Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (2014 Video Game)

James Horan: Skull Face

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Quotes 

• Skull Face : [Briefing files > Acquired Tapes > Agent's Recording > Secretly Recorded POW Interrogation] 

  [waterboarding is heard, and then shuffling them prisoner back to the boiler room cell. A man is heard driving in] 

  Skull Face : [Barely audible, as if he is far away]  I needed this place, to listen to the words people have to say. That's something they could never understand.

  [the man, Skull Face, then walks up to the prisoner, who is groaning in agony] 

  Skull Face : You've done your part. You told us plenty. You've known the pain of ages. And even now you think, as any person would, that this can't be happening. Is it education? Morals, faith? Just an imprint of a lifetime of stories? Face to face with oblivion, which is where you are, and you still think that help is coming. The world you were born into is made to save you. Isn't that right? Of course it is. Everyone knows that. Until your last breath, you know it. Without the slightest chance or reason left to them, humans are capable of hope. I'm no different. But for one thing. When my time came calling I didn't die. My family died, my country died, but they didn't take me with them. All Hell took from me was this skin, this outer peel that marked me "human." My village had an oilseed field and a fine factory. Every day my friends and I would see our parents at work in that factory. That's all I had. All the world I knew. Then one day, aircraft came droning in from some far-off sky. The factory was bombed. Some... "spies" had told them we were making weapons. The building burned. We tried to flee outside. The crowd blocked the exit. The crowd of people. Hot. So hot. I tried to push through their legs and get ahead, but a boot in my stomach put me on the ground. The smoke of them burning filled me up. I heard my name called... but not for long. At the infirmary they carried me to, a nurse in the corner saw me and remarked, as if it happened every day: "They should let the poor thing die." Those are the only words of my mother tongue I remember. It was the language of my village. Until foreign troops invaded. Then the last identity I had left - the words I spoke - were pulled from me. My skin would never feel anything again. This face would be burned again, in torture, at foreign hands, but I, I still writhe in that burning factory. Doused in scalding rapeseed oil. That's all I have to feel, that pain - all I have to remind me I exist here.

  [chuckles] 

  Skull Face : Those "spies" reported well. We made weapons all right. As cartloads of rifles came in from the battlefields, we fixed them up and sent them back out. So our country could win. Or rather, so that little world we knew could continue. I came to realize I mustn't die. I'm their last hope, all those who perished and left me here. I have to accomplish something. If I don't, their will will be swept out of this world.

  [Skull Face proceeds to grab the prisoner] 

  Skull Face : So? Do you see me now? Tell me. What do you see? Hmm? You have eyes. What do your eyes see?

  [chuckles] 

  Skull Face : Yes, that's right. You see a skull face. You see me. This skull is who I am. My mark, my proof of humanity. I have no country, no language, I have no face, but I haven't lost my skull. So I told myself... The pain and effort that keep me alive will never know relief, never bear fruit, never be repaid. I know that, but I told myself to focus on some hope, a nonexistent hope to guide me through this burning world. A hope - call it a dream. A melancholic delusion. As the pressures within me stretch me to bursting, and I force myself not to cry out, though the words I thought were carved into me are gone, and all I knew is dead. I know how you feel. I've felt that. So show me. That I'm not the only one. That you too can return to this world, for revenge. Do you see me? Don't die. Don't die!

  [the Prisoner Dies] 

  Skull Face : [as if disappointed]  Ahh...

• Skull Face : [enters 'Camp Omega Maximum Security,' and walks towards Chico, who's being held prisoner in a cage]  She told us everything. Don't worry, I kept my word. She didn't suffer long.

  [takes out a cassette player with a tape in it] 

  Skull Face : Here. You earned it.

  [tosses it to Chico] 

  Skull Face : How's it feel to play the traitor? No more war games. You're a real man now, soldier.

  [Chico takes his earphone plug out of his chest as Skull Face starts walking away] 

  Skull Face : Give my regards to your Boss when you get home.

  [Chico plays the tape and the song 'Here's To You' by Sacco e Vanzetti plays in the background, as Skull Face gets into a military jeep and drives off] 

  Kazuhira Miller : Ten days ago, we got reports that Paz was still alive.

  Snake : She survived?

  Kazuhira Miller : She was rescued by a Belizean fisherman who found her drifting in the Caribbean.

  Snake : So, what's the plan? Silence her before we're compromised?

  Kazuhira Miller : No. I've got something else in mind. Our "friends" at Cipher suspect Paz could be a double agent. She's being held for interrogation at a camp on the southern tip of Cuba.

  Snake : Black site - nice. A slice of American pie on communist soil, and out of U.S. legal jurisdiction.

  Kazuhira Miller : The upcoming inspection of Mother Base has to be connected somehow. The timing's too perfect.

  Snake : The U.N.'s nuclear inspection...

  Kazuhira Miller : My guess is they're trying to corroborate Paz's leak.

  Snake : We're an army without a nation.

  Kazuhira Miller : Word of our capabilities gets out, and we'll have the whole world out to shut us down. Having an American private intelligence agency involved's bad news. Cipher's the ones who sent Paz to us in the first place.

  Snake : She knows their true nature.

  Kazuhira Miller : Right. Paz is our only link to Cipher. If she's still alive, we need her on our side.

  Skull Face : [reaches a heliport, then starts walking towards a helicopter along with several other soldiers. Skull Face then uses a handheld device to erase the word 'XOF' on the side of the helicopter, and the song stops]  The Trojan Horse's in.

  [takes off his hat] 

  Skull Face : This pirate crackdown's a go. Move!

  [Skull Face and the soldiers get into the helicopter and take off. Soon, they start removing their 'XOF' badges] 

  Snake : So, who's the other target?

  Kazuhira Miller : That would be Chico. He's being held in the same area as Paz. Last radio contact was forty hours ago. Find them both. Bring 'em back alive. Enter the compound from the south cliff. Secure Chico and Paz, then report back from the rendezvous point.

  [a soldier, who has the badges, tosses them out of the helicopter. They're shown falling down as Snake is seen climbing a rocky cliff that leads to the base] 

  Kazuhira Miller : We'll send a chopper from across the Cuban border. You should be back at Mother Base in time for lunch. You'll probably just miss our "guests." The only catch is, you go in solo.

  [Snake turns and sees the helicopters flying away] 

  Kazuhira Miller : The politically sensitive nature of the mission means backup is not an option.

  Snake : Fine. I like some alone time now and then.

  [continues to climb and reaches the top of the cliff. Snake then contacts Kaz via radio] 

  Snake : I'm in front of the prison camp.

  Kazuhira Miller : [over the radio]  Excellent, Snake. Age hasn't slowed you down one bit.

  Snake : [removes his binoculars and the camera zooms in]  Kept you waiting, huh?

  [Snake crouches as two more helicopters fly by overhead, then stands up and takes out his iDroid] 

  Kazuhira Miller : [over the radio]  Chico and Paz are being held in an old unused part of the compound. Get inside and head northeast.

• Skull Face : Your favorite song. Nicola, Bart, immigrants wrongly executed. But their deaths served as a message to others. That ours is a society that murders the innocent. Do you, too, believe that your sacrifice will change the world?