- The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973)

The infamous scene where the possessed girl aggressively throws up lots of green vomit, or ectoplasm, in the face of her exorcists probably inspired the similar scene where Kobold throws up orange vomit on Doggett.




- The Hidden (Jack Sholder, 1987)

The look of the alien creature in the film and the way it exits the host resembles to the way the “insect teenager” is portrayed in the episode: an arachnoid creature emerging from the mouth of the host. See also 5X15: Travelers.




- Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000)

The color code used in this episode to distinguish between the Mexican scenes with Doggett and the US scenes with Reyes is directly taken from “Traffic”, as explained by director of photography Bill Roe. “Traffic” used coloring of its scenes in order to help viewers better follow its numerous storylines. In both films, the coloring of the Mexican scenes is, of course, orange -- a color approximating the desert climate and setting. The effect, also for Mexican scenes, was later used in the series “Breaking Bad”, created by Vince Gilligan and for which Michelle MacLaren directed certain episodes; Gilligan and MacLaren were the writer and director of John Doe.




- Aliens (James Cameron, 1986)

Towards the end of the episode, Reyes has some (half-imaginary) insectoid creatures growing in her abdomen, struggling to break through her stomach. The image is very similar to the way the alien in the “Alien” franchise is born, by bursting through the chest of the victim. The episode scene is most similar to a scene from “Aliens” where Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) dreams that she is going to give birth to an alien, which is moving just below the surface of her skin in her stomach.


- Back to the Future, Part II (Robert Zemeckis, 1989)

At the end of the episode, we are shown the boy, whose vivid imagination was responsible for all the paranormal manifestations, in a psychiatric hospital, brainwashed by watching many TV channels simultaneously, a way to kill his imagination. This humorous commentary on TV culture is similar to a scene from the excellent comedy/science fiction film, where we get a glimpse of what people in 1989 expected teenager entertainment in 2015 to be: sitting in front of a huge screen and fill it with a cacophony of loads of different TV channels at the same time!