Revolver Ocelot

• 1. The Gunslinger Spy

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  Revolver Ocelot, full name Revolver "Shalashaska" Ocelot, is a fictional character in Konami's Metal Gear series, created by Hideo Kojima. He calls his revolver "the greatest handgun ever made." Across the series he is the archenemy of Solid Snake, a friendly rival to Big Boss, the right-hand man to Liquid Snake and Solidus Snake, and a close ally to Venom Snake. No one can honestly be all of those things at once. So where do his loyalties actually lie? Why does a man dressed as a cowboy keep turning up in stories of spies and private armies? And why would a single arm be enough to change who he is? The answers run through a long list of betrayals, and they begin with the way he looks.

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• 2. Spaghetti Western Design

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  A duster, spurs and gunbelts make up the outfit Ocelot wears from his first appearance in Metal Gear Solid. These are the traditional garb of gunslingers in spaghetti westerns. A black armband on his left arm completes the look, and his weapon is the Colt Single Action Army revolver. Hideo Kojima wanted to give the character Western tones. The finished appearance is based on Lee Van Cleef, a veteran Western film actor. Not every design idea for Ocelot survived, though, and the one that did not involved his arm.

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• 3. Shadow Moses Island

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  On Shadow Moses Island, Ocelot meets Solid Snake in the first boss encounter of Metal Gear Solid. He belongs to the FOXHOUND terrorists, who have launched a hostile revolt on an island that houses Metal Gear REX. Ocelot serves as the team's interrogation expert and as right-hand man to their leader, Liquid Snake. He opens by challenging Snake to a gunfight. The duel ends when the Cyborg Ninja costs him his right hand. Losing a hand does not remove him from the story. Later, after Snake is captured, Ocelot returns to torture him. While doing so, he reveals that he comes from the former Soviet Union and once served in Spetsnaz. He also admits a secret wish for the dream world of Liquid and Big Boss. By the end of the game he is the only surviving member of FOXHOUND. After the ending credits, a final scene shows him in league with the U.S. President, George Sears. That Soviet past is only the first layer of a much longer history.

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• 4. The Young Major

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  Four decades before Shadow Moses, a younger Ocelot appears in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Known in his youth as Major "ADAM" Ocelot, he is a GRU Major serving under Colonel Volgin. He also leads his own group, called the Ocelot Unit, within the GRU. His clashes with Naked Snake explain where his love of revolvers comes from. He tends to absorb a gun's recoil with his elbow, and that habit suits revolvers better. Those constant challenges slowly turn into a friendly rivalry. The game also reveals that Ocelot is the illegitimate child of The Boss. After the deaths of Volgin and The Boss, he turns out to be a triple agent. He takes orders from the Philosophers and from the KGB, while also answering to the Director of Central Intelligence. His assignment was to intercept and assist Snake. He failed, because EVA, another agent of the Philosophers, reached Snake first. In Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, the young Ocelot has a smaller but significant role. He begins in league with Gene, the insurgency leader of FOX. Then he assassinates the Director of Central Intelligence in order to end the Philosophers. The Philosophers respond by inviting him to join their reorganized American branch.

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• 5. A Borrowed Arm

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  Yoji Shinkawa originally planned a cybernetic arm for Ocelot in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. It was meant to replace the limb that Gray Fox took from him. The staff decided instead that Ocelot would use the arm of Liquid Snake. In the story, he receives a surgically attached right arm that once belonged to Liquid. It carries a dormant personality, which takes over Ocelot's mind whenever Solid Snake is nearby. Kojima acknowledged that fans found the idea of an arm possessing a mind ridiculous. He promised to explain it in Metal Gear Solid 4. Before the arm asserts itself, the game's introductory Tanker Chapter shows him seemingly working for Sergei Gurlukovich. He betrays his old friend by hijacking Metal Gear RAY, and he frames Snake and Otacon for the theft. In the main Plant Chapter, he joins Solidus Snake in the terrorist group Sons of Liberty. Then he betrays the former President too, revealing that his true allegiance is to the Patriots, a group that controls the United States. Liquid then takes him over. Ocelot escapes from Snake, Solidus and Raiden, and sets out to kill the Patriots' leaders.

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• 6. Hypnosis and Loyalty

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  In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Ocelot becomes the primary antagonist, and Kojima's promised explanation arrives. Ocelot uses self-hypnosis and nano-machines to behave as Liquid's mental doppelgänger. The goal is to trick the Patriots' AIs. Posing as Liquid, he builds a parent company that runs the five largest PMCs, and he fights to take control of the world from the Patriots. After he hijacks their systems, his PMCs engage Old Snake. Snake and Otacon then use Naomi Hunter's FOXALIVE virus to delete the Patriots' AIs. Ocelot responds by challenging Snake to a fistfight, and he appears to die of exhaustion afterward. His death was actually caused by a new strain of FOXDIE, which Drebin had injected into Snake. Hypnosis returns in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, where he canonically appears as an ally to Venom Snake and the Diamond Dogs. There he helps Zero's deception succeed by hypnotizing both himself and Snake. He also helps Big Boss and Snake escape from XOF in Cyprus. As the Diamond Dogs' interrogator, he often clashes with Kazuhira Miller over Skull Face and the White Mamba. By the end he declares his support for Big Boss's covert war, which foreshadows his role in later Metal Gear Solid games.

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• 7. Voices and Motion

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  Kōji Totani gave Ocelot his Japanese voice in the original Metal Gear Solid. In the English version the role went to Pat Zimmerman, who was credited as Patric Laine in the PlayStation release. Both actors returned for Metal Gear Solid 2. For the young Ocelot in Metal Gear Solid 3, Takumi Yamazaki voiced him in Japanese and Josh Keaton in English. Totani died in 2006, so Banjō Ginga took over the Japanese role in Metal Gear Solid 4. Ikuya Sawaki voiced him in the Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel recreations. Zimmerman continued in English. For Metal Gear Solid V, Troy Baker voiced Ocelot in English and Satoshi Mikami dubbed him in Japanese. Motion capture for the character has been performed by Taro Kazanawa, Kenichi Yoshida, Bill Yokoyama, Troy Baker and Matthew Carlsen. Troy Baker is the only name that appears on both lists.

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• 8. Critics and Rankings

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  Game Informer described Ocelot as "one of the only characters to have a major role in all five Metal Gear Solid titles." Video game publications have generally reacted well to him as an antagonist. He appears often on lists of the best Metal Gear villains, and he has been ranked second on one such list. GameSpot called him one of the story's most important characters, alongside Solid Snake and Big Boss. GameSpy listed his torture of Snake among the best moments in the first game, citing how Ocelot toys with Snake and how significant the outcome is. Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine called him underrated next to Sephiroth, the iconic villain of Final Fantasy VII. It said the young Ocelot of Snake Eater was already an appealing villain. Edge wrote that with Liquid Ocelot, "Kojima has forged a superb villain." IGN named him among the fictional characters who deserved a spin-off of their own, and Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition counted him among the best villains in gaming. Not every verdict was kind. GameSpy called his turn into Liquid one of the most nonsensical events in the series, but still praised his action scenes at the start of Metal Gear Solid 2. GamePro called the final fight against Liquid Ocelot "epic" even though he became "a punching bag" in its last phase. 1UP.com put the same fight on its list of 13 "most dumbass" boss battles, citing its excessive length for a hand-to-hand duel between two old men. VentureBeat was bemused that Ocelot in Metal Gear Solid V was "calm and the voice of reason" instead of an "eccentric, sadistic man." Its writers theorized that he was simply showing his true allegiance to Big Boss, rather than acting as a triple agent or under self-hypnosis.

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