Man of Steel Easter Eggs

I noticed a few Easter eggs that didn't seem obvious until I re-watched my Man of Steel BluRay.

The traditional whooshing sound heard as Superman does his very first flying around in the suit... If I'm not mistaken this is the same sound heard when the original Superman (played by George Reeves) flew in the black and white TV series.
The LexCorp truck that was beat up against by whomever it was; which was a reference to Lex Luthor (who did not appear at all in the movie)
The supposed face morphing when Superman flies in the beam of light... his face changing briefly to resemble the late Christopher Reeve...

Has anyone else noticed these, and by chance seen any others?

Best Answer

As apparently a "good" list question can exist, here we go!

Empire Online listed 15 Easter Eggs from the film. The following is almost directly lifted verbatim from the side, so I've put it all in a quotation block:

There’s a Keep Calm And Call Batman poster hidden in the final fight

The Utopia Casino sign hints towards another Superman villain... In the comics, the owner of the Utopia Casino was Tony Gallo, an unscrupulous businessman from Nevada involved in first bringing Superman into contact with Kryptonite

That very small Blaze Comics sign means more than you think... Sometimes there are comics within comics, and Blaze Comics are just that: comics within the Superman universe, best known for sharing the adventures of Booster Gold, a showboating one-time Justice Leaguer who rocks sweet yellow shades and the ability to time travel. Amongst other powers, he can also fly, but when you can travel through time, other superpowers tend to pale in significance.

Yes, that was a Wayne Enterprises logo on the side of the satellite

Richard Schiff’s Dr. Emil Hamilton works for S.T.A.R. Labs... In the comics, S.T.A.R. Labs is a research organisation blessed with a S.H.I.E.L.D.-like acronym (it’s short for Science and Technology Advanced Research, by the way).

There were more than a couple of LexCorp references ...The first (and most subtle) sighting of Lex Luthor’s conglomerate’s stranglehold is when Clark Kent is walking up to his family home after hitchhiking his way there. Hitchhiking on – you guessed it – a LexCorp truck...You then have to wait until Metropolis for more LexCorpery, with the petrol truck proudly boasting the bald baddie’s stamp, and the construction site where Zod and Superman battle flying the Luthor flag with a huge banner declaring “LexCorp: The Future Is Now!”

That opened sarcophagus was most definitely left in on purpose ...Off the back of the prequel Man Of Steel comic, many people have suggested this could be Supergirl, who could appear either in the sequel or as a spin-off.

There are many Smallville hat-tips, e.g. Pete Ross... In Man Of Steel, grows up to be the red-haired IHOP worker.

A definite shout-out to the series is the lingering shot on the sign for Sullivan’s Truck & Tractor Repair, which hints at Clark’s other close chum, Chloe Sullivan (played by Allison Mack). “Yep, that is from the show, the shop,” Snyder explains. “It’s funny, because with those kind of things I wasn’t trying to homage it too hard, but it’s in the mythology, so you have to give it a little bit of love.”

Elsewhere, Whitney Fordham is mentioned: in the show she’s a love rival for Lana Lang’s affections.

Weisinger Primary School is named after a much-loved Superman editor

There are many other miscellaneous allusions... The understatement-loving girl who says “He’s kinda hot” at the end of the film is called Carrie Farris, which seems like a hint at Carol Ferris, the Green Lantern’s other half (as played by Blake Lively in the 2011 movie).

Then there’s the shattered moon of Wegthor in the skies above Krypton. This is a nod to Jax-Ur, a Kryptonian sent to The Phantom Zone in the comics for accidentally firing a nuclear warhead at the originally spherical satellite. In Man Of Steel, Jax-Ur is the scientist assistant to Zod (played by Smallville alum Mackenzie Gray), and he’s the one who works out the Growth Codex is hidden inside Kal-El.

Smallville’s high school American Football team is named here as The Smallville Spartans, which is in honour of Zack Snyder’s 300.

And though Man Of Steel has garnered a reputation of being humourless, there are a few visual jokes you may have missed, including one when Superman is slung against a “106 days since the last accident” sign on a construction site and both the “1” and the “6” fall off, leaving… “0 days since the last accident.”