Murnau: What could be in that briefcase?
Jane Doe: Money... gold... diamonds?
Murnau: I don't think this is about money.
Jane Doe: Is it a bomb?
Murnau: If it was, he wouldn't hit me over the head with one.
Jane Doe: What if it's Archibald's severed head?
Murnau: Enough, Soldier! If we don't find out where he is, they'll have all our heads.
Jane Doe: Money... gold... diamonds?
Murnau: I don't think this is about money.
Jane Doe: Is it a bomb?
Murnau: If it was, he wouldn't hit me over the head with one.
Jane Doe: What if it's Archibald's severed head?
Murnau: Enough, Soldier! If we don't find out where he is, they'll have all our heads.
Since Emesis Blue is a deconstruction of Team Fortress 2's respawn mechanic, naturally there are nods to its source material aplenty.
As a moments page, all spoilers are unmarked. You have been warned.
- The Medic's name in this film is Fritz Ludwig. While "Fritz" wasn't part of his real name in the original game, it is something an enemy Soldier will call a Medic during one of his domination lines, whereas "Mr. Ludwig" is what the Devil calls him in the comic discussed below.
- Ludwig's Resurrective Immortality is likely in reference to how Medics in Team Fortress 2 itself are the only class to heal over time. It's also a nod to a particular stunt the Medic pulled in "The Naked and the Dead", where he successfully tricked the Devil into bringing him back to life.
- Jules Archibald himself can be considered a reimagining of the Civilian from Team Fortress Classic. His actual scheme is an adapted version of the Administrator's own; to manipulate both of the Mann Brothers into fighting a stupid, endless war for their own reasons (though unlike Helen, whose reasons are left mysterious, Archibald is more open about doing it for profit).
- In the car, Doe suggests the briefcase contains the severed head of Jules Archibald. Murnau snaps back that if they don't get the briefcase back, it'll be all of their heads. In the "Meet the Director" comic and Meet the Soldier short, RED Soldier is shown to collect severed heads from the BLU team.
- Shortly after arriving at Conagher Slaughterhouse, Jane suggests propelling himself across the water by performing a Rocket Jump, something that his game counterpart performs on the regular. Jane even implies that he's done this sort of thing once before.
- Fighting over a briefcase sums up the MacGuffin in this film as well as the Capture the Flag mode in the game proper.
- When Doe overhears a conversation between Jules and one of the Mann brothers, the latter mentions a pregnancy machine, to Jules' confusion. The "Blood Brothers" comic has an ancient Blutarch and Redmond brainstorming how to continue their legacy, with the pregnancy machine being the favoured option.
- When Ludwig is in the closet/confessional area, the Solemn Vow can be seen on one of the shelves.
- When Ludwig kills the undead RED Medic, his unmasked face is shown with stitches in the middle of it, much like the Second Opinion is during the game's Halloween mode.
- Furthermore, the RED Medic conducting an experiment that turns Stalingrad into an nearly Implacable Man is a dark reflection to how the Medic uses Heavy as his first experiment for Ubercharge in "Meet the Medic", as well as how he brings Heavy to life after he's killed by robots in "The Sound of Medicine".
- After Redmond discovers Blutarch's corpse in the car, he gleefully declares "I am the last Mann standing!" before being Killed Mid-Sentence, which is one of his victory lines in the Helltower update. Furthermore, Redmond gloating about outliving his brother for only a short time before being killed himself is a reference to something similar happening in the "Grave Matters" comic, except in that case it was Blutarch who outlived Redmond, and he only does it after they're both ghosts.
- Cyclops—a RED Demoman—briefly befriends Doe—a BLU Soldier. A BLU Soldier and a RED Demoman becoming close friends kicks off the events of the "WAR!" comic.
- When Cyclops meets Dell during his Dying Dream, the latter offhandedly mentions that he met his grandfather Radigan while he was in the afterlife. Indeed, Radigan Conagher was the grandfather of Dell in the comics, who worked for the Administrator years before Dell himself would.
- The Meet The Team series has an unspoken rule that's seen in most videos: There can only be one of each character per short; only one RED Demoman, only one BLU Spy, and so on. Only one character is seen breaking this rule on-screen, the BLU Soldier in Meet The Medic. What do we see in Emesis Blue? That very same character being revealed to have dozens, if not hundreds of identical clones stored in Conagher Slaughterhouse.
- The Conagher Brothers are the only other class in the film to break this rule by virtue of being three separate but related characters acting as the same Class. The two brothers we see onscreen are holed up in the Intelligence Room of what used to be 2fort, and a major reputation 2fort is known for having two or three Engineers per-team in their Intel room at any given time.
- The ambulance driver whose vehicle Ludwig hijacks looks almost identical to Tom Jones, whom the RED Soldier killed in the Team Fortress 2 comics.
- Blutarch's declaration of "I'm no closer to beating Redmond than I was a hundred years ago!" is a direct quote from "Loose Canon".
- The Soldier mentioning he has not taken any of the pills BLU gave him is likely a reference to the comic, where it is heavily implied he is not drinking any of the bottled water Mann Co. is providing, instead the water the gravel wars have contaminated with lead. Although in Emesis Blue's case, it implied the soldier is better off for not taking the medication...
- Here's one for the creators themselves: The model of Murnau once he's unmasked by the Butcher was first used in an SFM recreation of a live-action TF2 skit
called Sentry Sabotage. - Jane's preferred brand of cigarettes is Lucky Strike (a real-life brand). The Soldier is infamous for getting suspiciously frequent random crits (i.e., literal lucky strikes) when using his rocket launcher, which deal enough damage to One-Hit Kill most classes.
- Whlie attending Archibald's funeral, Jane plans to set off a grenade in an attempt to kill himself and Murnau while they're both on the stage before outside circumstances force him to abandon the idea. One of Soldier's taunts in the main game involves him blowing himself up with two grenades, which will also kill anyone who happens to be near him.
Redmond: Good gravel...I won! I outlived you brother! I am the last Mann standin-- [is promptly ran over by an ambulance truck]
