Community:Fallout 3 Easter Eggs

Numerous easter eggs and references to various books, movies and other games are one of the staples of the Fallout series.

1984
In Tenpenny Tower, on the top floor, resides Irving Cheng. If you look on the computer in his suite, you will find a listing called 'Daily Affirmation'. One of the affirmations is "Comrade Cheng is Watching You", as opposed to "Big Brother is Watching You" in George Orwell's dystopian classic '1984'. Another reference is found in Vault 92, where on the overseer's terminal it notes that he used the quote: "Sanity is not statistical" to stop the crazies for a time.

Another reference to the book is vault 101 - in 1984, room 101 is an interrogation room where the culprit is facing his worst nightmare.

2001: A Space Odyssey
Both HAL 9000 and the ZAX Computer view the world through fisheye lenses. This is a superficial resemblance at best, since the personalities of the two computers are different.

A Boy And His Dog
The protagonist of Harlan Ellison's A Boy And His Dog refers to his dog Blood, on at least one occasion, as "dogmeat", and the setting contains locations strongly resembling the Vaults. There are other distinctive thematic similarities between this and the Fallout series, which can be expected from post-apocalyptic fiction, but a major element in common is the blending of idealized 1950s America with futuristic horrors.

Apocalypse Now
Mr. Gutsy robots can be heard saying, "There is nothing I like better than the smell of plasma in the morning", a reference to the quote "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" from the movie Apocalypse Now.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force
In the Museum of Natural History, among the many Abraham Lincoln related items that can be obtained is an action figure of Lincoln holding a samurai sword. This may be a reference to Aqua Teen Hunger Force's character Meatwad who occasionally transforms into what others call "Samurai Lincoln", although he says it's Wayne Gretzky.

Armitage III: Polymatrix/Dualmatrix
The security android for Dr. Zimmer in the Replicated Man quest is named Armitage, which is also the name of the main character in Armitage III: Polymatrix/Dualmatrix. In this movie, Armitage was a human-like robot who was struggling with who she is.

See also Neuromancer.

Back to the Future
Butch DeLoria seems to be a clone of the past version of Biff Tannen. DeLoria is probably a reference to the De Lorean, the car used as a basis for the time machine.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes
In Megaton, the unexploded bomb and Children of Atom are a reference to the film Beneath the Planet of the Apes, in which a cult of survivors worship an intact nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile.

Bethesda Softworks
Fallout 3 was developed by Bethesda Softworks, and there is an area in the game called the Bethesda Ruins. However, as the main development office of Bethesda Softworks is in Rockville, Maryland, a few miles away from the north edge of the gameworld, the Bethesda Ruins are not a reference to it. They seem to be intended as the offices of the Fallout universe's Bethesda Softworks, apparently never having moved from the offices where the real-world company was founded, in Bethesda, Maryland (the site of the Bethesda Ruins). The main evidence (that cannot be explained away as a geographical coincidence) that a connection is meant is the name of the Bethesda Underworks.

Big Trouble in Big Town
The title of this quest is a reference to the 1986 film Big Trouble in Little China.

Blade Runner
The name and content of the quest "The Replicated Man" is a reference to the replicants in Blade Runner.

Bob's Big Boy
The large statue in Paradise Falls is a reference to the statues at the Big Boy restaurant chain. The statues at the restaurants are rarely larger than life-sized, the large size of the Paradise Falls statue may also be a reference to Dr. Evil's escape rocket in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.

Bradbury, Ray
A bit of a dual-natured reference in this one. In Georgetown, one of the few accessible buildings (Bradley Place) has a powered-down Mr. Handy. You can activate the robot, and one of the things you can tell it to do is to give a bedtime story to the children (or, given the war, the skeletal remains of the children) of the house. The poem spoken, There Will Come Soft Rains, speaks about how, if mankind would go extinct because of a war, nature would care very little. Ray Bradbury wrote a story of the same name (and directly used the poem) in a story of a robotic house continuing the actions of the family that lived there, before a nuclear war killed them. So, in essence, the player can reenact the main plot of Ray Bradbury's short story (have the robot do things for its obviously-dead owners), by having it speak the poem that inspired the short story in the first place.

Additionally, The Replicated Man may be a reference to Bradbury's The Illustrated Man.

Burke, William
Mr. Burke may be a reference to the William Burke who killed at least 17 people in Scotland in the 1820s. Due to the method used by Burke and his partner (William Hare) which left no visible marks on the body, to "Burke" someone or commit a "Burking" is to kill without leaving a sign.

Calvin and Hobbes
Sugar Bombs are a reference to "Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs" in the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. They are Calvin's favorite breakfast cereal and in one strip he got a decoder ring prize from inside the box; this is reflected in the advertisement for Sugar Bombs, which also contains a decoder ring inside.

Cannibal! The Musical
Willow, a female ghoul outside of The Museum of History refers to humans as those "Other Assholes". In Cannibal! the "Indians" refer to non Indians as the Other Assholes in the same way Willows refers to all Non-ghouls.

Catcher in the Rye
A male and a female vault dweller in vault 101 are name Tom Caulfield and Marry Caulfield respectively and are seen quoting Catcher in the Rye before running to their death amid a shower of bullets.

Clue
The butler in your home in Megaton is a Mr. Handy robot named "Wadsworth". Wadsworth the Butler is Tim Curry's character in the movie Clue. Like other Mr. Handy robots, he speaks in a tone and voice similar to that employed by Tim Curry in the movie (a stereotypical "English butler" voice).

Colin Moriarty
The character Colin Moriarty is a crime boss which may be a reference to Professor Moriarty, criminal mastermind and rival of Sherlock Holmes.

Comic book industry
The receptionist terminal in the Hubris Comics building contains a letter to the editor about the villain called The AntAgonizer in the Grognak the Barbarian comics (the apparent inspiration for The AntAgonizer). It complains about the current writer of the series, a Mr. Neptura, and demands the return of a former writer, Mr. Moorellis. The latter is a portmanteau of the last names of Alan Moore and Warren Ellis, critically regarded as two of the best comics writers now or ever.

Cool Hand Luke
In some circumstances, Rory McLaren will say "Nobody can eat 50 eggs!", referencing the movie Cool Hand Luke, in which Paul Newman's title character accepts a bet to eat 50 eggs in an hour.

Also, in Paradise Falls there is a Pulowski Preservation shelter named "The Box". This could be a reference to when the character Carr says "Any man playing grabass or fightin' in the building spends a night in the box."

Crowley, Aleister
In Underworld, there is a ghoul named Mister Crowley, presumably a reference to occultist Aleister Crowley, the subject of the song "Mr. Crowley" by Ozzy Osbourne. Allistair Tenpenny is one of the people Mister Crowley sends you to kill, which can be interpreted as reinforcing the connection to Aleister Crowley.

Crystal Pepsi / Pepsi Clear
Inside the Nuka-Cola Plant, you can find terminals mentioning the recent development of Nuka-Cola Clear as well as its recipe. This is a reference to the very short-lived Crystal Pepsi, which was a colorless, caffeine-free variant of the regular Pepsi Cola.

Day Of The Dead
Inside the Red Racer Factory a scientist known as The Surgeon keeps a Glowing One named Stefan in a cage. The journal entries on a nearby terminal allude to the ghoul being one of the surgeon's special projects. This is reminiscent of the movie Day Of The Dead in which a mad scientist nicknamed 'Frankenstein' imprisons and experiments upon an intelligent zombie which he names Bub.

Dick, Philip K.
Many places, views and situations in Fallout 3 are similar to ones in Philip K. Dick's Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb: situations such as eating dog's meat, which in the book is depicted as a delicious meal and even aftermath newspapers talk about recipes on how to cook it, mutated cattle and twoheaded or multi-bodied people, other mutated animals. In particular, Three Dog's character and speech style presents a lot of similarities with that of Walter Dangerfield, a lone astronaut that had been sent on a trip to Mars with his wife (who died shortly after the launch) and never got there because of the start of the nuclear war. He remained in Earth's low orbit becoming the one and only radio broadcaster for the whole Earth, broadcasting music and playing the DJ part inspiring all the people that remained alive on the planet who gathered in groups to listen to his show.

See also Blade Runner.

Die Hard
Bryan Wilks can be heard to say -- while in the preservation pod during the Those! quest -- that he now "knows what a TV dinner feels like", which is a line from the movie Die Hard.

Dracula
Lucy West, the woman who kicks off the Blood Ties quest is probably a reference to Lucy Westenra, Mina Murray's friend in Bram Stoker's Dracula who is turned into a vampire and then staked by Van Helsing. The vampires choose to stay out of the sun much like movie versions of Dracula do.

Duck and Cover
If you approach Springvale school on the side with the door opening into "Springvale Elementary," and continue on and around the broken wall, follow the path that leads downward. As you reach the bottom, look to your right. There should be a poster there with a turtle and a bomb. On the bottom part of the picture, it will show the turtle in its shell with the bomb exploding next to it. This is a reference to the famous propaganda film titled "Duck and Cover," which tells you that in the event of a nuclear attack, you should duck and cover your head. The film uses a turtle to help get the point across.

The explosives skill book is also called Duck and Cover!.

Dune
Mentats are a mind-enhancing drug. In Frank Herbert's Dune, Mentats are humans trained to function as 'living computers'. Also, when going to Dupont Circle, the man in the alley way that rants makes references to "the big fat worm" and across the wastes. Also the sun rising quotes are from Dune novels.

Fawkes, Guy
In Vault 87, a Super Mutant named Fawkes is trapped in cell 5. When asked about the name, Fawkes says that it was taken from researching history texts and that Fawkes was the name of a man who died for what he believed in, and as such, the Super-Mutant Fawkes felt a kinship to him.

Guy Fawkes, a Catholic, attempted to blow up England's Houses of Parliament on November 5th, 1605, in protest of the treatment of the Catholic religion in England, and was executed in January of 1606. The Puritan religion was similarly restricted in England during that period in history.

See also V For Vendetta.

Fear Factory
On one of the many Research Lead terminals inside the Museum of Technology, the first log entry ends with: "After a complete cleanup on the mainframe's core, I am happy to announce that the infection has been removed... the soul of this machine has improved. - B. Bell, Research Lead" This is a reference to the Fear Factory song "Archetype", which contains the lyrics "The infection has been removed, the soul of this machine has improved." This is evidenced by the fact that the mainframe is called the "Archetype Model FF06", Archetype being the album name, FF being Fear Factory, and 06 being the album number. Vocalist Burton C. Bell's name can also be abbreviated to B. Bell, to match the researcher's name.

Full Metal Jacket
The Mr. Gutsy robot will sometimes say when you kill one "Pin my medals upon my chest" or "Tell my mom I did my best" which are small parts of a running cadence sang in the military. This cadence is also sung in the movie Full Metal Jacket. This is not only from a cadence, but from the song "Ballad of the Green Berets" by SSgt Barry Sadler.

Futurama
The Pulowski Preservation Shelters apparently only killed people and say 'Occupied' while closed, resembling in both regards the suicide booths from Futurama.

Futurama parodies this during an episode while in the sewers, the bomb is siting in irradiated water and the sewers are known to be irradiated(explaining the mutants). They show them their "church" which has an unexploded nuclear warhead in it. When asked about it they say "Eh, it's mostly an Easter and Christmas thing." This is a reference to the film "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" in which a group of mutants worships an unexploded atomic bomb.

Gorillas in the Mist
Isabella Proud's story is a blatant reference to Dian Fossey's research on Mountain Gorillas in Rwanda.

Half-Life Series
The Prototype Medic Power Armor could be a reference to the HEV suit in the Half-Life series. Both suits talk to the user, provide protection, and give the user morphine.

Hardware
Three Dog is reminiscent of a radio DJ called Angry Bob in the 2000 AD inspired film Hardware.

Incredible Hulk, The
You can overhear a Mr. Gutsy say, "I'm starting to get angry. You would not like me when I'm angry". This is the much like the comment Dr. Banner would give to Mr. Mcgee in the opening sequence of the tv series (1978-1982) the Hulk. Exact quote: "Mr. McGee, don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." Apart from that, the Nerd Rage! perk is clearly inspired by Banner's transformation.

Internet culture
Moira Brown's terminal password is MB3K-OMFG; the last four digits, OMFG, are a common internet acronym for Oh My Fucking God. (The first two letters are Moira's initials; the significance of the 3K, or 3000, remains to be examined.)

3K could relate to 3000 and the pipboy 3000, just a suggestion!

It could also be a reference to Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Jefferson, Thomas/Admiral Tolwyn/Malcolm McDowell
During one of President Eden's radio broadcasts, he utters the phrase "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." While the quote originally comes from Thomas Jefferson, it was also prominently said by Admiral Tolwyn in Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom. Malcolm McDowell plays the part of both Eden and Tolwyn. President Eden's radio broadcasts also reference the Fireside Chats of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Jericho
Jericho the mercenary in Megaton is probably a reference to the post-apocalyptic television series of the same name. The TV series is supported by Bethesda, as seen on their blog site on the attempted second revival of the show.

John Carpenter's The Thing
The alien from The Thing changes into a multi-limbed, grotesque form with some human attributes when it changes its appearance or attacks, similar to the appearance of the Centaur.

Land of the Dead
Tenpenny Tower's story is very similar to Fiddler's Green where a fortress-tower is owned by a wealthy elitist. The tower gets attacked by intelligent zombies (aka: ghouls. Everyone in the tower also refers to them as 'zombies') who eventually take over and reside in the tower just like what happens if you let the ghouls in.

Lost
In Megaton, if you talk to Maggie with the Child at Heart perk, you can get a code to a safe. The code is 15, 16, 23, 42, which is also part of a reoccurring chain of numbers in the television show, Lost.

Lovecraft, H.P.
In the extreme southwest of the world map you can find the Dunwich Building, which once housed the offices of a pretty innocuous company (Dunwich Drilling, a manufacturer of industrial mining and drilling machines). This is possibly the single "creepiest" or "spookiest" location in the game, as the ruins now form a very dark, chaotic three dimensional maze absolutely chock-full of feral ghouls. The personal logs you find here and an object you find at the very end of the maze form a definite reference to Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos/setting. The name of the location itself is a direct reference to Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror. (The company based in the building being titled Dunwich Borers.)

During exploration of the Dunwich Building the player comes across nine personal audio tapes that make reference to a mysterious book (somewhat implied to be the Necronomicon) that drove the man's father insane and lead him to the whispering obelisk in the Virulent Underchambers.

Mad Max
There are many items and incidents that appear to refer to the Mad Max movies, which starred Mel Gibson as a post-apocalyptic warrior. For instance, one of the Little Lamplight children uses the word humongous incorrectly, saying 'humungus.' Though it appears incorrect, it is actually a reference to Lord Humungus, the leader of the antagonizing gang in The Road Warrior. The "Scoped .44 Magnum" weapon in-game may also be a reference to Humungus's scoped revolver. The design of the Leather Armor in Fallout 3 is strikingly similar to Mel Gibson's armor as Mad Max.

Additionally, a picture of the main character walking beside Dogmeat that is featured in the game booklet, on the back of the packaging, and in every ending is an homage to the image of Mad Max walking beside his dog from The Road Warrior.

Fallout 3's Dogmeat is also a Blue Heeler, the breed that was used for Mad Max's dog in the movie.

There is also a random encounter with a character named Mel wearing a leather jacket and sporting a Sawed-Off Shotgun. If your Perception is high enough, you'll notice that the shotgun is unloaded. In Road Warrior Max threatens the Gyrocaptain with his shotgun, even though it wasn't loaded.

The Raiders style is very similar to that of the various raider and biker gangs in the Mad Max films.

You will also find Medical Leg Braces randomly throughout the wastes that Max wears on his left leg in the films.

Also one of the passwords, or possible passwords to a computer in Vault 87 is "Bartertowne" which shares a name to the main settlement in Beyond Thunderdome called "Bartertown".

Ministry
While traveling with Fawkes, during battle she will occasionally say "I only kill to know I'm alive", which is a partial lyric to the song "So What" by Ministry, from the album The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste.

Moby-Dick
If the player visits Fort Independence and asks an Outcast named Defender Morgan, "What have you got against the Brotherhood?", she will refer to Elder Lyons as "Ahab Lyons", who "is off chasing his Super Mutant white whale."

Furthermore, if the player's Intelligence is high enough, he or she can respond with "By that analogy, you think Lyons will be killed by the Super Mutants?", much to Morgan's astonishment. She replies, "Huh. And here I thought we had the only remaining copy of that."

This is a clear reference to Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, in which Captain Ahab and his whaling crew are hunting for a monstrous white whale, and a nod to the book itself, which was written in 1851 -- long before the Divergence.

Monty Python
In the Museum of Technology there are several terminals that have notes from the lead researcher, named Professor R. J. Gumbie. This is a reference to the Monty Python character of the same name only spelled Gumby.

Munchkin
In the Munchkin card game there is a weapon called the Board of Education, a 2 by 4 with a nail in it. This weapon appears in Fallout 3 as the unique nail board. Munchkin is made by Steve Jackson Games, which also makes GURPS. Fallout 1 was originally supposed to use the GURPS system. The word "GURPS" can also appear as a possible password when hacking computers.

Music industry
In Vault 92, the vault used for music preservation, the name of the overseer is Richard Rubin. This can be found while looking into the computer files. Rick Rubin is a real life music producer and founder of Def Jam Records who in 2007 was listed by Time Magazine among the 100 Most Influential People in The World.

Music Man, The
One of Dr. Zimmer's lines, "And he's right here in Rivet City!", may be a reference to the musical The Music Man, that takes place in River City, Iowa, and has a music montage frequently featuring the line "... right here in River City."

Mystery Science Theater 3000
A computer in the National Archives contains a memo from the man in charge of robot maintenance is signed, P. Brantseg. Patrick Brantseg was one of the prop guys from MST3K, and was even listed in the credits of the MST3K movie as puppet wrangler.

In addition, there is a portion of the game where you can choose to settle an argument between two clueless superheroes, one being a robot mechanic. When you gain entrance to his stronghold, the door has several different layers that unlock one after another, all in different fashions, much like the beginning of the MST3K television program.

Neuromancer
Dr. Zimmer's security android is named Armitage. This may be a reference to William Gibson's "Neuromancer". Formerly a Green Beret named Colonel Willis Corto, who took part in a secret operation named Screaming Fist. He was heavily injured both physically and psychologically, and the "Armitage" personality was constructed as part of experimental "computer-mediated psychotherapy" by Wintermute, one of the artificial intelligences seen in the story (the other one being the eponymous Neuromancer) which is actually controlling the mission.

See also Armitage III: Polymatrix/Dualmatrix.

Norse Mythology
The slaver that kills the bartender in Paradise Falls, Ymir, is a reference to the Norse frost giant whose body is the foundation of Midgard. His son is called Jotun, which is the name of the race of the Norse giants.

A raider named Thor is referenced by recordings found in the Dunwich Building.

Oblivion
The image of Grognak on the Grognak the Barbarian skill book is identical to the image used for the Barbarian class in Oblivion. As might be expected, it also bears an extremely close resemblance to depictions of the famous Robert E. Howard character of film, books, comics, etc "Conan the Barbarian".

If you grab the knife lying in the bathtub in the basement of “Lock and Load” (Paradise Falls) you may hear the voice of a male elf yelling “Stop thief!”

The Jalbert Brothers Waste Disposal facility may be a nod to Oblivion, specifically a Redguard Necromancer named Jalbert found in the Ayleid ruin of Vilverin early on in the game.

Once the Big Trouble in Big Town mission is complete, if the Super Mutant attack on Big Town was driven off, a citizen of Big Town will shout "Why it's you, the Hero of Big Town!" This may be a reference to Oblivion where the city guards say "Why its you, the Hero of Kvatch!"

Some traders say "Another satisfied customer." - the exact same phrase traders say in Oblivion.

When Super Mutants hear something but do not detect the player, they may say "My ears are playing tricks on me.", a phrase that enemies in Oblivion may say in a similar situation.

While in the Arlington Library, Scribe Yearling can be heard citing phrases from parts of speech used by random NPC's in Oblivion, and other games of the Elder Scrolls series.

Occam's Razor
The melee weapon Occam's Razor is a reference to the scientific principle of the same name formulated by William of Ockham, which is "do not multiply entities needlessly". One of the many possible restatements of this is "all other things being equal, the solution that makes the fewest assumptions is the best". In other words, when multiple competing theories are equal in other respects, the principle recommends selecting the theory that introduces the fewest assumptions and postulates the fewest entities.

Paradise Lost
John Milton's Paradise Lost appears in Fallout 3 as a skill-training book. The person who gives it to you, the ghoul Tulip, explains that it is about a journey to Hell and the nearby bar The Ninth Circle is a reference to it. This actually describes Dante's Inferno, not Paradise Lost. Since the character claims to have read the book and therefore should know, this is probably a mistake (or joke) by the developers. The name of the area Paradise Falls is also a multiple entendre referencing Paradise Lost. Also, if you hack into Tulip's personal terminal, you can find excerpts from the first four chapters of the book.

Peanuts
In the town "Little Lamplight" the doctor, Lucy, is a reference to the character "Lucy" from Charles Schultz's Peanuts. Inside of the clinic where she is located, a sign reading "The Doctor is in" can be found, which was often seen on Lucy's stand in the series.

Planet of the Apes
In Megaton there is a cult of people who worship an unexploded nuclear bomb. This is parallel to a similar cult of irradiated humans who worship an unexploded nuclear bomb in Beneath the Planet of the Apes. There is even the option to explode the bomb, which is the ending to the above movie. Unlike Beneath the Planet of the Apes however, the bomb is only powerful enough to destroy the city, not to destroy all life on earth.

Pleasantville
The Tranquility Lane scenario is reminiscent of the movie Pleasantville, both involving protagonists transported into a black-and-white world modeled after an idealized version of 1950s America. Additionally, entering both Fallout 3 and Pleasantville is accompanied by the classic Indian Head TV test card.

Portal
The personality of the Robobrains may be a reference to the turrets in Portal. Both have "friendly" female personalities and share the line "are you still there".

Predator
The unique hunting rifle in Dave's safe (Republic of Dave), 'Ol Painless', may be a reference to "Predator". The gatling gun carried by Blaine (Jesse Ventura) was called Painless.

Princess Bride, The
While patching you up during the Wasteland Survival Guide personal injury sub-quest, Moira Brown asks you to describe the pain &mdash; "And remember, this is for posterity!" This echoes a line used by Count Rugin in The Princess Bride when asking Westley to describe the torture in the Pit of Despair. A protectron may also be heard refering to "rodents of unusual size" when directed to execute an infestation control routine.

Quantum Leap
In one of the offices in the Nuka Cola Plant you'll find a Marketing Terminal. When you browse the entries you will find a slogan to be used in a new Nuka Cola Quantum commercial: "Take the leap, enjoy a Quantum".

Raven Rock
Raven Rock Mountain Complex is a real-world US government complex, also known as the "Underground Pentagon" which would go with the fact that the dwellers of Raven Rock conflict with the dwellers of the Citadel which is (stated on Enclave Radio) The Pentagon. Raven Rock is also the name of a village in the Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind expansion Bloodmoon.

Raven Rock may also be a reference to the mercenaries Ravenwood, in the cbs show Jericho. Ravenwood was an elite team used to serve the new Government/Corporation of Jennings& Rall/The Cheyenne Gov. (kinda like the enclave and the new government...)

Reboot
In Canterbury Commons you can eat at Dot's Diner, a building that resembles the diner of the same name in the Reboot series. Dot's Diner locations can also be found in other places including Grayditch and Jury Street Metro Station.

Relic Hunter
During the quest to acquire the Declaration of Independence you come across an NPC named Sydney who greets you as a fellow "relic hunter", referencing the television series of the same name where actress Tia Carrere starred as Sydney Fox.

Saving Private Ryan
When the player asks Knight Captain Dusk what she does for the Brotherhood, she replies that she is a sniper, and then says 'Put any mutie bastard within one mile of me and my rifle and well, pack it up troops..... fight's over.' Jackson in Saving Private Ryan says something similar, except to do with Hitler.

Also, when the player asks paladin Gallows what his real name is, he responds "what's the pool up to?" this is similar to a part in the movie when a soldier asks Cpt. Miller (Tom Hanks) what he did before the war. These 2 references happen in the same room.

Serenity
After the Dweller completes the Galaxy News Radio quest, Three Dog shouts "You can't stop the signal!". This is a reference to the movie 'Serenity', in which the quote is mentioned by a cunning hacker and TV geek, before the main actors try broadcasting a top-secret video log over the universe-wide TV system.

Shadowrun
The Wired Reflexes perk is a reference to a piece of cyberware a character can have installed in their body in the tabletop RPG Shadowrun. In Shadowrun, Wired Reflexes uses neural boosters and adrenalin stimulators which allows the user to see the world around them in a state of slow motion (much like VATS).

The Shining
In the upper floors of Tenpenny Tower there is a red tricycle that looks like a reference to the one that Danny, Jack Torrence's son, rides around the hotel in the movie. Also, The name of the hotel the movie took place in was the overlook hotel which corresponds to the overlook drive-in theatre.

Sifl and Olly
One of the 911 Dispatch terminals in the Germantown Police department references the MTV show "Sifl and Olly." The rantings captured on the terminal reference the song "Llama School."

Not only that, but you can find a note with a password for a computer terminal in the same building. The password is "Vicious Coy", the same name of the Precious Roy knockoff on the X-and-O show.

Silent Hill
The interior of Springvale School features some sinister sights including rusty cages, mangled corpses hanging from chains, letters of the alphabet hung haphazardly on classroom walls and copious amounts of blood stains on the walls, ceiling and floor. It's not a million miles away from Midwich Elementary, an area featured in the survival horror videogame Silent Hill for the original Playstation.

Simpsons, The
Some of the radios and televisions in the wasteland are called Radiation Kings, which is the name of the TV Homer had as a young boy. This easter egg was originally present in the opening movie of Fallout 1; this is a continuation of that reference.

Snatcher
In L'Enfant Plaza, there is a newspaper office. In the basement is a man named Gibson who has been decapitated in the same manner as Jean-Jack Gibson in Snatcher. Looting his body gets the player "Gibson's key" and "Gibson's Scrap of Paper" which are also found on his body in Snatcher. The scrap of paper says "Search the house!" which is indeed what it said in Snatcher as well. Gibson's house can be found in Minefield, along with two other buildings named after Snatcher characters: Gillian house (named for the protagonist, Gillian Seed) and Benson house (named for Benson Cunningham, Gillian and Gibson's boss). If the player checks Gibson's house, there is a small model house on a table in the living room, which can be unlocked for some fairly lame loot, and a computer upstairs, which is unfortunately broken. Both of these objects were in Gibson's house in Snatcher as well.

Starship Troopers
In the approach to Galaxy News Radio, one of the Brotherhood of Steel soldiers spurs on his comrades by inquiring as to whether they want to live forever. The quote is similar, possibly identical, to the "Come on, you apes, you want to live forever?" that figures prominently in Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers and its movie adaptation. That, in turn, is a reference to a quote sometimes attributed to one Sergeant Major Daniel Joseph "Dan" Daly, but coming from soldiers wearing power armor, it constitutes a reference to Starship Troopers (it being the novel where the concept of power armor was invented).

In addition, the quote in Starship Troopers is probably a reference to the 1959 german movie Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben, which translates to "Dogs, do you want to live forever", which in turn is a reference to what Frederick the Great (King of Prussia from 1740–1786) told his men in the Battle of Kolín. Frederick uttered the query, "Kerls, wollt ihr denn ewig leben?" meaning "Rogues, do you want to live forever?" This quote, and its (probably unwitting) paraphrase by Dan Daly more than a century later at Belleau Wood endures as a famous military rallying cry.

Moreover, "Do you want to live forever" is also a quote used in the first Conan movie. Whether the quote in Conan is based off the the same origin is unclear (to the writer) but given that F3 clearly references the Conan universe with the Grognak motive, it should be mentioned.

Variations of 'who wants to live forever' also appear in the films Flash Gordon and Highlander.

Star Trek: The Original Series
In the beginning of the game when your character is being born, and your mother begins to die, it fades out with the phrase "James I need a doctor not a dentist" a slight reference to lines in the original Star Trek where Dr. McCoy says to James "Jim" Kirk... "Damnit Jim, I'm a doctor not a scientist."

Similarly, the doctor in Megaton will say "I'm a doctor, not a dealer!" when confronted about purchasing chems.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
The password for the shipping computer in the Nuka-Cola bottling plant is NC-C1864. The call letters of the USS Reliant, the ship hijacked by Khan, were NCC-1864.

Star Trek: Voyager
Sawbones, the medical robot in the B Ring of The Citadel greets you with the phrase "Please state the nature of the medical emergency"; a phrase used by popular character The Doctor of Star Trek: Voyager. (This line is also used by medics in the classic RTS game "Starcraft", again, as a homage to the Doctor.)

Sweetrolls
The "sweetroll question" has been a staple of Elder Scrolls character generation quizzes since Arena. In the "tutorial" part of the game, as you turn 10, Old Lady Palmer will give you a sweet roll. After the cake is cut, Butch (and supposedly Wally Mack and Paul Hannon) will accost you for your sweet roll while you are left with a few decisions on what to do. This is a reference to Bethesda's recurring "Sweet roll" Character Generation Quiz scenario. In the scenario from Morrowind, a baker gives the protagonist a sweet roll, who is then accosted by 3 thugs; the player's choices in this and other questions determines their character makeup. Sweetrolls are also an item in a minor quest in the Shivering Isles expansion for Oblivion.

Tenpenny
The character Alistair Tenpenny may well be a reference to the villian in GTA San Andreas. In Fallout 3 Tenpenny is trying to weed out the imperfections of the wasteland. And in GTA Tenpenny's main goal is to get rid of street trash and thugs. In both games he goes through very destructive means to get to his goal.

Them!
One of the side quests is titled "Those!". It's a nice reference/homage to the excellent oscar-nominated sci-fi/horror movie "Them!" from 1954, in which a small town is invaded by, you guessed it, giant ants.

The Terminator
Three Dog says the Raiders "Can't be bargained, or reasoned with...", which is what Kyle Reese tells Sarah Connor about the terminator. That terminator model, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, is the model T 101. The fact that the 101 designation matches the Vault number in Fallout 3 is probably only a coincidence. The picture of the Cyborg Perk, however, is a clear nod towards Arnie's appearance in Terminator 2.

The Underground Railroad
Victoria Watts speaks of an underground movement called "The Railroad", who assist androids and human slaves. Victoria Watts may also be a kind of in-game version of Harriet Tubman.

Thief
Stephen Russel voices the Mr. Handy robots. He also voiced a techno-religious Hammerite in Thief: The Dark Project. One of the lines that the Hammerite says in combat is 'Have at thee!'. One of the Mr. Handy combat lines is also 'Have at thee'.

Tim O'Brien
When you kill a Mister Gutsy robot they sometimes will say "Box me up and ship me home". This is a reference to Tim O'Brien, who is an author who wrote a memoir on Vietnam named "If I Die in a Combat Zone: Box Me Up and Ship Me Home," which in turn references a US Army running cadence popular in the Vietnam era and still used today.

Tommy James & The Shondells
Eulogy Jones' slave bodyguards Crimson & Clover are references to the #1 hit song "Crimson And Clover" by the 1960s American rock and roll group Tommy James and the Shondells.

Transformers
When following Liberty Prime to the Memorial in the first part of the quest Take it Back!, it can be heard shouting "Freedom is the sovereign right of all Americans", a reference to Optimus Prime's defining quote, "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings". Liberty Prime's name, of course, is also a nod to the famous Transformers character, though it is yet to be shown whether Liberty can or can not turn into a truck.

THX-1138
The code of the safe in the Republic of Dave is 1138. a reference to THX-1138, the first movie made by George Lucas. The letters THX and numbers 1138 appear in numerous other Lucasfilm productions.

U.F.O
North-west of the Greener Pastures Disposal Site is an area where your Pip boy will get a new radio transmission called the "Recon Craft Theta Beacon", exploring the area will result in the discovery of a crashed alien space ship. The alien body can be found near the ship along with the extremely powerful Alien Blaster which can be used as a weapon as well as (limited) ammo for the weapon.

This is a parody on the old random encounter from Fallout. Also in the Citadel library, an old Pentagon terminal has a pre-war record stating how the government had tracked an incoming UFO which crashed but of which nothing could be found.

May also be a reference to the game "Destroy all humans!" as the two games share a senior developer.

Uncle Leo
Uncle Leo the non-hostile Super Mutant shares name a with non-hostile zombie that lives in a woman's home in New Sheoth in the The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles (Also made by Bethesda).

Uncle Leo's dialogue when you try to rob him, where he tells you the clothes are a gift and he wishes he could give you the "wonderful moon" comes from the following Zen Buddhist koan: ''Ryokan, a Zen master, lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening a thief visited the hut only to discover there was nothing to steal. ''Ryokan returned and caught him. “You have come a long way to visit me,” he told the prowler, “and you should not return empty-handed. Please take my clothes as a gift.” ''The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away. ''Ryoken sat naked, watching the moon. “Poor fellow,” he mused, “I wish I could have given him this beautiful moon.”

V For Vendetta
In the graphic novel and movie adaptation V For Vendetta, the character V was imprisoned in a secret experimental facility, its purpose to test a potent airborne pathogen that was later released on an unsuspecting populace (similar to the FEV virus, and plot to release it, from the Fallout series), the ensuing fear of terrorism leading to martial law and the establishment of a fascist state. His cell was number 5, marked with the Roman numeral V, for 5, which was also the cell number of Fallout 3's Fawkes. He also wore a Guy Fawkes mask, a nod to the real Guy Fawkes, as well as his own plan to blow up Parliament.

See also Fawkes, Guy.

Waste Land, The
Not far east of Rockbreaker's Last Gas, at the MDPL Mass Relay Station, there is a wrecked ship. This may conceivably be a reference to these lines from T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land:

On a winter evening round behind the gashouse

Musing upon the king my brother's wreck

In general, the absence of water is a major overt theme in The Waste Land, especially in section V, "What the Thunder Said", and Fallout 3's central dilemma of potable water shortage may relate to this. (Though the main reason to suspect a direct connection in either case is that it would seem odd if, given the fondness for references in the overall work, there were no references to this extremely familiar literary work whose title is both a ubiquitous term in the game and the name of the predecessor of the Fallout series.)

Watson, Thomas
In Our Lady of Hope Hospital there is a terminal called "Nurse's Station Terminal 02" on the first floor. The third Injury Report (labeled 09007882) tells of a man with the last name of Watson that is splashed by caustic chemicals. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone and the first call made was "Mr. Watson, come here. I want you.", a message sent to Thomas Watson after Bell had accidently spilt battery acid on himself and needed assistance.

Wolverine (X-Men)
The Perk Adamantium Skeleton is a reference to the Marvel Comics character Wolverine, of the X-Men, who (usually) has an indestructible adamantium skeleton.

Yogi Bear
The Yao Guai are mutated black bears that wander The Wasteland. Three Dog can be heard in one of his broadcasts warning Wastelanders "Don't feed the Yao Guai" which refers to a sign frequently seen around Jellystone Park warning against feeding the bears. Although all national parks discourage the act of feeding any wild animal and Yogi and Yao Guai are pronounced differently by Three Dog. Also, if you remove all of the letter A and the letter U from Yao Guai it will make the word Yogi.