Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
=== Characters ===
The protagonist of Snake Eater, Naked Snake (David Hayter/Akio Ōtsuka), known as Big Boss in subsequent games, is a young former Green Beret assigned to the CIA unit FOX. During his mission, Snake is assisted by fellow FOX members over his radio: Major Zero (Jim Piddock/Banjō Ginga), commander of FOX and a former member of the British Special Air Service, who provides Snake with mission advice and battle tactics; Para-Medic (Heather Halley/Houko Kuwashima), who provides medical information, as well as advice on flora and fauna; and Sigint (James C. Mathis III/Keiji Fujiwara), who provides weapon and equipment information.
The two primary antagonists of the game are Colonel Volgin (Neil Ross/Kenji Utsumi), an electricity-controlling GRU colonel and member of the extreme Brezhnev faction, who are attempting to overthrow Nikita Khrushchev to seize power for Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin, and The Boss (Lori Alan/Kikuko Inoue), former mentor to Naked Snake and co-founder of the FOX unit. The Cobra Unit, a Special Forces unit led by The Boss, is composed of The End (J. Grant Albrecht/Osamu Saka), a venerable expert sniper credited as the "father of modern sniping"; The Fear (Michael Bell/Kazumi Tanaka), who has supernatural flexibility and agility; The Fury (Richard Doyle/Masato Hirano), a disfigured former cosmonaut armed with a flamethrower and a jetpack; The Pain (Gregg Berger/Hisao Egawa), who can control hornets to both defend himself and attack his enemies; and The Sorrow (David Thomas/Yukitoshi Hori), the spirit of a deceased medium.
Other characters include Dr. Sokolov (Brian Cummings/Naoki Tatsuta), a rocket scientist whom Snake must rescue; EVA (Suzetta Miñet/Misa Watanabe), Snake's love interest, American defector, and KGB agent sent to assist him, and a young Ocelot (Josh Keaton/Takumi Yamazaki), commander of the elite Ocelot Unit within Volgin's GRU.
=== Story ===
==== Virtuous Mission ====
Metal Gear Solid 3 is set before the events of first Metal Gear during the Cold War in 1964, where a CIA agent, codenamed "Naked Snake", is sent to the jungles of Tselinoyarsk, in the USSR. Aided over radio by Major Zero, Para-Medic, and his former mentor The Boss, his mission is to rescue a defecting Soviet scientist named Sokolov who is secretly developing an advanced nuclear-equipped tank called the "Shagohod". The mission goes smoothly until The Boss appears on the scene, who announces to Snake that she's defecting to the USSR, and provides her new benefactor, Colonel Volgin, with two Davy Crockett miniature nuclear shells. Sokolov is captured by Cobra Unit and Snake is heavily injured and thrown off a bridge by The Boss, allowing Volgin and his cohorts to escape with Sokolov. Volgin detonates one of the nuclear shells to cover up its theft, which is subsequently blamed on The Boss. Snake is recovered using the Fulton Recovery System.
==== Operation Snake Eater ====
Having detected the U.S. aircraft which deployed Snake flying over Soviet soil, the Soviet Union declares the United States responsible for the nuclear attack, tipping both nations to the edge of a nuclear war. In a secret conference between U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, a deal is hatched to prove the U.S.'s innocence and restore peace. The United States agrees to stop Volgin's renegade faction, destroy the stolen Shagohod and eliminate the American defector, The Boss.
A week after being rescued from the region, Snake is redeployed into the Soviet jungle as part of "Operation: Snake Eater", to fulfill the United States' promises. During the mission, he gains the assistance of another American defector, ex-NSA agent EVA, who defected a few years earlier (though she is informed she would be helped by ADAM, who defected with her). After numerous encounters with the elite Ocelot Unit (led by a young Revolver Ocelot), and defeating nearly every member of Cobra Unit, Snake succeeds in locating Sokolov and the stolen Shagohod, only to be captured in Volgin's military fortress, Groznyj Grad. After listening to Volgin brutally beat Sokolov to death, Snake is tortured by Volgin and loses his eye while protecting EVA from Ocelot, who was attempting to kill her upon suspecting her of being a spy; Snake ultimately escapes.
When he returns to the facility to destroy the Shagohod, Snake is once again confronted by Volgin and learns of "The Philosophers". Made up of the most powerful men in the United States, Soviet Union, and China, they were an Illuminati-like organization who control the world behind the scenes. However, after the end of World War II, they began to fight amongst themselves, and the organization broke down. The Philosopher's Legacy, a fund the organization had jointly amassed to finance their wars ($100 billion), was divided up and hidden in banks all over the world. Volgin had illegally inherited this money, and Snake learns that the U.S. is attempting to retrieve it.
Snake continues his mission, destroying the facility and the Shagohod tank, while engaging Volgin, who is killed by a bolt of lightning during the battle. Snake and EVA travel to a lake, where a WIG ground effect vehicle is hidden. Before they use it to escape the region, Snake confronts his old mentor, The Boss, whom he must assassinate to complete his mission. After an emotional battle, The Boss gives Snake the microfilm containing the location of the Philosopher's Legacy, and requests Snake to kill her. Soon after, Snake overcomes his feelings and kills The Boss, emerging victorious. He and EVA escape to Alaska, and spend the night together as they make love. During the night, EVA disappears with the microfilm, and leaves behind a tape revealing herself to be a Chinese spy sent to steal the Philosopher's Legacy for China. The tape continues, and EVA reveals that The Boss did not defect to the Soviet Union; rather, she was under orders to pretend to defect so she could infiltrate Volgin's ranks and find the location of the Legacy, which could be brought back to America. The final part of her mission was to sacrifice her honor and die at the hands of Snake, under the guise of a traitor, to prove the U.S.'s innocence in Volgin's nuclear attack during the Virtuous Mission.
Snake is awarded the title of "Big Boss" and given the Distinguished Service Cross for his efforts by President Johnson in front of his FOX Unit and other officials; however Snake has become so distraught and demoralized after EVA's revelation that he leaves almost immediately after getting his medal, hardly acknowledging Major Zero, Para-Medic and Sigint. Later, he arrives at an anonymous grave, The Boss's, just one of thousands located in Arlington National Cemetery. Laying down The Boss's gun and a bouquet of lilies upon the nameless gravestone, he scans the endless rows before him, salutes, and sheds a single tear, knowing that The Boss will forever be seen by the world as a terrorist, and a traitor to her nation, and that her true patriotism will be known by only EVA, himself, and others who knew of her mission.
After the credits roll, Ocelot is heard talking to the KGB Chief Director over the telephone. After suggesting that the KGB use the knowledge of both the Virtuous Mission and Operation Snake Eater to blackmail the United States during future negotiations, he then calls another, unidentified man. Ocelot informs him that the microfilm stolen by EVA was a fake and that half of the Philosopher's Legacy is now in America's hands, with the other half held by the KGB. It transpires that Ocelot has been triple-crossing everyone from the very beginning. He then reveals that he is in fact ADAM, that he is talking to the director of the CIA, and that he has been working for the said agency all this time.
violence, dark, cruelty, murder, sadist