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Keep an ear out and you'll notice Chloe refers to Nadine as 'china' a few times through the game. It's not a random nickname, it's old South African slang for mate or buddy, tracing back to Cockney rhyming slang ('china plate' = 'mate') that made its way into South African English, which lines up neatly with Nadine's background.
When Rhodey is dragged in to testify at the Senate hearing, he mutters to Tony that it's him and he's here so just get over it and move on. It reads as a direct nod from the filmmakers to the fact that Don Cheadle had taken over the role from Terrence Howard, basically telling the audience not to make a fuss about it.
Reeves has said he had Nirvana's 'Something In The Way' on repeat while writing the first act, and that's what led him away from the classic playboy Bruce Wayne. Instead he pictured a grieving recluse holed up in a decaying mansion, basically a fictionalised Kurt Cobain in a cape.
Frank Tenpenny's character is widely believed to be modeled on Rafael Perez, the real LAPD officer at the center of the Rampart corruption scandal, right down to a passing resemblance to another officer implicated alongside him. It gives the story's villain an uncomfortable grounding in something that actually happened.
When Thor confronts Loki up on the cliffside, two ravens can be seen scattering as the Asgardians land. They're a nod to Huginn and Muninn, Odin's ravens from Norse mythology and the comics, who fly across the world gathering information and reporting back to him - basically Odin's own surveillance system keeping tabs on his sons.
Flip your original Halo 2 disc case over and look at the bottom right corner. There's a jumble of letters printed there that looks like nonsense at a glance, but it's actually a code representing the fifteen collectible Skulls hidden throughout the campaign, tucked away in plain sight before anyone even knew Skulls were a thing.
Mortally wounded after Guilty Spark turns against the group at the new Halo's control room, Sergeant Johnson spends his final moments urging John-117 to send him out in style rather than let him fade quietly, a defiant note that closes out one of the trilogy's most consistently present supporting characters.
During Never Surrender, if you flip a switch on a far-off platform near the hospital and make your way back to Club Errera, the whole place transforms. Instead of gunfire you get grunts and a Brute DJ spinning 'Siege of Madrigal' like it's the end of the world (which, to be fair, it kind of is). That track's actually a callback to Bungie's old Myth games, so it's been quietly following the studio around for years.
Out past Nuka-World in the town of Bradburton, there's a burned-out house with a sword stuck in a pile of glowing embers by the front door. Light it and stimpaks pop out; take the sword and you get three more. It's a straight-up Dark Souls reference, right down to acting like a little healing checkpoint.
