The Fury

The Fury (ザ・フューリー) appears in the game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. He was the "Flame Soldier" of the Cobra Unit.

Early Life
The Fury was a member of the Cobra Unit during World War II. After the war, when the Cobra Unit was disbanded, he returned to Russia. There, he was selected to be the first ever human in outer space (ahead of Yuri Gagarin). However, towards the end of the flight, an accident occured.

During his re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, he somehow became engulfed in flames. He suffered severe burns to his entire body, and became incapable of feeling pain. During this experience, he saw the Earth obscured by the wall of fire. He subsequently obsessed over this vision of the Earth in flames, which may have contributed to his pyromania.

It is unknown what his speciality was whilst fighting as part of the Cobra Unit in WWII. However, judging by his proficiency with a flamethrower, it seems safe to assume he had always specialized in the use of flamethrowers.

As with the rest of the Cobra Unit, his codename reflects the specific emotion he experiences whilst on the battlefield; he feels a boundless and unrelenting rage towards the world and everything he is fighting.

He wore a fireproof Soviet Cosmonaut suit, equipped with a jetpack and a powerful flamethrower. Unlike most flamethrowers, The Fury's utilized a type of fuel that continued to burn long after it had been set ablaze.

En route to Groznyj Grad, Colonel Volgin's fortified mountain fortress, Naked Snake encountered The Fury in an underground tunnel. After explaining his vision of the Earth in flames to Snake, the two fought one another. After a grueling battle, Snake eventually defeated The Fury by ripping his flame retardant suit.

Accepting defeat, the heavily-injured Cobra lamented the passing of the Cobra Unit before firing his jetpack, propelling himself upwards at full speed. Hitting the roof of the tunnel, The Fury exploded on impact. Out of the ensuing fireball spring two heads made of fire. They pursued Snake as far the exit, ultimately colliding with the closed door. This triggered a cave-in, rendering the tunnel inaccessible.

Trivia

 * The Fury's line where he says that he is "coming home" is a reference to David Bowie's Major Tom character. Hideo Kojima once mentioned in his blog that he originally wanted to use "Space Oddity" and "Ashes to Ashes" by David Bowie (which both feature the Major Tom character) as the ending themes for Metal Gear Solid 3.
 * Naked Snake was able to defeat The Fury and his flamethrower relatively unscathed (as well as survive being at ground zero of the ICBMG rocket launch trying to stop it's launch with similar results). However, later in life as Big Boss, he would find himself defeated by his own son Solid Snake who was able to piece together a makeshift flamethrower using a lighter and aerosol can.
 * The voice actor for The Fury, Richard Doyle, would later provide the voice of Big Boss in Metal Gear Solid 4.
 * The letters on his helmet (БЕИ), have no meaning in Russian, although a very similarword, "БЕЙ" translates as "beat", "hit", "whip" in imperative form. The same letters are on Volgin suit (look at sleeve). Also this could mean Bey, for Turkish Governor, or BEI, for Butanol-Extractable Iodine.
 * In the WWII era portrait of The Cobra Unit, The Fury was wearing a mask similar to that of Fire Trooper.