John Carpenter refused to sue over Metal Gear Solid's Escape from New York references

Metal Gear Solid is "kind of a rip-off of Escape From New York", but Hideo Kojima is too nice to sue.

Metal Gear Solid is peppered with references to Escape from New York, starting with the protagonist's codename of Snake and only getting more overt from there.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, director John Carpenter said that CanalPlus, the company with which he owns the rights to Escape to New York, wanted to sue Kojima.

"CanalPlus wanted to go after the video game Metal Gear Solid, which is kind of a rip-off of Escape From New York, too," he said.

"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."

The topic arose as Carpenter was discussing CanalPlus's successful legal tussle with Lockout writer Luc Besson - so it's possible such a suit might have gone ahead if Carpenter hadn't said no. If only Besson had also been nice to Carpenter, he might not be €80,000 out of pocket.