Cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson credits the film as an influence on his 1984 science fiction novel "Neuromancer". "I was intrigued by the exchange in one of the opening scenes where the Warden says to Snake 'You flew the Gullfire over Leningrad, didn't you?' It turns out to be just a throwaway line, but for a moment it worked like the best SF where a casual reference can imply a lot". Popular video game director Hideo Kojima has referred to the film frequently as an influence on his work, in particular the "Metal Gear" series. Solid Snake is partially influenced by the character Snake Plissken. In ' Snake uses the alias "Pliskin" to hide his real identity during most of the game. J. J. Abrams, producer of the 2008 film "Cloverfield", mentioned that a scene in his film, which shows the head of the Statue of Liberty crashing into a New York street, was inspired by the poster for "Escape from New York". "Empire" magazine ranked Snake Plissken #29 in their "The 100 Greatest Movie Characters" poll.