"Blow Out" incorporates multiple allusions both to other films and to historical events. Its protagonist's obsessive reconstruction of a sound recording to uncover a possible murder recalls both Michelangelo Antonioni's film "Blowup" and Francis Ford Coppola's "The Conversation". The film alludes to elements of the Watergate scandal and the JFK assassination. The film also recalls elements of the Chappaquiddick incident, although De Palma intentionally tried to downplay the similarities. The film intentionally references the Zapruder film as comparable to the footage shot of the accident.