Les Enfants Terribles



Les Enfants Terribles (French for The Terrible Children) was a United States Government project developed in the early 1970s, which aimed to produce clones of renowned soldier Big Boss. The project was sponsored by Zero, the central figure in the Patriots organization, and was carried out by Dr. Clark. The name of the project was presumably inspired by the novel and the 1950s film of the same name, which was also used to refer the clones themselves.

Background
Due to his much lauded military career, Big Boss was made an icon and figurehead for the newly formed Patriots organization, a secret cabal that strove to increase its influence and power over the United States in the early 1970s. Fearing Big Boss's departure due to ideological differences, Zero required insurance that the group's icon remain, and that the genetic legacy of the so-called "Legendary Soldier" be safeguarded.

Since Big Boss's previous exposure to radiation at Bikini Atoll had rendered him infertile, Zero devised a plan to create somatic cell clones of the man. In 1971, he thus initiated Les Enfants Terribles, led by fellow Patriot member, Dr. Clark. Dr. Clark, known by the codename Para-Medic, had considered the idea of cloning him since at least Operation Snake Eater nearly seven years earlier, informing Big Boss (at the time known as Naked Snake) about his genes being important to pass on in a conversation with him.

The Twin Snakes
In 1972, utilizing the latest in Analog Cloning technology and the Super Baby Method, an egg from Dr. Clark's Japanese assistant was fertilized with Big Boss's DNA and transferred to the womb of EVA, who volunteered to be the surrogate mother. This success was the result of multiple attempts, with the project only having borne fruit after dozens of failures. Of the eight embryos created from the fertilized egg, six were intentionally aborted, to promote stronger growth in the remaining two.

Further genetic modification was carried out so that one clone would express each of Big Boss's dominant genes, which were considered to be inferior soldier genes [if 'super soldier genes' were dominant, this project wouldn't be necessary], while the other would express his recessive genes, which were intended to create a genetically superior soldier. Because of the respective gene expressions, and the mitochondrial DNA inherited from Dr. Clark's assistant, the twins had a genetic difference of .43%,  a small enough difference to fool nearly all DNA identification procedures exempting those that used precise scanning.

Nine months later, EVA gave birth to the so-called "Twin Snakes": the clone considered to be genetically "superior", Eli, would later be known as Liquid Snake, while the "inferior" clone, David, would be known as Solid Snake.

Ironically, the project ended up causing the very thing Zero had tried to prevent: when Big Boss learned of the clones' creation, he left the Patriots in disgust. Because of this, Zero went into hiding, relaying his orders only via proxies (with the sole exception of one agent) and renamed both himself and his organization as "Cipher." By the time of 1974, both Solid and Liquid Snake had been used as an insurance policy by the Patriots, rechristened "Cipher," regarding Big Boss turning against them, which Kazuhira Miller had some awareness of.

When Big Boss and Ocelot talked about the project following his nine year coma in 1984, Ocelot informed him that David had never left the United States of America, while the other one, Eli, after leaving the UK, had disappeared from Zero's care in Africa 1976. Big Boss stated at the time that he did not regard them as his sons and that he had nothing to say to them if he were to meet them, although he did say that he would treat them "like a human being, just another person."

Despite being considered the superior one of the Twin Snakes, Liquid was led to believe that the reverse was true, as a result of Big Boss's perceived influence. When the two met for the first time as adults, Liquid referred to them as the "Brother of Light" and the "Brother of Dark." In spite of his supposed genetic shortcomings, it was Solid Snake who defeated both Big Boss and Liquid Snake.

The Third Son
Another clone of Big Boss was later secretly created, this time without modification to dominant/recessive gene expression, thus producing a "perfect clone." This clone would later be known as Solidus Snake (meaning neither solid nor liquid), whom the Patriots would consider a "perfectly balanced masterpiece."

Solidus was ultimately entrusted with the U.S. Presidency, under the name George Sears, serving the Patriots as a puppet ruler of the country as the 43rd President. However, like Big Boss, he rebelled against the Patriots, was removed from office, and went underground.

Abandonment
Sometime after Solidus' creation, the project was abandoned in 1976, due to complaints made by ATGC. Later in 2005, Jim Houseman remarked that the creation of Solid and Liquid Snake was an embarrassment from the 1970s and that they were the country's "dirty little secret."

Accelerated aging and sterility
Each clone had accelerated aging (or Werner Syndrome) written into their genes in order to provide a fail-safe against the clones' genetic information falling into enemy hands, or if the clones turned against the Patriots under their own volition. Despite being preceded by his brothers, Solidus appeared more aged than the other two clones in his later life.

All three clones also lacked the ability to reproduce, which according to Solidus, had been "conveniently" written into the clones' DNA. It is this that drove Solidus to leave behind a lasting legacy to the world, due to his forthcoming death from advanced aging. All three clones also had terminator genes so that they could not be cloned.

Abilities
Due to the nature of their conception and development, the Les Enfants Terribles children possessed enhanced natural abilities and durability, surviving and withstanding physical and mental situations that would result in an average human's death or mental breaking. In addition, Ocelot implied that the Les Enfant Terribles project also resulted in the children having a heightened and natural aptitude with piloting vehicles.

Related projects
During the 1990s and early 2000s, the U.S. Government used Big Boss's DNA for gene therapy experiments to create more able soldiers. Instead of using the analog cloning method of Les Enfants Terribles, adult test subjects had their own "soldier genes" manipulated to mimic those of Big Boss, using gene therapy techniques referred to as "digital" cloning. The test subjects were dubbed "Genome Soldiers" and were later organized into the Next-Generation Special Forces, under FOXHOUND.

Early gene therapy experiments during the Gulf War resulted in test subjects suffering from various psychological side effects, which were later attributed to Gulf War Syndrome, and their children being born with various deformities (the so-called "Gulf War Babies"). The Department of Defense covered up these side effects as being caused by a combination of exposure to depleted uranium shells from anti-tank rounds, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anti-sarin injections.

Due to their genetic similarities to the Les Enfants Terribles children, Liquid saw the various gene therapy subjects as his "brothers and sisters."

Unconfirmed history
By 1972, the project had previously produced eight batches of clones which had resulted in failure, though Dr. Clark succeeded in correcting the genetic code in the ninth batch, from which Liquid and Solid Snake were produced. The twins were born in a special underground testing facility in the Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico. Present at the birth was the U.S. President, accompanied by General Houseman. The President was incredibly nervous about the project, as he had only inherited the project from his predecessor, as opposed to initiating it. Dr. Clark assured him that there was nothing to worry about, since the earlier problems had been corrected, and she had made sure that the surrogate mother possessed certain genetic "latches" that would connect with those of Big Boss.

Dr. Clark further explained that Big Boss was unaware that the U.S. Government possessed so many of his cells, since they were taken from him when he was in surgery after suffering injures in the war. Also, Big Boss was not allowed to know about the project, no matter the outcome, though Dr. Clark theorized that he probably already knew, blaming the terrible security the government had. Although one of the clones would express more dominant soldier genes than the other, she stated to the President that this might not necessarily affect which one would become "better."

Before leaving to assist in the delivery of the babies, the President asked Dr. Clark if he could choose which one the U.S. Government kept, and demanded that they be given the "dominant" one. Dr. Clark reminded him that there was no guarantee if one would be stronger than the other. Dr. Clark later thought about what would become of Big Boss's remaining cells, due to the unexpect surplus that they received due to the twins birth. She then decided that, if the need arose, they could create another clone of the legendary soldier.

Another codename for the Les Enfants Terribles project was the "Eve Project", and the U.S. military deemed the project necessary, despite its inhuman nature, due to the events of the Cold War.

Behind the scenes
The Les Enfants Terribles project was first mentioned in Metal Gear Solid. According to Hideo Kojima, he created the plot point as an excuse for Solid Snake to fight a more difficult enemy while at the same time retaining his veteran status from the MSX2 games. This eventually led Kojima to feel that by creating that plot point, he "cheated", when discussing Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. In addition, in a series of Twitter posts in May 2014, Kojima also implied that he wouldn't have considered making Snake a clone if he thought ahead about there being more games after Metal Gear Solid, as well as splitting Liquid from Snake rather than killing Liquid off due to the character being well received. The concept of the project to create perfect people via cloning, more specifically the portion relating to The Twin Snakes Solid and Liquid Snake and their being perceived to have gotten the superior and inferior clones was a reference to the premise of the comedy film Twins starring Arnold Schwartzenegger and Danny DeVito, who were created as part of a science experiment to create perfect children, with Schwartzenegger's character of Julius Benedict getting all the good genes and Danny DeVito's character of Vincent Benedict getting the bad genes.

In the English version of Metal Gear Solid, Liquid states that Big Boss was in a coma when the project commenced. In the Japanese version, it was mentioned that he was sterile instead. Despite featuring re-recorded English dialogue and minor alterations to the previous translation, the backstory of Big Boss being in a coma was retained in the remake, The Twin Snakes.

"Les Enfants Terribles" had previously been used in the MSX2 manual of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake as the name of the French terrorist group to which the mercenary Running Man formerly belonged. The Metal Gear Solid 4 Database, implies that the name of both the project and the terrorist group were inspired by Jean Cocteau's Les Enfants Terribles.

In the non-canon game Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, Snake tells Chris Jenner (in an optional Codec conversation) that Big Boss was his father, but he does not elaborate on whether it was due to the Les Enfants Terribles project.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was the first game to reveal that the clones of Les Enfants Terribles age at an accelerated rate, given Liquid Ocelot's comments to Snake aboard the USS Discovery, and Solidus' advanced age. It was implied that this was a side effect of cloning Big Boss while he was in his advanced years. When scientists in real life created Dolly the sheep through cloning, Dolly died prematurely at the age of 6.5 years. It has been speculated that a contributing factor to Dolly's death was that she was born with the same genetic age as the sheep from which she was cloned, based on her telomeres being short, which is typically a result of the ageing process. In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, the shortened telomeres are instead revealed to be an intentional design, in addition to other mutations. Solidus Snake had also earlier alluded to the clones being unable to reproduce in Metal Gear Solid 2, and implied that their ability to reproduce may have intentionally been engineered, something that Naomi later confirmed in Metal Gear Solid 4.

Three types of snake can be located in Metal Gear Solid 3, during the fight against The Boss in Rokovoj Bereg. The three individual snakes are called Liquid, Solid, and Solidus. Their skin complexion and eye color suggests that the three snakes are albinos.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, when Snake fights another player also using Snake, the player can initiate a Codec conversation with Colonel Campbell, who starts wondering, "Has the Les Enfants Terribles project really come this far?" Snake explains that his doppelgänger has more than physical and genetic appearances that make them alike, it is also the fact that he has his fighting style as well, although it's not exact.

According to the timeline supplied in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, the project was abandoned in 1976.

In the E3 2015 trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Eli's shown sitting next to a identical looking boy as Venom Snake's heard saying "Les Enfants Terribles, Zero called it." This implied that Eli was a son of Big Boss. Starting with the release of the E3 2013 trailer, fans theorized that he was actually a young Liquid Snake. This theory would continue to persist as the E3 2014 and 2015 trailers revealed traits of Eli which were very similar to that of Liquid. The game would later confirm that Eli is indeed a younger Liquid. However, the identical boy from the trailer is not David, but Tretij Rebenok, who is not present and is contacting Eli psychically.