Metal Gear Solid plays out in an alternate timeline where the Cold War dragged on into the 1990s before finally cooling near the century's end. Coaxed out of retirement, elite operative Solid Snake is sent to confront rogue elements of FOXHOUND, a top-tier government anti-terror unit now threatening to launch a nuclear strike on the White House unless they are paid a one-billion-dollar ransom. With just 24 hours to dismantle the threat, Snake must slip behind enemy lines, free two hostages, and unravel the terrorists' plot. Old ghosts rise to test him along the way, pushing his resolve as a soldier to its limit as he fights to spare the world from nuclear catastrophe.