Do you want to go on an Easter Egg hunt with me in August?
Photo by Erik Witsoe on Unsplash
If you have seen Ready Player One or read the book you will know the significance of Easter Eggs.
In my teens, I became obsessed with Easter Eggs. Not the delicious chocolate ones but the hidden gems in films, games and other media. Least it was an obsession that didn?t result in hours at the gym.
Easter eggs are found in media such as computer software and films. Called Easter eggs because they mimic the idea of an Easter egg hunt to find them. They can be a hidden message, character or image. They are the programmers or directors little secret.
Be warned they are not easy to find. Number 10 in my list took me several hours of fast forwarding and rewinding. Watching the film a clip at a time before I saw it.
Here are my 10 favourite Easter eggs in films:
1 ? Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock was an English film director and producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. He was also one of the first directors to put Easter eggs into his films. This consisted of a small cameo appearance from himself. Out of the 52 films he made he appears in 39 of them.
In his most famous film The Birds, Hitchcock can be seen leaving the pet shop with two small dogs. These were actually his dogs in real life.
2 ? Melissa McCarthy & Ben Falcone
Melissa McCarthy is one of my favourite actresses. In the style of Hitchcock, her poor suffering husband Ben Falcone turns up in many of her films. His cameo appearances see?s him being treated badly by McCarthy?s character.
This tradition started early in their relationship. His first cameo appearance is in Gilmore Girls the show McCarthy made her name in. He plays a family member of Fran Weston the original owner of the Dragonfly Inn. While burying his family member Suzi McCarthy convinces him to sell her the inn.
3 ? Tron
Tron was one of my favourite films as I grew up. It is without a doubt one of those Easter egg?s you see and then have to rewind to check you saw right. During one of the scenes whilst they are looking at the grid of the game a tiny Pac-man is on the screen.
There are several other Easter egg?s in Tron which you can look out for including the famous Mickey Mouse. More about that later on.
4 ? Catch Me If You Can
This popular movie tells the true story of Frank Abagnale. Frank defrauded the government out of millions of dollars. The film starts both Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio. When Frank is arrested one of the officers is the real Frank Abagnale putting in a cameo appearance.
5 ? Raiders of the Lost Arc
This is a film that has many Easter eggs and web pages dedicated to showing you where they are. There is a large connection with this film and Star Wars and not the obvious, that they both star Harrison Ford. At one point Indiana Jones is holding up a gold artefact, one of the hieroglyphs on it show both C3PO and R2-D2
This is not the end of the collaboration between the two films. The Clone Wars have several references to Indiana Jones, including an appearance of the famous hat.
6 ? Hidden Mickey Mouses
I could dedicate a whole post to hidden Mickey Mouse in films. In most Disney films Mickey Mouse appears. In Tron, it is the shape of his head as they pass over a computer field. In Wreck-it Ralph he appears on a billboard in the background. Sometimes it is the full Mickey Mouse sometimes it is three circles in the shape of his head.
This however from Toy Story is one of my favourites. At the back of Andy?s wall, he has a watch clock with the picture of Mickey Mouse
7 ? Toy Story
Carrying on from hunting Mickey Mouse, Toy Story is another film filled with Easter eggs. The flooring in Sid?s house, when Buzz and Woody run home, is an exact replica of the flooring in The Shining.
My favourite Toy Story Easter egg is in film three. When the toys meet the bin man, it is in fact, Sid who is collecting the bins. He is even wearing the same skull t-shirt as he did in the first film.
8 ? Fight Club
Fight Club has an Easter egg that you can see every time that you watch it. However, you may have never noticed it. There is a coffee cup in every single scene of Fight Club. A Starbucks coffee cup to be exact. Go back and watch it and you will see although, some you have to look for.
In 1999 during an interview with Empire, the director explained. The cups were to make fun for the fact that that everywhere you looked there was a Starbucks coffee shop. In a movie that rejected corporate branding, it?s ironic that the director added these Easter eggs.
9 ? Star Wars Episode 1
I have to admit to this being my favourite Easter egg of all time. In episode one, the action starts with a council meeting. The pods are discussing the state of the federation. If you pause the scene and scan around in one of the pods you can see E.T and all his family.
10 ? Frozen
If you have children who watch films several times it is always helpful to have a few Easter eggs to look out for. This Easter egg took me an hour of searching to find. At Elsa?s coronation as the guests are coming through the door two of the guests might look familiar. Both Rapunzel and Flynn can be seen entering the palace. In the scene, Rapunzel has short hair as seen in the final scenes of Tangled.
The writers went further to combine the two stories. The trip that Anna and Elsa?s parent take at the beginning is to attend the wedding of Rapunzel and Flynn.
These are a few of many Easter eggs that are out there. Go on your own Easter egg hunt and let me know the best ones you find.
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