As I watched the first two episodes ofLoki, the latest Disney+ Marvel Cinematic Universe television series, I was particularly struck by how much in dialogue the show is with other landmark pieces of pop culture — and this is all coming after the showliterally about being stuck in pop culture!
If you’re lovingLoki, can’t get enough ofTom HiddlestonandOwen Wilsontripping their timey-wimey way through misadventures and existential crises of bureaucracy, and need some more, we’ve got you covered. Here are an eclectic collection of films, TV shows, and video games that feel in the same timeline asLoki. Add these to your automated “everything you’ve ever promised to watch and play” lists posthaste.
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If you’re eating upLoki’s immaculate retro-future production design, from the “what did 1970s architects and engineers think technological spaces would look like?” vibe of the TVA down to the font choices in every title, you must watchAlienimmediately and enjoy your main course. This 1979 sci-fi-horror classic, from master of production designRidley Scott, will definitely rip your guts out harder than the family-friendly action of the MCU series, so approach its thrills with caution. But as a foundational text for the look ofLoki, and even some of its bureaucratic subtext (what is the TVA if not the Weyland-Yutani company’s aesthetics and labor politics applied to time?),Alienis an essential file.
In a chaotic dystopia marked by oppressive, brutalist technology and a bureaucracy so embedded in every facet of life that it threatens to clip any illusion of free will, one man tries his damndest to break through his preordained destiny and find some kind of redemption.
Terry Gilliam’sBrazilremains a masterpiece of dark, genre-bending, sci-fi comedy with as bittersweet a core as you’ll ever see. Gilliam’s12 Monkeysmight literally have a television adaptation, butLokifeels like the spiritual successor toBrazil; or at the very least, a more accessible distillation of that film’s visuals, themes, and obsessions. To put it another way,Lokiis to Shirley Temples asBrazilis to gin and tonics — one might be stronger than the other, but one can lead to the other, and both can taste great depending on your mood (though ifLokipulls a similar ending to the bleaker-than-bleak director’s cut ofBrazil, it will be the strongest cocktail of all).
Catch Me If You Can
When I watched Loki cast as the “real” D.B. Cooper, that mysterious man who hijacked a plane to steal a ton of money and parachute into infamy, I immediately thought ofLeonardo DiCaprioinCatch Me If you’re able to. As Hiddleston suavely flirts with a flight attendant (Erika Coleman) before revealing his more nefarious scheme, so too did DiCaprio inSteven Spielberg’s masterpiece of crime, melancholy, and broken families. In both works, it is beyond fun to watch our main character, played by a charismatic movie star, mess with the system and pull off their criminal shenanigans. And then in both works, it is beyond harrowing to watch these characters reckon with the implications of their actions and wonder if they can pull themselves out of a life wasted.
A video game of ample style, authorial voice, political muckrakery, and creepy, creepy, creepiness!Control, originally released in 2019 (with a fancy next-gen ultimate edition released in 2021), feels like playing what would happen if the TVA was invaded by soul-sucking zombies. Your player character explores her way through the Oldest House, an imposing, ruthless, and eerily diabolical structure of bureaucracy, power, scientific experimentation, and so much dang retro-futurism. As she clears every corridor, battling these possessed shells of humanity with her ever-growing psychic powers, she discovers a reality-melting conspiracy, and a final truth that will change everything.ControlisLokias a psychological action-horror game, and I need everyone to submit to its unique charms and thrills as soon as possible.
Defending Your Life
In Episode 1 ofLoki, Loki watches his life pass before his eyes, as he, the TVA, and we all judge every moment lived, and wonder if it represents a man (er, a god) whose existence is worth another shot. This is literally the premise ofDefending Your Life, a 1991Albert Brookstragicomedy (perhapstheAlbert Brooks tragicomedy) about a recently deceased individual whose entire existence is put on trial in a liminal afterlife plane. If he can defend the justification and necessity of his life well enough, he will be granted the chance of reincarnation; a fresh start.
Is Loki deserving of such a fresh start? If the series ends the wayDefending Your Lifedoes, that answer will surprise and delight you in equal, highly bittersweet measure.
Doctor Who
There are some aesthetic choices made inLokithat inspire comparison to one of the BBC’s most well-known shows: epically long-running sci-fi adventure seriesDoctor Who(one big one: The similarities betweenthe design of the Timekeepersto whatthe Time Lords have been seen wearingin the past). But beyond its aesthetics, there are a number of episodes of the show, especially during theRussell T. DaviesandSteven Moffateras, which bring similar thematic vibes to the wayLokidepicts the awe-inspiring power of being able to see the timeline in its entirety as a mind-numbing bureaucratic chore. It’s a fun vibe that is especially prevalent in episodes set in our not-too-distant future, as sci-fi writers seem to agree on one thing: whatever’s coming in the next few decades, it’s going to involve a lot of needless rules and regulations.- Liz Shannon Miller
Early Edition
In watchingLoki, despite the series’ relationship within that wide, wild thing we call the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it reminded me the most of the smaller-scale, self-contained pleasures of “case-of-the-week prestige television from the 1990s.” The kind of low-commitment show you’d plop on after work or school to enjoy as a short story of sorts; all pleasant vibes and tidy conclusions. Seeing Hiddleston and Wilson solve time crimes in different settings gave me this jolt, a jolt I didn’t realize I missed.
If you want this specific kind of jolt, I highly recommend the CBS showEarly Edition. Originally airing from 1996-2000, the light fantasy drama followsKyle Chandler, an everyman blessed/cursed with tomorrow’s newspaper today; the early edition, if you will. With the help of his friendsShanésia Davis-WilliamsandFisher Stevens, Chandler begins to help those direly affected by what will transpire tomorrow, becoming a sort of gentle, time-hopping superhero of his Chicago neighborhood. WhileLokiis certainly snarkier than this earnest, lovable program, they feel inextricably linked to me in their examinations of time, redemption, and comedy-tinged misadventures. If an orange cat starts showing up inLoki, I’d call your local newspaper editors…
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams' masterwork of comedy sci-fi,The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, is one of the most influential, imaginative, and hilarious pieces of literary fiction ever written. You must read it. You must!!
But, for the purposes of this list and this website, I will instead talk about the various adaptations of this property as it pertains toLoki. WhileLokistars one Brit, none of the creative crew nor settings scream “lowkey absurd British comedy.” And yet, its tone, visuals, and attitudes toward many of the series' wildest moments kept reminding me ofHitchhiker’s, one of the great pieces of “lowkey absurd British comedy” we’ve got. The 2005 feature film adaptation of the book is a great place to start, with an adept cast likeMartin Freeman,Zooey Deschanel,Mos Def,Sam Rockwell, andAlan Rickmanzipping their way across the imaginatively filmed galaxy in splashy set-pieces of broad comedy, visual silliness, and musical mayhem.
But if you want something tracked as explicitly toLokias possible, especially inLoki’s practical production design and feeling of “crampedness,” I highly recommend you seek out the 1981 BBC miniseries take on the material. It’s chintzy, obviously low-budget, and smeary in its digital video compositions. It’s also so dry, so silly,sofunny, and so able to transport the viewer to a particular state of being. Loki feels like Arthur Dent (Simon Jones), our bedraggled protagonist doing his best in outrageous situations; Agent Mobius feels like Ford Prefect (David Dixon), our “professional shenanigans-introducer”; and the TVA feels like Marvin, the Paranoid Android (Stephen Moore), an oppressively sad and overbearing robot. Whatever version of theGuideyou undertake, you will find it the perfect companion toLoki’s anglophile pleasures. Just remember your towel.
Agent Morbius saves Loki from a fate of being disintegrated out of time and existence by recruiting him on the TVA’s most high-stakes case yet: Finding a variant, time-hopping version ofhimself.
This high concept reminded me immediately ofLooper,Rian Johnson’s pre-Star Warstake on high concept science fiction. In Johnson’s film, a work of jagged idiosyncracies, noir-influenced bits of despair and black comedy, and a retreat to a literal farm,Joseph Gordon-Levitttries his best to hunt down his future, variant, time-hopping version of himself, played byBruce Willis. But just as Loki is learning, Gordon-Levitt learns of all the complications that come from trying to mess with “yourself,” and has multiple crises of conscience, of fate, and of free will along the way.Looperplays a lot more twisted and tense thanLoki, but plays like an excellent base reality of unique sci-fi storytelling forLokito riff on.
Metropolis
If you want to pay your respects to all of the aesthetic and thematic touchstones being referenced inLokiand all of these other works — from retro-futurism to the bureaucratic nightmares of city living to brutalist, dystopic existences to the attempts at changing your set-in-steel fate — you must watchFritz Lang’sMetropolis. Originally released in 1927 to mixed reviews, the silent film has since been rightfully reclaimed as an essential piece of cinema, a game-changer, a definer of an artistic era we’re still living in.Loki’s more populist refractions and refinements of the film do not negate the film’s obvious influence on it; to watchMetropolisin any of its many forms with any of its many soundtracks is to watch square one of science fiction screen storytelling as we know it today.
