Summary

• Kurt Russell's role in Escape from New York paved the way for characters like Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid.
• Executive Decision, starring Russell, feels more like Metal Gear Solid's gameplay with its slow-burn tension and strategic elements.
• Russell's refusal to voice Snake in Metal Gear Solid 3 shows his commitment to creating new characters over revisiting old ones.

A 1990s Kurt Russell thriller has more in common with the Metal Gear Solid franchise than its more obvious inspiration, Escape from New York. John Carpenter and Kurt Russell's movies were a truly blessed run, resulting in classics like The Thing and Big Trouble in Little China. Their first theatrical outing, Escape from New York made Russell a movie star, with his role as nihilistic ex-soldier Snake Plissken shattering his typecasting as a Disney teen actor. The film's incredible premise, Russell's lead performance and Carpenter's taut direction made it a hit in 1981.

While Plissken should have become Russell's version of James Bond, he only revisited the character once for 1996's disappointing Escape from L.A. Both the original movie and Russell's character would prove influential on future movies, shows and video games. From Schwarzenegger's The Running Man to anime Cyber City Oedo 808 or even Batman: Arkham City, the DNA of Carpenter's dystopian nightmare has spread far. One of Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima's favorite movies is Escape from New York and he has often confessed its influence on his series, from sharing protagonists named Snake to having his characters infiltrating impenetrable fortresses.

Kurt Russell's Executive Decision Is The Closest Thing To A Live-Action Metal Gear Solid Movie

Russell's 1996 thriller is more than just "Die Hard on a Plane"

Executive Decision feels more like Metal Gear Solid, where Kurt Russell and the other soldiers have to sneak around the hijacked plane, avoiding roaming guards, gathering intel, defusing bombs and so on.

Russell had a solid run of successes during the 1990s, including Tombstone and Stargate. Another was Executive Decision, one of many "Die Hard on a Blank" movies from this era, which also include Steven Seagal's Under Siege or Van Damme's Sudden Death. The film sees Russell's intelligence consultant infiltrate a hijacked plane in midair, alongside Special Forces soldiers. In a shock twist, Steven Seagal's Executive Decision team leader is killed mid-transfer, so Russell and the survivors must figure out a way to save the day without his guidance.

Despite the premise, this Kurt Russell movie is a slow-burn thriller that is surprisingly light on action. In fact, Executive Decision feels more like Metal Gear Solid, where Russell and the other soldiers have to sneak around the hijacked plane, avoiding roaming guards, gathering intel, defusing bombs and so on. Russell's Grant isn't like Snake Plissken or Solid Snake at all, being more of a dweeby civilian forced to raise to the occasion following Seagal's demise.

Even so, there's a sequence where Russell holds a silenced pistol identical to the one used by Snake in Metal Gear Solid, and he gets to perform some heroics in the finale. Tension is the name of the game in Executive Decision, with the protagonists having to constantly be aware of the noise they're making, while a booby-trapped bomb requires night vision goggles to see laser tripwires to disarm. A similar sequence can be found in Kojima's Metal Gear Solid too.

Russell's Snake Plissken Was A Huge Inspiration On Metal Gear Solid

There is no Solid Snake/Big Boss without Kurt Russell

Russell's Executive Decision hero may resemble Plisskin in personality, but his presence alone makes the connections between the film, Escape from New York and Metal Gear Solid unavoidable. Kojima actually based the original 1987 Metal Gear on several sources like The Great Escape, but the Carpenter film and the character of Snake Plissken were the key inspirations. Kojima would only underline these inspirations in later entries too, with both Snake and Big Boss donning eye patches not unlike Plissken's.

John Carpenter later successfully sued producer Luc Besson over his space prison action movie Lockout, claiming the 2012 film heavily plagiarised Escape from New York.

Russell's antihero and Metal Gear's Snake both have mullets, prefer sneaking to killing, and get captured and tortured. In the case of 1998's Metal Gear Solid, Snake is injected with a virus that will kill him in the event of mission failure, while Plissken is injected with neck bombs to keep him focused. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty even involves the President being kidnapped and needing to be saved, with the story ending in New York itself.

For fans of Escape from New York who were disappointed Plissken didn't appear in more sequels, Kojima's games are the perfect remedy. It should be noted that despite their innate cynicism, both Big Boss and his son/clone Solid Snake are more optimistic characters than Russell's Plissken. The latter has no friends or higher ideals he aspires to, and his sole motivation is to stay alive.

Why Kurt Russell Turned Down The Chance To Voice Snake In Metal Gear Solid 3

Big Boss almost sounded like Snake Plissken in 2005's Snake Eater

Devotees of the Metal Gear Solid franchise were stunned when it was announced longtime Snake voice actor David Hayter had been replaced by Kiefer Sutherland for The Phantom Pain. According to a Game Informer interview with Hayter in 2016, this wasn't the first time the game's creator had tried to replace him, revealing Hideo Kojima wanted none other than Kurt Russell to voice Snake (AKA Big Boss) in 2005's Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. When Russell passed on the offer, Hayter had to reaudition to voice the part.

In a 2024 conversation with GQ, Russell himself was asked about passing on Snake Eater. The star explained that he is a "movie guy," and once he moves on from a role, he'd rather do something "fresh." It appears the absence of John Carpenter in the project would also have been a dealbreaker.

I wasn’t interested in expanding, financially, off of something that we had created, or that I had created in terms of character. I get business people, sure. ‘We could do this with that, or we could do this with that.’ I look at it and go, ‘That’s not written by John [Carpenter]. That doesn’t smell right.’ John’s not here to do this with. I’m not going to do that. Let’s go do something new. Let’s go do something fresh. Let’s go create another iconic character rather than saying, ‘What can we bleed off of this iconic character?’

The Perfect Role For Kurt Russell In A Metal Gear Solid Movie

Executive Decision is about the closest thing to a Metal Gear movie that fans have currently

Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts is currently signed to helm the live-action Metal Gear Solid movie, with Oscar Isaac attached to play Solid Snake. Sadly, the project appears to be caught in development hell, with little in the way of concrete updates since Issac became attached in 2020. For the time being, Executive Decision is about as close to a realization of Metal Gear Solid's gameplay that players can experience, but if the film does move forward, Kurt Russell is perfect casting for the older Big Boss.

The film needs to acknowledge the debt the entire series owes to Escape from New York and Snake Plissken, and casting Russell as Big Boss does that in one fell swoop. Plus, Boss is a complex character in his own right, and while the eyepatch would be a visual reminder of Russell's time playing Snake, the two aren't alike in persona. Plissken is one of the most dangerous men alive but would rather be left alone, while Boss wants to create a world where soldiers always have a war to fight.

Great as Russell's casting would be, the similarities to Escape from New York may also turn him off the role. He's even ruled out a return as an older version of Snake Plissken, again citing the lack of involvement from Carpenter. Those waiting on a live-action Metal Gear Solid would do well to check out both Escape from New York and Executive Decision, with a double bill of the pair being the closest approximation of a potential movie. If they released a director's cut of Executive Decision that gave Russell's character a CGI eyepatch, all the better.

Source: Game Informer, GQ