Over the last few weeks there has been this wild theory that Kojima Productions used the likeness of an Italian neurosurgeon Dr. Canavero in its upcoming game, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. When Dr. Canavero got wind of this information, he apparently told the press he is planning to sue Konami and Hideo Kojima for using his head transplant theory in The Phantom Pain without his permission. You can read all about it over here and here.
However, on revisiting this topic, I found a number of crazy coincidences that might possibly indicat that this is all one giant ruse and a publicity stunt for The Phantom Pain. As usual, this piece of information should be taken with a massive grain of salt.
Back during E3 2013, Konami released a poster which showed Big Boss in an x-ray vision. Everything apart from the head is envisioned through x ray, possibly indicating that the plot has something to do with head transplants. You can check out the image above.
THE BIG CHILL (1983)
DIRECTOR - LAWRENCE KASDAN
#movie #screenshot #title #BIGCHILL pic.twitter.com/vJeLROZYXJ
— Movie Title Screen (@FILMTITLESCREEN) September 4, 2014
Back in September 2014, Twitter user Movie Title Screen tweeted The Big Chill, a movie released in 1983, directed by Lawrence Kasdan. Coincidentally, The Big Chill is also the name of the chapter in a book written by Dr. Canavero. To make matters more interesting, David Hayer actually re-tweeted that tweet.
Received a gift, THE NEW DIVISION's new album,"GEMINI" coming out on 6/23.
Single "EYES" is out today.
pic.twitter.com/3huCSFTbDp”
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) April 28, 2015Last month Kojima tweeted that he received a gift in the form of a new album titled Gemini from The New Division. Guess what, Gemini is also the name of a chapter in the same book that I mentioned above. Furthermore, the album art depicts a split. A similar thematic has been used in previous Metal Gear Solid games to depict the split between Zero and Big Boss. See how Kojima has capitalized DIVISION, GEMINI and EYES, possibly hinting to the plot line in The Phantom Pain.
On 11th April, a twitter user tweeted about the similarities between the doctor in The Phantom Pain and Dr. Canavero. The tweet was favorited by the official TEDxLimassol account [spotted by Reddit user thabtouk]. What exactly is TEDxLimassol? Well, TEDxLimassol was the conference where Dr. Canavero gave his speech on head transplant.
Please note that I am not saying Dr. Canavero is a fake doctor. He has years of experience and has written books from the medical field but I have a strong feeling that he is the ally that Kojima was talking about way back in 2010.
The translation reads: “The next project will challenge a certain type of taboo. If I mess up, I’ll probably have to leave the industry. However, I don’t want to pass by avoiding that. I turn 47 this year. It’s been 24 years since I started making games. Today, I got an ally who would happily support me in that risk. Although it’s just one person. For a start, it’s good,” Kojima tweeted in 2010.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think Kojima and Dr. Canavero are working together for mutual marketing purposes? Sounds off in the comments section below.
