Borderlands/Shout Out

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


The entire game is crammed with them, to the point that it's easier to list which parts of the game aren't Shout Outs. Also, we have nowhere near all of the shout outs, so this page will take a very long time to be finished. A few bunch of examples, sorted by reference subject:

Anime and Manga

  • If a player gets more than 9000 kills online, his profile will read "Kills Over 9000".
  • "This is not a planet of peace and love."
    • One of the challenges for inflicting damage is "Human Tsunami". In the series, the main character is believed to be so destructive, he's classified as "The Humanoid Typhoon", making him the first human being to be registered as a natural disaster.
  • The black Runner color-scheme names it "Vehicle X".

Television

Film

Literature

  • Baha spelled backwards is 'Ahab', and T.K. has a fascination with killing a monstrous creature that ate his leg.
  • "Now it's time for my pound of flesh!"
  • T.K. Baha's late wife's gun, the 'Lady Finger', has "omnia vincint amor"
  • In the Purple Juice! mission, the four pumps that must be restored are named Brandybuck Pump, Took Pump, Gamgee Pump, and Underhill Pump.
    • You also fight a unique Spiderant boss named "Helob".
    • In the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned DLC, one of the things Zombie TK can say about brains when you enter his house is "Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew."
    • The Secret Army of General Knoxx DLC takes you to the Pipp Inn.
  • There are a large amount of Shoutout to Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy. One of the Claptraps you can rescue repeats nearly word-for-word Marvin's speech when he first meets Arthur Dent. And I've seen a couple of signs that say "Don't Panic", in large friendly letters to boot.
    • Tannis needs you to help her fix her infinite improbability device in Claptrap's New Robot Revolution.
  • Challenge award and achievement "How much for the planet?" references a humorous Star Trek tie-in novel called "How Much For Just The Planet?" by the late John Ford.
  • Written on the walls of some of the early houses are the words "turtles all the way down".
  • Whitting's Elephant Gun could be based on Ernest Hemingway's "Hills like White Elephants". Evidence of this includes: 1. The gun's name is "Whitting's Elephant Gun", which could reference "Hills like White Elephants" 2. Ernest Hemingway was a noted "Big Game Hunter", which is also the title of the mission where you have to kill Skagzilla, which leads to you acquiring the gun as a reward and 3. The mission is given by a man named Ernest Whitting.
  • The mission in DLC 4: "Spa vs. Spa."
  • In DLC 3, you are assigned a mission to destroy 5 public surveillance cameras. The mission name? "Big Crimson Brother is Watching!"

Music

Lyrics: "...some stupid with a flare gun burned the place to the ground..."

Video Games

Tabletop RPG

  • The Powered Armour suits used by the crimson lance in the latest DLC look an awful lot like Adeptus Astartes power armour, also the suits care called 'devastators' which happen to be names of the Adeptus space marines who carried the biggest guns.
    • Once the Crimson Lance start spawning in the Salt Flats, they are surrounded by what look like very thinly disguised Space Marine drop pods.

Memes / Internet Culture

  • The Final Boss of the Robo Revolution DLC may sometimes say "Looks like you're writing a suicide note. Would you like some help?" as a shout out to the infamous Microsoft Word mascot helper, Clippy.
  • One of the zombies in the first DLC looks awfully similar to a certain kid who likes turtles.
  • Explosives Challenge: "Boom Goes The Dynamite"
  • A potential self-referential Shout-Out: During Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, if you kill a Bandit with a headshot using Revolvers, the crowd will cheer "Heyooo!" in response.
  • Mad Moxxi's first husband is described as a cheat. In the cutscene, he is killed with the Konami Code.

Tarot

  • Tarot cards get a shout out when you find T.K. Baha's body in a position almost exactly like The Hanging Man.

Real Life

  • The Atlas Patton. ("May God have mercy on my enemies, because I won't" was supposedly said once by General George S. Patton, hence the name. The Other Wiki claims it was also once uttered by Queen Elizabeth the First.)
    • Double reference in that the Patton always spawns as a revolver with a nickel-plated body and an ivory grip, referencing the two revolvers (in the same style) which Patton himself owned.
  • The two "Claptrap, Behind the Scenes" miniclips are Shout Outs to the infamous Christian Bale rant.
    • The second one also contains a shout out to the infamous Bill O'Reilly rant, "We're doing it live!"
  • When one of the rebel Claptraps die, they might say "I see three... flashing red lights..." Now what does that sound like to you?
  • Whitting's Elephant Gun: an Elephant Gun is actually a real life type of rifle for hunting big game (e.g. elephants), Skagzilla could easily be classified as such.
  • The green Runner palette, "Mean Green", has a strong resemblance to a P40 Warhawk.
  • In DLC 3, at "Road's End", the player will spot a highway sign reading "Fort Knoxx - 20km". Fort Knox is an actual United States Military post, known for its proximity to the United States Bullion Depository. General Knoxx's unique, highly-valuable pistol ("Knoxx's Gold") is a further reference to this location.
  • There is a location on Pandora known as "Treacher's Landing", which is a possible reference to Arthur Treacher's chain of seafood restaurants.
  • You fight a massive Scithid on the "Trashy Knoll."
  • Marcus wants you to gather up Skag musk-glands and Rakk-hive ambergris to brew up a "...truly potent cologne." The mission name? "Old Spicy".
  • One of the challenges for scoring kills is titled "Your Kung-Fu is Best". This is a reference to Kevin Mitnick, a computer security consultant and author. He was previously a well-known computer hacker and 'phreaker', and prior to his arrest, he left a message on the investigating detective's answering machine, stating "My kung-fu is best!"
    • Another challenge (this one for dealing Shock damage) is titled "Nikola Tesla is a friend of mine."
    • Yet another (for sheer number of enemies killed) is titled "Now I am become Death...", a phrase uttered by J. Robert Oppenheimer.
  • One of Brick's skills is called "Sting Like A Bee."