About
“A Weapon to Surpass Metal Gear” is a catchphrase from the end of the E3 2013 Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain extended trailer. The phrase is often used to describe abnormal machinery/weapons, much like tacticool, and because of it’s ambiguity, it has lead to many online discussions about what could actually surpass a metal gear. Because of it’s use in the trailer, videos with the phrase often contain the song Sins of Our Father or Nuclear playing in the background.
Origin
On June 10th at E3 2013, Konami presented an extended version of the trailer was played at the Microsoft Panel. After the end of the credit sequence in the trailer, Revolver Ocelot is heard narrating the scene and saying the phrase before Snake rides off on a robot. On June 11th, the trailer was uploaded to Konami’s YouTube (shown below).
Ocelot: He mentioned something interesting, Cypher is pursuing new research. He claims what they’re doing in Africa is the missing piece, a weapon to surpass metal gear."
Spread
On 4Chan’s /v/ board, discussions regarding the phrase began immediately after the trailer announcement with several users theorizing that the phrase may refer to The Les Enfant Terrible Project.
Discussion about the phrase can be found on sites like The Metal Gear Wikia[1], Metal Gear Informer[2], IGN[3], 4chan[4], Gamefaq[5], Reddit[6], and Tumblr[10].
On July 18th, 2014, YouTuber Yuyu13379 uploaded a video with the phrase as the title of their video which showed a remote controlled dildo machine powering up and driving to a woman’s car window before spinning wildly (shown below, left). The video gained 169,000 views and 3,400 likes since being uploaded. On February 2nd, 2015, YouTuber João Mostarda uploaded a video called “A /v/ to surpass Metal Gear” as a collaboration video of many Besiege contraptions (shown below, right). The video gained 333,000 views and 6,000 likes in three months.
On March 26th, 2015, popular Tumblr user catdog supremacy posted that her favorite meme is the phrase. Within a month, the post has gathered more than 13.000 notes[11]. On April 3rd, 2015, Funnyjunk user joelizardman uploaded an image using the phrase as the title which shows Carl Wheezer from the 3D animated series The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius riding a two legged vehicle. Within a month, the image has gathered more than 4.700 views and 69 upvotes[7]. On May 8th, 2015, Funnyjunk user Common Pepe commented to an image by brcstar about a box that can unfold by itself, calling it “a weapon to surpass metal gear”. The comment subsequently gathered over 569 upvotes[8].
On May 7th, 2015, Imgur user TrijezniMujo uploaded an image with the phrase for the title which shows a glitched character in a video game. Within 6 days, the image gathered over 6.400 views with 158 points[9].
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1]Metal Gear Wikia – A Weapon to Surpass Metal Gear
[2]Metal Gear Informer – E3 2013 Trailer Discussion
[3]IGN– A Weapon to Surpass Metal Gear and V Theory
[4]4chan Archives – Posts containing A Weapon to Surpass Metal Gear
[5]Gamefaq – ""A weapon to surpass Metal Gear.. My Theory
[6]reddit – ""What he’s doing in Africa… a weapon to surpass Metal Gear.– I think one of these is that weapon.
[7]Funnyjunk – A Weapon To Surpass Metal Gear
[8]Funnyjunk – Good Marketing Comment
[9]Imgur – A weapon to surpass Metal Gear
[10]Tumblr – Search: A Weapon To Surpass Metal Gear
[11]Tumblr – “a weapon to surpass metal gear” is my favourite meme