give the opposite impression of a soft image.
Kojima has compared Snake’s personality with Lupin III of Monkey Punch’s Lupin III franchise, stating that “in MGS, Snake became this sharp-tongued, Lupin III-like guy who flirted with women and told lots of jokes”. His real name David is a tribute to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey that has a character with the same name and coincidentally shared with his recurring voice actor, David Hayter. Kojima later described Snake’s role in the original Metal Gear as the “player’s presence”, contrasting the defined personality acquired in Metal Gear Solid.
In addition to expanding Solid Snake’s backstory, as the first Metal Gear game to feature voice acting, Metal Gear Solid established his characteristic voice and appearance. Various scenes from the games relate Solid Snake’s ideals with Hideo Kojima’s. During Metal Gear Solid 2, Snake encourages Raiden to trust himself in making his own choices with the former representing the veteran developer and the latter the younger staff who are to decide whether a sequel to the series would be made without Kojima.
In Metal Gear Solid 4, Snake was written to act as a father figure, not only to protect those he cares about, but also to leave a message for the future generation. As a pacifist message, Snake’s stress increases when killing enemies. Following Kojima’s departure from Konami, the company indicated that it does not intend to produce further Metal Gear games with Solid Snake as the protagonist; Kojima has himself stated that Solid Snake “is one character that I don’t want to entrust to other people”.
Apart from Kurt Russell, the Solid Snake design created by Yoji Shinkawa for Metal Gear Solid is also inspired by actors Jean-Claude Van Damme and Christopher Walken. Solid Snake is a pastiche of action movie heroes. On the cover artwork of the original Metal Gear, he resembles actor Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese in the 1984 film The Terminator, although Kojima claimed to have no involvement in the production of the game’s packaging illustration. In the in-game portrait of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, he resembles Mel Gibson. In Metal Gear Solid 4, Old Snake is modelled after Lee Van Cleef who appeared in Escape from New York.
Story: Tactical Espionage Action
(SPOILER WARNING)
Metal Gear (released in 1987) introduces Snake, a rookie recruit of the elite special forces unit FOXHOUND. Snake is sent by his commander, known as ‘Big Boss’, into Outer Heaven, a rogue nation in South Africa, to rescue Gray Fox and discover who or what the “Metal Gear” is. As his mission progresses, Snake finds out that he has been set up by Big Boss who intended to use the TX-55 Metal Gear experimental nuclear-armed weapon to establish Outer Heaven as a nuclear power. After destroying the Metal Gear, Snake confronts and defeats Big Boss, who is revealed to be a ‘phantom’ decoy.
The sequel, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, sees Snake called up to infiltrate Zanzibar Land, a heavily fortified base in Central Asia that has aggravated an international oil crisis and declared themselves a nuclear power by kidnapping bio-engineer Dr. Kio Marv and the Metal Gear engineer Pettrovich Madnar. Snake infiltrates the base and discovers that Pettrovich as well as Gray Fox have defected to Zanzibar Land, which is led by the true Big Boss. Snake destroys Metal Gear D, and defeats both Fox and the true Big Boss.
Metal Gear Solid reveals Solid Snake’s real name as David. He is pulled out of retirement by Roy Campbell to deal with the “Sons of Big Boss” led by Liquid Snake who has seized an isolated American nuclear weapons disposal facility on Shadow Moses Island. Snake infiltrates and learns about Metal Gear REX while meeting up with rookie soldier Meryl Silverburgh and REX’s engineer Hal ‘Otacon’ Emmerich. Snake then confronts and defeats each member of the rogue faction of FOXHOUND.
Snake is able to disable REX and personally confronts Liquid. During their fight, it is revealed that Solid and Liquid are twin brothers artificially conceived from Big Boss’ genes during the “Les Enfants Terribles” government project designed to create the perfect soldier, potentially surpassing the abilities of their ‘father’, Big Boss. After a series of battles, Snake is able to overcome Liquid and escape Shadow Moses, canonically with Meryl.
In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Solid Snake is sent by Otacon’s anti-proliferation organisation, Philanthropy, to infiltrate a cargo tanker and photograph Metal Gear RAY. During the operation, however, RAY is hijacked by rogue FOXHOUND survivor Revolver Ocelot and the tanker is destroyed, with Snake seemingly killed and framed for the deed.
Later ‘Solidus’ Snake steals Snake’s identity, and leads the “Sons of Liberty” military group alongside Revolver Ocelot, while Snake himself uses the pseudonym “Iroquois Pliskin” to infiltrate the remote offshore Big Shell facility where he assists rookie FOXHOUND agent Raiden who also holds the rank of ‘Snake’. The pair eventually take down Solidus and RAY while also learning about the ‘Patriots’, a shadow group which secretly controls the world’s war economy.
In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, an aged Solid Snake returns, now using the nickname ‘Old Snake’. Thanks to Otacon and Sunny, he wears a sneaking suit outfitted with ‘Octocamo’ technology which allows him to blend into his environment as well as a face mask which alters his appearance. For his final mission, he is once again enlisted by Campbell to assassinate Liquid Ocelot, CEO of a giant mother company that is trying to take control of the Patriots, now confirmed as a network of highly advanced AIs.
Reuniting with his support team from the Shadow Moses mission, Snake learns from Naomi Hunter that his life has been artificially shortened as part of the cloning process so that his genes can’t be used as a weapon in later research, explaining why he has the physical appearance of an elderly man despite being only forty-two years old.
Snake and his allies are forced to destroy the Patriots’ AI and fight through Ocelot’s forces until Snake defeats Liquid Ocelot in hand-to-hand combat. Old Snake decides to live out the remainder of his life in peace, vowing that he will live long enough to see what the future holds for the new world he has helped create.
Relationships
Of all the relationships Snake has had, his connection to Big Boss had the biggest impact on him. When he first met the living legend, Snake felt honoured to be serving alongside him in FOXHOUND. Big Boss saw great potential in Snake and personally trained him in advanced combat skills, particularly CQC. He even came to see him as a father figure, though not knowing that in truth he was Big Boss’ clone. It was only after he discovered that Big Boss was behind the Outer Heaven incident that he lost his faith in him.
Before Snake faced off with Liquid at Shadow Moses, he described Liquid’s desire for re-creating Outer Heaven insane, calling it out as “Big Boss’ fantasy”. Snake struggled to understand Big Boss’ true motive for two decades believing that his betrayal was based on foul intentions. Nevertheless, he could never truly give up his respect for the legendary soldier as he visited his grave.
Liquid Snake was Solid Snake’s twin brother, one of his greatest rivals and one of his most dangerous enemies. Though Snake did seem to at the very least understand the motivation of Liquid’s actions during the Shadow Moses Incident, in which Liquid wished to use the facility and Metal Gear REX to create constant conflict in order for soldiers to be free from being pawns, he heavily disagreed with creating global widespread conflict to achieve this goal.
Snake described Gray Fox as his best friend, and when he was a rookie, he looked up to the only man to earn the code name ‘Fox’. Much like Big Boss, Fox took on a mentor role in Snake’s life. Fox was the one who “showed him the ropes” as he put it. Even when Fox betrayed him in Zanzibar Land, Snake, although shocked, held no anger towards Fox and still considered him a friend.
Years later, during the Shadow Moses Incident, when it was revealed Fox had survived his injuries as the Cyborg Ninja, Snake was horrified and felt nothing but remorse for what Fox had become. Fox would later go on to assist Snake in defeating Metal Gear REX. Fox’s final words to Snake had a deep impact on Snake’s personal beliefs to the point where he would echo them to Raiden years later during the Big Shell Incident.
Just as Gray Fox did for him during Outer Heaven, Snake “showed the ropes” to Raiden, acting as a de facto mentor to the “rookie” and teaching him how to become a better soldier. Despite this, Snake was willing to use Raiden to further his mission, allowing him to infiltrate Arsenal Gear more easily during the Big Shell Incident by having enemy forces capture him temporarily. Following the conclusion of the Big Shell Incident, Snake gave Raiden advice on how to live his life for himself, free of political and military influence.
Snake tends to see Raiden as being an example of the “next generation” he’s fighting for. While often condescending and cruel to Raiden during the Big Shell Incident, he’s also trying his best during the end to give him a sense of identity and what he should be fighting for. This had more of an influence in a way that he didn’t intend and, during his talks with Raiden, he carries a sense of regret that he wasn’t a better teacher to him and that Raiden’s life was made a living hell due to Snake’s generation.
When Snake first met Hal ‘Otacon’ Emmerich during the Shadow Moses Incident, Snake just wanted his help to destroy REX, however throughout the incident, Snake and Otacon gradually opened up to each other. When Otacon was willing to sacrifice himself so Snake and Meryl could escape, Snake fully respected him. Following the Shadow Moses Incident, Snake and Otacon formed Philanthropy and developed a strong friendship, even creating their own personal handshake. Otacon decided to stick with Snake until the bitter end to pass on his legacy and accomplishments to others.
While Snake is generally highly flirtatious with most women, during the Shadow Moses Incident, Snake developed a powerful bond with Meryl Silverburgh, displaying uncharacteristic concern and care for her. Although he was often blunt and logical with Meryl as he was with everybody else, he did show her a softer side of his personality, stating the beauty of Alaska and Meryl herself before leaving Shadow Moses. Meryl also seems to be the only other person Snake told his real name to. The two would share a brief yet romantic relationship after the event despite their age gap and differing political interests regarding the military.
Legacy
Solid Snake’s character was very well received by the gaming media. In 2005, Electronic Gaming Monthly listed Solid Snake as number one in the list of top ten video game characters of all time. In a Famitsu poll in 2010, Solid Snake was voted by readers as the most popular video game character. Critics have commented on his traits and appearance, often praising Solid Snake for his appealing personality.
Among the several characters that Snake encounters, critics noticed that Snake’s friendship with Otacon was one of the best parts of his character due to the contrast it has with enemies as well as how Snake comforts Otacon in Sons of Liberty. His rivalry with Big Boss was also popular according to journalists, especially when they are compared as father and son.
Solid Snake has appeared in a number of other games, including other Konami titles. Hideo Kojima makes a habit of referencing his previous works. In the Kojima-produced Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django, Snake appears as an unnamed character who sells items to the player. Konami’s Evolution Skateboarding features Snake as a hidden character, as well as two stages set in the Big Shell which were demoed in the skateboarding minigame in Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance.
Old Snake has appeared in the Japanese version of Scribblenauts, having been published by Konami in that region. Customisations in Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet for the PlayStation 3 allow the player character, Sackboy, to take on the appearance of Old Snake. Solid Snake also appears as an outfit in Fortnite, starting from the first season of the Battle Royale mode’s fifth chapter in December 2023 and is unlockable from January 23rd, 2024 until the season’s end date.
In December 2020, Paul W. Anderson stated that his 2020 film Monster Hunter had been based on a 2010 Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker crossover event with Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, in which a military squad briefly faced monsters from the Monster Hunter series, with Snake’s female equivalent in the narrative, US Army Ranger Artemis, being portrayed by Milla Jovovich. Oscar Isaac is set to portray Solid Snake in the upcoming film adaptation of Metal Gear Solid.
