It's not the only reference to pop-culture you will find here. I don't know much about the referenced media myself, but so far we've sunk with Titanic and lived through the setting of the movie 'Jurassic Park' twice, to just name some examples.

[Teru had hit the point where saying these things did not unsettle him anymore. For a long time he had inwardly cringed at any illogical thing, but time had made him numb to most of that.]