Chainsaw Man Movie Packed with Hidden Hollywood References
The latest Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc film contains numerous subtle nods to classic Hollywood movies, revealing creator Tatsuki Fujimoto's deep appreciation for cinema history through carefully crafted visual homages.
The October 2025 release of Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc has generated massive excitement across the anime community. What viewers might not immediately notice is how creator Tatsuki Fujimoto wove countless Hollywood film references throughout the production, showcasing his deep love for cinema.
Classic Cinema Homages
Several scenes pay tribute to legendary films from different eras. The airplane sequence featuring Reze directly mirrors a moment from the 2001 Japanese drama Blue Spring, with identical subject positioning and framing. Meanwhile, Denji's horseback riding scene appears in grayscale, deliberately echoing The Horse in Motion, the groundbreaking 1878 photographic sequence that helped birth motion pictures.
Angel's floating feet during the playground landing bears striking similarity to Lucifer Morningstar's hospital entrance in Constantine from 2005. The single raindrop hitting Reze's eye recreates Frank's death scene from the sci-fi horror film 28 Days Later.
Dance Sequences and War Films
One of the movie's most memorable moments features an integrated dance sequence with Denji, Aki Hayakawa, and Power. This choreography draws inspiration from two European classics: the 1964 French film Bande à part and Federico Fellini's 1963 Italian masterpiece 8½.
Kishibe's graveyard scene, showing him contemplating multiple graves, directly references Steven Spielberg's acclaimed World War II drama Saving Private Ryan. The composition and emotional weight mirror the original's powerful imagery.
Action and Thriller References
The battle sequence where Denji rides Beam against the Bomb Devil and Typhoon Devil echoes an unexpected source: Despicable Me 2. The 2013 animated film featured supervillain El Macho riding a shark into an active volcano, creating a surprisingly similar visual.
During the intro sequence, Denji holds a bomb pin before exploding, recreating Léon's death scene from the 1994 thriller Léon: The Professional. Both characters hand over bomb pins attached to explosives wrapped around their bodies, resulting in dramatic explosions.
Reze's confrontation with the mysterious man includes a choking scene lifted frame-by-frame from the 2007 Coen Brothers film No Country for Old Men. Her decapitated head bomb attack on the training facility mirrors a similar scene from the Japanese thriller Battle Royale from 2000.