Gallery: The Best Running Gags and Easter Eggs of the World's End Trilogy
01INTRO SLIDE
If you've been following Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's film careers over the past decade, their greatness is evident. On the surface, the crew's cinematic trifecta — *Shaun of the Dead*, *Hot Fuzz* and now *The World's End* — is about a zombie apocalypse, a small-town cop mystery, and an alien invasion, respectively, but beneath each movie's distinct genre trappings, they all function as a set of buddy movies that explore the same themes: staying young, growing up, and keeping your friends close. So to bring together the three movies, the three men have painstakingly woven in a wide range of shared themes, real-life references, sight gags, inside jokes ([fence-jumping](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5446u686BM), anyone?) and Easter eggs that not only connect the films but make the sum of the trilogy as fantastic as its parts. And now that you've seen them all (haven't you? [*The World's End* opened on Friday](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/underwire/2013/08/worlds-end-review/)), it's time to take a closer look at the connective tissue and hidden details that make the so-called Three Flavor Cornetto trilogy so special. Click through the gallery above to learn some of its best un-kept secrets. You've probably heard some of these, others maybe not, but all together, they comprise a slice of fried gold of the movies' key elements.
02Shaun of the Dead Foreshadowing
Ed's Speech at the Beginning of the Film Foreshadows All of *Shaun of the Dead* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You wouldn't know it unless you watched the film a gajillion times, but Ed (played by Frost) lays out the entire plot of *Shaun of the Dead* while talking to Shaun (Pegg) in the Winchester pub 20 minutes into the movie. He says the master plan is to have "a bloody mary first thing, a bite at the King's Head, a couple at the Little Princess, stagger back here and bang! Back at the bar for shots." What happens? First they kill a girl named Mary, then Shaun's stepdad (Bill Nighy) gets his head bitten, then they save Shaun's princess Liz and a couple (David and Dianne), then they fake a zombie stumble to make it into the Winchester, and then they take shots at walkers at the bar. "Basically, Nick prefigures the entire film," Wright says in the *Shaun of the Dead* DVD commentary. "That is incredibly geeky." Geeky? Or *amazing*? Let's go with amazing. *—Angela Watercutter* *Image via [Stop Touching Me/Tumblr](http://fruk-off.tumblr.com/post/57110315034)*
03World's End Joke in Hot Fuzz
There's a *World's End* Joke in *Hot Fuzz* (Sort Of) ---------------------------------------------------- There's a great gag in *Hot Fuzz* where Nick Angel is chasing a bad guy and proclaims, "You mothers...!" as he rounds a corner and spots a group of women with strollers (above). According to [the film's DVD commentary](http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/29-things-we-learned-from-the-hot-fuzz-commentary.php) Wright wrote that joke for "a film that never got made about a pub crawl." That film, most likely, was *Crawl*, which Wright told WIRED was a film he wrote at 21 about a bunch of teenagers attempting a crawl -- just like the gang at the beginning of *The World's End*. "I was trying to write about my own experiences because I'd tried to do it myself when I was 18 and I'd failed miserably and got through six of twelve pubs in my hometown," Wright told WIRED. "I remember having heard about *Superbad* and thinking, 'Oh, I wrote this thing about teens drinking and that's a film about young teens and I like those kinds of movies like *American Graffiti* and *Gregory's Girl* and *Dazed and Confused*, I like those kinds of movies. Maybe there's something like that being the first five minutes of the movie." He told the idea to Pegg, and six years later, the epic pub crawl flick Wright dreamed up at 18 is finally in theaters. *—Angela Watercutter*
04Homages
The Flicks Cite Their Cinematic Sources --------------------------------------- Wright and Pegg are notorious film fanboys who love to leave Easter eggs everywhere as a nod nod to some of the greats in horror — and action — film history (while naturally letting other fans know that *they* know). In *Shaun of the Dead*, the restaurant where Shaun promises to take Liz as an apology for flubbing their anniversary ("the place with all the fish," as Shaun calls it) is called Fulci's Restaurant, an homage to Italian goremaster Lucio Fulci. The store where Shaun works is named Foree Electronics, after Ken Foree, the actor who plays the main character Peter in George Romero's iconic 1978 zombie flick *Dawn of the Dead*. In *Hot Fuzz*, the officer Nicholas Angel is sent to replace in Sanford – you know, the one who went mad and committed suicide – is named Sergeant Popwell, for Albert Popwell, the actor who played multiple roles in the *Dirty Harry* movies; Sanford street names are also named after famous action-movie directors, as well. Now with *The World's End*, however, Wright and Co. have established their reps and toned down on the homages on purpose. "In *Shaun of the Dead*, we made mention of other zombie films and other horror directors because we wanted to make sure people didn't think we thought we were being original," said Pegg in [a recent interview.](http://www.youtube.com/embed/LpKZuVZWlRA?list=UUgH1T_Pnjg8FPHcYGbglBpw) "We knew we were drawing on something that had happened before. With *The World's End*, we decided to not make any of those references. We agonized over mentioning the film *Aliens* in case people thought, 'Oh, you're mentioning *Aliens*.' In the DNA of the film, you'll find *Invasion of the Body Snatchers,* but our references are more literary. There's no point in the film where we actively nod at another film." *—Devon Maloney*
05Nick Angel
Nicholas Angel Is a Real Person ------------------------------- If you've watched the credits on some of your favorite movies over the past few years (and you should – respect the filmmakers!), you might've noticed the name of a certain straitlaced cop from *Hot Fuzz* scrolling by. That's because Nicholas Angel – the real Nick Angel – is actually a music supervisor IRL, one who has worked on basically every romantic British movie ever made: *Love Actually*, *Pride and Prejudice*, *Atonement*, *Notting Hill*, *Bridget Jones' Diary*, *Billy Elliott*, just to [name a few](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0029487/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1). He's a friend of Wright and Pegg's – so good a friend, it would seem, that when he signed on for *Hot Fuzz*, they gave him the ultimate honors. (Unsurprisingly, he came back to do *The World's End*, too.) No word yet on whether Gary King has got a real-life namesake, but we're assuming it's probably not [this Harvard professor](https://twitter.com/kinggary), [this filmmaker](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2966708/), or [this New Mexico attorney general](http://www.ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=16190&MediaType=1&Category=26). *—Devon Maloney*
06Dr Ink's Is Real
The 'Dr. Ink' Joke in *The World's End* Comes From a Real Bar's Name -------------------------------------------------------------------- All of the pub names in *The World's End* are real, and even common names for pubs in the U.K. (Simon Pegg had [his first date with his future wife](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6SupkSg6Rg) in a World's End) but bar names influenced the movie's script in other ways as well. At the beginning of the film, Oliver (Martin Freeman) tries to get out of doing the Golden Mile pub crawl by claiming he has a doctor's appointment. Gary King (Pegg) retorts that he does, indeed, have an appointment with "Dr. Ink" (get it?). Turns out that joke came from an actual bar that Wright spotted in London during the film's rehearsals called, yes, [Dr. Ink's](http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/pubsandbars/dr-inks-info-273243.html). "That came late in the movie," Wright told WIRED. "I was going to meet my DP, Bill Pope, at the cinema and I went past a bar called Dr. Ink's and I was like 'Dr. Ink's – oh my god we've got to use that!'" And so it was. *—Angela Watercutter* *Image via [Google Maps](http://goo.gl/maps/dzopg)*
07Celebrity Cameos
The Cornetto Crew Has Always Gotten a Little Help From Their Friends -------------------------------------------------------------------- Honestly, is there anyone who *wouldn't* want to be friends with the Cornetto crew? The guys have charmed a lot of people over the past decade, including -- per the cameos in their movies -- Hollywood heavy-hitters like Coldplay frontman Chris Martin (who pops up as a zombie outside the Winchester towards the end of *Shaun of the Dead* – there's even [a skit wherein Pegg and Frost join Coldplay in the movie's DVD extras](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2nH000Dy9o)), *Lord of the Rings* director Peter Jackson (the shopping-mall Santa who stabs *Hot Fuzz*'s Nicholas Angel in the hand, causing the "singlemost painful experience in \[his\] life"), and Cate Blanchett (the CSI agent who dumps Angel at the beginning of *Hot Fuzz*). No one appears in such a tricky fashion in *The World's End*, unless you count Pierce Brosnan's role as stern teacher Guy Shepard or Bill Nighy's voiceover contribution as the voice of the boss of robot invaders known as "The Network" (which, technically, just means Bill Nighy is The Internet). *—Devon Maloney* //www.youtube.com/embed/jHn3GwOmaG8
08Twins
Identical Twins: They're Just Scary, Right? ------------------------------------------- What, exactly, does the Cornetto trilogy have against identical twins? Both *Shaun of The Dead* and *The World's End* feature scary pairs -- admittedly, they are zombies and robots, respectively (don't call them robots!), but still. There's also a pair of identical twins in *Hot Fuzz* that seems a little less threatening, but perhaps that's because Nick (and the audience) doesn't actually realize that they're twins until almost the end of the movie -- A subterfuge helped considerably by the fact that both Sgt. Turners are played by the same actor, Bill Bailey; the only time in the three movies where the twins aren't actually played by real-life twins. The implication is clear: There's clearly something very wrong with identical twins, and the only way that we can deal with them is if they hide their true nature. Clearly, someone involved with the making of these movies [saw *The Shining*](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWqTXPsDUMc) at a particularly important age in their development. *—Graeme McMillan*
09Bromance
The Movies Are Full of Bad Bromance ----------------------------------- It's hard to tell what to make of the romantic politics of the Cornetto trilogy. Each movie is pretty much a bromance between Pegg and Frost's characters, but there's also a running theme — that actually stretches back through *Spaced* — of Pegg's character being an ineffectual, essentially passive participant in his own life until he gets dumped by his girlfriend, setting in motion a series of events that lead to his leveling up at life. It's tempting to take this as some kind of surreal, unexpected "bros before hos" manifesto, but given what happens elsewhere in the movies, that's too simplistic. Is it an argument against settling into a quiet life that's safe and unchallenging, and instead asking for more from the day to day? Perhaps, but isn't that exactly what's being offered by the ever-present best friend? Perhaps there's no great message being offered, beyond this: Sometimes, you need to hang out with your friends and do impossible things, romantic entanglements or no. *—Graeme McMillan* //www.youtube.com/embed/HL7WTIb6rqw
10The Winchester Pub
The Real Winchester Was Called the Shepherds (And It Was Awesome) ----------------------------------------------------------------- A great many things in the Three Flavors Cornetto trilogy have come from the real-world friendship between Wright, Pegg, and Frost. One of the most obvious and endearing has to be their devotion to, and use of, the Shepherds pub in London. It was near where Pegg and Frost used to live, attended to by a couple named John and Bernie, and would over the years be frequented by the likes of Gillian Anderson and Coldplay. It also served as the basis for the Winchester pub in *Shaun of the Dead*, where its proprietors were also named John and Bernie. "It is like a holy grail for me to rediscover the Shepherds," Frost told WIRED. "Because it was utterly perfect." "*Shaun of the Dead* was written during the height of our love affair with the Shepherds," Pegg wrote in his autobiography *Nerd Do Well*. "We might even have kept the pub's name were we not in need of a plot point that provided Shaun's team with a gun." The Shepherds changed ownership in 2002 and, ironically, Frost noted, " we're all not real big pub drinkers now." But considering the location where their friendship blossomed, it's no wonder *The World's End* is all about an epic quest to go back to the pubs of yore. *—Angela Watercutter*
11Films Within Films
The Trilogy Has Films Within Films Within Films ----------------------------------------------- Obviously, there's no plot continuity between *Shaun of the Dead*, *Hot Fuzz* and *The World's End*. They all take place in different worlds, the actors play different characters and the stories are entirely, completely, disconnected. Except ... what if each movie exists *as a movie* within the worlds of the other ones? Don't look at me like I'm that crazy; there's (admittedly slight) evidence to support this idea. At one point in *Hot Fuzz*, you can see remaindered DVDs of a movie called *Zombies Party* -- which just so happens to be the alternate title of *Shaun of the Dead* in countries where the *Dawn of the Dead* pun wouldn't make sense. Does this mean that *Shaun* and *Hot Fuzz* shout-outs in *The World's End* are not references to the real movies, but instead the versions of the movies that were released in *The World's End* world? I'm not saying that's *definitely* the case, but let's just say that it's very possible that we'll all wake up to discover ourselves [inside a snow globe being held by Edgar Wright](http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/10/12/st-elsewhere-reunion-snow-globe/) one day soon. *—Graeme McMillan*
