Film Review: 8 Movie Easter Eggs You (Probably) Didn't See

Easter movies - they're few and far between, and so, when I was asked to put together a list of Easter inspired films, I decided to go for something a little different. Being a massive nerd, I thought I'd put together a list of my favourite hidden movie secrets and inside jokes you may have missed...

I've always been a little obsessed with spotting movie mistakes and hidden treasures. Whilst this list could be never-ending, to celebrate the Easter bank holiday weekend, I thought I'd share some of cinema’s most incredible and often mind-blowingly detailed Easter eggs. To get you all watching your screens super closely, here’s 8 of my most favourite eggs you (probably) didn't notice...

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The Coen Brothers are the kings of movie Easter eggs. One in particular can be found in Fargo. If you're a Coen Brother's fan, you may have noticed the name Roderick Jaynes often appears in their credits. Jaynes is famed for having edited nearly every Coen Brother title and has been nominated for two Oscars for Best Editing in Fargo (1996) and No Country For Old Men (2007). Rather hilarious given that Roderick Jaynes doesn't exist. Feeling vein that their name already appears as writers, directors and producers, The Coen Brother's made up Roderick to hide the fact that they edit their own movies. If you've seen Big Lebowski (1998) or more recently, Hail, Caesar! (2016), you'll spot Roderick's name as an extension of the Coen's sense of humour.

The Coen's also played around with their credit sequence with Fargo when they used the logo for the artist formerly known as Prince to credit 'Victim in the Field'. Of course, it wasn't actually Prince in the cameo role but storyboard artist, J. Todd Anderson, who found the whole thing very funny.

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The opening montage of Watchman features a ton of Batman references which, if you blink, you might just miss. Most obvious is the old-school Batman posters on the wall outside a theater. Then on the top-left of the notice board, we can clearly see the word 'Gotham'. Furthermore, the production showing at the theater is said to be 'Die Fledermaus' which translates literally as “The Bat.” If you want to take it even deeper than that, there are many-a-rumour that the villain Night Owl is punching is none other than Joe Chill from the DC Batman series. The startled-looking couple on the left who appear to be making a getaway, are Mr. and Mrs. Wayne which means that the Batman we know and love, cannot exist in this DC Universe. Nerd overload.

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We all know that David Fincher is another director famous for Easter eggs and Fight Club is certainly no expection. Besides Brad Pitt's character, Tyler, appearing several times before he's introduced and the literal dick flashing, there's also a coffee cup in every single scene. Whilst some are more subtle than others, Fincher says they're definitely there.

In an Empire Magazine interview back in 1999, Fincher explains that the reason why the coffee cups (and more specifically Starbucks cups) are everywhere is to make fun of the saturation of Starbucks outlets in New York. This is made all the more amusing due to the irony of it all; a corporate brand in a movie about rejecting the empty corporate branding. Better yet, Starbucks actually agreed to have their branding in the film and, having read the script, were in on the whole thing. They towed the line, however, at Fincher wanting to destroy a Starbucks store with a wrecking ball. 

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OK so absolutely everybody probably knows this by now but it doesn't stop it being one of my favourite Easter eggs. Pixar are reowned for making adult jokes and references in their movies and, undeniably, one of the most fun references is Lee Unkrich's obvious obsession with The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980) in Toy Story 3. Unkrich, actually runs a site entitled The Overlook Hotel, containing tons of imagery and behind-the-scenes knowledge about the Kubrick film. He insists that he started the site "purely for selfish reasons" and had been collecting memorabilia and information from classic film for years. Furthermore, Unkrich was also one of the filmmakers who helped fund the Room 237 documentary (now available on Netflix).

So where are these many references? Well if you spotted Sid’s carpet in Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995), you may have also noticed the same Overlook Hotel carpet pattern is replicated with the tissue box in Toy Story 3. The radio (seen above) is also identical to the one used in the iconic hotel, whilst a rubbish truck’s license plate reads “RM237" and Trixie chats online with a dinosaur toy who happens to have the screen name “Velocistar237.” God I love Pixar.

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Mel Gibson’s sprawling Mayan adventure film, Apocalypto, may have received mixed reviews back in 2006 but it does make for some pretty good Easter eggs. Besides Gibson making a very brief cameo himself, 'Where's Wally' or 'Waldo' appears for single frame at 01:31:34 of the film - lying on the pile of dead bodies. Whilst there doesn't seem to be any actual artistic or symbolic meaning behind this, other than the fact that Gibson is as mad as a box of frogs, it still makes for a pretty cool though utterly random egg.

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OK, time for another obvious one. Fans of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas will already be aware of the pair's constant cross referencing to each other's films - Indiana Jones being the least subtle of them all. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, as well as the airplane in the opening scene named 'OB-CPO' (homage to Obi-Wan and C3PO), Star Wars hieroglyphs are also dotted around the set. If you zoom in on the left of Harrison Ford, an R2D2 and C3PO are clearly visible.

Other examples of the cross overs can be seen in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in which ET recognizes Yoda from a child's trick or treating costume and cries "home, home!". Lucas repays the favour on many occasion; in particular in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, featuring members of E.T.'s race present in the Galactic Senate.

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For spoiler purposes, I'm not going to show imagery for this particular Easter egg but X marks the spot in The Departed. In Final Destination style, Martin Scorsese actually reveals the plot to his film ahead of the action; giving us a subtle hint as to which of the characters will die. If you watch (or re-watch) very carefully, you'll see that there are at least fifteen different 'X' symbols that appear throughout the film. Whether it's created by the tape on a elevator wall or across a broken window, each of these signpost when a character is about to die. This pays homage to 1932's Scarface (Howard Hawks, Richard Rosson), in which a black X appears to reveal a character's imminent death. Pretty cool, huh?

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Last but not least is a good old fashioned TV to film crossover. Director, JJ Abrams has always had an eye for details and so it's no surprise that he used Cloverfield to slip in some classic eggs. The Dharma logo, as seen in the television series, Lost, is visible at the start of the film and is just one of the many Easter eggs dotted throughout. Dharma (or the Department of Heuristics and Research on Material Applications) is a whacky research project and, being featured in conjunction with Cloverfield, brings about theories that they could have something to do with the creation of Cloverfield monster.

At a Cloverfield Q&A, Drew Goddard (a screenwriter and co-writer for Lost) expressed that every detail on screen was intentional. When pressed if this same logic applied to the flashing of the Dharma logo and if there was a connection between Lost and Cloverfield, he stated somewhat eagerly, "Maybe."

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So there you have it for another unbelievably nerdy film post. If you were aware of any of the above, congratulations - you're just as much of a dork as me. What are your favourite movie Easter Eggs? Did you spot any of the hidden gems I've mentioned above? As always, I love reading your comments so please do leave me lots of lovely ones below.

Until next time, hope everyone has a fantastic Easter bank holiday weekend!

Disclaimer: This post was created in collaboration with Panasonic. All content and opinions are that of my own.