Hideo Kojima Watched Ridley Scott’s ‘The Dog Stars’ in a Japanese 4DX Theater, and He Has Thoughts

Ridley Scott has never shied away from ambitious world-building on screen, and his latest post-apocalyptic drama has been generating exactly the kind of mixed, deeply discussed reactions his work tends to attract. The film has drawn attention not just from critics, but from unexpected corners of the entertainment world eager to weigh in on its themes and execution.

That includes legendary video game creator Hideo Kojima, known for his own genre-blending, atmospheric storytelling in titles like ‘Death Stranding.’ Kojima recently shared his reaction to the film on social media after catching a screening in Japan, offering a detailed, thoughtful breakdown that touched on everything from its literary source material to its musical score.

‘The Dog Stars,’ directed by Scott and starring Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, Guy Pearce, Allison Janney and Benedict Wong, follows Hig, a pilot living in an abandoned Colorado airplane hangar alongside his dog and a paranoid ex-Marine survivalist after a pandemic devastates most of the world’s population. The film is based on Peter Heller’s 2012 novel of the same name, released in Japan under the title “Itsuka Boku ga Kaeru Basho,” or “The Place I’ll Return to Someday.”

In his post, Kojima revealed the novel had actually been sitting unread on his bookshelf for years before the movie’s release finally prompted him to pick it up conceptually, since he went into the theater without having read it. “Peter Heller’s original novel, ‘The Dog Stars’… has been sitting on my bookshelf for years, unread. Since it’s literary fiction rather than science fiction, I went to see the movie picturing it might be something along the lines of Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Road,'” Kojima wrote.

That comparison to McCarthy’s iconic post-apocalyptic novel isn’t one Kojima invented out of nowhere. Critics reviewing Heller’s original book have frequently drawn the same parallel over the years, often noting the shared sparse, survivalist tone even as they debate how closely the two works actually resemble each other in substance.

Beyond the literary comparison, Kojima also praised the film’s score, composed by Harry Gregson-Williams, and noted that Japanese theaters weren’t selling a program pamphlet for the release, a small but notable detail for a director known for paying close attention to the physical, tactile side of moviegoing. Kojima’s images accompanying the post showed him at a 4DX screening, alongside the film’s Japanese poster art.

Kojima’s reaction arrives amid a genuinely divided critical response to the film since its August 28 theatrical release. Some outlets have praised it as among Scott’s more restrained, emotionally grounded efforts in years, while others have described it as surprisingly inert for a director of his stature, with several reviews noting Gregson-Williams’ score as one of the film’s more consistent strengths regardless of overall opinion.

The film also underwent a notable casting change during production, with Elordi stepping into the lead role after Paul Mescal, originally attached to play Hig, exited due to scheduling conflicts. Whatever the film’s ultimate critical fate, Kojima’s detailed public reaction adds another layer to a rollout that’s already sparked plenty of discussion across both the film and gaming worlds.

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