Kojima picks 15 films that inspired MGS

Hideo Kojima has listed 15 films that helped him create the Metal Gear Solid series.

He's even teamed up with Japanese rental chain Tsutaya to create an "MGS4 Cinema" section to compile the movies, according to Famitsu (translated by IGN).

Did you know, for instance, that the bandana Solid Snake wears comes from The Deer Hunter and not Rambo?

What about the fact that the biggest influence on the entire series came from the Bond films, particularly those starring Sean Connery? (Kojima picked Goldfinger as the most entertaining.)

You must know that Predator inspired the flashy octocamo suit, and that Planet of the Apes gave Kojima the courage to adopt an anti-war stance?

How about that Heat influenced the realistic gun fights or that Sniper Wolf was based on scenes from Full Metal Jacket?

No? The Great Escape and Dawn of the Dead inspiring a hide-and-seek theme, then?

Oh. Then you might not know that the concept of infiltration missions was pinched from The Guns of Navarone, or that Snake and Otacon's real names David and Hal came from 2001: A Space Oddity.

Nor that Die Hard provided hints of how to move from 2D to 3D, or that Children of Men inspired the documentary feel, and that the up-close and gritty style came from the Bourne series.

The only film not mentioned is Black Hawk Down, which helped set the mood and tone of the series.

We'd recommend watching most of those, and as none are Japanese - perhaps surprisingly - they can be rented quite readily here. And then you can make your own blockbuster series. It couldn't be simpler.