12 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About Metal Gear Solid

In an interview with an old magazine you can see Kojima describe how he initially wanted Snake to be "an older, hard boiled character" but artist Yoji Shinkawa reined him into being "between 20 to 40", leading to Hideo mentioning that Snake is a hybrid of Van Damme's "body movement and build" as well as having a face "something like Christopher Walken".

Although Snake's Pliskin name is a reference to Kurt's character from Escape from New York, Kojima stated that "Snake as a character has his roots in the 2D games" alongside the above excerpt confirming it was actually Van Damme and Walken whose combined features were the base for Snake.