How is osmosis achieved?

Osmosis () is the spontaneous net movement of solvent molecules through a selectively permeable membrane into a region of higher solute concentration, in the direction that tends to equalize the solute concentrations on the two sides. It may also be used to describe a physical process in which any solvent moves across a selectively permeable membrane (permeable to the solvent, but not the solute) separating two solutions of different concentrations. Osmosis can be made to do work. Osmotic pressure is defined as the external pressure required to be applied so that there is no net movement of solvent across the membrane. Osmotic pressure is a colligative property, meaning that the osmotic pressure depends on the molar concentration of the solute but not on its identity.

Osmosis

Osmosis is a vital process in biological systems, as biological membranes are semipermeable. In general, these membranes are impermeable to large and polar molecules, such as ions, proteins, and polysaccharides, while being permeable to non-polar or hydrophobic molecules like lipids as well as to small molecules like oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and nitric oxide. Permeability depends on solubility, charge, or chemistry, as well as solute size. Water molecules travel through the plasma membrane, tonoplast membrane (vacuole) or protoplast by diffusing across the phospholipid bilayer via aquaporins (small transmembrane proteins similar to those responsible for facilitated diffusion and ion channels). Osmosis provides the primary means by which water is transported into and out of cells. The turgor pressure of a cell is largely maintained by osmosis across the cell membrane between the cell interior and its relatively hypotonic environment.

Some kinds of osmotic flow have been observed since ancient times, e.g., on the construction of Egyptian pyramids. Jean-Antoine Nollet first documented observation of osmosis in 1748. The word "osmosis" descends from the words "endosmose" and "exosmose", which were coined by French physician René Joachim Henri Dutrochet (1776–1847) from the Greek words ἔνδον ("éndon" "within"), ἔξω ("éxō" "outer, external"), and ὠσμός ("ōsmós" "push, impulsion"). In 1867, Moritz Traube invented highly selective precipitation membranes, advancing the art and technique of measurement of osmotic flow.

Osmosis is the movement of a solvent across a semipermeable membrane toward a higher concentration of solute (lower concentration of solvent). In biological systems, the solvent is typically water, but osmosis can occur in other liquids, supercritical liquids, and even gases.

When a cell is submerged in water, the water molecules pass through the cell membrane from an area of low solute concentration to high solute concentration. For example, if the cell is submerged in saltwater, water molecules move out of the cell. If a cell is submerged in freshwater, water molecules move into the cell. When the membrane has a volume of pure water on both sides, water molecules pass in and out in each direction at exactly the same rate. There is no net flow of water through the membrane.

The mechanism responsible for driving osmosis has commonly been represented in biology and chemistry texts as either the dilution of water by solute (resulting in lower concentration of water on the higher solute concentration side of the membrane and therefore a diffusion of water along a concentration gradient) or by a solute's attraction to water (resulting in less free water on the higher solute concentration side of the membrane and therefore net movement of water toward the solute). Both of these notions have been conclusively refuted.

The diffusion model of osmosis is rendered untenable by the fact that osmosis can drive water across a membrane toward a higher concentration of water. The "bound water" model is refuted by the fact that osmosis is independent of the size of the solute molecules—a colligative property—or how hydrophilic they are.

It is hard to describe osmosis without a mechanical or thermodynamic explanation, but essentially there is an interaction between the solute and water that counteracts the pressure that otherwise free solute molecules would exert. One fact to take note of is that heat from the surroundings is able to be converted into mechanical energy (water rising).

Many thermodynamic explanations go into the concept of chemical potential and how the function of the water on the solution side differs from that of pure water due to the higher pressure and the presence of the solute counteracting such that the chemical potential remains unchanged. The virial theorem demonstrates that attraction between the molecules (water and solute) reduces the pressure, and thus the pressure exerted by water molecules on each other in solution is less than in pure water, allowing pure water to "force" the solution until the pressure reaches equilibrium.

Osmotic pressure is the main cause of support in many plants. The osmotic entry of water raises the turgor pressure exerted against the cell wall, until it equals the osmotic pressure, creating a steady state.

When a plant cell is placed in a solution that is hypertonic relative to the cytoplasm, water moves out of the cell and the cell shrinks. In doing so, the cell becomes "flaccid". In extreme cases, the cell becomes plasmolyzed – the cell membrane disengages with the cell wall due to lack of water pressure on it.

When a plant cell is placed in a solution that is hypotonic relative to the cytoplasm, water moves into the cell and the cell swells to become "turgid".

Osmosis is responsible for the ability of plant roots to draw water from the soil. Plants concentrate solutes in their root cells by active transport, and water enters the roots by osmosis. Osmosis is also responsible for controlling the movement of guard cells.

Osmosis can be demonstrated when potato slices are added to a high salt solution. The water from inside the potato moves out to the solution, causing the potato to shrink and to lose its 'turgor pressure'. The more concentrated the salt solution, the bigger the difference in size and weight of the potato slice.

In unusual environments, osmosis can be very harmful to organisms. For example, freshwater and saltwater aquarium fish placed in water of a different salinity than that to which they are adapted to will die quickly, and in the case of saltwater fish, dramatically. Another example of a harmful osmotic effect is the use of table salt to kill leeches and slugs.

Suppose an animal or a plant cell is placed in a solution of sugar or salt in water.

Essentially, this means that if a cell is put in a solution which has a solute concentration higher than its own, it will shrivel, and if it is put in a solution with a lower solute concentration than its own, the cell will swell and may even burst.

Chemical gardens demonstrate the effect of osmosis in inorganic chemistry.

As mentioned before, osmosis may be opposed by increasing the pressure in the region of high solute concentration with respect to that in the low solute concentration region. The force per unit area, or pressure, required to prevent the passage of water (or any other high-liquidity solution) through a selectively permeable membrane and into a solution of greater concentration is equivalent to the osmotic pressure of the solution, or turgor. Osmotic pressure is a colligative property, meaning that the property depends on the concentration of the solute, but not on its content or chemical identity.

The osmotic gradient is the difference in concentration between two solutions on either side of a semipermeable membrane, and is used to tell the difference in percentages of the concentration of a specific particle dissolved in a solution.

Usually the osmotic gradient is used while comparing solutions that have a semipermeable membrane between them allowing water to diffuse between the two solutions, toward the hypertonic solution (the solution with the higher concentration). Eventually, the force of the column of water on the hypertonic side of the semipermeable membrane will equal the force of diffusion on the hypotonic (the side with a lesser concentration) side, creating equilibrium. When equilibrium is reached, water continues to flow, but it flows both ways in equal amounts as well as force, therefore stabilizing the solution.

Reverse osmosis is a separation process that uses pressure to force a solvent through a semi-permeable membrane that retains the solute on one side and allows the pure solvent to pass to the other side, forcing it from a region of high solute concentration through a membrane to a region of low solute concentration by applying a pressure in excess of the osmotic pressure.

Osmosis may be used directly to achieve separation of water from a solution containing unwanted solutes. A "draw" solution of higher osmotic pressure than the feed solution is used to induce a net flow of water through a semi-permeable membrane, such that the feed solution becomes concentrated as the draw solution becomes dilute. The diluted draw solution may then be used directly (as with an ingestible solute like glucose), or sent to a secondary separation process for the removal of the draw solute. This secondary separation can be more efficient than a reverse osmosis process would be alone, depending on the draw solute used and the feedwater treated. Forward osmosis is an area of ongoing research, focusing on applications in desalination, water purification, water treatment, food processing, and other areas of study.


Did Lou Lombardo have a wife?

Lombardo and his wife, Lynn, had two daughters and a son, Tony Lombardo, who also became a film editor. In addition to his son, Lombardo mentored Dennis M. Hill and Paul Rubell in the early stages of their careers. Lombardo was interviewed about his career by Vincent LoBrutto in 1991. In that same year, he suffered a stroke that left him comatose until his death in 2002.

Lou Lombardo (filmmaker)

Lou Lombardo (February 15, 1932 – May 8, 2002) was an American filmmaker whose editing of the 1969 film "The Wild Bunch" has been called "seminal". In all, Lombardo is credited on more than twenty-five feature films. Noted mainly for his work as a film and television editor, he also worked as a cameraman, director, and producer. In his obituary, Stephen Prince wrote, "Lou Lombardo's seminal contribution to the history of editing is his work on "The Wild Bunch" (1969), directed by Sam Peckinpah. The complex montages of violence that Lombardo created for that film influenced generations of filmmakers and established the modern cinematic textbook for editing violent gun battles." Several critics have remarked on the "strange, elastic quality" of time in the film, and have discerned the film's influence in the work of directors John Woo, Quentin Tarantino, Kathryn Bigelow, and the Wachowskis, among others. While Lombardo's collaboration with Peckinpah lasted just a few years, his career was intertwined with that of director Robert Altman for more than thirty years. Lombardo edited Altman's 1971 film "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" (1971), which had "a radical approach to the use of dialogue and indeed other sound, both in and beyond the frame." Towards the end of his career Lombardo edited "Moonstruck" (1987) and two other films directed by Norman Jewison. While his editing is now considered "revolutionary" and "brilliant", Lombardo was never nominated for editing awards during his career.

Lombardo's career began in Kansas City, where he was Robert Altman's cameraman working on training films and "industrials" for the Calvin Company. Altman ultimately became a prominent feature film director. Lombardo and Altman both relocated to Los Angeles in 1956, where Lombardo was employed as a cameraman by Republic Pictures. Lombardo's goal had been to become a director, and he decided that film editing was a more promising path. Lombardo became an apprentice editor at Revue Studios, at about half the salary he'd received as an assistant cameraman. As was common at that time for studio editors, an editing apprenticeship lasted eight years, during which Lombardo's work was uncredited. At the end of this apprenticeship, Robert Altman used Lombardo to edit a pilot program for television. This led to Lombardo's becoming an editor for the television program "Felony Squad", which ran from 1966–1970.

The first feature film that Lombardo edited was "The Wild Bunch" (1969), which was directed by Sam Peckinpah. It is a Western noted for its violence, which was unusual in its time, and for its innovative and effective storytelling, camerawork, and editing. The film has proven to be profoundly influential long after its 1969 release, and was an inductee of the 1999 National Film Registry list. In 1995 Peter Stack wrote, "It's astonishing how harrowing "The Wild Bunch" is, more than 25 years after it blasted its way onto the big screen to become maybe the best shoot-'em-up ever made, the one that turned meanness into a haunting pictorial poetry and summed up the corruption of guilt, old age and death in the American fantasy of the Old West." Stephen Prince wrote in 1999 that, ""The Wild Bunch" is an epic work, and it has had an epic impact on American cinema" and noted Martin Scorsese's description of the film as "savage poetry". Paul Seydor has described the film as "one of the great masterpieces of world cinema", and then further notes that "Any discussion of "The Wild Bunch" implicitly acknowledges the editing by Lou Lombardo and Robert Wolfe, so integral is it to the style, meaning, and effect of the film. Still, one should at least observe that the art and craft of film editing know no higher peaks than "The Wild Bunch", and very, very few that are anywhere near its summit."

Lombardo became acquainted with Peckinpah when he moonlighted as a cameraman when Peckinpah was directing the television movie "Noon Wine" (1966). Ultimately this connection led to Lombardo's joining Peckinpah to make "The Wild Bunch"; Peckinpah was particularly interested in the editing techniques that Lombardo had devised while editing "Felony Squad". Lombardo described the crucial scene from the television show in a later interview with Vincent LoBrutto, "Joe Don Baker came out and was being shot by all these police. I printed every frame three times and created slow motion. I intercut him being shot, falling, this guy shooting, that guy running, Baker falling. Sam and Phil Feldman, the producer, saw it and said, 'You've got the job – and, as a matter of fact, we'll use that kind of thing.'" The episode of "Felony Squad" was "My Mommy Got Lost." At that time, slow motion cameras were not commonly used for television work. Lombardo used the laborious trick of stretching time by repeating the individual frames of film two or three times, which required that there be a film splice at every frame. There are typically 24 frames of film exposed each second by standard motion picture cameras, so after tripling Lombardo had 72 frames per second. Intercutting involves the splicing of sections of film from different cameras, or from different "takes" of the same scene.

"The Wild Bunch" is bookended by two gun battles, one near the beginning of the film and one near its end. The gun battles are virtuosic demonstrations of the possibilities of film storytelling. Lombardo worked with Peckinpah both to design the camerawork for "The Wild Bunch" and to edit the film. As many as six cameras were filming simultaneously from different locations; the cameras were operating at various film rates from 24 to 120 frames per second. He and Peckinpah then edited the massive length of film footage for six months in Mexico, where the film had been shot. In his 2011 assessment, Daniel Eagan wrote, "The "Wild Bunch" had 3,642 edits, more than five times the Hollywood average for a feature.... Montage this dense hadn't been attempted since Sergei Eisenstein back in the 1920s." Stephen Prince writes, "The editing is audacious and visionary, as the montages bend space and elongate time in a manner whose scope and ferocity was unprecedented in American cinema." In his biography of Peckinpah, Daniel Weddle wrote of the effect: "the action would constantly be shifting from slow to fast to slower still to fast again, giving time within the sequences a strange elastic quality". Gabrielle Murray summarized how "The Wild Bunch" affected filmmaking: "Peckinpah, with the help of the brilliant editor Louis Lombardo and cinematographer Lucien Ballard, developed a stylistic approach that through the use of slow-motion, multi-camera filming and montage editing, seemed to make the violence more intense and visceral."

The immediate inspiration for the gunbattle montage in "The Wild Bunch" was likely the 1967 film, "Bonnie and Clyde", which Peckinpah apparently screened a few days before filming began. "Bonnie and Clyde", which was directed by Arthur Penn and edited by Dede Allen, has a famed scene at its ending showing the killings of Bonnie and Clyde by state police. The scene mixes slow and accelerated motion and several cameras, which were aspects of "The Wild Bunch". Still earlier these techniques had been employed in Akira Kurosawa's films, and in particular in "Seven Samurai" (1954). Kurosawa generally both directed and edited his films. Stephen Prince has written, "The kinetic attributes of Kurosawa's style, then, entered deeply into international cinema. In terms of the representation of violence, they influenced Arthur Penn and Sam Peckinpah and, from there, Hong Kong director John Woo, as well as virtually everybody since. Every filmmaker who uses slow motion, montage, and multiple cameras to stylize violence in the ways that Kurosawa had demonstrated in "Seven Samurai" owes him a great debt." But Tony Williams notes that "The Wild Bunch" "extended those influences in more creative and dynamic ways", and Michael Sragow argued that "Peckinpah did it right in "The Wild Bunch". He produced an American movie that equals or surpasses the best of Kurosawa. Scorsese tries to match it in "Gangs of New York" – and doesn't come close. "The Wild Bunch" is the "Götterdämmerung" of Westerns." "Seven Samurai", "Bonnie and Clyde", and "The Wild Bunch" were all in the listing of the best edited films of all time compiled in 2012 by the Motion Picture Editors Guild.

Many critics have noted the influence of the editing of the setpiece gunbattles in "The Wild Bunch" on later films. Paul Monaco has written, "Lombardo pushed the revolution in Hollywood editing further than anyone else, and "The Wild Bunch" was established at the end of the 1960s as the epitome for fast-paced editing in a narrative film." David A. Cook included an extended list of the film's influences in a 1999 essay. In an interview, the director John Woo, who is widely celebrated for his martial arts films, explicitly acknowledged its influence. Director Quentin Tarantino is often included. Eric Snider writes, "We noted in our discussion of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" that it was a huge influence on Quentin Tarantino. "The Wild Bunch" must sit next to it on Tarantino’s shelf. He and numerous other directors – John Woo, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola – have emulated Peckinpah’s slow-motion violence and realistic bloodletting. Much of what happens in "The Wild Bunch" seems cliche now, so frequently has it been copied and repeated." Director Kathryn Bigelow has written of "The Wild Bunch" that it seemed "almost "gestalt" editing ... because it imploded standard theories ... and was radical and tremendously vibrant." For "The Matrix" (1999, directed by The Wachowskis and edited by Zach Staenberg), Edgar-Hunt and his co-authors write that the "eye-catching violence upgrades the 'bullet ballets' of director Sam Peckinpah and the martial arts movies of Bruce Lee." John Goodman wrote in 2011, "Peckinpah’s combination of different film speeds and his offbeat, elliptical editing style were a revelation. John Woo, and also Takeshi Kitano and Wong Kar-Wai, have referenced Peckinpah’s innovations, but the original still packs the greatest punch for me." Ken Dancyger notes the influence on "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000, directed by Ang Lee and edited by Tim Squyres).

Lombardo edited Peckinpah's next film, "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" (1970). The film itself has not had an impact comparable to that of "The Wild Bunch"; Prince writes that in this film Lombardo and Peckinpah "experimented less successfully with edits combining normal speed and accelerated action." "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" was their last collaboration; Peckinpah approached Lombardo about editing "Straw Dogs", but Lombardo had already contracted to edit "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" with Robert Altman.

Lombardo had worked as a cameraman with director Robert Altman in Kansas City, and the two men both moved to Hollywood in 1956. In the 1970s, Lombardo edited five films directed by Altman, commencing with "Brewster McCloud" (1970) and concluding with "California Split" (1974) just four years later.

Of the five films with Altman, the most influential is likely "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" (1971). The film was selected for the US National Film Registry in 2010. The film has been called an "anti-Western"; McCabe establishes a successful brothel in a mining town, with the essential assistance of its madam, Mrs. Miller. In 1999, Roger Ebert wrote, "Robert Altman has made a dozen films that can be called great in one way or another, but one of them is perfect, and that one is "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" (1971)." Walter Chaw has written, "The father of contemplative American classics like Jim Jarmusch's "Dead Man" and Andrew Dominik's "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford", "McCabe & Mrs. Miller", like "The Wild Bunch", packs every bit the wallop of relevance and currency that it did over three decades ago. No hint of hyperbole, they are two of the best films ever made."

As he had done for Peckinpah on "The Wild Bunch", Lombardo acted as a second unit director for additional film footage. Altman and Lombardo spent nine months editing the film in North Vancouver, close to the location of the filming itself. The editing of the film has apparently never been singled out for critical attention, with the exception of the innovative style of sound editing. In his textbook on film production, Bruce Mamer uses the film to exemplify the blending of dialogue from many speakers, "Robert Altman was famous for using this style of layered dialogue cutting. The frontier barroom scene that opens his "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" (Louis Lombardo, editor) has snippets of conversations underlying the foreground action." Roger Crittenden wrote, "the questions Altman asked about the function of sound encouraged a radical approach to the use of dialogue and indeed other sound, both in and beyond the frame. Lou Lombardo must have played a major part in making the ideas work." Stephen Prince chose a related theme in summarizing Lombardo's collaboration with Altman: "Though his work for Altman was less trendsetting than that for Peckinpah, the partnership with Altman lasted much longer, and Lombardo found the perfect visual rhythms for Altman's wandering and diffuse audio style."

After "California Split" (1974), Altman wanted Lombardo to edit his next film "Nashville" (1975). Lombardo declined because he had turned to directing and producing. Altman chose Sidney Levin to edit, who was then succeeded by Lombardo's assistant editor on several films, Dennis M. Hill. In 1977, Lombardo edited "The Late Show", which was produced by Altman but directed by Robert Benton. "The Late Show" is a film noir detective story; Pauline Kael wrote at the time, ""The Late Show" never lets up; the editing is by Lou Lombardo (who has often worked with Robert Altman) and Peter Appleton, and I can't think of a thriller from the forties that is as tight as this, or has such sustained tension."

Lombardo's final project with Altman was the film "O.C. and Stiggs", which was produced around 1984 and released in 1987. Lombardo left the film before post-production was completed; he is uncredited on the film.

From 1975–1985 Lombardo worked as a producer and director as well as an editor. Lombardo's debut as a director was "Russian Roulette" (1975). The film is an espionage thriller that starred George Segal. A review in "New York Magazine" was unfavorable; "Lou Lombardo directs uninspiredly from a far from inspiring script co-authored by Tom Ardies, the original author of the novel." The film was released for home video in 1986, and has recently been reviewed more favorably.

Lombardo both produced and edited "The Black Bird" (1975), which was a humorous sequel to the film noir classic "The Maltese Falcon"; the film also starred George Segal, and was poorly reviewed upon its release.

Lombardo co-produced Cheech & Chong's first film, "Up in Smoke" (1978), which is now known as the "classic stoner comedy". The film enjoyed great box office success. Lombardo is also credited as the supervising editor on the film.

About 1981 Lombardo directed "P. K. and the Kid", which starred a very young Molly Ringwald. The film was not released until early 1987, when Ringwald had become well-known; it nonetheless attracted little attention.

In 1986 Lombardo returned to editing with the fairly inconsequential "Stewardess School". The film was produced by Phil Feldman, who had produced "The Wild Bunch" about 15 years earlier. Lombardo's next film was "Moonstruck" (1987), which was being directed and produced by Norman Jewison. "Moonstruck" was extremely successful at the box office, garnered three Academy Awards and three additional nominations, and has been well-regarded by many critics. Stephen Prince has written, "Another brilliant editor of late-sixties American cinema, Lou Lombardo (who edited "The Wild Bunch" (1969) to seminal effect) worked sporadically in the eighties and mainly on low-key films ("Moonstruck", "In Country" (1989)) where his editing choices showed the intelligence and subtlety that rarely wins Oscars. The wonderful comic effectiveness and timing of "Moonstruck", for example, depends as much on Lombardo's editing as on John Patrick Shanley's script or the performances by Cher, Nicolas Cage, and the rest of the cast." Lombardo next edited "The January Man" (1989), which was also produced by Jewison but directed by Pat O'Connor. Lombardo worked on five more films through 1991, of which the very popular comedy "Uncle Buck" (1989, written and directed by John Hughes) is likely the best known. The final film edited by Lombardo was still another of Jewison's productions, "Other People's Money" (1991).

Lombardo had been selected as a member of the American Cinema Editors.

This filmography is based on the Internet Movie Database. Lombardo's credits are listed in the first parentheses. The director and release year are indicated in the second.

Lombardo has always kept silent about his family over the years, but his family is rather significant and important; Lombardo married Marion Nigro in a Catholic ceremony in 1951. Lombardo appears to have two brothers named Ralph and Rocco. Lombardo lived in the same modest condominium building on West Ohio Street, on the Near West Side of Chicago, from the time he was married until he became a fugitive in 2005.

Joseph Lombardo

Joseph Patrick "Joey the Clown" Lombardo Sr. (born Giuseppe Lombardi; January 1, 1929), also known as "Joe Padula," "Lumbo," and "Lumpy", is an imprisoned American mafioso and a high-ranking member of the Chicago Outfit crime organization. He was alleged to be the Consigliere of the Outfit.

Lombardo was one of eleven children born to Italian immigrants, Mike Lombardi, a butcher, and Carmela Lombardi. The family, which immigrated from Bari, Italy, was known to be very poor. Lombardo, a high school dropout, at some point changed the final letter of his last name. He joined the Outfit in the 1950s.

Lombardo began his Outfit career as a jewel thief and as a juice loan collector. In 1963, Lombardo was arrested and charged with kidnapping and loan sharking, but he was acquitted after a factory worker who had owed $2,000 and who was behind on his payments could not positively identify Lombardo. The acquittal was Lombardo's 11th in 11 arrests. Lombardo, who by the late 1960s was referred to as an "up-and-comer" in the Chicago Outfit along with Angelo J. LaPietra (known as "The Hook"), would take over the Outfit's operations in Las Vegas in 1971.

In 1982, Lombardo was charged with the extortion of $800,000 from construction owner Robert Kendler and the attempted bribery of Nevada US Senator Howard Cannon to get Cannon to stop or at least delay legislation regulating the trucking industry. Lombardo ultimately was convicted after a co-defendant agreed to testify against him. In 1983, Lombardo was sentenced to 15 years for his role in the bribe conspiracy. Also convicted in the same case was Allen Dorfman, a major figure in the Teamster pension fund scandals of the 1960s and 1970s. Dorfman was murdered shortly after his conviction. In 1986, Lombardo was convicted of maintaining hidden interests in several Strip casinos (including the Stardust Resort & Casino) and for skimming over $2 million in proceeds from 1974 until 1978, and was sentenced to 16 years—later reduced to 14 years.

After Lombardo was released from federal prison on November 13, 1992, he took the unusual step of taking out a small classified ad in the Chicago Tribune that read: "I never took a secret oath, with guns and daggers, pricked my finger, drew blood or burned paper to join a criminal organization. If anyone hears my name used in connection with any criminal activity, please notify the FBI, local police, and my parole officer, Ron Kumke."

In 2003, Chicago newspapers began reporting that federal investigators were looking into solving old mob murders. That is when Lombardo retained the services of long time mob attorney Sidney Korshak paralegal and legal profession prodigy Jacques Darrow Carr, an L.D.A. at law. Carr is a Los Angeles legal professional and a long time Chicago Outfit associate dating back to 1980. In 2003, the FBI swabbed Lombardo for DNA. Federal authorities also notified Lombardo during the probe that his life might be in danger. On April 25, 2005, Lombardo, along with 13 other defendants was indicted as part of the federal government's Operation Family Secrets investigation, which lifted the veil on 18 killings since the 1970s that federal investigators had attributed to the Outfit. Lombardo was indicted for his role in at least one murder, as well as for running a racket based on illegal gambling, loan sharking and murder. As federal agents rounded up the 14 defendants on April 25, 2005, they realized that Lombardo had disappeared and become a fugitive.

While Lombardo's whereabouts were unknown, he wrote letters to his lawyer, Rick Halprin — but directed toward the judge in the trial—in which he claimed to be innocent, requested a very minimal bond, offered to take a lie detector test, and asked to be tried separately from the other defendants in the Family Secrets case—all requests that judge James Zagel denied. The first letter from Lombardo surfaced on May 4, 2005 and was four pages long and riddled with spelling errors. "I am no part of a enterprise or racketeering... have no part in the poker machines, extorcinate loans, gambling and what ever else the indictment says," the letter read. "About the 18 murders in the indictment, I want you to know that I was not privy before the murders, during the murders, and after the murders, and to this present writing to you." Lombardo also told Zagel in the letter, "I am not a violent man in anyway shape or form. I do not own or have any weapons of any kind. if the F.B.I. should find me I will come peacefully and no resistance at all." Lombardo also asked Zagel for "any ideas or suggestion of what I should do," and said the judge can "notify my lawyer" who can "reach me by the media." In August and September 2005, Lombardo sent more letters to his attorney, indicating that he had been following local news coverage of a state hearing involving allegations that the mayor of Rosemont, Illinois had met with several members of the Chicago Outfit. In response, Halprin quipped of his still-at-large client's newspaper-reading habit: "I doubt that he has a home subscription."

The FBI then offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to Lombardo's capture. After nine months at large, a bearded, unkempt Lombardo, with long hair and having gained some weight, finally was captured by FBI agents on January 13, 2006 outside the Elmwood Park, Illinois home of his longtime friend Dominic Calarco. Federal agents had been tipped off to Lombardo's whereabouts after Lombardo had visited dead Outfit mobster Tony Spilotro's dentist brother, Patrick Spilotro, for a decaying tooth. At his arraignment, Lombardo pleaded, "Not guilty." He also revealed that he had atherosclerosis and had not seen a doctor while he was at large because "I was--what do they call it? I was unavailable," prompting laughter in the courtroom.

During the trial, which was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mitchell Mars, T. Markus Funk, and John Scully, Lombardo took the stand in his own defense, denying any involvement in the Seifert murder and claiming to have been at a police station at the time of the slaying, reporting the disappearance of his wallet. Federal prosecutors, however, noted Lombardo's fingerprint on the title application for a car used in the murder of Seifert. In addition, prosecutors pointed out that employees of an electronics store identified Lombardo as the purchaser of a police scanner used in Seifert's murder. In April 2009 "Family Secrets: The Case That Crippled the Chicago Mob" by Jeff Coen, the Chicago Tribune reporter for the trial, was published by Chicago Review Press.

On September 10, 2007, Lombardo was found guilty of racketeering, extortion, and loan sharking. On September 27, 2007, the same jury found Lombardo guilty of the 1974 Seifert murder. On February 2, 2009, Zagel sentenced Lombardo, seated in a wheelchair and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, to life in prison for the convictions. "Mr. Lombardo, you are not like the toxic creature I've seen forming in one of your co-defendants," Zagel told Lombardo, referring to Chicago Outfit hit man Frank Calabrese, Sr., whom Zagel had sentenced to life in prison the previous week. "You evidence some balance and judgment and based on the evidence before me, some ability to charm people. In the end, we are judged by our actions and not on our wit or our smiles...In cases like these, the things that matter most are the worst things we do. The worst things you have done are terrible, and I see no regret in you. I think you felt you were engaged in a game in which you drew satisfaction in how you played the game...It wasn't a game," and it involved, "the destruction of a human life." Zagel agreed with federal prosecutor T. Markus Funk, and sentenced Lombardo to life.

Lombardo and his wife, Marion, divorced in 1991, but Lombardo continued to reside in the same condominium building, moving after his divorce to a basement unit. In 2006, federal prosecutors alleged that Lombardo's divorce was a sham to hide money. "If you think it's a sham divorce, investigate it," Lombardo's attorney Rick Halprin told reporters on February 9, 2006.

Lombardo earned the nickname "The Clown" from his joking nature and from various humorous incidents involving him, including grinning wide for mug shots and for departing a 1981 court appearance at the federal courts building in Chicago holding a Chicago Sun-Times newspaper in front of his face with a hole cut out so he could see. In 2005 Halprin spoke to the Chicago Tribune about his client's nickname saying, "That's a name he doesn't relish, and neither do I. The guy I know is not a clown."

Joseph Lombardo


Why did Hideo Kojima leave Konami?

At the 2013 Game Developers Conference, Kojima unveiled "", which was set to be his final "Metal Gear" work, noting that this time unlike previous announcements that he had stopped working on the series, was very serious about leaving. In March 2015, reports began to surface that Kojima would part ways with longtime publisher Konami after the release of "The Phantom Pain". Konami later stated that they were auditioning for new staff for future "Metal Gear" titles and removed Kojima's name from the series' marketing material. Despite reports that Kojima left the company in October 2015, a spokesman for Konami stated that he was "taking a long time off from work." At The Game Awards 2015, "Metal Gear Solid V" won the awards for Best Action Game and Best Score/Soundtrack, but Kojima did not attend the event, being reportedly barred from attending by Konami. Instead, it was accepted by Kiefer Sutherland on his behalf.

Hideo Kojima

Regarded as an auteur of video games, during his childhood and adolescence he developed a strong passion for action/adventure cinema and literature. He was hired by Konami in 1986 for which he designed and wrote, in 1987, "Metal Gear" for MSX platform, a title that laid the foundations for stealth games and his best known and most appreciated series. The title that consecrated him as one of the most acclaimed video game designers is "Metal Gear Solid", released in 1998 for PlayStation. Other notable video games he directed are visual novels "Snatcher", released in 1988, and "Policenauts", released in 1994.

In 2005, Kojima founded Kojima Productions, a software house controlled by Konami, and by 2011 he rose as vice president of Konami Digital Entertainment.

In 2015, Kojima Productions split from Konami, becoming an independent software company. Kojima announced a collaboration with Sony Interactive Entertainment for a new action game, "Death Stranding", which is currently in development for PlayStation 4. From 2017 to 2018, he also edited a column for Rolling Stone dedicated to cinema, video games and analysis of the differences and similarities between the two mediums.

Kojima was born the youngest of three children in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan. The family moved to Osaka when he was about four years old. The family watched movies every night and he "wasn't allowed to go to bed till the film had finished".

When he was young, the Kojima family moved to a small city called Shirasaki. His family soon moved to Kawanishi, Hyōgo in the Kansai region. He was 13 years old when his father died and Kojima has commented that early on in his life he had to deal with death. Kojima was a latchkey kid, often having to look after himself when he came home from school. Staying at home by himself in isolation still affected him as he stated in a 2004 interview, "[whenever] I travel and stay at a hotel I put the TV on as soon as I enter the room, just to deal with the feeling of loneliness".

He wanted to be an artist, filmmaker, or illustrator, but felt discouraged by the pressure of social norms favoring a stable, salaried job over creative pursuits, and also because his uncle was an artist who struggled to make a living. The death of Kojima's father, which left the entire family poorer, was another reason. As a young adult, he began studying economics while writing short stories in his spare time; he submitted some of these to magazines but was not able to get anything published. He cites that his stories were often 400 pages long while most magazines wanted their short stories to be around 100 pages. Eventually, he shifted his creative focus to making films with a friend who had an 8mm camera.

In an interview on G4's TV series "Icons", Kojima revealed that while studying economics in university, he found himself playing video games during his free time, mainly on the Nintendo Famicom. In his fourth year in university, Kojima surprised his peers by announcing his intentions to join the video game industry, despite initially having ambitions of becoming a film director. He felt a career in video games would be more satisfying. The majority of his friends and peers strongly discouraged Kojima from pursuing video games due to it being a new medium that was not as respected or financially secure. His mother, however, remained supportive which gave Kojima the confidence to go ahead with his dream. He would later reflect positively upon his choice, stating, "The industry was full of dropouts, people who felt like games offered them another chance. I met many people in that same situation; we bonded together through that in some sense". Kojima has cited Shigeru Miyamoto's "Super Mario Bros." (1985) and Yuji Horii's "The Portopia Serial Murder Case" (1983) as the games that inspired him to make this decision. He cited "Hydlide"s open world game design as an influence. His literary influences include Kobo Abe, Ryu Murakami, Yukio Mishima, Kazuaki Takano, Project Itoh, Yasutaka Tsutsui, Seicho Matsumoto, Richard Levinson, William Link, and Paul Auster.

After initial failed attempts to break into the video game industry, Kojima joined video game publisher Konami's MSX home computer division in 1986 as a designer and planner. Initially, he was disappointed with his assignment, and desired to work on Nintendo Entertainment System and arcade games instead—Kojima felt the color palette of the system was too restrictive. Kojima's gameplay ideas were often overlooked initially, and due to his lack of familiarity with programming was repeatedly snubbed for his failures in his initial years at Konami. At one point Kojima considered leaving the company, but he hung on. The first game he worked on was "Penguin Adventure", the sequel to "Antarctic Adventure", as an assistant director. It significantly expanded upon the gameplay of "Antarctic Adventure", adding more action game elements, a greater variety of levels, role-playing elements such as upgrading equipment, and multiple endings. The first game he developed was "Lost Warld" [sic], an MSX platform game in. However, the game was ultimately rejected by Kojima's superiors at Konami.

Kojima was asked to take over a project, "Metal Gear", from a senior associate. Hardware limitations hindered the development of the game's combat. Inspired by "The Great Escape", Kojima altered the gameplay to focus on a prisoner escaping. It was released in for the MSX2 home computer in Japan and parts of Europe. The game revolves around a special forces operative codenamed Solid Snake, who is sent to the fortified state of "Outer Heaven" to stop a nuclear-equipped walking tank known as "Metal Gear". "Metal Gear" is one of the earliest examples of the stealth action game genre, where avoiding encounters with the enemies is emphasized over direct combat. A port of "Metal Gear" was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Kojima was not directly involved in the production of this version and he has openly criticized some of the changes made in the porting process, including poor translation and no ending boss fight with the titular weapon.

His next project was the graphic adventure game "Snatcher", released for the NEC PC-8801 and MSX2 computer platforms in Japan in. The game, influenced by cyberpunk science fiction works such as "Akira", "Blade Runner", "The Terminator", and "Bubblegum Crisis", is set in a post-apocalyptic world and centers around an amnesiac detective who faces a race of cyborgs (the titular Snatchers) that kill their victims, copy their likeness and assume their place in society. While Kojima and his team wrote the entire story of the game, they were forced to leave out the final act of the game due to time constraints. The game was highly regarded at the time for pushing the boundaries of video game storytelling, cinematic cut scenes, and mature content, and was praised for its graphics, soundtrack, high quality writing comparable to a novel, voice acting comparable to a film or radio drama, post-apocalyptic setting, light gun shooter segments, and in-game computer database with optional documents that flesh out the game world. The Sega CD version of "Snatcher" was for a long time the only major visual novel game to be released in America. However, partly due to a Teen rating limiting its accessibility, it only sold a "couple of thousand units", according to Jeremy Blaustein, a member of "Snatcher"s localization team.

In, Kojima was involved in the productions of two MSX2 games: a spinoff of "Snatcher" titled "SD Snatcher"; and a sequel to "Metal Gear" titled "", which further evolved the stealth game genre. The player had more abilities, such as crouching, crawling into hiding spots and air ducts, distracting guards by knocking on surfaces, and using a radar to plan ahead. The enemies had improved artificial intelligence (AI), including a 45-degree field of vision, the detection of various different noises, being able to move from screen to screen, and a three-phase security alarm. The game also had improved graphics and a complex storyline dealing with themes such as the nature of warfare and nuclear disarmament.

"SD Snatcher" is a role-playing video game which adapts the storyline of the original "Snatcher" while featuring its version of the planned ending. The characters are depicted in a "super deformed" art style, in contrast to the original game's realistic style. Like the original computer versions of "Snatcher", it was only released in Japan. It abandoned random encounters and introduced an innovative first-person turn-based battle system where the player can aim at specific parts of the enemy's body using firearms with limited ammo. Such a battle system has rarely been used since, though similar battle systems based on targeting individual body parts can later be found in Square's "Vagrant Story" (2000), Bethesda Softworks's "Fallout 3" (2008), and Nippon Ichi's "Last Rebellion" (2010).

Due to the success of the original "Metal Gear" on the NES, Konami decided to create a sequel to the game, "Snake's Revenge", without the involvement of Kojima. During a ride home on the train, Kojima met one of the staff members who worked on the game who asked him if he would create a "true" "Metal Gear" sequel. As a result, Kojima began plans for his own sequel titled: "Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake". The game was only released in Japan for the MSX2, as one of the last games Konami produced for the computer system. The game would not be released overseas in North America and Europe until its inclusion in's "".

All of his subsequent projects after "Metal Gear 2" were produced primarily for disc-based media, allowing for the inclusion of voice acting in his games. He remade "Snatcher" in for the PC Engine Super CD-ROM. An English localization of the game was produced for the Sega Mega-CD in North America and Europe in. Kojima was not directly involved in the Sega CD version nor the subsequent PlayStation and Saturn ports released in Japan in.

In, Kojima released "Policenauts", a film noir-science fiction-themed adventure game set in a space colony, for the NEC PC-9821. Kojima oversaw the subsequent ports released for the 3DO in ; and the PlayStation and Saturn in, which all featured animated cutscenes that were not in the PC-98 release. Despite announcements for an English release in 1996, problems with synching the English dialogue with the cut-scenes stopped its production. An unofficial English translation patch was released on August 24, 2009, to coincide with Kojima's 46th birthday. From 1997 to 1999, he developed the "Tokimeki Memorial Drama Series", a trilogy of visual novel adventure games.

Kojima began development on a 3D sequel to "Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake" in 1994. A gameplay demo of "Metal Gear Solid" for the PlayStation was first revealed to the public at the 1996 Tokyo Game Show, and was later shown at E3 1997 as a short video. With the release of "Metal Gear Solid" in, Kojima became an international celebrity among the video game media. "Metal Gear Solid" was the first in the "Metal Gear" series to use 3D graphics and voice acting, which gave a more cinematic experience to the game. "Metal Gear Solid" was highly regarded for its well-designed gameplay and for its characters and storyline, which featured themes of nuclear proliferation and genetic engineering.

In early 2001, Kojima released the first details of the sequel to "Metal Gear Solid", "", for the PlayStation 2. The game's highly detailed graphics, physics, and expanded gameplay quickly made it one of the most anticipated games at the time. The game was highly successful and critically acclaimed at release, due to its graphics, gameplay, and storyline, which dealt with myriad philosophical themes as specific as memes, censorship, manipulation, patricide, the inherent flaws of democracy and as grandiose as the nature of reality itself. While "Metal Gear Solid 2" appealed to gamers with the discussion of these, the bewildering maze of dialogue and plot revelation in the final hours of the game was a disappointment for many gamers, who expected the Hollywood-style resolution of its forerunner.

Before the release of "Metal Gear Solid 2", Kojima produced the game and anime franchise "Zone of the Enders" in 2001 to moderate success. In 2003, he produced "" for the Game Boy Advance, which players take the role of a young vampire hunter who uses a solar weapon which is charged by a photometric sensor on the game cartridge, forcing them to play in sunlight. Another team inside Konami, in a collaboration with Silicon Knights, began work on "", a GameCube enhanced remake of the first "Metal Gear Solid" with all the gameplay features of "Metal Gear Solid 2" and with cutscenes redirected by director Ryuhei Kitamura. It was released in 2004.

Afterwards, Kojima designed and released "" for the PlayStation 2. Unlike the previous games in the series, which took place in the near future and focused on indoor locations, the game is set in a Soviet jungle during the height of the Cold War in 1964, and features wilderness survival, camouflage, and "James Bond" styled espionage. The North American version was released on November 17, 2004, with the Japanese counterpart following on December 16. The European version was released on March 4, 2005. Critical response to the game was highly favorable. Kojima has said that his mother played it, "It took her an entire year to complete "Metal Gear Solid 3". She would get her friends to help her. When she defeated The End, [a character the player faces off during the game] she called me up and said: 'It is finished'."

At that time Kojima produced "Boktai"s sequel, "" for the Game Boy Advance. Released in summer 2004, it makes more extensive use of the cartridge's sunlight sensor and allows players to combine various new solar weapons. Also released was "Metal Gear Acid" for the PlayStation Portable handheld. A turn-based game, it is less action-oriented than the other "Metal Gear" games and focuses more on strategy. It was released in Japan on December 16, 2004. Its sequel, "Metal Gear Acid 2", was released on March 21, 2006.

Kojima wanted Solid Snake to appear in Nintendo's "Super Smash Bros. Melee", but Nintendo refused, due to development cycle problems. When "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" was in development, series director Masahiro Sakurai contacted Kojima to work and add Snake and content related to the "Metal Gear" series, including a stage based on Shadow Moses Island (the main setting of "Solid"), into the game.

Released in June 2008, Kojima co-directed "" with Shuyo Murata. Initially, Kojima was not going to direct it, but death threats made the team nervous and he decided to work with them. Kojima received a lifetime achievement award at the MTV Game Awards 2008 in Germany. In his speech, he said in English, "I have to say, even though I received this award, let me state that I will not retire. I will continue to create games as long as I live".

Before E3 2009, Kojima stated interest in working with a Western developer. This later turned out to be a collaboration between him and Spanish developer MercurySteam to work on "".

Although he announced that "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots" would be the last "Metal Gear" game he would be directly involved in, he announced at E3 2009 that he would return to help on two "Metal Gear" games: "", as a producer and "" as writer, director, and producer. When interviewed at Gamescom 2009, Kojima stated that he got more involved with "Peace Walker" because "there was a lot of confusion within the team and it didn't proceed as I wanted it to. Therefore I thought that I needed to jump in and do "Peace Walker"".

Kojima was at E3 2010 to show off his team's latest project, "". He was also seen in Nintendo's 3DS interview video, where he stated he was interested in making a "Metal Gear Solid" game for the 3DS and wondered what it would be like in 3D. This game ended up being a remake of "Metal Gear Solid 3" titled "". In late 2011, "Metal Gear Solid: Rising" was renamed "Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance" with PlatinumGames being involved in developing it alongside Kojima Productions. Nevertheless, Kojima is the game's executive producer and showed interest in working in the game's demo. Kojima was satisfied with the final product and expressed the possibility of a sequel if Platinum were to develop it.

On April 1, 2011, Kojima was promoted to Executive Vice President and Corporate Officer in Konami Digital Entertainment. At E3 2011, he revealed his new innovative gaming technology labeled as "transfarring", a "portmanteau" of the verbs "transferring" and "sharing". The technology enables gamers to transfer their gaming data from the PlayStation 3 to PlayStation Portable in a quick data transferring process and bring it on the go from home into the outside world.

Later that year, he stated he was working on a new intellectual property with Goichi Suda, tentatively titled "Project S", and preparing new projects. On July 8, 2011, Kojima announced that "Project S" was a radio-show sequel to "Snatcher", titled "Sdatcher" as a reference to the show's producer Suda. The show would air on Fridays on Kojima's bi-weekly Internet radio show, starting with episode No. 300 which was broadcast in August 2011. In October, Kojima announced that he would be collaborating with Suda and 5pb. director Chiyomaru Shikura in producing a new adventure game visual novel. It was initially speculated that the game would be the third entry in 5pb.'s "Science Adventure" series, but it was later confirmed to be a separate title. The game was planned to have an overseas release and an anime adaption. As of 2018, no further news regarding the project has been released.

In mid-2012 and in the following years after Kojima finished work on the Fox Engine, Kojima has been connected to the "Silent Hill" series. During this time, he indicated that he was interested in making a "Silent Hill" game and the first instance of this was on August 18, 2012. He described his excitement regarding the potential use of the Fox Engine on the eighth generation platforms via a tweet of an image of the DVD for the "Silent Hill" film: Later, he added what he had in mind for this game in a series of tweets: ""Silent Hill" is in closed room setting and doesn’t require full action so that we can focus on the graphic quality. Enemies featured in the game do not have to be consistent or move fast. It only requires scariness by graphics and presentation. As being a creator, making action games in an open world setting, such a type of game is very enviously attractive. If only someone could create this on the Fox Engine." After a while, and as a result of Kojima's interest in making a "Silent Hill" game, Konami asked him to do so. Kojima explained the story in an interview with Eurogamer:

Additionally, in an interview with Geoff Keighley, when a fan asked "which game do you want to direct or reboot?" Kojima stated without hesitation, "Silent Hill". Keighley jumped in and asked "What do you want to do with "Silent Hill"?" Kojima responded: "A guy [like myself] that is such a chicken and is so easily scared – making a scary game – I'm very confident that something horrifying would come out from that. But on the other hand I would have to prepare myself to have nightmares every single day. Hopefully sometime in the future I'm able to work on this, but I would really need to prepare to have daily nightmares". In August 2014, "PT" was released on the PlayStation Store revealed that a new game in the "Silent Hill" franchise titled "Silent Hills" was being directed by Kojima for the PlayStation 4, alongside Mexican film director Guillermo del Toro. In April 2015, the playable teaser was removed and the game was cancelled.

On December 16, 2015, Kojima announced that Kojima Productions would be re-established as an independent studio, partnered with Sony Computer Entertainment, and that his first game would be console exclusive to the PlayStation 4. At E3 2016 in Los Angeles, Kojima personally announced the game's title as "Death Stranding" in a trailer. The trailer showed actor and inspiration for the main character Norman Reedus, whom Kojima had previously worked with in the canceled "Silent Hills".

In 2016, Kojima launched his own YouTube channel, where he and film critic Kenji Yano discuss their favorite films and matters pertaining to Kojima's studio. Starting in 2017, Kojima became a regular contributor to "Rolling Stone", often discussing recent film releases, and occasionally drawing comparisons to his own works.

Kojima has cited Yuji Horii's "The Portopia Serial Murder Case" (1983) and Shigeru Miyamoto's "Super Mario Bros." (1985) as the games that inspired him to enter the video game industry. "Portopia Serial Murder Case", a murder mystery adventure game, was an important influence because, according to Kojima, it had "mystery, a 3D dungeon, humor, and a proper background and explanation of why the murderer committed the crime. That is why there was drama in this game. My encountering this game expanded the potential of video games in my mind." "Portopia" had an influence on his early works, including "Metal Gear" and particularly "Snatcher".

Kojima's love of film is noticeable in his games where he pays homage through his stories and characters, sometimes to the point of pastiche, as in "Snatcher". He cited a contrast between films and games as while in his games he intends to portray violence like in a movie, in the game it is up to the player to decide. He wants people to understand the effects of violence. As he considers the games too stressful, he also wants comic relief to contrast it.

"Snatcher" is inspired by many science fiction films, particularly from 1980s, including "Blade Runner", "Akira", "The Thing", "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", and "The Terminator". Examples of influence by films include Solid Snake's codename (named after Snake Plissken from "Escape from New York"), Snake's alias in "MGS2": Pliskin (in reference to the last name of Snake Plissken from the "Escape" movies), Snake's real name (Dave from ""), and Snake's trademark bandana ("The Deer Hunter").

Film would also have an influence on other aspects of his games. Hal "Otacon" Emmerich (named after HAL 9000 from "2001: A Space Odyssey" and film director Roland Emmerich), Sniper Wolf shooting Meryl in "Metal Gear Solid" ("Full Metal Jacket"), Psycho Mantis (inspired from the film "The Fury") and the whole "Metal Gear" stealth concept ("The Great Escape" and "The Guns of Navarone"). James Bond also had a large influence on the "Metal Gear" series, with "Metal Gear Solid 3" having a "James Bond"-like introduction sequence.

In an article he wrote for "Official PlayStation 2 Magazine", Kojima described the influence of the film "Dawn of the Dead" on the "Metal Gear" series. The zombie classic inspired "the maximum three-dimensional use of a closed area like a shopping mall with elevators, air ducts, and escalators". These aspects are similar enough in his view that "["Metal Gear Solid"] is ["Dawn of the Dead"] if you replace soldiers with zombies."

He also received inspiration from anime. His early works, particularly the cyberpunk adventure game "Snatcher" (which uses anime-style art), were influenced by cyberpunk anime, most notably "Akira" (mentioned above). In an interview, he mentioned that his "Zone of the Enders" series was inspired by mecha/robot anime, such as "Neon Genesis Evangelion". Mecha anime was also an inspiration for the "Metal Gear" series, which features mecha robots, such as Metal Gear REX and Metal Gear RAY; this is referenced in "Metal Gear Solid", where Otacon mentions mecha anime as an influence on his Metal Gear REX designs.

In regards to storyline development and interaction with them, he said:
In terms of reverse influence on film, his work on the storylines of the "Metal Gear" series was cited as an influence by screenwriter David Hayter, the voice actor for Solid Snake, on his screenwriting for Hollywood films. He stated that "Kojima and I have different styles (...) but I've certainly learned things from him, especially about ambiguity and telling a story without giving all the answers".

"Newsweek" named Hideo Kojima as one of the top ten people of 2002. In 2008, "Next-Gen" placed him seventh in their list of "Hot 100 Developers 2008."

In 2009, IGN placed him sixth in their list of top game creators of all time. At the 2008 MTV Game Awards, Hideo was given the award show's first Lifetime Achievement Award for a game designer and was also honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 Game Developers Conference.

At the 2014 National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers (NAVGTR) awards, Kojima was credited for "Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes"' nomination for the category "Game, Franchise Adventure". In December 2015, Kojima was invited to accept an award from The Game Awards for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. However, Konami prevented him from attending the awards ceremony.

In February 2016, Kojima received the AIAS Hall of Fame Award at 19th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards. In December 2016, Kojima was able to attend The Game Awards 2016 and accepted the Industry Icon Award.

On October 12, 2017, Kojima received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Brasil Game Show.