Veteran game director and self-confessed movie buff Hideo Kojima revealed that he’d like to pass away in a movie theater, just as the film itself is about to start. The 62-year-old made the comment at a film festival in Rome earlier this month, and recently shared a clip of the moment on his official X account.
“I’ve always thought that when I die, I would like to die in a movie theater,” Kojima said in Japanese, as translated by IGN. He goes on to explain that “I love the bit before the movie starts the most. Enter the movie theater, the lights go off and commercials and trailers play, yeah? I’d like to die just before the movie starts.”
Kojima delivered this declaration in a serious tone but with a hint of a smile. The Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding creator is, after all, a prolific cinemaphile, proclaiming on his X account profile that 70% of his body is made up of movies.
This isn’t the first time Kojima has spoken about his own death. Last year, hot on the heels of revealing a number of discarded video game ideas and even an idea for a ‘Forgetting Game’ where the main character gradually forgets important information and abilities if you take too long a break from playing, Kojima said he had left his staff a USB stick of game ideas for after he dies.
As reported by VGC, Kojima issued the morbid revelation to Edge magazine, and discussed his change of thinking that occurred during the pandemic. “Turning 60 was less of a turning point in my life than my experiences during the pandemic,” he said. “I fell seriously ill at that time, and also had an eye operation. Until then, I didn’t think I was old, you know? I just didn’t feel my age, and I assumed I would be able to create for as long as I live.
“But then I became sick, and I couldn’t create anything. And I saw lots of people around me passing away at that time. I was confronted with death. Of course, I recovered, but now I was thinking, ‘Wait, how many years do I have left to make a game or a film?’ Perhaps I have 10 years?”
Also last year, Kojima discussed his fears as he has got older. “What I am most afraid of is time,” he told GQ. “I am afraid of dying and having dementia. I am afraid of forgetting things when I get old. I am afraid that I won’t even realise what I am forgetting.”
Kojima made this latest quip at the Piccolo America Foundation’s 12th edition of Il Cinema in Piazza, an outdoor film festival in Rome. As reported by Game Surf, he took part in panel discussions and introduced several movies. On July 4, he introduced Shunya Ito’s 1972 film Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41, the second movie in Japanese studio Toei’s exploitation series. The movie and its star, Meiko Kaji, were a big influence on Quentin Tarantino, so much so that Tarantino borrowed Urami Bushi (the theme song sung by Kaji) for the soundtrack to Kill Bill. Kojima noted that the Female Prisoner Scorpion series’ use of inventive cinematography and camera angles, plus the young crew’s commitment to creating something unique on a very limited budget, inspired him as a game creator.
He also introduced Dario Argentino’s Profondo Rosso (1975) on June 5, praising the moment in the movie when both the protagonist and viewer realize the truth at the same moment. “It is something I try to put in my own games as well,” Kojima said.
“He also explained that he referenced the gorier moments in Argentino’s films in Policenauts and Snatcher by including decapitation, but that this became a no-go when he moved on to making PlayStation console exclusives.
The final film Kojima presented at the festival alongside Death Stranding 2 actor Luca Marinelli was Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). Kojima said that growing up, his movie-watching family took him to see both American and Italian Westerns, and that he was struck by the sharp difference in their worldview, noting that while the sheriff always wins in American Westerns, Italian Westerns have characters that are much more human and less clear cut. Kojima said that the moral ambiguity of Leone’s Westerns won him over as it reminded him of Akira Kurosawa’s classic films.
Kojima’s movie influences show clearly in his games, stretching back to 1987’s Metal Gear and 1988’s Snatcher. But it was the groundbreaking Metal Gear Solid, which brought cinematic lighting, fully-voiced dialogue, and the series’ famously long movie-like cutscenes to PlayStation gamers all over the world back in 1998. Kojima has previously namechecked war movies like The Great Escape and The Guns of Navarrone as among the influences on MGS, with Snake’s character design riffing off Kurt Russel’s Snake Plisskin in Escape from New York.
With Death Stranding 1 and 2, Kojima managed to bridge the gap between game and movie even more by featuring the fully captured performances of well-known actors like Norman Reedus and Lea Seydoux.
Over on X, Kojima often shares his thoughts on recent movies he’s seen in theaters, as well as Blu-ray releases he has picked up. He seems to watch a broad range of films from various genres, countries and decades. He also popped up on an episode of the Criterion’s closet picks, where he appeared overjoyed to be surrounded by so many movies and enthusiastically introduced his picks.
Kojima is also an avid collector of physical media including vinyl records, CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays. In the wake of Sony’s recent announcement to stop releasing games on disc, Kojima retweeted a comment on the importance of physical media, warning of the dangers of a digital-only future.
He went further with this train of thought at Il Cinema, specifically calling out Sony: “Since production is ending in 2028, this is about video games, but I grew up with physical media, so I find it really sad,” Kojima said. “Currently, I’ve been buying up a lot of Blu-rays, such as various movies, and CDs too.”
Hideo Kojima is currently working on experimental horror game OD, which is slated to be published by Xbox Game Studios in collaboration with Get Out director Jordan Peele. At the time of writing, the game doesn’t have a release window yet.
Photo by Rosdiana Ciaravolo/Getty Images.
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.
