Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-86.46.22.35-20130403153709/@comment-3131736-20150411174826

I am quite sure that Ishmael is in fact Solidus.

Here's why:

When you see Ishmael, you think he's just some random guy with his face covered by bandages, but he's not. There's a valid reason for him looking the way he does.

Kojima often includes references to movies he likes. One of the movies which scared him the most is a French horror film named "Les Yeux Sans Visage" ("Eyes Without a Face"). In this movie, a surgeon kidnaps young women and removes their facial skin in order to graft it onto the face of his disfigured daughter. One of his victims, after the surgery has been performed, looks exactly the way Ishmael does. After the surgery, the victim wakes up and tries to flee, however she accidently enters the daughter's room and sees her "wearing" her former face. The victim screams and commits suicide by jumping out of a window in shock.

So I'm sure that Ishmael is Solidus, because he and Big Boss have "the same face".