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- Shell Oil had a Retcon of the motorcycle scene, in which Steve McQueen finds a derelict Shell service station and uses it to fuel up before the jump. This time he succeeds, because of course you Go Further With Shell.
Film
- Quentin Tarantino loves this movie:
- In Reservoir Dogs, while Mr. Brown (Tarantino's Author Avatar) talks about what Madonna's "Like a Virgin" is all about, he describes the man as digging tunnels like Charles Bronson in the film.
- In Inglorious Basterds, Gen. Ed Fenech uses the "Putting all our eggs in one basket" line.
- In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Rick Dalton reveals that he turned down Steve McQueen's role in the film. We then get Leonardo DiCaprio digitally inserted into the film instead of McQueen.
- Kirk Lazarus in Tropic Thunder brings up the film to encourage his friends to take action to save Tugg Speedman from the Flaming Dragon base while Comically Missing the Point: "What would've happened in The Great Escape if Steve McQueen and them dudes had turned tail and ran?"
- In Ocean's Eleven, the password Saul gives to his bodyguard is Russian for "I love you", which is the phrase Danny taught Sedgwick.
- In The Goonies, the music played when the kids discover the tunnel in the Fratellis' hideout by accidentally pouring water down it, is the same piece of music played when the Germans discover the prisoners' first tunnel by accidentally pouring coffee down it.
- The Warden in Escape from Alcatraz says that "Alcatraz was built to keep all the rotten eggs in one basket", a reference Commander Von Lugen's line about the prison camp.
- The motorcycle Kirk uses in Star Trek Beyond was named in reference to the bike Hilts rides. Simon Pegg even noted the irony of him using it to drive into a prison camp rather than escaping from one.
- Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022): One of the end credits vignettes has Captain Putty passing time tossing balls made from his own clay against his cell. Of course, since it's clay, they just stick to the wall.
- The tunnel digging scenes in Carry On England parody the film.
- In the Red Dwarf episode "Queeg", Lister and Cat whistle the film's theme tune while working.
- That Mitchell and Webb Look:
- The Cheesoid
sketch features a scene where a character who has lost their sense of smell locates a clove of garlic deliberately placed beforehand on the floor, in the same way that Blythe places the pin on the floor in the film. - Another sketch involving a German language version of the gameshow Numberwang sees an English contestant tricked into revealing her nationality in the same way that MacDonald is tricked by the Gestapo agent.
- The Cheesoid
- In Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica (2003), the Cylons load up human prisoners and then try to kill them in the middle of nowhere after getting them out of the trucks to "stretch their legs." This is almost exactly like how the Gestapo kill the 50 in the film, as the only difference is that the event in the show has the human resistance saving the prisoners at the last second.
- In the Bewitched episode "Cousin Serena Strikes Again: Part 1", after Serena rides into their living room on a motorcycle, she asks, "Whom were you expecting? Steve McQueen?"
- The Mr. and Mrs. Brian Norris' Ford Popular episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus has the "Trim-Jeans Theater" version of The Great Escape (in both live-action plus animation).
- In the Remington Steele episode "Lofty Steele", Steele uses a tactic from the movie to survive the fire in Laura's building.
- In the Ripping Yarns episode "Escape From Stalag Luft 112B", the leader of the escape committee is called Attenborough and Maj. Errol Phipps is depicted as being the only prisoner of war never to escape from the camp.
- In the Seinfeld episode "The Glasses", the scene where George spots a dime on Jerry's floor is a reference to a scene wherein Blythe is trying to convince Hedley and Bartlett that he can see well enough (although he has indeed gone blind) to participate in the escape. He plants the dime whilst he is alone in the room and then seems to be able to find it in their presence.
- Stranger Things: Hopper's daring escape from prison on a snowmobile is a Shout-Out to Steve McQueen in The Great Escape.
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, which takes place a year after the movie was released, references the movie in a Codec transmission early in the game. Major Zero, who at the time was using the code name Major Tom, discloses in a conversation to Naked Snake that he chose the name based on what he thought was the tunnel the prisoners used to escape. He later learned that he chose the wrong one; the tunnel was Harry, not Tom.
- Recess: The show's theme music is a derivative of the film's theme.
- Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: In "The Night the Clown Cried", Scooby is seen bouncing a ball against the wall in his farm cell and catching it with his mouth.
- The Simpsons: The subplot of "A Streetcar Named Marge", which involves Maggie and the babies of the Ayn Rand School for Tots attempting to take back their confiscated pacifiers, is a parody of this film, complete with the theme music.
- Chicken Run is a parody of POW escape movies (except with chickens), including the Brig Ball Bouncing scene.
- Monsters vs. Aliens: B.O.B. bounces a ball (and his eyeball) against the wall of his cell.
- Toy Story 3 has Andy's toys trying to escape the hell for toys that is Sunnyside Daycare in Great Escape fashion.
