Our Favorite Movie Easter Eggs: The Dark Knight, Hot Fuzz, 2001 and more!

May 7th 2015, 11:50pm

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

These days, part of the fun of watching a movie in theaters or at home with the ability to freeze frames, is finding the Easter eggs hidden within. For the history buffs out there, the origin of the cinematic Easter egg dates back to THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. Supposedly one day on the set, the cast decided to have a traditional Easter egg hunt, as you do, but some of the eggs were never found and actually appeared in frames of the movie! So if you're obsessed with finding hidden messages, jokes, and ways to make you look smart in front of your friends, check out these Easter eggs!

Understandably some of these have been around for a while, but some may be new to other readers; there’s no expiration date on sharing so enjoy and have fun!

POSSIBLE SPOILERS

SUPERMAN RETURNS – Action Comics continued

Say what you will about Bryan Singer’s attempt at reliving his childhood fondness for Superman, actually, don’t say it, it’s all been said. A few things about the movie that were sometimes painfully obvious were the call-backs to a Superman of another era and time. Like this moment from the film that resembled the Man of Steel's first appearance in Action Comics #1.

Bonus egg: The shot is reminiscent of this comic (Amazing Spider-Man #50) to screen shot in in SPIDER-MAN 2.

THE DARK KNIGHT – Subtle not subtle

If there is one thing the people of Gotham would notice driving around their city it’s a Lamborghini. So of course Bruce Wayne's drives one. The egg of it all I suppose you could say is that in THE DARK KNIGHT when he’s driving around in a model Murciélago, which means "bat" in Spanish. You sly cat. He drives a model Murciélago roadster in BATMAN BEGINS, a model Murciélago LP 640 THE DARK KNIGHT, and a model Aventador LP 700-4 in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES.

HOT FUZZ – Red on you

Now we look at one of the best action-comedies of all time, HOT FUZZ. It’s a subtle egg/joke/reference/gag or whatever you want, but it works. When Nick Frost throws a DVD into the bargain bin, you'll see that the DVD underneath is called "Zombies Party" with a very familiar DVD cover. It looks and sounds like SHAUN OF THE DEAD, referencing the film that Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright made before, but “Zombies Party" is the title of the Spanish release of SHAUN OF THE DEAD.

2001 : A SPACE ODYSSEY – Sad songs say so much

It's one of the greatest movies of all time because it has so much to say and does a great job and not really ever saying it; that sounded like a tool talking but trust me. One of my favorite moments and subtle eggs occurs when Dave is pulling out HAL's chips, HAL regresses in time. Eventually, HAL starts singing "Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer please" ("On a Bicycle Built for Two"). This was the first song ever sung by a computer in the real world. A single tear for HAL.