Rawson Marshall Thurber came up with the idea of Red Notice on the set for a different movie. While shooting the action thriller Skyscraper, another action thriller starring Dwayne Johnson, Thurber started making notes for a film that would combine his favorite genres -- heist, action adventure and comedy ⁠— all in one glossy package. “Films like Ocean’s Eleven, The Thomas Crown Affair and Raiders of the Lost Ark ⁠— I wanted to put them all into one thing if I could,” he told us. Given that meta Hollywood DNA, it’s not surprising that Red Notice is full of tributes to its cinematic ancestors. Some of them were built directly into the script by Marshall himself, while others emerged organically during filming as stars Johnson, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds got in on the fun. Below, Thurber walks us through the Easter Eggs you may have spotted on first viewing and points out a few that you’ll have to rewind a few times to catch. 

Titanic 

Anyone who’s engaged in a vigorous debate about whether Leo could have fit on that door (100%, yes) will catch the nod to Titanic in Red Notice. Nolan Booth (Reynolds) is sailing back to his home in Bali after a face-off with FBI profiler John Hartley (Johnson) in Rome, when you suddenly get a quick look at the name painted on the side of the boat: “We’re Gonna Make It Rose.” It’s a nod to the end of the 1997 James Cameron epic, when Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose DeWitt-Bukater are hanging off the bow of the doomed ship during the sinking. And you can thank Reynolds for the laugh.

“It wasn’t something I planned,” Thurber said. “I was trying to come up with something we could put on the side, and I texted Ryan. In two seconds it was: ‘We’re gonna make it, Rose.’ I couldn’t stop laughing, which is why you should put Ryan Reynolds in every movie you’re making.”

Raiders of the Lost Ark

If you listen closely as Hartley and Booth are going down the stairs to the secret Nazi bunker, you’ll hear the latter whistling the opening bars to the famous Raiders March, composed by John Williams for Steven Spielberg’s 1981 movie. He’s also wearing a pretty distinctive hat …

“[That was] something I came up with on the day,” Thurber said. “I pitched Ryan the idea, and he laughed and then nailed it. It’s a fun tip of the cap to Raiders. And then later, a few steps later, Dwayne runs his flashlight over a wooden crate, and it says Top Secret and has a specific number on it, and that’s the exact stenciling from Raiders of the Lost Ark; it’s the crate that holds the lost ark that’s put in the underground repository, never to be seen or found again.”

Voltron

The Ark of the Covenant isn’t the only prop you can spot in the jumble of treasures hidden inside the Nazi bunker. Thurber, a self-proclaimed “huge Voltron fan” also hid a replica of the Super Robot from the eponymous 1984 animated series.

“When our heroes are walking into the bunker, there’s about a frame and a half or two frames if you hit pause just as they’re walking down the aisle, one of the secret artefacts in the bunker is a foot-and-a-half Voltron toy,” Thurber said. “I had this cool sideshow collectible Voltron, and I just stuck it in the background. We’ll see if anybody spots it.”

Star Wars

Cue the scroll because this one’s from a galaxy far, far away. Towards the end of the movie, Hartley and The Bishop (Gadot) travel to Egypt, where they sell Cleopatra’s three golden eggs to a billionaire who wants them as a wedding gift for his daughter. When they’re brought out in a sumptuous golden litter at the nuptials, you may catch some out of place hieroglyphics on the sides.

“If you hit pause, you can spot ET, R2D2 and C3PO on some of the little hieroglyphics on the box itself,” Thurber said. “This is all basically me saying thank you to George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, who basically invented my childhood.”

Eyes Wide Shut

Villain Sotto Voce’s annual masquerade ball may not end with a secret society orgy (boo!), but the masked reference to the erotic 1999 Stanley Kubrick drama starring then-it couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman is unmistakable.

“The masquerade ball owes a lot to a bunch of different films,” Thurber said. “Eyes Wide Shut is the most famous, I think that might also be the only time a Stanley Kubrick film would be in the same sentence as a film that I made.”

James Bond

The 007 vibe permeates Red Notice from the very beginning -- what other movie franchise combines luxury, exotic destinations and action quite like James Bond? But the most specific wink comes at the very end, when Hartley and The Bishop are taking some well-deserved post-heist R&R off the coast of Sardinia. After a swim, The Bishop emerges from the ocean in a jaw-dropping bathing suit, climbs aboard, and gives her lover a kiss. No movie loves a seductive boat ending quite like a James Bond movie. At least 11 Bond movies, from Dr. No to Tomorrow Never Dies, close with Bond on a boat with a beautiful woman, ready to sail off into the sunset before his next adventure.

“We wanted to tip our cap to Bond,” Thurber said. “They do global action better than anybody.”

Wonder Woman 

The fight between Hartley, Booth and The Bishop in Sotto Voce’s display room is memorable for many reasons, not least of which is the way Gadot manages to high kick in a red evening gown. But if her fighting stance looked a little familiar, you’re not imagining things. Specifically, a moment where The Bishop fiercely holds up a spear recalls her performance as Diana Prince, aka Wonder Woman, in the 2017 Patty Jenkins movie of the same name.

“I think anytime you give Gal any sort of ancient weaponry, you’re sort of edging toward Diana,” Thurber said. “It wasn’t lost on us.”