Chuck

When Reginald VelJohnson is introduced as a cop he says his name is Al Powell. His name is the same in the 1988 movie Die Hard and the 1990 movie Die Hard 2 where he also plays a cop.

The hostage taker/gunman is named Ned Rhyerson, which is the name of the insurance agent in the 1993 movie Groundhog Day.

Big Mike: Love the smell of day before Christmas in the morning. Big Mike parodies the line from the movie Apocalypse Now - "I love the smell of napalm in the morning".

The character Lt. Mauser (played by Michael Rooker) may be an allusion to the character of the same name in Police Academy: Their First Assignment.

In this episode, Reginald VelJohnson plays Sgt. Al Powell, a Twinkie-loving cop of the LAPD. He played the same character (Twinkies included) in the 1988 movie Die Hard and again in 1990's Die Hard 2. VelJohnson has made a career of playing police officers, including in the films Ghostbusters and Turner and Hooch, and as Carl Winslow in the ABC sitcom Family Matters. An additional allusion to the original Die Hard film is the use of the Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" which is also used as leit-motif for Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his band of thieves in the film. As already mentioned in the song-listing for this episode, "Ode to Joy" is played when Sgt. Powell and Big Mike hug at the end of the hostage situation. "Ode to Joy" is also played when the shutters of Buy More are closed, same as when the shutters of the Nakatomi Tower in Die Hard are closed. There are more allusions to Die Hard, e.g. when Sgt. Powell says to his brother, "How 'r you holding up there, partner?" is a replay of a line he said to Bruce Willis. "Capiche" was also used in Die Hard. Also note that the previous week's episode was about the sale of the "Nakamichi" tower...