The term "[[Nine Inch Nails]]" has been used in various cultural references, and as an otherwise unlikely phrase, is often assumed to be in reference or tribute to the band. NIN songs have also been used in many films, television shows and video games.
==Music==
''See also: [[Related bands and artists]]''<br>''See also: [[Covers Of NIN]]''
* Singer [[Tori Amos]] has alluded to Nine Inch Nails in her lyrics: "Precious Things" mentions "demigods with their nine-inch nails" and "Caught a Lite Sneeze" finds her "{making her} own [[Pretty Hate Machine]]." [[Trent Reznor]] sang back-up vocals on Amos' "Past the Mission." Amos sometimes included the opening line of "[[Hurt (song)|Hurt]]" in live improvisations, sometimes with silly alternative lyrics such as "I hurt myself today/to find a jellybean." The term "[[Starfuckers, Inc. (song)|Starfucker]]" was used in Amos' 1996 song "Professional Widow" on the album ''Boys for Pele.'' Many believe that Amos and Reznor were more than friends, and Reznor has confessed that [[Courtney Love]] meddled in their friendship, causing them to drift apart. Some believe Amos's song, "She's Your Cocaine" is about the two of them. In 2014, Amos performed a live cover of ""[[Something I Can Never Have]]".
* Eminem's "My Name Is" from his 1999 album ''The Slim Shady LP'' includes the line "Wanna see me stick Nine Inch Nails through each one of my eyelids?" in the first verse, commonly seen as a nod to the band.
* Progressive metal band Dream Theater has performed a live medley called "Caught in Alice's New Nine-Inch Millennium Tool Garden." It used the lyrics of their earlier release "Caught in a Web," but with new music which was a combination of the styles of Alice in Chains, Nine Inch Nails, [[Tool]], and [[Soundgarden]], all of which were prominent rock bands during the 90s. The band later wrote new lyrics to the song and released it as "New Millennium" on the album ''Falling into Infinity.''
* Nine Inch Nails is referenced in the Phi Life Cypher remix of Gorillaz' "Clint Eastwood:" "Now rearrangin' your whole skeletal structure then I find some nine inch nails to perform some acupuncture."
* "Weird Al" Yankovic has paid tribute to NIN more than once: "[[Closer]]" is parodied in the "Alternative Polka" from ''Bad Hair Day,'' and "Germs," on the album ''Running with Scissors,'' sounds like a cross between "[[Terrible Lie]]" and "[[Closer]]" with some elements from "[[Mr. Self Destruct]]."
* ''The Doom Generation'' (1995): The film opens in a nightclub playing "[[Heresy]]."
* ''Se7en'' (1995): The opening sequence features the "Closer" remix "[[Closer#Closer_.28Precursor.29|Closer (Precursor)]]".
*''Joe's Apartment'' (1996): The main character is seen wearing a ''[[Closer To God]]'' shirt.* ''The Fan'' (1996): A clip of "[[Mr. Self Destruct|The Art Of Self Destruction, Part One]]", "[[Closer#Closer_.28Further_Away.29|Closer (Further Away)]]" and "Closer To God"are all featured.
* ''[[Lost Highway Soundtrack|Lost Highway]]'' (1997): Reznor wrote "The Perfect Drug" specifically for this film, with limited production time. He was also the producer for the film's soundtrack, and wrote/performed "[[Driver Down]]" and "[[Videodrones; Questions]]" along with [[Peter Christopherson]].
* ''Small Soldiers'' (1998): Just as one of the soldiers is about to fire the nail gun, he shouts, "Hey kid, don't you like Nine Inch Nails?".
* ''Tuesdays with Morrie'' (1999): The opening sequence featured a voice saying "Morrie would dance to anything... Name a band. He'd do the twist to Nine Inch Nails".
* ''The Rage: Carrie 2'' (1999): A NIN poster is seen on the main character's bedroom wall.
* ''Requiem for a Dream'' (2000): Trent Reznor and [[Nothing Records]] are credited in the "Special Thanks" section of the film's end credits. Composer [[Clint Mansell]] said Reznor served as a music consultant for the film's soundtrack.
* ''Final Destination'' (2000): When Carter tries to run over Billy shortly before Terry's death, "[[Into The Void (song)|Into The Void]]" can be heard pumping from his car. A fan made this connection to something Trent had purportedly said:
* ''Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' (2001): "[[Deep]]".
* ''Resident Evil'' (2002): While Alice battles the mutated dogs, "[[Fist Fuck]]" soundtracks the assault.
* ''Saw'' (2003 short film): Intro has a clip and end credits have clips from the ''[[Fixed]]'' remix of "[[Screaming SlaveHappiness In Slavery]]".* ''School of Rock'' (2003): A NIN sticker can be seen among the band stickers in Dewey's bedroom.
* ''The Machinist'' (2004): Writer Scott Kosar is a fan of Nine Inch Nails, and named Christian Bale's character Trevor Reznik in tribute to Reznor. His original script had NIN lyrics on the first page, the promotional poster for the film has a backwards 'N' (as in the NIИ logo), and early press articles described Reznik as going through "[[The Downward Spiral (halo)|a downward spiral]]."
* ''Man on Fire'' (2004): Clips of "The Art Of Self Destruction, Part One," "[[Mr. Self Destruct|Self Destruction, Part Two]]," and "[[The Downward Spiral (The Bottom)]]" from ''[[Further Down The Spiral]];'' "[[The Mark Has Been Made]]" and "[[The Great Below]]" from ''[[The Fragile (halo)|The Fragile]];'' and "[[The Wretched|The Wretched (Version)]]" from ''[[Things Falling Apart]].'' Reznor received a "Music Consultant" credit for the film.
*''[[The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Soundtrack|The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo]]'' (2011): In addition to featuring a score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Lisbeth gains information from a man wearing a "NIN" shirt at one point during the film.
*''The Avengers'' (2012): "[[We're In This Together (song)|We're In This Together]]" is used in a trailer.
*''The Cabin in the WoodWoods'' (2012): "[[Last]]" is used in the credits.
*''Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters'' (2013): "The Wretched (Version)" is used in the trailer.
*''The Unbelievers'' (2013): "[[Complication]]" is used during the first sequence of scenes in the film.
*''Mourning Son'' (2015): Contains an extended version of "[[1 Ghosts I]]".
*''The Defiant Ones'' (2017): Contains numerous NIN tracks.
*''Captain Marvel'' (2019): In the film, which is set in the 90's, Captain Marvel (played by Brie Larson) dons civilian clothing, including a white "NIN" logo t-shirt.
*''[[Soul (Original Score)|Soul]]'' (2020): In addition to featuring a score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, there is a hardware store sign in the background advertising a sale on "9 in. nails."
*''Tick, Tick... Boom!'' (2021): There is a NIN postcard on the wall of the main character's kitchen.
*''[[The Killer (Original Score)|The Killer]]'' (2023): In addition to featuring a score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, the band's name is somewhat referenced in the film when the main character says "nine gauge nails."
*''The Beekeeper'' (2024): A cinematic remix of "Head Like A Hole" is used in the trailer.
*''The Marvels'' (2023): Echoing 2019's ''Captain Marvel'', a character is this movie wears a "NIN" logo shirt.
==Television==
*In ''The Walking Dead'' episode "Try," "[[Somewhat Damaged]]" is prominently featured at the beginning. It is the first track on a CD mix titled "Run Mix" created by Aiden and found by his mother, Deanna, after his death.
*Part 5 of the documentary miniseries ''O.J.: Made In America'' uses "[[5 Ghosts I]]" and "[[28 Ghosts IV]]".
*Nine Inch Nails (billed as "The Nine Inch Nails" and consisting of Reznor, [[Robin Finck]], [[Mariqueen Maandig]], [[Atticus Ross]], [[Alessandro Cortini]] and Joey Castillo of [[Queens Of The Stone Age]]) appeared in an episode of the 2017 reboot of ''Twin Peaks: The Return'', doing a mimed performance of "[[She's Gone Away]]". The song also appears on the soundtrack for the new series.*NIN shirts are worn on two episodes of ''Narcos''.*The documentary series ''[[The Vietnam War Original Score|The Vietnam War]]'' (2017): In contains several NIN tracks, in addition to featuring a score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.*NIN songs are used in multiple episodes of ''Animal Kingdom''.*In the ''Schitt's Creek'' episode "The Plant", it is mentioned that the acapella group Jazzagals are rehearsing a Nine Inch Nails medley.*"Hurt" is used on ''Rick And Morty'' during the episode "The Wedding Squanchers".*"Head Like A Hole" and "Right Where It Belongs" are reinterpreted as pop songs by Ashley O (played by Miley Cyrus) in the "Rachel, Jack And Ashley Too" episode of ''Black Mirror''.*In Season 3, Episode 10 of ''Jessica Jones'', the title character is seen holding a Nine Inch Nails concert ticket stub.*In an episode of Hulu's series contains reworked versions adaptation of ''High Fidelity'', Robin's character is seen wearing a ''Closer To God'' t-shirt and a NIN sticker appears on the cash register.*The Kate Kane character wears a NIN shirt in an episode of ''Batwoman''.*In ''The X-Files'' episode "Quagmire", a van can be seen with NIN stickers on it.*Multiple documentaries by Adam Curtis feature the music of Nine Inch Nails.*A 2010 episode of ''Grey's Anatomy'' is titled "[[Adrift And At Peace]]".*In a 1999 episode of ''Saturday Night Live'', a NIN sticker can be seen on a garbage can during a Mary Katherine Gallagher sketch.*"Closer" is used in an episode of ''Pam & Tommy''.*Interpretations of multiple NIN songs are used on ''Westworld''.*"Something I Can Never Have" is used during the credits of an episode of ''Black Bird''.*NIN is mentioned in Season 9, Episode 3 of several ''The Flash''.*In the ''Bob's Burgers'' episode "These Boots Are Made For Stalking", Gene makes a reference to NIN .*"The Day The World Went Away", "[[Letting Go While Holding On]]", "[[Hope We Can Again]]", and multiple tracksfrom the ''[[Waves (Original Score)]]'' are used in season 2 episodes of ''The Bear''.*"[[Slipping Away]]" was used in an episode of ''The Walking Dead: Dead City''.*A special remix of "Closer" was used in episode 2 of ''The Fall of the House of Usher''.*"Terrible Lie" was used in an episode of ''Goosebumps''.
==Literature and Comics==
* In the webcomic ''[http://www.pholph.com JACK],'' many of the story arcs have lines or names that reference Nine Inch Nails as well as other bands that the author, David Hopkins, has an affinity for (such as Pink Floyd). Some of the references are the stories "The Mark Has Been Made" and "[[Twist]]" as well as the arc "Hell Is That Noise" which is acknowledged as a "Tribute to NIN" and includes song titles and lyrics taken from ''The Fragile'' in order to form a story about a soldier during "The Great Trench War" (a fictional equivalent to WWI) who commits suicide after finding out his wife had hung herself while he was away after the deaths of her three newborn children; his journey through Hell to find her; and his outright refusal of the truth when he finds it.
*A young soldier in the comic strip ''Doonesbury'' lost most of his hearing due to listening to too much Nine Inch Nails music before he was severely injured in Iraq. His hearing loss was "[http://images.ucomics.com/comics/db/2008/db080128.gif worth it]!"
*In the ''[https://xkcd.com/1732/ Earth Temperature Timeline]'' published by [[wp:xkcd|xkcd]], one figure is seen writing "NIИ" on a cave wall.
*Issue #1052 of ''Action Comics'' contains a short story entitled "Head Like A Whole".
==Video Games==
*The fortress bosses (the fire-breathing dinosaurs) in various incarnations and versions of ''Super Mario World'' are called Reznors and have been confirmed to be named after Trent.[http://www.mariowiki.com/Reznor]
*The first person shooter ''SiN'' contains a reference to "[[Reptile]]" in the form of a bulletin board with the words "she has the blood of reptile underneath her skin" on it. The game title may also be a reference to "[[Sin (song)|Sin]]".
*The campaign trailer for ''Gears 5'' debuted at Gamescom 2019 to the music of "[[Head Like A Hole (song)|Head Like A Hole]]".
==External Links==
*[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0722153/ IMDB profile] for all Film and Television featuring Reznor's work.
[[Category:Related to NIN]]