In the Southern Heights area is a wasteland encounter that has Chumbucket responding with "It is, and don't call him Shirley", referencing a line said by Leslie Nielsen in the 1980 movie Airplane!

In the north of the Dunes Region is the wreckage of a plane with statues on top of it. This is a reference to Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, where Spoiler:a tribe of children climb on a crashed plane and ask Max to make it fly.

During a private demonstration of the game, journalists reported that Max was portrayed with an American accent instead of the Australian accent from the original film series. Many fans of the series protested against the American accent. Avalanche Studios later responded to the controversy, announcing that Max would still have an Australian accent.