Kojima Claims Metal Gear Solid 5 Will Critique Hollywood’s Portrayal of U.S. Policies

Hideo Kojima claims that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will question Hollywood's portrayal of American policies.

In an interview with The Guardian, the real Big Boss of the Metal Gear Solid series, Hideo Kojima, explained that the events of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain's story will revolve around US policies and encourages players to think about the ongoing cycles of war that exist between the world's superpowers. For example, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes took place at an off-the-grid US base in Cuba, heavily alluding that it was the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, which has a past heavy past with torturing its prisoners, who tend to be terror suspects and war criminals. As we saw with Chico's treatment in Ground Zeroes, Kojima suggests that the supposed torturing can become really brutal, regardless of the age or sex of the prisoner. This leaves us questioning just how far we are willing to go to fight the war on terror.

“In the past the US was the centre of the world, where everything was happening,” Kojima said. “I think my stories have always sought to question this, maybe even criticise it. But the situation is changing. America is not seen as the centre of the world any more. So the focus of my stories is shifting alongside with that change in the real world.”

While we don't particularly agree with his claims, Kojima mentions that Hollywood films always depict the US military as nothing but heroes, and he wants to show that this isn't always the case. Obviously, Kojima never watched 'Platoon.' Mind you, Big Boss was a decorated, American war hero who turned his back on his country after what happened to The Boss during the events of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

“[Guantanamo] was definitely something that I made decision to address in the game,” Kojima said. “Hollywood continues to present the US army as being the good guys, always defeating the aliens or foreigners. I am trying to shift that focus. These movies might not be the only way to view current affairs. I am trying to present an alternate view in these games.”

Hideo Kojima also mentioned that the overarching story of the Metal Gear series is to show his clear opposition towards nuclear weapons . He said that Snake's Mother Base is the perfect example of this how things go wrong just with the presence of one nuke. Mother Base started off as a small mercenary company that was eventually noticed by the world. The second the world found out that Mother Base had a nuclear device (equipped on Metal Gear Zeke), countries considered Snake's company a threat.

"At this point I give the player the option to think about acquiring a nuclear weapon, in order to deter these attacks, a kind of threat. It illustrates the cycle of nuclear weapons, what inspires people and nations to enter into that system," Kojima said.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is due in early 2015 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

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