The photo in the opening montage, of Adam Hart (Jesper Hyldegaard) and Victor Janis (Per Diemer) seated on a bench, recreates an illustration in the first edition of the first Adam Hart-novel, "Adam Harts opdagelser". In that illustration Adam Hart and Victor Janis were portrayed by author Erwin Neutzsky-Wulff and his friend Palle Toft, who both have cameo appearances in this film. Covers and other illustrations from the four original Adam Hart-novels can be glimpsed on the walls of the apartment shared by Adam Hart and Victor Janis, which makes sense as the novels are written as if they were the published diaries of Victor Janis.
In his opening narration, Victor Janis mentions his lost love, the vampire Alicia. The portrait of Alicia standing by his bedside is really a photo of Barbara Steele. As we see the photo, Søren Hyldgaard's score quotes the love theme from Black Sunday (1960), in which Barbara Steele played a vampire. Although "Adam Hart i Sahara" is not about vampires, it has several other vampire-references: On a board behind Myra can be glimpsed a photo of Bela Lugosi as Dracula, and in Adam Hart's bedroom hangs the Danish posters from the vampire films House of Dark Shadows (1970), Twins of Evil (1971) and The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973).
Pasted on a board behind Myra, as she asks Adam Hart and Victor Janis for help, is a flier for the video magazine "Tracking", which was edited by Nicolas Barbano, the producer/director of this film, and featured articles by the film's screenwriter, Erwin Neutzsky-Wulff.