10 Most Spiteful Movie Easter Eggs Ever

The fifth and final film in the Dirty Harry series sees Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) pursuing a twisted serial killer who murders celebrities in order to manipulate a "dead pool" game.

One of the killer's victims is a high-profile San Francisco film critic by the name of Molly Fisher (Ronnie Claire Edwards), and given that much of the film is centered around Hollywood and filmmaking, the presence of such a character isn't at all out of place.

However, Fisher is actually a stand-in for real-life film critic Pauline Kael, who was similarly a famous San Francisco film reviewer and to whom Fisher bears a strong physical resemblance.

Kael had previously criticised the original Dirty Harry as a "fascist" movie and panned the other films in the series, so the decision was made to write a proxy of Kael into the franchise's final installment.

While most other movies on this list were a little more playful with their mockery, The Dead Pool actually kills Fisher off in a grimly protracted scene where the killer tells her, "A critic with a heart. That's a laugh."

This naturally flew over the head of most popcorn-gobbling audiences at the time, though it's actually an incredibly mean thumbing of the nose at someone who committed the "crime" of disliking a movie.