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There really isn’t anything more fun than Easter Eggs that filmmakers sneak into their movies. Often it’s in tribute to past work, or to other things they admire. Sometimes they even reference real-world events. We collected a bunch of our favorites, so let’s get into them! Tell which ones you knew about and which ones were unseen until now.
The Spinal Tap Hat In The Princess Bride
The story behind director Rob Reiner sneaking his hat from This Is Spinal Tap! into The Princess Bride is that Mark Knopfler, who did the soundtrack for the fantasy movie, only agreed to do the movie if Reiner got the hat into a scene. He did, by hanging it on the wall in Fred Savage’s character’s room.
Avengers Comic In The Electric State
In a blink-or-you’ll miss-it moment, there is a quick call back a previous Russo Brothers‘ movie in the Netflix original film, The Electric State. A robot can be seen reading an Avengers comic.
R2-D2 In Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
Steven Spielberg paid tribute to his good buddy George Lucas in his film Close Encounters Of The Third Kind by adding a little R2-D2 to the underside of the alien ship. It can be seen very briefly as the ship takes off.
The Duke Brothers In Coming To America
In Trading Places, Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd‘s characters take down the Duke Brothers and leave them broke. A few years later, in Coming To America, Eddie Murphy’s character Prince Akeem hands a homeless man a wad of cash. The bum turns out to be Mortimer Duke, who shakes his brother Randolph awake, and they celebrate being back.
Pac-Man In Tron
Disney’s Tron broke a ton of new ground with CGI use, and in the first wave of the video game craze, it makes sense they would find a way to work in Pac-Man, the biggest video game of the character at the time, and really the first video game superstar.
The HMS Surprise In Deadpool & Wolverine
There are a ton of Easter Eggs in Deadpool and Wolverine, many of them when the characters land in the void. One of the most subtle, and one of the funniest, has to be the HMS Surprise from Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World, a movie that many people are sad wasn’t turned into a franchise. Or maybe this wasn’t an Easter Egg? There is a debate that it could be a fake.
Ezekiel 25:17 In Captain America: The Winter Soldier
You wouldn’t think a Marvel movie would reference a Quentin Tarantino film, but that’s what happened in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. At the end of the movie, the audience sees Nick Fury’s “grave,” and on the tombstone, there is a quote from Ezekiel 25:17, which, of course, is where Samuel L. Jackson’s Pulp Fiction character gets his famous speech in the opening scene.
Binford Tool Box In Toy Story
If you weren’t a big fan of Home Improvement, the reference to the sitcom in Toy Story would be easy to miss. In the show, Tim Allen’s character’s show-in-a-show “Tool Time” is sponsored by Binford Tools. In Toy Story, Allen’s character is seen trying to move a Binford Tools toolbox.
Club Obi-Wan In Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom
Of the many times Steven Spielberg has made reference to Star Wars, the most fun might be in Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom. The name of the club at the beginning of the movie, as seen as Indy jumps out of the window, is “Club Obi-Wan.”
E.T. In Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
George Lucas paid a tribute to Steven Spielberg in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. During the scene in the Galactic Senate, one group of diplomats appears to be from E.T.’s home planet. It’s good to know that everything was represented, even aliens in other universes.
Jimmy Buffett With Two Margaritas In Jurassic World
This is really more of a cameo than an Easter Egg, but it’s kind of both. Sitting in Jurassic Park’s Margaritaville is none other than the man who wrote the song and opened the first restaurant, the late, great Jimmy Buffett.
Goya’s Portrait Of The Duke of Wellington In Dr. No
This has to be one of the best Easter Eggs ever. In the very first James Bond, and one of the best of the Sean Connery era, Dr. No, James briefly pauses to examine a painting in Dr. No’s secret lair. The painting is a portrait of the Duke of Wellington by Francisco Goya. In the real world, that painting had famously been stolen the year before the movie came out, and at the time, it was missing. It seems Dr. No had it.
Starbucks Cups In Fight Club
This one is wild. Fight Club is a lot of things, and on one level, it’s a pretty harsh critique of capitalism. As part of that, director David Fincher made sure that Starbucks cups appeared in every – or at least many – scenes in the movie. They are all over the place, and next time you watch it, you’ll see them, we promise.
A Cowbell In The Jungle Book (2016)
Now this one is great. Director Jon Favreau seems to have snuck a great reference to a classic Saturday Night Live episode into his live-action version of The Jungle Book in 2016. When Mowgli visits King Louie, he bangs on a cowbell to summon the king. King Louie, of course, is voiced by Christopher Walken, who starred in the famous “more cowbell” skit on SNL.
Lou Ferrigno In The MCU Movies
One of the coolest things about the Hulk-centered movies in the MCU is that Lou Ferrigno gets his due. He famously played the superhero in the 1980s, of course. Getting his due in the modern movies is a fantastic tribute.
A Xenomorph Skull In Predator 2
Many years before they would meet in Predator V. Alien, it was established that the two franchises existed in the same universe. In Predator 2, there is a very clear Xenomorph skull on the wall in a trophy room of the team of hunters.
Steven Spielberg really loves making sly references to the Star Wars franchise in his movies. In E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, there is a kid dressed as Yoda on Halloween, and very briefly, you can hear Yoda’s theme music from Empire Strikes Back. E.T. recognizes Yoda, but is pulled back before he can speak to him.
Batman V. Superman In I Am Legend
This one is wild. In I Am Legend, there is a billboard in a post-apocalyptic Times Square advertising a “Batman vs. Superman” movie. Legend came out in 2007, a full nine years before Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice came out. Of course, the idea of a team-up between the two giant DC comic characters goes way back, but still, it’s almost like I Am Legend predicted the future in a movie set in the future.
License Plate THX-138 In American Graffiti
George Lucas’ breakout movie was American Graffiti, and he found a way to work the name of his first movie, THX-138, into the movie set in the fifties. It appears on a license plate in the movie. Lucas has snuck it into most of his movies since, as well.
The Millennium Falcon In Spaceballs
Spaceballs is one of Mel Brooks’s best movies. It’s a parody of Star Wars, and Brooks manages to pay direct tribute to the epic space opera by sneaking in The Millennium Falcon at the end of the movie. As the main characters pull into the space truck stop, they park their RV right next to it. Sadly, Han and Chewie aren’t seen inside the diner.
OB-3PO In Raiders Of The Lost Ark
This is one of our favorites. Lots of people are aware that Steven Spielberg snuck R2-D2 and C-3PO into the hieroglyphics in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but did you know that wasn’t the only tribute? The tail number of the plane at the beginning of the movie (the one with the snake in the seat) is “OB-3PO,” referencing Obi-Wan and C-3PO.
Douglas Adams’ Face In The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy
Towards the very end of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, the filmmakers pay quick tribute the Douglas Adams, the author of the beloved “trilogy” the movie is based on. The face of the late writer is seen very briefly as the ship swings around to head to the restaurant at the end of the universe.
Rango’s Shirt In Rango
Johnny Depp voices the character Rango in the movie of the same name, and throughout the movie, there are a few references to one of Depp’s other classic movies, Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas, most notably Rango’s shirt, which is the same as Depp’s character wears in Fear & Loathing.
A113 In Every Pixar Movie
One of the most famous Easter Eggs in movies has references to room A113 in almost all of the Pixar movies. Room A113 at California Institute of the Arts is where many of the artists and animators at Pixar studied in college, and they add it into the movie as a tribute to their education.
The Tesseract In Iron Man 2
The first time The Tesseract is properly introduced into the MCU is in the post-credit scene in Thor, but the first time it’s ever referenced was in the preceding movie, Iron Man 2, when Tony Stark is seen looking through his father’s journal is pauses on a drawing of the powerful object.
Hank Hill In Idiocracy
This one is really hard to catch, but it’s there. At the beginning of director Mike Judge’s Idiocracy, there is a family tree of the “idiot,” and there are dozens and dozens of photos of his descendants. One of those, if you look closely towards the bottom, just left of center, is none other than Hank Hill. Judge, of course, is also the creator of King Of The Hill.
Roald Dahl Original Text In The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Director Wes Anderson paid a wonderful tribute to author Roald Dahl, whose story he adapted for The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and included a little of Dahl’s original writing from the book.
Fire Marshall Bill In Liar, Liar
Jim Carrey had a lot of crazy ideas and nutty characters when he starred on In Living Color, and one of the most popular was Fire Marshall Bill. The idiotic fireman is seen very briefly in the background in Liar, Liar, and it’s, frankly, brilliant.
Huttese Language In Men In Black
It’s rare that you get an audio Easter Egg, but that’s what we get in Men in Black. As K is showing J around the Men In Black headquarters, K stops for a cup of coffee, and there is a cadre of aliens making the coffee. They are speaking “Huttese,” or the language of the Hutts, in the Star Wars universe. It’s a great little tribute.
Easter Eggs In The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Did you know that there are literal Easter Eggs in a few scenes in The Rocky Horror Picture Show? The lore surrounding the eggs is that the cast had their own Easter Egg hunt and they either left some on purpose, or failed to find a few, but there are at least three that can be seen in the “Time Warp” scene, including on top of the statue to the right of Frank’s throne.
The Race In Ready Player One
It feels a little like cheating by adding it to this list, since Ready Player One is basically one big Easter Egg. So we could mention dozens, but in the race alone, there is a Knight Rider car, Christine, The A-Team van, and a whole lot more.