The scenes with Sarah (Riley Keough) in the swimming pool are almost exact recreations of scenes from Marilyn Monroe's last film, Something's Got to Give (1962), which was never completed due to her sudden unexpected death. The footage from that film can be found online.
When Sam watches his neighbours with binoculars, a cigarette and the phone in his hand, he is in the same position as Jeff in Rear Window (1954) by Hitchcock. Sam also has a Rear Window poster in his apartment.
Sam's ringtone is the theme from the Commodore 64 game, "The Last Ninja."
The film takes place in 2011. The TV news segments shown in the film refer to the date.
While not initially a box-office success with audiences,[28] Under the Silver Lake has garnered a cult following who are convinced that there are hidden meta-clues, codes and ciphers sprinkled throughout the film waiting to be discovered. These include references to the mystery surrounding the identity of the dog killer, various different cyphers or codes, geocoding systems, and even analysis of fireworks in the film, connecting the sound pattern they emit to Morse code. In certain scenes in the film there is graffiti that can be seen in the toilets and on a wall and which are coded with the Copiale cipher.