We’ve learned (via the Hollywood Reporter) that Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid franchise was at one point in the crosshairs of the legal team behind John Carpenter’s classic film, Escape From New York.
When speaking with the Hollywood Reporter, Carpenter made an interesting note regarding the game, and how it’s “kind of a rip-off of Escape From New York.”
“[CanalPlus] wanted to also go after the video game Metal Gear Solid, which is kind of a rip-off of Escape From New York, too,” Carpenter said, “but I told them not to do that. I know the director of those games, and he’s a nice guy, or at least he’s nice to me.”
CanalPlus is the company that recently won a plagiarism suit against French director Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, Léon: The Professional) for his recent outing, Lockout, which also ripped off Escape From New York.
“Look, CanalPlus is the company that, with me, owns Escape From New York. They came to me and said, ‘Luc Besson ripped you off on Lockout.’ Or Lockdown, whatever the hell that was. And they sent me the movie, and yes, he did. It’s the same story. (Laughs) I mean, you can’t do that, can you? You have to change a couple things. He’s after the president’s daughter? Come on. So I took him to French court.”
It’s worth mentioning that Carpenter and CanalPlus won an €80,000 settlement (CanalPlus was seeking €3 million), of which €20,000 went to Carpenter.
epobirs
October 27, 2015 at 7:26 pmPresident’s daughter? Has he seen Resident Evil 4?
goodbyejojo
October 27, 2015 at 7:27 pmhere are some “similarities” that Escape from New York and MGS share:
SPOILERS
– Main character is Snake
– Time limit is 24 hours
– Both Snakes didn’t volunteer for the mission
-Both Snakes are infected with weapon during mission briefing (Solid
Snake with FoxDie, Snake Plissken with two microscopic capsules lodged
in arteries)
– They go alone to the mission, with no other support than radio.
-First person they supposed to rescue is a decoy (Decoy Octopus in MGS
and some drunk who is wearing Presidents bracelet in Escape from New
York)
– Both get supported from person they’ve met before (Solid Snake – Grey Fox and Snake Plissken – Harold “Brain” Herman)
– Both get supported by female (Meryl and Maggie)
– Both get captured and go through torture (Solid Snake via
Electrical torture device, Snake Plissken via death ring vs. guy who is
twice his size)
– High-speed chase in the end (Solid Snake with jeep, Snake Plissken with Taxi)
– Chaser is the bad guy (Liquid Snake, The Duke)
– Both are rescued from certain death by luck (Liquid Snake is killed by FoxDie and The Duke is killed by The Presidents M16)
– Both missions ends within the time limit (S. Snakes missions
time limit is almost over [“The battery on these nanomachines will run
out soon. They won’t be able to follow us.” {Briefing files says that
injection gave 24 hour batteries for nanomachines}] Snake Plisskens
clock has 3 seconds left).
– In the end, both says their real name to someone else
Meryl: “So… where to, Snake?”
Snake: “David. My name is David.”
Hauk: “We’d make one hell of a team, Snake!”
Snake: “The name is Plissken.”
– Real data is stolen (Metal Gear REX data by Ocelot, Casette by Snake Plissken)
TL DR
IMO Escape From New York is the closest thing to a MGS movie that we are gonna get
Dr.wonderful
October 27, 2015 at 7:38 pmWe will never have a Metal Gear Solid movie. We will never get an anime with Love Deterrence at the closing theme.
Fox engine will collect dust.
This hurts me, in ways I did not realize that was possible.
Fient
October 27, 2015 at 7:47 pmGoing after the president’s daughter in fiction is now banned.
Good job copyright.
Richard Miller
October 27, 2015 at 7:53 pmJohn Carpenter you can still sue Konami if you want as we won’t get anymore Metal Gear games from them anyway.
Mr0303
October 27, 2015 at 7:57 pmThat is total bollocks! The movie obviously had less cut scenes.
Jack
October 27, 2015 at 7:58 pmTruly, there are still some heroes left in man
No_Good_Names_Ever
October 27, 2015 at 8:19 pmI thought it got banned in the 90s or early 2k because people likely ran it to death.
FailDRE86
October 27, 2015 at 8:36 pmhttps://youtu.be/PkkGpXHVaFE
FailDRE86
October 27, 2015 at 8:37 pmhttps://youtu.be/PkkGpXHVaFE?t=3m55s
Master Bating
October 27, 2015 at 8:46 pmI wish he still made good movies.
Halloween,The Thing and Mouth of Madness are some of my favorite horror movies.
bgrunge
October 27, 2015 at 9:10 pmThose 3 are in my personal top 5 horror films list of all time, at places 4,1,and 2 respectively. Kind of ridiculous that one director is responsible for 3 of the absolute best horror films ever made, especially considering how different they are mechanically- one works on pure tension and fear for the protagonist, one works on paranoia, and one is based on a lovecraftian mix of madness and eldritch horror. And all just genius.
bgrunge
October 27, 2015 at 9:24 pmHideo Kojima was always pretty upfront about Escape from New York being a huge influence though. A lot of those things are there because they are direct homages.
bgrunge
October 27, 2015 at 9:24 pmAlso, he still makes good music, for what it’s worth.
Juan Manuel M. Suárez
October 27, 2015 at 9:38 pmBut pachinkos and mobiles, man~!
Muten
October 27, 2015 at 9:59 pmHey, thanks for breaking that down for us, i didn’t know any of that :3
Deadmoonking
October 27, 2015 at 10:16 pmI like how Carpenter sounds like he’s chill about it.
Zanard Bell
October 27, 2015 at 10:16 pmayy lmao
Deadmoonking
October 27, 2015 at 10:17 pmI think it has more to do with the fact that there were a couple of dudes who were bad enough and they had already rescued her.
scdk
October 27, 2015 at 10:26 pm“I know the director of those games, and he’s a nice guy, or at least he’s nice to me.”
Never underestimate what having good connections and relations will do for you in business, eh?
Zombie_Barioth
October 27, 2015 at 10:43 pmYou forgot one, Solid Snake calls himself Plissken when Raiden first meets him in MGS2.
Not surprised Kojima knows John Carpenter, being both a big movie buff and Escape from New York fan, not with his status and connections.
I doubt he’d be that blatant about MGS being a homage to the movie if Carpenter didn’t know. Otherwise MGS3 would probably be much more James Bond like than it already is.
UUDDLRLR BASTART
October 28, 2015 at 2:45 amI think some people need a lesson in being able to distinguish between paying homage and ripping off. The latter is a soulless carbon copy cash grab, the former is a love letter and should make the original creator proud.
fnd
October 28, 2015 at 8:18 amLol RE4 is in trouble
FalseTragedian
October 28, 2015 at 10:31 amThey saved the president, not his daughter. He was kidnapped by ninjas.
Then he took them out for a burger.
Deadmoonking
October 28, 2015 at 3:36 pmArgh! You are, of course, correct. You’d think I would remember that from it being in the freaking intro and the tagline. Thanks for getting the reference though!
SiliconNooB
October 29, 2015 at 8:32 amThere are a lot more similarities than I thought.
InnsmouthLook
December 9, 2016 at 9:53 am“We will never have a Metal Gear Solid movie”
90% of Metal Gear Solid 4 would have to disagree with you.