Shout Out / Deus Ex: Nihilum

• Several allusions and references to The Prisoner turn up all over the mod:
  • Number One, in addition to the obvious reference in his name (which Ingram alludes to in Berlin), wears similar clothing to Number Six from the TV series.
  • When all the factions are making their arguments to Ingram in Dynamene Station, Ingram busts out one of the most well-recognized quotes from the show.
    Mad Ingram: I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered!
• Numerous references to Space Ghost Coast to Coast:
  • A doctor in the airport level describes an accident involving natural gas (based on Flipmode).
  • A bum in the Queens level makes a few to Kentucky Nightmare.
    • More Kentucky Nightmare references pop up in a datacube in one of the apartments.
  • The Trivia Console in Anthony Stafford's fortress directly quotes the episodes Gallagher, Chambraigne and Kentucky Nightmare (briefly dipping into 2001: A Space Odyssey as well).
• If you were on very good terms with Lien Takara in Hong Kong, she is reluctant to kill Ingram when you meet again in Washington D.C. This gives Ingram the option of telling Lien that he's not going to hurt her, after which Lien attacks Ingram regardless. If Ingram keeps his word and doesn't attack Lien in any way, she soon stops her attack, has a change of heart and defects from MJ12. The whole scenario is a direct and intentional reference to the final boss fight in Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith (the 1998 expansion pack to Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2) in which the only way to defeat Kyle, who at the time had been seduced to the Dark Side, is to deactivate your lightsaber and refrain from attacking.
  • Hiding inside a container in order to finish a level is also something you have to do at one point in Mysteries of the Sith.
  • In the same vein, the name of the character Alexia Novikova and her prototype AI, JED051B, are references to the creator of the editing tools for Jedi Knight. ^note JED is a mapping tool for Jedi Knight and Mysteries of the Sith, created by Alexei Novikov.
• Next to the throwing knives in Yakedo's compound is a datacube signed by a Lo Wang.
• Yakedo's boat, bright red in color, reads CITIZEN on its side, just like Kaneda's motorbike did in AKIRA.
  • In the same vein, a datacube at Dynamene Station mentions "Illuminati's NEO-TOKYO project" from 1988.
• A datacube in Elaine Chow's apartment (next to Yakedo's compound) mentions his connections to a "Carrington-White Institute chick".
• A guy in the Forichi Night Club bathroom yells out "It hurts like a disease!" and "What have I done to deserve this!?".
• A patron of the Greasel fighting ring talking about "microscopic chefs" is making a reference to a strip from Checkerboard Nightmare.
• Unlike Crispin Glover, Rez Khan in the Kowloon level admits that he's not strong and can't kick. ^note He still seems to be distraught.
• In Kowloon, you can get into the apartment of a guy who appears to be fascinated by UVB-76 aka The Buzzer. The Buzzer can also be heard behind an unopenable door in the Queens level. Later on, Anthony Stafford reveals that the station is actually used by XVA to inform its agents throughout the world that Dynamene Station is operational. A datacube in Dynamene Station reveals that The Buzzer actually broadcasts the status of a grocery list, with each voice message announcing changes to its contents.
• At one point in Dynamene Station, Ingram and Novikova paraphrase Tarquin^note "You can't make an omelet without ruthlessly crushing dozens of eggs beneath your steel boot and then publicly disemboweling the chickens that laid them as a warning to others." from The Order of the Stick.
  • One of the logins in Dynamene Station is a sly reference^note to the character of Vernon Damascus to the webcomic CRFH.
  • A conversation with Alexia Novikova after paying a visit to the Selected Individuals Unit prompts Ingram to ask if flying through hoops in heavy hog is the next thing she wants him to do.
    • Moonraker actually gets directly namedropped at one point in the level.
  • When Number One tries to appeal to Ingram one last time, Ingram paraphrases one of Cutter's lines from Starslip.
    Mad Ingram: Save your ham for a dumber piece of bread.
  • A few rooms in the Inner Section of Dynamene Station are more or less directly modelled after areas in System Shock. Here's an example.
  • The station's exterior is heavily based on Aliens.
• A detention cell in Stafford's fortress contains a bum who looks, and sounds, like the Ice King from Adventure Time. A nearby MiB guard even mentions a crown discovered from Scandinavia...
  • Furthermore, one of the logins in Dynamene Station is Petrikov with "Marcey" as the password.
• One of Alistair Carlsburn's lines is "Oh! Somebody stop me!".
• Jin, the weapon merchant in Kowloon, speaks with the help of a soundboard, with most of his responses to Ingram being soundbites from pop culture. Namely, from Army of Darkness, Casablanca, Firefly, Half-Life 2 and Deus Ex itself.
• The name of Ingram's birthplace, Shell Beach, is a shout-out to Dark City. In addition, at one point Ingram even refers to not wanting to look at ostensible childhood photographs.
• The name Wesley Cutter is not a reference to Passenger 57 or the Saints Row franchise, since the name was independently coined up for the mod way back in 2004. It's actually derived from Blade (whose outfit inspired the look of Mad Ingram) who was played by Wesley Snipes. And since blades cut things...
• A couple of civilians re-enact a scene concerning buying a coffin for one's living room (and finding a corpse inside it) from the relatively obscure TV show Stark Raving Mad.
• The long-running webcomic Help Desk (aka Ubersoft) gets alluded to in the form of the uniforms worn by the MJ12 hackers in the Illuminati Communications Hub, as well as in a conversation between two XVA soldiers concerning an unbeatable method of gambling in Las Vegas.
  • One of the MJ12 hackers nearly launches into a ubiquitous reference to A Few Good Men, which the other one lampshades.
• MacFarlane's exclamation "Hate you. Hate you both!" in reference to two characters that he dislikes (after one of them makes fun of him) is an allusion to Dragon Ball Z Abridged. ^note End of Episode 27
• The bums in the Berlin (Platz der Republik) level are rife with these:
  • Another one paraphrases the last panel from this Penny-Arcade strip.
  • One paraphrases an interaction^note "Wink. Did you wink, or did you say wink?" "He said that too, dad." from early Season 3 of Arrested Development.
  • Conversations with the bum who can give you the key to XVA HQ activate the Reference Overdrive with shoutouts to Space Ghost: Coast to Coast ^note Episodes Explode and Curses, G.I. Joe ^note "And knowing is half the battle.",Star Wars ^note "Aren't you too dark for a stormtrooper?" "Classy.", Seinfeld ^note "I second-hand smoke two packs a day." and Ronald Reagan. ^note "It's morning in America."
• Before departing for Dynamene Station, Lana Zavich's expression "Giddy-up then!" is another reference to Seinfeld (especially when it comes to the delivery).
• References to Scrubs show up a lot:
  • Some of the names of the minor characters^note Dr. Simotas, Dr. Wen, etc. make appearances.
  • Assorted lines throughout the mod paraphrase quotes^note e.g. "What an incredibly normal thing to do!", originally spoken by Jordan referring to Dr. Cox's reversed vasectomy from the show.
  • A bum in New York sings^note as does the "Ice King" one in Stafford's fortress a few bars of A Little Respect by Erasure and comments on how the song is like a virus, just like Turk did in the first season of the show.
    • In the same level, getting to the top floor of one of the highest buildings gives you the EAGLE! bonus.
    • A datacube in one of the apartments includes "Zoom ZOOM Zoom!"
• The aforementioned NYC and "Ice King" bums also ask "Kenneth, what is the frequency?" from Ingram (without attacking him, however).
• Elias Nadel greets agent Ingram (alias Wesley Cutter) with "Welcome back, Cutter".
• A vent in the Queens level gives you extra skill points in the form of a "A Vent Is A Vent Of Course Bonus".
• Hyacinth Bucket seems to be on the other end of the line of one of the payphones in the Woodfibre outpost level.
• The Illuminati Communications Hub beneath the White House, implied to not have been used since 1996^note Even though a line from Anthony Stafford in Woodfibre claims that it was shut down in the early 2000s, contains a few references to the decade:
  • One of the passwords refers to a track from the soundtrack (by Frank Klepacki) to the first Command & Conquer game, released in August 1995.
  • A bass guitar can be activated to play the Seinfeld theme.
  • The cover of a 1995 magazine with David Letterman on the cover reads The Tonight Show with David Letterman to emphasize the Alternate Universe aspects of the mod even further.
  • The hub contains two Macintosh Plus computers (already an outdated model by 1996, yet still in wide use). A variation on the Sad Mac icon appears on their screens after the networks are hacked by Lana Zavich.
• A password to a computer in Kowloon is "Tenagra". ^note Furthermore, an email that can be read on that computer is signed by D. Jalad.
  • In the 2013 version of the mod, the logins in the Tianbao Hotel level are assorted shoutouts to Tekken, Indiana Jones, Star Wars and Chris Morris.
  • In the NYPD armory, Sega gets two shout-outs. ^note Namely, in the form of references to Sega Saturn and Master System.
  • A security console username in Dynamene Station refers to Caruso from CSI: Miami.
  • In the Airborne Laboratory level, you are given the username Ingram with 6million as the password.
• Plenty of shout-outs to musicians, mainly in the form of computer logins:
  • The username CrystalJapan is coupled with "Detroit" as the password in the Berlin section.
  • In Dynamene Station, one of the logins^note Houston, Lyon is a reference to the 1987 live album by Jean-Michel Jarre.
  • A log-in in Anthony Stafford's fortress refers to The KLF.
  • The name of Hütter-Neustadt Airport as well as its sign design are a shout-out to Kraftwerk.
  • The ticket seller for the Forichi Night Club makes a reference to Video Killed The Radio Star by The Buggles.
  • Several references^note "I was raised by snakes, I lie all the time", "Shower and shave, my name is Dave", etc. to songs by the Belgian electropop band Telex are made by the bums in Berlin as well as by the chicken salesman in Kowloon.
  • The piano in the White House level plays two snippets: Main Theme from Deus Ex: Nihilum ^note Just like the pianos in Deus Ex featured the Deus Ex theme track and the theme track (by Frank Klepacki) from Star Wars: Empire at War.
• At the Hong Kong underground fighting ring, if you choose to free the greasel instead of betting on either of the Triads, you get a "Run Chicken Little Bonus".
• After your first full conversation with Robert Chen in the MPS HQ - during which he sarcastically says that he didn't know Mad Ingram was a poet - if you attack him and manage to get him to kill you, he will make a quip about the situation: "How's this for death of the author?"