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Five Favorite Films The visionary behind Metal Gear Solid on the dream fulfillment of 2001: A Space Odyssey and how George Miller guided him through his darkest hour. (Photo by Rotten Tomatoes) One of Hideo Kojima’s most resonant achievements in his 30-year career as a video game designer and director came early. Kojima had saved a troubled project at developer Konami called Metal Gear by reducing the game’s combat and emphasizing avoiding detection, pioneering the stealth genre. When it was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System, it sold over a million copies in America. Kojima returned to the series in 1998 with Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation, a groundbreaking hybrid of stylish stealth action and cinematic storytelling that went on to move six million units. He designed and directed four more direct Solid sequels, forging a complex epic of nanotechnology, nuclear proliferation, military conspiracies, and, yes, love blooming on the battlefield that has found wide appeal beyond core gamers. That explains the cast Kojima was able to put together for his latest game, Death Stranding. Through motion capture, Norman Reedus stars as as Sam Bridges, a cargo carrier tasked with the unlikely assignment of connecting a post-apocalyptic America back online. Reedus is joined by Lea Seydoux, Mads Mikkelsen, Margaret Qualley, Lindsay Wagner, Guillermo del Toro, and Nicolas Winding Refn in an audacious boots-on-the-ground epic, which emphasizes collaboration with other players online over violent combat in rebuilding America and features Kojima’s signature maximalist storytelling. He’s always worn his inspirations in the open, and the way they weave into his games is part of their crossover charm and appeal. You can get a sense of his favorite movies just by playing his games: Blade Runner is all over his cyberpunk graphic adventure Snatcher, there’s plenty of Escape From New York‘s DNA in Metal Gear Solid, and Death Stranding even has a major character named Die-Hardman. So when Kojima stopped by for a tour of Rotten Tomatoes HQ on the eve of The Game Awards — where Death Stranding won Best Game Direction, Best Score/Music, and Best Performance (Mads Mikkelsen) — we had to get his Five Favorite Films. It’s like a monolith to me, that movie. Every time it’s re-shown in theaters, I always go. Star Wars was a big hit in 1977 which created a big sci-fi boom. So when 2001 came to Japan, and I saw it in theaters when I was in middle school. Before experiencing that, I was just listening to radio dramas. I read the original novel. But the movie was totally different. I didn’t really understand it the first time. Now, I have a different interpretation every time I watch it. As a creator, I have periods of difficult times, but whenever I feel particularly in need of a pick-me-up, I watch 2001. It’s a perfect movie for me. It was a real space experience. Exploration even before man went to the moon in real life. I always wanted to be an astronaut when I was
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