"Yippy Kai Yay!": Shout-outs in Westworld

[Gobi]

One of the pleasures in watching this show is noticing references to other shows, movies, literature, etc. Even names can have meaning. Some of these shout-outs may be hints to the story, others not. Here's a place to bring them to people's attention.

[Gobi]

Some of the ones that I've noticed:

A background character dressed like Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name.

Ford - A reference to the director of many famous westerns, John Ford.

The line "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend" is straight out of John Ford's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence", and Liberty Valence is a spiritual forefather to TMIB.

Logan - Is the name a nod to "Logan's Run", a story about a dystopian society?

There are plenty more.

Edited October 30, 2016 by Gobi

[BigBeagle]

Robert Ford (Hopkins' character) is also the name of the man who killed Jesse James

[Gobi]

Then there's Arnold. Maybe he'll be back.

[paigow]

Is the other repair tech named Oscar???

What is William's last name? Clay?? 

Edited October 31, 2016 by paigow

[bmoore4026]

Elsie testing new host Bart.  Bart of the big black dick.  "It's twu!  It's twu!"

[okerry]

Okay, Bill & Ted: Their real names were William S. Preston and Theodore Logan. It can't be a coincidence!

And I have to wonder if the black sheriff in Sweetwater is a nod to everybody's favorite western, Blazing Saddles. Though there were many, many black cowboys in the American west at this time and it's perfectly possible that a town could have had a black sheriff.

[Gobi]

Delos is a Greek island. In mythology, it is the birthplace of Appollo and Artemis. Artemis is a goddess of the hunt and chastity. Most of the stories about her involve her fighting to preserve her virginity. Sound like anyone we know?

Hector was the champion of Troy, defeated and killed by Achilles.

Wyatt. Wyatt Warp, of course, the famous western lawman, although he was not the white hat hero he's often portrayed to be, more of a gray hat.

Clementine. The song "My Darling Clementine", about the 1849 Gold Rush. Also the title of a John Ford western about Wyatt Warp.

This one I don't think is intentional - I get a real Firesign Theatre "I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus" vibe from the show. The "Bozos" album (a primitive form of CD) tells the story of a visitor to a fair in the future with realistic characters (holograms, including a deputy). The main character illegally accesses the characters in hope of getting to the core, and the truth behind the park. At the core, he  encounters the one responsible for running the park, the Doctor.

[ennui]

Hmm. My Ford reference was Henry and the assembly line. 

[Gobi]

Some more:

The robot in the sub-basement where Bernard went to check on anomalies in the park, a shout out to the original gunslinger from the movie.

In the opening of the first episode, we see some kids playing with a scorpion, reminiscent of the beginning of Sam Peckipah's "The Wild Bunch".

Again in the first episode, there is a shot of a wind vane that reminds of a similar shot in the beginning of Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West". The music in Westworld also seems reminiscent of the music from that movie.

[okerry]

I have to believe that when Ford said, "Do you know what happened to the Neanderthals? We ate them," it was no accident. Somebody was having a little fun with that line!

[Willowy]

"Remember..." seems like a "The Search for Spock" shoutout. It's even said with the same inflection and tone. 

[Ellaria]

On 11/2/2016 at 1:47 PM, Gobi said:

Delos is a Greek island. In mythology, it is the birthplace of Appollo and Artemis. Artemis is a goddess of the hunt and chastity. Most of the stories about her involve her fighting to preserve her virginity. Sound like anyone we know?

Ahh... you found this long before I did.