Wilhelm Scream: When the building next to the river explodes and sends one of the soldiers flying into the water.
Nearly all of the soldiers were played by the five main cast members. Most of the soldiers dialogue was dubbed afterwards to hide the fact, that they were the same actors over and over.
The name of the village inside the zone is Linnakallio. This translates to Castle Rock, an reference to Stephen King.
Lammi's fathers, Punapää's name (Redhead) is a reference to the main character of the book Roadside Picnic by Boris & Arkady Strugatsky.
The film introduces a mystical wish-granting pyramid, while the original novel featured a golden sphere and Tarkovsky's Stalker (1979) featured a room, which are both also referenced in the film.