Kojima picks 15 films that inspired MGS

By Robert Purchese Published 21 January, 2009

Bond! The Great Escape! Predator!

Hideo Kojima has listed 15 films that helped him create the Metal Gear Solid series.

He's even teamed up with Japanese rental chain Tsutaya to create an "MGS4 Cinema" section to compile the movies, according to Famitsu (translated by IGN).

Did you know, for instance, that the bandana Solid Snake wears comes from The Deer Hunter and not Rambo?

What about the fact that the biggest influence on the entire series came from the Bond films, particularly those starring Sean Connery? (Kojima picked Goldfinger as the most entertaining.)

You must know that Predator inspired the flashy octocamo suit, and that Planet of the Apes gave Kojima the courage to adopt an anti-war stance?

How about that Heat influenced the realistic gun fights or that Sniper Wolf was based on scenes from Full Metal Jacket?

No? The Great Escape and Dawn of the Dead inspiring a hide-and-seek theme, then?

Oh. Then you might not know that the concept of infiltration missions was pinched from The Guns of Navarone, or that Snake and Otacon's real names David and Hal came from 2001: A Space Oddity.

Nor that Die Hard provided hints of how to move from 2D to 3D, or that Children of Men inspired the documentary feel, and that the up-close and gritty style came from the Bourne series.

The only film not mentioned is Black Hawk Down, which helped set the mood and tone of the series.

We'd recommend watching most of those, and as none are Japanese - perhaps surprisingly - they can be rented quite readily here. And then you can make your own blockbuster series. It couldn't be simpler.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • Tonka #1 3 years ago

    Now do the same with games you pompous arse!

  • Golgo #2 3 years ago

    He forgot to mention Escape from New York, for blatant rip of Kurt Russell's eye-patching wearing, mullet-sporting SNAKE Plissken.

  • convercide #3 3 years ago

    @Golgo

    +1

    Not only that, MGS2 Snake has to save an important member of the Senate, EFNY Snake has to rescue the president. EFNY Snake uses a single pilot stealth aircraft, MGS Snake uses a single pilot submarine, both are equipped with stealth. MGS Snake gets FoxDie, EFNY Snake has the explosive that could kill him. Both of them have to fight wars they don't wish to fight. The comparisons are endless. It really should have been mentioned.
    Edited by 2 at 04/03/09 @ 02:15

  • PlugMonkey #4 3 years ago

    "or that Snake and Otacon's real names David and Hal came from 2001: A Space Oddity."

    Bowies in Space!

    http://uk.y outube.com/watch?v=f4zV4pJ8MwM
    Edited by 3 at 21/01/09 @ 10:31

  • Tonka #5 3 years ago

    A real gamer would get inspiration from games.

  • jonsaan #6 3 years ago

    What about the Carry on films?

  • des #7 3 years ago

    Kojima has a good taste,i like that list...

  • myiagros #8 3 years ago

    I also think the Rambo films, particularly the second one, should be on that list. The similarities between that and MGS3 are many.

  • Evolution #9 3 years ago

    A Space Oddity?

  • coolbritannia #10 3 years ago

    Odyssey fail.

  • penhalion #11 3 years ago

    @Golgo

    Another +1 from me too.

    The first thing I did with this article was do a word search for escape from new york or escape from LA.

    Come on Kojima it's so bloody obvious the whole thing was inspired by the Snake Plissken films it's embarassing. The main character even looks like snake plissken for frak sake! Even down to the frackin' sneak suit. It doesn't help that in escape from LA Snake is injected with a virus and told that it will kill him in 24 hours, then sent to retrieve a trigger for a massive satelite weapon.

    Was Kojima just afraid of getting sued for nicking so many ideas from those movies, that he thought it safer not to mention them at all?

  • oerhoert #12 3 years ago

    <em>"A real gamer would get inspiration from games."</em>

    Oh <em>please</em>. He's a game designer. It's a good thing if he gets inspiration from all sorts of things. The games industry isn't so rich wich inspiration that a designer should base all ideas on other games.

    I'm not saying Kojima is anything special, though.

  • Artemus #13 3 years ago

    Kojima has mentioned the Escape films in loads of interviews, though strangely not this one. Snake was even called Pliskin in MGS2 for a bit when Raiden met first met him.

  • Cannibal #14 3 years ago

    I'm surprised no developer has licensed a series of "Escape from..." games. With MGS doing so well, you already have a fan base to market to.

  • schnide #15 3 years ago

    I don't believe these movies inspired MGS in any real sense.

    Kojima, make games as games you can actually play or fuck off to the movies.

    You'd both sell and be respected more.

  • Santino #16 3 years ago

    "You'd both sell and be respected more. "

    i disagree, i think he would be about as respected as uwe boll by members of the film industry, as a director and writer.

  • sneetch #17 3 years ago

    My favourite scene in The Great Escape has to be the one where Steve McQueens character is trying to get past that German guard that keeps marching over and back across the same 10m stretch of the yard, rigidly staring ahead the entire time. When Steve steps on the twig and the exclamation point appears over the guard's head... woah, it gets my heart racing every time, thank God he got into his cardboard box in time or they'd have to reload the entire scene!

  • dirtysteve #18 3 years ago

    So where does Hideo get all the inspiration for the awkward pants-wetting/diarrhea/groping/pervy camera-angle/stupid comedy monkey/arse-clenchingy embarassing death senes? Those parts seem to be the real Kojima shining through.