Johnny (Soviet soldier)

Johnny was a Russian GRU soldier, who served under the command of Colonel Volgin during the Cold War. His mask and armband had the letter "J" sewn onto it.

Early life
Johnny once lived in America where he became married and had a son. He later left his family to return to his native Russia, where he would subsequently miss their company.

In 1964, Johnny was assigned to guard the cell in which CIA operative Naked Snake had been imprisoned, within the military fortress of Groznyj Grad, Tselinoyarsk. Volgin threatened that if Snake should be killed, Johnny would be executed.

Johnny showed the captive Snake his hospitality by giving him some food. After Snake gave the food back to Johnny, he struck a conversation with Snake about his wife and his son, who was also named Johnny, and that eventually, his son's son would probably be named Johnny too. Snake commented that his name had a nice ring to it (Snake's real name was John). He explained that all of the firstborn sons in his family were traditionally named as such. He also managed to grab Snake's cigarette-shaped gas spray gun, while Snake was being tortured, and handed it back to him, having no idea of what it actually was. Despite the friendliness towards each other, however, Johnny refused to release Snake from the prison and threatened to shoot him if he tried to escape. Snake was eventually able to outwit Johnny and successfully escape his cell.

Grandson
Years later, Johnny's grandson, also named Johnny, would be placed in a similar position during the Shadow Moses Incident, in which he was assigned to guard the cell of Naked Snake's own son, Solid Snake.

Behind the scenes
If the player is killed during the prison sequence in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Johnny will run up to the body to check it like any other guard. However, when he finds that Snake is dead, he yells, "Snake! Don't give up on me, Snake! SSNNNNAAAAKKKKEEE!!!!!" If the player throws rotten food at Johnny, he'll end up rushing to the restroom. Likewise, similar to his grandson and the use of ketchup in the original Metal Gear Solid, using the fake death pill will result in Johnny being fooled into opening the cell door. The player could also choose to open the door via a radio frequency (144.75), which is written on the back of Johnny's family photo. This code can also be found during the torture scene, by using First Person View during the accompanying cutscene.

In an Metal Gear Solid 3 commentary by director Hideo Kojima, he mentions that had the Soviet government found out about Johnny being married to someone in the West, he would have been arrested.

Johnny also appears as a recruitable character in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus. He can be found as a random prisoner in the Infinity Missions, most commonly during Extreme mode. Also, even though he is a unique character, Roy Campbell's call upon finding Johnny has him giving the same statements as he would a regular prisoner ("The prisoner? Hmm, let's see... OK, bring 'em to the truck for now. We'll talk more when you get here."). His career choice is "Bait," which causes stronger enemies to appear more often.

Because of the redesigns to the GRU soldier model for Snake Eater 3D, Johnny's appearance was slightly different in that game, showing his eyes as being blue and wide open rather than squinty.

"A member of GRU, the intelligence wing of the Red Army's General Staff. Served as a guard in the detention facility at Groznyj Grad. His face mask sports the letter "J.""

- Character description in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus

An elderly Johnny was supposed to make a cameo appearance in the ending of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots as a guest in his grandson's wedding with Meryl Silverburgh. While the elder Johnny did not make it into the final version, concept art of him can be seen in the illustration book Metal Gear Solid 4: Master Art Works.

In Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, one of the player's recruited soldiers may be assigned the quote "I had a friend named Johnny," possibly suggesting that Johnny survived the events of Operation Snake Eater.