Shout Out / To Boldly Flee

Throughout

• To Star Trek (hence the film's title, the "ship's" name USS Exit Strategy, as well as a scene in the teaser that looks like a couple of the reviewers transporting), as well as the ship-house's dedication plaque: "To Boldly Flee Where No One Has Fled Before"
  • Suburban Knights concluded with a parody of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the plot of To Boldly Flee has it main plot of resurrecting Ma-Ti borrowed heavily from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
  • Much of Turrell's accusations against the Critic in Part 1 are taken from dialogue of the Klingon Ambassador from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
    • There was even a point where the AVGN was supposed to talk back like the Vulcan ambassador, and Turrell counters that "Nerds are the intellectual puppets of critics."
  • Jew Wario studies up for the job of navigating the starship by reading the "Tao Ta Kei" by George Takei (Star Trek: The Original Series own Hikaru Sulu) and aping his iconic mannerisms.
  • The Exit Strategy's Bridge and Engineering takes several visual and auditory design cues from the TOS Enterprise.
  • Seven Of Eleven refers to organic lifeforms as "carbon units", in the same way that V'Ger does in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
  • Terl's revenge speech is cribbed from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
  • The Critic's reaction to Phelous' death is straight from Kirk's reaction to his son's death in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, down to the missing his chair as he sits that was originally a Throw It In!.
  • Mechakara's reaction to learning Terl screwed him over owes a lot to "KHAAAAN!"
• Following in Suburban Knights' steps, most of the cast seem to be dressed up as various characters. Unlike Suburban Knights, these are mostly for single scenes or quick gags, but some of them stick for a while.
  • The Critic is dressed up as Judge Dredd.
  • The Nostalgia Chick is Seven of Nine.
  • Spoony is playing both himself and Terl.
  • Film Brain is Neo
    • Especially with the final trailer showing a shot of him seated, eyes closed, with a contraption on his head.
  • The Sage is AKIRA's Tetsuo.
  • JesuOtaku is Radical Edward, supposedly to serve as the ship's technician.
    • She is also holding a stuffed Corgi, indicative of Ein.
    • More over, she calls Paw "Paw Paw" just like how Ed would call Faye "Faye Faye" in the anime.
  • MarzGurl is The Major
  • Oancitizen is wearing Yoda ears, while Paw is wearing Vulcan ears
  • Sad Panda is the Eleventh Doctor
  • CR appears to be wearing Geordi LaForge's Visor.
  • Both Kinley Mochrie and The Last Angry Geek are shown wielding lightsabers, while the latter is wearing a Jedi robe, while the former is dressed as Luke Skywalker. As evidenced by the DVD cover art, The Cinema Snob is Darth Vader.
  • 8-Bit Mickey is an MIB agent
  • Angry Joe is Solid Snake
  • The Angry Video Game Nerd is Gort.
  • Obscurus Lupa is Ellen Ripley, judging by the line "Get away from her, you bitch!".
  • Todd in the Shadows is RoboCop.
  • JewWario channels Mr. Sulu by taking off his shirt and carrying a fencing foil.
• Ma-Ti continues to play the role of Spock, implanting his "character" into Spoony's body before he died.
• Terl's and the Executor's scenes reflect Darth Vader's and the Emperor's conversations. They even lampshade it and get confused which film they're using for reference.
  • Later, the Executor tries to seduce the Cinema Snob to the "dark side" in a scene reflecting Palpatine's seducing Anakin to the Dark Side in Revenge of the Sith, even doing so in his civilian identity in the same manner as Palpatine.
• While it may be unintentional, the garage door on the house strongly resembles the Space Ranger logo.
• The structure of the plot closely mirrors that of The Space Odyssey Series:
  • Like the monolith, the plot hole makes strange things happen around Jupiter.
  • The plot hole and a monolith both lead to life on Europa.
  • The scene where the Critic meets Doug is a parody of the infamously bizarre sequence from the end of 2001.
  • Nash sending the radio message to everybody echoes HAL sending the message to all of Earth at the end of 2010.
• The Running Gag of the plant that really ties the room together.
• The Critic turning his house into a spaceship reminds some of Explorers.

Part 1

• Paw sitting on the car and the shots of the radio satellite are a reference to Jodie Foster in Contact.
• The scene of Paw and Co. listening to the pulsing sound of the Hole and the closing shot on the speaker mimics one of the opening scenes of Independence Day.
• Ma-Ti putting images of the Hole on computers is shot for shot from Flight of the Navigator.
  • One of the images is a shot from Lynch's Dune (1984), showing the main planets used or mentioned in the film.
  • Another of the images is a blink and you'll miss it shot^note 38m, 42s of the Vega Sector from Wing Commander, specifically the map from the Super Famicom version.
• Lupa makes reference to an Argentinian soccer team crashing in the mountains.
  • Which by the way is twice wrong, it was an Uruguayan rugby team.
• Paw guessing that Linkara reviews lamps is a Shout Out to Forget About It.
  • Or so Sad Panda would like you to think.
• "Candygram!"
• 2001: A Space Odyssey: The source of the signal is coming from Jupiter.
• The Terminator: A cybernetic killing machine is attacking people that fit a loose description.
• Prick's demeanor and opening speech are drawn directly from that consummate Obstructive Bureaucrat, Walter Peck of Ghostbusters (1984). His full name, Lame R. Prick, is an allusion to both Peck and SOPA author Lamar Smith.
• The critic getting dreams and a strange pull to be where he truly belongs is straight out of Muppets from Space.
• Terl's threatening of the Critic ends with "I will climb every mountain, ford every stream, follow every rainbow".
• Terl tells his boss to try "Preparation H".
• Prick's office is colour-washed green to look like The Matrix.
• The insult ratbrain appears. Even better, a character played by Noah is using it.
• The theme to Angry Birds can be briefly heard in the NSA before the computer is shut.

Part 2

• The beginning parallels Egon's Twinkie reference and the explosion of the containment unit in Ghostbusters (1984).
• Insano complains that they "even took the novelty slot machine. Who does that?"
• Insano tells "Jew-uigi" that he's "not thinking fourth-dimensionally".
  • Dr. Insano wasn't the only villain who mistakenly called JewWario that.
• Spoony being put in "cardboard freeze", and complaining that he doesn't have a Wookie to soothe or a hot princess to kiss.
• 8-Bit Mickey is seen wearing a Derpy shirt in a few shots.
• Sad Panda is seen wearing a Zero Punctuation shirt depicting a professional troll.
• The entire opening sequence of Part 2 is an almost shot-for-shot parody of Ghostbusters, right down to the music used when all hell breaks loose (though the lyrics have been changed from "I believe in magic" to "I believe in science").
• When the USS Exit Strategy takes off, CR tells Angry Joe to add 150M to the engines. Joe responds by throwing a mushroom into the engine and a screen lights up reading 150CC.
• Dr. Insano's explanation that time isn't " a straight line..." echoes the speech from Doctor Who, though somehow it's less coherent.
• Kyle gave allusions to other films as the descriptions in his links to this on Facebook from here onwards. His description of part 2 was "In which a father, struggling to make ends meet in post-war Rome, has his bicycle stolen".
• On Dr. Insano's whiteboard, hidden in the formula is 626 + Lilo.

Part 3

• Terl's line "The Critic will die before these eyes, and he'll know, he'll know that it is I, General Ferdinand von Turrell who encompasses his doom!" is paraphrased from Dune (1984)
  • In fact, that entire monologue, starting with "Oh, I won't tell you who the traitor is, or when he'll attack..." is paraphrased or lifted directly from one of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen's speeches in Lynch's Dune (1984).
• More Star Trek references throughout, including Nostalgia Chick being turned into a Borg, Jew Wario reading the Tao Ta Kei (and throwing in the obligatory "Oh myyyyyyyy"), and Paw warning Phelous not to go on the away mission because he's wearing a Red Shirt and Phelous throwing in a Picardesque "Shut up, Wesley!" in response. Seven of Eleven referring to the Nostalgia Chick as a carbon unit may be a reference to The Motion Picture, where a crewmember is converted into a probe for V'Ger.
• JewWario uses the word "Takei" in place of "gay" at a touching moment between Snob and Luke, which is a reference to Takei's gay rights online spot about the same thing.
• JO and CR's shared dreams involving blueprints for some kind of machine is a fairly blatant Explorers reference.
  • It also serves as a double reference to the Nostalgia Critic as he named Explorers as one of the top 11 most underrated films.
• Terl and Zod's conversation has it so that Terl's shots are all Dutch Angles while Zod's are straight. This is obviously a nod to how Battlefield Earth, the film where Terl came from, was shot.
• "Seven of Eleven" is a blended reference of Seven of Nine and the convenience store chain 7-Eleven.
• Sage and JesuOtaku playfully toss around a Thermal Detonator.
• When Spoony is rescued from the literal Cardboard Prison, he is told that he is suffering from shipping and handling sickness.
• At one point CR can see through walls and discovers that 8-Bit Mickey is watching My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic ("Damn right I am!"). For bonus points, Mickey wears a Derpy Hooves shirt for the rest of the episode.
• The Nostalgia Critic thought Sad Panda was a Doctor:
  Sad Panda: I just said I watch Doctor Who a lot.
  Nostalgia Critic: Eh, close enough.
• When 8-Bit Mickey is telling Todd to take the love triangle outside when people are trying to sleep, he calls Todd Zorro.
• Doug's response to Phelous's insistence he lead is "It's your funeral, Captain Canuck."
• Kyle's description of part 3 was "In which a small time Tokyo bureaucrat, desperate to give his life meaning, tries to build a playground before he dies".

Part 4

• Terl's whole "Revenge is a dish" speech is a sad, sad callback to Khan's similar speech in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
  • Off of Zod's response to said speech: "Oh, bite me, it's fun."
  • The entire space battle is drawn from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
• Jew Wario's attempt at evasive maneuvering is to do a barrel roll.
• The Critic dresses as Judge Dredd, complete with imitating Sylvester Stallone's half-paralyzed jaw.
• Terl's ship is apparently armed with an Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.
• JO!Ed beams to the Critic the OMGWTF-9000.
• Paw cites the Junior Woodchucks' Guide to Astronomics as his source of information about the Psychlos.
• The Critic runs after Terl's men shooting at them, while saying he wants to be their friend.
  • This is also a subtle callback to his first Top 11 Nostalgic F*ck Ups video, where he does the same to Douchey McNitpick. Which itself was likely referencing Mars Attacks!.
• Terl's ship speaking French is actually the French dub of It's a Wonderful Life, specifically the portion seen in Home Alone.
• Kyle described this in his link as "In which a disturbed stage actress and the young nurse caring for her find their identities blurred as they become closer".
• When the crew draw their weapons on Turrell, one of the guns is Han Solo's DL-44.

Part 5

• The Last Angry Geek's ship has the front of an X-Wing and the back of a Starfury.
  • He also has an argument with an astromech droid of sorts. (Possibly an R4 series, given the shape of its head.)
• Brainwashed and Crazy Todd is RoboCop.
• "Please, sir... may I have a paycheck?"
• The Executor and Snob's discussion while watching Manos: The Hands of Fate is a parody of Anakin and Palpatine at the opera in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.
• Spoony's Super ego is Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen.
  • Specifically, Sting's portrayal of him in the 1984 movie. Even more specifically, the 'Sting emerging from a steam bath in a speedo and stretching himself' scene.
• Sad Panda's idea for how to treat patients is literally taken straight from House; try extremely dangerous and untested treatments which will surely kill them if you're wrong. Everyone is all for it.
• The doors that lead into the different parts of Spoony's mind are from Super Mario Bros. 2, while the door opening scenes are reminiscent of the early Resident Evil loading screens.
• Film Brain seeing an image of Spoony with a glowing spiral at his throat references a scene with Spock and Ilia in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
• Lupa's line "someone is assimilating the crew one by one!" While certain characters seem to have Borg elements, this description seems to quickly call to mind The Thing.
• The shot with Critic walking into Engineering from the cockpit is very similar to the one where Scroob walks from his office to Engineering in Spaceballs.
• Luke^note whose actress now goes by the name Kinley copies her Star Wars namesake (Luke) by sitting sadly at the kitchen table dwelling on Cinema Snob's abduction and saying, "I just can't believe he's gone."
• When Film Brain enters Spoony's mind corridor, he not only gets a Matrix outfit but also uses Neo-like hand movements to open the doors.
  • "Whoa."
• Kyle's description was "In which a woman trapped inside of a house dreams of hooded figures with mirrored faces. But is she dreaming?".
• When Film Brain tries to comfort the Critic by putting a hand on his shoulder, Critic responds "Don't go Brokeback on me."

Part 6

• Get away from [him] you BITCH!
• Nostalgia Chick has a blade extending from the middle of her fist.
• Jew Wario emulates Sulu in the Star Trek episode "The Naked Time" by taking off his shirt and poking Mechakara with a fencing foil.
• Of course, more Star Wars references:
  • The Last Angry Geek's showdown with The Executor is almost taken word-by-word from Mace Windu's confrotation with Palpatine in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (as well as the subsequent "I pledge my alliance to you")
  • The Executor uses the phrase "From a certain point of view..." a phrase used by Obi-Wan to explain why he apparently "lied" to Luke.
  • The Death Bomb is a obvious allusion to the Death Star.
  • Allusion to Darth Vader's NOOOOOO and to special editions.
• Mechakara's damaged face is reminiscent of the Terminator.
• The Executor refers to the Cinema Snob's assistance in killing the Last Angry Geek as "a very successful Tuesday", in reference to the trope named after a quote from Street Fighter.
• Kyle's description was "In which a master gunfighter abandons his son to undergo a spiritual quest in which he must defeat four other masters".

Part 7

• Once more, Star Wars allusions:
  • Executor says "The Attempts on my life left me scarred.."
  • Oancitizen as Master Yoda.
  • LAG returns as Ghost!Obi-Wan.
  • Luke Mochrie as Luke Skywalker.^note Though this only applies In-Universe, as the real Luke now goes by the name Kinley.
  • The set-up for the final battle is pretty much entirely taken from ROTJ, including the ridiculously big fleet, The Death Bomb/Star's Plans, "many bothans died to bring us this information", Mentor (Snob) VS Apprentice (Luke) and so forth.
  • Lastly, in the final battle, Luke fails to identify what's a Bothan, leading her to confuse the description with other alien species, eventually reaching a Star Trek species in the middle of the conversation.
    • Fridge Brilliance, as "Bothan" is the name of a species from Star Trek and from Star Wars. Of course, the reference to their sacrifice came from Star Wars.
• Luke learns about the Plot in the same manner people have their minds rewritten in Dark City. It's even named after director Alex Proyas.
• Chick and Oancitizen disguise themselves as Ursa and Non.
• Critic's flying car has an Autobot logo in it.
• While justified by her previous Borgness, the dialogue as the Chick instantly learns the song number more closely resembles The Matrix.
• When the mysterious figure dressed as Gort takes out Terl's ship for him, he signals the Critic. The Critic halfheartedly mumbles back "Yeah, yeah...Klattu barada whatever"—making it a rare instance when the reference is actually directed at the movie.
• The shaky-cam zoom on Terl and Zod's ship in the middle of the fleet is exactly like a standard space shot from Firefly or Battlestar Galactica.
  • Similarly, Gort's ship looks like a Cylon raider.
• When Terl's ship is blasted away, he imitates a Goofy scream.
• Angry Joe avoids the mooks by hiding in a cardboard box like Solid Snake, and takes it far too personally when MarzGurl insults the box, much like Solid Snake in Sons of Liberty & Naked Snake in Snake Eater.
  • Likewise, MarzGurl takes part in the raiding party by dressing as the Major and using the same invisibility technique.
• An action sequence is scored by a diegetic '80s-style pop song, like the use of "Holding Out for a Hero" in the climax of Shrek 2.
  • Alternately, it's a reference to the climactic battle of Macross, which was also a space battle set to pop music.
  • Or a reference to The Fifth Element: kickass music layered over a kickass fight scene(s) (appropriately, Nostalgia Chick reviewed it).
• Luke admits that what she tells Film Brain is contrary to "everything that life, the universe, and everything says is common sense."
• The ship shooting at the car looks a lot like Eldar Vyper
  • It turns out that this was accidental, according to the cast commentary. While it is certainly similar, it was changed between the version seen in the trailer (which coincidentally looked a lot like an Eldar Vyper) to a different model (which looks a little less so) seen in the final cut. The reason for this was after realizing the similarity, Channel Awesome wanted to take steps to avoid the Games Workshop lawyers stepping in and having a say about it. This was around the time they tried to sue an author for using the term Space Marine, so it was a legitimate concern. That would make this something of an example of Animating Around the Trademarks.
• The Critic flying a car in space calls to mind Heavy Metal.
• Kyle promoted part 7 as "In which a man recounts the tale of a doctor who uses a hypnotized somnambulist for his dark purposes".
• One of Phelous' titles is God-Emperor.
• The Syringe that bestows a lifetime of knowledge of the plot into Luke and the lines that follow are directly lifted from Dark City with the name of the syringe itself coming from the film's director, Alex Proyas.
• Among the film clips shown to Luke are public domain classics such as Night of the Living Dead (1968), Alexander Nevsky and Nanook of the North.
• In a rare shout-out to the TGWTG fandom, there is a certain type of gastropod on the shelves behind Kyle.

Part 8

• What do CR and JO come up with to take out the Death Bomb once and for all? A Blue Shell.
• The assembly of the above and the circumstances that prompt it are straight from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
• Spoony's return at the end is reminiscent of Spock's revival in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
  • Given the white Spock robe, it may also be a nod to the original Spoony's return on The Spoony Experiment, asserting that "I have returned from death, and now I am Spoony the White."
    • Which itself is probably a referance to Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
• After The Critic's Heroic Sacrifice, we zoom out to see the Plot Hole itself, the whole universe contained within.
  The Plot Hole: I am... The Nostalgia Critic.
• To Kinley's^note Luke's real name after coming out father Colin Mochrie of Whose Line Is It Anyway? fame.
• The Ship unable to move and Mickey's line "We're not going to make it, are we?" is taken from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
• The three villains together bickering in their downed ship before blowing up is borrows heavily from the three bickering villains at the end of Spaceballs.
• Insano's wrap-up speech is reminiscent of Doc Brown's at the end of Back to the Future Part III
• Film Brain looking off fondly at the ghostly images of Last Angry Geek, Nostalgia Critic and Hayden Christensen is a shout out to the end of Return of the Jedi.
• Kyle described the final part on his Facebook page as "In which a train arrives at La Ciotat station".
• Linkara's Big Damn Hero moment, while being the Sulu/Excelsior of the Undiscovered Country bit, is also very similar to the opening battle of Star Trek: First Contact. Not only does Comicron-1 absolutely dwarf the USS Exit Strategy, heavily pronounced by the entry swoop, but Linkara is even wearing the appropriate Starfleet uniform.
• When the Critic prepares to take his first step into the real world, the way he holds his foot out is a reference to the "leap of faith" scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
• The music and the dialogue from Ma-Ti during the scene where Critic prepares to step into the real world is referencing Joker's words as he thinks the Ships are about to explode in The Dark Knight.
• The entire "reality" sequence between the Critic and the writer is a play off the ending scene of The Truman Show, right down to the Nostalgia Critic asking the questions, "Who are you?" and "Who am I?"
• The Critic merging with the plothole is a reference to Willard Decker merging with Illia at the end of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
  • And it was shot like the Tenth Doctor's regeneration in Doctor Who, just with blue light instead of yellow, and going out with a smile instead of regretting it.
• The way the Blue Shell hits the villian's House-ship is very similar to Star Trek VI, when a photon torpedo took out a Klingon vessel. The line "To be or not to be," was also a part of that scene.
• Nash cooking a Hot Pocket can be seen as a reference to Doug's guest appearance on the What the Fuck Is Wrong with You? Live show
• When the Nostalgia Critic says 'You did good, Ma-Ti. You did real good.' The line comes from Mickey, Rocky's Trainer in Rocky III.
• The ending is another reference to Akira, where Tetsuo says "I am Tetsuo" after becoming a new Universe.
• The scene in the end where Critic is faced with a choice where he'll either do something selfish (join the real world) or something selfless (remain in the fictional world to help his friend), and Ma-Ti expects him to make the selfish choice shares loads of similarities with the climax of The Dark Knight, in which civilians of Gotham are faced with a choice where they'll either do something selfish (blow up the other ferry to save themselves), or something selfless (not doing so, knowing fully well that if they don't, the Joker will kill them anyway), and the Joker expects them to make the selfish choice. Both Critic and the people of Gotham prove their villains wrong. The choice in each scene is even directly preceded by the same line.
  The Joker / Ma-Ti: And here... we... go.

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