Henry Stickmin

The Henry Stickmin series is a series of Choose Your Own Adventure stick figure games created by PuffballsUnited on Newgrounds.

The games focus on the titular Henry Stickmin, who starts off as a Villain Protagonist who tries to break into a bank. Later installments have him attempting to do other tasks, such as stealing a valuable diamond from a museum or attempting to break out of a high-security criminal asylum. Depending on the player's choices, he may have the aid of other characters, such as Charles Calvin, a helicopter pilot who works for the government, and Ellie Rose, whom Henry has the option of helping in Fleeing the Complex.

The series is best known for the many, many hilarious fails that can happen to Henry while he's trying to complete missions. Each installment (save for the original flash version of Breaking the Bank) even has achievements for finding all of the fails in each game.

Although the series technically began in 2007 with a prototype game, titled Crossing the Pit, 2008 marked the true start of the series with the release of Breaking the Bank. The series was then followed by Escaping the Prison, Stealing the Diamond, Infiltrating the Airship, and Fleeing the Complex, each respectively released in 2010, 2011, 2013, and 2015.

The series eventually concluded with The Henry Stickmin Collection, which was released to Steam on August 7, 2020. This features remastered versions of the previous five Henry Stickmin games, as well as the sixth and final game, Completing the Mission.

Tropes used in Henry Stickmin include:

• Abnormal Ammo: When Henry and Ellie storm the Toppat Clan's train with the tank that Henry got his hands on in Relentless Bounty Hunter, a Toppat mans a gun that launches swords as bullets.
• Action Girl: There are many female characters that can fight, but Ellie Rose from Fleeing the Complex is the most prominent. She has no trouble whatsoever in keeping up with Henry Stickmin, whether she is allied with him or fighting against him.
• Agony of the Feet: During the "Just Plain Epic" route in Stealing the Diamond, after Henry successfully manages to break into the museum, he has the option to use a bomb on the security guards. But the bomb itself is not a live bomb, and if Henry does try to use it, the bomb will just land right on one of the feet of Dave, one of the museum's security guards. As a result, Henry blows his cover, giving the second guard the green light to shoot him.
• The Alcatraz: The Wall in Fleeing the Complex. Despite all the increased security, the guards having spears that can shoot lasers, and the fact that, up until then, nobody was able to escape for fifty years, Henry (and Ellie, if you choose to take her with you) still manages to break out.
• Apocalypse How:
  • Class 0 examples:
    • If Henry uses the Pokéball in Stealing the Diamond (more specifically once he enters the Retro Room in the Epic route), he summons a MissingNo that destroys the region. Henry and Joe die as a result. (FAIL!)
    • The G.A.B.E.N. destroys the surrounding region, triggering a Class 0. (FAIL!)
    • When Henry uses the CorrupTick, the region around the room where he used it is corrupted and destroyed. Cue MISSION FAILED.
  • Ambiguous class examples:
    • The last wave of choices in the Pure Blooded Thief route has the Dark Energy Blaster. This sends a projectile out that causes a devastating sphere. Depending on the sphere's size, this result can range from a Class 0 to a Class 5, probably a Class X if the blast destroys the Earth instead of simply devastating it. (FAIL!)
    • In the Toppat 4 Life route, the Centre for Chaos Containment can turn the moon into a gargantuan missile à la the Angry Moon from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. This choice results in either a Class 5 or a Class X. (MISSION FAILED)
• Attack of the 50 Foot Whatever: In the "Just Plain Epic" route of Stealing the Diamond, Henry becomes a giant after touching a golden mushroom. His massive size protects him from getting shot... except by large cannonballs.
• Big Bad: Reginald Copperbottom, the leader of the Toppat Clan, serves as this in Infiltrating the Airship, the "Betrayed" route in Fleeing the Complex, and some of the routes in Completing the Mission.
• Born Lucky/Born Unlucky: One of the captions in the loading screen shown at the beginning of the original Flash version of Infiltrating the Airship describes Henry as being simultaneously lucky and unlucky.
• Captain Ersatz/Writing Around Trademarks: In the remastered version of Escaping the Prison, Phoenix Wright of Ace Attorney fame is renamed Felix White.
• Cyborg:
  • In Completing the Mission, Right Hand Man is depicted as one in each of the routes that spawn off the "Relentless Bounty Hunter" or "Rapidly Promoted Executive" routes from Infiltrating the Airship.
  • Henry himself becomes one in the "Revenged" route of Completing the Mission. Unfortuneatley for him, he dies again after being shot in the back by Reginald.
• The Dog Bites Back: If the player chooses the "Toppat Civil Warfare" route in Completing the Mission, Henry's decision to abandon Ellie comes back to bite him in the butt when Ellie manages to break into the Toppat Clan's airship and turn most of the Toppats against Henry.
• Early Installment Weirdness:
  • The art style in Breaking the Bank is more simplistic than the art style in all subsequent games. In addition, none of the options had the iconic "Fail" screens. These were fixed in the 2020 remaster.
  • Each of the endings in the original Flash versions of Escaping the Prison and Stealing the Diamond had simple names (E.G. the "Sneaky Ending" in Escaping the Prison or the "Epic Ending" in Stealing the Diamond). In the 2020 remasters, they are given more elaborate names, such as "Sneaky Escapist" in Escaping the Prison, or "Just Plain Epic" in Stealing the Diamond.
• Even Evil Has Standards: In the "Toppat Civil Warfare" route of Completing the Mission, the Toppats, especially Reginald, are disgusted at Henry for leaving Ellie behind at the Wall, and force him to walk the plank, with Ellie holding him at gunpoint.
• Foreshadowing: In the remastered version of Escaping the Prison, if you collect Sally Cue's bio card during the "Badass Bust Out" route, her bio card will mention her often getting mistaken for someone else despite not having red hair. Also doubles as a Mythology Gag, as her hair actually was red in the original flash version of the game.
• Game Breaking Bug: Invoked on three different occasions:
  • One of the fails in the "Just Plain Epic" route in Stealing the Diamond has Henry spawn MissingNo of Pokémon fame. However, when he does this, the game cuts to a screen resembling the Windows Blue Screen of Death, with a binary message on the "Fail" screen which translates to "Fear MissingNo," two of the buttons being animated when the mouse isn't over them, two buttons and the fail message being tilted a bit, the Fail Counts being written in a Starfish Language (except the numbers themselves),
  • In the "Pure Blooded Thief" route of Infiltrating the Airship, if Wilson chooses to load the disc labeled "G.A.B.E.N.," the game will glitch out as a weapon begins to emerge.
  • If Henry uses the CorrupTick in the Theif/Allies route of Completing the Mission, the game will glitch out and cut to the title screen. When the player clicks "OK" on a message that says "Completing the Mission encountered an error. Returning to previous location...", the game reloads, but Henry and Ellie will now be perpetually T-posing, while the Bukowski twins will spaz out.
• The Ghost: Gadget Gabe, the person who gives reviews of various devices Henry tries to use on his quests, is never seen.
• Have a Nice Death/It's a Wonderful Failure: The games are well-known for all the "Fail" screens and their snarky commentary.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Henry sometimes gets undone by his tools turning against him somehow.
  • Breaking the Bank:
    • Explosives: Henry is confused when his bombs fail to respond to their plunger being pushed down. This prompts him to check his bombs, which promptly blow up, throwing Henry's charred body back behind the stone wall that he was using as a shield from the blast.
    • Wrecking Ball: Henry gets smashed by his own wrecking ball due to his crane being a bit too far from the wall. Cue Oh, Crap!
  • Escaping the Prison:
    • Rocket Launcher: Henry gets blown up by his gun's projectile striking one of his eyes.
    • Belt of Grenades (Sneaky Escapist): Henry gets blown up by his grenades.
    • Opacitator (Badass Bust-out): Henry falls into the planet's core.
  • Stealing the Diamond:
    • Unseen Burglar:
      • Invisibility Pill: Henry gets blinded in his invisible state, falling off the ledge.
      • Tranquiliser: Henry gets put to sleep by his tranquiliser dart.
      • Portal Gun: Henry falls perpetually through the portals that his Portal gun created.
    • Just Plain Epic:
      • Liquidificator: Henry is reduced to inanimate water.
      • Pokéball: Henry gets killed by his MissingNo, which also takes out Joe instantly.
      • Metroid: Henry gets strangled by the Metroid.
    • Intruder on a Scooter:
      • Sticky Grenade: Henry gets blown up by the grenade, which got stuck to his hand.
  • Infiltrating the Airship:
    • Government-supported Private Investigator:
      • Acid: Henry destroys his own legs.
      • C4: The bomb sends the cover towards Henry, knocking him off the ship.
      • Transdimensionaliser: Henry has his movement restricted to the first dimension.
      • Falcon Kick: Henry turns to dust as he charges up.
    • Relentless Bounty Hunter:
      • Laser: Henry gets launched out of the Toppat Airship's cockpit by the recoil from his laser.
      • Dirk > Magic: Henry gets burned by his own flames when the Toppat Leader's right-hand man uses a magic shield.
      • Beef Up: Henry blows up his legs, falling down towards the pit below.
    • Pure-blooded Thief:
      • Stretch Chewies: Henry gets his arm caught in the gears of the Toppat Airship.
      • Clawpack: Henry gets smacked by his clawpack when it touches the electric shield.
      • Propane Tank: Henry gets blown up by his propane tank rocket.
  • Fleeing the Complex:
    • International Rescue Operative:
      • Cookie: Henry gets crushed within his cell.
  • More than one game: If the player has Henry use the Teleporter, chances are you will see him get teleported somewhere undesirable.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The titles for every game in the series follow the "[verb]-ing the [noun]" pattern.
• Informed Flaw: Some of the "Fail" messages joke about Henry supposedly being fat, even though he, like most of the other characters in the games, has the appearance of a skinny stick figure.
• Interface Screw: Some FAIL screens look different from most FAIL screens in their games.
  • In Stealing the Diamond, if Henry chooses the Pokéball when he breaks into the Retro Room, the area is destroyed and a failure (known as a "FAIL") occurs. Here, the board that reads "FAIL" spins chaotically when it lands before it settles and stretches down its long axis and contracts down its short axis, the Step Back and Return to Start buttons do not need to have the mouse to enter their animated state (but still work), the Retry button and Return to Menu buttons have been flipped upside-down, the Fail Counts are written in Starfish Language, and the message is tilted slightly.
  • This occurs again in Completing the Mission for the Pardoned Pals route when the player uses the CorrupTick, where the Game Over screen's menu buttons have their arrangement scrambled.
• Jail Bake: Escaping the Prison begins with Henry receiving a cake from an anonymous source. Said cake is filled with items that Henry can use to escape.
• Look Both Ways
  • Breaking the Bank combines this trope with Railroad Tracks of Doom: if Henry chooses to dig a tunnel into the bank, he pulls out a shovel and digs down into a subway where he gets smashed by a train.
  • In the Sneaky Escapist route of the second game, Escaping the Prison, Henry can slide down a rope to make his escape from the titular location, only to burn his hands and land on the road, where a truck runs him over.
• Man Child: Charles has shades of this. He's competent enough to help Henry (and Ellie in the "Triple Threat" ending in Completing the Mission) get the job done, but he seems to have a somewhat childish obsession with crashing his helicopter into stuff (with most instances leading him to kill Henry and thus cause the player to fail) and sometimes sings while on missions (such as when he sings a song about crawling through vents during the "Valiant Hero" ending in Completing the Mission).
• Meaningless Lives: The only penalty for getting a Game Over, or a FAIL as this game refers to it, is that you have to redo that choice again, although a "FAIL" counter will go up one-by-one.
• The Multiverse: It's implied that there are multiple universes that occur whenever Henry either succeeds or fails. This is all but confirmed in the secret ending for Completing the Mission, when Ellias Bahtchin, an employee who works for the Center for Chaos Containment, presses a button that fixes the multiverse imbalance that resulted from all of the possible fails and endings the player found throughout the series.
• Mythology Gag: At one point during the "Jewel Baron" route in Completing the Mission, Henry tries to figure out how to get across the gravity chamber in the Toppat Orbital Station. The entire sequence mirrors Crossing the Pit, the prototype game for the series. The only difference is that this time, the teleporter actually works in Henry's favor.
• Neck Snap: Subverted into a Staircase Tumble when Henry tries to do this to a guard in Stealing the Diamond's Unseen Burglar at the homestretch.
• The Quiet One: Henry himself. Outside of grunting or screaming whenever he dies, he rarely, if ever, speaks in full sentences (at least on-screen, anyway).
• Railroad Tracks of Doom: See Look Both Ways, above. Henry gets smashed by a train when he digs into a subway tunnel in Breaking the Bank.
• Running Gag:
  • At one point in each game, Henry has the option to use the teleporter, which is a small square device that has three big green buttons (one larger than the other two) and a small red button in the middle, but doing so almost always results in his plans going wrong in some way (except for the "Unseen Burglar" route in Stealing the Diamond and the "Jewel Baron" route in Completing the Mission).
    • Breaking the Bank involves Teleporter Accident, with Henry getting trapped in the bank's wall.
    • In Escaping the Prison, the device sends Henry to a shooting range where a policeman accidentally shoots him.
    • Stealing the Diamond is the first time the teleporter works in Henry's favor, where he gets sent to the rooftops as planned. Cue Unseen Burglar.
    • In Infiltrating the Airship, Henry gets sent to a blank white void, which leads to his death via starvation.
    • Fleeing the Complex has Henry get sent to somewhere in Starcraft II, where a Protoss Colossus fries him.
    • Completing the Mission is the second time the teleporter works. In the Jewel Baron route, more specifically during the second wave, Henry comes across a pit that he must cross to get to the vault. One of his options is the teleporter, and this time, it sends him to the vault, where he was planning on going in the first place.
  • Starting with Infiltrating the Airship, Henry can call on Charles to help him out. The problem is, though, that Charles' "plans" always involve him ramming his helicopter into things. Although this actually does work in the "Valiant Hero" route of Completing the Mission.
• Shout Out:
  • The jingle that plays in Breaking the Bank when Henry pulls out the shovel if the player decides that he should break into the titular bank that way is derived from the standard "Item get!" jingle from the Zelda franchise.
  • Escaping the Prison:
    • Henry can use a grenade in the Sneaky Escapist route, presumably referencing Worms.
    • Several Ace Attorney characters, including the lawyer that Henry ends up hiring, Phoenix Wright, appear as contacts on his phone in the Lawyered Up route, but only
    • Badass Bust Out:
      • The drill option that kickstarts this route has Henry hold the drill in the same manner as the characters in Mr. Driller.
      • As the guards chase Henry, the second dodge involves him approaching a wall, and if the player makes him turn to avoid it, a FAIL will occur involving Henry falling over. This is a reference to a certain Scrappy Mechanic from Super Smash Bros Brawl.
      • The scene involving Henry dodging the bullets as the guard captain tries to gun him down is taken from The Matrix, complete with Bullet Time. The start of the scene also has the main theme of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
  • Stealing the Diamond:
    • Unseen Burglar Route:
      • At the very start of the route, Henry can make his way to the roof with a pair of Jumble Hoppers from Pilotwings. The FAIL includes him jumping into the pond which apparently deducts two points from his score as in the game.
      • In the same route, one of the ways that Henry can try to bypass the guard on the roof is a Falcon Punch, referencing F-Zero hero Captain Falcon's memetic Signature Move in the Super Smash Bros. games (which, coincidentally, Falcon uses as his Standard Special Move). This fails, however.
      • Henry can choose to use a Portal Gun, which came from the Portal games.
      • The game over message for the Laser Cutter has the Y U NO meme referenced in the second sentence. An upside-down caption below reads "The laser cauterised it," referencing how lightsabers in Star Wars can cauterise their victims' wounds.
      • At the last leg, if Henry tries to snap the guard's neck, he will fall down the stairs. This leads to a FAIL message referencing Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff with a message telling you about stairs.
    • Just Plain Epic route:
      • If Henry decides to get through the museum's wall, he can use a pick to tear a hole through the wall... only to get unwanted assistance from a Creeper. (These infamous creatures trace their origin to Minecraft.)
      • The Retro Room contains several references to past games:
        • If Henry tries to use the crowbar, he gets ambushed by headcrabs. Those creatures trace their origin to the Half Life games, where they, ironically, can be destroyed via crowbars.
        • Henry is also able to use the titular alien from Metroid, only to be betrayed by him.
        • Henry can also use the Pokéballs from Pokémon. (In the remaster, the Pokéball that he uses is specifically called a "Goodball.") Additionally, he challenges a guard named Joseph Jo, who references the nickname JoJo of the main protagonists of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
        • There is also a Super Mushroom that Henry can use to increase his size and strength. Those items trace their origin to the Super Mario Bros. series. The pterodactyl summoned by him rampaging through the museum causes a guard it pounces on to scream the Wilhelm Scream.
        • Other items include an Item Box from Mario Kart.
      • In the homestretch of the Just Plain Epic Route, we get the Centre for Chaos Containment, which has several shout-outs:
        • The chief of the Centre for Chaos Containment is called "Bill Bullet," referencing the Bullet Bills of Super Mario Bros.
        • At the start, the man at the controls is getting chaos readings at 10.6, at which point Corporal Bill Bullet responds with "It's over nine!," referencing "It's over nine thousand!" from Dragon Ball Z.
        • As the chief goes to criticise his men for watching television, we hear a YEEEAAAHH! from CSI: Miami.
    • Intruder on a Scooter:
      • One of the guards outside the museum is named Billy Barnes, referencing The Punisher.
      • When Henry goes through the medieval section during his assault, you can see the helmets of the red, blue, and green knights from Castle Crashers.
      • The Chase Scene during the last three waves has many references:
        • During the chase, a star rating can be seen, much like the stars that appear in Grand Theft Auto when the protagonist ends up in hot water with the law. It starts as two, but after Henry takes Johnny Panzer with a rock scooped up during his escape, it bumps up to three with the sniper arriving.
        • The second phase of the chase scene has three. The sniper who tries to shoot Henry in the head is a reference to Team Fortress 2, with his taunt ("Wave goodbye to your head, wanker!") being directly ripped from that game if he succeeds. To get the sniper off his tail, Henry can use either the Sticky Grenade, which parodies the plasma grenades from Halo, or a bubble from Sonic the Hedgehog.
  • Infiltrating the Airship:
    • Government Supported Private Investigator:
      • Upon making his way into the titular airship, Henry must use glue to cross the ceiling of a roomful of Toppats. This is a reference to the Simpsons Movie.
      • After the room full of Toppats, Henry must cross a gap to get to the secret files. The correct choice is the Robo-Helper, which is a robot version of Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog.
      • After the gap is a section where a guard is trying to open a door. One option is Remote Access to hack the door open, but this only results in Henry getting crushed by an unseen flap. Cue the message: "Come on and SLAM, and welcome to the JAM!" (This is a reference to the Space Jam film.)
      • Getting Evidence Area:
        • Mulan: Another one of the fail messages if Henry decides to strike the Toppat reading the evidence with a shuriken only to miss his throw leading to the Toppat noticing him: "You missed! How could you miss?! He was three feet in front of you!"
        • Another one of Henry's weapons is the Falcon Kick. It backfires horribly, resulting in Henry's demise as his body crumbles.
      • Upon getting his hands on the files, Henry needs to take a detour with an electric obstacle in his way. The player is greeted with a dialogue wheel straight out of Mass Effect.
      • As Henry escapes the airship., he can call for a flashbang to be thrown into the cargo bay, and the flashbang's throwing is preceded by "Fire in the hole!," referencing Counter Strike.
      • The Banana Bomb from Worms can be weaponised here, too.
    • Pure-Blooded Thief:
      • Starting Area:
        • Henry can try to breach the ship at the very start of the route with bombs, but he runs the wrong way and ends up cornered. The fail screen says that he should have used the remote bombs from Bomberman.
        • If Henry tries to use the Joy Buzzer, the FAIL screen says "Allan please add details." This comes from Hitman: Blood Money, more specifically a meme from a description oversight.
      • Upon entering the ship, Henry can browse a computer and gets distracted by Civilization V.
      • The Gap:
        • Henry can choose a magic pencil from SpongeBob SquarePants. This fails, however.
        • He can also use Stretch Chewies, but gets tangled in the machinery, resulting in this message: "That really grinds my gears." The message references Peter Griffin's "You know what really grinds my gears?" line from Family Guy.
        • The Teleporter has another reference to SpongeBob SquarePants, where Henry gets sent to a white void, similar to the one that Squidward ended up in during an episode where he travelled through time.
      • Later, in the prison area, Henry can try to force the door leading to the vault open via the Power Glove which references the Nintendo Entertainment System gaming platform. This fails.
      • The vault has several references, including the Gyroid from Animal Crossing. The remaster adds a giant Super Mario Bros. coin, the Scaramanga's Golden Gun from The Man with the Golden Gun, three paintings in the style of Piet Mondrian and another parodying American Gothic, and another depicting Final Destination from Super Smash Bros Melee, a mannequin with a Stout Shako from Team Fortress 2, a mannequin with a jacket from Player Unknown's Battlegrounds, a sawed-off shotgun from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The Clawpack resembles and sounds like Kazooie from Banjo-Kazooie. There is also the Gravity Gun from Half Life.
      • The four options that Henry can proceed with when blown out of the airship into the propeller have the following references:
        • Henry can use a green shell from Super Mario Bros., which he hears as a helmet.
        • Another option is the propane tank from King of the Hill, which he uses as a makeshift rocket.
        • The third option is to glide via umbrella, referencing Mary Poppins.
        • Henry has to put on the Brotherhood of Steel's Power Armour from Fallout 3 to get past.
      • The scene that plays when Henry gets to the Chaos Containment Area courtesy of the Airship crashing has several references, such as a guy (named Kent in the remaster) who resembles Ken Masters from the Street Fighter games delivering a Shoryuken to Ryu lookalike (also from the Street Fighter games; the guy resembling him is called Rai U in the remake) and a spy from Team Fortress 2 stabbing a sniper
        • SpongeBob: One of the fail messages, more specifically when the Center for Chaos Containment cuts the section of land that the Toppats and Government were fighting on: "We'll take our problems and PUSH them somewhere else!"
    • Relentless Bounty Hunter and Rapidly-Promoted Executive:
      • As Henry chases the Toppats' leader past some Slow Doors in a Quick-Time Event, he can use the warp turbo boost from LEGO Racers.
      • Afterwards, Henry can try to get up to the Toppat leader with either a pair of Techno Trousers (from Wallace and Gromit), the Rocket Launcher from Team Fortress 2, or the metalbending skill from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
      • As he and the Toppat leader's right-hand man lock horns, Henry can choose whether to have the Final Fantasy VI-style fight or the Earthbound-style fight, represented with "Dirk" and "Yo-yo." In the former, he can use Edgar's chainsaw as a sword or a Blitz throw by Sabin, and the chainsaw is the one that works. In the latter, he can use Multi-Bottle Rocket missiles (which work) in addition to a PSI spell.
      • In the final wave, the Tank that Henry can use resembles the Newgrounds tank.
      • Henry can also use a parachute to leave the airship, but in that case, the Toppat Leader falls to his demise. The fail screen is a reference to a line that Doctor Octavius says in The Amazing Spider-Man 2: "Butterfingers!"
    • Lightning-quick Larcenist:
  • Completing the Mission:
    • Convict Allies Routes:
      • Triple Threat:
        • Once Henry and Ellie land, Ellie can choose to throw Henry to get him closer to the Toppat clan's rocket, akin to how Mario throws Bowser during his battle with the Koopa King in Super Mario 64.
        • Henry can also build a bridge to make his way across, referencing Minecraft. The FAIL screen has the message "You died!" to mimic that game's Game Over screen.
        • Alternatively, Henry can summon the barrel cannons from the Donkey Kong series, which he and Ellie use to get to the Airship.
        • Once they get into the Airship, Henry and Ellie can attempt to fuse into a single powerful being, referencing Dragon Ball. Their attempt fails and causes them to get sent flying out.
    • Ghost Inmate Routes:
      • Jewel Baron:
        • In the first wave of choices, Henry can choose to deflect the lasers by rolling, akin to the Star Fox games. His methods of defense are foiled by a missile that the Toppat Leader calls the "Big Bomb," whose explosion parodies the Supernova Bombs from the aforementioned Star Fox games.
        • Henry can also attempt to become more powerful by absorbing the emerald when he needs to fend off a Wave Motion Gun from the Toppat's station, parodying Super Sonic from Sonic the Hedgehog. It fails.
• Slapstick Knows No Gender: If Ellie teams up with Henry, she can and will get hurt and/or die about as much as Henry does.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Dave Panpa, a rookie police officer at West Mesa Penitentiary, is indirectly responsible for the events of Escaping the Prison and onward, as he didn't check the cake that he delivered to Henry.
• Starfish Language: Written example if Henry gets his hands on the Pokéball in Stealing the Diamond. The FAIL screen has the Fail Counts (both total FAILs and unique FAILs) written with random symbols.
• Take a Third Option: Occurs near the end of the Thief/Allies route in Completing the Mission when Henry and Ellie are forced to choose between joining either the Toppat Clan or the government. Other than the aforementioned choices, they can also choose to either side with the Wall, or just jump out of the rocket owned by the Toppats. The latter two options both end in failure.
• Title Drop: Charles does this in the opening of the "Triple Threat" route in Completing the Mission:

With the three of us, we'll have no problems... Completing the Mission.

• Video Game Cruelty Potential/You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Deconstructed. If Henry decides to go forth while Ellie is left to rot in the Wall, he will go down the Ghost Inmate path. Some time later, if the player combines this with the Rapidly Promoted Executive route, she manages to break out, and Henry finds his decision to continue coming back to bite his posterior.
• Watch Out for That Tree: When Henry steals a truck to get away from the wall, he will be accosted by other trucks. If he decides to retaliate via gunfire, a Game Over can occur where he crashes into a tree.

Eyes on the road, man! —The FAIL screen that appears when Henry crashes his truck into a tree.

• Women Are Wiser: If she teams up with Henry, Ellie will act as the brains of the two. This is perhaps best shown in one of the fails during the "Triple Threat" route in Completing the Mission when Charles suggests crashing into the Toppats' rocket, with Henry giving an approving thumbs-up, while Ellie just replies, "But, how does that help?" That said, Ellie still has moments where she acts as stupidly as Henry.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Ellie has pink hair on her head.