Nicotero shows off the Michael Myers mask not seen in Baby Driver

Last Updated on November 17, 2023

Even if you haven’t watched Edgar Wright’s crime movie / musical comedy BABY DRIVER, you’re probably still aware that there was a reference to the 1978 classic HALLOWEEN and its iconic slasher Michael Myers in there, because the reference came in a moment that was deemed funny enough to be included in the promotional materials.

When a trio of thieves are about to pull off a robbery in the film, one of them hands out the masks they’ll be wearing during the job: all of them Austin Powers masks. There’s then a dialogue exchange about the fact that the masks were supposed to be Michael Myers masks, “the killer dude from HALLOWEEN”, but the guy getting the masks confused Michael Myers with Austin Powers actor Mike Myers.

The plan wasn’t always to have three Austin Powers masks in the scene, though. Greg Nicotero, head of the KNB special effects group, recently took to his Instagram account to share a picture of an actual Michael Myers mask that was created for the BABY DRIVER scene. Nicotero explained,

One of my favorite jokes that didn’t make the final cut of Edgar Wright’s brilliant BABY DRIVER was the scene when our “heroes” were sitting in the car talking about the need for a Michael Myers “Halloween” mask and the site gag was supposed to be the two of them were wearing the mask from the horror film Halloween and one of them was wearing an Austin Powers mask. I thought it was really funny and very very clever so we created this mask for the movie and unfortunately were unable to get permission to use it so the mask sits proudly on a zombie bust in my office! Sculpted by @garrett_immel

On Twitter, Wright confirmed that he had originally intended to have a mixture of HALLOWEEN and Austin Powers masks, but

because of the upcoming ‘Halloween’ reboot, the rights holders didn’t want to let us use the Michael Myers mask* so we went with three Austin Powers masks instead of just the one – with Mike Myers blessing. (*Could we have used an inside out Captain Kirk mask instead?).

It would have been amusing to see two robbers wearing a Michael Myers mask while the third puts on an Austin Powers mask, but the scene in the finished film is still funny the way it is.

What do you think of the Myers mask that was made for BABY DRIVER?

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One of my favorite jokes that didn’t make the final cut of Edgar Wright’s brilliant BABY DRIVER was the scene when our “heroes” were sitting in the car talking about the need for a Michael Myers “Halloween” mask and the site gag was supposed to be the two of them were wearing the mask from the horror film Halloween and one of them was wearing an Austin Powers mask. I thought it was really funny and very very clever so we created this mask for the movie and unfortunately were unable to get permission to use it so the mask sits proudly on a zombie bust in my office! Sculpted by @garrett_immel #halloween #knbefxgroup #babydriver

A post shared by Greg Nicotero (@gnicotero) on Sep 7, 2018 at 4:31pm PDT