The Origin of Solid Snake

This is one of my favorite video-game characters. It’s Solid Snake from the Metal Gear video game series, as you can see the character below.

 The Legendary Solid Snake

Briefly, Solid Snake is a special operation agent, super-spy, and as well as a war hero worked for the government to undergo various black operations upon incidents that mostly involving terrorists with their bipedal robots carrying nuclear weapon, which are the Metal Gear themselves. He is a super soldier with IQ 180 and able to speak 6 languages fluently. Due to its outstanding competency and professionalism in every assignment he handles, he is known as the man who changes impossible to possible (sounds so hyperbolic huh??  ;p).

This character was created by Hideo Kojima, the father of Metal Gear series, in 1987 and was incepted in his first game. In making the character, the creator has been influenced by many western movies. One of the movies which give the heaviest influence is Escape from New York premiered in 1981. Here’s the trailer:

(Note: I've already watched the movie this week. If you're interested in watching that oldie movie, come and get it! ;p) 

The main protagonist is the one that the creator of the game referred to, as he is named Bob “Snake” Plissken. Just like Solid Snake, Plissken is a war hero turned to be a criminal. He is recalled for duty by the US government to do difficult tasks, in which he must rescue the president from the hands of the criminals in New York city alone and within 24 hours, though he managed to do such difficult assignment.  

Snake Plissken, portrayed by Kurt Russel in the sequel of John Carpenter's movie Escape from L.A. in 1996.

Besides having the same code name as “Snake”, both characters share mutual features, as they are special operatives under the government and as well as war heroes. They’re all good at fighting and shooting guns. They don’t working in team, rather they do their action in the field alone (though only back-ups from their comrades through radio and allies they found during their assignment). Last but not least, they are the men who are able to change impossible to possible.

When I saw the movie and the main protagonist being named as Snake Plissken, I started to sat to myself “Hey, is that the guy from the Metal Gear games?”. Observing from the appearance of Plissken, his hair style, his eye patch and how he dressed up, I thought that he was the copy of the Solid Snake! And how come was Solid Snake being copied by the western? That was my question. After some research, I found that the name “Plissken” was used by Solid Snake for his alias in the game of “Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty”. However, the name was spelt differently as “Pliskin”. From there, I may conclude that the adoption of such name indicates how the character of the movie has influence the creator of the game to bring the mimic character into reality.

       

That’s all my research, and if you guys are the fan of Metal Gear series or researchers of the game or the movie, I welcome you to share all your thoughts here! Thanks! XD 

Best of Solid Snake 
(from the video game of "Metal Gear Solid: the Twin Snakes", as he confronted Gray Fox)