0451

An electronic door lock unlocked by the code 0451.

The code 0451 unlocks the first locked door in Deus Ex series games. It also appears in various other manners in the Deus Ex series.

Origin

The code first appeared as 451 in System Shock (1994) and then as 45100 in System Shock 2 (1999). Both games were developed by Looking Glass Studios. During the development of System Shock, the number was added to the game as a reference to Ray Bradbury's dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451. In this novel, the number represents "the temperature at which book-paper catches fire and burns."

The number was later adopted as the door code to access the Looking Glass Studios offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Although use of the number as the door code has sometimes been regarded as the origin of the code in System Shock, the door code came later and was inspired by the use of the code in the game. Therefore, although the code as used in Deus Ex was in part a reference to Looking Glass' office door code, the door code itself was a reference to System Shock's reference to Fahrenheit 451.

In Deus Ex games developed by Eidos-Montréal, the number 451 appears as both the first door code as well as in direct references to Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.

Since the closure of Looking Glass, the number 451 has appeared in numerous other games by former Looking Glass employees, including BioShock, Dishonored, Prey, and others. For this reason, the number has become widely recognized as a homage to Looking Glass and its work in the immersive sims genre of video games.

Quotes by former Looking Glass developers

in 2001, Harvey Smith referred to code in Deus Ex as "an allusion to System Shock's allusion to Fahrenheit 451." However, in 2015, Warren Spector gave a somewhat different account in which he associated the code as the door code to access the Looking Glass Studios offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts:

“

If you've been playing a lot of Looking Glass and Ion Storm games you know that the code here is 0451, which is first used in System Shock. It showed up in Thief, it showed up in System Shock 2, it showed up in BioShock and Dishonored recently, and in both Deus Ex games. A lot of people think it was a reference to Fahrenheit 451, the Ray Bradbury book, but it was actually just the key code to get into the offices at Looking Glass in Cambridge. But it's in so many games now, it's kind of a defining thing in what we used to call 'immersive simulations.'

— Warren Spector, in "Let's Play Deus Ex with Warren Spector, Sheldon Pacotti and Chris Norden" (2015)

As to the purported reference to Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Spector subsequently stated that "the Bradbury reference is just a nice bonus."

Nonetheless, gaming media site IGN noted that the door code itself was a reference to Fahrenheit 451. Consistent with this notion, former Looking Glass Studios developer Tim Stellmach stated the following in 2015: "That 0451 code has become kind of a signature that developers use to align themselves with Looking Glass. It is itself, of course, a nod to Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, as dystopian science fiction was naturally on everybody’s mind during System Shock development."

Later, in a 2024 Reddit post, System Shock developer Marc LeBlanc clarified that use of the code in the game predated the use of the code for the Cambridge office, and that the latter was, in fact, inspired by the former:

“

We put the code in the game before the Cambridge office even existed. The office was in Lexington back then. When we moved to Cambridge, the office manager asked me what the door code in the game was, and she set it as the office door code. When the move happened, the game was essentially feature complete and was in late beta, so the code had been in for a long time.

— Marc LeBlanc, on Reddit (2024)

In the same Reddit post, LeBlanc stated that Spector likely misremembered, noting that Spector wasn't physically present the entire time during the studio's move to Cambridge. LeBlanc gave a more detailed account in a 2023 "let's play" video for the System Shock remake.

In Deus Ex games and books

• In Deus Ex, the code 0451 opens the comm van near the UNATCO Headquarters.
• Deus Ex: Invisible War does not have enterable codes, but the protagonist Alex D starts in the dorm room 451 of the Seattle Tarsus Academy.
• In Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the code 0451 opens the elevator in David Sarif's office. It is used again as the first code in The Missing Link DLC.
  • Also, a direct reference to the Fahrenheit 451 and its author Ray Bradbury is made through an announcer in the Detroit Police Station, asking for "detective Bradbury in office 451".
• In Deus Ex: The Fall, the code 0451 opens the door to Mikhail Kontarsky's hideout in Hotel Novoe Rostov.
• In the book Deus Ex: Black Light, Adam Jensen wakes up from coma in Facility 451 in Alaska.
• In Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, the code 0451 unlocks the first door encountered during the Dubai mission. A Heated Combination achievement is awarded for entering the code instead of hacking the lock.
  • 0451 is the number of the United Nations resolution that ratified the creation of Task Force 29.
  • Another reference to 451 is made in a Picus TV news report that mentions a Cista Airlines 451 plane crash.
  • A direct reference to Fahrenheit 451 is made in an e-mail found in the Time Machine. The e-mail is from R. Brad Burrie and refers to a shipment of rare books on train F451.
• In Deus Ex GO, it is the code needed to access Novak's secret lab.

Trivia

• Jonathan Jacques-Belletête, art director of Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided once had a flight number 0451. He wrote about that on Twitter.

See also

• Passwords, Logins, and Codes (DX)
• Keycodes (DXHR)
• Keycodes (The Fall)
• Keycodes (DXMD)