The Best Metal Gear Solid Subplot Is Kojima At His Finest

One of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain’s defining features are its legions of cassette tapes. Many of these tapes reveal juicy plot-crucial details, but there are other, smaller side stories that add a layer of humor or interest to the game’s typically tedious characters.

After completing mission 28, a new character will join Snake’s ranks at mother base. This character is Code Talker, a Native American parasitologist responsible for creating the vocal parasite used by Skull Face. Code Talker is an interesting character. He serves as a guide for Snake, teaching the Diamond Dogs about the vocal parasite and how they might be able to stop it. He’s a naturalist, but also a scientist, and he possesses a  philosophical approach towards using science as a way to maintain an appreciation and balance with nature. Along with Quiet and Metal Gear Solid 3‘s The End, he’s one of the few people in the world to possess a photosynthetic parasite which allow him to subsist without food. Despite this, one of the game’s most interesting subplots, “The Hamburgers of Kazuhira Miller,” focuses on his taste in the classic American delicacy.

The story comes in four separate tapes which range in length from about two minutes to almost six. All in all, it shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes for the player to navigate the twists and turns of this dramatic Metal Gear Solid subplot. It starts off innocently enough, with Kaz welcoming Code Talker to Mother Base. Code Talker, having just been rescued from an extremely hostile area by Snake, requests some rest and food. He explains that while he does not need to eat, consuming good food is a traditional method to show his appreciation for nature. Code Talker expresses a taste for his favorite food, hamburgers. Kaz is surprised to here a Native American request a food so indicative of the society which oppressed him. Code Talker explains that, to him, burgers are unrelated to America’s relationship with the natives, and he cannot criticize a meal that exhibits a sublime balance of nature’s resources. However, while he may not criticize burgers historically or culturally, he will criticize their flavors.

How A Hamburger Chain Changed The Metal Gear Universe Forever

In the following Metal Gear Solid 5 tapes, Code Talker shows that he wasn’t lying when he said he had high burger standards. The centenarian shoots down nearly every patty Kaz throws at him. It doesn’t matter what ingredients are used or how long Mother Base’s R&D division refines their recipes, Code Talker gives none of them a passing grade. To him, a bad burger cannot be enjoyed, and if it can’t be enjoyed then he is not showing nature its proper appreciation. Taste reigns supreme, and a poor specimen is tantamount to sacrilege. In his excitement, Kaz begins to get carried away as he implies that he has been embezzling Diamond Dog’s funds to open his own chain of burger joints. Code Talker eventually deduces that he is a one-man guinea pig for Kaz’s mad burger experiments.

Instead of being mad that Kaz is manipulating him to manufacture deviously profitable burgers for Kaz’s food chain, Miller’s Maxi Buns, Code Talker actually continues helping him. He offers Kaz some advice, somewhat contrary to his naturalistic approach to life, saying chemical additives can result in a better burger experience. Kaz takes Code Talker’s tip, and returns with what he calls the “Frankenburger.” The Metal Gear Solid tapes end with Code Talker dubbing it “perfect” despite its unseemly appearance. Kaz relates how the burger’s superior taste and cost-effective manufacturing process could actually solve the world’s hunger problems.

What makes “The Hamburgers of Kazuhira Miller” such a unique story in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is how it contrasts the game’s typical somber tone. MGS5 is the least absurd of any Metal Gear, and the lighthearted story of Kazuhira becoming increasingly carried away with a burger recipe until he accidentally creates a McDonald’s-style burger chain (a reference his other name, McDonnell Miller). Beyond this, however, it also doesn’t fail to include Kojima’s regular brand of political commentary. “The Hamburgers of Kazuhira Miller” intersects with issues of capitalism, the modern food industry and even the philosophical relationship between naturalism and science. Yet even as it touches on those serious issues, it manages to insert some much-needed levity into a dark game with otherwise bland characters.

About The Author

Jonah Schuhart
(148 Articles Published)

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Jonah Schuhart is a Freelance Writer at Screen Rant. Growing up as the stereotypical gamer, Jonah absorbed everything he could about his favorite video games until adulthood came knocking. He decided to become a games journalist after his dad purchased a subscription to Gameinformer when he was 10 years old. Now, he follows in the footsteps of his early influences, giving his two-cents on the games he loves.

You can also find Jonah on Looper, where he writes about his favorite TV and Movies. Follow him on Twitter @JonahSchuhart, or reach him by email at [email protected]

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