🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐

Remember the ’90s? Whether you’re Gen X or Millennial, or Gen Z with a Y2K obsession, the ’90s never went away. 

Since The Midnight Club is set in the mid-1990s, many folks who were born in the new millennium may need a catch-up on what those halcyon days of dial-up internet were really like. 

So we assembled an intrepid team of ’90s historians — aka everyone at Tudum headquarters from the MTV generation — to reveal all the archaic tech and awesome jams of the era. And a quick note on our methodology for the Easter egg police: We considered many pop cultural touchstones that may be outside the ’90s but that informed the world of the Midnight Club teens. Virginia Woolf and ley lines? Both were topics of conversation in ’90s English classes and amongst alien-obsessed dorkazoids in the lunchroom. Got our vibe?

So drink a Jolt Cola, put on your Doc Martens and peruse these 94 (yeah, like the approximate year of the show!) 1990s references and other pop culture Easter eggs of The Midnight Club. 

Here's Everything You Need to Know about The Midnight ClubWhat's scarier than knowing you're dying? The Midnight Club's gonna find out.

Episode 1 

Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, Pearl Jam
Our introduction to Ilonka includes a shot of the posters on her bedroom wall. Among others, you can glimpse a very early ’90s concert lineup: Pearl Jam and Nirvana opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. This was a real concert that took place Jan. 2, 1992, in Salem, Oregon. 

Stereo MC’s, “Connected”

A dance hit from 1992, “Connected” is arguably the most popular single from the band Stereo MC’s. Listeners may recognize it from the movie Hackers, starring Angelina Jolie and Jonny Lee Miller. 

“The jock, the nerd, the weirdo, the criminal or the princess”
In Ilonka’s commencement speech practice session, she uses the phrase “the jock, the nerd, the weirdo, the criminal or the princess,” which is a subtle reference to John Hughes’ seminal 1985 movie The Breakfast Club. In that film’s final scene, the teen stars call themselves “a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal.” 

Stone Temple Pilots, “Interstate Love Song”

One of Stone Temple Pilots’ biggest hits, “Interstate Love Song” reached No. 1 on the Billboard rock charts in 1994. It remained there for 15 weeks, making it an instant classic of the era.

Volvo wagon
When dropping Ilonka off at Brightcliffe for the first time, her foster dad, Tim, drives one of the most iconic automobiles of the ’90s: the Volvo 940 wagon. The car was first introduced in 1990 and went out of production in 1995, though it remains a common sight on the roads today. 

CD case
Compact discs were the most popular way to play music in the ’80s and ’90s before they were largely rendered obsolete through MP3 players. CD cases were both a storage solution and a way to show off your musical taste. And they protected your CD from being scratched, which was so totally annoying. 

Dial-up modem sounds 
Before everyone had fast, instant connections, computer users would have to use a modem to dial into the internet. When connecting, modems would make terrible screeching sounds, which The Midnight Club viewers get to hear when Ilonka goes online at the hospital.

Yahoo!
Ilonka researches Brightcliffe using Yahoo!, a pioneering internet search engine launched in 1995. It was unseated by Google (but not Ask Jeeves).

Portable CD player
When Ilonka first meets Kevin, he’s listening to music on a portable CD player. The first of these devices, Sony’s Discman, was released in 1984. They replaced portable cassette players, yet, ironically, many people had to use tape adapters to connect them to car stereos.

Cypress Hill, “Insane in the Membrane”

A crossover smash from Southern California’s Cypress Hill, “Insane in the Membrane” charted on both the Billboard rap and Hot 100 charts. In 2008, VH1 put the cut at No. 34 on its list of the 100 greatest songs in hip-hop history.

Poltergeist
Spence says that after death, he wants to be an “entry-level poltergeist” so he can mess with the living. The malevolent ghosts capable of moving objects were popularized in the 1982 horror film Poltergeist.

Street Fighter II, Doctor Who pinball, Tetris and Galaga
The classic games Street Fighter II, and Tetris were played on Galaga cabinets, which graced many an arcade in the ’90s.

Collective Soul, “Shine”

The debut single from Collective Soul, “Shine” was released in 1993. It became the No. 1 album rock track of 1994.

Atari wall clock
Atari is one of the titans of the video game industry, and it’s still around today. Back in the ’90s, though, the company wasn’t doing so hot; it was still recovering from the infamous game industry crash of the early ’80s. For ’90s kids, the Atari wall clock in Brightcliffe’s arcade room could feel a bit kitschy as a result. 

Harvey Danger, “Flagpole Sitta”

A ’90s alt rock banger of the highest order, “Flagpole Sitta” is the only hit the band Harvey Danger ever had. It was also the theme song for the British show Peep Show for many years.

Denim bucket hat
Ilonka’s partially unclasped overalls and denim bucket hat embody the heights of early ’90s fashion, including the classic combo that LL Cool J, TLC and Kriss Kross sported.  

Episode 2

Radiohead, “Exit Music for a Film”
Kevin (Igby Rigney) says that “you can’t get much better than Radiohead” for funeral music, joking that it’s “exit music for a life.” The song “Exit Music for a Film” is part of Radiohead’s 1997 album, OK Computer.

Road to Nowhere
The book Natsuki reads through the recovery room intercom is Road to Nowhere by Christopher Pike. The 1993 novel also forms the basis for the Midnight Club story she recounts in Episode 8.

Sony PlayStation
First introduced in America in fall 1995, the Sony PlayStation was one of the first CD-based gaming systems to find success. It sold over 100 million units, eventually spawning a whole series of successors, including the PS2 in 2000. Amesh muses that one of his big regrets is that he won’t get to use the system before he dies, saying he’s similarly upset about the Nintendo 64, which wouldn’t be released in the US until 1997.

The Midnight Club Season 1 TrailerWanna hear a scary story?

MacGyver
Sandra says she has a hyacinth macaw named MacGyver, “because his voice sounds like Richard Dean Anderson.” MacGyver is an action TV series —  featuring a do-gooder who could jerry rig anything — that first ran on CBS from 1985 to 1992 and was later rebooted on the same network.

“Suddenly, Seymour”
One of the many alternative medical treatments Anya’s former roommate tried involved carnivorous plants. When recounting how poorly that experiment worked, she sings a bit of this song from Little Shop of Horrors, a 1982 musical about a man-eating plant that was also adapted into a 1986 film.

“Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!”
Bruce Willis’ signature line as John McClane in the original Die Hard. The line was first heard in 1988 and has been called “the greatest one-liner in movie history” by Slate.

1,000 paper cranes
Amesh’s friends help him fold 1,000 origami paper cranes based on a Japanese myth that granted the folder a wish from the gods. That story was part of Eleanor Coerr’s 1977 historical children’s novel, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, in which a young girl with leukemia caused by radiation from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima attempts the task, hoping to be cured.

Do the Right Thing
The wall behind Spence’s desk features a poster for Spike Lee’s iconic 1989 film Do the Right Thing. 

Blind Melon, “No Rain” 

Released in 1993, “No Rain” was Blind Melon’s biggest hit, thanks in part to the iconic “bee girl” music video. 

Interview with the Vampire
Mark repeatedly recommends that Spence watch the 1994 film Interview with the Vampire, describing the plot to him in detail. The adaptation of Anne Rice’s gothic horror novel of the same name starred Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt as sexy vampires.

Rave culture
Rave culture took off in the early ’90s in London and spread to youth culture across the world, alongside the popularization of electronic music genres like techno and house. Drugs were sometimes involved, driving authorities of the day bananas with consternation.  

Pager
Before cell phones, pagers were a popular way to keep in touch with your friends. You’d call their pager number, and they’d know you called. Occasionally, you could send a numerical message, like “911” for “call back ASAP,” but generally they’d have to call you back to find out what was up. 

Babe
In Anya’s twisted tale “The Two Danas,” Dana’s doppelgänger loses her virginity and the other Dana feels everything while watching this 1995 family-friendly film with her parents about a pig that works as a sheepdog.

Bush, “Glycerine” 

The fourth single from Bush’s debut LP, Sixteen Stone, “Glycerine” was a bonafide hit for the band, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard modern rock tracks chart for two straight weeks and winning the Viewer’s Choice Award at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards. 

Episode 3 

The Evil Dead poster 
Dusty has a poster for the 1981 Sam Raimi horror film hanging in his room. It provides a hint at the plot of “The Wicked Heart,” as both the film and Kevin’s story involve demonic possession.
Local H, “Bound for the Floor”

Released in 1996, “Bound for the Floor” was the most popular single from Chicago alt-rock band Local H.

Bob Seger, New York Dolls, Led Zeppelin posters
Dusty may be a psychotic serial killer, but based on the posters in his locker, he also has good taste in rock music for a ’90s kid.

Filter, “Take a Picture”
Hitting the Billboard charts in early 2000, “Take a Picture” is a song by the band Filter. Frontman Richard Patrick has said it’s about him getting drunk on an airplane and taking his clothes off.

Nirvana’s In Utero poster
Released in 1993, Nirvana’s third studio album was their final release before frontman Kurt Cobain’s death the following year. Rolling Stone named it among the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The Gunslinger
Dusty pulls a copy of Stephen King’s book The Gunslinger from his locker. The Gunslinger is the first book in the Dark Tower series, which Mike Flanagan stated he’d like to adapt. The filmmaker has previously left hints about future projects in his current ones — like the Christopher Pike and Stephen King books on the shelf of Riley’s childhood bedroom in Midnight Mass Episode 1. 

Prodigy and AOL
The two biggest internet service providers of the ’90s, AOL and Prodigy were what everyone used to surf the web. And AOL Instant Messenger was where teens spent hours LOLing. 

Soundgarden and R.E.M. posters
Just before Dusty brings the hammer down, you can see a poster on the wall for the band Soundgarden. Headed by singer Chris Cornell, Soundgarden was one of the most massive bands of the ’90s. In a later shot in this room, you can glimpse an R.E.M. poster on the wall as well.

A Room of One’s Own
The book on the nightstand here is Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. The 1929 book is an extended essay based on a lecture that the pioneering writer gave at the women’s colleges Newnham and Girton at the University of Cambridge in 1928. 

Tori Amos, “Crucify”
Released as the fifth single off her 1992 debut Little Earthquakes, “Crucify” is by American singer-songwriter Tori Amos.

Episode 4 

Pee-Chee sweater
Amesh is wearing an extremely cool hoodie in Episode 4’s opening scene. The sweatshirt features the classic design from Pee-Chee folders, which zillions of kids who attended school in the ’90s owned.

Cthulhu fhtagn
Amesh says something funny when the group starts discussing cults in Brightcliffe’s basement. Don’t worry if you have no idea what “Cthulhu fhtagn” means; it just means you aren’t an initiate of the Lovecraft cosmic horror mythos like Amesh. The phrase originated in Lovecraft’s 1928 story “The Call of Cthulhu.”  

Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots
Amesh’s killer ’90s fashion kick continues with this Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots T-shirt in Episode 4. Although the toy was created back in the 1960s, it was extremely popular throughout and after the ’90s. It even got its own (extremely terrible) video game on the Game Boy Advance in 2006.  

Dewey decimal system
A numeric system of classification, the Dewey decimal system is how books are sorted in libraries.

Duran Duran, “Ordinary World” 
The first single from Duran Duran’s 1993 self-titled album, commonly called The Wedding Album, plays as Kevin heads off to prom.

Episode 5

Electronic Gaming Monthly
At the game store counter, Becky is reading an issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly. EGM was arguably the premier video game magazine in the 1990s. It was first published in 1989, and it’s still going today, albeit in digital form only.  

Salt-N-Pepa featuring En Vogue, “Whatta Man”
A quintessential ’90s hip-hop duet, “Whatta Man” is Salt-N-Pepa’s tribute to all the men out there with bodies “like Arnold with a Denzel face.” 

The game store
The video game store in Amesh’s story is chock-full of juicy ’90s references. They’re all over the shelves, from the Sega Genesis to Mortal Kombat and the Nintendo Super Scope. 

Virtual Boy
Nintendo’s ill-fated 32-bit tabletop gaming system, the Virtual Boy, was released in 1995. Critics and fans panned it, and it was a huge commercial flop, selling less than 1 million units total. 

Sony VAIO desktop computer with Roland MA-12C speakers
Luke plays Decision using equipment that would have been top of the line for the time. The Sony VAIO was introduced in 1996 while the 1990 speakers were built to last and remain popular with collectors of retro hardware.

International Space Station
NASA launched the International Space Station in 1998 through a collaboration with the space agencies for Russia, Europe, China and Canada to establish a place for research needed for long-term space missions. Its first residents arrived in 2000.

Space Empires
While trying to beat Decision, Luke picks up a copy of Space Empires, a 1993 strategy game where players lead a spacefaring civilization.

Porsche 911 Turbo
Cool guy Ray’s car is a red Porsche 911 Turbo, also known as the Porsche 930. The car was produced from 1975 to 1989, and this appears to be a later-year model. 

WarGames
Amesh’s story shares many plot elements with the 1983 Cold War thriller WarGames, where a high school student mistakes a global thermonuclear war simulation for a video game. In both cases, the protagonist concludes, “The only winning move is not to play.”

“Watch out, James Cameron”
Impressed by Amesh’s story, Kevin compares his friend to the legendary writer and director of The Terminator, which is also an apocalyptic time-travel story.

Episode 6 

Fangoria
The guy holding up a convenience store in Ilonka’s story “Witch” is reading an issue of Fangoria, a horror magazine that launched in 1979. It stopped publication in 2015.

Firestarter and Psycho posters
Dusty has posters for the horror films Firestarter (1984) and Psycho (1960) hanging in his room. Firestarter is an adaptation of Stephen King’s 1980 novel of the same name. Psycho is Alfred Hitchcock’s most famous film and has plot elements similar to Dusty’s own story.

The Flys, “Got You (Where I Want You)”
Released on the alternative rock band’s 1998 album Holiday Man, “Got You (Where I Want You)” also appeared that year on the soundtrack for the horror film Disturbing Behavior, which was basically a high school riff on The Stepford Wives.

En Vogue, “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)”
Released in 1992 as the lead single for En Vogue’s second album, Funky Divas, the chart-topping R&B song “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)” won the MTV Video Music Award for best choreography. 

Wesley vs. Denzel
Spence’s sacrifice for the ritual is a packet of movie ticket stubs from his past. He mentions debates he would have with his mother over “whether Wesley could hold a candle to Denzel.” He’s referring, of course, to beloved actors Wesley Snipes and Denzel Washington. Both had turned in iconic performances by the time The Midnight Club is set, from Washington’s role as Malcolm X in Spike Lee’s 1992 biopic to Snipes’ turn as Willie Mays Hayes in Major League. 

Episode 7 

Count Chocula
While working as a cashier, Anya scans a box of this General Mills cereal inspired by Dracula. The line of classic movie monster cereals including Franken Berry and Boo Berry were available year-round from 1971 through 2010 but are now sold only during the Halloween season.

People 1997’s 50 Most Beautiful People in the World
Published since 1974, People magazine is best known for its annual lists of the world’s most beautiful people. The 1997 edition included Tom Cruise, Drew Barrymore and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Transformers
The game store near where Anya works features a Transformer in the window. The original animated show about robots that could disguise themselves as vehicles ran from 1984 to 1987 and has had many spin-offs and sequels.

Yellow Pages
Back in the days before cellphones and the internet, people and businesses had landline phones, and the numbers could be looked up in a giant book. They ceased publication in 2019.

Green Day, “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”
The Midnight Club sings Green Day’s most popular song at Amesh’s “Death Day” party. Released in 1997 on the Nimrod album, the song’s nostalgic lyrics made it a prom and graduation party staple.

Flannels
Flannel shirts really exploded in popularity during the ’90s, thanks in part to the grunge-rock scene. Bands like Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden always seemed to wear them, perhaps because Seattle is almost always a little cold and rainy.

Flipper shirt
Amesh sports a shirt from the proto-grunge band from San Francisco. Flipper was a big influence on Nirvana and the heavy riffery of Seattle-born, indefatigable rockers the Melvins. 

Episode 8 

Purple 1995 Mustang GTS
Nothing was cooler than pulling up to a friend’s house with a Prince-purple sports car with a sweet spoiler. 

Soundgarden, “Fell on Black Days” 

Proving the early ’90s were objectively a great time for rock music, Natsuki’s story gets yet another bop with Soundgarden’s song “Fell on Black Days,” from the 1994 album Superunknown. 

Iconic ’90s Ralph Lauren rugby shirt
The iconic rugby shirt has long been a staple of designer Ralph Lauren’s Polo line. By the ’90s, its popularity was cemented in American culture.  

Pixies, “Wave of Mutilation”

The song here is the “UK Surf” mix of “Wave of Mutilation,” a track from the Pixies’ influential 1989 record Doolittle.  

L7, “Pretend We’re Dead”
Natsuki’s road trip gets another banger in the form of “Pretend We’re Dead,” the first single off all-female rock band L7’s 1992 album Bricks Are Heavy. 

My Stillness
One of the books behind Natsuki as she opens the garage door is My Stillness by Paul Griffith, a 1972 novel about bad things happening to an 8-year-old boy.

Episode 9

Tommy Hilfiger overalls
It’s a simple fact that every teenager in the ’90s owned at least five pairs of overalls. Here, we see another of Ilonka’s, these by American fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger, a staple of ’90s teen wardrobes. 

The X-Files, “Folie à Deux”  
The X-Files episode that Amesh mentions is Season 5, Episode 19, “Folie à Deux.” The episode, which features Mulder being held hostage by an office full of zombies, originally aired May 10, 1998. (Yeah, we know The Midnight Club takes place before then, but it’s just not the 90s with X-Files, right?)  

Super Nintendo
The apartment to which Mark takes Spence is full of juicy ’90s set dressing, like the Super Nintendo on which the partygoers are playing Street Fighter II. The iconic fighting game was released on the SNES system in July 1992. 

Catch Phrase
There’s also a copy of the Parker Brothers party game Catch Phrase sitting on the table. The “fast-passing, fast-talking game” played like a mix between Taboo and charades, with an electronic buzzer timing each team’s turns. 

Arrested Development
Within the same apartment, there’s also a poster for the album 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life Of… by the Atlanta hip-hop group Arrested Development (no relation to the show). The platinum record came out in 1992 and hit No. 7 on US charts.  

Sega Genesis
There’s also a Sega Genesis console sitting in its box on the shelf nearby. Considering the group is playing the Super Nintendo while the Genesis sits untouched in the background, this might be a commentary on the infamous ’90s gaming war between Nintendo and Sega, including its ultimate victor. (One of those companies still makes game consoles, while the other does not.) 

Puffy paint
Mark takes Spence to a meeting where a group of queer activists are making posters to gain awareness of the AIDS epidemic. They use puffy paint, an easy-to-apply craft component that was often used to decorate clothes in the ’80s and ’90s. 

Ley lines
“That’s where the ley lines intersect. That’s the energy center,” Shasta/Julia tells Ilonka. The concept of ley lines, which are supposed to be lines of spiritual energy that intersect at various points around the world, was originally proposed by English author Alfred Watkins in the early 20th century, and was later adopted by various spiritual movements, and yes, Ancient Aliens/Chariots of the Gods enthusiasts.  

Early Edition
The entire concept of Spence’s tale in Episode 9, “The Eternal Enemy,” is strikingly similar to that of the CBS series Early Edition. The show, which aired from 1996 to 2000, featured a man who received each edition of the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper one day before it was published and used the foreknowledge to try to prevent disasters. 

Sci-fi movie posters
The dorm room in Spence’s story features a lot of awesome movie posters, including The Terminator (1984), Back to the Future (1985), Timecop (1994), RoboCop (1987) and Cyborg (1989). These are all relevant to the story’s narrative in various ways, though in ways you’ll only pick up on during a rewatch. 

iMac G3
The dorm room’s computer is an iMac G3, which helped revitalize Apple’s business following its release in 1998. Everyone in the ’90s thought it was extremely cool because it came in a variety of colors, like the turquoise version we see here. 

Gen X movies
The dorm’s rec room has posters on the wall for the movies Dazed and Confused (1993), Reality Bites (1994) and, yeah, the not-quite Gen X flick Weird Science (1985). 

Mega Man X
In the same room, the students are playing Mega Man, a staple of ’80s and ’90s gaming. Specifically, they’re playing Mega Man X, which hit the Super Nintendo in 1993. The pictured enemy is the Bee Blader found in the game’s first level. Interestingly, they appear to be using a controller for the original NES, identifiable by its gray/red/black color scheme, despite playing a Super Nintendo game. 

The Dead Zone
The book Rel is reading in this scene is The Dead Zone by Stephen King. The novel, published in 1979, concerns a man who wakes up from a coma to discover he has psychic powers. 

Cole Hewlett poster
The sports bar has a poster on the wall that appears to be for a football player named Cole Hewlett. However, there’s no such player. This is actually a reference to an assistant coordinator who worked on one of Mike Flanagan’s previous shows, The Haunting of Bly Manor. 

Deee-Lite, “Groove Is in the Heart”

The song that plays in the background at the bar is Deee-Lite’s “Groove Is in the Heart,” the group’s first single from their August 1990 record World Clique. 

“Fear leads to suffering”
If the line “fear leads to suffering” sounds familiar, it’s because it may be a veiled homage to Yoda’s iconic speech in 1999’s The Phantom Menace: “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” 

Ghost
The VHS tapes on top of the VCR include the 1990 film Ghost, which features a well-known scene in which Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore made sculpting pottery seem weirdly sexy. 

Episode 10 

Hootie & the Blowfish, “Hold My Hand” 

The first single from the alternative band’s 1994 debut album, Cracked Rear View, is played during a family day filled with love and tenderness.

Richard Marx, “Hazard” 
The song that plays as the story of Dusty reaches its conclusion is “Hazard” by Richard Marx, from the 1991 album Rush Street. The song is about a girl who disappears and the man who’s accused of being responsible, which is probably not a coincidence. 

All the ’90s styles
This scene is full of incredible ’90s fashion, from Cheri’s fuzzy bucket hat to Anya’s grungy look and Spence’s do-rag and vest. It’s fitting for the show’s finale to embody so many iconic looks.

Written by Mike Rougeau, Samantha Nelson, Marah Eakin, and Drew Tewksbury