10 Awesome Easter Eggs From X-Men: Apocalypse

The X-Men have over fifty years of history in the comics, as well as a movie series that's 16 years old and still going strong (perhaps stronger than ever). As such, X-Men: Apocalypse is in a position to stuff itself silly with easter eggs, references and trivia. From the opening scene set in ancient Egypt – that calls back to classic film Land of The Pharoahs – to the final moments which will cause many an X-fan to squee with excitement, Bryan Singer’s ninth entry in the franchise is a celebration of the X-Men mythos, as well as a call back to other cinematic influences of the director’s. For instance, Storm watches the Star Trek episode "Who Mourns For Adonais?" at one point, which is about a powerful creature who thinks of himself as a god. Sound familiar? With an enourmous spoiler warning for those yet to see the movie, let’s take a look at 10 of the most awesome easter eggs to be found in X-Men: Apocalypse. If we’ve missed one, be sure to let us know in the comments section down below. 10) Angel X-Men: Apocalypse introduces a new version of Angel, who becomes one of Apocalypse's allies. Fans might remember though that a different Warren Worthington previously appeared in X-Men: The Last Stand (two separate versions exist thanks to the Days of Future Past reboot of the timeline). When we first see Angel, he's in a cage fight with another mutant we've seen before – the Blob, who turned up in X-Men Origins: Wolverine as played by Kevin Durand. Later, Apocalypse gives Angel metal wings, as well as an odd blue face tattoo. This is a reference to how En Sabah Nur’s power boost gives him blue skin in the comics. Finally, one last easter egg revolving around the character is the song that Angel is listening to when Apocalypse recruits him into his gang is the perfectly-chosen "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" by Metallica. 9) Magneto’s Family At the beginning of the film, Magneto has hidden away from the world by starting a family and living a normal life in Poland. However, tragedy strikes and both his wife and child are taken from him. This is largely borrowed from the comics where this event forms his origin story. Living in Ukraine, Magneto’s growing powers scare the locals into burning down his house – with his daughter Anya still inside. Due to her death, Erik unleashes his powers and kills them all. His wife Magda then runs away from him in fear. Though his wife’s name remains the same in the film, his daughter is named Nina. Unlike her comics counterpart though, she also has mutant powers – the ability to control animals. This is somewhat similar to both Lin Li AKA Nature Girl and Mirage (a character soon to appear in the New Mutants spinoff movie). 8) Four Horsemen Of Apocalypse Both Angel and Magneto become two of Apocalypse’s Four Horsemen in the movie, alongside Storm and Psylocke. Apart from Angel, the other three don’t have any real connection with the villain the comics, though they have been Horsemen in some form before. Storm and Magneto were Apocalypse’s Horsemen in the X-Men: Evolution animated series, while Psylocke served as a Horsemen when Angel become Apocalypse in the comics. This isn’t Psylocke’s first appearance in the films, either. Like Angel, she previously appeared in a minor role as one of Magneto’s Brotherhood in The Last Stand. Despite these two antagonistic appearances, she's actually usually a good guy – she’s the sister of Captain Britain. The character has been portrayed as both Caucasian and East Asian in the comics, so it's quite fitting that the part-American, part-Vietnamese Olivia Munn got the part. 7) Caliban And Jubilee A minor character in Apocalypse is a black market crook called Caliban who will locate mutants for a price. This is a nod to his mutant ability in the source material, in which he can sense and track other mutants. In the comics, Caliban is actually one of Apocalypse’s horsemen, which is probably why he appears in a small capacity in the movie. He also usually has a much more beastly appearance, which better explains why he's named after the creature from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Jubilee's another comics character who appears in the film... we assume. Though Lana Condor wears the character’s recognizable yellow jacket, her name is never actually mentioned, nor does she ever use her firework-like powers. In case you didn't realize, this is actually the fourth time the character has turned up (after cameo parts in each of the original trilogy), and she's still yet to be properly introduced. Poor girl. 6) Essex Corp/Proteus As with Days of Future Past’s post-credits scene, the end of Apocalypse sets up a villain for future films to deal with. Here, an employee of Essex Corp retrieves a vial of Wolverine’s blood from Alkali Lake. The scene is hinting towards Nathaniel Essex, AKA Mr Sinister. According to writer/producer Simon Kinberg, we could see him in either The Wolverine 3 or Gambit, or maybe both. Another villain who could also be on the way is Proteus, a reality-warping maniac. His real identity is Kevin McTaggert, the son of Moira. He was alluded to here when Moira mentioned that she had a boy called Kevin with her ex-husband. If the films take another decade jump, Kevin could be of an appropriate age to become Proteus next time around. 5) Weapon X Wolverine fans thrilled at his “surprise” appearance in the movie (it would have been a surprise if the final trailer hadn’t spoiled it) might have had their excitement turn to confusion when Logan turned up with a weird metal helmet on his head. Though it hasn’t been seen before in the films, this is a reference to the helmet he wears as Weapon X in the comics. Logan is also calmed from going all berserker by Jean Grey. This foreshadows the love story between them once Jean is grown up by the time of the original trilogy. That is if all that stills happens. Damn, Deadpool’s right – these timelines are confusing. While we're on the topic of original trilogies, the X-Kids watch Return of the Jedi at the cinema. Jean’s line when they walk out, that “the third one is always the worst,” is presumably a dig at Brett Ratner’s The Last Stand, which Singer is not fond of. 3) Dark Phoenix Bryan Singer has recently spoken on how he would love to tackle the Dark Phoenix Saga, and so there are many easter eggs in Apocalypse that suggest the Phoenix is Jean’s fate in this revised timeline, too. In particular, Jean's talk with Charles about being afraid of her powers and the eventual display of her abilities as a fire bird obviously point to the Phoenix Force. As well as the Phoenix references, there are a few other callbacks to previous X-Men movies scattered throughout. When Havok and Cyclops turn up at the X-Mansion, Charles is quoting The Once and Future King by TH White to his students. This is the same book that Magneto reads in his cell in X2. Likewise, Charles and Erik’s final conversation, in which the Professor warns “I feel a great swell of pity for the poor soul who comes to my school looking for trouble,” is lifted from their talk at the end of the first X-Men. 2) The Danger Room The final scene of the movie (another great moment spoiled by the trailers) finally gets the X-Men out of boring leather and puts them in much more comics-faithful outfits. Two of note are Nightcrawler’s red and black combo (which was also mirrored in the Michael Jackson-esque jacket he wore earlier in the film) and Cyclop’s blue get-up with yellow straps and a proper visor. Jennifer Lawrence has also finally been allowed to put some clothes on, as she sports a sleeveless white outfit. This matches the look of the original comics character, who didn’t have a tendency to walk around like her movie counterpart. This final scene also reveals that the old Cerebro chamber has become a training room for the students – fans will know that this is the Danger Room, last seen in The Last Stand. Professor X has also somehow got hold of some (presumably safe) Sentinels, of the kind that we saw in Days of Future Past. 1) Come The Apocalypse Apocalypse is a massive character in X-Men mythology – in more ways than one. One of his abilities in the source material is the ability to increase his size. This is alluded to in the battle of the minds scene, in which he is symbolically shown to be winning the fight against Charles’ psyche by growing to an enormous height. En Sabah Nur’s big speech about wiping the world clean (the one used in all the trailers) is also a callback to a prior version of the character. This time it is based on an incredibly similar speech given by Apocalypse in "Come The Apocalypse", an episode of the acclaimed X-Men: The Animated Series. In the show, he says “from the ashes of this world, I will build a better one.” In the film, it goes “from the ashes of their world, we shall build a better one.” Pretty similar, no?