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Hideo Kojima is one of the most respected figures in the gaming industry and its because of that reputation that iconic director, John Carpenter, was able to stop a plagiarism lawsuit against him.

During an interview with Seth Abramovitch of The Hollywood Reporter, Carpenter was asked several question about his iconic 1981 American dystopian film, Escape From New York. Among the topics discussed was the CanalPlus (which owns the rights to the film) plagiarism lawsuit against Luc Besson and his film, Lockout.

During the same discussion, Carpenter brings up the fact that CanalPlus also wanted to sue Hideo Kojima over Metal Gear Solid. Carpenter was against the lawsuit because he respected Kojima, so it never went through. He said in the interview,

[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. I know the director of those games, and he’s a nice guy, or at least he’s nice to me.

Hideo Kojima has always been open about the influence American films have had on him along with how much of an influence Escape From New York has had on the Metal Gear Solid series. Among the many homages to the film, Solid Snake uses the alias Pliskin in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty while Big Boss was loosely based on Kurt Russell’s character.

Metal Gear Solid was the third game in the iconic series and it has been hailed as the best game for the PlayStation. The tenth game in the series, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was released in September and was universally praised as one of the best games for the Next-Gen consoles.