Movies

Easter Eggs: Robin And More Hidden In 'The Dark Knight Rises' Trailer, Pixar Nods In 'Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol'

By Peter Sciretta

Chances are you saw the new trailer for Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises and didn't catch Robin the boy wonder or a reference back to the very beginning of the trilogy: Batman Begins. And you probably also saw Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol in IMAX but somehow missed the hidden Pixar easter eggs that Ratatouille/The Incredibles director Brad Bird hid within the film. Aren't you glad we're here to point them out to you? Find the easer eggs, after the jump.

A113 in Pixar Movies

A113: What started as an inside joke of CalArts alumni (a reference to the classroom number that was used by Animation students, including John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Brad Bird, Pete Docter) has been present in not only every Pixar film, but Disney movies, Iron Giant, The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, Powerpuffgirls and Tinytoon Adventures.

Director Brad Bird has put the reference in every project he has worked on:

  • Amazing Stories: in The Family Dog episode
  • The Simpsons: Bart Simpson's inmate number in his mugshot in the Do the Bartman music video
  • The Iron Giant: License plate on car partially eaten by the Giant and in Dean's house on a painting.
  • The Incredibles: The room number in Syndrome's lair  and the prison level where Mr. Incredible is held is "Level A1" in Cell #13.
  • Ratatouille: A tag on Git the lab rat's left ear.

    • So where does it appear in Mission: Impossible? It actually appears not once but twice!

  • Josh Holloway's character Agent Hanaway uses a "class ring" to subdue a bad guy. The ring has A113 emblazoned on the side.
  • Tom Cruise's character Ethan Hunt gives an  extraction access code verbally over the phone: "A113"

    • Unfortunately, none of the trailers or clips from the movie feature the A113 references, so I'm unable to provide a screencapture.

    Another Pixar reference comes in the form of a cameo: an artist who worked for Bird designing characters and storyboards for The Iron Giant, before coming to Pixar with Bird as a character designer on The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Newton co-wrote the short film Jack-Jack Attack and made his directorial debut with the Pixar short film Day & Night. Newton is known to voice secondary characters in Pixar films: the newsreel narrator in The Incredibles, Skinner's lawyer in Ratatouille, the Steward robots in Wall-E, a television commercial salesman in Up, and most famously — Chatter Telephone in Toy Story 3.

    In Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol Newton is the over-the-phone voice that gives Hunt his mission instructions.

    Lets move on to The Dark Knight Rises:

    During the football sequence, fans have noticed 2 easter egg mentions of Robin the boy Wonder. Yeah, we know — Christopher Nolan has said that he'll never include Robin in his Batman films — but someone has secretly hidden at least one Rob in reference for comic book fans to enjoy.

    In a crowd shot (from CBM) you will notice a group of fans holding up signs, each one with a letter, that reads "Rogues". The team playing at the football game is the Gotham Rogues. But you might notice that the R is a reference to the style R used in Robin's logo. Some have pointed out that the sequence of the film was shot with 10,000 extras there at Heinz Field, most of whom brought their own costumes and some who created their own signs. Chances are that Nolan didn't even know about this Robin easter egg... but what about the other reference?

    A football player in the sequence is seen with a jersey that features the last name WARD... as in Burt Ward (aka Robin)?

    Nope. The football scenes were filmed in Pittsburgh at the Steelers stadium and the football player cast in the scene is Steeler player Hines Ward — so its not a reference to Robin.Warning: the next easter egg might possibly be a minor storyline spoiler (but also a reference back to Batman Begins).

    Ready for it?

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    The above image of Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle (aka Catwoman) appears in the new trailer. Do you notice anything strange in the image? Take a look at her necklace. The below observation was found on Reddit:

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