All spoilers will be unmarked ahead. You Have Been Warned!
For the sequel, go here.
Fridge Brilliance:
- The Noodle Incident, "I haven't felt this way since San Francisco...", with the revelation that the first part of the game is Jacket replaying his memories during his coma. His dissonantly benevolent, omnipresent friend could be a tie to his life from an earlier, innocent time, before said previous "worst Incident ever" sent Jacket to the other side of the country... which, possibly, was the same one that turned him into a psychotic hitman?
- Further expanded: The reason why, as the game goes on, Beard gets replaced is that he was killed in the San Francisco incident; as Jacket gets closer to lucidity, he remembers the fact that he died - hence his appearance as a corpse in the replacement scenes - and that Russians are to blame for his death, further fueling his rage against them.
- The reason why Jacket hallucinated Richter killing Beard in each of the locations is because, in his mind, Richter was sent by the Russians. The files he later gathers from the police station would only vindicate his feelings, despite them being wrong.
- You go through the entire game barely learning about the names of anyone you meet, even though it seems memories like Beard and Hooker should have names attached to them. But as it's revealed, Jacket was shot in the head, so he's likely suffering from partial amnesia and cannot remember their names, especially in his coma dream. Unsurprisingly when he wakes up, he only really learns one name: Richter, the man who shot him and killed his girlfriend. As for the subsequent Biker Chapters, you don't really learn their names because all Biker cares about is getting out of the game; any names or facts he learns is purely a bonus.
- In the first game, all the maps wobble about and are backed up by shifting colors, and the music tends toward the loud and obnoxious, with the exception of the time after completing a map, but before reaching the car (in which you can hear a mild static). The menu screen itself isn't all too stable; The (Russian) title is shifting around in 3D while heavily color shifting, the English is shifting about, and the background is moving around differently, while color shifting in a different palette. The whole thing is reminiscent of the light and balance issues one experiences when severely concussed. Just the sort of thing one would expect in a coma dream.
- Biker's one of the few 50 Blessings members that isn't wearing an animal mask. He's also the only one smart enough to get the hell out of the organization and leave once he knows what's going on.
Fridge Horror:
- Just what happened in San Francisco? Did the Russians have a hand in this?
- Answered in Hotline Miami 2: it was nuked by the Russians.
- Consider the huge amount (26, or 27 if you're on the console) of masks that Jacket can wear in the first game, and how you receive the Earl, Jake, Jones and Carl masks. Those people probably had relatives, like their parents, spouses, or even their children. Imagine being one and having to hide that side from your family. Hotline Miami is basically parental worries incarnate once you think about that. And considering that Richter has a mother he has to look after, who is threatened by the operatives as motivation for him to kill Russians, Jacket is extremely lucky that he lived alone, and that his Girlfriend is trustworthy enough to be his secret keeper.
