Stand Alone Complex/Shout Out

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These are the Shout Outs for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

• Several episodes are Shout Outs to, of all people, J. D. Salinger, and the series references many western movies, Blade Runner (twice), and Ocean's Eleven. Another episode is named for and mirrors many themes and events in Wim Wenders' film Wings of Desire.
• While Cash Eye's plot and scenes are attributed to Ocean's Eleven, the episode title and the imagery of a Classy Cat Burglar with a Calling Card are probably a reference to the manga Cat's Eye.
• Night Cruise in its entirety is a shout out to Taxi Driver.
• The Major is trying to get to the cyberbrain of a rogue prototype spider tank. She pauses at the hatch and decides not to rip her arms off by trying to force the hatch open without at least trying to weaken the hinge first.
• The hostage situation in the Chinese embassy is closely modeled after Nakatomi Plaza in Die Hard.
• Saito's flashback episode POKER FACE featured a number of references to Full Metal Jacket. Much of the episode draws parallels with the sniper scene in Full Metal Jacket, from the baiting tactic, to the reaction of the angered teammates, to even the names of some of the Redshirt Army (Mother = Animal Mother, An African American named Snow = Snowball) The show even lampshades it all when a character claims Saito's story was all taken from a movie he'd seen once.
• The Matrix was inspired by by the first GitS movie, and when later the series was created, it in turn took many cues from Matrix.
• Tachikomatic Days: Many, many shout outs to everything from Spider-Man, Star Wars, Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure to Jin Roh.
• "A Modest Rebellion" is one to French New Wave movie "A Bout de Souffle."
• And "Angel's Poem" is to "Wings of Desire."
• The killer's MO in JUNGLE CRUISE is practically taken directly from the woefully overlooked cyberpunk film Strange Days.
  • The episode may also be an homage to The Silence of the Lambs, since it's about a serial killer who preys on women and skins them alive. Note the moths crawling on the bodies of his victims.
• Togusa calls a meeting of top government officials and captains of industry 'a fancy shindig'.
• As mentioned above, one of the Blade Runner references is to the Enhance Button scene. Togusa's voice commands for the computer are even identical: "Enhance 32 to 50".
• The first episode of 2nd Gig mimics the iconic shot of Motoko diving off a building and becoming camouflaged from the first movie, though in a slightly simpler style and, of course, minus the nudity.
  • The first episode of the first season could be considered a recreation of this scene as well.
    • And of course the scene in the film was originally taken from the comic. It's one of those oddities that made it into every iteration of the story.
• "Automated Capitalism – ¥€$" begins with Fem quoting Karl Marx.
• In one episode, a Tachikoma is seen reading Flowers for Algernon. The same episode also mentions I Robot. The Tachikomas also discuss Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene at some length.
• A fairly dark example: In STAND ALONE COMPLEX, Togusa becomes increasingly despondent that he hasn't heard from the other members of Section 9 for months. He reads The Catcher in The Rye and then tries to assassinate Secretary-General Yakushima. (Luckily, Batou is there to stop him.) For those who don't know, it's the book Mark David Chapman was reading right before he killed John Lennon.
• Androids bleed white fluid similar to the androids in the Alien franchise.