When the actor playing Ray Palmer, Brandon Routh, says, "I always wanted to be a spy," it is a nod to his role as Daniel Shaw on the NBC series Chuck (2007).
Actors Casper Crump (Vandal Savage) and Stephanie Corneliussen (Valentina Vostok) are both from Denmark.
When imprisoned in the gulag, Mick calls Ray "Boy Scout". A nickname for Superman is 'The Big Blue Boy Scout'. Brandon Routh played Superman in Superman Returns (2006).
Shares its title with the 1964 film (inspired by the book of the same title) Fail-Safe, about a near nuclear confrontation between the US and the USSR.
Mick (Dominic Purcell) calls Ray Palmer "Pretty" as they're walking through the prison. One of the characters on Dominic and Wentworth Miller's series 'Prison Break' always called Wentworth's character, Michael Scofield, "Pretty."