Note that not every pair of incidental characters named Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are a reference to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; they might be just a reference to the original pair in Hamlet. If they're flipping a coin or arguing metaphysics, or both, you're on much more certain ground.
Films — Animated
- The Lion King 1 ½, which focuses on Those Two Guys from a work heavily inspired by Hamlet, is an admitted homage
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Films — Live-Action
- The Men Who Stare at Goats: When Lyn drives the car into a rock in the middle of the desert, he and Bob pass the time by flipping a coin that continually lands with the head side facing up.
Literature
- Haruhi Suzumiya: During the School Festival, Itsuki is playing Guildenstern in a class production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
- Khaavren Romances: The second novel includes a reference to an in-universe play called Redwreath and Goldstar Have Traveled to Deathsgate.
- "We Haven't Got There Yet" by Harry Turtledove is a short story in which Shakespeare attends a performance of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead performed by an involuntarily time-traveling acting troupe from the 21st century.
Live-Action TV
- Doctor Who, "Warriors' Gate": Aldo and Royce's interactions are reminiscent of Ros and Guil, and there's some significant coin-flipping.
- Fringe, "6B": The action takes place in the Rosencrantz building, and a coin flip is crucial to the plot. Walter also flips a coin ten times, and it comes up heads each time.
- Mystery Science Theater 3000, "The Starfighters": "Heads? It's always heads! Rosencrantz and Guildenstern join the Air Force!"
- The Society starts off with some characters enacting the play. Later episodes start referencing back to it.
Video Games
- BioShock Infinite has the Luteces, a pair of seemingly unimportant characters who wander in and out of the narrative, having disjointed philosophical conversations about the meaning of fate and flipping a coin which always turns up heads, and play a part in an absolute Mind Screw of an ending.
Web Animation
- Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of Zero Punctuation wrote an Extra Punctuation article in which he described The Stanley Parable as the video game equivalent to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
