Hideo Kojima is one of the biggest names in the video game industry, creating iconic games that have captured gamers' imaginations. It is also clear that many of his games are highly influenced by movies, and Kojima has never shied away from those influences. He even wrote an entire blog series on his website where he discussed his influences.
In the last of the blog posts, he listed his favorite movies that influenced his games, specifically Metal Gear Solid. In this article, he listed the movies that he based the game on, some all-time classics that he loved, and then 30 other movies that he considers his all-time favorites. While that totaled well over 40 movies, there were several that he feels people should definitely check out among his favorites.
Django (1966)
- Streaming now on Roku, Hoopla, Vudu, Tubi, and Pluto TV.
In his entry about Django, Kojima said he loved spaghetti westerns, and this is a cult favorite in the genre. "This is what led to Ocelot, among other things, and this film is my favorite out of all of them," he wrote. "Django's songs are good. He was the inspiration for Boktai's main character."
Django was also a personal favorite of Quentin Tarantino and was a direct influence on his movie, Django Unchained. In the movie, Django is a soldier-turned-drifter who gets involved in a battle between Mexican revolutionaries and Confederate Red Shirts.
Dawn Of The Dead (1978)
- Not available to stream right now.
Kojima also added Dawn of the Dead to his list of favorite movies and considered it one of the movies that influenced Metal Gear Solid. In that movie, George Romero took on the idea of the dead rising and attacking the living and then made it a critique of capitalism.
The movie has survivors from a zombie apocalypse take shelter in a large shopping mall. While there, they enjoyed the high life until a biker gang busted in and the zombies followed. How this influenced Metal Gear Solid is a mystery, but it is not a surprising pick as a favorite movie.
Planet Of The Apes (1968)
- Streaming now on Criterion Channel, Max Go, and IndieFlix.
Kojima also added Planet of the Apes to his list of favorite movies that influenced Metal Gear Solid. This is the original movie from 1968, which starred Charlton Heston as an astronaut who lands on a planet that is ruled over by apes, while humans are kept in cages.
The movie also has one of the most iconic endings in cinema history when it turned out this was a version of Earth where apes conquered humans, as evident by the destroyed Statue of Liberty.
The Great Escape (1963)
- Available to rent on Spectrum, Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play, Vudu, Microsoft, and Redbox.
The Great Escape was another movie that Kojima said was one that influenced him when making games. When he talked about the movie, Kojima said "I wanted to make games of the movie 'The Great Escape'. It's the beginning. The tension while avoiding the searchlights ground and wall crawling forward."
That is very similar to what fans got in the gameplay of Metal Gear Solid. Much of the game was sneaking around and staying out of sight, and this was where that influence came from.
The Guns Of Navarone (1961)
- Streaming now on Netflix and Fubo.
The Guns of Navarone is a 1961 war movie that was based on the Alistair MacLean novel of the same name. The movie was about an Allied commando unit setting out to destroy an impregnable German fortress. The cast is top-notch, with Gregory Peck, David Niven, and Anthony Quinn leading the way.
Kojima used a lot of things from this movie in Metal Gear Solid, including having a warrior infiltrate a fortress on an impossible mission, as well as the idea of the warrior scaling the cliff.
Kanal (1957)
- Streaming now on Criterion Channel.
Possibly, the least-known movie on the list of Kojima's favorites is the 1957 movie Kanal. According to Kojima, "Most people would probably pick Ashes and Diamonds as their favorite of [Andrzej] Wajda's films, but I like this one the best. It had a big influence on MGS, too."
The movie is about the 1944 Warsaw Uprising and showed the resistance fighters escaping the Nazi onslaught. The chase went through the city sewers, and much of this sneaking around under the city was a clear influence.
Escape From New York (1981)
- Available to rent on Spectrum, Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play, Vudu, Microsoft, and Redbox.
It is no shock to know that John Carpenter's Escape from New York is on the list of Hideo Kojima's favorite movies. It was Snake Plissken from Carpenter's movie that was a clear basis for the design of Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid.
In Metal Gear Solid 2, Solid Snake even used the name "Iroquois Pliskin" as an alias. From the eye patch to the gruff voice and beard, it is clear that Kojima had Snake Plissken in mind when designing his game.
Yojimbo (1961)
- Streaming now on HBO Max and Criterion Channel.
In the list of his favorite movies, Hideo Kojima also looked at Japanese movies and that should make it no surprise to see Akira Kurosawa on the list. The movie that he noted from the master filmmaker was the 1961 samurai movie Yojimbo. He called it "One of my favorite Kurosawa films, along with High and Low and Seven Samurai."
Even American fans know the story since Yojimbo was remade into movies like A Fistful of Dollars and later the Bruce Willis movie Last Man Standing. The movie is about a lone ronin who arrives in a town and pits two crime lords against each other to save the town.
The Pink Panther (1963)
- Streaming now on Starz and Max Go.
When it comes to The Pink Panther, Kojima listed five movies in the series as among his favorites. This included the original, as well as the sequels through the 1978 movie, Revenge of the Pink Panther. These movies focused on the hapless Inspector Clouseau.
"My favorite comedic actor is the late Peter Sellers. I like nearly all of Edwards's and Sellers's films together, though the Pink Panther films are the best (apart from the ones that don't feature Sellers)," he wrote. "This is where MGS gets its sense of humor."
North By Northwest (1959)
- Streaming now on HBO Max.
Another movie that Hideo Kojima said influenced Metal Gear Solid was the Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece North by Northwest. The movie tells the story of a regular guy played by Cary Grant who found agents of a mysterious organization chasing him across the country when they mistakenly identify him as someone else.
When it comes to Kojima, he used a lot of Hitchcock's camera work and scene blocking in his games. This included limited perspectives, bird's-eye views, and angling the camera to show the distance to the enemy.