Shaun Of The Dead Easter Egg - A Load of Secrets

1. Many of the Zombie extras are fans of the TV series Spaced, which also starred Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and was also directed by Edgar Wright. They were recruited through the 'Spaced Out' fan website to be in the film.

2. Frequent references are made to Big Al's claim that Dogs can't look up. This is a reference to the commentary to the second series of Spaced in which Simon Pegg (Shaun) and Edgar Wright talk about Nick Frost (Ed)'s claim that the difficulty in shooting a scene with a dog was due to the fact that dogs can't look up.

3. Shaun works at Foree Electronics. Ken Foree was one of the stars of Dawn of the Dead (1978).

4. The phrase 'fried gold' originated behind the scenes of Simon Pegg, Jessica Stevenson and Edgar Wright's sitcom Spaced and was mentioned several times on the DVD commentaries for that series. It makes several fan-pleasing appearances in the film.

5. At one point, a zombie can be glimpsed wearing a yellow cycling helmet and lycra shorts. He's played by comedian Michael Smiley, who made appearances in Spaced as a bicycle courier named Tyres.

6. At one point, Ed (Nick Frost) warns Shaun's mum (Penelope Wilton): We're coming to get you, Barbara. This line is a reference to a line from the beginning of George Romero's seminal zombie movie Night of the Living Dead.

7. The game that Ed (Nick Frost) is playing throughout the movie is Timesplitters 2. The Timesplitters themselves are dimension-hopping zombies.

8. The zombie that Shaun (Simon Pegg) and Ed (Nick Frost) find in their garden is Mary, the checkout girl from the film's credit montage. A short story detailing her transformation into one of the undead was featured in prog 1384 of classic British sci-fi comic 2000AD. The issue went on sale 7 April 2004. The strip was called There's Something About Mary and was written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (the film's co-writers) with art by Frazer Irving.

9. At the end of the film, as Shaun (Simon Pegg) flicks through TV channels, a voice can be heard saying that claims that 'the epidemic was due to rage infected monkeys have now been dismissed as b..' Liz turns off before the voice can finish the sentence. The voice is referencing 28 Days Later... (2002), another British zombie movie.

10. Shaun (Simon Pegg) complains that Ed (Nick Frost) isn't his boyfriend, then says, Thanks, babe. In Spaced series 1, a conversation begins in a similar manner between the two actors (Alright, babe?)

11. The distributor/production logos at the start have an excerpt from The Gonk by H. Chappell played over them. This track was used to great effect in Dawn of the Dead.

12. When flicking through the Yellow Pages, Shaun finds the number for the restaurant that does all the fish. It's called Fulci's Restaurant - a reference to Italian horror director Lucio Fulci.

13. When the Universal logo appears at the start of the film, the music playing is taken from the soundtrack to the original Dawn of the Dead. Also, the end credits feature a new recording of the infamous shopping-mall music from the same film.

14. The TV news reports Shaun and Ed watch feature an anchorman who utters the exact same phrases as the TV reporter in Night of the Living Dead.

15. When Shaun comes into work, one of his co-workers mentions something about someone named Ash calling out from work. Ash is the name of Bruce Campbell's character in the Evil Dead trilogy, who also works at a department store (SMart) similar to the one Shaun works at.

16. The choreographed pool-cue beating of the zombie in the Winchester (synchronized to the Queen soundtrack) is a carefully referenced homage to the balletic assault on the homeless man in A Clockwork Orange.

17. The line 'Get behind me, get behind me' when fighting off the zombies in the pub is a direct lift of Han Solo's line in Star Wars.

18. Chris Martin, of UK pop band Coldplay, who appears as himself on a news report near the end of the film promoting ZombAid, also plays a zombie. After Shaun and Liz escape from the basement of The Winchester, he can be seen playing the zombie walking past the phone box from right to left.

19. Shaun berates Ed for calling the creatures 'zombies' (which they are, of course). This may be referring to the fact that many zombie movies (including Night of the Living Dead and Resident Evil) never mention the word 'zombie' at all. More likely this is a reference to Danny Boyle - director of 28 Days Later - and his insistence that it isn't a 'zombie' movie.

20. When Shaun finds his zombie house mate in the shower he utters the words "Join us" in a half whispered tone. This is a reference to the first two Evil Dead films where the zombies are always asking Ash (also mentioned in the department store) to "join us".

21. The scene in which Shaun and Liz leave the basement via the lift through the hatch into smoke and orange light, turning as they do so, is a direct reference to a scene in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back when Lando leaves the Millenium Falcon to rescue Luke.

22. When the two surviving parties of 5 meets (about halfway into he film), some of the character has appeared in things together before.
Lucy Davis (Dianne) has worked with Tamsin Greig (Maggie) in BBC radio show 'The Archers' and with Martin Freeman (Declan) in BBC comedy 'The Office'
Tamsin Greig (Maggie) has also worked with Dylan Moran in Channel 4 comedy 'Black Books'

The amount of people that have already worked together in 'Shaun Of The Dead' is endless....

Note. I know most of this stuff is from other websites, but since looking on eeggs for eggs that I didn't pick up on (which were a lot) for 'Shaun Of The Dead', I was very disappointed to find nothing.
I copyed and pasted to save my time, also....

User Rating:
7.5
  7.5/10 with 142 votes
Contributed By: jazhall_uk on 07-20-2004
Reviewed By: MrHappyHamster, ConCor
Special Requirements: A copy of Shaun Of The Dead, Eyes.
Please correct this Egg if you see errors.

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Comments

hitman writes:
Another thing that i havent heard from other sources yet- When Ed and Shaun are driving Pete's car to get Barbara, Ed puts a tape in. The tape is playing "Orpheus" by the band Ash. Ash being a reference to Evil Dead.
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Goldenboy666 writes:
The big zombie that Shaun & Ed find in their garden is the same one that was stalking Mary in the 2000AD comic, and the begger that hangs out Shaun's house is the one that bit Mary. She can also be seen when Shaun goes to the shop for the first time, she's leaving her house.
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Teddite writes:
The official website for Shaun of the Dead lets you collect points to buy things from the movie for nothing, I'm saving up for a "I got wood" shirt, hehe. Though this is only good if you are in the US or Canada methinks. http://www.shaunsquad.com/shaunsquad/?u=Teddite
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Moo writes:
the pool cue sequence according to and interview with Simon Pegg actually originated from a fight over pool game in Edinburgh involving Simon and another brit comedian, Bill Bailey. I'm afraid you were reading a little too much art into a simple comedy.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Scottydo writes:
I can't believe you didn't get this one lads! (It might be because you're american and don't get him over their) But the first zombie that Ed runs over while driving petes car that they stop to have a look at is none other than Andy Gray He's a scottish soccer commentator, the reason that he says "oh thank god" when they see him as a zombie is because the team that Simon Pegg supports is a rival of the team that Gray used to play for
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
PCG342 writes:
For the record, TimeSplitters is HUGE in the U.K., and the developing company, Free Radical Design, is based in the U.K.
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Annie Green writes:
Something else I noticed -- when Shaun's riding on the bus, a techno beat's going on as the background music. It's the opening section to a tune called "Kernkraft 400" by a group called Zombie Nation.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Jstanf35 writes:
The scene where Shaun steps up the Children's ladder one step at a time and back down again rather slowly may of been a reference to the Resident Evil games where if you walk up stairs or open doors you're treated to a lengthy cutscene of your character doing this (presumably to disguise load times)
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Edster writes:
Oh riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight! Yes, cos Bill Bailey plays Bill-bo(alright that's not his character name), the comic book store owner Tim(Simon)works in in Spaced. BILL BAILEY IS A LEGEND!!!!
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Butch writes:
I found it funny that the website address that promoted this movie includes the word teddite which seems to be a reference to the Evil Dead movies. the possesed in the Evil Dead movies are called deadites The link to the promotion has stopped working but here it is anyway http://www.shaunsquad.com/shaunsquad/?u=Teddite
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wally writes:
one of the special features is "zombi-meter" and it tells you all these plus more...
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exis writes:
just a little add on you know that comic thing that was entitled "theres something about mary"? well the scene with mary has the same title and alot of the titles were names of movies or puns of some kind. also all lines in the movie are either references, quotes or are repeated.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Actually the music by Ash used in the film isn't a reference to Evil Dead, it's just because Edgar Wright's girlfriend is Charlotte Hatherley who is/was in Ash.
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Alan writes:
there is also a huge plot giveaway at the start After liz dumps shaun, ed says "we'll have a bloody mary (girl in garden), bite at the kings head (Phillip is bitten) couple (David an Di) at the little Princess (Liz), an stagger (pretending to be zombies) to the bar for shots (shooting zombies in the pub). Also Pete tells Ed to go live in the shed an he does at the end :)
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Stonerb13 writes:
About 56 minutes in Simon says a quote from another film he was a lead role in called Hot Fuzz, the group find an obstacle of fences and the Winchester on the other side, so Simon says to David." what's the matter David, you've never taken a short cut before?" which is exactly what he says to his partner in Hot Fuzz.
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Devo7 writes:
You do realize that hot fuzz was released three years after shaun of the dead...have another bowl stoner
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KGNFNGKF writes:
Actually, theres more to the scene where the gruop is trying to get to the pub, When they go to jump the fences shaun makes the remark "whats the matter never taken a shortcut?" before attempting to jump the fence, only to have it collapse. In the movie HOT FUZZ, Simon peggs character (I forget his name) makes the same remark to his partner before jumping more fences, only this time he leaps over them successfully.
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