Shout Out / NCIS

NCIS has so many shout outs we had to give them their own page. Many are courtesy of Tony's habit of quoting movies.

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• Abby will sometimes wear an Achmed the Dead Terrorist sweater during the Christmas episodes.
• An episode early in the series brings us aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise—which just happens to be the closest ship when something goes wrong.
• Several to other Donald P. Bellisario shows:
  • Tony uses the alias "Stringfellow Hawke" at one point; also, Caitlin Todd's first name is the same as an Airwolf character.
  • In one episode the team finds a massive collection of lunchboxes in a murdered officer's bedroom, which included Airwolf, and Magnum, P.I.-themed boxes, and presumably other Bellisario creations. And when Tony must provide an alibi for his evening, he says he was home watching Magnum PI, and describes the specific episode.
  • Yet another crops up when searching a suspect's house in one episode, and Tony finds, among a full collection of Hawaiian shirts, a red one he claims to be an official Magnum PI shirt.
  • While fleeing from two guard dogs in Season 10's "Seek", Tony yells out, "Zeus, Apollo!" Magnum's two dogs.
• Season 3's "Hiatus Part 1" has Tony at one point say, "I have a better chance of hooking up with Jessica Alba than these guys do of infiltrating Sealift." Michael Weatherly, the actor who plays Tony, co-starred with Jessica Alba in Dark Angel, and was engaged to her.
  • In Season 11's "Bulletproof", Tony and Delilah are brainstorming cool film and TV characters in wheelchairs, and Delilah mentions Logan Cale, Weatherly's character from Dark Angel;
    • Other characters mentioned include Professor X from X-Men, Lieutenant Dan from Forrest Gump, Dr. Strangelove, and Sully from Avatar.
• Gibbs shares a middle name (Jethro) with Admiral Chegwidden from NCIS' parent series, JAG.
  • In the second episode (not counting the JAG-crossover Pilot), Gibbs talks to Lieutenant Bud Roberts from JAG, though some may claim this to be more of a Continuity Nod.
  • And retired Admiral Chegwidden appears in the season ten finale as an attorney hired by Director Vance to represent Gibbs.
• The first episode is one big shout-out to Air Force One, right down to reusing the sets and Gibbs specifically mentioning the movie by name and reasoning that not only would the weapons be stored in the same place as they were in the movie, but that the terrorists would infiltrate by a similar manner.
• One episode's supporting characters are a huge Shout-Out to G.I. Joe. There's FBI agent Courtney Krieger (Cover Girl), as well as Carl Greer (Doc), Shannon O'Hara (Scarlett), Marvin Hinton (Roadblock) alias Frederick LeClair (Recondo), Robert Graves (Grunt), George Barny (Grand Slam), and Blaine Parker (Mainframe).
• Amusingly, in one episode, McGee stepped into the victim's computer hideout and exclaimed "this is like the TARDIS!"
• Actually, far too many to list, as Tony is almost guaranteed to make at least one TV or movie reference every episode.
  • Normally, the team is not familiar with most of Tony's movie references. However, when he loops a video feed to save a room of hostages, everyone calls him out afterward when he tries to take credit, knowing which movie he stole the tactic from.
  • Arguably, the joke here is that Tony had forgotten the film-inspired origins of his idea and is actually convinced he thought it up himself. Look at his expression! (Unless Anthony DiNozzo is a better actor than, say, Michael Weatherly...) Of course, none of the rest of the team believe him for a moment.
  • In the second episode of season 4 "Escaped" Ziva and McGee go to extreme lengths to avoid the word "fugitive" to keep Tony from connecting the situation to The Fugitive. Tony eventually comes to the connection on his own and monologues his own foolishness while Ziva and McGee whisper to the side:
    Ziva: What happened? We have been avoiding mentioning the Fugitive for days.
    McGee: He figured it out on his own.
  • And on at least one occasion, Tony makes the same speech that Tommy Lee Jones did.
  • In the very early episodes, Gibbs is the one who is movie savvy.
  • In the ninth season episode "Enemy on the Hill", the name "George Kaplan" emerges during a murder case involving money laundering, prompting Tony to comment, "That sounds familiar." Later, when "George Kaplan" turns out to be an alias used by the real killer, Tony says, "I must be slipping" when he remembers the name as the non-existent CIA agent from Alfred Hitchcock's North By Northwest.
• One Halloween episode has the team being mistaken for lousy CSI cosplayers.
  • Throughout the early seasons, they get confused for CSI by many civilians who don't know what NCIS is.
• An experimental vehicle in "Driven" has an autopilot named "Otto".
• In "Secrets," one of the neighbourhood vigilante superheros being interrogated exclaims "Why on Earth 616 would I kill a fellow superhero!?"
• When Tony refers to assistant coroner Jimmy Palmer as "the autopsy gremlin", Gibbs' response is telling Tony to not get him wet.
• After a tech developer insults McGee by assuming he's into dweeby role playing games, McGee's response is: "Until I took an arrow in the knee." The tech developer apparently doesn't get the joke.
• "Ravenous" from Season 3 seems to be nothing but a series of Shout Outs to Pulp Fiction. Abby's subplot in the episode is a smaller-scale Shout Out to Sixteen Candles, complete with Lampshade Hanging.
  • Pulp Fiction pops up again in season 5's "Corporal Punishment" when the Marine of the week starts to convulse on his hospital bed from a drug overdose and is mistakenly given adrenaline.
  Tony: They're [the hospital nurses, along with Ziva] pulling a ''Pulp Fiction''...
  McGee: ... on the Hulk.
• In season 6 "Dead Reckoning", Abby is wearing a pendant that looks a lot like Sackboy.
• In a flashback, one of little Abby's toys is Kuroneko◊.
• In one episode, Abby plays a game that is very apparently Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven at McGee's home.
• In one episode, Tony mentions The Dread Pirate Roberts when voicing his theory that a famous criminal is actually a Legacy Character.

• One episode has Tony referencing Aliens, complete with imitating the movie's namesakes signature scream. Cut to Ducky dissecting a small animal under a magnifying glass in a shot almost mirroring Bishop dissecting the facehugger in Aliens.
• This exchange:
  Kate: Gibbs, what did Ducky look like when he was younger?
  Gibbs: (beat) Illya Kuryakin. (David McCallum's role from The Man from U.N.C.L.E.)
• Elle's obsession with capturing the terrorist Parsa is an obvious shout-out to Agent Maya's obsession with Osama bin Laden in Zero Dark Thirty, though unlike the film/real life Elle isn't a Fiery Redhead, she's met Parsa in person and has some kind of "personal" relationship with him (one of them even knows what the others favorite health bar is), Parsa is captured alive but gets shot by Gibbs after he attacks her.
• "Obsession" is almost a Whole-Plot Reference to Laura, but since the title refers to Tony, it falls to Ziva to point out the parallel.
• In the seventh season premiere, Tony notes that it would be "easier to find a new drummer for Spinal Tap" than it would be replace Ziva
• In "Judgement Day", Gibbs is given an FBI file. Its number? 8675309.
• "Royals and Loyals" has McGee pull up the manifest of the HMS Sparrowhawk, a British Royal Navy ship. The armaments listed include one "magnetic accelerator cannon", three "Shiva-class nuclear missiles" and various "Archer missile pods".
• Several from past Ducky in "So It Goes":
  • "I'm a doctor, not a veterinarian, mother."
  • "I rather did like that black turtleneck..."
  • I forgot exactly how it went but he'd rather look like Doctor Who than wear a bowtie.
• The Season 12 episode The San Dominick has the Kobayashi Maru referenced by McGee as to a training exercise Bishop fails. Falls into Brick Joke territory when it comes up again and Bishop decides to query Gibbs (supposedly the only person to succeed on said exercise) on whether he did it the same way Kirk did. The others remind her that she is essentially going to accuse Gibbs of cheating on an official exercise...
• "We Build, We Fight" has three references to Breaking Bad, including a reference to an actor who's on both shows (Badger/Dorneget is mentioned but not seen) and "inverted" drugs (Breaking Bad's drugs are blue crystals while this episode's drug is a pink liquid).
  • There's also an odd moment where Tony does not know a pop culture reference — he has no idea who or what "Locky" the German shepherd is named after (the dog wasn't the killer nor was the killer delusional and believed the dog told them to kill people). Interestingly no one cites the recent films — McGee cites Norse Mythology while Ellie refers to the comics; since we don't meet Loki's owner they're all possible sources.
• The crossover with NCISNOLA has Tony and McGee simultaneously say they're talking about Star Wars to hide what they're really discussing Tony's breakup and Ellie's divorce; coincidentally, Abby is certain that her brother Luca isn't dead because "her family is strong with the Force" and later expresses frustration that while they both want to see the good in people she "acknowledges there's a Dark Side" and he does not, which she thinks makes him an easy target for con-artists. As for other Disney properties (and ones that were discarded), Luca's crush is a beautiful redheaded woman who claims to have a Dark and Troubled Past who turns out to be a dangerous Russian spy who is actually a good guy and tired of being used as a "tool".
• "Being Bad", the second episode of season 14 has Palmer looking at photos of the gang of thieves and thinking that it reminds him of "The Breakfast Club" (jock, beauty queen, bad boy, weird girl, nerd). They more or less are a villainous version, with each member fitting with a character from the movie; unfortunately Palmer isn't as good as Tony is at getting the references across.
  • McGee and Ellie later note that the villain of the week who had been pretending to be gullible and practically blind and deaf totally "Keyzer Soze-ed" them but again since their usual source of movie references has left and the two new agents aren't as into pop culture the reference falls flat. This is also a minor Establishing Character Moment for Torres, who admits he's "not much of a movie guy", despite replacing Tony on the team.
  • Possible third reference: The villain was a seemingly harmless substitute chemistry teacher who poisoned the victim.
• "What Lies Above" sees Torres, Quinn and McGee argue the differences between a lie and an omission when McGee learns the murder mystery about his (and by extension, Tony's) apartment.
• When discussing a town that's so far off the beaten path that it can well indeed be called the boondocks. Ziva questions what this means leading them to do an acapella rendition of the dueling banjos.
• "Code of Conduct" has a minor character named Ted Rogers, who's wearing a red sweater and is the neighbour of the victim. The sweater is even Lampshaded.
• McGee's cubicle has a band sticker for Venetian Snares, of all things.
• One episode had a child witness mention that the suspect drove away from the crime scene in a "Kuruma". Gibbs is bewildered by this since that's Japanese for "Car". McGee realises that it’s a type of car in Grand Theft Auto III, which would be a Chrysler Sebring sedan. They later confirm this is correct when they locate that same brand of car.
• Season 17 episode 10 has a shout out to Grim Fandango of all things. When rounding up a club owner/suspect with information, he starts singing "This little light of mine, I am going to let it shine". A shout out to Chepito, who sings the song while wandering the bottom of an ocean.
• In the Season 16 episode "A Thousand Words", Palmer is talking to the corpse of the week, a street artist (who turns out to be an impostor). As far as artists go, Palmer believes that "Bob Ross stands above them all." Ducky overhears him, and he confirms that he, too, is a fan, echoing a favorite Ross-ism: "We don't make mistakes; we have happy accidents."
• In the Season 14 finale, "Rendezvous", Palmer and Ducky are examining a dismembered corpse. As they try to put the dead man back together again, Palmer quips, "Here's an arm... here's a leg... Hey, here's a wing! Do ya want the leg or the wing, Henry?" Ducky seems to chastise him, telling him to take the job seriously. Palmer apologizes, and Ducky replies, "Good. Now go get your shine box!"
• The Season 17 two-episode arc "Judge, Jury..." and "...And Executioner" are a Whole-Plot Reference to The Star Chamber.
• In the Season 19 episode "Face the Strange," character-of-the-day Beesbo has numerous tokusatsu figures in his house, most notably giant figures of Kamen Rider and Great Mazinger.
• "All Hands" is basically one big Star Trek reference.
  • The action takes place on a research ship called Stargazer, which Parker and McGee recognize from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
  • McGee refers to himself and the cyber team as a "Borg Collective" to Vance, who mentions that he's partial to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
  • That cyber team then starts talking about Star Trek: Voyager, especially Kate Mulgrew and Jeri Ryan.
  • After Parker stows away on the helo with the thieves, he guides reinforcements to his location by hooking his iPod to the comms and transmitting the theme to Star Trek: The Original Series.

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