Venom Snake

"I won't scatter your sorrow to the heartless sea. I will always be with you. Plant your roots in me. I won't see you end as ashes. You're all diamonds."

- Venom Snake to his fallen Diamond Dogs

Punished "Venom" Snake, also known as Big Boss, and formerly known as Ahab and briefly referred to as V, was a mercenary commander, formerly a combat medic for Militaires Sans Frontières (MSF), who led Diamond Dogs and Outer Heaven as one of Big Boss's most trusted lieutenants.

During his time as a medic, Venom Snake saved Big Boss's life during the destruction of MSF in 1975. Despite his sacrifice, Big Boss fell into a coma, and Venom lost his left arm and right eye. Venom Snake was then placed into an artificially induced coma, undergoing hypnotherapy and plastic surgery so that he could act as a body double for Big Boss. This was done in order to protect Big Boss from XOF forces who had destroyed MSF nine years earlier.

In 1984, Venom Snake was given command over the mercenary unit Diamond Dogs, which had been founded by Kazuhira Miller as a successor to MSF. While in charge, Venom Snake defeated the XOF unit and took vengeance on its leader, Skull Face.

Venom Snake went on to command the military fortress of Outer Heaven during the time the real Big Boss returned to FOXHOUND. In 1995, Venom Snake was killed by Solid Snake, one of Big Boss's clones, in an operation commanded by the real Big Boss himself.

Militaires Sans Frontières
"He was always the best man we had."

- Big Boss on Venom Snake during tape "Doublethink"

Venom Snake was born in 1932 in California. Around the time of the Peace Walker Incident in 1974, Venom Snake served as a member of Militaires Sans Frontières, acting as a combat medic. According to Big Boss, Venom Snake was "always the best man [MSF] had", implying that he was an incredibly capable soldier. Venom Snake was also very close with Morpho, Miller and Big Boss as they were all good friends.

XOF Trojan Horse operation
On March 16, 1975, Venom Snake was stationed on board the helicopter sent to extract MSF commander Big Boss and rescued POWs Chico and Paz Ortega Andrade.

During the flight back to Mother Base, Big Boss ordered Venom to look over the unconscious Paz, after Chico had noticed surgical scars on her abdomen. Suspecting that a bomb had been concealed inside her, Venom Snake was forced to operate on her immediately, as there was no time to administer anesthesia. He successfully removed the bomb from her gut.

Although the bomb was quickly disposed of, Paz awoke and revealed that there was a second bomb inside of her on the verge of exploding. Wasting no time she jumped out of the chopper and the second bomb exploded in mid air. Venom Snake shielded Big Boss from the blast and his body bore the brunt of the explosion, before the helicopter was sent into a collision with an XOF chopper.

Both men survived the incident but shortly thereafter they entered into a coma. Venom Snake had suffered specifically extensive injuries. His left hand had to be amputated and 108 foreign agents (shrapnel, human bone and teeth) had been embedded in his body, which, for the most part, could be removed successfully. However, certain pieces of shrapnel, which were located close to his heart and inside his cerebral cortex, were too risky to extract as impairment or even death would have been likely to occur upon removal. Ocelot also implied the injuries were severe enough that he was effectively dead.

The Phantom Pain
On February 26, 1984, Venom Snake was woken up from his induced coma. At the behest of Zero, Venom Snake was given plastic surgery to resemble Big Boss so he could act as a decoy for XOF. In order to ensure the ruse worked, he was also given hypnotherapy to have him possess Big Boss's memories and thus have him believe he was the real Big Boss. On March 11, another patient named Ishmael, who in actuality was the real Big Boss in disguise, saved Snake from an assassin and managed to successfully get him out of the hospital they were in. As the two escaped in an ambulance, the real Big Boss was knocked unconscious after taking a shot from a helicopter. Venom Snake attempted to drive the ambulance, but he crashed into a river bank. When Venom Snake regained consciousness, Ishmael was gone, and he was greeted by Ocelot, who would accompany Venom Snake on a trip to Afghanistan in order to rescue Miller. After rescuing Miller, the three returned to the newly constructed Mother Base, where Venom Snake took command of Diamond Dogs. Venom Snake performed several missions in order to expand their new Mother Base so that they could fight Cipher. Unbeknownst to Venom Snake until later, Ocelot was aware of Venom Snake's true identity the whole time, and he was monitoring Venom Snake as part of a series of tests to see if the hypnotherapy to turn Venom Snake into Big Boss's body double had truly worked, which it did. Upon confirming the hypnotherapy's success, Ocelot preformed a similar technique on himself, as to trick himself into believing that Venom Snake was indeed the one and only "Big Boss."

Along the way, Venom Snake was briefed on what had happened in the world in general due to the coma, as well as more specifically what happened while he was in a coma. He also had his loose prosthetic replaced with a bionic arm. He ultimately succeeded in saving Miller, and evacuated, although not before encountering Parasite Unit, a.k.a The Skulls, who were responsible for slaughtering Miller's men and giving him over to the Soviets to be tortured.



Venom Snake and Diamond Dogs rose to huge heights as they collected resources, expanded their facilities, and swelled their ranks with volunteers and "recruits" forcibly extracted from the field. Venom Snake first embarked on various missions investigating Cipher's actions and involvement with private forces throughout Afghanistan. At some point, Venom Snake would embark on a mission to recover the Honey Bee from the caves of Da Smasei Laman before the Soviets could locate it. Upon taking the Honey Bee, Skull Face captured Venom Snake using the arm of Sahelanthropus. After briefly losing consciousness, Venom Snake awoke, and still held by the hand of Sahelanthropus, he finally met Skull Face for the first time. Skull Face taunted him about having survived the attack nine years ago before having the giant's fist release him. Skull Face then mounted the Sahelanthropus' hand like a platform and departed into the mist, leaving Venom Snake to formally battle the Mist Unit of the Skulls. Venom Snake would escape and return to Mother Base with the Honey Bee.

Some time later, as Venom Snake embarked on various missions, he once again encountered the assassin called Quiet in the Aabe Shifap Ruins and defeated her in a sniper duel. After the duel, Snake had extracted Quiet from the area to bring her back to Mother Base, only for her to seemingly escape en route. Just as Snake and Pequod were pursued by an enemy aircraft, Quiet revealed her presence and saved Snake by killing the enemy pilot. She surrendered herself to Snake and was taken to Mother Base, where Snake opted to have her be put in a cell, but stated that when the time came for her to die, he'd be the one to kill her himself.

Eventually Miller and Venom Snake received an anonymous message from Huey Emmerich in the Serak Power Plant as means of getting them to rescue him. Emmerich's circumstance as a survivor from Mother Base caused both Miller and Snake to suspect his involvement with Cipher as well as MSF's destruction.Venom Snake would then discover that Emmerich was working with Cipher's elite strike force XOF, and under the command of Skull Face, he had been put to work on a new upright bipedal Metal Gear called Sahelanthropus. Discovering Emmerich's actions of leading Venom Snake to his location, Skull Face decidedly cut ties with him and had him transported away. Venom Snake made his way to meet and extract Emmerich, only to be confronted by a fully-functional Sahelanthropus, in which it was operated by Tretij Rebenok under Skull Face's influence. Venom Snake was able to fend off the Metal Gear and leave the area with Emmerich via helicopter.

He then observed the resulting interrogation of Huey at the hands of both Miller and Ocelot from behind a two-way mirror, with Miller proceeding to report on what they've got so far, with Miller also stating he is certain that Huey's guilty of the attack on Mother Base nine years prior, although Venom Snake stated they still will need evidence before convicting him. However, Ocelot entered and revealed some key information he learned from Huey after Miller left: One, XOF had finished operations in Afghanistan and were headed for Africa, and two, they were developing "a weapon that would surpass Metal Gear." Venom Snake then deduced from this that it meant whatever it was XOF was working on was "not just another nuke."

During the climactic confrontation between Venom Snake and Skull Face's forces in the Metal Gear hangar bay, Skull Face revealed the true nature of the "Man on Fire" and had ordered Tretij Rebenok to pit him against Venom Snake one final time. Unbeknownst to either Venom Snake or Skull Face, Tretij Rebenok found himself favoring Eli's intense hatred over Skull Face or Volgin's, allowing himself to be used as a conduit in order to hijack Metal Gear Sahelanthropus for Eli. As Sahelanthropus' loading platform rolled forwards Eli had Volgin walk into the wheels, crushing himself. In the ensuing confusion, the XOF forces pulled away Skull Face from the area, as Sahelanthropus gave chase towards Venom Snake. The Eli-controlled Metal Gear chased down Venom Snake, but was stopped by a narrow gap in the canyon it was running in, forcing Eli to switch the Metal Gear into its upright configuration, in which he caused further mayhem on XOF's personnel and military vehicles.

As Venom Snake hid from the Metal Gear, he witnessed Sahelanthropus attacking Skull Face, resulting in the latter being trapped under a downed communications tower and be mortally wounded. Eli would then focus his efforts on attempting to kill Venom Snake by using the Metal Gear, pursuing him as Snake attempted to escape in a leftover XOF vehicle. Driving off on the XOF jeep, Venom Snake was halted by Sahelanthropus which greatly damaged the vehicle using its nano-fiber sword. Venom Snake momentarily lost consciousness and upon waking up he was confronted by Sahelanthropus which had been waiting for him to wake up. The two engaged in battle, with Sahelanthropus continuously attacking Snake through Tretij Rebenok's control and under Eli's influence. After a prolonged battle, Venom Snake was able to incapacitate the Metal Gear, thus removing Eli's control over it. Miller then landed the helicopter to pick up Venom Snake and the two decide to head back to the Serak Power Plant and finally exact their revenge on Skull Face. Landing the helicopter down, Venom Snake and Miller found Skull Face mortally wounded and trapped under scaffolding. Venom Snake then questioned the whereabouts of the third parasite vial, to which Skull Face replied as being close to him. Destroying the two parasite vials (though the second one being retrieved by Tretij Rebenok, unbeknownst to Snake), Venom Snake picked up Skull Face's rifle and aimed the gun as Skull Face begged to be killed.

After shooting off Skull Face's right arm and leg, mirroring injuries sustained by Miller when he was originally captured by XOF, Venom Snake and Miller left him to die, only for Huey Emmerich to arrive from the Diamond Dogs helicopter and finish him off himself. Returning to Mother Base, Venom Snake had Sahelanthropus placed on the R&D platform as a sign of their triumph over XOF.

A second outbreak of the vocal cord parasite, which has mutated to the point that the Wolbacia would not stopped them from copulating. Unable to allow the infected members to leave and get outside, Snake was forced to kill them all, with a group of them saluting him and humming to a familiar theme as they allowed their Boss to mercy kill them. During the funeral, Snake decided not to bury them at sea and decided to make diamonds from their ashes to carry them into battle.

Venom Snake later exiled Huey for his recklessness (more specifically, his collaboration with Eli as well as causing a devastating parasite outbreak and Wolbachia mutation on Mother Base that forced Venom Snake to kill many of his own men that were infected).

After the mutation of the Vocal Cord Parasite, Quiet left Mother Base and was captured by Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan. After reuniting with her and, working together to defeating Soviet reinforcement, Quiet was forced to speak English after Snake was bitten by, ironically, a snake. After that Quiet left Mother Base and Snake for good.

Some time later, Venom Snake would receive a cassette tape labeled "From The Man Who Sold The World" from the real Big Boss which contained the following:

"Now do you remember? Who you are? What you were meant to do? I cheated death, thanks to you. And thanks to you I’ve left my mark. You have too – you’ve written your own history. You’re your own man. I’m Big Boss, and you are too… No… He’s the two of us. Together. Where we are today? We built it. This story – this “legend” – it’s ours. We can change the world – and with it, the future. I am you, and you are me. Carry that with you, wherever you go. Thank you… my friend. From here on out, you’re Big Boss."

Venom Snake, despite now knowing the truth and honored to be worthy of the title "Big Boss", decided to keep the ruse. He then turned the same tape over and saw it labeled "Operation Intrude N313," and then placed it in a Sony bitcorder to listen to the data.

Diamond Dogs itself was a smoke screen to place all focus on Venom Snake while the real Big Boss could lay the ground work for Outer Heaven.

After Outer Heaven's construction had been completed, Big Boss's reputation as a mercenary had traveled far and wide thanks to the activities of Venom Snake. While he knew that mercenaries around the world would eventually rally to his cause, he knew that it would also bring the attention of government agencies that would grow suspicious of his activities. Needing to draw attention away from Outer Heaven, Big Boss himself decided to return to the U.S. to rejoin FOXHOUND as its commander and left Venom Snake in charge. In 1995, Venom Snake began an uprising within Outer Heaven by the order of Big Boss to bring chaos to the Patriots, who had been growing without control in spite of their leader Zero falling into a vegetative state. Venom Snake managed to capture the first operative sent by Big Boss, codenamed Gray Fox. Big Boss then sent his least experienced agent, a rookie codenamed Solid Snake, who happened to be Big Boss's cloned son, with the objective of rescuing Fox and destroying Metal Gear. Solid Snake rescued Fox and destroyed the Metal Gear weapon known as TX-55 Metal Gear. Afterwards, Venom Snake intervened and revealed himself. The two fought with Solid Snake being the victor, killing Venom Snake. This led to the real Big Boss setting up the eventual Zanzibar Land Disturbance with the remnants of Outer Heaven.

Personality and traits
Unlike Big Boss, Venom Snake was far more reserved in his speech. He rarely retorted or commented against his enemies, and most of his reactions are inferred through obvious body language. During the medic's days in MSF, Big Boss considered him the group's "best man." While impersonating Big Boss as Venom Snake, he adopted much of his commander's personality and possessed a similar physical appearance, having undergone hypnotherapy and plastic surgery. Following his escape from a Cypriot hospital and recovery from muscle atrophy, Venom Snake gained muscle mass similar to that of Big Boss.

As a result of wounds suffered during the destruction of MSF, Venom Snake had a piece of shrapnel embedded in his forehead in the shape of a horn, and also lost his right eye and left arm. He was later given a cybernetic prosthetic in place of his missing left arm.

Like his mental and physical template, Venom Snake did show compassion for his enemies as he chose not to kill Quiet or Huey and instead had the former imprisoned and the latter exiled with food and water. He would even develop a strong bond of mutual respect with Quiet. Though he and Big Boss shared similarities in their compassion over enemies, Venom Snake differed from Big Boss with respect to Paz; in which Venom Snake notably viewed Paz in a more positive light. Being formerly an MSF soldier himself, he sympathized with her and it was implied that he held a fondness for her peaceful personality. He felt guilt and grief over her death to the point of experiencing hallucinatory scenarios where he had meetings with a phantom of Paz. This is markedly different from Big Boss's view of Paz, who greatly recognized her traitorous role towards MSF, in which he was even willing to kill her to avoid having her give away intelligence regarding MSF.

Venom Snake appeared to suffer from a form of amnesia (or more accurately, the memory transfer was not completed), as both Miller and Ocelot had to remind him of certain events, such as how the real Big Boss had led Militaires Sans Frontières and how Miller helped him lead "his" old unit. He also did not possess Big Boss's fluency in Russian, relying instead on a translator. Despite this, however, he did seem to remember events from the Peace Walker Incident, such as the prototype Battle Gear's similarity to Metal Gear ZEKE giving him déjà vu, and his quoting of Hot Coldman regarding the ineffectiveness of nuclear deterrence. Ocelot stated that his amnesia might have to do with the shrapnel in his forehead, while on the Truth tapes, it's because they had to cut the memory transfer as XOF was set to attack ahead of schedule.

Behind the scenes
Punished "Venom" Snake is the main protagonist of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Although he is never called "Punished" in the game, it appears in the opening and end credits of nearly every main mission in the game.

Venom Snake first appears as an unidentified field medic during the closing cutscenes of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. Because of the cinematic angles, there is never a clear view of the medic's face, although his character model can briefly be glimpsed as possessing white skin and brown hair. The full character model was discovered in the PC version through the use of mods, with the facial model and textures for the medic sharing identical scars to those of Big Boss. Despite this predetermined, albeit obscured, appearance in Ground Zeroes, Venom Snake's name and facial features prior to surgery is chosen by the player in The Phantom Pain. In the cutscene showing a flashback to the events of Ground Zeroes, the medic is instead shown wearing a balaclava.

It is heavily implied in The Phantom Pain that Venom Snake himself (and his nondescript identity as a medic) serves as a deliberate player avatar, due to his original appearance being reliant on the player's decisions, and how Big Boss addresses him in the "Truth" ending, in a manner that breaks the fourth wall.

On the Command Center menu, if the player looks closely at Venom Snake's reflection, it shows the avatar the player created, hinting at the plot-twist of Venom Snake not being Big Boss. In addition, a leaked Italian version of the Piggyback game guide for The Phantom Pain strongly implied Venom Snake's true identity is separate from Big Boss, although they never explicitly confirmed it due to Konami and at that time Kojima Productions specifically forbade them from giving any statements about Ishmael's identity. The GDC 2013 reveal trailer for The Phantom Pain had first hinted at his existence when Kazuhira Miller, after learning about Big Boss falling into a coma, asks "What about him?" before the scene cut away.

The plot twist of Venom Snake not truly being Big Boss is hinted at multiple times throughout the game. Ishmael told him that he was "looking at himself" after Venom Snake had asked Ishmael who he was. When Venom Snake meets The Boss AI and Huey, the AI states, "You're not Snake, are you?", and Huey notices a difference between the two. Another hint is Ocelot explaining that Eli was not Venom Snake's clone, and that the genetic examination of the two had resulted negative.

Fulfilling his role as a "phantom" of Big Boss, he returns as the final boss of the original Metal Gear via a retcon established in the ending timeline though the shrapnel in his head was removed and his prosthetic left arm was replaced by the game's events.

If Snake runs low on GMP, he will be forced to return to base due to morale having fallen to such an extent that at least two personnel had gotten into a particularly violent brawl amongst each other, resulting in Snake breaking up the fight and even forcing one of the soldiers to stab him when he attempted to draw a weapon on the other soldier he restrained, also suggesting to Ocelot that they need a job to do to get them focused on something other than their tenuous relationship with other personnel. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Kojima Productions (2015) Pequod's chopper arrives at the landing pad and Venom Snake disembarks only to see a crowd present at the base and arrives to observe, with it cutting to a fight between two Diamond Dogs members // Diamond Dogs member 1: Son of a... // ''The soldier shoves the other DD member, only to be socked in the face in return as Venom Snake walks up. The soldiers then exchange blows, only for the second soldier to kick the first soldier in the gut. Two soldiers attempt to restrain them, only for the soldiers to knock them away and rush at each other. They then grapple each other and are in a lock, only for the second soldier to be kneed in the face and punched by the first soldier'' // Diamond Dogs member 1: Bring it on! // Diamond Dogs member 2: Get off me! (Socks the first soldier in the face and then kicks him upside the head just as he turns around) // ''The second soldier then draws a knife and raises it up high, as the crowd cheers him on. As the soldier is about to make the killing blow, Venom Snake suddenly tackles the soldier, forcibly disarms the knife, knocks down the first soldier, then throws the second soldier away. The first soldier then draws his knife and attempts to go at the downed second soldier only to be stopped by Venom Snake via the latter grabbing his knife arm'' // Diamond Dogs member 1: Boss! // Venom Snake: We don't draw weapons on comrades. (the soldier struggles) Look around you. This is your family. // (Snake then forces the unwilling soldier to stab him through the chest and then releases him, the soldier landing on his back as the crowd looks on in shock at what happened). // Ocelot: Show is over! Get out of here! // ''Ocelot arrives just as the soldiers do as they are told and leave the area. Snake then gets up and attempts to remove the knife himself, only for Ocelot to nonverbally suggest against it and request removing it for him.'' // Snake: Be gentle. // Ocelot: Of course. (Ocelot then proceeds to remove the knife swiftly yet gently.) // Ocelot: These [knife] are bad for you, you know. // Snake: (looking to the soldiers who were fighting amongst each other) Morale has fallen. // The two soldiers stand at attention // Ocelot: They just need a mission. Orders to follow. If you see someone stuck in the Waiting Room, you give 'em a job to do. (Turns to the soldiers) You two! (motioning the knife) You just earned yourselves a week in the brig with deck-cleaning duty by day. // Snake: (grabs Ocelot's knife hand) No. Wait. (Grabs the knife from Ocelot) You've got some blood to pay me back for first. Your CQC is sloppy - Come see me later for a lesson you won't forget. (wipes blood off the blade via his thigh before handing it back to the first DD soldier. The soldiers then salute and walk off). // Ocelot: Well morale taken care of. (Ocelot walks off)

Venom Snake's alias as Ahab is a reference to the central character from the novel Moby-Dick; the same way that Big Boss's adopted identity as Ishmael is also derived from the main character of the novel.

Venom Snake being made to believe he is Big Boss via hypnotherapy is similar to Ocelot being led to believe he was Liquid.

Despite being the same height as Big Boss, who stood toe-to-toe with Ocelot in the Truth ending, Venom Snake appeared shorter in several cut scenes of The Phantom Pain. Whether this was an intentional nod to Snake not being Big Boss is unknown.

According to Hideo Kojima's notes in the Piggyback Collector's Edition Guide's art gallery, Venom Snake (or rather, Big Boss as he is identified in the notes) losing his arm was decided early on in the project, and also implied that he was supposed to lose two fingers from his right hand as well. He also mentioned that the powerful prosthetic arm was implemented to allow players to appreciate the full intended experience, as while Snake could technically still wield weapons, it would have made it difficult to appreciate such.

Although the Truth ending reveals that Venom Snake is not Big Boss, his exact reaction to learning of this revelation is left ambiguous, as he briefly demonstrates a smirk as if accepting and embracing the role. After he flips the tape "From Man Who Sold the World", he sees Operation Intrude N313, which is the name of the mission in the original Metal Gear. In the next scene, Venom sees himself in the mirror with a bloody face and larger horn, before punching the mirror.

Overall, Venom Snake is the sixth canonical Snake in the Metal Gear series. Venom Snake is also the second playable character whose true role is revealed via a plot twist, similar to Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

Appearances

 * Metal Gear 
 * Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
 * Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain