When a movie's main character makes a habit of breaking the fourth wall and talking directly
to the audience, you know it'll have in-jokes and Easter eggs crammed into every orifice.
Such is the case with Deadpool, the R-rated superhero action comedy set in 20th Century
Fox's X-Men-focused corner of the Marvel Universe.
Here's a list of some of the best Easter eggs that ol' Deadpool hid in his Hello Kitty backpack.
Mild spoilers ahead…
CREDITS WHERE IT'S DUE
The movie opens up with hilarious title cards, setting the tone immediately.
One gag comes in the form of a copy of People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive 2010 issue fluttering
across the screen.
That issue, of course, gave Deadpool-star Ryan Reynolds top sexiness honors.
Moments later in the opening credits sequence, we see a wallet flying through the air with
a picture of Green Lantern popping out of it.
As you probably know by now, Reynolds' career took a nasty hit in 2011 when his starring
turn as the DC Comics character flopped at the box office, killing the franchise before
it had the chance to take off.
GHOSTS OF DEADPOOLS PAST
Deadpool features at least two amazing references to Reynolds' past as the character.
In one scene, Wade picks up an action figure of Deadpool from 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
A little later, the villainous Ajax says he wants to sew Wade's mouth shut.
These are some pretty awesome and brazen shout-outs to what most fans consider one of the worst
movie adaptations of a comic book character.
Deadpool is known for his wisecracks and non-stop talking.
But in that Wolverine movie, his friggin' mouth is sealed shut.
MORE GREEN LANTERN SHADE
When the bad guys in the Workshop bring Wade in to give him superpowers, he yells out that
he doesn't want his superhero suit to be green or animated.
That's yet another a dig at Green Lantern from 2011, which featured Reynolds wearing
a CGI-superhero costume that…well, looked like garbage.
A MARROW VICTORY
This is one of the few Easter eggs that isn't funny, but is definitely exciting for comic
fans.
For a brief moment in the workshop, the camera pans past a woman who seems to have a bunch
of bones sticking out of her back.
This has got to be an oblique reference to Marrow, a mutant whose power is that, uh,
she has a bunch of bones sticking out of her back.
Which she uses to stab people.
So while Deadpool has a pretty tenuous connection to the X-Men franchise, seeing Marrow in this
movie is still pretty cool.
PROOF IS IN THE PROF
When Colossus tries to drag Deadpool off to the X-Men's mansion, Wade offers up one of
the best lines in the movie.
Colossus says that they'll go see how the Professor feels about his freeway murder spree.
At that, Deadpool says, "McAvoy or Stewart?
These timelines are confusing!"
Of course, that's a reference to the fact that X-Men: Days of Future Past gave the mutant
franchise a soft reboot, allowing actor James McAvoy to take the role of Professor X from
Patrick Stewart.
The fact that Deadpool pokes direct fun at 20th Century Fox's crazy continuity shenanigans
is yet another reason he's our hero.
ON THE BLADE'S EDGE
When Ajax and Angel Dust head to the bar to track down Wade, they run into his buddy Weasel,
who makes fun of their outfits and asks if they're headed to watch Blade II.
While that's a solid burn in and of itself, the Blade franchise is actually another Marvel-based
property, and yet another example of Deadpool breaking the fourth wall.
Even better: Ryan Reynolds had a starring role in Blade Trinity as Marvel Comics character
Hannibal King.
Ryan Reynolds must really like comic books, you guys.
STAN AND STRIPPERELLA
It wouldn't be a Marvel movie without a cameo from Stan Lee, the comic book writing legend
who's credited with co-creating the Marvel universe as we know it.
He hams it up as the DJ in the strip club where Deadpool and Weasel go to find Vanessa.
While Stan Lee's connection to the Deadpool character is about as thin as it gets, his
connection to strippers is actually worth mentioning.
In 2003, he created a pretty lousy animated show called Stripperella starring Pamela Anderson,
which aired on Spike TV for one year before getting axed.
BUDGET CUTS?
Shortly before Deadpool opened in theaters, one of the film's screenwriters, Rhett Reese,
revealed in an interview that the filmmakers had 48 hours to cut over $7 million from its
budget before 20th Century Fox would give it the greenlight.
Fast forward to the scene in the movie where Deadpool heads to the X-Men mansion to get
the help of Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead to rescue Vanessa.
There, he mentions how it's strange that he only ever sees the two of them…almost as
if there wasn't enough budget to get any more X-Men characters to appear…
BOB!
While he's cutting up Ajax's goons before the final showdown, Deadpool runs into his
old buddy Bob from his special forces days.
Fans of the character know that, for a while, a Hydra flunkie named Bob joined Deadpool
on lots of his comic book adventures.
While Fox can't refer to Hydra (since the rights to those characters live with Marvel
Studios), the character's appearance is still a nice nod to true comic diehards.
"RHYMES WITH 'PULVERINE'"
There are so many references to Wolverine in this movie, probably because of the aforementioned
X-Men Origins connection.
We've got Deadpool telling the audience that the movie got made because he provided "oral
relief" to someone whose name rhymes with "Pulverine."
Later, in Deadpool's duffel bag of guns, there's a copy of the People magazine issue from 2008
that declared Hugh Jackman as the sexiest man alive.
Then, there's the bit at the end of the movie where Vanessa pulls off Deadpool's mask…under
which she finds a magazine cut-out of Hugh Jackman's face stapled to Wade's.
SPECIAL THANKS (WITH TONGUE)
Towards the end of the credits, the movie offers a "special thanks (with tongue)" to
Rob Liefeld and Fabien Nicieza, the original creators of the Deadpool character.
Considering how Liefeld and Nicieza's creation has taken over the pop culture world, they're
probably more than happy to accept that extra special thanks, tongue and all.
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