When they are not too distracting, celebrity cameo appearances in movies are a nice treat for the audience, a bonus of sorts that gives viewers a little something extra to talk about after the credits roll. Directors will often reserve small roles for their favorite collaborators — or themselves — and athlete cameos are relatively commonplace whenever sports are involved.
We're currently in the golden age of character cameos, thanks in great part to the success Marvel Studios has had in weaving together its various superhero franchises into one cohesive, shared universe. There's likely to be many more to come from not only Marvel Studios, but from other studios in the business of making superhero movies — in fact, comic book guru Mark Millar was recently hired by Fox to help better interconnect the studio's X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises — but great character cameos can be found in just about every genre.
Nick Fury (Iron Man)
The appearance of Samuel L. Jackson as S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury at the end of Iron Man was initially, according to director Jon Favreau, little more than a nod and a wink to comic book fans, but it turned into the throughline of all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies and helped make The Avengers possible.
Image courtesy Marvel Studios
Logan/Wolverine (X-Men: First Class)
Hugh Jackman's cameo as everyone's favorite mutant in the '60s-set X-Men franchise sequel was one of the better kept secret superhero cameos in recent memory and one of the best. It not only helped to cement the fact that First Class is, in fact, part of the same X-Men universe as the previous movies and not some sort of pseudo-reboot, but it was easily the most true-to-the-comics depiction of Logan on film to date.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox
Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 "Terminator" (Terminator Salvation)
When a futuristic murder machine with Arnold Schwarzenegger's face tells you it will "be back," you should take it at its word. After the "Austrian Oak" gave up acting to Govern-ate over California, we never thought we would see a Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 (that's right, fanboys, it's not a "T-800" or "T-850" — those are the chassis numbers) again. Then... BOOM! In your face Bruce Wayne John Connor (Christian Bale).
Image courtesy of Warner Bros.
Ray Nicolette (Out of Sight)
In a rare showing of studio cooperation, Miramax Films allowed Universal Pictures to use a character that it owned the rights to without compensation and a great character cameo was born. Michael Keaton turned in a superb performance as the Elmore Leonard character Ray Nicolette in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown and then showed up as Nicolette less than a year later in another Leonard adaptation, Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight.
Image courtesy of Universal Pictures
T-1000 "Terminator" (Wayne's World)
Talk about doing a double-take! When Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers) is pulled over by the fuzz, he is terrified to find himself face to face with the liquid metal killing machine (Robert Patrick) that assumed the guise of a cop in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, apparently still searching for young John Connor.
Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures
Spock (Star Trek)
Leonard Nimoy's reprisal of Spock (credited as "Spock Prime") in J.J. Abrams' 2009 franchise reboot may very well stretch the definition of cameo, but it deserves inclusion because of its importance to the fans of the long-running sci-fi franchise. Nimoy has always been very protective of the character so his appearance in the movie told die-hard fans that it's okay to move forward with Abrams and company.
Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures
Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Thor)
If the thought of a unified superhero universe was only a "joke" in Iron Man, it was clear in Iron Man 2 that Marvel was moving in that direction. The studio still needed to see if audiences would get behind a long-haired "god" with daddy issues and an old-timey patriotic nerd on steroids before pulling the trigger on The Avengers, but it continued to plant the seeds for it with the appearance of Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton, a.k.a. Hawkeye, in a somewhat forced, but still cool, cameo in Thor.
Image courtesy of Marvel Studios
Captain Willard (Hot Shots! Part Deux)
Definitely ridiculous, but certifiably awesome (the cameo, not the movie), the meeting of Topper Harley (Charlie Sheen) with Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) from Apocalypse Now gives all new meaning to the word "meta," especially after the pair of characters reference the performances of the actors playing opposite them in Wall Street. See, toldja it was way meta.
Image courtesy 20th Century Fox
Tony Stark (The Incredible Hulk)
While it was most likely only tacked on to capitalize on the popularity of Iron Man, the appearance of Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man, at the end of The Incredible Hulk stoked the fires of fandom while making it clear that these characters all exist in the same shared universe.
Image courtesy of Marvel Studios
Kane (Spaceballs)
Long before the Scary Movie franchise and its many copies killed movie parodies by going for quantity of jokes over quality, comedy genius Mel Brooks gave us one of the best parody cameos ever by having John Hurt re-enact his chestburster death scene from Alien in Spaceballs. "Oh, no! Not again!"
Image courtesy of MGM
E.T.s (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace)
Best buds Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have made homages to each others' movies before (see R2-D2, below), but the appearance of several members of the race of aliens from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in the Galactic Senate in The Phantom Menace was one of the coolest as it is the only thing in any of the movies that ties Lucas' epic story about "a galaxy far, far away" to Earth.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox
HONORABLE MENTION
R2-D2 (Star Trek)
That loveable little droid from Star Wars really gets around. We recently saw him floating amidst spaceship debris in Star Trek, but he has also been spotted in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures