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  • So the prologue alone has Pride and Prejudice, Conan the Barbarian (1982), Predator, Armageddon (1998), and Zero Dark Thirty. Good start.
  • Returning from Saints Row: The Third is the cyberspace motorcycle from TRON: Legacy.
  • The Lotus-Eater Machine setting is a parody of the The Matrix film series. This part of the game even had a Working Title of "Enter the Dominatrix" back when it was going to be a DLC Expansion Pack for Saints Row: The Third. The QTE to finish off a Warden involves you flying into its chest and exploding it from inside the same way Neo destroys Agent Smith in the first Matrix.
    • The rooftop trainings are based heavily on the scene where Morpheus trained Neo in the art of the super jump. Not to mention that the achievement for getting your first superpower is named after Keanu Reeves' trademark "Woah."
    • In the real world, humans are being kept in red pods, totally naked, immersed in goo.
    • Also in the real world, the main weapons of the resistance are Mini-Mecha.
    • There is a traitor who gets the heroes ambushed in the virtual world and nearly killed in the real world.
    • Not only is it a parody but it actually goes through the history of the Matrix. The first sim you are stuck into is an idealistic paradise similar to that described in the films. Its excessive perfection - a "sunshine and rainbows" 1950s-era sitcom, in the Boss' case - immediately makes the Boss suspicious as they try to fight their way free of its restrictions, such as being unable to exceed the speed limit or drive dangerously.
  • The dubstep gun is a reference to a Corridor Digital video of the same name.
  • A scene of the Boss leaping across a gap with Keith David catching and pulling him up in the "War for Humanity" trailer is a nod to the Suicide Mission of Mass Effect 2 (Keith David having voiced Captain Anderson in said series just reinforces the Shout-Out).
    • Also, every homie has loyalty missions and romances. Although the romances are hilariously parodied (Kinzie's starts with the Boss bluntly asking "want to fuck?", to which she punches him, then jumps on him, then Fade to Black). The suits in the real world look a bit like Shepard-Commander's gear too. And the intro mission where the Zin Empire abducts everyone has a lot in common with the mission where Joker has to get to safety from the Collectors.
    • In the text adventure you could investigate a planet then launch a probe for resources. How did you progress through Mass Effect 2, again?
    • The moral choices while walking through the White Crib are a big parody of Paragon & Renegade action prompts. Include one for punching someone, although in this case both choices punch the victim, with your only option being whether to "punch a dickhead" or "punch a dick in the head".
      • The bill to cure world hunger, which Keith is holding up, reads "Let them eat cake" in reference to a quote famously (mis)attributed to Marie Antoinette.
      • Though these are also possible references to Fable III which more or less has the player character a King/Queen make similar decisions.
    • The game tells you that you have to have done all the loyalty missions of your homies to get the best ending. Also in the final mission, you have to pick a different pair of homies for three different sections, and your choice has some effect on the results.
    • The game provides a Lampshade Hanging with the line, "It's not every day that you get to kill aliens with Keith David."
  • The introduction sequence is a shot-for-shot reference to the scene at the end of Conan the Destroyer that shows future Conan on his throne after he has attained a kingdom of his own.
  • The opening cutscene in "The White Crib" before the alien invasion is very reminiscent of the "Walk and Talk" shooting style The West Wing became famous for. Considering the mission is called "The Saints Wing"...
    • The shoutout is made more obvious when the "President" is asked to make choices similar to those seen in the old TV show.
  • The first mission is a slightly different take to traditional Saints gameplay... Call of Doody perhaps? Modern Whorefare? Rather than the Affectionate Parody of other games, Purple Ops/Zero Saints Thirty is a rather serious (and awesome) take that closely mirrors the games. All the way down to to the breaching scene. You can even go Commando, aka the multiplayer perk, as the melee is a One-Hit Kill knife here.
  • The nuke-climbing section near the start, the flying-a-spaceship-through-another-spaceship section, as well as Zinyak's appearance and tendency to telepathically hold the protagonist, are somewhat reminiscent of Halo 4.
    • The nuke-climbing and -disarming sequence, with Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" playing, is an obvious Shout-Out to Armageddon (1998), involving a similar sacrifice to manually detonate a nuke, instead of disarming one.
    • Flying through the ship is very shout-out-y to The Matrix. Especially The Animatrix episode title "Final Flight of the Osiris". It's also almost identical to the last mission of Enter the Matrix, first from Niobe's perspective (flying the ship right after breaking out of the simulation) and then Ghost's (the turret section after Matt's rescue).
  • The UFO's resemble the alien fighters from Independence Day.
  • When fighting off the invasion, the Zin destroy the Washington Monument, and the Boss reacts shouting "YOU BLEW IT UP!!!"
  • The first scene in the game following the intro? The Saints riding in a helicopter while Little Richard's ''Long Tall Sally'' plays.
  • The mission in the "paradise" version of the simulation world starts with Leave It To The Saints popping up on the screen as you slide down a banister to a jaunty sitcom tune and even follows up with a "Brought to you by..." ad.
    • Also, being placed in a virtual reality of a sunny, quaint American town from The '50s bears uncanny resemblance to the 'Tranquility Lane' simulation from Fallout 3.
  • The clock tower in the 50s simulation is stuck at 10:04 and has a cable running from it to a nearby pole.
    • It is later used in How The Saints Saved Christmas as a conductor, making the reference more obvious.
  • Taunts and compliments contain several examples, including:
  • One of the hairstyles is called "Knight of Flowers", and is visually reminiscent of the hair of Loras Tyrell, the Knight of Flowers, from Game of Thrones.
    • Similarly, a beard style is called "Door Knocker" and is almost identical to Walter White's beard in most of Breaking Bad.
  • New costumes allow the player to dress up as Steve? and Boba Fett. And Han Solo. And Luke Skywalker. And <insert random Jedi here>.
    • Don't forget that there is a hairstyle that is obviously a reference to Dragon Ball, that (painted gold or black) and the karate outfit with the appropriate colors, you can make yourself look a bit like Goku!
    • And they have the Thrilling leather jacket. Stylish.
    • And old costumes (from Saints Row: The Third) make a return such as the Neo shout out costume as well as the Kick-Ass hero of Steelport costume.
    • One of the pieces to wear on the head is Geordi La Forge's visor.
    • One of the helmets is lifted directly from Buzz Lightyear.
    • One of the tops you can get looks suspiciously like what the Tenth Doctor usually wears.
      • There's also one extremely similar to the Ninth Doctor called "casual leather jacket" that has a v-neck underneath.
    • The Iron Saint armor is a pretty clear shout out in name to Iron Man, but it's look is more similar to the power armor suits from G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.
    • And then there's a reference to a certain red baseball cap worn by the villain from Paranoia Agent. Strange reference considering it's so obscure in comparison to others, and doesn't have the little buttons.
  • Many of the weapons [skins] are shout outs to movies, tv shows, and other games such as:
  • During the "Saints Wing", you can overhear one of the Secret Service agents say, "I wasn't even supposed to be here today.".
  • The beat-'em-up begins with a title screen called Saints Of Rage. The opening cinematic shows Warren Williams gut-punching Aisha and hauling her off on his shoulder.
  • The QTE to destroy a Hotspot just needs the Boss to yell ATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA.
  • The challenge to collect 100 clusters is called "Ooh...A Piece Of Candy!"
  • We have Keith David fighting Roddy Piper in a dragged out brawl while there's an alien invasion happening in the background. C'mon.
    • The mission is titled "He Lives".
    • The signs saying things like "OBEY" and "SUBMIT" are even more obvious in this mission.
    • It takes place at a satellite tower, with Keith David trying to get a message out to everyone and then shut down the tower.
    • And before that, when he's making his public speech, many people in the crowd are holding signs of "I love Goliath".
  • One mission involves you using stealth and boxes to get through. Shooting lights causes the enemies to have a WTF exclamation that sounds like the MGS !, and if you get spotted or killed, Asha yells "Boss!" just like your support team if you die. Also, listen closely to the music.
    • Going even further the mission has you up against your evil twin. Like a certain main character and his evil "twin" in his own game.
      • The evil twin has an evil goatee (even if you are playing a female character) because everyone knows evil twins have goatees!
    • Really, the entirety of Asha's recruitment mission is an Affectionate Parody of Metal Gear, riffing everything from patrolling guards, to air ducts, death codecs, alert signals, evil clones with eyepatches, and the morality of shooting out lights (that lightbulb had a family, dammit!).
    • Also, the fact that Asha pictures The Boss is the main villain of that mission makes a lot more sense when you look at their name.
    • "Look, I was told to walk in a certain pattern, over and over, until something interesting happens! WELL I DON'T SEE YOU GETTING A JOB!"
    • One of the Ultor guards during this section even says "Baby, my snake is a hundred percent solid!"
    • Also note the heavy use of green lighting (which you have to shoot out) in this mission, like a certain other grizzled secret agent.
  • When the Boss first gets to play with the power armor, they question why Kinzie couldn't get the guns working in time for them to raid the Zin mothership. In response, Kinzie argues that what she does in the simulation, she can't do in the real world. "I can't just wave my fingers, and 'oooh, look Kinzie, you weave worlds like a goddess with a brush!'"
  • One of CID's comments during the mission where you upload his AI is "It's full of stars!"
  • Sometimes when Killer Mike’s Go plays on KRhyme, the Announcer will say "I know you're gonna dig this."
  • Sometimes when Stan Bush's The Touch plays on The Mix, the Announcer will say "It's Time to Light Our Darkest Hour."
    • During your final assault on Zinyak, both you and he will recite Optimus Prime and Megatron's final battle quotes from Transformers: The Movie.
      "One shall stand, one shall fall."
      "Why throw away your life so recklessly, Saint?"
      "That's a question you should ask yourself."
  • When you finally kill Emperor Zinyak, you'll rip his head off with the spine still intact. Sub-Zero would be proud.
  • When shutting down a Hotspot, the Laura Bailey voice may say, "Shut it down! Shut it down FOREVER!" referring to the words spoken from Dark City.
    • Speaking of Dark City, the plot of Saints Row IV have some similarities with it: aliens trapping human begins in a fake city controlled by them and a protagonist that gains supernatural powers to fight them, with the difference that the fake Steelport is a virtual reality, not an humongous spaceship.
  • The music for Matt's rescue mission sounds a lot like the intro of Metroid for the NES.
  • During combat the Boss will sometimes say "I am the one who knocks!"
  • The toilets of The Ship have three seashells attached to the side, and Kinzie mentions that the bathrooms "don't work like we're used to on Earth."
  • The Murderbots bear a resemblance to the T-800 endoskeletons from Terminator.
  • Super Ben King is practically the spitting image of Morpheus.
  • Super Pierce is a near exact riff on Kung Lao.
  • Super Keith David may be a reference to just about any captain or authority figure of at least a couple 70's/80's anime space shows. Or, you know, Lando Calrissian.
  • While escaping from the Zin's ship, Kinzie instructs the President to Do a barrel roll!.
  • 217, the area code of the Boss's call to Oleg is for Western and Central Illinois including Volition's headquarters in Champaign.
  • The description of the purple tentacle bat is "Feel like you could take on the world?
  • There are several Ghostbusters refs in Pierce's rescue mission.
    • Paul was essentially a Saints Flow version of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from the first film.
    • Taking control of a national monument to fight the evil spirit mirrors the climax of Ghostbusters II, replacing the Statue of Liberty with the Steelport statue of Joe Magarac.
    • One of The Boss' lines during this segment is "What did you do, Pierce?", mirroring Peter Venkman's line from Ghostbusters, asking Ray what he was thinking about before the Marshmallow Man came onto the scene.
  • If you call Ben King and C.I.D. as homies, Ben will question C.I.D. about his name. The AI explains that many great quests involve a person named Cid, "like the last fantasy game I played."
  • The "Control Interface Drones" look like Eyebots.
  • CID in particular could pass for a relative of Wheatley. Also, he's in spaaaaace.
  • In addition to looking like Fallout-style eyebots, the drones manage another Shout-Out when the player is tasked with tracking down and "snatching" a golden one to reduce the notoriety level. This is lampshaded by the Cockney Male Voice 3, who asks Kinzie if he's going to need a broomstick for that part.
  • A subtle one, the Nebuchanormandy has an inflatable autopilot referencing Airplane!
  • During Matt's rescue mission, Kinzie going through various different commands in order to find the correct one to help The Boss progress serves as a great number of references, including:
    Release FS3 (Not gonna happen)
    Download garbage (Failed due to acid burn.)
    The SRKFA cheat code. Despite some BFG-esque paraphrases floating around, KFA actually stands for "Keys and Full Ammo". The SR is a Saints Row-themed replacement for "ID", from id Software.
    The NOCLIP cheat code. Although made by the same company, linking "noclip" to the ability to walk through walls wasn't the case in Doom (the relevant code there being "idspispopd", although the popular sourcemod Zdoom and its derivative Gzdoom accepts NOCLIP).
    • NOCLIP was used to avoid gravity and collision issues in Valve's Source Engine as well; it's the standard for basically everything not running on the Unreal engine.
  • Matt's loyalty mission is a combination of various vampire related shout outs such as Blade, John Carpenter's Vampires, and Angel (among others).
  • The obligatory Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference crops up, of all the places it might, in the Saints of Rage riff. The anti-drug message is from Josh Birk, who plays Nyteblayde, or rather Angel and his occupation is listed as vampire slayer.
  • The name of the power armor you unlock at the end? Iron Saint!
  • In a mission to shut down a politician's town-wide broadcast, the President states "Oh yeah I can stop the signal!"
  • The mission where you save Johnny Gat is titled "...The Very Next Day", a Stealth Pun on the popular elementary school song "The Cat Came Back".
  • All the side missions you're given have a theme to the titles: Asha's parody Bond movies, Shaundi's are all riffs on the titles of Queen songs, and so on.
  • Whenever one enters the virtual Steelport, the world loads in with an endless void of glowing grid lines, similar to the second generation Animus.
  • When shooting down alien ships in the White Crib, at one point they assume a grid formation. They're Space Invaders!
  • The ending is a shout out to The Chronicles of Riddick. Kinzie even mentions: "Keep what you kill. It's a classic."
  • The sprint and jump effects and animations are very similar to those used in Crackdown. Collecting the data clusters is also similar to collecting the Agility and Hidden Orbs.
    • Also the glide mechanics and some of the superpowers are rather similar to [PROTOTYPE].
    • The sound effects to powering up your jump and the sounds as you super sprint are very similar to those used in The Matrix sequels as Neo jumps into his super flight and flies at super speeds (similarly having cars and other debris caught in his wake).
  • One takedown kill involves a very Albert Wesker-ish move where The Boss impales an enemy's torso with their bare hand and then lifts up the corpse with a smirk.
  • The idea of a US president in a mecha and kicking butt is itself a reference to a previous game.
  • The mission title De Plane Boss is a reference to Fantasy Island.
  • One mission suggests Dead Island X Saints Row will be released in 2015. Now that the series has gone to Deep Silver, we find out Keith David was twelve hours into playing it when the Zin attacked.
  • If you look at the female statue street lamps, you'll notice they now have three breasts.
  • One of the skins for The Penetrator is called "The Good Doctor." It's blue and glowing. Sound familiar?
  • A homie conversation between Maero and Veteran Child shows that Jessica enjoyed her gift from VC, an entire set of small plastic ponies.
    Veteran Child: Heh, you'd be surprised at what people collect from their childhood.
  • One of the competitors in Enter the Dominatrix refers to a "vinyl pony".
  • In the final mission upon being tasked with shutting down several generators French Boss will muse, "The power of three? Zinyak must be a fan of that show about witches."
  • In Enter the Dominatrix there is a very clear reference to the Iron Throne. Only this one is in a sex club and made of dildos.
  • The end of Enter the Dominatrix is a very clear reference to A New Hope. Possibly also a reference to The Wizard of Oz as the characters get their wishes granted.
  • The name of the first DLC for the game (Enter the Dominatrix) is itself a shout out to another game based on a movie franchise that the game has done many a shout out to.
  • They should have just called How The Saints Saved Christmas the "Holiday Movie Shout-Out" DLC:
  • The "Rainbow Rider" outfit is a Whole Costume Reference to... not quite the costume worn by Rainbow Brite, but a Sexy Whatever Outfit variation (with even the skirt being trimmed with fur instead of piping).
  • There is a reference to the Man with No Name from the Dollars Trilogy. His clothing appears in stores, named "The Hat With No Name" and "The Suit With no Name".
  • In "The Saints Wing," the Boss accesses the hidden gun cabinets in the Oval Office by flipping open a bust of Johnny Gat and pressing a button in the neck. This is the same way Bruce Wayne accesses the Batpole in Batman, except there the bust is of William Shakespeare.
  • After absorbing the first Warden, the Boss is eager to know what sort of power they got. Their guesses ("Teleportation? laser vision? Bone claws?") are all powers possessed by members of the X-Men.
  • In "Psychosomatic," the Boss and the Shaundis face a horde of duplicate Veteran Childs with superpowers, each of whom grow stronger when one of their number is killed. Minus an Alternate Universe angle, that's the premise of The One.
  • Most cars have barcode license plates, a reference to Back to the Future Part II.
  • Zinyak's voice and demeanor is reminiscent of the super-intelligent gremlin featured in Gremlins 2: The New Batch. This is made more apparent when Zinyak is heard reading literature over the radio (or sometimes in the Boss' head).
  • The Super Jump and Super Sprint powers obtained early in the game allow the player to act in similar manner to all sorts of comic book superheroes (it's even possible to buy a variety of superhero outfits). Through creative use of player and costume customization it's possible for the player to create a character who, at least in the simulation, could be a shoutout.
    • Of course, between those and the glide, you'll quickly realize that Kinzie must really love [PROTOTYPE], since you use the glide in the exact same position, complete with the hand and wrist trails, despite it not having a purpose here.
  • "Whose idea of Hell is being trapped on an airplane"? Scientologists. In Scientologist cosmology, thetans' original host bodies were trapped under volcanos in planes very much like the one shown in Kinzie's hologram.
  • The Achievement for killing 250 enemies with the Minigun is "Hello Little Friend".
  • The Let's Pretend Rubber Band Gun skin for the Heavy SMG makes a Double Rainbow joke.
  • At one moment in the Zinyak text adventure, Zinyak meets a Zin who took umbrage to something. One of the choices was "Coat of Many Colors". When you choose it, "Are you... are you quoting a song or something?", which refers to a song from either Dolly Parton or Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
  • The Anime DLC pack adds costumes and hairstyles that can turn your character into the spitting image of Advent Children-era Cloud Strife (complete with a BFS) and Mine from Akame ga Kill!
  • In addition to the Doctor Who-style outfits mentioned above, entering and exiting the simulation itself comes complete with visual effect sequences very similar to what it looks like when the TARDIS travels through time, even colored appropriately.
  • You can access Doc Holiday's and Wyett Earp's guns in the 8th gen games. How do we know they are their weapons? Their descriptions: Are you gonna do something or just stand there and bleed?
  • XONE and PS4 also adds a Sim Suit that is just one hood away from being a picture perfect copy of what's seen in Dragon Age: Inquisition.
  • The French voice actually uses "Nobody does it better" as a Bond One-Liner
  • Bailey!Boss will mention that setting up a webcam in Viola's bedroom does not make up for the mistakes Kinzie made. Viola, or her actress, would totally have done this.
  • Near the top of the tower in Rosen Oaks, there the Boss can find a Salem, a flying broom with stirrups that operates like a hover bike, and looks like something from the Harry Potter universe.
  • Sometimes when Southern!Boss shuts down a Hotspot, she'll yell "Th-th-th-that's all, Folks!"
  • When the large shielded ship appears in "Matt's Back", while most voices just panic, Southern!Boss exclaims with equal concern "We're gonna need a bigger boat."

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