Easter Eggs, nods, and homages

Ive played through this again, and theres just so much stuff that this game references. Its really one of the coolest things about the game.


The Christian Bale Rant. Christian Bale going completely ape on a light tech for wandering through the set of Terminator Salvation. Bale is a complete douchebag during the rant, and its copied pretty well by the guy backstage at the talkshow. Its even an achievement to knock his ass out.


Redrum. From the horror classic, "The Shining". A small boy continually says "Redrum" through the film, and at one point you see Redrum on a wall opposite a mirror, where its revealed that Redrum is actually "Murder" reversed. You can find this on the wall in the bathroom in Titty City.


867-5309. Classic song referenced also on the wall of the bathroom in Titty City, alongside the name Jenny, the girl's name in the song.


Power Armor is for Pussies! Obvious shot at Halo/Master Chief. You see the Spartan Armor (slightly modified with a nuke symbol on the visor) and hear music similar to what plays in the Halo games.


Gears of War. This is actually done in a couple spots. One is where the EDF officer says that he just got back from helping his friend find his wife, Christ what a pussy. This references Marcus helping Dom find Maria in Gears of War 2. The other reference is while shrunk and traversing a set of Gears and shutting them down, at the end of the sequence Duke says "Duke 1, Gears 0"


If it Bleeds, I can kill it. Quote made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie Predator.


Julius from Pulp Fiction. Played by Samuel L Jackson. Duke borrows a couple lines from this character. "I dont dig on swine" and "Im a mushroom cloud layin motherf***er".


No Keycards in Duke Nukem Forever. Duke 3D was reliant on Blue/Yellow/Red Keycards to access areas of the levels. Duke is seemingly halted early on in the game due to lack of a Red Keycard, to which he replies "Keycard? I dont need no f***in keycard!".


Isaac Clarke from Dead Space. In the hive a dead body is lying on the ground with the trademark engineering visor worn by Isaac in the games. Duke then says "Thats one DEAD SPACE marine"


Team America World Police. The hilarious chorus to the theme song of that movie "America, F*** YEAH!" is said/sung by Duke when Graves tells him that America is counting on him.


Total Recall. Arnold Schwarzenegger gets the drop on a couple bad guys after using a holographic image of himself earlier in the confrontation. He runs in, gets caught and quickly laughs and says "You think this is the real Quaid?" the bad guys are distracted for a moment and then Quaid says "It is." and then guns them both down. You can hear Duke say this pretty much anytime you use the Holoduke.


Total Recall. In one scene there is an alien woman with three breasts. The cab driver is eh...examining them thoroughly and says "Baby you make me wish I had three hands." When confronting the three breasted Alien Queen, Duke puts his spin on the quote with "Baby, you make me wish I had three guns." Paying homage to Total Recall, and taking a shot at the ridiculous 2 weapon restriction at the same time.


Army of Darkness. The quotes of Ashley J Williams have been used before, as some of Duke's trademark lines. Groovy! Who wants some? and Come Get Some! in DNF, Duke adds another of Ash's lines to his repertoire. Good, Bad, Im the guy with the gun.


Leroy Jenkins. For those that dont play or are not familiar with World of Warcraft, a dude named Leroy Jenkins is grouping with his party outside of a den of mobs. While the leader is discussing strategy, Leroy hilariously charges in before anyone is ready, yelling "Leeerooy!" A crazy battle ensues with the party ultimately being slaughtered. "Dammit Leroy!" is the overal sentiment. This can be seen in DNF when Private Jenkins runs ahead of Duke and gets obliterated by the Alien Fighter, leading to Duke delivering the "Dammit Leroy!" line.


Famous talk show hosts. Johnny O'Lenoman's name is a mix of what I think is the names Johnny Carson, Conan O'Brian, Jay Leno, and David Letterman.


The Olsen Twins. Named The Holsom twins in DNF, Mary and Kate Holsom are twins and the album that their song is from is titled "Full House".


Independence Day. The newscast in the beginning, asking citizens to remain calm and not to discharge firearms or make gestures in the direction of the visiting alien ships is also seen in a newscast in the beginning of Duke Nukem Forever.


Bigfoot. The most famous monster truck in existence is emulated in DNF with "Mighty Foot", Duke's Monster Truck. A reference to both Bigfoot as a monster truck, and Duke's Melee attack in Duke 3D, which was a kick.


I know theres more stuff, I just cant remember right now. To be continued.

When you first encounter the Assault Commander, Duke says - "I'm gonna kill you, OLD STYLE."

That's from the ventrilo harassment video. (Link directly to the line here. Warning, immediate language.)

Escape From New York. Isaac Hayes (chef from South Park) plays a character known as "The Duke of New York". He coins the saying "I am the Duke, I am A number one".


Predator. When the Predator removes his mask for the final battle, Arnold Schwarzenegger utters "Youre one ugly motherf***er". Duke says this to the first Battlelord you encounter in the game.



Duke 3D. In the classic, when standing idle for too long, Duke asks the player "What are you waitin for, Christmas?" In a segment in the Ladykiller Casino, you have to use an interactive statue of Duke to reach the next area. If you take too long to get to the top, the EDF officer asks "What are you waitin for, Haunnakah?"


Early Duke Nukem concepts. The pigcop statues in the DukeBurger that look like Porky Pig and not threatening whatsoever were actually what the pigcops were going to look like in the beginning. They were later scrapped for the cooler and more serious looking pigcops in Duke3D.

Robocop. Throughout the Robocop film, there are clips of some type of show with the main character always saying "Id buy that for a dollar!" Duke says this sometimes when picking up items like steroids.





Anime pornography. In Japan for a long period of time it was deemed illegal to portray actual penetration with the male member in X-Rated videos. This led to the more creative deviants in Japan creating anime pornography, with the actual penetration being portrayed with the tentacles of an octopus. Strange, wierd, and most definately f'd up. When Duke kills Octabrains, he often says "Take your tentacles back to Japan, you freak!"


Starship Troopers. The character Rico is on a newscast and says "Im from Buenos Aries and I say kill em all!" after the aliens invade. When butchering aliens, Duke will sometimes say Im from Las Vegas and I say kill em all.




Inception. An infinitely spinning top on a desk in Titty City is a reference to the totem used in the movie Inception to signify that the characters were not in the real world.


Old School. When getting drunk, Duke will sometimes say "Youre my boy, Blue!" Will Ferrel said this during the film at Blue's funeral.





Tombstone. When entering the ghost town of Morningwood, when the shooting starts Duke says "Im your Huckleberry". This is a reference to Val Kilmer's portrayal of Doc Holliday confronting Johnny Ringo, played by Michael Biehn.




They Live. Rowdy Roddy Piper's character in this film said the quote "I came here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And Im all outta bubblegum." Duke changes the line up a bit.

Censorship in Duke64. In Duke Nukem for the Nintendo 64, Steroids were censored and displayed in the game as "Vitamin X." This is referenced in the game when Duke is signing the autograph for Jimmy. "Remember to take your pills.....er....vitamins everyday and you might grow up to be as awesome as me.


Snot. This band wrote a song called "My balls, your chin." Duke puts his spin on it with "My balls, your face."


"I hate these Valve puzzles" is a reference to Valve, the creators of half-life, also known for annoying little puzzles in their games.



Saint's Row. In Saint's Row there is a fast food chain called "Freckle Bitches". In the DukeBurger, Duke will say the line "Better than Freckle Bitches."

Trading Places - industrial espionage dude Clarence Beaks (the actor of who I don't know), when holding Dan Akroyd, Eddie Murphy and Jamie Lee Curtis hostage on a train, says to two guys who come into the compartment "I'll rip out your eyes and piss on your brain."

World of Warcraft. When raiding in dungeons, the players in the group decide whether they are going to roll Need, or Greed on loot. Typicly, if the item doesnt help your character, you should roll greed, as greed rolls will be ignored if Need rolls occur. Douchebags will often times allow everyone in the group to roll greed, and then at the last make their roll a Need roll and take the item for themselves. This is known as "Ninja'ing" an item. When coming across items in the world, Duke will sometimes say "Im gonna ninja this."


Half-Life. During the Mightyfoot sequence, one of the times when your are looking for fuel brings you to a boarded up entrance and Duke says "A crowbar would come in handy right about now." This is a reference to the character Gordon Freeman from Half-Life who used a Crowbar to kick alien ass. The Crowbar is the first weapon you have access to in the beginning, and without it Gordon would have surely died. Even after acquiring a pistol and other weapons, the Crowbar still remained a brutally efficient way to get through the game.


Call of Duty- This franchise has become notorious for effing the gamer over at the end of their missions that theyve completed with a particular character. You get to know your character and his teammates, and then in the inevitable cutscene you get to see yourself either die in some sort of accident or get murdered in some way. After this happens, the briefing screen with the world map will pop up, highlight your location and show your picture, and list your name as KIA. This happens at the end of the Cycloid Emperor battle, and Duke calls it like it is. "What kinda shit ending is that?" "I aint dead. Im coming back for more."


They Live. In John Carpenter's sci-fi tale starring Rowdy Roddy Piper, aliens have blended in with the human race using a signal that causes humans to not notice their true form, nor their means of subliminal control. The few humans of the resistance refer to this signal causing the rest of the human race to be "asleep", unaware of what's really going on. In the bathroom stall in Titty City, scrawled on the wall in the exact same style as it appears in the film is the message "They Live, We Sleep."

From what I can see, this game does an awesome job of referencing loads of things. I read an interview somewhere that criticised this (I forget the reason now) but the reasoning was so shallow when there are more substantial things you could have a problem with.

Nice work on collating so many of them into one place The Stnger.

quote Ditnopota

In the Lady Killer level during Duke's first encounter with rats, Duke references The Princess Bride by saying 'Talk about rodents of unusual size' or something similar.

Oh my god yes! I was watching Prowl play last night and when I heard that bit I kinda squealed a bit because I love the Princess Bride. Never thought it would be refenced in this game though.