Attack on Titan’s Steven Spielberg Reference, Explained

At the peak of its final episode, Attack on Titan graced audiences with a movie reference that sums up what the anime is all about. Based on the Japanese manga series, written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama, the anime is set in a world infested with dangerous Titans, where the remnants of humanity seek refuge inside three walls. After the young Eren Yeager witnesses the destruction of his hometown and the death of his family, he vows to cleanse the world from the threat of the Titans.

Attack on Titan is an action-packed anime filled with violence and fascinating character development, but what’s really impressive is how the fantastical elements of the story reflect on real, relevant matters of human history. Attack on Titan‘s final episode, “The Final Chapters: Special 2,” draws the story to a close with an epic conclusion, and it also delivers a subtle, yet meaningful reference to Steven Spielberg‘s masterpiece, Schindler’s List.

The Unforgettable Girl in the Red Coat

Schindler’s List is a historical movie detailing how the businessman Oskar Schindler used his influence in the Nazi Party to eventually shelter and save multiple lives from the Holocaust. The movie benefits from mesmerizing black-and-white cinematography to represent the Holocaust as life without light, but one scene, in particular, catches the viewer’s attention to a colored detail: as Schindler witnesses the massacre of Jewish innocents in the street, he notices a girl in the crowd. She stands out because of her colored red coat, which appears once again later, on a pile of corpses.

In Schindler’s List, the girl in the red coat represents the loss of innocence, as well as individuality among a crowd. A lot is said about the 6 million Jewish people who were killed in the Holocaust, but each of them is much more than a number. The use of color in this scene represents the breaking point in Schindler’s decision to do the right thing and save as many people as he can.

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One might ask what this tiny detail in a World War II movie has to do with a fantasy anime like Attack on Titan. The answer is a subtle reference to Schindler’s List‘s girl in the red coat, inserted moments before the Rumbling stops in the final episode of the anime. In the scene, people are being pushed off a ledge as the horde of Colossus Titans closes in. The image switches to black-and-white, except for a mother and her baby, enveloped in a red blanket. As the mother falls to her death, people come together to pass the baby from hand to hand toward salvation. It’s a beautiful moment and one of the few in Attack on Titan in which humanity unites for the greater good.

How Attack on Titan’s Reference to Schindler’s List Connects to the Anime’s Purpose

Beyond the direct correlation between Attack on Titan‘s reference to Schindler’s List, the scene works as a timely reminder of what the anime is about. Despite its action-packed rhythm and the creative lore surrounding the Titans, the main storyline of Attack on Titan always carried a powerful historical allegory to humanity’s biggest tragedy in real life: the Holocaust.

Ever since the truth about Eldians and Marleyans was revealed at the end of Season 3, the horrors of the ethnic apartheid that separates the two nations and the endless cycle of brutal discrimination mirror delicate moments of human history. It’s the turning point in which Attack on Titan fans realize there’s no true villain in the anime; it’s all just a matter of different sides. On the other hand, the grapes of wrath have always been visible in every aspect of Eren Yeager’s arc, a protagonist torn between two opposing sides, nurtured in hatred and stranded in obnoxious ideals of freedom.

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From the harsh camps that prevent the Eldians from socializing with Marleyans to the actual genocide perpetrated by Eren, Attack on Titan stands out as a brilliant exercise of historical memory, passing a clear message along: past mistakes should never be forgotten. What’s even more interesting is how the anime offers multiple solutions to end humanity’s perpetual cycle of hatred, yet each plan feels like an extension of this cycle. The answer, in the end, is to leave humanity at the mercy of themselves. After all, as long as people live, wars will break in at some point.

Attack on Titan‘s ending itself discusses that humanity’s propensity to make the same mistakes over and over again is their biggest weakness, and no army of Titans in the world will be able to destroy the rot inside the human soul. With Eren dead, humanity is free to return to its natural selection, endless battles, and purposeless killings. The heroes wander about with wounds that will never be healed, mourning souls that are yet to be saved.

The scene referencing Schindler’s List highlights solidarity and individuality as beautifully as the movie it pays homage to, and at the end of the day, both Attack on Titan and Spielberg’s war movie end on a similar note. Schindler’s collapse upon knowing he could’ve saved thousands more lives matches the bittersweet stupor of the Survey Cops remnants upon learning they only managed to stop the Rumbling after 80% of the world’s population was brutally wiped out.

Attack on Titan is available to stream on Hulu or Crunchyroll, while Schindler’s List is available to rent on AppleTV and Prime Video