StarCraft/Shout Out

Here's the place for every Mythology Gag, Continuity Nod, Shout Out, Expy, Captain Ersatz and No Celebrities Were Harmed references in both Starcraft and Starcraft II.

Units

 * The Wave Motion Gun on the Terran Battleship is called "Yamato Cannon".
 * The Medics greet you with "State the nature of the medical emergency".
 * The firebats also references Hank Hill, with lines about "propane and propane accessories".
 * The Dropship pilot clearly resembles the pilot from Aliens and spouts dialogue from the movie.
 * The Siege Tank is a huge shout-out to Apocalypse Now . He even sings the opening to Ride of the Valkyries.
 * If you click on him too much, he'll ask you "What is your major malfunction?"

Heroes

 * The Hero class unit of the Terran Firebat is called Gui Montag
 * The Hero class unit of the Terran Wraith is called Tom Kazansky
 * Word of God confirmed that the name "James Raynor" is one towards James Ryan.
 * The bad guy from the Enslavers campaign is called Alan Schezar.
 * The first dialogue between Kerrigan and Raynor is a nearly literal Shout Out to a dialogue from the first season of Babylon Five.
 * General Duke is an Expy of John Wayne.
 * The Admiral Gerard DuGalle, to Charles de Gaulle.
 * Vice-Admiral Alexi Stukov to Georgi Zhukov, a Russian general in the 2nd world war.

Heroes

 * The Hero class unit of the Zerg Hydralisk is called Hunter-Killer
 * The Hero class unit of the Zerg Ultralisk is called Torrasque, also the name of a dragon from an old french legend.

Units
""One small step for man. One giant... STOP POKING MEEE!""
 * The Observer is a treasure trove of these in both games. Among it's greatest hits are a German Warcraft 2 advertisement, a Steve Irwin-like voice, a Diablo quote from Adria and...

Heroes
"Stop poking me!
 * Artanis has some fun with his Stop Poking Me quotes:

What do I look like, an Orc?

This is not War Craft in space! It's... much more sophisticated! I know it's not 3-D!"

"Duran: "My Name is Duran, DURAN!"
 * So many from Aliens and from Warhammer 40K:40K came first.
 * The cheat codes:
 * there is no cow level
 * operation cwal
 * Click on the Hero Samir Duran long enough, and he will start speaking the titles of Duran Duran songs.
 * To further the reference he speaks the first two lines in the chorus to Duran Duran's most well known song.

Duran: "What's so funny?"

Duran: "Please, please, tell me now!"

Duran: "Is there something I should know?""


 * A Terran mining planet is named Moria. A mission takes place there in which you have to mine loads of minerals. Can't be any more obvious, can it?
 * The Terran victory cinematic from Brood War is a parody of newsreels from The Fifties, and probably also a shoutout to the first Starship Troopers movie.
 * The intro to Brood War is a near-direct copy of the Do Lung bridge scene from Apocalypse Now, complete with a detached soldier sporting a grenade launcher listening to a Hendrix-esque guitar track.

General

 * Lots of aspects of the Terrans, in particular the Used Future aesthetic and the awesome new music, give one the impression that someone at Blizzard got the Firefly DVD set for Christmas.
 * Also, a website error yields one of two messages: "Some terrible, terrible error has occured," or "I swallowed a bug - We seem to be having a little problem with our website, so we may experience some slight turbulence and then - explode."
 * That and the general feel of the campaign in general. Compare the relationship between Jim and Tychus to the one between Mal and Jayne, for example.
 * The hologram of a dancing Night Elf female in the Hyperion's cantina appears to be the actual character model, imported directly from WoW.
 * The very first Tosh mission has you mining for boatloads of minerals on a planet called Redstone, while creepy crawly Zerg run a periodic interference on your otherwise peaceful operations.
 * The Hyperion's armory is Bay 12. Rory Swan, the manager, also looks pretty dwarvenly.

Units
""Oh, my cousin Lester saw a zergling, once...""
 * The SCV will say that you got a purty mouf...
 * The Marine will make several quotes associated with marines in war movies. Also, like Tychus, he makes the infamous Chew Bubblegum comment when klicked on repeatedly.
 * He also complains he's "still stuck in this chicken**** outfit"...
 * ...mentions that he has a relative named Lester (a character in one of the first game's cinematics killed by a zerg)...

""If somebody asks me if I've killed any zerg, I say yes, but they were all bad."
 * ...and suspect that a medic is following them around. (They automatically try to heal injured units within their sight range and will follow them around to do so)
 * One of his quotes is also "I'm waiting on you!" - which belongs to (human) Kerrigan in the first game.
 * Many of the Thor's lines are retoolings of various Arnold Schwarzenegger lines. With the same accent. The German version has even Schwarzenegger's dub voice for the Thor.

"What is best in life: to crush the zerg, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of the protoss."

"I'll be back!"

"Sue me, dickhead!"

"I am here! Click me!"

"What happened to you, Commander? They got you pushing too many pencils?""

""I'm sorry, commander, I'm afraid I can't do that".
 * The Odin, the even bigger and stronger version of the Thor, uses T-800 cannons as its main weapons.
 * Quoth The Raven:

"I know I've made some very poor decisions lately, but I can give you complete assurance that my work will be back to normal"

"All your base are belong to us!"

"Who said anything about cake?""

""I see live people. [two gunshots] I see dead people"."
 * Via editors people have found out how the Raven operator's face looks like. He has a blank expression staring at a screen while holding a control stick. It's suspected to be a joke towards the clichè of hardcore gamers in front of their monitors.
 * The Ravens are aerial casters and detectors, and their abilities are best against groups of light enemy units (science vessel)
 * The Viking pilot will say "Transform and roll out!"
 * He also often follows attack orders by saying "burn and pillage!", guess what vikings were famous for?
 * One of his fun quotes directly references the early Blizzard game, "The Lost Vikings". He calls out the three characters names, and concludes that they probably got lost again.
 * Vikings are dual purpose walkers with anti-ground Gatling guns and anti-air missiles (Goliath, apart from changing modes... into an expy of the Valkyrie).
 * The spectre rattles off a whole bunch of titles of Steven Seagal movies when repeatedly clicked.
 * The ghost likewise spouts out more than a few Clint Eastwood quotes.
 * There's also this gem:

""Johnny #5 is not alive.""
 * And:

""The life of the Reaper Man is always intense."
 * The Reaper is a walking, talking potpourri of Shout Outs, with a few obvious ones towards Repo Man.

"I thought I signed up to be a *Repo Man*! Imagine my surprise."

"I like you. That's why I'm gonna kill you last."

"This is ground control to Major Tom.""

""Suspension is an integral part of any vehicle, but this one requires Suspension of Disbelief... Get it?""
 * The Hellion seems to be a fellow troper:

""Why you boys all wearing red shirts anyway?""
 * The Hellions are speedy mechanical units (vulture) armed with flamethrowers which do splash damage to small units (firebat).
 * Medivac:

""Gravity: it's not just a good idea, it's the law."
 * The Medivac dropship is just the original dropship with healing abilities, and during development it was just the normal dropship. When it became the medivac, they didn't even bother to change the model except to slap a few red crosses on the wings.
 * Wraith:

""What's the vector, Victor? Give me the clearance Clarence."
 * Banshee:

"I picked the wrong day to quit stimpacks."

"Apocalypse... Now!"

"In space, everyone can hear me scream... 'cause, I'm the Banshee. Get it?"

"Today's in-flight movie will be Ghost Academy: The Musical, starring Zec Afron and Corbin Green.""

""Burninatin' the countryside."
 * Firebat:

"Turns out I hate the smell of napalm in the morning."

"Flame on!""

""Got a whole lotta love!""
 * Marauder:

"BELIEVE IT!!!"
 * A bit of a stretch, but what are the odds of two black demolitions experts showing up right after one another?

""Ever told you about my rug? It really tied the room together!"
 * There is also a group of mercenaries with exceptionally volatile guns known which go by the name of Hammer Securities available for a contract in the Cantina.
 * Vulture:

"Fool me once, shame on... me? No. SHAME ON YOU ... twice... for fooling' me ... once? Bah, forget it. Let's just be friends.""

""It's a trap!""
 * Battlecruiser:


 * The Hercules pilot not only speaks with scotish accent he also has a blue strip over his nose. It seems like a copy of Braveheart was also onboard the old starships. It even has a kilt pattern spraypainted on his armor suit.
 * The Spartan Mercenary Goliath pilot is modeled after Dustin Browder, head producer of the game. He gained internet fame by his enthusiastic reporting style, birthing the "terrible, terrible damage" meme that is also referenced ingame several times.

Heroes and story characters
""Mah ship has taken terrible, terrible damage!""
 * Apparently a certain spy is an inspiration to ghosts, given the way Nova and Tosh play with their butterfly knives.
 * Tychus quotes the infamous Chew Bubblegum line in the first Odin mission.
 * Your science guy in the Terran campaign is called "Egon Stetmann", a walking, talking reference to all sorts of stuff:
 * During the mission "Belly Of The Beast", where he accompanies you, upon examining a defeated zerg queen, he'll say, "She's dead, Jim...''
 * He's also the hero-medic, and unarmed. If you send him alone into a group of enemies, and your screen isn't focused on him when he's attacked, he'll shout "Game over, man! I'm done! Don't wanna play anymore!"
 * A group of marines in that mission also say that line when they are about to get killed by the Brutalisk.
 * And his name, "Egon Stetmann," is a combination of the three original Ghostbusters: Egon, Stantz, and Venkman.
 * And one of his greetings is "Back off man. I'm a scientist."
 * He also wears a shirt bearing the insignia of the Horde.
 * Tosh looks like a burlier version of Reggae legend Peter Tosh, (hence the surname) but he is most certainly not a laid-back Rastafarian.
 * In the Hyperion's Cantina there's also a poster about "Tosh and the Screamers", his band.
 * Valerian was derisively called "Arthas-in-Space". When the Starcraft II official site was first launced, the entire biography page on him was littered with comments about his likeness to Arthas.
 * Warfield spouts one to the famous "TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE DAMAGE!" meme in the mission "The Gates Of Hell":


 * Tychus was convict number 626

"Changeling: I'm looking for a cat, means worlds to me."
 * Kerrigan's ghost number is 24601
 * She's also a P-12.
 * The Zealot Changeling has this line:


 * A lot of new units exist to fulfill the same role as a cut unit from the original game, while some new units are just old units with new abilities. Most are an improvement over the original. A few examples:
 * The Brood Lords have the same role as the guardians, and even look like guardians, with the main difference being that brood lords spawn broodlings when they attack
 * Spore colonies and sunken colonies (creep-expanding structures that doubled as anti-air or anti-ground turrets) have been replaced with spore crawlers and spine crawlers, respectively, which function nearly the same except that they can be repositioned and don't produce more creep (the zerg now use a different mechanic for spreading creep).
 * Completely inverted by the queen, who despite sharing its name with a unit from the original game is completely different. The original queen was an aerial support caster, the Starcraft II queen is a ground unit designed to help base expansion by spawning extra larva and expanding the creep as well as providing some basic air defense.
 * Also inverted with the Infested Terran, who is now a temporarily summoned unit that shoots guns rather than a suicide bomber (a role now filled by the baneling).
 * A new heavy air unit prominent in the Char campaign, the Leviathan, combines features from the heavy air units of the other two races (Terran Battlecruiser, for its heavy damage attack, and Protoss Carrier, for its ability to spawn Mutalisks).

Units
""Shuffleboard on the Lido Deck, now commencing.""
 * The Colossi are a thematic shout-out to the Martian war machines from War of the Worlds: giant stilt-legged striders with ray guns that sweep across enemy crowds.
 * Some of the Probe's quotes are robotized quotes from other games units, with the War Craft II's Troll Axethrower's being the most recognizable.
 * The new Dark Templar portrait bears a strong resemblance to a Predator.
 * Mothership quote:

""Always bet on Void""
 * The Void Ray advices you:

""Your thoughts betray you."
 * The High Templar seems to be a bit of a nerd:

"Get out of my mind, novice!"

"Yours is the inferior intellect."

"Do you know what happens to a frog when it gets hit by lightning?""

""There can be only one!""
 * Immortal


 * A lot of new units exist to fulfill the same role as a cut unit from the original game, while some new units are just old units with new abilities. Most are an improvement over the original. A few examples:
 * The Mothership is literally just a bigger, more expensive Arbiter from the first game. In early previews of the game it had different abilities, but Blizzard scaled them back.
 * The Colossi are huge robotic siege units ideal for attacking masses of small units (reavers)
 * The Stalkers are basically Dragoons with the added ability to Flash Step
 * Maar sometimes says "Merely a temporary setback" when he revives.
 * As noted in this Team Liquid thread, the Void Seeker unit has the same markings in its inner ring as the markings on the South Korean flag.

Heroes

 * Artanis looks A LOT like he's wearing Gundam Exia's head.

""Ride the lightning!""
 * The cheat codes, again:
 * whysoserious
 * eyeofsauron
 * jaynestown
 * sosayweall
 * nevergiveupneversurrender
 * moredotsmoredots
 * iamironman
 * hanshotfirst
 * tooktheredpill
 * whatisbestinlife
 * imadoctornotaroachjim
 * stayclassymarsara
 * catfoodforprawnguns
 * Many of the archievement titles...
 * Mission "The Drill": "Yippee-Ki-Yay" and "Drill Hard".
 * Mission "The Moebius Factor": "Alive Inside!".
 * Mission "Maw Of The Void": "I Have The Power" and "Master Of The Universe".
 * Mission "Outbreak": "28 Minutes Later" and "Army Of Darkness".
 * Mission "Safe Haven": "You Shall Not Pass" and "My Precious!".
 * Mission "The Devil's Playground": "Reaper Man".
 * Mission "Breakout": "Cool Hand Tosh" and "Jailhouse Rock".
 * Mission "Ghost Of A Chance": "Total Protonic Reversal"
 * Mission "Shatter The Sky": "Demolition Man"
 * Multiplayer: "It's Morphing Time!", "I See Dead Units", "Can't Touch This", "Big Brother Is Watching", "Meet the Spy" and "Professionals Have Standards", "Welcome Back, Commander".
 * Other: "Stay Awhile and Listen".
 * In the mission Gates of Hell, the invasion to looks really, really familiar to Starship Troopers, the movie and the game. No that this similarity is something new to Starcraft, but still: spore cannons shooting down ships from the orbit, the whole ‘badly outnumbered bunch of troops surrounded by a Horder Of Alien Locusts’ situation, and to some extend Banshees wiping off some zerg in the 's rescue cinematic.
 * Do you think the inmates on the prison planet New Folsom have the blues?.
 * There's a Metroid in the secret map, as well as a Diablo on The Devil's Playground.
 * The anchorman Donny Vermillion is a loose Expy of Ron Burgundy.
 * The arcade game "Lost Viking" is (in name) a reference to a previous Blizzard title, The Lost Vikings. One of the achievements has the face of one of the protagonists of the game, Erik.
 * The salvaged Adjutant in the laboratory is mounted in the same way as the Puppetmaster in Ghost in The Shell.
 * There's a Night Elf holograph doing her World of Warcraft dance in the cantina.
 * With some employees of Blizzard having formed a Heavy Mithril band, it's unsurprising that there would be many references to Heavy Metal and rock music, as well:
 * From the High Templar:

""Justice for all! (Except for the Zerg)""
 * From the Phoenix:

""Fear the Reaper, man!"
 * It's a double reference. It may also refer to a particular attorney...
 * From the Reaper:

"This is ground control to Major Tom""

""Born to be wild!""
 * From the Vulture:

""This vessel has assumed control. It has assumed control.""
 * Many of the archievement titles... again:
 * Mission "The Outlaws": "Be Quick Or Be Dead".
 * Mission "Welcome To The Jungle": "Welcome To The Jungle", "Appetite For Destruction", "You'ze So Crazy" and "It's So Easy".
 * Mission "Media Blitz": "Seek and Destroy" and "Blitzkrieg".
 * Mission "All In": "Aces High".
 * Multiplayer: "Raining Blood"
 * There's also a mission called "Belly Of The Beast"
 * A line from the Raven:

"We have our own Transformer
 * One of the on-location news reports takes place aboard the evacuation ship Skynyrd II.
 * The songs listed in the commercial for the Level 800 Elite Tauren Marines albums: The song titles are all somewhat inspired by titles of 20th Century and 21st Century music.
 * I Kissed a Zerg!
 * Like a Firebat out of Hell
 * I Left My Heart on Mar Sara (Literally)
 * New Folsom Prison Planet Blues
 * Don't Cry For Me Tarsonis
 * Another Hydralisk bites the dust
 * With or Without Nukes
 * Saturday Night's Alright for Nuking
 * Lucy In The Sky With Mutas
 * I Can't Drive Warp 5.5!
 * Every Rose Has It's Thor
 * The song Terran Up The Night has a pretty obvious one:

The rough and tough Viking

He can fly and he doesn't cry

Like the little wuss Starscream"