After suing a French filmmaker for ripping off Escape from New York, the movie's co-owner Canal Plus Group planned to set its legal eagles upon Metal Gear Solid. Fortunately for Konami, Hideo Kojima's just too much of a sweetheart to go after in court.
"[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, but I told them not to do that," director John Carpenter said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "I know the director of those games, and he’s a nice guy, or at least he’s nice to me."
Granted, at this point I imagine Hideo Kojima couldn't care less whether Konami gets sued for every last yen it ever made from Metal Gear. But he might resent the implication that Metal Gear Solid is a ripoff of Escape from New York. Sure, Big Boss does look an awful lot like Snake Plissken, and Solid Snake did go by "Iroquois Pliskin" for a while, but those are just loving(ly overt) homages.
It's not like Solid Snake rescues the president's daughter from an out-of-control prison colony, or anything. The hero totally does that in Lockout, the French film that Carpenter had no problem suing.
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