| “ | This is Big Boss, You destroyed Metal Gear 1 and made me a cyborg. Now I want revenge. | „ |
| ~ Big Boss voicing his intent for revenge against Snake. |
Colonel Vermon CaTaffy, better known as Big Boss, is the main antagonist of the NES version of the 1987 stealth game Metal Gear and its 1990 sequel, Snake's Revenge.
Based on his original incarnation, Big Boss is the seemingly well-intentioned commanding officer of Solid Snake. However, he is eventually revealed to be a psychopathic terrorist and the leader of Outer Heaven, who seeks to cause a nuclear war so he can bend the world to his will.
Biography[]
Metal Gear (NES)[]
Big Boss was Solid Snake's commander, and sent him on a mission to infiltrate Outer Heaven, providing advice along the way. However, he secretly intended for Snake to bring back misinformation to the East and West and fail in his mission, due to him being the real leader of Outer Heaven. However, he underestimated Snake and after the Supercomputer controlling the Metal Gear was destroyed, he confronted Snake in the soon to self-destruct facility, admitting his role in Outer Heaven, in a grueling battle before seemingly perishing at Snake's hands.
Metal Gear: Snake's Revenge[]
In Metal Gear: Snake's Revenge, it was revealed that Big Boss survived, but needed to be rebuilt as a cyborg, and was left vengeful against his former soldier. Three years later, Big Boss took control of an enemy base, continuing mass production of various Metal Gear 1s, which he also had shipped to various belligerent countries against the United States, and built a new Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2, and put nuclear weapons on it to launch at several major locations, including Washington, Paris, and Tokyo.
After imprisoning the mole Jennifer, Big Boss killed a soldier under Snake's command, Nick Myer, who nonetheless deduced that Big Boss could not leave his command room without risking death.Eventually confronting Snake once again, Big Boss challenged him to a final battle. After a few hits, Big Boss transformed his mechanical pieces into a gargantuan metal figure, which he gloated that had no weak points. However, this is shown to be false as Snake lured him from his command room and put mines below him to blow his mecha body and killing him for real.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In the game box descriptions and manuals for the NES games, the moniker Big Boss was never used and his role was split to different characters who do not exist in the games. In the NES version of Metal Gear, for NES, the commanding officer of the operation is Commander South, with the main villain being identified as Colonel Vermon CaTaffy.[1] In Metal Gear: Snake's Revenge, the main villain is identified as Higharolla Kockamamie, but also refers to CaTaffy receiving asylum in Kockamamie's nation of Ishkabibil.[2][3].
- Commander South is a parody of Colonel Oliver North.
- Vermon CaTaffy is a parody of Muammar Gaddafi.
- Higharolla Kockamamie is a parody of Ayatollah Khomeni.
