Referenced By / U2

Anime & Manga

• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: In Diamond is Unbreakable, the Stand of Shizuka Joestar, Achtung Baby, is named after the album of the same name.

Film

• Blown Away. Ryan Gaerity is buying components for his bombs at the flea market. The woman he's buying from throws in some tapes of U2, and given Gaerity's Irish accent is bemused at his ignorance of the band (because he's been in prison). However Gaerity takes a liking to it, and a couple of songs become an In-Universe Soundtrack.
• The Commitments: When Jimmy's father sees what he has for a band so far, he cracks, "Bet U2 are shitting themselves."
• Doctor Strange (2016): One of the Only One Name people Strange lists when hearing about Wong's name is Bono.
• Fearless (1993): After Carla has finally confessed to Max she thinks she was the one who was responsible for her baby dying in the plane crash because she thinks she let go of him, she goes into babbling hysterics and doesn't stop. In desperation, Max decides to show her she couldn't have held onto her baby by giving her a toolbox to hold on to while he drives the two of them into a wall, while the opening of "Where the Streets Have No Name" plays.
• In Keep the Change (2017), David plans to take Angie to a U2 concert. He tells her that he's obsessed with Bono and knows things like his date of birth. She tells him that he looks kind of like Bono, and he does an impression of him. She ditches him before they can actually go to the concert.
• Left Behind (2014): Rayford Steele gets U2 tickets the day of the Rapture.
• Scream 4: Jill has an U2 poster in her bedroom.
• Taken had Kimmy and her friend travelling to Europe hoping to follow U2's tour. Unfortunadely, they got kidnapped shortly after arriving in Paris.
• Tell No One: When Alexandre hears "With or Without You" playing while walking his dog, it gives him the clue he needs to log into a special e-mail account so he can read the e-mail from Margot, whom he thought was dead.

Literature

• American Psycho: Patrick attends U2 concert and (presumably) hallucinates a moment where Bono says to him and him alone: "I . . .am . . .the . . .devil . . .and I am . . .just . . .like . . .you."
• In Beautiful Music for Ugly Children, Gabe lists "The Sweetest Thing" as an example of a B-side that was a big hit.
• In The Mermaid's Mirror, Lena's friend Martha sings "With or Without You" on karaoke.
• In 1983: Doomsday the members of U2 survive and get back together after Doomsdays, becoming huge celebrities in the Celtic Alliance.

Live-Action TV

• The Americans: "With or Without You" is playing when Elizabeth, Philip and Paige are taking the train so they can escape capture, and continues to play when Paige makes the decision to get off the train and go on her own.
• Friends: Ross calls a radio station to play "With or Without You" to Rachel as an apology. Then she calls back, reveals why she's mad at Ross (he wrote a list of her pros and cons), and the DJ is disgusted, saying she'll never play the song again. As a Call-Back, once the couple takes a break, the song plays as Ross dances with another woman.
• One Tree Hill
  • The series as a whole is named after the song "One Tree Hill" and it even plays over the final scene of the series.
  • Lucas and Peyton play a game of musical Jeopardy! in the opening episode of the fourth season, with "Running to Stand Still" coming up; Peyton, a music buff, naturally identifies it as U2.
  • The following episodes are named after U2 albums or songs:
    • "All That You Can't Leave Behind"
    • "Running to Stand Still"
    • "One Tree Hill"

Web Video

• In The Runaway Guys playthrough of the first Mario Party, Tim quotes the opening to "Vertigo" when he gets his first star in Jungle Adventure.

Western Animation

• South Park: The episode "More Crap" is about Randy Marsh breaking Bono's record for taking the world's biggest crap and the rivalry between them that ensues.