Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s DIGGER reminded Kojima of Kubrick’s Dr.…

Kojima first discovered 2001 in 1978, in his third year of junior high, when he bought a mook—purchased for its Star Wars coverage—that also included full-color images, diagrams and interviews about Kubrick’s film. As a reader of hard SF who dreamed of becoming an astronaut, he felt more drawn to 2001 than to space-opera. While waiting for a rerelease he read Arthur C. Clarke’s novel and listened to a radio-play adaptation, and he was fortunate to see the film for the first time in Cinerama in Osaka. From then on he attended every subsequent rerelease on the big screen.

Kojima described Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s DIGGER as a frightening film that turns things actually happening into comedy, rather than depicting falling meteorites or attacking aliens. He was surprised by its dual structure of film and theatre: the theatrical performance ultimately appears as the past, not the future.

Kojima said he had waited until the interview was released before posting his thoughts on director Iñárritu’s “DIGGER.” He said everyone living in today’s world should see it and described it as a work that remains with its audience, provokes reflection, and sounds alarms; he added that absorbing and carrying the film would shape a tool for delving deeper into the future and that the film would stay by the viewer’s side for years.

“And in these dark times, this film gave me courage and laughter and tears from how moved I was. […] I really felt the power of entertainment.”

In his conversation with Alejandro G. Iñárritu about DIGGER, Kojima recalled depicting social media taking on a kind of life in Metal Gear Solid 2 (2001), something he felt had now become reality. He saw a structural similarity with DIGGER: untruths swell until they change politics and daily life, leaving people feeling as though they are on a stage being moved by some other force.