The whole game itself was modeled after Blade Runner (1982), including one character modeled after Roy Batty.
A location in the game is called Joy Division. This is a reference to the British band Joy Division, which is one of Hideo Kojima's favourite bands. In later versions of the game, the location was renamed to Plato's Cavern.
The design of the snatchers was based on the Terminator. But to avoid possible legal issues, they were slightly redesigned for the later versions.