The New James Bond Copies 'Metal Gear Solid' (Who Copied James Bond First)

This Contains No Time To Die Spoilers That Are Likely To Both Shake And Stir You.

For a while, the Mass Effect series enjoyed being the only game series that graduated from taking inspiration from film to getting ripped off by pretty much every modern sci-fi film and/or TV series. Not anymore, as the sexy space adventure has now been joined by the Metal Gear Solid series, courtesy of No Time To Die taking its biggest moment straight out of Snake's solid hands.

Now, let's be clear: The MGS series likely owes its very existence to the 007 film series. The tactical espionage action series draws so much from Ian Fleming's work that the third game in the series is straight-up structured like a Bond film, cool intro video tune and all.

Hell, James Bond references are the one thing director Hideo Kojima wasn't trying to be sneaky about:

But, in 2021, the turns sure have tabled. With the 007 brand enjoying a nice sewage sauna after Spectre disappointed, the people behind the 007 series stumbled into something that sounds way too similar to the plot of the original Metal Gear Solid. 

In the '98 title, a big twist near the end reveals that the main character has been infected by a nanomachine virus that's programed to murder specific targets that he comes in contact with. It's an effective fail-safe for Snake's employees that guarantees the job gets done, as well as a way to make sure cutscenes don't run too long.

With No Time To Die, it feels like the 007 producers came back to collect whatever creative inspiration they were owed. In the film, the villain's main doomsday weapon thingy is also a nanomachine virus that kills not the person infected but specific targets who come in contact with that person. In hindsight, it's cool that they didn't go with a biological virus in a movie made in 2020, but there are many techno babbly-y ways to go about it that aren't all about:

James Bond gets killed. He's so dead he'll probably take three years to reboot himself back to life. Worst of all, that's merely tangential to what we're talking about here, but we had to make good on our threat.

In both properties, it's the main character who gets infected without his knowledge, which takes away the agency of both protagonists when it comes to killing the main bad guys from their respective series.

There's no clip of Bond accidentally killing Blofeld in No Time To Die uploaded yet, but we can further spoil you by confirming that it totally happens. It's extremely jarring, especially when taking into account how the previous film's climax had Bond refusing to kill Blofeld despite him completely ruining Bond's life.

The virus also prevents Bond from ever being with those he loves, thus turning a seemingly run-of-the-mill weapon into an interesting vehicle for introspection that requires meaningful action. Please remember that a game did it first. An official film adaptation of the MGS series is in production, and, in case they stick to the plot of the first game, it's very likely that the larger audiences of 007 films will pan it as a straight-up copy of the most recent 007 film, something that couldn't be farther from the truth.

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Top Image: MGM