References

There are many direct and indirect references to films, other games, and real people and events throughout Heavy Rain, including the following:


 * The bartender that gives Jayden advice is practically identical, down to the outfit, to the bartender in The Shining. His existence as a living being is also just as ambiguous.
 * Also, Shelby shares a name with a similarly conflicted protagonist from Memento.
 * Ethan resembles Harry Mason from the Silent Hill franchise in appearance and personality. Scott is similar to Douglas Cartland; both are private detectives haunted by the death of a family member. Scott's outfit is also near-identical to Douglas'.
 * The Origami Killer's methods and trials are very similar to the Jigsaw Killer from the Saw franchise.
 * Madison can hide in a refrigerator to save herself from an explosion, much like a certain archaeologist did to hide from a nuke.
 * Another possible Indiana Jones reference occurs in the last chapter with a fight atop a conveyor belt that ends in a deadly grinder. Like in The Temple of Doom, the villain can die by reaching the end of the conveyor.
 * Yet another: Norman's last (optional) fight with Mad Jack closely mirrors the fistfight between Indy and a large Nazi soldier near a plane in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The villain in both cases dominates the fight but is killed by being caught in an advancing lethal machine (a plane's propeller in Raiders of the Lost Ark and an excavator's treads in this game). It also has some similarities to the aforementioned fight from The Temple of Doom, in both of which the villain dies when his clothing gets caught in machinery.
 * The subway entrance through which Madison and Ethan make their escape from the police is identical to the subway entrance used by Lucas Kane in the beginning of Quantic Dream's Fahrenheit.
 * The condominium in "A New Life" and "A New Start" is very similar to Lucas's apartment in the same game.
 * In the opening credits, a store sign has a pawprint on it that says "Naughty Dog."
 * Dr. Adrian Baker astonishingly resembles Dr. Josef Heiter from The Human Centipede (First Sequence) in both appearance and mannerism. He also bears a close resemblance to Dr. Christian Szell from Marathon Man.
 * One of the endings, "Tears in the Rain," shares its name with Roy Batty's iconic speech in Blade Runner. The killer's usage of origami figures is also a nod to the film, where origami figures serve as a signature item clue.
 * In the flashback with a young John Sheppard, before taking a leap while wandering around the construction site he clearly says "Yippie-ki-yay" - a catchphrase associated with John McClane in Die Hard.
 * The scene where Madison is forced to do a striptease at gunpoint plays out like a darker version of a similar scene from True Lies.
 * The Origami Killer is compared to the Zodiac Killer in "Welcome, Norman."
 * Ann Sheppard's name is inspired by Cecelia Ann Shepard, one of the Zodiac Killer's victims.