"The Boss" is also a nickname for American singer Bruce Springsteen

The Boss is a fictional character in the video game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. She is a legendary American soldier, and the founder and leader of the Cobra unit. She is known as the mother of US special forces. During World War 2 she was part of the invasion of Normandy and ultimately helped lead the Allied forces to victory. She is also called The Joy, and in Russia she is known as Voyevoda. The Boss serves as a mentor and mother-like figure to Naked Snake, with whom she developed the fighting technique known as Close Quarters Combat (CQC). Snake has a deep attatchment to her, and is reluctant to oppose her in combat even though he must in order to complete his mission.

The Boss and The Sorrow had a romantic affair in the early 1940s, and in the midst of a later battle, The Boss gave birth to Revolver Ocelot. But neither The Boss nor Ocelot seems to be aware of this.

She is also the daughter of one the original members of the Wiseman's Commitee, the head council of The Philosophers , the American branch of which would later become The Patriots, the true powerholders of the USA.

During the events of Snake Eater, The Boss apparently defects to the Soviet Union, taking the rest of Cobra Unit along with her. In reality, she was ordered to betray her country to go undercover and steal the Philosopher's Legacy from Colonel Volgin, and destroy the Shagohod. However, after Colonel Volgin launches an American made portable nuclear shell the Boss smuggled into Russia with her at another Russian research base to destroy all the data on the Shagohod, coupled with the FOX Unit's aircraft radar signature, leads President Kruschev to believe America was behind the nuclear attack. The American government realizes that to stop a nuclear war, it will have to abandon it's most treasured soldier, and stage a mission into Russia to assassinate her. The Boss realizes that she will have to give her life for the country she loves so much, and die at the hands of her most beloved disciple, Naked Snake. Following her orders to the bitter end, she is ultimately defeated by him, who then receives the title of "Big Boss". Although history officially remembers her as one of the world's greatest traitors, Naked Snake insisted that her tombstone read "In Memory of a Patriot who Saved the World".

This selfless act related to what The Boss had said to Naked Snake during the Virtuous Mission. Her belief that a true soldier was a warrior who would do anything for his country was epitomised by her sacrifice of both her name and her life, as a duty to her country, and to herself, as a soldier. Although remembered in secret as 'a true patriot', it is dubious as to whether the Boss herself believed in such semantics. Before her final duel with Snake, she spoke of her desire to see all the peoples of the world united, and described how The Philosopher's Legacy was the only means via which to reunite The Philosophers, and with them, the people of the world. Thus, while she may have been considered after her death as a patriot, loyal to her country, it seems that her true beliefs were that the world should be united as one. Yet she couldn't do this herself, because she was a 'soldier'.