Outer Heaven

Outer Heaven referred to a number of concepts that all pertain to Big Boss's dream, which involved ending the abuse and exploitation of soldiers by the world's governments, based on his interpretation of The Boss's will.

Inspiration
In 1970, Gene proposed the concept of Army's Heaven, which would in fact victimize soldiers in the pursuit of his goals. Naked Snake (Big Boss) responded that soldiers were looking for something "outside [Gene's] 'heaven'", and foiled his plans to attack the United States with a nuclear strike. After being defeated, Gene gave Big Boss data on the resources and personnel that he had amassed over the years for Army's Heaven, with the hope that he would put it to good use someday.

Big Boss was later inducted into the newly-formed Patriots by Zero, hoping to put these beliefs into practice, which he had inherited from his former mentor, The Boss.

Militaires Sans Frontières


After 1972, Big Boss became increasingly frustrated with the direction that Zero was taking the Patriots, so he left the group and began preparations to oppose it. Big Boss later formed the private military group Militaires Sans Frontières (French for "Soldiers Without Borders"), combining the best aspects of a state army and a special forces unit.

The MSF were hired to repel the Peace Sentinel from Costa Rica in 1974, dispatching its forces into several warzones for income to increase its numbers, as well as maintaining supplies for its personnel. As the MSF's Mother Base grew in size and power, it even gained nuclear capability and Kazuhira Miller referred to it as the 7th nuclear power at the time. While still considered a group of renegades, Big Boss thought that MSF was quickly becoming his personal "Outer Heaven," a soldier's paradise existing free of any one global power's political control, or a home for those shunned amidst a global cold war. After defeating the nuclear-armed AI weapon Peace Walker, MSF successfully subdued an internal rebellion instigated by Cipher, a.k.a. Zero, in which Metal Gear ZEKE was hijacked.

Later, in 1975, Mother Base was attacked by a mysterious force known as XOF, led by a man named Skull Face. After an intense battle, the Mother Base was significantly damaged, including the destruction of several of its struts via C4, and many MSF soldiers were wiped out. Big Boss ended up in a coma for the next 9 years.

Diamond Dogs
After awakening from his coma in 1984, Big Boss was reacquainted with fellow Patriot founder Ocelot, who suggested that he use a body double, Venom Snake, to both distract XOF and Cipher forces, and at the same time expand his legend. Venom Snake would later be rescued by Ocelot and go to Afghanistan to rescue Kazuhira Miller from Soviet forces. Snake succeeded in rescuing Miller, and the two vowed to have their revenge against Cipher for everything they had lost and rebuild, with Venom Snake already declaring himself a fallen demon. It was during this time period that he reorganized what remained of MSF into a unit known as the Diamond Dogs, a group willing to perform unsavory jobs for whatever client needed it, expanding Big Boss' Outer Heaven concept from one which merely takes in soldiers without a homeland, to a full on and infamous mercenary force. During these events, it was revealed that the real Big Boss has been establishing the "real" Outer Heaven in South Africa. While it is not explicitly stated, it can be assumed that Diamond Dogs transitioned into Outer Heaven.

South Africa
In the 1980s, Big Boss, after awakening from his 9 year coma, established a fully independent nation "Outer Heaven," 200 kilometers north of Galzburg, South Africa, while Venom Snake established Diamond Dogs. Outer Heaven became a sanctuary for disillusioned soldiers, where they would not be used as pawns of their government, and where they would always have a place, be it on the battlefield or in society in general. For insurance, Big Boss reinforced the fledgling nation's military force with the bipedal tank TX-55 Metal Gear capable of launching a nuclear strike from anywhere on the planet.

Big Boss later returned to the U.S. military to command FOXHOUND, while Venom Snake took his place in Outer Heaven. In 1995, Outer Heaven's activities were discovered by the West, and FOXHOUND was ordered to infiltrate the mercenary state and destroy Metal Gear. Big Boss sent in rookie agent Solid Snake, believing that he would fail his mission. However, Snake was successful, defying Big Boss's expectations, and destroyed Metal Gear. When Outer Heaven's self-destruct sequence was subsequently activated, Venom Snake confronted Solid Snake, hoping to ensure both their deaths in the blast, but failed and died at Snake's hands.

Shortly afterwards NATO launched an air raid to wipe out any remaining Outer Heaven facilities, indifferent to the resulting deaths of those in the area, since the war orphans and refugees were considered a liability. Big Boss managed to save many of them, including the surviving fortress personnel, mercenaries, and even Resistance members (the latter of whom he forgave for their initial opposition to him).

Zanzibar Land
In 1999, Big Boss, having gone underground after the fall of Outer Heaven, continued to pursue his vision of Outer Heaven with Zanzibar Land and Metal Gear D (also engineered by Dr. Madnar) but his plans were again foiled by Solid Snake.

After the apparent death of Big Boss and the collapse of Zanzibar Land, his mercenaries had their contracts purchased by the U.S government and became reserve members of the Next-Generation Special Forces, with whom Solid Snake would once again battle in 2005.

Logo


The skull motif of Outer Heaven's logos originated in 1974 with that of the Militaires Sans Frontières, which was in use during the Peace Walker Incident.

In the 1980s, the logo for Outer Heaven possessed a skull facing forward with tiny wings from the jaw, on a patch emblem similar in shape to the old MSF logo. The words Outer Heaven were placed on the arc above.

By 1995, the skull logo of Outer Heaven was reoriented to be facing down and to the left, and had four eyes, pronounced canines, and a missing lower jaw. In addition, it was placed in a strictly circular ring with the words "Outer" on the top and "Heaven" on the bottom.

Former members

 * Big Boss (founder/commander)
 * Venom Snake
 * Bloody Brad
 * Dirty Duck
 * Fire Trooper
 * Machinegun Kid
 * Shotmaker
 * Vulcan Raven

Criticism and views
Outer Heaven was seen by the West as a rogue state, whose ambitions for military superiority and the acquisition of nuclear weapons was a threat to world stability.

Concerning their military nature, Naomi Hunter referred to the Outer Heaven mercenaries as "rent-a-war bastards," despite her benefactor, Big Boss, having been their leader, and her adoptive brother, Frank Jaeger, having been a mercenary himself.

Shadow Moses Incident
In 2005, Liquid Snake's FOXHOUND and the Next-Generation Special Forces took over Shadow Moses Island and threatened the rest of the world with Metal Gear REX. Liquid informally changed the name of Shadow Moses to "Outer Heaven" to honor his interpretation of Big Boss's dream and memory, hoping to surpass his father, but was foiled by Solid Snake.

Big Shell Incident
In 2009, Solidus Snake used the term "Outer Heaven" as a codename for his plan to destroy the Patriots. Solidus originally intended to detonate a nuclear warhead over Wall Street, causing an electromagnetic pulse that would destroy the Patriots' computer systems, used to control the nation from the shadows. After the loss of this nuclear capability, he provided Arsenal Gear to Dead Cell leader Fortune as a distraction to lure the Patriots' fire, while he would track down and eliminate the members of the Patriots' "Wisemen's Committee", whose identities he had obtained from Arsenal's AI. By doing so, they would liberate America from their manipulations forever and claim a place in history. However, Solidus's plans never came to fruition due to his defeat at Raiden's hands as well as the Patriots' machinations.

Outer Heaven (mother company)
In 2014, Liquid Ocelot set up a new Outer Heaven as a mother company for his PMC armies, and commandeered an Arsenal Gear-class warship, with the ultimate purpose of causing the destruction of the Patriots' orbital AI satellite. His public plan was to launch a non-registered nuke at JD via REX's rail gun, although he secretly intended for Snake to upload a virus into the AI system to destroy it and leave society in a state of lawless order and chaos. Unbeknownst to Liquid Ocelot, this plan was thwarted due to Sunny making the modifications to the virus so that, when Solid Snake used the virus to infect and destroy the AI network, it would preserve its function in regulating essentials for society and keep the mass of information intact. Despite his vision never being ultimately realized, Liquid Ocelot believed Big Boss's dream of Outer Heaven had been accomplished.

Behind the scenes
Outer Heaven first appears as the enemy force in Metal Gear, whose motivations beyond the acquisition of greater military power are not elaborated upon. In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Big Boss's dream of a nation for soldiers is first detailed, which he attempts to bring about through Zanzibar Land. Metal Gear Solid is the first game to define "Outer Heaven" as being the overall term for this philosophy, beyond the name of the original mercenary state. Its origins, along with those of its founder, are further explored in subsequent games throughout the series.

In Metal Gear, the skull logo of Outer Heaven displayed a left-facing swastika or manji on its forehead, as illustrated in the game's user manual. The manji is used as a geometrical motif and as a religious symbol in Eastern and Dharmic religions and possesses many meanings, often relating to peace (the original Sanskrit svastika literally means "to be good"). However, the symbol has become stigmatized in the Western world because of its iconic usage by Nazi Germany. Modern usage often displays the left-facing swastika (卍) due to the association of the right-facing version (卐) with Nazism. The logo's sole reappearance in the series is in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, during the post-credits timeline, although the swastika has been removed, the text altered, and the logo as a whole reoriented slightly, making it more symmetrical on its vertical axis.

In the English packaging and manual for the Nintendo Entertainment System version of Metal Gear, Outer Heaven was given a slightly different backstory: The nation was implied to have already existed long prior to Big Boss founding it (in fact, in the localized story, Big Boss doesn't even exist). In addition, it was originally a democracy, before terrorist leader Colonel Vermon CaTaffy took control of the region, and began creating a global terrorist network by forcibly recruiting villagers into his own mercenaries, and ruled by "bombs and bullets."

In the non-canonical Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, Outer Heaven is instead located in the fictional Central African country of Gindra, rather than the Republic of South Africa. Outer Heaven had actually been formed by the United States government as a venture to provide mercenaries to its "clients," in an attempt to unofficially keep tabs on anti-American forces. The idea was thought up by the CIA Deputy Director at the time, Steve Gardner. However, the man assigned to the project, Big Boss, broke from the program, so the U.S. staged the Outer Heaven Uprising, and Solid Snake's mission there, in order to maintain plausible deniability. Project Babel was a second attempt at carrying out the original intentions of the Outer Heaven project.

Although the MSX2 manual of Metal Gear said that Big Boss formed Outer Heaven in the late 1980s, the manual of Metal Gear Solid and the Metal Gear Solid 4 Database contradict that by saying he formed it in the 1990s.

Outer Heaven was mentioned indirectly by Big Boss on the official Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus website after the player succeeded in taking out several Kerotans on Map B (REX Hangar).

Outer Heaven was given a brief mention in another work of Kojima's, Snatcher, as the name of a nightclub.

As a location, Outer Heaven competed for fan votes against Shadow Moses on the official Versus Battle website. Although its description and one of the images shows Big Boss's Outer Heaven, the other two images depict Liquid Ocelot's warship Outer Haven.