The Fury

The Fury was the "Flame Soldier" of the Cobra Unit.

Early life and career
The Fury was born sometime during the mid 1900s to early 1910s. During World War II, he became a member of the Cobra Unit, a secret special forces unit comprised of elite soldiers from the Allied Forces. Helping to lead the Allied forces to eventual victory, the unit was disbanded at the end of the war, and The Fury returned to his native Russia.

The Fury was later selected to be the first ever Russian 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, triggering a fire which engulfed him in flames. He suffered severe burns to his entire body, and became virtually incapable of feeling pain. During this experience, he saw the Earth obscured by the wall of fire. He subsequently became obsessed over this vision of the Earth in flames, which may have contributed to his pyromania.

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

The Fury 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 - presumed to be a mixture of UDMH (unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine) and NTO (nitrogen tetroxide) - that continued to burn long after it had been set ablaze.

In 1964, during the Virtuous Mission, The Fury was with the the other Cobra Unit members on the Hind A when The Boss defected but he did not speak.

A week later, Naked Snake encountered The Fury in an underground tunnel while en route to Groznyj Grad, GRU Colonel Volgin's mountain fortress. 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, telling The Boss that she is the only one left. He then mentions that the fires of hell will "purge his soul clean." before taking off his helmet and absorbing all of the flames in the room. He then starts reliving his mission as a cosmonaut, "contacting HQ" before firing his jetpack, states that he's "coming home." propelling himself upwards at full speed. Hitting the roof of the tunnel, The Fury exploded on impact. Out of the ensuing fireball sprang 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
Naked Snake was able to defeat The Fury and his flamethrower relatively unscathed (and later survived being at almost ground zero of the ICBMG rocket launch). 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.

Behind the scenes
The voice actor for The Fury (ザ・フューリー), Richard Doyle, would later provide the voice of Big Boss in Metal Gear Solid 4.

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.

The letters on The Fury's helmet (БЕИ), have no meaning in Russian, although a very similar word, "БЕЙ" translates as "beat", "hit", "whip" in imperative form. The same letters are on the sleeve of Volgin's suit. Also this could mean Bey, for Turkish Governor, or BEI, for Butanol-Extractable Iodine. These same three characters can also be seen on some fictional posters for a PMC unit whilst Meryl talks to Snake about the SOP system during Act 1 of Metal Gear Solid 4, and on the license plate of the truck Zadornov is hiding inside of in Peace Walker.

Gameplay
Draining The Fury's stamina will yield Snake the Fire Camo. It prevents Snake from catching aflame, though he will still receive damage from fire itself.