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!
One of David Fincher's greatest surprises came in the form of a movie about Facebook, who would have guessed? In the film, the director provides a nod to his past work in a slight, albeit awesome, way. Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) creates a fake Facebook page to cheat on an art assignment. The fake name he uses is Tyler Durden, Brad Pitt's character from Fincher's FIGHT CLUB.
It's one of the less subtle eggs out there, but because I had never seen this movie until a month or so ago, it was new for me and actually pretty awesome. At some point during McG's CHARLIE'S ANGELS Drew Barrymore becomes naked and lands in someone’s yard. I bet you're wishing you finished watching it on cable now!
Director McG chose the yard on Lonzo Street in Tujunga, California because it's the same yard where Elliott first met E.T. in 1982's E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL. Barrymore played Elliott’s five-year-old sister, Gertie in the film and now 18 years later she’s returned. There is also the E.T. poster in clear view and what looks like an E.T. doll on the TV. The kids seem to be pigging out on a bowl of Reese's Pieces, a sleepover favorite apparently.
A sweet little egg that makes all kinds of sense moments later occurs when Anthony Michael Hall is being dropped off at the beginning of John Hughes' THE BREAKFAST CLUB. He's referred to as "The Brain" later on, so it's no surprise that his license plate reads EMC2, also known as Einstein’s theory of relativity (E=MC2).
Try and wrap your head around this one. In this Steven Spielberg directed sequel we are given two fake movie posters inside a Blockbuster (remember those?). One poster is for a Robin Williams version of "Jack and the Beanstalk", which could be a strange sequel to the Williams movie JACK released a year before, and a Schwarzenegger version of "William Shakespeare’s King Lear". The King Lear movie is a little more obscure given that it references a lyric from the brilliant Spielberg-produced cartoon Animaniacs! The song had this gem of a lyric: "But ‘Paramount hurts and they’re losing their shirts’ means Schwarzenegger’s doing King Lear."
One of the most relevant songs about Hollywood, there are so many truths in here:
Got a cool Easter Egg discovery? E-mail us at: eastereggs@joblo.com with any you'd like to see featured in future columns!