Gray Fox (Metal Gear)

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Gray Fox is a fictional character in the Metal Gear videogame franchise. In the original Metal Gear, the player's initial objective was to rescue Gray Fox from the hostile forces in Outer Heaven. In , Fox becomes the main antagonist against Snake, as he leads Zanzibar Land's mercenary force and pilots the revised Metal Gear D. However, he is more popularly known for his portrayal as the genetically-enhanced "Cyborg Ninja" in Metal Gear Solid.

His voice was provided by Kaneto Shiozawa in the Japanese version of Metal Gear Solid, while the English versions featured Greg Eagles (in the original Metal Gear Solid, under the pseudonym of George Byrd) and Rob Paulsen (in ) performing the role. His face in the original MSX2 version of Metal Gear 2 was modeled after the likeness of actor Tom Berenger.

History

Early life and career

Born as Frank Jäger to German-American and Vietnamese parents, Frank's parents died during the Vietnam War while he was still a child. As a result, he was discriminated against due to his half-Caucasian heritage and was forced to work hard labor for the war effort. However, he was shortly taken into custody by Big Boss and became his foster son.

After Frank became an adult, he joined the armed forces and participated as a soldier for the Renamo during the Mozambican Civil War. During one of his missions, he was captured by Frelimo soldiers and had his ears and nose cut off during a torture session (later reattached). He was rescued a few days later by Big Boss. It was around this time that Frank adopted an orphaned girl named Naomi in Rhodesia and cared for her as an older brother. He adopted Naomi out of personal guilt for killing her parents during the war, but Naomi was unaware of this.

During the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, while living under the alias of "Frank Hunter" (Hunter being the English meaning of the Germanic Jaeger, which his foster sister also ended using years later), Frank became romantically involved with Czech figure skating champion, Gustava Heffner (Natasha Marcova in the MSX2 version). The two tried to be together, but Czech and American authorities denied her immigration rights and she was sent back to her country after being stripped of competition rights. Following this incident, Frank developed a great deal of resentment for his superiors.

The Outer Heaven Uprising

Events in this section takes place during Metal Gear

During the 1990s, Frank became a member of Big Boss' FOXHOUND unit and due to his extraordinary soldiering skills, was the only FOXHOUND member ever to receive codename, "Fox," - the highest commemoration given to any member of the unit. In 1995, "Gray Fox" was the agent assigned to "Operation: Intrude N312". Fox's objective was to gather data on a top-secret nuclear weapon that the fortified state of Outer Heaven was secretly developing. Several days later, Fox was captured by enemy forces and the last message he transmitted to headquarters were the words "Metal Gear". In the follow-up mission (Operation: Intrude N313), Fox was rescued by newly-recruited FOXHOUND member, Solid Snake and provided Snake with all the known facts about Metal Gear which was revealed to be the codename of the nuclear weapon being developed - a bipedal nuclear-equipped tank. Together, they successfully destroyed the Metal Gear prototype under development in Outer Heaven.

However, shortly after the destruction of Metal Gear, it was revealed that Big Boss himself was secretly the commander of Outer Heaven's forces all along. After the destruction of Outer Heaven, Fox deserted the FOXHOUND unit and disappeared along with Big Boss (who was believed to had been killed during his battle with Snake). Around this time, Fox followed his foster father and helped in the formation of Zanzibar Land by becoming an active participant of the "War of Mercenaries". After his success in the war, he was assigned as commander of Zanzibar Land's Mercenary Force.

The Zanzibar Land Disturbance

Events in this section takes place during

Gray Fox, circa 1999

In 1999, Fox began hijacking several nuclear disposal sites with the revised Metal Gear D. This act, along with Zanzibar Land's kidnapping of Dr. Kio Marv, led to a retaliation from FOXHOUND, which was now under the command of Col. Roy Campbell. Once again, Snake was the agent sent out to neutralize Zanzibar Land. During the course of Snake's mission (Operation: Intrude F014), Fox began transmitting anonymous messages to Snake in order to help him overcome certain obstacles and traps. Fox and Snake met again after four years when the bridge leading to the detention camp where Dr. Marv was being held was destroyed by Fox himself. Ironically enough, Fox also caused the death of his former lover, Gustava (who was in Zanzibar Land, now serving as an StB agent and Marv's bodyguard), when he destroyed the bridge. Later, Snake successfully destroyed Metal Gear D and confronted Fox barehanded in a minefield. Snake won the battle and escaped the facility, leaving a presumed dead Gray Fox behind.

Transformation to the Cyborg Ninja

After the death of Big Boss and the downfall of Zanzibar Land, Fox's body was recovered on-site by a clean-up crew. He was taken by FOXHOUND's chief medic at the time, Dr. Clark, and became a guinea pig for Clark's gene-therapy project. In order to improve his mobility, an experimental exoskeleton resembling a ninja suit was grafted directly onto his body. Aside from improved agility and strength, the suit also allowed Fox to 'cloak' at will, using a new form of stealth technology which rendered the wearer near invisible to the naked eye (the stealth technology could not however, fool advanced sensory devices such as thermal goggles). In 2003, Fox's foster sister, now going under the alias of Naomi Hunter, joined FOXHOUND as Dr. Clark's assistant. She helped Fox escape his containment, and covered up his actions when he killed Dr. Clark, reporting it as a laboratory accident.

The Shadow Moses Island Incident

Events in this section takes place during Metal Gear Solid.

In 2005, during the Shadow Moses Incident, Fox infiltrated the island in search of Solid Snake, who was on a mission to neutralize the now-corrupt FOXHOUND unit led by Liquid Snake. He first made contact with Snake after releasing ArmsTech President Kenneth Baker from captivity and attacking Revolver Ocelot, severing Ocelot's right forearm. Later, after taking out a large group of genome soldiers, Fox confronted Snake once again in the laboratory of Hal Emmerich, demanding that they fight to the death. At first, Snake did not recognize the man in the ninja suit, but after engaging him in hand-to-hand combat, Fox's identity was revealed. After a time, Snake began to prevail in the battle but before its ultimate conclusion was reached, Fox cried out in pain (presumably due to his body trying to reject the exoskeleton, as Fox was subjected to gene therapy experiments to accept the suit) and fled the laboratory. Fox also helped Snake in his mission by transmitting anonymous messages regarding dangers to Snake under the alias of Deepthroat. When Snake was fighting against Metal Gear REX, Fox provided support by attacking Rex's radome with a laser canon attached to his arm, interfering with the sealed cockpit's sensory input.

As Liquid fought to locate Fox and Snake with Rex's damaged sensors, Fox revealed to Snake that many years ago, he had been the one who had killed Naomi's parents in Rhodesia; however he had been unable to bring himself to kill Naomi, who had been too young at the time to remember the incident. Fox begged Snake to tell her the truth. Following this exchange, Fox leapt from his hiding spot and again attacked Metal Gear Rex.

However, Fox was severely injured during the second assault (one of his arms was sliced off by REX's laser) and was pinned against a wall by Rex. Whilst pinned against the hangar wall Liquid shouted from the cockpit, "in the middle east, we don't hunt foxes, we hunt jackals, instead of foxhounds we use royal harriers" to which Fox cried out, "a cornered fox is more dangerous than a jackal!" and with his last sum of strength, Fox charged his laser canon and fired several powerful blasts at Rex's radome, finally destroying it. This, in turn forced Liquid to open the cockpit of Metal Gear. Fox was then dragged from his ledge, and dropped down to ground of the hangar. As Fox lay on the hangar floor, Liquid tried to finish him off, once and for all by crushing him under one of Metal Gear's massive legs. However, Fox's grafted exoskeleton meant that this first attempt failed, but with Rex's second stomp, the only man to ever achieve the codename, "Fox" was no more. His last words were directed towards Snake:

"We're not tools of the government or anyone else. Fighting was the only thing... the ONLY THING I was good at, but at least I always fought for what I believed in. Snake- farewell.."

After escaping the Shadow Moses compound, Snake contacted Naomi. He informed her of Fox's last message, to forget about him, and to go on with her own life, and that he would always love her. He could not inform her of Fox's final confession.

Weapons and abilities

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Gray Fox's exoskeleton enhanced not only his strength, but his agility, speed, reaction time, durability; seemingly any physical attribute beyond the capabilities of 'normal' humans. The exoskeleton also includes optic camouflage (the same technology invented by ArmsTech) which can render the wearer almost invisible to the human eye at will, though the device cannot dissipate body heat, making the wearer visible when viewed via thermal imaging systems. Along with that, Fox sports a high-frequency vibrosword which resembles a katana, capable of deflecting bullets and slicing through apparently any material with little resistance. When he confronts Metal Gear REX, Gray Fox's right arm is attached to an extremely powerful directed energy weapon (a Pulse-laser cannon), seemingly to within an order of magnitude at least as powerful as a single Stinger missile.

Appearances in other games and media

In '/', Fox was playable as the Ninja in three brief VR Missions known as the "Ninja Missions". In these missions, the play controls were modified in order to allow the player full access to all of the Ninja's techniques and arsenal (including his stealth camo, but sacrificing LIFE in doing so). Unfortunately for fans of the character, these missions only covered 1% of the entire lineup of VR Missions (despite being one of the game's main selling points). The missions (all taking place in the same storehouse) consist of destroying straw targets, killing several Genome Soldiers and assassinating Snake (who is dressed as a Genome Soldier).

While Gray Fox doesn't appear in , another Cyborg Ninja character who uses the call sign "Mr. X" (and is later revealed to be Olga Gurlukovich) appears in a ninja suit that resembles Fox's exoskeleton. In the Japanese version, Kaneto Shiozawa's voice (who died shortly before the game's release) was used for Mr. X.

In ', Raiden wears Fox's exoskeleton as a hidden costume in Missions Mode. As Ninja Raiden, the only weapon available to the player is the H.F. Blade. Recently, the E3 2006 trailer of ' has shown Raiden (donning a Cyborg Ninja exoskeleton) performing acrobatic moves, which are very similar to Gray Fox's.

In the Game Boy Advance game, Konami Krazy Racers, the Ninja was one of several playable Konami characters.

 

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