20 Sneaky End Credits Messages You Probably Missed

12. Mission: Impossible III

It was only a matter of time before Lost started to insist on its presence in wider cultural reference points. We're talking serious levels of Nerd-ception here, with Abrams using his movie outing as an opportunity to link back to his most famous TV creation in a number of ways.

First off, the Mission: Impossible III weapon was called the Rabbit's Foot, probably referencing the frequent appearances and narrative importance of the same symbol in Lost, and other Easter eggs in the film suggest it may have been a product of PAIK Heavy Industries. The proof? Well, the PAIK logo appears in the movie on the building from which Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) retrieves the Rabbit's Foot.

That's enough for me, but if that doesn't do it for you, there's the Special Thanks message above suggesting the assistance of the Hanso Foundation, the financial power behind Lost's DHARMA Initiative. That of course fits with the suggestion in Lost that the Hanso Foundation and PAIK were collaborating on a shady project (in episode D.O.C. From season 3). So that's Abrams using a movie to potentially confirm a theory for a separate TV show, the clever little devil.

11. This Is Spinal Tap

"The band Spinal Tap is fictional. And there's no Easter Bunny, either!" Well, that first bit isn't necessarily true since the cultural phenomenon of the movie actually forced the existence of the band in very real terms (and there's very little chance any Spinal Tap fans will accept their fictional status), so maybe there's something in the Easter Bunny too...?