Last Updated on August 5, 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 hidden 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**
TRON – Oh hey, Pac-Man
Two year's into Pac-Man's life and he's already landing cameos in major movies like TRON, you have to respect that. In the movie we are watching Sark yell orders while looking at his control screen on the battle cruiser. The screen is full of dots and we see Pac-Man munching away at nothing; the poor bastard looks stuck. You can even hear the familiar sounds of the game below the dialogue.
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN – Think of the children!
If someone told me to watch the end credits of a Harry Potter movie to see two wizards getting it on, I’d tell them to pop off. In PRISONER OF AZKABAN, Harry gets the magical Marauder's Map to see the location of everyone inside Hogwarts, and here see two very close pairs of feet. It’s a pretty clever gag; I’m just not sure I’d want to meet the person who put it there.
JURASSIC PARK – Buckle up Doctor
During the helicopter ride to the park Dr. Grant can't get his seatbelt to work. He even goes for it three different ways and still can’t the two "female" ends of the seatbelt to connect. He eventually "finds a way" and gives us one heck of a smirk to ease our concern. This brilliant egg is a huge piece of foreshadowing as we later learn that the scientists controlled the dinosaurs' breeding by only cloning females. But like Grant, they find a way around that.
If you're still lost, watch this guy take us to school on the matter:
FIGHT CLUB – Coffee is a hell of a drug
Did you know there as a Starbucks cup visible in every scene in FIGHT CLUB? It’s mental I know, but it’s true. The movie appeared in this column before and likely will again as it’s packed with Easter eggs, and this is a big one. One of the many messages provided in the film is the effect of corporate branding, and being a slave to it and so on – you saw the movie. According to director David Fincher, coffee is in all the scenes of the film, it’s usually subtle but it’s there and it’s usually Starbucks.
In a 1999 interview for Empire magazine, he explained that the reason why Starbucks is everywhere is because it’s EVERYWHERE. Starbucks in their infinite wisdom allowed for the use of their name except for one scene where Fincher wanted to destroy a one of their stores outlet with a giant ball. Damn.
When I first moved to LA in 1984, you could not get a good cup of coffee in Los Angeles to save your life. I mean, it was really pathetic. Then Starbucks came out, and it was such a great idea: good coffee. And when it became successful there were, like two or three on every block. It's too much of a good thing. But they read the script, they knew what we were doing, and they were kind of ready to poke a little fun at themselves. I mean, they wouldn't let us use their name on the coffee shop that gets destroyed by the piece of tragic corporate art, but they were willing to give us the rest of their stuff. We had a lot of fun using that – there are Starbucks cups everywhere, in every shot … I don't have anything personal against Starbucks. I think they're trying to do a good thing. They're just too successful.
TOY STORY – Hello, Sid. Come and play with us.
Pixar movies are famous for their Easter eggs, but as you know, they are usually aimed at their own movies. It turns out, the people behind TOY STORY really love THE SHINING and added more than a few eggs for us to find. In the first TOY STORY look at the carpet in Sid's house, it’s the same as in the Overlook Hotel. The director of TOY STORY 3, Lee Unkrich, is apparently a huge fan of THE SHINING and runs his own fan site.
Unkrich explains his obsession to Vulture:
I saw it when I was 12, in 1980, for no particular reason other than that it was a new film in theaters. My mom took me to see it. She’d taken me to see a few bad horror films that had affected me really deeply in terms of having chronic nightmares. But still, that didn’t stop her from taking me to see this one. And it turned out to be the best move she ever made — because it began this 32-year love affair with the film. It was the film that inspired me to become a filmmaker myself.
There are also two references to room 237 from THE SHINING, in TOY STOY 3, Trixie's chat friend's username is Velocistar237, and Sid's garbage truck's license plate reads RM237.
Got a cool Easter Egg discovery? E-mail us at: [email protected] with any you'd like to see featured in future columns!
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