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| “ | Conflict is in our blood. We can't deny it. I was born on the battlefield... And I'll die on the battlefield. All I can do is fight, Snake... all I can do is fight. | „ |
| ~ Gray Fox to Solid 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... | „ |
| ~ Gray Fox's last words. |
Gray Fox (real name Frank Jaeger) is a major character in Konami's Metal Gear franchise.
He was voiced by Greg Eagles (who also voiced Donald Anderson in the same game, Peter Stillman in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Grim in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and Aku Aku in the Crash Bandicoot series), Rob Paulsen (who also voiced Stanley Ipkiss in The Mask animated series and Major Glory in Dexter's Laboratory) in Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and by Larc Spies (who also voiced Steve in Tony Hawk's Undeground and Tony Hawk's Undeground 2) in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.
In Japanese, he was voiced by the late Kaneto Shiozawa (who also voiced Jimmy Lee in Neo Geo, Strider Hiryu in the Strider series and Rei in Fist of the North Star anime and film) and Jun Fukuyama (who also voiced Korosensei in Assassination Classroom, King in The Seven Deadly Sins, and Joker in Persona 5).
Overview
Gray Fox, real name Frank Jaeger, is a recurring, influential character in the Metal Gear franchise that first appeared in Hideo Kojima's 1987 MSX game Metal Gear. He is introduced as Solid Snake's senior in the US Army's Special Forces Unit FOXHOUND, and over the course of the series has appeared as both Snake's friend and foe. In addition to his FOXHOUND codename, he is known by a number of other aliases as well, including Frank Hunter, Null, and the Cyborg Ninja. He reappears time and time again upon the field of battle, driven by his obsession to do battle with Solid Snake.
Story
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
Gray Fox began his career as a child soldier in Africa during the 1960s. His cold-blooded actions against the enemy earned him the title "Frank Hunter" which evolved into "Frank Jaeger," as a nod to the broken German he spoke. In 1966, Jaeger met Big Boss, who took him under his wing, but the boy was soon abducted by the Philosophers as a test subject for their Perfect Soldier Project. In 1970, having lost all memory of his past, he took part in the San Hieronymo Peninsula Uprising as FOX Unit's "Perfect Solidier" codenamed Null. Through his fight against Big Boss, after which the mercenary again saved his life, Null regained some trace of humanity and memory of his past.
Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2
When Big Boss later formed FOXHOUND, Jaeger joined under the codename Gray Fox. During this time, he adopted a young girl in Rhodesia after he had killed her parents, and named her Naomi Hunter. He took her with him when he moved to America with Big Boss and continued to care for her until she attended college. Gray Fox was given a solo infiltration mission during the 1995 Outer Heaven uprising, but was captured in action. After being rescued by Solid Snake during the events of the original Metal Gear, he disappeared and was not heard from until 1999 during the Zanzibar Land Disturbance depicted in Metal Gear 2. Gray Fox offered Solid Snake support from the shadows via codec, leading Snake to him to challenge him. After Snake defeated the Gray Fox-piloted Metal Gear D, the two fought bare-fisted atop a minefield. Solid Snake defeated his old friend and left him for what he thought was dead.
Metal Gear Solid
Gray Fox's "remains" were recovered by the Patriots and he was brought back to life by Dr. Clark. Pumped full of drugs, he was used as an experimental gene therapy test subject as a part of Clark's genome soldier research. In the end, Fox slaughtered Dr. Clark, destroyed the facility and began to hunt down Solid Snake, leading him to Shadow Moses Island.
Armed with stealth camouflage and a reinforced exoskeleton, Gray Fox plunged Shadow Moses Island into panic under the guise of the Cyborg Ninja. He cut off Revolver Ocelot's right hand, and gave Solid Snake warning through short burst Codec communications under the alias "Deepthroat." He waited for Solid Snake in Dr. Hal Emmerich's (Otacon's) office where he challenged Solid Snake to a fight to the death, even though he claimed that he is neither enemy nor friend. The battle was cut short when he experienced some sort of mental attack that threw him into a frenzy, a side-effect of the experimentation he endured, and escapes. He later assisted Snake in taking down Metal Gear REX by destroying its radome; a component used for its automatic targeting functions.
Gray Fox met his end when Liquid Snake, piloting REX, crushed him under the Metal Gear's foot. Before he died, Fox informed Snake about Naomi Hunter and how he was the one who had killed her parents. He wanted Snake to tell her that what he had told him. At the end of the game, Snake decides not to inform Naomi of the truth and instead tells her that Fox said that he will always love her.
Other Appearances
Portable Ops.
Null.
The character's history is expanded in Portable Ops, at which Gray Fox is featured as a super-soldier known as Null
During his time as a child soldier fighting in the war for independence in Mozambique, he gained the notoriety for his ruthless tactics: Frank would trick his enemies into letting down their guard with the “frankness of a young boy”. He would then kill them with the “ruthlessness of a hunter” and killed dozens of Portuguese soldiers throughout the war. Amongst the enemy forces, Frank became called “The Frank Hunter” but due to his knowing a little German, his allies named him “Frank Jaeger” (Jaeger meaning Hunter in German).
In 1966, Big Boss met Frank, only knowing him as a nameless child soldier working with FRELIMO a Marxist faction in Mozambique. After taking him down in battle, Big Boss brought Frank to a child rehab center, where he thought the boy would be fine. While there, Frank was taken by the CIA, who made him part of their “Perfect Soldier Program”. It made him into an even better killer and stripped him of any sense of remorse. The process also increased Frank’s reflexes to the point he could deflect bullets and enhanced his agility. However, it was not without its costs, due to the fact that he was kept in a sensory deprivation water tank that reset his memories and suppressed his emotions. Frank was the only test subject to survive the project and was considered a lost number, earning him the codename, "Null".
When he was a teenager, Null joined FOX unit, while it was under the leadership of Gene during the San Hieronymo Takeover. He aided the unit in capturing Big Boss and fought him, but he couldn’t defeat Big Boss. However, time in his deprivation tank couldn’t take away Null’s memories of his loss. Eventually he broke out of the tank after Gene talked with Revolver Ocelot and killed a number of officers. Gene managed to stab Null in his hands and knees with knives and he was finally brought down with telekinesis. But Null’s determination to kill Big Boss remained and he broke out again, killing many of his allies.
He found his way to the Subpower Station where he fought Big Boss again and explained the thoughts and emotions he’d gained from the project. Null said his mind was “littered with corpses” and he’d practically become a nihilist and a fatalist. He asked Big Boss why he wouldn’t die and what he hoped to accomplish by living, before taking him on again. Null lost again and it was at this moment that Big Boss realized who he was, successfully convincing him to get help outside of the FOX unit. He was sent to a hospital and though he survived the events of the San Hieronymo Takeover, Null had suffered a great deal of physical and psychological damage. The doctors and Roy Campbell weren’t sure that he would ever be able to live a normal life after his release from the hospital.
The canonicity of Portable Ops is disputed, with Kojima having stated, "...the main story of Portable Ops is part of the Saga, is part of the official Metal Gear timeline, while some of the small details that are in Portable Ops are outside the Saga, not part of the main timeline of the game." The game even pointed out that Frank was already around in 1970s and even met Big Boss for the first time during that point, as opposed of the account in Metal Gear 2 which revealed that he met Big Boss when the latter liberated him from imprisonment at a forced labor camp after Vietnam War (which was after 1984).
Personality
According to Gustava, Frank Jaeger presented himself as a handsome, well-mannered and intelligent man, but always afraid at the same time. Behind his tenacity and cold-blood nature which earned him respect from Solid Snake and others in FOXHOUND, he is a miserable soul plagued by post-traumatic stress disorder and fighting instincts he developed from his early years as a child soldier. He resented war as much as he craved it, leading to him believe that he cannot lead a normal life and sided with Big Boss at the expense of becoming militarily opposed to his friends such as Solid Snake. Even so, Frank holds no resentment towards his best friend and junior Snake despite their fallout in Zanzibar, as he guided the latter through several anonymous radio supports and the two eventually made amends following their final battle at the minefield, in which Frank discouraged Snake to sink as low as him. Said loyalty was what motivated him to persevere against his painful cybernetic enhancements as while interfering Snake's mission at Shadow Moses so he can have a last fight against him, though he ended up giving his life to aid Snake in disabling Metal Gear REX, achieving the peace that robbed of him by Dr. Clark who turned him into Cyborg Ninja and saving the world in process.
In addition of his experiences as a child soldier, Frank's post-traumatic stress disorder was also stemmed from immense guilt that he felt after his murder on his adoptive sister Naomi Hunter's birth parents. When he recounted this crime to Solid Snake, Frank made it clear that he genuinely loved her and did his best to raise her like a younger sister and daughter figure to redeem himself all while keeping the true reason of her parents' death a secret, but the said guilt won't go away no matter what he did. As such, he remained fearful around Naomi, as he always reminded of their deaths every time he looked into Naomi's eyes and pleaded to Snake to tell Naomi the truth. Despite this, Snake couldn't bring himself to do so, knowing that Frank is the only family that Naomi had.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
| “ | How strong is that exoskeleton of yours? | „ |
| ~ Liquid Snake to Gray Fox. |
- Cybernetic enhancements: After his dying body recovered by the Patriots in secret and used as guinea pig for gene therapy project and other experiments by FOXHOUND's chief medic Dr. Clark, Gray Fox acquired an experimental cybernetic exoskeleton which drastically enhanced his strength and agility to greater superhuman levels. The armor is equipped with an arm cannon that fires explosive energy blasts and a camouflage unit that lets him "cloak" at will, rendering him invisible. However, the flaw in the procedure which turned him into cyborg ninja (implied to be imperfect nerve connections which screw his pain receptors as Raiden alluded while comparing Dr. Clark's technique with one he underwent that tamer and more improved in comparison in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance) resulted him suffering occasional painful spasms.
- Enhanced strength: The exoskeleton gives Frank enough strength to throw around grown men, lift a man on his sword with one hand, snap a man's wrist with ease, kick a piece of a concrete wall at an opponent, and even allowed him to hold up the foot of Metal Gear Rex which weighs 557.16 tons.
- Enhanced speed: The exoskeleton makes Frank fast enough to cut off Revolver Ocelot's hand faster than he could pull the trigger, blitz Solid Snake to the point the latter had a hard time keeping track of him, and outruns as well as deflects bullets faster than the human eye can track.
- Enhanced agility: The exoskeleton allows Frank to perform superhuman feats of agility. He is able to leap high upward in the air, flip away from minigun fire, and uses agile maneuvers in close quarters combat.
- Enhanced reflexes: The exoskeleton grants Frank enhanced reflexes. He was able to dodge minigun fire, deflect and even cut bullets in mid-air.
- Enhanced durability: The exoskeleton's armor provides Frank's badly damaged body with a great deal of durability. Able to resist bullets from a mini-gun, the head of Metal Gear Rex, and its foot before being crushed.
Abilities
| “ | Good, now we can fight as warriors. Hand to hand, it is the basis of all combat. Only a fool trusts his life to a weapon. | „ |
| ~ Gray Fox to Solid Snake. |
- Hand-to-hand combat mastery/Martial Artist: Gray Fox demonstrated impressive hand-to-hand combat skill. His fighting style seems to be comprised of Karate, Taekwondo, Boxing, Kung Fu, Krav Maga, Kali, and Jujitsu. He fights against Snake in the middle of a minefield at Zanzibar Land. After becoming the first cyborg ninja, his skills further enhanced to superhuman level. It should be noted that Gray Fox's hand-to-hand fighting style proved distinct enough for Snake to deduce his true identity during their second confrontation at Shadow Moses despite the fact that he kept his face concealed all the time.
- Swordsmanship mastery: Gray Fox also skilled when it comes about using bladed weapons, from a simple knife to the most advanced high-frequency sword. He was able to deflect gunfire with his blade, even from automatic firearms.
- Marksmanship mastery: As a soldier, Gray Fox is skilled in use of firearms he could reach. He fought Big Boss with M10 machine gun as Null. He later fired his arm mounted plasma cannon at Metal Gear Rex's radome, destroying it.
| “ | George Kasler: Gray Fox... Real name, Frank Jaeger. Former member of FOXHOUND. He was the last man to hold the title of Fox in the Big Boss era. Decorated five times... Solid Snake: Yeah, I know all about how good he is... Better than anyone else. I fought with him. He's a cold-blooded hunter. He never lets his prey escape. Everybody in the unit respected him. Looked up to him. |
„ |
| ~ Kasler and Snake about Gray Fox. |
- Military training: As result of spending majorities of his youth as a child soldier, Gray Fox grew into a skilled and deadly soldier, and the sole member of FOXHOUND who received code name Fox for that reason. Portable Ops. elaborated his lethality back in his days as a child soldier where he used the "frankness of a young boy" upon unsuspecting soldiers before killing them once they lowered their guard with "the ferocity of a hunter".
- Piloting and Driving skills: Gray Fox has a decent skill in piloting and driving any sort of vehicles as demonstrated from his use of Metal Gear D.
- Stealth: As a soldier and later a cyborg ninja, Fox is highly skilled in stealth tactics. He was able to infiltrate highly secure military bases such as Outer Heaven and Shadow Moses.
Weapons & Equipment
- Machete: Gray Fox's signature melee weapon as Null. (Portable Ops. only)
- M10: Gray Fox's firearm as Null (Portable Ops. only)
| “ | That...that exoskeleton! | „ |
| ~ Armstech President seeing Gray Fox's exoskeleton |
- Cyborg Ninja Exoskeleton: Following his defeat at Zanzibar Land, Gray Fox was experimented by Dr. Clark where in the said experiment, he has his crippled body outfitted and put together with experimental blue, brown, and white Cyborg Ninja Exoskeleton. The said exoskeleton is easily recognized with a red lamp in the central portion of the face mask with the eyeslots being to the left and right of the lamp. The armor was also sturdy enough to withstand a direct stomp from Metal Gear REX. The exoskeleton also has following arsenals:
- Stealth Camouflage: The exoskeleton has built-in Stealth Camouflage technology which allows Gray Fox to be invisible at will.
- Arm-Mounted Cannon: Gray Fox was able to mount a cannon onto his exoskeleton's right arm which appeared to fire rapid energy bolts strong enough to damage Metal Gear Rex's radome.
- Radar Dampening Field System: The exoskeleton can emit electromagnetic waves that can disrupt radars, even one as advanced as the Soliton Radar, to short out should its wearer be in close proximity. This trait was best demonstrated when Solid Snake arrived at the Western labs the first time around after Gray Fox managed to wipe out the soldiers stationed there, as well as during their fight in the actual lab itself.
| “ | It looks like they were cut by some type of blade. | „ |
| ~ Solid Snake examining soldiers killed by Gray Fox |
- Hi-Frequency Blade: Gray Fox's signature weapon, a blade reinforced by a powerful alternating current and resonating at extremely high vibration frequencies which allow it to cut almost any material on a whim. It resembles a Chockuto or ninjato sword. The concept art suggested that the weapon is collapsible and connected to the exoskeleton which acted as its power source. Though in the remake, it's shown residing in a sheath on his back.
Gallery
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External Links
- Gray Fox on the Villains Wiki
- Gray Fox on the Metal Gear Wiki
