10 Things You Didn’t Know About HOT FUZZ

If there’s one thing the writers behind the Cornetto film trilogy love, it’s Easter eggs. Seriously, each film in the series—Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End—is absolutely brimming with secrets both obvious and hidden. Shaun of the Dead is so particularly chock-full of these hidden gems that a search about them will lead you to article after article revealing these secrets.

However, the second film the series, Hot Fuzz, has received the same amount of widespread love. Sure, its acclaim is well-documented—a 91/100 from critics at Rotten Tomatoes isn’t anything to sneeze at—but what about the Easter eggs within this brilliant take on action films? That’s where this post comes in. Below you’ll find ten of the best things you probably didn’t know about Hot Fuzz. It should be noted that if you haven’t seen this movie yet—um, why haven’t you?—you should do that before reading the remainder of this article.

1. Its Other Name(s)

The oft-quoted Shakespearean line of “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” holds true here. No matter what it was called, Hot Fuzz would be just as enjoyable from start to finish. That being said, would more people have seen it if they went with the original title of Blue Fury? What if they then opted to keep the second “t” in “Hot” as was once planned? The world may never know.

2. All The Cameos

There are almost too many cameos—Cate Blanchett, Steve Coogan, Bill Nighy, etc.—to name. But the best? That’s easy: Peter Jackson, without question. Need a reason? Fine: He played none other than Father Christmas, the knife-wielding maniac dressed like jolly ol’ Saint Nick. As noted on the Picturebox blog in a post about blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em cameos, Jackson’s turn as Santa Claus includes him “stick[ing] a knife through Simon Pegg’s hand” with a nasty look in his eyes. Yes indeed.

3. The Ice Cream Wrapper

Of the various themes running throughout the Cornetto trilogy, one that sticks out in this movie is the ice cream wrapper’s colour. You see, Shaun of the Dead‘s wrapper is red while The World’s End features a green one. As for Hot Fuzz—it’s blue. Hmm, maybe the Blue Fury name would have worked better in this case, though the protagonists being the boys in blue makes the colour perfectly suitable.

4. The Ice Cream Dialogue

It’s not just the ice cream wrapper’s colour that’s an Easter egg in this movie. It turns out that the frozen treat itself is part of an unintentional recurring joke from Shaun of the Dead. In that film, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s characters are hanging out and the question of “Do you want anything from the shop?” comes up, with “Cornetto!” being the response. Well, the same thing happens in Hot Fuzz, albeit under very different circumstances. Hat-tip to Fun Trivia’s post about the film for the heads-up.

5. All The Action Movies

Bumbling police officer Danny Butterman is an absolute action movie fiend with a collection that rivals that of any actual movie shop. And instead of buying copies of all the films on their own dime, the folks behind Hot Fuzz (namely writer Edgar Wright) used their own collection to put on display in Danny’s apartment. Unfortunately for Wright, it’s been reported that his copy of King Kong was stolen from the set.

6. Moms Aplenty

Here’s another set of cameos, though not done by people who are particularly famous so it deserves its own spot. There’s a scene where you see three judges involved with picking the award for Village of the Year. It turns out that two of them are closer to the film that you may be able to guess. Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg were able to get their mums onboard to take on the roles. As for the other judge? Actor Peter Wild.

7. No Smiling (Until…)

The main character in the film, Nick Angel, isn’t exactly the happiest guy in the history of cinema. In fact, he’s quite the snarl-wearing bad ass who’d rather take down a gang of criminals than do anything remotely fun. That’s probably why it was decided that he couldn’t smile for almost the entire first half of Hot Fuzz. He doesn’t grin, even the slightest, until 47 minutes in.

8. The Villains Are, Well, Villains

Did you recognise any of the villains from Hot Fuzz because they weren’t just famous actors but villains in previous films? There’s a good reason for that. The “bad guys” were cast in such a way because they played similar roles in the past.

9. A History of Police Sirens

Hot Fuzz doesn’t just pay homage to (and poke fun at) action movies from the past few decades. It turns out that the team behind the soundtrack wanted to have a lil’ historical fun with the opening portion of the movie, too. The police sirens that you hear in the intro are actually a collection of sirens used from different periods of time.

10. Non-accidental Accidents

There are numerous references to the typos made by journalist Tim Messenger and the small-town newspaper that employs him. For example, protagonist Nick Angel’s last name is spelled incorrectly (Angle) in a feature article. However, one of the typos was apparently done on purpose. According to a quite comprehensive list on Film School Rejects, the “bypass” error was done deliberately. Interesting.