Interrogation

Naked Snake interrogating a GRU soldier.

Interrogation is interviewing as commonly employed by police officers, military, and intelligence agencies with the goal of extracting a confession or obtaining information. Interrogation may involve a diverse array of techniques, ranging from developing a rapport with the subject to outright torture.

Soldiers are only obliged to give up the "big four" when taken prisoner, which are name, rank, serial number, and date of birth.

Types of interrogation

Electric shock

Electricity-based torture was first widely-practiced by the French. It involved administering gradually increasing electric shocks to the victim, pausing only to demand answers from the person being questioned with the implication that they'll continue if they either don't answer or don't give the correct answer. The person is generally equipped to a machine that administers electric shocks, although they can be hit with electric rods as well. In some cases, they also douse the victim with water beforehand, in order to ensure that they receive the shocks due to water conducting electricity.

Physical

Physical-based torture, as the name suggests, involved physically beating the victim until the victim talks. It can range from grabbing the person being questioned and being lifted into the air, to being restrained and placing a knife or a similar object inches away from the throat, to being suspended and beaten, to bamboo manicures (which involved slowly removing the victim's nails for maximum pain, each one until the victim talks, and if that doesn't work, removing the teeth), to strangulation, even to prolonged beatings or rape. Sometimes, the interrogator will also threaten the person at gunpoint to force a confession. However, it is generally deemed to be unreliable for getting solid confessions, and with it generally being advisable to avoid beating them to cause significant pain on the victim, although exceptions are permitted depending on the situation, such as if the victim had been trained to be resistant to such degrees of interrogation.

Serum-based

In some cases, the victim is injected with drugs that ensure they talked. Commonly referred to as truth serum, the most common drug used is Sodium Pentothal. However, truth serum may be rendered ineffective if the victim in question had previously been trained to outright resist its effects. On a similar note, truth serums also run the risk of leaving extensive brain damage, leaving no way to actually get information out of them, if exposed to significantly higher doses than the body can handle.

Waterboarding

The victim is force-fed water to simulate drowning until they are forced into talking.

Psychological

This form of interrogation involves subjecting the victim to mind games, some simply by tricking them, other times by directly tormenting their minds such as torturing someone's loved ones or holding them hostage until they talk.

Practitioners of interrogation

Colonel Volgin

GRU Spetznaz colonel Yevgeny Borisovitch Volgin was a renowned practitioner of interrogation via torture, during the Cold War. In 1964, during the time of Operation Snake Eater, Volgin tortured Aleksandr Leonovitch Granin and Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov in Groznyj Grad, as to who they had passed secret data on to. He proceeded to beat the two to death with his bare fists (Granin while in a metal drum), though unbeknownst to Volgin, Sokolov would survive. In addition, when Sokolov earlier refused to finish the Shagohod weapon, Volgin tortured Tatyana in front of him in order to force Sokolov into cooperating. Volgin also frequently tortured Tatyana with "hentai play" on his own free time. When Snake discovered several of her scars from this "activity", he initially thought Volgin did this because he discovered that she was the spy, although EVA was quick to remind him that Volgin, had he found out about her role in aiding Snake, would have had her killed outright instead of just torturing her.

Naked Snake is tortured for information after being captured in Groznyj Grad.

After capturing CIA spy Naked Snake, Volgin put a plastic bag over his head and suspended him above the floor of a prison cell by his arms, before beating him and demanding to know what his mission was. When Snake refused to answer, Volgin doused him with water, then administered him with high voltage electric shocks with his powers of electricity. However, this too failed, largely because of Snake having been previously trained by The Boss to resist torture, although it was brutal enough for Naked Snake to urinate himself and have Volgin taunt him about it. Volgin also intended to torture Snake at a future point, also threatening the guard with the penalty of death should Snake die before he returned, although Snake's escape from Groznyj Grad forced him to abandon these plans. Ironically, Volgin's earlier torture of Snake also resulted in him gloating the location of the Philosophers' Legacy and to a certain extent key information on what the legacy entailed to Snake while high from inflicting torture on Snake.

U.S. Government

During Naked Snake's recovery at an ICU, U.S. Government agents frequently questioned him regarding his involvement in The Boss's defection, enough for Snake to request that Major Zero let them know about visiting hours. Zero explained that they were looking for a scapegoat, and implied that he was in exactly the same situation as Snake.

During the Shadow Moses Incident in 2005, Naomi Hunter was to be interrogated regarding the modifications she had made to the FOXDIE virus. Roy Campbell wished to avoid the "rough stuff," but there were few alternatives, since even Sodium Pentothal was unavailable for use.

EVA

While operating under the alias of Tatyana, EVA interrogated Sokolov as to the location of the Philosophers' Legacy. She threatened him with a supposed "kiss of death"; a single-shot gun disguised as a lipstick container. He denied any knowledge on it in a panic, and implied that Volgin was the only one of the personnel at Groznyj Grad who even knew about the Legacy, let alone knew the priceless microfilm's location. Tatyana then revealed that she was bluffing by unrolling the cylinder to reveal that it was normal lipstick and put it on her own lips.

Revolver Ocelot

As a member of Spetsnaz, Major Ocelot often performed a variation of Russian roulette with his three revolvers in order to intimidate a subject. He once did this towards the resisting Soviet scientist Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov near the warehouse at Ponizovje under the pretense that he was a traitor, although he would have shot him had The Boss not intervened and redirected the bullet to the nearby water. He later did this with the Soviet officer Tatyana. After suspecting that Tatyana was a spy, he used this method to test her loyalty, though he would have shot her had Naked Snake not intervened at the cost of the use of his right eye.

Witnessing Volgin's earlier torture of Snake left an impression on Ocelot, and he concluded that it was the "ultimate form of expression." He would later participate in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, becoming feared amongst the Mujahideen as a sadist, for which they named him "Shalashaska." He also worked in the Soviet Union's concentration camps as a special torture advisor, and was known to have utilized the Lubyanka prison beneath KGB headquarters for training in interrogation of his victims.

Quiet is tortured by Ocelot and the Diamond Dogs.

After Big Boss awakened from his coma after the attack on Mother Base, Ocelot allied with Venom Snake (the latter of whom was treated as if he were the actual Big Boss to ensure the real Big Boss went into hiding) and Kazuhira Miller, acting as the interrogation specialist for the Diamond Dogs unit. His torture victims included sniper Quiet and scientist Huey Emmerich. He oversaw the former being subjected to electroshocks, while he personally doused the latter with water and injected him with truth serum. In addition, after they discovered that Skull Face had left Afghanistan, he had interrogated Huey again, this time by using a corrosive variant of metallic archaea to find out where Sahelanthropus was being held at, and by extension, Skull Face (fully realizing why XOF needed Huey Emmerich after conversing with Code Talker). They ultimately uncovered the location of Sahelanthropus at OKB Zero after they used the metallic archaea to destroy Huey's glasses as well as parts of his chair. He also spent his time interrogating Huey Emmerich after uncovering Strangelove's corpse in the The Boss AI pod, as well as his role in both Eli's escape and the parasite outbreak. Although not an actual interrogation session, he also used the interrogation room to confront the child soldier commander Eli with the evidence of his orchestrating an escape from Mother Base and a revolt against Diamond Dogs, which ultimately played into Eli's plans.

Solid Snake awaits interrogation by Revolver Ocelot of FOXHOUND.

In the early 2000s, he became FOXHOUND's interrogation specialist under the codename Revolver Ocelot. During the Shadow Moses Incident, he tortured both the ArmsTech president Kenneth Baker and DARPA Chief Donald Anderson in order to learn the detonation codes for Metal Gear REX. He broke Baker's arm and learned his code. In Anderson's case, he was deliberately killed by Ocelot since he known the latter's identify. His death was then covered it up as an accident. Ocelot would later torture Solid Snake regarding an alternative means of activating REX, also threatening to do the same to Meryl Silverburgh should he submit. He utilized a machine that administered electric shocks, steadily increasing the duration as each session progressed, though Snake refused to submit.

During the Big Shell Incident in 2009, Ocelot injected Emma Emmerich with truth serum in order to learn information relating to GW, so that Solidus Snake could activate Arsenal Gear.

Cunningham

Warning: The following information is from outside Hideo Kojima's core "Metal Gear Saga." Its canonicity within the continuity is disputed, therefore reader discretion is advised.[?]

Lt. Cunningham served as the interrogation specialist of the FOX unit, with his reputation for it being well-known enough that Snake recognized him just by his name. In November 1970, during the San Hieronymo Incident, Cunningham tortured Naked Snake by subjecting him to electric shocks with shock rods, as well as forcing his prosthetic leg down on Snake's groin, in order to locate the other half of the Philosophers' Legacy (which he and the Pentagon were led to believe that Snake stole at the end of Operation Snake Eater).

Lt. Cunningham strikes Naked Snake with a stun baton during an interrogation.

Following Snake's escape and subsequent recapture, Cunningham proceeded to remove Snake's clothes, tie him to a chair, and beat him as part of his interrogation, although Snake's prior experience as a FOX member made him resistant to physical torture. He then planned to inject Snake with a new model of truth serum to force him to reveal whatever he knew about the Legacy, with his commanding officer Gene reluctantly allowing him to do so, since he believed that the serum might break him before they gleaned anything useful.

After Snake was rescued by some personnel, who he had earlier recruited to help stop FOX, the group were ambushed by Cunningham and a unit of soldiers. Cunningham, persisting in his efforts to locate the Legacy, wounded two of Snake's companions by gunshot, in an attempt to make him speak, until Elisa intervened.

Non-"Metal Gear Saga" information ends here.

Peace Sentinel

Strangelove interrogates Naked Snake with a pair of stun batons.

During the Peace Walker Incident in 1974, the CIA Peace Sentinel tortured many Sandinista captives during their secret operations in Costa Rica, and succeeded in breaking some of them, usually executing them afterwards. At least one interrogation aftermath, resulting in the location of Target 500, was witnessed by Big Boss during his infiltration of Puerto del Alba, with his interrogating the radioman in charge of the facility just after he made his report. In addition, Paz Ortega Andrade ended up tortured shortly after she stumbled upon the facility allegedly in search of a lost friend, of which she received scarring on her arms as a result. It was also implied just before being shot that the leader of Peace Sentinel, Hot Coldman, had at the very least been a personal witness to the aforementioned torture. Zadornov also briefly tortured Coldman shortly afterwards by stepping on his gunshot wound in an attempt to force Coldman to input the code, having deliberately missed the killing shot and instead having him bleed out to ensure the target was changed per his mission parameters, with it also being implied to be a factor in how he intimidated Dr. Strangelove into changing the false data target from Mother Base to Cuba. Strangelove also tortured Naked Snake after his capture, utilizing electric stun rods (or laughing rods), in order to learn more about The Boss's final mission in Tselinoyarsk (despite having personal distaste for the practice). Although Big Boss refused to answer her questions and insisted that The Boss died a despicable traitor, and even tried to goad Strangelove should kill him, Strangelove ultimately deduced from Big Boss's refusal to answer what had actually transpired anyways. Strangelove later apologized to Snake for the earlier torture, although Snake said he'll live, and admitted he was "used to shock therapy" (referring to him being tortured by Colonel Volgin and to a lesser extent Cunningham in a similar manner).

South America

During the 1970s, various Colombian government soldiers practiced interrogation techniques, including digging bamboo shards to forcibly remove a prisoner's fingernails for a long period of time, and eventually yanking out the 28 teeth once all 20 nails were removed. It was originated by and favored by the French during the Indochina wars.

The girl who would become Screaming Mantis briefly hid in a building of a South American village, which was actually the basement of a torture chamber, and was slowly driven insane by the screams.

Big Boss and his allies

Naked Snake, a.k.a. Big Boss, and his military forces would often use interrogation techniques for acquiring classified intelligence, namely holding a knife to the captive's throat, or in the case of the Peace Walker Incident, shocking the individual on the neck via the stun rod.

Warning: The following information is from outside Hideo Kojima's core "Metal Gear Saga." Its canonicity within the continuity is disputed, therefore reader discretion is advised.[?]

During the San Hieronymo Incident in 1970, Snake's resistance soldiers interrogated high-level individuals, including a government official who had aided FOX in their rebellion, and a Soviet officer who manned the peninsula's missile silo, for information regarding the location of the silo and guest house, respectively, the latter of which was where Snake was being held prisoner. The resistance soldiers later interrogated a FOX soldier and a Soviet soldier, regarding a radio frequency to unlock a frequency-locked door at the peninsula, which contained supposed blueprints for the Saturn V rocket. Snake himself also ended up interrogating Cunningham about what his stake is in the mission while he himself was interrogated by the latter, after Cunningham inadvertently implied that he was actually taking orders from the Pentagon, not the CIA as he had earlier led him to believe.

Non-"Metal Gear Saga" information ends here.

Although Big Boss himself never practiced any interrogation techniques during his job for the Colombian government in 1972, he did teach the various soldiers some interrogation techniques, including the aforementioned bamboo manicure, and informed then-freelance mercenary Kazuhira Miller as much when trying to convince Miller to join the Militaires Sans Frontières. He even gave Miller a diaper as a present while inferring that he'll need it if he was going to risk going through that kind of torture.

Big Boss interrogating a Peace Sentinel soldier by stun rod-point, in 1974.

In November 1974, during the Peace Walker Incident, Big Boss interrogated a Peace Sentinel radioman at a shipping facility in Puerto del Alba, following a brief struggle. Pressing a stun rod to the man's neck, he learned that their shipments were headed for Mt. Irazu, though he was forced to shock the man into unconsciousness after he broke free. Though unable to learn the cargo's contents, Big Boss deduced that they were nuclear weapons, based on the presence of film badges in the facility, and the radioman's contact's earlier use of the word "spears" during the former's report to the latter. Miller also ended up interrogating the then-captive and dying leader of Peace Sentinel, Hot Coldman regarding his actions after investigating a loud beep that was being emanated from the latter's briefcase, also causing Coldman some agony due to forcibly lifting the briefcase. During Paz's stay on Mother Base, Big Boss also ended up interrogating Miller about the latter's womanizing behavior after it resulted in one of the soldiers being hospitalized for a month, which eventually escalated from an argument to a full-scale brawl in the sauna.

Warning: The following events occur in the pseudo-historical Side Ops in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes; its level of canonicity is ambiguous.

On December 21, 1974, during a reconnaissance mission, Big Boss, in order to covertly be supplied information by an undercover agent without either of them blowing his cover at the base, forcibly restrained him and proceeded to interrogate him, before knocking him out at his request. He later interrogated the agent again, this time in a genuine manner after it became apparent that the agent set him up. Upon learning who had the actual tape as well as the implication that Cipher had held the agent's family hostage, Big Boss then tracked down the person, a bald Marine, and interrogated him into giving up the tape.

Side Ops information ends here.

On March 16, 1975, Big Boss and the rest of MSF also intended to interrogate ex-Cipher agent Paz Ortega Andrade shortly after they rescue her from Camp Omega alongside Chico, so they can find out more about Cipher and its goals. Kazuhira Miller, after XOF's attack on MSF that same night, interrogated Paz out of anger for the losses he and MSF suffered that night.

Venom Snake and Diamond Dogs

In 1984, Venom Snake and Kazuhira Miller oversaw the interrogation of Huey Emmerich, due to the latter's suspected role in the Mother Base attack nine years prior. Six hours into the interrogation, they also injected him with truth serum as well as splashed him with water, with Miller also personally bending his leg out of shape before taking his leave. However, the truth serum did not work, causing Miller to suspect that Huey either had his metabolic enzymes boosted from a prior procedure he underwent or otherwise had undergone special gene therapy to make him resistant to it altogether. Venom Snake, prior to the interrogation, also placed a black bag over Huey's head. He also oversaw Ocelot's attempted interrogation of Eli, although he was forced to reveal himself when Eli made his escape via a newly-repaired Metal Gear Sahelanthropus. He also oversaw in person the interrogation of Quiet, although he ultimately told Miller to not continue any further with the interrogation alongside Ocelot, much to Miller's chagrin. In addition, Venom Snake himself sometimes practiced interrogations on the field to gather more intel, with the aid of various interpreters at Mother Base. Just prior to Skull Face's death, he also briefly interrogated the deformed assassin as to where the other English vocal cord parasite was (due to it being absent from its container), although Skull Face only stated that it was "very close to him." In addition, although not an actual interrogation, Miller and Snake also tortured Skull Face shortly afterwards by shooting off his arm and leg (a reference to the earlier injuries that Miller suffered from) before opting to let him die in agony as revenge for his actions against them and MSF.

XOF

XOF leader Skull Face frequently conducted inhumane torture on POWs, all to get information on Zero's location and gather intel on Mother Base and MSF. These included psychological torture, as well as sexual assault, by ordering the rape of Paz and forcing Chico to have sex with her. He also tortured another prisoner to make him see his viewpoint, an action that resulted in the prisoner dying. Skull Face himself had previously been tortured as a youth by foreigners.

Warning: The following events occur in the pseudo-historical Side Ops in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes; its level of canonicity is ambiguous.

It is also implied that he attempted to interrogate a captive Intel Team member of MSF and came close to breaking him.

Side Ops information ends here.

At some point, he also interrogated Code Talker to force him to work on the parasite therapy, also using a bell that he claimed would notify an XOF soldier stationed outside the room to supply a pathogen to each one of Code Talker's Dine tribe unless Code Talker caves in to his demands, although it was only revealed afterward that there wasn't a soldier outside at all.

Mozambique

During the Mozambican Civil War, Frank Jaeger was captured and tortured as a RENAMO soldier, during which his nose and ears were cut off.

Red Army

During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, several Soviet soldiers, presumably allied with either Cipher or XOF, ended up capturing and interrogating Kazuhira Miller ten days prior to Venom Snake's arrival in Afghanistan. The Soviets also interrogated a captured Mujahideen POW named Malak regarding the circumstances behind his village being burned down, as they suspected the cause of the fire was his village manufacturing weapons (unaware that the village being burned down had absolutely nothing to do with the current war). Earlier, they also captured a Hamid survivor from Da Smasei Laman and interrogated him on the location of the Honey Bee via physical abuse and waterboarding him via a canteen, initially thinking he was pretending to be mute, although after deducing via prolonged torture that he was in fact mute, they had him physically lead the Soviets to its location, not being able to have him write it down due to their having bound his hands earlier. After Quiet ended up captured by the Red Army when she went AWOL from Diamond Dogs out of fear that she would not be guaranteed to prevent a mass infection even if she avoided speaking in the English language due to a second outbreak caused by Huey, she was briefly waterboarded by a Soviet soldier before she ended up drowning. However, she was revived when the soldier removed her pants in an attempt to rape her (due to her ability to breathe through her skin) and proceeded to quickly turn the tables on her captors by brutally slaughtering them just as Venom Snake arrived.

Contract Forces of Africa

The Afrikaner members of the Contract Forces of Africa, after detaining four British members of the CFA, including one of the co-founders, The Viscount, for an attempt at double-crossing them for the MPLA, proceeded to interrogate each one of them to find out who was responsible, also deciding to execute them after getting as much information out of them as possible. They later interrogated some members of the Diamond Dogs' Intel Team, due to the Diamond Dogs' suspected involvement in a macroparasitic outbreak they were suffering from.

Army of the Devil

Warning: The following information is from outside Hideo Kojima's core "Metal Gear Saga." Its canonicity within the continuity is disputed, therefore reader discretion is advised.[?]

During the First Liberian Civil War, an African soldier interrogated another soldier in their unit after one of their operations ended up being anticipated by the enemy, questioning him whether he had leaked any information to the enemy, while also threatening that the soldier would be executed along with his family if he doesn't respond, with the soldier also implying that he'll rape the soldier's wife before killing her, an interrogation process that Jack bore witness to. Whether the soldier actually leaked the information or not was ultimately not revealed, as Solidus Snake, then the group's commander, decided to slit his throat to demonstrate to Jack a blade's nobility compared to a gun. Jack, later known as Raiden, would later flash back to this event after undergoing emergency surgery as a result of a mission gone awry in Africa.

Non-"Metal Gear Saga" information ends here.

Zanzibar Land

The Zanzibar Land personnel, including Drago Pettrovich Madnar, interrogated Kio Marv on the location of OILIX, with Madnar in particular strangling him. However, he died before he could divulge the location due to heart problems.

Solid Snake

During the Shadow Moses Incident, Solid Snake interrogated both Donald Anderson and Kenneth Baker, regarding the Sons of Big Boss and Metal Gear REX. Snake later interrogated Hal Emmerich on REX, briefly grabbing him and lifting him off his feet when he claimed that it was solely a defensive weapon. However, Snake stopped when he realized that Emmerich had been kept in the dark about REX's true purpose.

He later interrogated Liquid Snake about why the latter was posing as Master Miller, and to a lesser extent his ties to his brother and Big Boss regarding his own origins in REX's hangar via gunpoint.

The Patriots

Agents of the Patriots, after capturing Gary McGolden when he attempted to investigate Shadow Moses, proceeded to interrogate him on a weather station at the island. However, after McGolden not only didn't break from the interrogation, but turned it around and demanded to know if they were agents of the Patriots while insulting them, his captors got incensed enough to opt to kill him then and there, although they ended up neutralized by an invisible savior.

Raiden

Shortly after Fatman activated his ultimate C4 package, Raiden attempted to interrogate him in regards to what he just did. After Fatman initially ignored Raiden's rapport, Raiden forcibly removed the front of Fatman's laminated ballistic insert collar and demanded that he explain.

Warning: The following information is from outside Hideo Kojima's core "Metal Gear Saga." Its canonicity within the continuity is disputed, therefore reader discretion is advised.[?]

Nine years later, he then repeatedly questioned Sundowner about what would end up happening within three hours, eventually getting an answer shortly after defeating him, as well as asked whether Armstrong was involved when Sundowner replied weakly that "he'll launch Operation Tecumseh." However, although he learned about Operation Tecumseh's launch, he was unable to learn anything else from Sundowner, who simply stated that he "has already said too much." During the second interrogation, although Sundowner refused to divulge anything, he did hint that the event that would occur within that time would be such that not even Mach 2 speeds would have Raiden being able to stop it in time.

Non-"Metal Gear Saga" information ends here.

Solidus Snake

After the GW-AI became affected by a worm cluster during the Big Shell Incident, Solidus Snake injected Raiden with truth serum and interrogated him on information relating to the Patriots, atop Arsenal Gear. Solidus held him above the floor and choked him with the "snake arms" of his powered suit, although he realized he would have more success learning the information from Raiden's nanomachines, inside his cerebral cortex.

Outer Heaven PMC mother company

Outer Heaven subcommander Vamp, after Raiden was briefly restrained by the tendrils of various Gekko, cut into Raiden's cybernetic body. However, Raiden did not flinch from the cuts, causing Vamp to ask if Raiden was immortal, only for Raiden to respond that he simply didn't fear death shortly before being freed from his restraints by Snake.

World Marshal Inc./Desperado Enforcement LLC.

Warning: The following information is from outside Hideo Kojima's core "Metal Gear Saga." Its canonicity within the continuity is disputed, therefore reader discretion is advised.[?]

During the Abkhazian Coup in 2018, some cyborgs belonging to the PMC aiding the coup, Desperado Enforcement LLC., upon discovering a civilian near the main gate, suspected that he may have been a Russian spy, and proceeded to interrogate him. They then decided to execute him regardless of whether he was or not, although Raiden saved the civilian before they could get the chance.

A few days later, at Denver, Colorado, several cyborgs aligned to both Desperado and World Marshal Inc. found a civilian who failed to obey the order to evacuate Denver, and proceeded to interrogate him as to why he did so, before they decided that they had enough of it.

Non-"Metal Gear Saga" information ends here.

Unconfirmed usage

The following information has been detailed in official Konami-licensed media, written by various external authors. Its status in the Metal Gear canon is unconfirmed.[?]

McDonell Miller was captured by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War, having participated as a mercenary for the Army, and then tortured as a prisoner of war until he escaped from captivity and decapitated the head interrogator via gunshot.

After Liquid Snake was captured during the Gulf War, he was brutally tortured by the al-Amn al-'Amm interrogation squads. It was because of this experience that he believed that humanity's true nature was violent and irredeemably evil.

During the Shadow Moses Incident in 2005, Naomi Hunter, after having been suspected with tampering with the FOXDIE program, was briefly interrogated, with her stalling. She then contacted Snake with her spare Codec when it was over, with her also believing that Colonel Campbell was not aware that the interrogation was actually over.

Behind the scenes

The act of interrogation has appeared often throughout the Metal Gear series, both within the games' storyline, and as a gameplay mechanic available to the player. Interrogation first appears in Snake's Revenge, the non-canon sequel of the original Metal Gear.

Name, rank, and number are the information that prisoners of war are obligated to give to their captors under the Geneva Conventions. In Metal Gear Solid, Master Miller describes these, with the addition of date of birth, as the "big four," during an optional Codec conversation with an imprisoned Solid Snake.

In The Twin Snakes, a remake of the original Metal Gear Solid, Snake's interrogation of Kenneth Baker is markedly more intense. In a cutscene directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, Snake non-verbally threatens Baker with violence during a fit of anger, after the latter fails to recall vital information, drawing his pistol and aiming it toward Baker's head at point-blank range. Although staff members present for the motion capture filming of the scene were taken aback by this depiction, Hideo Kojima appreciated Kitamura's direction of the performance and gave his approval.

On September 20, 2013, Kojima confirmed in both TGS 2013 and Eurogamer that there will be a torture scene in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, though it is not actually interactive for the player. He implied that the reasons for the non-interactive aspect was due to the game's secondary theme being revenge. The closest it got to being interactive, however, is during the ending of Chapter 1, where the player can optionally choose to shoot Skull Face three times (with the flashback to Venom Snake in his hospital outfit implying that Snake did so as revenge for XOF's attack on the hospital). A side-objective to Main Mission 14: "Lingua Franca", is to listen to all four prisoner interrogations, with it also being implied by Miller in the debriefing for the mission that the rescue target for the same mission underwent more severe interrogation at their hands (or as Miller put it, be "extra persuasive" with him) in response to his actions in selling out his former comrades should the player successfully extract at least one prisoner besides the Viscount. In addition, debriefings that are unlocked after completing certain objectives in some missions will also imply that Ocelot and the other Diamond Dogs members interrogated the targets. If the player prematurely extracts the Afrikaans interpreter during the Lingua Franca mission before he and the interrogator proceeded to interrogate the Viscount, Miller will express irritation at Snake before mentioning he intends to interrogate the interpreter as a small compensation for the blunder in the hopes that he knows where the Viscount can be located.

Although interrogation as a gameplay concept was not present in Metal Gear Survive, either by or of the player, due to the differing gameplay mechanics from the regular series, it was alluded to once in-story, where Dan planned to torture Seth by repeatedly shooting him with a shotgun as revenge for his betrayal of the Charon Corps, stating he intends to make the latter suffer until he "remembers what pain is", indirectly alluding to Seth becoming a Wanderer.

Interrogation of the player

Interrogation of the main protagonist has featured in the series' canon storyline since Metal Gear Solid. Often the player's character is captured by the enemy and then subjected to interrogation via torture. Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, all feature an interactive torture sequence, in which the player must repeatedly press the action button to resist, or else die. Metal Gear Solid also features the option to submit, which results in an alternate ending to the game. One of Ocelot's dialogues to Snake during the torture sequence was censored due to Ocelot specifically mentioning how the French came up with electrical torture. In the American versions, the cut was poorly done as it had Snake saying "But I never heard that before" after the cut, though the European releases muted the line.

In the Grand Game Plan for Metal Gear Solid 2, it was initially planned that Raiden, Pliskin/Solid Snake, and Emma Emmerich would end up captured by Dead Cell and tortured, with Raiden specifically being injected with sodium penthanol, Pliskin apparently being killed from the torture, and Emma being killed as a result of the torture, the former two having been captured when an attempt to rescue her backfired. It was also during this instance that Pliskin's true identity of Solid Snake would have been revealed, due to a blood test that Fortune and Vamp conducted prior to the interrogation. Although ultimately cut by the time of finalization, Metal Gear Solid 3 did use a similar concept for Snake's capture and interrogation at the hands of Volgin.

A button-prompt torture sequence was also to have featured in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, but was not included in the final version. Additionally, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, features many instances of the main character undergoing interrogation, though none of these are interactive. Despite a similar button-prompt sequence appearing in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, it does not involve any interrogation on the main character, although it did feature a similar action in the ending of Act 3, where Liquid Ocelot managed to parry Snake's stun knife and stab his hand with it, and proceeded to humilate him. Interrogation sequences usually happen once before the player escapes or the scene progresses, with Metal Gear Solid, its remake The Twin Snakes, and Peace Walker being the exceptions, often having more than one consecutive torture sequence.

During the torture sequence in Metal Gear Solid 3, Naked Snake was wearing a plastic bag over his head. This was a reference to a common form of torture used by the KGB in the Soviet Union as well as the STB in Czechoslovokia. According to the director's commentary, the production team wanted to make it as realistic as possible, but the limits in motion capturing capabilities prevented them from getting further than the wearing of the bag itself and binding the person's arms by the ropes. Also, the motion capture team captured Snake's breathing while wearing the bag by placing the bag over someone and attaching a microphone to it, and used several different types of plastic bags to find out which gave off the best sound quality. In the end, a garbage bag designated by the Tokyo City sanitation department was decided to be such. In addition, the torture was also toned down overall due to news reports about the CIA conducting torture being given at the time.

In the Japanese version of Peace Walker, because of censorship laws in Japan regarding the depiction of torture to the target audience, the torture sequence was modified to have Dr. Strangelove "tickle" Big Boss via "Laughing Rods," with it also being lethal if done at a high frequency, with future references to the torture also being omitted. The torture is kept as it was originally intended for international releases, however. On a related note, the Japanese version avoids directly mentioning the torture during Strangelove's apology to Snake, while the international releases have her specifically mentioning she was apologizing for the torture. If the player is playing the "Escape from the Prison" Main Ops level in CO-OPS mode, one of his/her partners can, after escaping, also access a monitoring station in the prison facility and use some buttons to adjust the electrical output to make the torture slightly easier for the one still stuck inside the cell.

Similar to Metal Gear Solid 4, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance lacks an actual interrogation of the player, although it does have the player entering a mandatory fight with three cyborg soldiers while rendered emotionally unstable by Samuel Rodrigues' words to Raiden earlier, and thus under a significant handicap, before Sam comes out to observe the fight and question Raiden's resolve before Raiden replies by cursing at Sam.

Interrogation by the player

Although the player isn't actually able to interrogate enemies in the original Metal Gear, dummied text in the Japanese version of the game, specifically the quote "ワ,ワカッタ!ハナス" ("I-I understand! I'll talk") implied that the player would have originally been able to interrogate various enemy soldiers to gather any intel.

The Truth Gas item in Snake's Revenge can be used by the player to interrogate enemy officers in the game. Interrogating officers helps to increase Solid Snake's rank, and by consequence the size of his Life gauge and item carrying capacity.

The gameplay element of interrogation returned in Metal Gear Solid 3 as a component of CQC. In order to perform an interrogation, the player has to grab the opponent, and then press the action button while holding down the left shoulder button to have Snake start interrogating the soldier. The interrogation responses vary from: giving info about the location, the amount of soldiers present, or targets that can be destroyed; giving gameplay hints; requesting to be spared; demanding that they be killed; or even insulting the player. Afterwards, the player has the choice of either letting them go, throwing them to the ground, or slitting the throat. Some of the soldiers can also give out codes relating to Metal Gear Ac!d. If the player performs CQC and interrogates a soldier while playing the Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection version of Metal Gear Solid 3, they will unlock the trophy "Tell Me Where the Bomb Is", a reference to Jack Bauer's methods of interrogation in the TV drama series 24. Coincidentially, Kiefer Sutherland, the actor who portrayed Bauer, would later act as the motion capture and English voice actor for Big Boss in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain.

CQC interrogation reappears in Portable Ops and Peace Walker, this time serving a role in the plot, in which the player must interrogate specific targets to advance in the game (although in Peace Walker, this is relegated to an interactive graphic novel cutscene). Although in Metal Gear Solid 3 and Snake Eater 3D, there is voice acting in regards to the soldiers being interrogated, it is absent in Portable Ops and Peace Walker, with only a grunt or a scream being accompanied with text-dialogue, and in the latter game, eight-bit sound effects to imply speech (the only exception regarding the latter is with the date missions, which are fully voiced).

In Portable Ops Plus, soldiers will also give intel about their career. For example, the phrase "There is a faster way to drag soldiers," means that the subject's career is Rescuer.

Dummied content for Ground Zeroes implied that, in addition to dialogue ordering them to call over the enemy, directly finding out any information, and telling them to lie down, there also would have been dialogue telling the enemy to lie, as well as two dialogues implying that the enemy should respond to their radio.

See also

• Interrogation responses
• NPC chatter

Notes and references

Notes

References