Caution: Spoilers for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice are in play. Bookmark this story and come back once you’ve seen the film.
When you’re watching a movie like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, there tend to be a lot of cameos, cast members, and easter eggs scattered throughout the film. So many, in fact, that they’re kind of hard to catch up with when watching a film as intense and action packed as DC Comics’ smash hit from this past weekend. Well, as luck would have it, there were nine things that we couldn’t help but notice during our respective viewings of the film.
Jimmy Olsen In Africa
The first item on our Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice easter egg list comes from a first act cameo that has already been confirmed during this weekend’s news blitz. When we pick up with Lois Lane at the beginning of the film, she’s on assignment in Africa and accompanied by a photographer that we later learn is a CIA associate. That undercover agent turned out to be none other than ace photographer for the Daily Planet, Jimmy Olsen. Confirmed by Zack Snyder himself, Michael Cassidy played the role this time out, and we’ll be seeing more of him in the forthcoming Ultimate Cut.
A Fitting Epitaph
"If you seek his monument, look around you." It’s a somber statement that sums up everything Superman meant to Metropolis, which finds itself scrawled upon his memorial site in the city that he loved. The hidden meaning behind the quote is, quite possibly, even more astounding than its presence itself. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is not only furthering the thematic connections between the Man of Steel and Jesus, they’re also paying tribute to the man who in some ways built the city into something greater than it once was. We say this, because the quote comes from the inscription of the monument to famed architect Sir Christopher Wren, who was best known for, "rebuilding 52 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666." In the face of destruction, both men rebuilt in the name of something higher, and the world will forever remember their efforts.
Lex Luthor’s Prison Inmate Number
After being apprehended by the FBI in a deleted scene, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice sees its mad villain, Lex Luthor, being taken into custody and locked away. Amidst the shaving and preparations that our boy millionaire has to go through to be entered into the system, he picks up an interesting inmate number: "16-TK-421" While the "16" could very easily be a reference to the year that the film was being released, "TK-421" is either an infinitesimally odd coincident, or more likely it’s a classic film reference to 1977’s Star Wars. In George Lucas’ legendary Sci-Fi film, TK-421 was one of the guards overseeing the detention block on the Death Star that housing Princess Leia.
Questionable Graffiti
Riddle me this, riddle me that: who left the convenient graffiti during the battle between Supes and the Bat? If you look closely during the sequence where Batman is wielding his Kryptonite spear in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, you’ll see that the location the two towering titans are fighting in is riddled with graffiti. One such article of wall art just happens to be a question mark on one of the columns in the building. Since we’re in Gotham City for this fight, there’s a good chance that Edward Nygma is afoot, and he’s left his calling card to tell the audience that it’s only a question of when, not if, he’ll return to the cinematic fold.
Ralli’s Diner
Making an honest living through her career as a waitress, we see Diane Lane’s Martha Kent working her trade at Ralli’s Diner, a location that’s a minor part of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Of course, it isn’t long before Lex Luthor finds this out, and sends some goons to abduct the adoptive mother to the last son of Krypton. Which is interesting, considering this is the second time Lex has left his mark on this location - albeit it’s the first time we’ve such an incident on film. The other scenario comes from a one-shot story entitled "Metropolis 900 mi.," where the millionaire spends a good amount of time mentally evaluating and manipulating a waitress by the name of Jenny. So if you want a good mind game with the criminal mastermind himself, or just want a burger somewhere quiet and out of the way, Ralli’s Diner is the place to eat!
KGBeast
Throughout the course of events in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Lex Luthor has the help of some rather shady characters. As it turns out, one of the more infamous foes in DC Comics history was one such associate of Luthor’s in the film: Anatoli Knyazev, better known to you as KGBeast, played by actor Callan Mulvey . Knyazev was seen throughout the film as the man who was helping Luthor with deeds such as smuggling in the large chunk of Kryptonite from the downed World Engine, as well as keeping Martha Kent in captivity during part of the film’s climactic finale. Though we’re lead to presume he’s dead after his incident with the flamethrower, his character ends up having cybernetic enhancements in the comics, which could easily resurrect him in future film installments.
Senator Patrick Leahy
You may be a Batman fan, but you’re probably not a bigger acolyte of the Caped Crusader than Vermont’s Senator Patrick Leahy. By day, he’s a law-maker hailing from the tip-top of the eastern part of the United States. But by night, and since 1995’s Batman Forever, he’s had roles in every major motion picture featuring Gotham’s finest – save for 2005’s Batman Begins. His latest role came to us in a pivotal moment of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’s history, as he plays Senator Purrington - one of the colleagues serving on the Senate subcommittee being led by Holly Hunter’s Senator June Finch. Without going into too much detail, it’ll be interesting to see how Leahy will pop up in any future installments of the Batman franchise.
Several Watchmen Alums
Before he became entangled with the DC Cinematic Universe’s first tier properties, Zack Snyder directed a comic adaptation from another corner of the company’s canon: Watchmen. Much like any other director, Snyder has a sort of repertory company of actors that he likes to reuse throughout his projects, chiefly among them is actor Carla Gugino. Not only has Gugino starred in Watchmen and Sucker Punch for Snyder, she’s also the voice of the ship-board A.I. in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, reprising the role she originated in Man of Steel. Also, both Patrick Wilson and Jeffrey Dean Morgan are featured as the President of the United States and Thomas Wayne, respectively; though Wilson is a vocal cameo – and possible stepping stone to the further DC Universe. Dean Morgan, on the other hand, is clearly visible, and connects the film to another popular property.
We’ve already mentioned that Jeffrey Dean Morgan, the man who will be debuting this weekend as the infamous Negan, plays Thomas Wayne – father to Bruce, and husband to Martha. But looking at who was cast to play Martha Wayne makes us think that either Zack Snyder was watching a lot of The Walking Dead while he was busy crafting Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, or someone’s agent overheard the right phone call and pounced into action. Lauren Cohan, better known as Maggie on AMC’s ratings juggernaut, is the woman who is married to her would-be cable TV adversary, in the moments up to her impending cinematic demise. Something tell us the two won’t be as cozy when they meet on TV.
