Some People Are Just Realizing There's a Hidden Movie Inside 'The Simpsons'

The Simpsons is synonymous with Easter eggs, from messages to the audience to secret nods to creators and hidden recipes—but many fans of the animated series have been amazed to learn on social media that an entire movie is hidden across seasons two to four.

A full-length McBain film, starring fictional actor Rainier Wolfcastle as the character, can be followed in its entirety within the early seasons of the longest-running American sitcom.

First discussed online over a decade ago, the movie was brought to light once again by the account @criminalsimpsons on X, formerly Twitter, sending the internet into a frenzy. The poster even joked: "It's the MCU (McBain Cinematic Universe)."

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In a thread posted on X on July 8, they shared each scene and which episode it came from. The post quickly gained traction, with over 5.7 million views to date and amazement among social media users.

The first installment can be seen in season two episode "The Way We Was," where former cop McBain, a character seemingly inspired by action heroes like Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, finds evidence of Senator Mendoza's drug cartel activities. After confronting his boss and getting kicked off the force, McBain retaliates by throwing his captain out of a window.

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Just three episodes later, in "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?", a second installment appears. McBain and his partner Scoey pursue Mendoza independently, but tragedy strikes when Scoey, nearing retirement, is killed by an assassin meant for McBain, leaving the former cop vying for revenge.

Executive producer, and showrunner during those early seasons, Al Jean told Newsweek: "The McBain movie was originally pitched by Sam Simon, Mike Reiss and me with Jeff Martin for Jeff's script 'O Brother Where Art Thou' (title a reference to Preston Sturges). A little later, Sam, Mike and I were writing our own script, 'The Way We Was,' and we thought, hey, we enjoyed that McBain clip so much let's put it in our episode too.

"Like anything that got positive feedback on the show, we returned to it many times more, each time satirizing a different stock scene from the action/Schwarzenegger films that were popular at the time. We also added Rabbi P.I. to the pilot of The Critic [Al Jean's other TV series]."

The McBain journey continues in episode "The War of the Simpsons," where McBain is on the hunt for a larger gun, destroying the police manual when he is reprimanded by his captain.

For a while, the trail goes cold on the McBain story, but in season three's "Saturdays of Thunder," McBain ambushes Mendoza during a meeting, only for him to escape using a drugged salmon puff.

More than two years after the first episode featuring the McBain subplot aired in February 1991, the climax of the plot occurred in season four's "Last Exit to Springfield" in March 1993. Mendoza makes another attempt on McBain's life, but McBain survives and storms Mendoza's high-rise headquarters, throwing him out of a window.

The McBain character has continued to crop up throughout the world of The Simpsons, and may have even inspired a real-world McBain movie in 1991.

"We also brought the character back to the 2007 The Simpsons Movie, but called him Arnold Schwarzenegger," Jean said.

"There was an extremely lengthy discussion about whether or not the average movie fan was aware of the McBain character Rainier Wolfcastle, and in the end we made it actually Arnold. Finally, I believe there actually was a movie titled McBain that came out after, no connection to us, starring Christopher Walken."

Responding to the X thread, one user said, "I never knew this....i remember them, but didn't put them together.....my mind is blown."

Another replied, "Wow. How did I never notice this?"

A third user said, "The real question is why they never turned this into its own tv show or a one shot film."

The hidden McBain movie from the early seasons of the much-loved show is just one of the elements of The Simpsons that has people talking as they continue to notice Simpsons predictions about the future, from the new X logo to the Titanic sub disaster.