Hal Emmerich

Dr. Hal Emmerich (ハル・エメリッヒ博士), also known as Otacon (オタコン), is a master engineer and the eccentric designer of Metal Gear REX. Otacon became a close friend of Solid Snake after he rescued him from Shadow Moses where he was developing REX. Once learning of REX's nuclear strike capabilities, he joined forces with Solid Snake. Later, he became a founding member of the group Philanthropy, along with Nastasha Romanenko. A devoted fan of anime, Hal's chosen nickname is derived from the Japanese animation and culture convention Otakon which, according to his official biography, Otacon regularly attends.

Early Years
Nothing is known for certain about Hal's mother except that his parents separated. His father, Huey Emmerich, eventually re-married a British woman, Julie Danziger, who had a child of her own named Emma, and Emma soon adopted her new stepfather's surname of Emmerich. Hal and Emma became very close, and Emma developed an infatuation. Shortly afterwards, his stepmother seduced him, and they held a brief affair.

When Hal's father learned of his son and wife's affair, he committed suicide by drowning himself in the family pool, dragging in Emma too. Emma expected her brother to save her, but he didn't know it was happening as he was liaising with his stepmother at the time. Because of this, Emma has always claimed to hate her brother.

After that, Hal ran away from home and didn't see any of his family members until several years later. He dropped out of school but through Internet-based self study, he secured acceptance to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned his PhD at a young age. He holds additional Bachelor's and Master's Degrees from Princeton University, as well.

Scouted by the FBI as a student, he joined their ERF (Engineering Research Facility). After being caught monitoring and hacking their central database, he was forced out of the FBI.

Eventually, Otacon was hired by the defense contractor ArmsTech. At ArmsTech, Emmerich developed a series of new technologies, including stealth camouflage, that were officially adopted by the US Army. Following this, he became the lead engineer for the Metal Gear REX project. He jumped at the chance to make an actual mecha-type robot, which appear frequently in the anime he enjoyed. He was led to believe that it was a mobile defense system, but in reality it was a nuclear doomsday weapon.



During the Shadow Moses Incident, Otacon was held hostage by Liquid Snake and was heavily guarded. Otacon encountered Solid Snake, who informed him of the true nature of his creation. Devastated, Otacon realized that he had written yet another chapter in his family's dark history: his grandfather had worked on the Manhattan Project, and his father was born on August 6, 1945, the day of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

During this time, Otacon had developed a strong attraction to FOXHOUND member Sniper Wolf, possibly under the effects of Stockholm Syndrome. Distraught that Snake would have to kill her, Otacon eventually came to terms with her, himself, and his position in life. With Otacon's assistance, Snake was able to destroy Metal Gear REX and defeat the terrorist uprising. Late into the mission, after it was discovered that the Pentagon had sent an air strike to try and nuke Shadow Moses, destroying all evidence of what happened, Otacon decided to remain in the base so he can unlock the security locks in the loading tunnel leading to the outside of the base, nearly sacrificing himself in the process. However, the bombing orders were cancelled shortly before the bombers arrived. Afterwards, he ended up moving to England, ostensibly because relatives were living there. After Revolver Ocelot placed the schematics of REX on the black market, Otacon and Nastasha set up Philanthropy. Following this, Snake and Otacon began a partnership and close friendship that would continue through the next decade, as they would continue to destroy Metal Gear REX derivatives that were currently being developed by almost every country in the world.

Two years after Shadow Moses, Otacon was forced underground after Snake had been framed by the Patriots during the Tanker Incident. After the Tanker had been sunk by Ocelot, Otacon managed to sail over to the still sinking tanker in a small boat and save Snake, quickly replacing him with the body of the deceased Liquid Snake. Having faked Snake's death, the two of them went underground to continue their anti-Metal Gear work outside of the public's watchful eye.

Otacon and Snake eventually came out of hiding after he learned that Emma, his sister, was working at the Big Shell Offshore Cleanup Facility. Emma secretly informed Hal of the construction of a new Metal Gear weapon deep under the Big Shell's core, and they infiltrated the facility in order to rescue her and stop the project from continuing. Snake disguised himself as Iroquois Pliskin, a junior grade lieutenant in the United States Navy SEALs, while Otacon pretended to be Big Shell's security systems architect who had entered Big Shell with Peter Stillman to get SEAL Team 10 through all of the plant's security measures. After meeting Raiden, Otacon and Snake were able to rescue Emma from the bowels of the Big Shell and reunite the two. They learned that Emma was actually a Patriot engineer, who was hired to build GW because of her family's dark nuclear history. Eventually, he made up with Emma, and she helped them implant a virus into GW, which they assumed would destroy it, but she died shortly afterward due to a fatal knife wound inflicted upon her by Dead Cell member Vamp. Despite falling into deep despair over the loss of his sister, Snake encouraged him to move on and rescue all the hostages held in the Big Shell. He then stayed in contact to support Raiden until he defeated Solidus Snake. When Raiden stated that the Colonel was acting strange, Otacon decided to do an analysis on the previous calls from the Colonel and Raiden. He kept on getting the same place that the signal was transmitted, which was in GW, and it wasn't even a relay point, but the origin.

When Snake met back with Otacon, he was given the disk to go over that contained the data of the Wisemen's Committee's names and whereabouts. Otacon found from the disc that not only was of the names was the biggest contributor to Philanthropy's cause, but apparently all twelve of them had been dead for more than 100 years. This turned out to be a false lead and, as Snake bluntly put it, "a load of crap."



After the Big Shell Incident, Solid Snake and Otacon disappeared, and lived a quiet life. Sometime after the Big Shell Incident, Raiden was able to rescue Sunny Gurlukovich from The Patriots's clutches, and Otacon adopted her. In 2014, thanks to the booming War Economy, Roy Campbell contracted Snake to help eliminate Liquid Ocelot, the CEO of a major PMC mother company. Snake and Otacon reluctantly accepted, and Otacon assisted Snake from his ship, the Nomad, using Metal Gear Mk. II. Their first mission in the Middle East was a failure after Liquid Ocelot activated his first test attempt at disabling the SOP system in his PMC troops.

When Snake then infiltrated South America and managed to rescue Naomi Hunter, Otacon piloted the helicopter which was able to get her, Snake and Raiden out. Afterwards, aboard the Nomad, Otacon and Naomi became romantically involved, and he started to not wear his glasses because Naomi commented that he looked "handsome" without them. He also cited his experience of making Metal Gear REX to explain to Naomi why they weren't stopping the Cyborg Ninja project.

However, Otacon was crushed when Naomi left the Nomad and re-joined Liquid Ocelot and Vamp again. At Shadow Moses, after Raiden defeated Vamp, Naomi confronted Snake, Raiden and Otacon (via the Metal Gear Mk. III). It was then she revealed that she had terminal cancer, suppressed only by the life-supporting nanomachines in her. She then injected herself with the nanomachine-suppressing syringe to disable them, effectively committing suicide. Otacon, devastated, could not help but recall how many women in his life whom he had loved had died.

Otacon later assisted Snake when they boarded Outer Haven and helped him to dismantle GW which had been restored by Liquid Ocelot. After Liquid Ocelot himself was defeated for good, Otacon was seen a guest at the relatively small wedding of Meryl Silverburgh and Johnny Sasaki. Here, after Sunny made her first outside friend, he finally gave consent for her to live on the outside. It appeared as though Otacon was aware of Snake's plan to kill himself, as he started to cry and explain that Snake wouldn't be back for a long time when Sunny asked where Snake was.

When Snake did not commit suicide, Otacon and him had a short conversation about what they would do now. Otacon said he would gladly stay with Snake and chronicle the remainder of Snake's life as Snake waited to see what the era would bring.



Known Equipment Developed

 * Metal Gear REX
 * Stealth Camouflage
 * VR headset (non-canon)
 * Octocamo
 * Solid Eye
 * Metal Gear Mk. II and Mk. III
 * Virtual Range

Trivia

 * Three women that Otacon loved die in each of the major incidents he was involved in: Sniper Wolf, his stepsister Emma, and Naomi.
 * Otacon still touches the top of his nose even after he stops wearing his glasses during his Codec conversations with Snake during Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection.
 * Although Otacon told Snake that he was afraid of heights during the Shadow Moses Incident, he later became a proficient helicopter pilot, having flown helicopters during both the Big Shell Incident (in the Harrier fight and in rescuing hostages) and Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection (Naomi's escape from South America).
 * Both Hal and Emma had difficulty controlling fear, having wet themselves when confronted. Snake poked fun at this during a codec call inside a locker during the Tanker Incident, in which Otacon mentioned "I was the one inside the locker that time. We're equal now, huh?" to which Snake responded "Not unless I wet my pants."
 * Otacon is horrible at attempting to interpret literature and Chinese Proverbs.
 * A picture of Otacon's father was seen in Granin's office.
 * In Snake vs. Monkey, Colonel Campbell tell Solid Snake that the Professor, the inventor of the Peak Point Helmet, is a friend of Otacon.
 * Hal's father was a big fan of science fiction movies, which lead to why he picked the name "Hal." For the longest time he hated his name, as it was a constant reminder of his father and grandfather. He came to terms with his name during the Shadow Moses Incident.

Behind the Scenes

 * The name "Hal" is a direct reference to the computer HAL 9000 from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, a reference highlighted by Snake's real name, David (Dave). The surname "Emmerich" comes from Roland Emmerich, who is one of Hideo Kojima's favorite film directors.
 * According to the Metal Gear Solid Official Missions Handbook, his father, Huey, had named him after HAL 9000 in the same movie due to the fact that Huey was watching the movie shortly before his birth. However, he hated the name and instead preferred to be called Otacon.
 * Otacon has a different look in each game he is in. In Metal Gear Solid and The Twin Snakes, Otacon has gray hair, and a blue shirt underneath his coat. In Metal Gear Solid 2, he has brown hair and a green coat underneath, with a much less fluffy coat. And in Metal Gear Solid 4 his hair is black, and he wears a black turtleneck sweater underneath his coat, which is also different.
 * In the novelization of Metal Gear Solid 2, Snake, during the Tanker Incident, pulls a prank on Otacon by including a photograph of a pin-up poster in a locker with the photos of Metal Gear RAY that he was transferring to the access terminal.
 * The end credits of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker confirmed that Huey Emmerich was Otacon's father.
 * Peace Walker also retconned Otacon's age to be younger than previously stated, giving his year of birth as 1980. In Metal Gear Solid, he was originally described as being in his thirties during the time of Shadow Moses Incident (2005), according to his official character biography.

Gameplay
Otacon can be contacted by Snake via Codec in Super Smash Bros. Brawl if Snake is fighting against Pit, Samus, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Sonic, Link, Ganondorf, Kirby, Captain Falcon, R.O.B., and Mr. Game &amp; Watch.