Skull Face

Skull Face was a heavily scarred man and the commander of the military group XOF during the 1970s. He had apparently suffered extensive injuries in his past, which had caused numerous scars and burns across his face and neck, a broken nose, and wounds near his mouth resembling a Glasgow smile. The disfigurations were extensive enough that his face strongly resembled that of a human skull, hence his codename. In addition, his natural skin color had changed to an unhealthy bluish hue.

Early life
The man who became Skull Face hailed from a village which had an oil seed field and a factory, with his parents as factory workers and his frequently visiting with his friends. However, one day, an aircraft destroyed the factory under the pretense of it secretly developing weapons (specifically repairing them), as stated by various spies. Although he and the workers tried to escape, a huge crowd of people blocked him, and he was eventually kicked in the stomach. He would hear his name called when the factory was destroyed. Upon being taken to an infirmary, he heard, in what was ultimately his final recalled instance of his mother tongue, a nurse stating that he really needed to be put out of his misery in a tone that indicated that she frequently said this towards her patients. By this point, most of his prior identity had been stripped, which resulted in the nihilistic philosophies that he eventually adopted. His already deformed features, which resulted in him being virtually incapable of feeling pain, were worsened later on when he was tortured by foreign hands.Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, Kojima Productions (2014) Briefing files > Acquired Tapes > Agent's Recording > Secretly Recorded POW Interrogation (waterboarding is heard, and then shuffling them prisoner back to the boiler room cell. A man is heard driving in) // Skull Face: I needed this place, to listen to the words people have to say. That's something they could never understand. (the man, Skull Face, then walks up to the prisoner, who is groaning in agony) You've done your part. You told us plenty. You've known the pain of ages. And even now you think, as any person would, that this can't be happening. Is it education? Morals, faith? Just an imprint of a lifetime of stories? Face to face with oblivion, which is where you are, and you still think that help is coming. The world you were born into is made to save you. Isn't that right? Of course it is. Everyone knows that. Until your last breath, you know it. Without the slightest chance or reason left to them, humans are capable of hope. I'm no different. But for one thing. When my time came calling I didn't die. My family died, my country died, but they didn't take me with them. All Hell took from me was this skin, this outer peel that marked me "human." My village had an oilseed field and a fine factory. Every day my friends and I would see our parents at work in that factory. That's all I had. All the world I knew. Then one day, aircraft came droning in from some far-off sky. The factory was bombed. Some... "spies" had told them we were making weapons. The building burned. We tried to flee outside. The crowd blocked the exit. The crowd of people. Hot. So hot. I tried to push through their legs and get ahead, but a boot in my stomach put me on the ground. The smoke of them burning filled me up. I heard my name called... but not for long. At the infirmary they carried me to, a nurse in the corner saw me and remarked, as if it happened every day: "They should let the poor thing die." Those are the only words of my mother tongue I remember. It was the language of my village. Until foreign troops invaded. Then the last identity I had left - the words I spoke - were pulled from me. My skin would never feel anything again. This face would be burned again, in torture, at foreign hands, but I, I still writhe in that burning factory. Doused in scalding rapeseed oil. That's all I have to feel, that pain - all I have to remind me I exist here. (chuckles) Those "spies" reported well. We made weapons all right. As cartloads of rifles came in from the battlefields, we fixed them up and sent them back out. So our country could win. Or rather, so that little world we knew could continue. I came to realize I mustn't die. I'm their last hope, all those who perished and left me here. I have to accomplish something. If I don't, their will will be swept out of this world. (Skull Face proceeds to grab the prisoner) So? Do you see me now? Tell me. What do you see? Hmm? You have eyes. What do your eyes see? (chuckles) Yes, that's right. You see a skull face. You see me. This skull is who I am. My mark, my proof of humanity. I have no country, no language, I have no face, but I haven't lost my skull. So I told myself... The pain and effort that keep me alive will never know relief, never bear fruit, never be repaid. I know that, but I told myself to focus on some hope, a nonexistent hope to guide me through this burning world. A hope - call it a dream. A melancholic delusion. As the pressures within me stretch me to bursting, and I force myself not to cry out, though the words I thought were carved into me are gone, and all I knew is dead. I know how you feel. I've felt that. So show me. That I'm not the only one. That you too can return to this world, for revenge. Do you see me? Don't die. Don't die! (Ahh...)

At some point, he encountered Zero and Big Boss, under circumstances which made him desire revenge on them both; the former due to wanting to free himself from his control, having no knowledge of his own past or language.

Ground Zeroes
At some point after the Peace Walker Incident in 1974, Skull Face and XOF took command of a U.S. naval base in Cuba and, under Cipher's orders, turned it into a "black site." During this time, he claimed XOF were a CIA unit, although the group didn't answer to Langley. On one occasion, Skull Face relayed his personal history to a prisoner that he attempted to recruit to his side though the prisoner ended up dying from the torture he inflicted on him. He also ended up interrogating an MSF Intel Team agent, even quoting briefly Big Boss's line about pain "getting the better of us," when trying to get him to talk. Although the prisoner never divulged any information, Skull Face nonetheless came very close to breaking him, closer than the other interrogators of various agencies at the base.Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, Kojima Productions (2014) Prisoner 12282: Boss… I never expected you would come… This place is full of “enemy combatants” renditioned from all over the world. But I couldn’t believe how many groups were asking the questions. They gotta have some kind of secret agreement. At a guess, I’d say there were MI6, BND, ISI… I even heard one guy speaking Russian. Yeah, they’re making deals with the East too. Local agencies will snatch dissidents who’ve defected to the West and then send ‘em back across the Iron Curtain… after a stopover here. They’re dealing in “leverage” on foreign administrations. Backdoor money. Scandals. Financial fraud. By sharing information that governments want to sweep under the rug, they gain leniency for their agencies. They’re trying to create some kind of HUMINT network without borders. Sorry, that’s all I know. Can't believe I got captured... I should have known I wasn't up to your standard... The torture was... was beyond anything I ever imagined. They were breaking guys left and right... I came pretty close too. But don't worry, Boss. I didn't tell them a thing. But... just one time... I was questioned by this other guy. He was different from the rest. I'll never forget him... or what he said. It cut right into me. "Nothing to be ashamed of. Pain gets the better of us all." "Let the words comfort you." "Now what did your boss tell you?" I nearly talked. This guy was so... so weird. I know I saw his face. I just... I can't remember it... The administration here knew about the operation. There was a leak. The brass are long gone. All that's left are the grunts kept out of the loop and us "enemy combatants"... Dunno why they left witnesses like us here alive. Mind if we stop a minute, Boss? I gotta rest. Let's get outta here. I wanna go home. Our home...

In late February of 1975, Skull Face had Cipher spy Paz Ortega Andrade imprisoned at the U.S. facility, after learning she had survived her confrontation with Big Boss's mercenary group, Militaires Sans Frontières (MSF). Ostensibly acting under Cipher's orders, he actually intended to interrogate her for knowledge regarding Zero's wheareabouts, who had gone into hiding ever since his "grand experiment." Skull Face subsequently had Paz raped and tortured due to her defiance, and when child soldier Chico was captured trying to rescue her, had him tortured as well. He made Chico watch while Paz's torture was carried out, even forcing the boy to have sex with her and participate in the abuse himself, until he eventually broke and exposed key details on MSF's Mother Base and Metal Gear ZEKE. Eventually, Skull Face confronted Paz in private and, after explaining his motives, and inferring his willingness to aid Big Boss to fulfill his goal, he got her to reveal Zero's location. He then had her implanted with two bombs, one in her abdomen and another "in a place [MSF]'d never look," anticipating that Big Boss would come to rescue the two prisoners.

On March 15th, Skull Face visited Chico at the Omega Base prison camp, to inform him that Paz had revealed everything he needed to know, and claimed to have kept a promise by giving her a merciful death. He then told Chico that he should give his regards to Big Boss, and asked him how it felt to "play the traitor." Skull Face then headed to a heliport with several other XOF soldiers, removing the XOF logo on his chopper after he arrived, then notified his forces that the "Trojan horse" was in, and that the pirate crackdown was "a go." After lifting off, Skull Face ordered his men to remove the XOF patches from their uniforms and hand them to another soldier, who then threw them outside to the ground below.

Personality and traits
Skull Face had shown himself to be extremely dangerous and sadistic, going to great lengths to achieve his goals. Having tortured both Paz and Chico both mentally and physically to get the information he wanted, Skull Face still tortured them stating, "we're half way there." During his interrogations and torturing with Paz, he would play the 1971 song "Here's to You" by Joan Baez, out loud.

He was also very skilled at interrogation, which was best demonstrated with his interrogation of an MSF Intel Team agent, where despite not getting any information on Big Boss, the prisoner admitted that of the interrogators at the base, Skull Face came the closest to breaking him.

Skull Face was a brilliant strategist, as he manipulated both the MSF and his two prisoners into playing into his hands. Despite his nature, he attempted to implore a previous prisoner to join his side and live for revenge, though the prisoner ended up dying.

Because of his cruel upbringing, he was shown to be extremely nihilistic, understanding hope only in the sense of it being a survival skill and otherwise not viewing it as important.

Behind the scenes
Skull Face appears in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, described as "A Ghost without a Past." He was first revealed, albeit unidentified, in the PAX Prime 2012 demo for Ground Zeroes, and briefly in the GDC 2013 trailer announcing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which comprises both Ground Zeroes, and The Phantom Pain. Although it was not made explicitly clear in the initial demo due to the lighting and environment (taking place at nighttime, during a storm), a later demo, showing the daytime version of the mission, shows that he possesses blue skin.

The XOF commander's name was supposedly revealed to be Albatross in an article posted by a game tester, regarding a private demo of Ground Zeroes by Hideo Kojima in May 2013, for the video game website Gamasutra. The article was deleted shortly thereafter. However, the E3 2013 trailer later revealed that the XOF commander's name was actually Skull Face.

In the English version of Ground Zeroes, James Horan provided Skull Face's voice, while Takaya Hashi provided his Japanese voice.

In a Twitter post, Kojima compared Skull Face with the Batman villain Clayface. In another series of Twitter posts, Kojima admitted that he considered including Skull Face on the overseas cover for Ground Zeroes, but decided against it due to it being too horrifying, and because it reminded him too much of the film Enemy Mine.

In an interview with Famitsu in November 2012, Kojima revealed that Skull Face was originally going to be called "Scarface."

Appearances

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

Notes and references
Skull Face