Hideo Kojima calls Martin Scorsese the “second god” to another director, the 80-year-old who made perhaps the best movie of the 2010s. The video game designer behind Metal Gear, Zone of the Enders and Death Stranding is hardly the only person to express admiration for the director behind Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, The Departed, and countless more movie classics.

Kojima’s games are indeed quite cinematic themselves, and groundbreaking besides, so it should come as no surprise that he draws inspiration from one of real cinema’s greatest and most innovative artists. But one Scorsese film stands above all others according to the legendary game designer. Naming his favorite films of all-time, Kojima cited Taxi Driver among his top four. But he also praised a film by another director for whom he has revealed even greater reverence.

Kojima Calls Scorsese The “Second God” Behind Only Mad Max: Fury Road Director George Miller

Fury Road Was ScreenRant’s Best Movie Of The 2010s

Kojima indeed loves the works of Scorsese, but his first god is George Miller, whose Mad Max: Fury Road topped ScreenRant’s ranking of the best movies of the 2010s. Kojima’s own top four includes the Mad Max sequel, along with Taxi Driver, Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and Kurosawa’s High and Low.

When it comes to the question of which filmmaker Kojima admires most, the director of ScreenRant’s best 2010s movie ranked above Scorsese. Asked in an interview if he uses the social media platform Letterboxd, the Metal Gear mastermind indicated that he’s never heard of it. Upon being told that Scorsese uses it, he replied with glowing praise, while revealing the filmmaker he ranks at number one (via GQ):

If Scorsese’s doing it, I can’t criticize Scorsese. He’s the second god. The first is George Miller.

Our Take On Kojima Ranking Miller Above Scorsese

Kojima Gave Miller A Cameo In One Of His Games

Kojima’s games all lean strongly toward action, and his Death Stranding series takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting, so there is nothing at all surprising about him loving arguably the greatest post-apocalyptic action movie of all-time. Scorsese’s work sometimes includes action, but mostly he makes dramas that derive their excitement from filmmaking technique and great needle-drops, more than gunplay, stunts or vehicular chases.

Kojima respects Scorsese’s work, particularly Taxi Driver, but one would expect him to place Miller at the top of his personal ranking. Not only has he expressed his love for Miller’s work in the past, heaping praise on 2024’s divisive Furiosa, he even used the director’s likeness in his Death Stranding 2 тιтle, a fitting gesture given Miller’s influence on his games.

The admiration between Kojima and Miller is indeed a two-way street. Back in 2024, the Fury Road director discussed 2015’s Mad Max video game, expressing disapproval, while tapping Kojima as the man to make a proper game set in the Mad Max universe. Given Kojima’s obvious love for the Mad Max saga, it seems he would indeed be the perfect person to create a game that lives up to the cinematic glories of Miller’s films. Even wilder would be a Kojima-made Taxi Driver game, but that might be wishing for too much.

Source: GQ