In pop culture

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. Examples include musicians such as Tori Amos, video games such as Quake, movies such as Man on Fire, and literature such as The Dark Tower.

In music

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 includes the opening line of "Hurt" in live improvisations, and has performed the majority of the song at various times in concert, sometimes with silly alternative lyrics such as "I hurt myself today/to find a jellybean". The term "Starfucker" was used in Amos's 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.
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 "Terrible Lie" and "Closer" in "Germs" from Running with Scissors.
Following the feud with Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit, in their 2000 song "Hot Dog" returned the lyrics of Closer, stating "You wanna fuck me like an animal/You'd like to burn from the inside." The use of the lyrics was actually meant as a tribute to Trent Reznor, whom Durst admires, though it is often misinterpreted as an attempt at "bashing" him. Reznor cleared the use of his lyrics with no trouble, and received credit in the liner notes for the song. "Hot Dog" also mentioned "A nine inch nail/ get knocked the fuck out" and two NIN song-titles: "A Perfect Drug" and "Closer".
In Crazy Town's 1999 album The Gift of Game, the song "Darkside" contains the lyric "Devils eyes and nine inch nails."
The MC Lars song Signing Emo contains the line "Industrial comes back/The pres. needs a NIN." MC Lars has stated he is a fan, but live often replaces NIN with Tool, a sign of the current relevance of Tool to the industrial scene..
In the song "In My Backyard" by Dead Celebrity Status, the band references Nine Inch Nails in the line "Like a Nine Inch Nail being pushed in by Trent Reznor", this track also references many other bands.
Nine Inch Nails are referenced in the song "Overcome" by Within Temptation. The last two lines of the fifth verse are "Sorry do my nine inch nails/Slash your soul?"
In the video for Good Charlotte's "Keep Your Hands Off My Girl", a NIN sticker can be seen on a band member's guitar.

In film

Class of 1999 (1990): During the scene featuring a phone conversation between Cody and Hector, "Head Like a Hole" plays on the radio in Razorhead's headquarter.
Prayer of the Rollerboys (1991): "Head Like a Hole" can be heard playing at a party.
The Crow (1994): Cover of Joy Division's "Dead Souls" from their album Still.
Natural Born Killers (1994): "Something I Can Never Have" (edited and extended), "Burn" and "A Warm Place" are used in the film and appear on the Natural Born Killers soundtrack, which Reznor produced.
Clueless (1995): Travis Birkenstock says, "so how I feel about The Rolling Stones, is how my kids are going to feel about Nine Inch Nails."
Se7en (1995): The opening sequence features a remix of "Closer (precursor)".
The Fan (1996): A clip of "The Art of Self Destruction, Part One".
Lost Highway (1997): Reznor wrote "The Perfect Drug" specifically for this film, with limited production time.
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".
Final Destination (2000): When Carter tries to run over Billy shortly before Terry's death, "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 from "Screaming Slave".
The Machinist (2004): Writer Scott Kossar 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 a "downward spiral".
Man on Fire (2004): Clips of "The Art of Self Destruction, Part One", "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; and "The Wretched (Version)" from Things Falling Apart. Reznor received a "Music Consultant" credit for the film.
Doom (2005): Clint Mansell's remix of "You Know What You Are?" starts the ending credits. This is most likely a tribute to Reznor's work on the Quake and Doom III sound effects and music mentioned below.
Underworld 2 (2006): The trailer features "The Hand That Feeds".
300 (2007): Trailers feature "Just Like You Imagined".
The Hitcher (2007): "Closer" is used in a chase scene.

In television

Several excerpts of various Nine Inch Nails songs have been used on episodes of the television shows CSI, Cold Case, The Sopranos, Homicide: Life on the Street, Criminal Minds, Millennium, and Brotherhood [1], as well as Top Gear.
An episode of Muppets Tonight contained a performance by "Nine Inch Snails," an unpunctual musical group of snails dressed in "goth" apparel.
In The Simpsons episode Homerpalooza, Homer says, "Now here are some of your no name bands - Sonic Youth, Nine Inch Nails..."
In an Episode of Clarissa Explains It All the title character says she has an opinion for everything, like "how loud to play the new Nine Inch Nails album."

In literature

American author Stephen King quotes the chorus of "Hurt" in the opening pages of the final book of his Dark Tower series, The Dark Tower (2004). In an interview with The NIN Hotline, he said, "I've always been a TrentRez fan--and Nails. "Hurt" says all you need to know about what life takes away. What it ALWAYS takes away in the end. A song like that is a treasure because it vocalizes what we all feel but somehow can't say. Of course the Cash video blew me away, but that song (and the Bad Company lyric) have been in my head for a couple of years now."[2]
In book #12 of Animorphs, Cassie tells Rachel that she told her mom that NIN stood for "Nice is Neat".
In the graphic novel Johnny the Homicidal Maniac by Jhonen Vasquez, the band "Nine Inch Heels" is referenced several times. The logo is very similar to that of Nine Inch Nails.
Trent and Nine Inch Nails are mentioned several times in the novel Glamorama by Bret Easton Ellis. Protagonist Victor Ward makes reference to "Hurt" specifically.
In the webcomic 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.

In video games

Episode 4 mission 1 of Ultimate Doom contains a hidden NIИ logo[3].
Being a huge fan of the game Doom, Reznor worked with id Software to create the soundtrack for Quake. In the game, ammunition crates for the nail gun have the NIN logo on them. Reznor later composed music and sound effects for id's Doom 3, although ultimately his efforts were replaced by other artists. The sound effects portion of Reznor's effort is available on the internet due to an earlier leak of the incomplete game.
"Getting Smaller" appears in Tony Hawk's Project 8.[4]
The fortress boss in Super Mario World is called Reznor.