Trivia for
Hot Fuzz (2007) More at IMDbPro »

• Simon Pegg had weapons training in preparation for his role as Nick Angel, and also learned how to skid a bicycle properly along the way.
  
  
• Nick Frost is in fact a West Ham fan and apparently hated wearing the Bristol Rovers shirt.
  
  
• The combination for the lock of the Evidence Room is 999, the same as the telephone number of the police (and other emergency services) in Britain.
  
  
• Lead character "Nicholas Angel" was named in homage to Nick Angel who worked as music supervisor for this film as well as Shaun of the Dead (2004).
  
  
• Throughout the film, Sergeant Angel uses a Vauxhall Astra Diesel and a Subaru Impreza WRX. The Subaru's markings are "HF" obviously referring to the film title.
  
  
• The fruit machine appearing in the village pub is the same "Ooh Ah Dracula" fruit machine that appeared in The Winchester in Shaun of the Dead (2004).
  
  
• Simon Pegg lost over two stone (28 pounds, 13-ish kg) in preparing for the role of Nicholas Angel.
  
  
• The code name "Dead Right", which the film was shipped to British cinemas with, is actually the name of a short amateur film that Edgar Wright wrote and directed, when he was a student.
  
  
• The judges for the Best Kept Village competition near the end of the film are played by Peter Wild and the mothers of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg.
  
  
• Although Bill Bailey plays two different Sergeant Turners they both wear a uniform with service number 101 - even when they are appearing in the same scene.
  
  
• Nicholas Angel's service number is 777, this is often seen as the mark of God just as 666 is seen as the mark of the devil.
  
  
• Sampson the dog (who played Saxon the dog) was not allowed to become a real police dog as he was considered too friendly.
  
  
• The fictional "Norris Avenue" is named after Chuck Norris.
  
  
• An early draft of the script included a love interest for Nicholas named Victoria. She was cut from later drafts, but her dialog was given to Danny, often without any changes.
  
  
• The only person in the film to call Nicholas Angel "777", his service number, is Timothy Dalton, who played Agent 007 in The The Living Daylights (1987) and Licence to Kill (1989).
  
  
• The names of the townspeople of Sandford are almost all words for occupations or activities: Cooper, Porter, Turner, Shooter, Prosser, Hatcher, Paver, Butcher, Skinner, Fisher, Walker, Thatcher, Weaver, Roper, Tiller, Reaper, Messenger, Staker, Treacher, Cocker, Blower, Draper, Merchant.
  
  
• This is Joseph McManners first feature film. Unfortunately, the huge back story behind his character was left out of the final cut and can only be found in the deleted scenes on the DVD.
  
  
• When Danny is putting the DVD back in the supermarket before leaving to chase the thief, the DVD visible in the basket is called "Zombies Party" and it is the Spanish release of the Shaun of the Dead (2004). Simon Pegg's face on the cover is obscured by the price label.
  
  
• The blackboard on the bar during the shootout at the pub says "2 shooters 4 the price of one" whilst the couple that run the bar are behind shooting at Angel and Danny.
  
  
• Nick Frost got so attached to his Winchester shotgun during filming he named it "Emma".
  
  
• The character of Simon Skinner was originally called Stephen Stockwell.
  
  
• When in costume Nick Frost and Simon Pegg often were assumed to be police officers. Many strangers asked them for directions and instead of telling the truth they went along with it. They claimed it made them feel powerful.
  
  
• In their DVD commentary, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg revealed that they fully expected the intentional misspellings of newspaper headlines to turn up in the IMDb's 'Goofs' section.
  
  
• Before Somerfield was chosen to feature in the film, writers originally made a fictional store chain called "Summeraisles" referring to the island in The Wicker Man (1973) also starring Edward Woodward.
  
  
• In the scene where Timothy Dalton raises his glass to the "memory" of Eve and Martin, Dalton very briefly looks into the camera. Director Edgar Wright liked it so much he synchronized the sound of a cash register "ching" at the same time.
  
  
• In contrast to being used during the movie as the stereotypical first name in the phone book, the character named "Aaron A. Aaronson" is in fact the last one listed in the credits.
  
  
• When Simon Skinner passes the blown up house "Fire" by 'The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown' is playing in his car.
  
  
• In Shaun of the Dead (2004), Nick Frost's character Ed is said to have shot his sister in the leg with an air rifle. In this film he shoots the doctor in the leg with an air rifle.
  
  
• For its premiere at the AFI DALLAS film festival, the film was introduced by action star Dolph Lundgren who was in town directing his movie Missionary Man (2007).
  
  
• When Timothy Dalton's character drives up to Simon Pegg's character after the "traffic collision" involving the actor and actress who appeared the night before in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," his car stereo is playing the Dire Straits song "Romeo and Juliet."
  
  
• Bill Bailey plays two different characters in the film. One of the characters reads "Complicity" by Iain Banks, while the other reads two novels by Iain M. Banks. They are in fact all written by the same author (Iain Banks), the "M" simply shows that the books are science-fiction rather than normal fiction. (One of the Iain M. Banks books is "The State Of The Art"). This split is clearly supposed to symbolize differences in the two characters' personalities.
  
  
• Had an 11-week shooting schedule.
  
  
• Sandford, the "fictional" setting for the film, is the name of the town used as the setting for all police training role plays.
  
  
• Somerfield is a real UK supermarket chain, and all of the exterior scenes were shot at one of their stores. Edgar Wright chose to use it as he worked there as a shelf-stacker as a teenager, and in a nod to this, he makes a blink-and-miss-it cameo as a shelf-stacker in the Somerfield store.
  
  
• To indicate how behind the times Sandford police station is, the sound of a very old Apple Macintosh startup tone is heard in the background. This startup tone hasn't been played by any Mac for more than ten years.
  
  
• At a Q&A session following a screening of the film in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Edgar Wright revealed that the film featured disguised cameos by two Oscar winners: Cate Blanchett and Peter Jackson. Jackson appears as the Santa Claus who stabs Nick Angel through the hand during the opening montage, and Blanchett appears masked as Angel's ex-girlfriend who is a Scene of Crime Officer (SOCO), which is the Metropolitan Police's term for an officer who collects and processes forensic evidence at the scene of a crime (roughly analogous to a CSI).
  
  
• Whilst doing research for the film, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg discovered that a disproportionate number of police officers were named either Nick or Andy, which led to the character names of Nicholas Angel and the two Andys. The Angel part of Nicholas Angel was named after the film's music director, and the joke where the local paper misspelled Angel's name as "Angle" was based on several incidences where this happened to him.
  
  
• According to the director, actor Paddy Considine sneaked two Robert De Niro impressions into the movie, the first a facial mug in the incident room during Angel's "Murder rant", the second during the final stand off in the pub.
  
  
• When wearing his Reverend's costume, Paul Freeman was approached many times by strangers assuming he was from the cathedral.
  
  
• The desk sergeant is reading "Complicity" by Iain Banks, which is about a series of cruel, if rather fitting, killings.
  
  
• 27 different sirens including a wailer, a bell, and a whistle were mixed together for the siren at the start of the film.
  
  
• Pegg and Wright interviewed many real police officers while doing research for the film. Many lines in the film such as "I prefer to think my office is out on the street" came directly from those interviews. The stylized scenes of Nick doing paperwork were inspired by the officers noting that paperwork is a huge part of the job but it is never depicted in cop shows and films. The visual style was inspired by Tony Scott's films.
  
  
• When Wright discovered that Chris Waitt's (Dave) line needed to be redubbed, Wright did the looping himself because he was short on time and it was quicker than scheduling a session with Waitt.
  
  
• The picture of a young Danny is a real picture of Nick Frost as a child.
  
  
• Pegg and Wright also prepared for the film by studying Roger Ebert's "Bigger" Little Movie Glossary.
  
  
• The oft-mentioned character of Sgt. Popwell was named after Albert Popwell who appeared in most of the "Dirty Harry" films.
  
  
• Jim Broadbent was a big fan of Pegg and Wright's Shaun of the Dead (2004) and asked them for a role in their next film. They wrote the part of Inspector Butterman for him.
  
  
• According to the DVD's trivia track, the N.W.A. is a reference to 80's rap group N.W.A. which featured Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and Eazy-E.
  
  
• Danny's DVD collection is made up of the entire combined collection of director Edgar Wright, his brother Oscar Wright and his friend Joe Cornish. .
  
  
• Before filming the lay-by scene, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost reportedly had an argument. Pegg claimed Frost was getting cocky and making the ADs get him coffee, whereas Pegg wanted him to get his own. As a result they took four hours to do that scene and they didn't talk to each other at all except when acting.
  
  
• According to his certificates, among the 9 special commendations Sergeant Angel received were awards for Operations Shakedown, Crackdown, Showdown, and Takedown.
  
  
• According to the front of his test booklet, Sergeant Nicholas Angel took his Police Constable's exam in 1995, 12 years before the film is set.
  
  
• Simon Pegg also became attached to his Mossberg shotgun and named it "Sarah".
  
  
• Elements of the film are taken from a film Edgar Wright made when he was 18-19 called "Dead Right". The film is featured on the 3-Disc Collector's Edition of Hot Fuzz.
  
  
• The place where Angel is going to live is located on "Spencer Hill", which is probably a reference to Bud Spencer and Terence Hill, one of the funniest movie couplings ever, and who featured in many films during the 70's and 80's.
  
  
• In a deleted scene that can be viewed on the DVD, Angel and Inspector Butterman are having a conversation, where Butterman mentions the word 'exacerbate', and continues to explain the meaning of that word. Angel replies that he knows what 'exacerbate' means. This is a nod to Shaun of the Dead (2004), where Shaun (also played by Simon Pegg) did not know what 'exacerbate' meant.
  
  
• Rory McCann plays a character called Michael Armstrong, a reference to the director of the controversial witch hunting film Hexen bis aufs Blut gequält (1970).
  
  
• Another nod to Shaun of the Dead (2004) is when Nicolas Angel says "What's wrong, Danny? Never taken a shortcut before?" then he leaps over a series of fences with flair. In Shaun Of The Dead during a similar scene, Shaun says "What's the matter David? Never taken a shortcut before?" in an identical tone, then tries to leap over a series of fences, however this time he falls over the first fence, and breaks it.
  
  
• With the exception of 'Armstrong' and 'Butterman', everyone pictured having a mugshot taken has a surname ending in 'er'.
  
  

• SPOILER: Throughout the first half of the film, Danny asks Angel a number of annoying questions like "Have you ever shot two guns at once while diving through the air?" to which Angel responds "No - you've been watching too many cop movies! The job isn't like that." Then in the second half of the film, every single thing that Danny has asked about, Angel has to do. He does shoot two guns while leaping through the air, etc. The only thing that Nicolas doesn't do is shooting into the air and screaming. Danny does that. Also, when the police crew are in the pub (on Nicholas' first day), the Andies mention that in small towns everybody carries a firearm, especially farmer's and their mothers. Not only are they correct (at least in Sandford), but the first people who shoot at Angel is a farmer and his mum.
  
  
• SPOILER: When Angel and Butterman are discussing the first four victims, trying to figure out how they might be connected, Angel actually says what the ultimate motive was in each killing. The head of the Drama club was a terrible actor, his young lover had a "distinctive laugh," the reporter was a bad speller, and the rich land developer had an ugly house.
  
  
• SPOILER: During the early scene of Nicholas Angel jogging in his first morning in Sanford, all of the NWA members can be seen standing in the same positions they later stand in for the 'final showdown'.
  
  
• SPOILER: Although Angel shoots his firearms many times, he actually hits only two people. The rest of the people are either hit by an object that Angel shoots, or they are shot by Danny.
  
  
• SPOILER: During the climactic confrontation between Sergeant Nicholas Angel and the Sandford citizens, Angel walks in slow motion while surrounded by birds. This is a trademark used by action director John Woo in such films as Mission: Impossible II (2000), Face/Off (1997) and Yi dan qun ying (1989), the action of diving through the air while firing two guns.
  
  
• SPOILER: It's said that a swan can break a man's arm with it's wing. At the end of the movie, having been made to crash by the swan in the car, you can see Jim Broadbent's arm in a sling as he's loaded onto the ambulance.
  
  

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