Our Favorite Movie Easter Eggs: Austin Powers, Terminator 2, and more!

July 3rd 2015, 12:17am

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

These days, part of the fun of watching a movie in theaters or at home with the ability to freeze frames, is finding the Easter eggs hidden within. For the history buffs out there, the origin of the cinematic Easter egg dates back to THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. Supposedly one day on the set, the cast decided to have a traditional Easter egg hunt, as you do, but some of the eggs were never found and actually appeared in frames of the movie! So if you’re obsessed with finding hidden messages, jokes, and ways to make you look smart in front of your friends, check out these Easter eggs!

Understandably some of these have been around for a while, but some may be new to other readers; there’s no expiration date on sharing so enjoy and have fun!

POSSIBLE SPOILERS

STAND BY ME – $2.37

Rob Reiner‘s STAND BY ME is based on the short story by Stephen King titled The Body. It’s one of my favorite movies and I’ve probably seen it at least fifteen times. This egg managed to slip past me though and I’ve seen all of King’s adaptations and read most of his work. In the scene when Gordi is counting the money collected for a food run, the amount comes $2.37.

That number might seem familiar because in THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION Red’s cell number was 237. The cursed room in THE SHINING was 237. Connections!

THE ADDAMS FAMILY – Crazy train

THE ADDAMS FAMILY is one of my favorite comedies and this is my favorite scene in the movie due to over-the-top ridiculousness. When Gomez is playing with his trains and trying to make them crash, at one point he looks inside and laughs like a maniac at a mini passenger. That passenger happens to be Barry Sonnenfeld, the film’s director.

AUSTIN POWERS IN GOLDMEMBER – How you really feel

When Dr. Evil and Mini-Me are sentenced to 400 years in prison, you can see scrolling across the bottom of the screen some breaking news reports on CNN. They read: “Toronto is the Best City in the World”, and, “Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup”. Now they haven’t won the cup since 1967 and I would argue Toronto isn’t the best city in the world. But it’s Canadian boy Mike Myers’ movie and he can do what he wants.

TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY – Or check an almanac

Miles Dyson is the man who would go on to invent neural-net processor which would lead to the development of Skynet and unknowingly bring about Judgement Day. In T2 he’s confronted during an assassination attempt by the hands of Sarah Conner, and it was pretty messed up for someone who was told he was instrumental in the end of the human race.

In the scene, Dyson’s son is shown wearing a Minnesota Twins cap, the baseball team that won their first World Series in 1987 (a few years after the first film was released/set). The pitch that took them to victory for them in the final was thrown by Jeff Reardon – whose nickname was “The Terminator.”