It’s nearly a sure thing that every great artist loves movies, and for the most part, the better their taste the more profound the art. Enter Hideo Kojima, one of the most creative and deranged minds in all of gaming, so it’s no surprise that the man became that way through the eclectic films he grew up watching.
Kojima’s favorites range from David Lynch’s bizarre catalog all the way to blockbuster hits like James Cameron’s Titanic. But today we’re only going to focus on the films that Kojma has directly referenced in his acclaimed Metal Gear series — which, turns out, there’s a lot.
10 Akira
Straight from the brilliant yet disturbing mind of Katsuhiro Otomo, Akira hits all the beats of a movie that Kojima would love. Dystopian world where the rules of society have been flipped on their heads? Check. A Big Brother-type government who is running shady experiments? Check. And some horrifying imagery that is sure to haunt you for years to come? Come on, this is Kojima we’re talking about.
The reference to the film comes from the first Metal Gear when Gray Fox screams for medicine which is referring to when Tetsuo, a character in Akira is yelling for stabilizers after losing control of himself.
9 Escape From New York
In 1981, acclaimed director John Carpenter (who Kojima seems to love most of his works as he should) released to the public a timeless sci-fi action movie called Escape From New York. Starring Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken, he is tasked to rescue the President from Manhattan which has been converted into a maximum security prison as a result of the Cold War. It’s a crazy premise for sure, but it’s one of those 80’s action films that is so classic it feels like it’d be a parody if made today. This may come as a surprise, but Russel’s character was the inspiration for Snakes name in Metal Gear.
8 Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
Who can honestly say they don’t like Mad Max 2? It’s one of the greatest action movies ever made, and director George Miller perfected his creation even more so with his latest release, Fury Road. Kojima himself has actually said that Mad Max 2 is one of his favorite films of all time.
The movie has inspired everything from the lore behind Fallout to shows like Rick and Morty and Fist of the North Star. Kojima has stated that Venom Snake from Phantom Pain was directly inspired by the Road Warrior by being a silent protagonist badass. Ok, he left out badass, but it’s true.
7 The Terminator
Back in the last century when director James Cameron used to make great movies, i.e. Aliens, Titanic and the holy grail of action movies, The first two Terminator films. We would say Terminator franchise, but after the first two the movies fell off a cliff becoming too confusing and often cancelling each other out as the time travel became more and more convoluted.
But everyone loves the first two, including Kojima who has referenced these movies to death in his games. The cover art of the original Metal Gear is based on Kyle Reese, Raiden not being solid snake was based on Schwarzenegger’s Terminator not being the villain and it goes on.
6 Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love the Bomb
Stanley Kubrick’s slept on masterpiece satirizes the Cold War in a time in history when tensions were at there highest between the United States and the Soviet Union. It stars Peter Sellers who plays three major roles in the film, including an ex-Nazi advisor who accidentally addresses the president (also himself) as “My Führer” and accidentally raises up a Nazi salute — it’s all so brilliant.
Our reference comes from the first Metal Gear when Revolver Ocelot talks about riding the bomb all the way to history. Strange Love fans might connect the dots to when the bomb is dropped in the movie and the bomber famously rides it down as if he were a cowboy riding a horse.
5 Star Wars
Thankfully Kojima is talking about the classic Star Wars trilogy and not the mess that is the new films or the prequels for that matter (although you could certainly get a lot of source material from the latter of the two). Star Wars and pop culture are one and the same, and because of that it’s hard to not have been influenced by the massively popular films in one way or another.
Kojima references the classic movies a few times, once in the second game when Solid Snake says, “Great shot kid, that was one in a million” to Raiden; a play on Han Solo and Luke. And once again in the fourth game when the Death Star is referenced by Snake.
4 Power Rangers
You know, when you think about it, the Power Rangers are startlingly weird. It’s a group of five teenagers (or young adults) who dress in morph suits and fight Godzilla-sized monsters in their animal-themed mech-robot. It’s strange stuff indeed, and that’s probably why Kojima likes it so much.
He seems to specifically like the Super Sentai version which made it’s debut in Japan in the early 70’s, but seeing as the series spawned a few movies along the way we couldn’t help but include it. Dead Cell and Cobra’s Units from MGS 2 and 3 were inspired by the Japaneses crime fighting bunch.
3 The Matrix
Although it was released in 1999, a year after the first Metal Gear Solid game, The Matrix left a huge impact on Kojima. It was the “woke” movie before the idea of being woke had been memed to death in the last decade. The Matrix has a simple premise, the characters are living in a simulation, a nice one at that, but one that is controlled by these higher intelligent machine creatures. So our character takes the “red pill” and tries to bust out of his sham of an existence. Kojima didn’t directly reference the game in MGS 2, but cited the movie as a major inspiration for the increased effects and surreal themes.
2 Eyes Without A Face
Eyes Without a Face is a psychological thriller, or what many would consider as a horror movie, and boy does Kojima love his horror. It’s a French movie, directed by Georges Franju and tells the story of a plastic surgeon who will stop at nothing to perform a face transplant on his daughter, who was recently disfigured in a car crash. Although there is minimal gore, much of Europe was disgusted by this film when it released in the 1960’s. The film inspired quite a few characters from the Phantom Pain including Big Boss and The Fury’s deformed face.
1 Austin Powers
That’s right baby, in addition to enjoying all the weird, horrendous and cult classic films that we’ve seen on this list, Kojima also has a soft spot for silliness. Austin Powers spoofs classic spy movies like 007, another film series that was a tremendous influence on the Metal Gear series. This should come to little-to-no surprise however, as Metal Gear will take itself seriously in one scene and in the next leave you on the floor laughing. It’s two worlds that Kojima undoubtedly loves and he has stated that an element in MGS 2 was directly inspired by Austin Powers, but never revealed what it was.
NEXT: The 10 Best Konami Games, Ranked (According To Metacritic)
