Mission Impossible: Fallout items you’ll only notice by watching them more than once

You may recognize Simon Pegg, who plays tech-turned-field agent Benji Dunn, from his role as Scotty in the new Star Trek movies. At the start of Mission: Impossible – Fallout, the writers seem to be tossing a little Easter egg for Star Trek fans. You will find this in the scene where Benji confirms that the plutonium the IMF team is trying to buy is the real deal. Benji brings a piece of metal to the plutonium core and identifies it as a “beryllium rod”, which reacts with the plutonium, causing a jump in the Geiger counter app that Benji has on his phone.

“Beryllium” may seem like a Star Trek reference, but avid sci-fi fans might recognize that it’s actually taken from Galaxy Quest, the cult classic parody of Star Trek. Galaxy Quest has a key plot point involving the acquisition of a “beryllium sphere” to repair a damaged spaceship. It’s easy to make a mistake, as Galaxy Quest is an ode to the positivity of the Star Trek fandom.

Or perhaps in “Fallout” the writers were just trying to achieve some scientific plausibility: beryllium has many uses in nuclear science due to its “neutron multiplication ability” (via Taylor and Francis online).