Line #54 ShoutOut/Left4Dead


1	* If Louis' clothing change from a sweater and combat gear to a [[Film/ShaunOfTheDead white dress shirt and a red tie]] doesn't clue you in...
2	* The Passing has a bunch of graffiti:
3	-->"[[VideoGame/DeadRising Otis: Out of film. No helicopters. Zombies too fast. Not going to make it. --Frank West]]"\
4	"[[Film/DawnOfTheDead1978 Roger, went to the mall --Francine]]"\
5	"[[Film/DawnOfTheDead2004 Went to save my dog. If not back in 15 minutes, everyone drop everything and come save me. --Nicole]]"\
6	"Looking for an M60? Come see me. --[[VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies Crazy Dave]]"\
7	"[[Film/TwentyEightDaysLater REPENT. THE END IS EXTREMELY FUCKING NIGH.]]"\
8	"[[Film/ShaunOfTheDead Ed is King of the Zombies]]"
9	* The arena in the finale of Dark Carnival is conveniently named The Peach-Pit. This may in fact be a reference to the diner in ''Series/BeverlyHills90210'', in which the diner hangout was named the same. Or to a certain {{Mangaka}} who goes by that as their pseudonym, which too is based on the same show.
10	* Some of the graffiti (and one of the achievements) in the first game references the "Zombie Genocider" achievement of ''VideoGame/DeadRising'' which rewarded the player for killing 53,594 zombies. ''Left 4 Dead'' tops it by exactly one zombie.
11	** It appears that this has caught on; ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' has a "Trail of Corpses" achievements, for killing 54,596 infected. Difference being that the ''Prototype'' Infected are totally not zombies.
12	*** And of course, ''VideoGame/DeadRising2'' offers up the "Z-Genocider 2: Genocide Harder" achievement for killing the exact same number of zombies.
13	** Valve introduced a new twist -- the "Littlest Genocide" achievement, which requires you to kill 5,359 zombies on the Crash Course DLC campaign.
14	** And to top it off, an achievement added to the second game in the Last Stand update goes by the name "Z-Genocidest 2: Episode 2" and requires 53,599 zombie kills (one more than ''VideoGame/DeadRising4'''s zombie genocide achievement). Its description even reads "You made sure the dead won't rise anymore!"
15	* The first game takes place in Pennsylvania, starting in Philadelphia and moving outwards from there. Creator/GeorgeARomero's movies were all set in Pennsylvania.
16	* One of Ellis' [[TheNoodleIncident many stories about Keith]] is how he "[[VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes bought a laser sword off the Internet, left town and became an assassin]]".
17	* One of Zoey's numerous film references:
18	-->"Oh, nice, [[Franchise/EvilDead a cabin in the middle of nowhere]]. [[EverybodyDiesEnding I know how this movie ends]]."
19	** And when she picks up a shotgun, she will sometimes say "Groovy."
20	** Francis gets in on it too:
21	--->'''Francis''': ''(picking up a shotgun)'' Groovy.\
22	''(Zoey or Louis snicker)''\
23	'''Francis:''' What? It IS groovy!
24	* The messy [[ChainsawGood lawnmower]] scene in Blood Harvest is a shout out to the zombie movie ''Film/{{Braindead}}'', which was directed by Peter Jackson.
25	* The campaigns themselves are a homage to the entire zombie movie genre. Each campaign is presented as a movie, with a theatrical poster at the beginning and a credits sequence at the end. All in-game graphics are shown under a subtle film grain filter, and musical cues are used to highlight certain situations. Various zombie movie tropes are played with. And of course, the placement of enemies and items being controlled by an AI ''Director''.
26	* A brilliant reference to a completely non-zombie movie:
27	-->"[[Film/Ghostbusters1984 He slimed me!]]"
28	* Even though it's ostensibly from a fictitious school, Louisiana gamers may appreciate that Coach wears [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSU_Tigers a purple and gold shirt]].
29	** Fun Fact: Purple, gold and green are [[http://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/mgcolors.html the official colors of Mardi gras]] and LSU adopted the first two while sister school Tulane took green.
30	* The Dead Air campaign features a shout out to Nietzsche. [[NietzscheWannabe A man spray-painted "God Is Dead"]] (a phrase made famous by Nietzsche himself) on the walls at several points before he apparently killed himself.
31	-->'''Zoey:''' "Oh no, the Zombies killed God!"\
32	'''Francis:''' "God's dead, huh? Well, join the damn club."
33	* Upon picking up an SMG, Louis might say, "This is just like in ''VideoGame/CounterStrike''!". Which itself is a reference to how ''Left 4 Dead'' started when the dev team of ''VideoGame/CounterStrike: Source'' was messing around with playing as armed Terrorists against knife wielding Counter-Terrorist bots.
34	** Louis has an unused line in ''Left 4 Dead 2'' for picking up a Crowbar. "Man, I feel like [[VideoGame/HalfLife Gordon Freeman!]]"
35	** One of Ellis' community campaign stock lines, "Dude, this is just like ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2''!"
36	** On the back of a cereal box seen in the apartment at the start of No Mercy (after you leave the safe area, the roof), you can see an advertisement for a ''Team Fortress 2'' figurine.
37	* During Dark Carnival, you may notice "Pyro's Hamburgers" and "Heavy Gulp" signs on some of the stands.
38	* "[[Film/{{Aliens}} Game over, man! Game over!]]"
39	* The escape vehicles in ''Crash Course'' are clearly modeled on the zombie-smashing buses from the ''Film/DawnOfTheDead2004'' remake.
40	* One scene in the trailer for Left 4 Dead 2 shows Coach eating a chocolate bar and another scene has Nick make fun of Coach by trying to convince him to go up the stairs faster saying that the escape helicopter is made out of chocolate. This could be a possible reference to [[VideoGame/PunchOut Doc Louis]] who also had a heavy preference to chocolate.
41	** Note that the chocolate bar Coach is eating was a "chocolate helicopter." Just look on the box by Rochelle which says "choco Heli" and mentions something about blades.
42	* In the first map of The Parish, a jukebox can be played in the bar and has a few songs selected at random, one of them being ''[[VideoGame/{{Portal}} Still Alive]]''.
43	** And by [[Music/JonathanCoulton the same singer]], "Re: Your Brains."
44	* "Dark Carnival" may be a shout out to ''VideoGame/HouseOfTheDead: OVERKILL'''s "Carny" level, or possibly the "Dark Carnival" level from ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'' (a game brimming with shout outs). Or, for that matter, any of a dozen horror movies that have used [[CircusOfFear circuses and theme parks]] as settings or set pieces.
45	* The gnome you win for getting 750 points at the shooting range game is ''the exact same model'' as the gnome from ''VideoGame/HalfLife2: Episode 2''.
46	** And, just like its predecessor, you get an achievement for carrying it with you for the whole campaign.
47	** Its name, "Gnome Chompsky", references the noted linguist and psychologist [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky Noam Chomsky]].
48	* Speaking of ''VideoGame/HalfLife'', the combat shotgun in this game is modeled after the SPAS-12, the same shotgun used in that series - particularly, it bears a resemblance to the model from ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' 1's HD Pack with the stock folded up and over the gun.
49	* "Swamp Fever" begins the same way "Crash Course" does: one Survivor having shot the infected pilot, and another berating him for it.
50	* [[Film/TheBluesBrothers "Disco pants and haircuts. Man, lots of space in this mall."]]
51	* The female soldier seen [[http://www.l4d.com/comic/comic.php?page=76 here]] in Part 2 of the Sacrifice comic may be a shout out to [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 The Pyro]] as the two share the same distinctive gasmask and suffer from a bit of gender confusion.
52	* Louis has a figure of [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 Heavy Weapons Guy]] on his desk in Part 1 of the Sacrifice comic.
53	* Part 3 of the Sacrifice comic has a poster of [[VideoGame/DeadRising2 Chuck Greene]] found in this [[http://www.l4d.com/comic/comic.php?page=101 page]]. It also has a hidden image of Ellis wearing Chuck's default ''Case Zero'' shirt with the text of "The Left 4 Dead 2 team congratulates the Dead Rising 2 team on their release".
54	* During "The Sacrifice", Francis points out that they have no evidence that Louis is not crazy. Louis responds that he would [[Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs love to make a lady suit out of Francis, and Zoey says she hates putting the lotion in the basket]].
55	* The achievement for killing a Special Infected with an {{Exploding Barrel\|s}} is called [[VideoGame/StarFox64 Barrel Rolled]].
56	* The achievement you get at the end of The Sacrifice if you have Bill sacrifice himself is aptly named Film/KillBill.
57	* One of Zoey's possible responses if she goes to restart the generator in The Sacrifice's finale:
58	-->"[[Franchise/{{Terminator}} I'll be back...]] [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Oh god, no I won't.]]"
59	* When coming upon the trapped Tank in The Sacrifice, Louis may quip "[[Film/SnakesOnAPlane tanks on a train]]".
60	* At the end of The Passing, Zoey may quote the "you blew it up" speech from Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes.
61	* Nick sometimes calls himself [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons "Dr. Nick"]] when healing a teammate.
62	* In line with her profession as a producer in the news, Rochelle is heard to say [[Film/AnchormanTheLegendOfRonBurgundy "Knights of Columbus!" and "Son of a bee-sting!"]] when hurt.
63	* At the end of The Passing, Zoey may say
64	-->"Remember, Film/SoylentGreen is people!"
65	** The Japanese arcade game ''Left 4 Dead: Survivors'' [[{{Woolseyism}} replaces this]] with a Film/{{Zombieland}} reference.
66	--->"Rule #32 – Enjoy the Little Things!"
67	* At one point in the Crash Course campaign, the survivors must pass through a small area with a broken steam pipe. Francis says "watch out for that steam pipe!", quickly followed by veiled references to a different kind of Platform/{{steam}}.
68	-->'''Zoey:''' Man, I love steam.\
69	'''Francis:''' Oh yeah, I love steam. [[SelfDeprecation I just hate the pipes.]]
70	* When Ellis picks up an axe, there's a chance of him saying [[Film/TheShining "Heeeeere's Ellis!"]]
71	* Or if he grabs a chainsaw, [[Film/ArmyOfDarkness Man, if I lose my hand, I'm stitchin' this thing onto the stump."]]
72	* Something of an EasterEgg, there's a very small chance that, upon getting hit with friendly fire, Nick will say:
73	-->[[Series/ArrestedDevelopment "You're going to shoot the guy in the 3000$ suit? COME ON!'']]
74	* Jimmy Gibbs, Jr., one of the uncommon infected from Left 4 Dead 2, is a shout out to UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}}. This can be seen from his car (a Plymouth Superbird/Dodge Charger Daytona without the aerodynamic front end seen on the real car), the car livery (resembles Fireball Roberts' 1963-64 scheme), and his name (he got his name from team owner Joe Gibbs).
75	* One of the achievements added in ''The Last Stand'' update requires you to find and obtain 22 hidden golden crowbars in every ''Left 4 Dead 1'' survival map. The achievement's name? [[VideoGame/HalfLife "GOLDEN FREEMAN".]] The icon even shows Gordon's hand holding up a crowbar.
76	* ''The Last Stand'' update's new melee weapons are shout-outs to ''VideoGame/Postal2'' and ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'' featuring a shovel and a pitchfork as melee weapons, respectively.
77	* There is Japanese graffiti in ''The Last Stand'' that reads [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure "Yare Yare Daze"]]. Throughout the campaign, there is also graffiti that references the community members who worked on the update, the real-life passing of Bill's voice actor, the Midnight Riders song "Save Me Some Sugar", and ''Left 4 Dead'' having a crossover with ''VideoGame/PaydayTheHeist''.
78	* One magnum pistol skin in ''The Last Stand'' is manufactured by "[[Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia Magnum Dong]] Inc.", and another is the Desert Eagle as seen in ''[[VideoGame/CounterStrike Counter-Strike: Global Offensive]]''. The ''CSGO'' AK-47 can also sometimes be obtained from the same weapon crate as these two magnum pistols.
79	* The Stache Whacker minigame in ''Dark Carnival'' is won by scoring [[Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1 42 points]].
80	* Numerous references can be found in achievement names:
81	** [[Music/RobZombie Robbed Zombie]]
82	** [[Theatre/TheGlassMenagerie Crass Menagerie]]
83	** [[Film/ClubDread Club Dead]]
84	** [[Music/BridgeOverTroubledWater Bridge Over Trebled Slaughter]]
85	** [[Literature/ThePiedPiperOfHamelin Fried Piper]]
86	** [[Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow Rocky Horror Picture Throw]]

Context ShoutOut / Left4Dead