An easter egg is a hidden object or idea in film and television that is just for the hardcore or more observant viewers. Here are some of the most secret and popular easter eggs of all time!
Many thanks to all the Redditors who responded. Check out more answers from the source at the end of this article!
1. R2D2 and C3PO appearing as hieroglyphics in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Lancetastic
2. In Fight Club where Edward Norton and Brad Pitt are in the public bus, and they are mocking the advertisement with the topless man in it.
The topless man was actually Brad Pitt himself.
monsterrooster
3. I think it was in “Coming to America” when Eddie Murphy’s character is trying to hide his wealth while dating this daughter of the McDowell’s boss. He has a wad of cash on his person while he’s with her and stuffs it in a fast food bag and hands it to a homeless guy.
The homeless opens the bag, finds the money, and wakes up the other homeless guy he’s with. After some dialogue (where it becomes evident the second guy was pissed off at the first) they get excited and say “Don’t you realize what this means? We’re back!”.
The two bums were the wealthy villains from “Trading Places” who got a bum (Eddie Murphy) to take over the life of a rich stock broker (Dan Akyroid).
Organs
4. The pizza planet truck is in almost every Disney Pixar movie.
MrCool1995
5. My favorite has to be in Jurassic Park when they’re getting on the helicopter to fly to Isla Nublar. Grant goes to buckle his seatbelt and realizes he has two ‘female’ ends instead of a ‘male’ and ‘female’, so he improvises and ties the two ends together to strap himself in. One of the major plot points in the film is that we eventually learn that the all-female dinosaurs are able to change their sex and reproduce. Seemed like such a silly, out-of-place gag at first, but it was actually really clever.
spraynard_krueger
6. In The Evil Dead 2, when Ash’s hand gets possessed and he cuts it off, he puts a bucket over it, using books to weigh the bucket down so the hand doesn’t crawl away.
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The book at the top of the pile is “A Farewell To Arms”.
Nomsfud
7. Iron Man 2 had a few good ones. My favourite was at the beginning when they introduce Rhodey, played by a different actor (Don Cheadle) to the first movie (Terrence Howard), and he says something like “It’s me, and I’m here, so get over it and move on.” He said it to Tony, but the line was obviously directed at the audience, telling them to deal with the change.
Time-Traveller
8. Michael Jai White who plays Spawn in the 1997 movie, and Gambol in The Dark Knight.
As Spawn he becomes agitated with Clown, played by John Leguizamo, and yells “ENOUGH from the clown!”
As Gambol in The Dark Knight when the Joker comes in and proposes he man-up and kill Batman, Gambol slams the table and yells “ENOUGH from the clown!”
vampfredthefrog
9. In The Emperor’s New Groove, after dumping the llama poison in the cactus, the next shot shows the cactus as llama shaped. Subtle, but hilarious.
DrakeMcCoy
10. In Back to the Future the doc and Marty are at a parking lot of a mall called Twin Pines Mall. When Marty escapes the terrorists by going to the past of that parking lot, he runs over one of two small pine trees there.
When he returns from the past the sign at the mall reveals the name of the mall is now Lone Pine Mall.
MurkLurker
11. There’s one in LOTR:FOTR when they all meet Galadriel, and she’s giving everyone gifts. She asks Gimli what he wants, and he asks for a single hair from her head, and she gives him 3. When Gimli tells Legolas she gave him 3, he gives this really mysterious smile like he knows something we don’t. This is what he knows: in the Silmarillion, some other famous elf (I haven’t read it so I don’t know who) asked the same ages ago but she said no. So one of the greatest elves to ever live was denied a single hair, but a dwarf was given 3.
UnholyDemigod
12. When George Takei has his first appearance in the TV show Heroes as Hiro Nakamura’s father, we get a short glimpse at the licence plate of his limousine: NCC-1701
Geschichtenerzaehler
13. The oranges in Godfather: As in, whenever they are around, someone is about to get whacked (even when Tony Soprano gets some orange juice in one episode of Sopranos, there is an attempt on his life).
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I think it has been stated that this was a tribute to “A Clockwork Orange”. But I always held out hope that it was a nod to how the Italian Mafia began, as protection for orchards back in Sicily. But this is probably overplaying the importance of that protection and the role of the orchards of the time.
BIllyBrooks
14. I love seeing all of the Pixar stuffed animals in Boo’s room.
duvey420
15. The pineapples in Psych. There is one in every episode.
rescue2113
16. Tarantino’s universe, and how most movies relate in some way or another, e.g. Lee Donowitz from True Romance being the son of Sgt. Donowitz from Inglorious Basterds.
Ciriacus
17. It’s not my favorite, but a pretty recent one was in a new Superman movie during the final fight. I’m sure many of you noticed it too. Superman is thrown/punched into a construction site and hits a “Days since last accident” sign knocking off all of the numbers except 0.
I thought it was pretty cute and not too obnoxious, even if it was a little out of place.
MechaMurcutio
18. Anchorman. A sign outside a restaurant that says “escupimos en su alimento”, which means “we spit in your food”.
pic-
19. Not sure if this is really an “egg”, but in Shawn of the Dead the character Ed explains the whole plot of the movie while he tells Shawn what they are going to do to get over his GF dumping him.
CravenBoomstick
More easter eggs on the next page!
20. In Django Unchained, the man in the bar that is talking to Django and Schultz and saying something like Django? I know in response to Django saying his name – is Franco Nero, the original Django from -66.
Sort of like how Bo Svensson – from The Inglorious Bastards – was in Tarantino’s The Inglorius Basterds.
Kaospassageraren
21. This is more of a cameo, but I still find it fits the criteria of an Easter Egg. In a scene from the the movie “Maverick” starring Mel Gibson, Maverick is in a bank when it gets robbed, and the lead robber is using a bandana to cover his face, when Mel seems to recognize the robber and pulls down the bandana, revealing that it’s Danny Glover. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover played partners in Lethal Weapon. I got so excited and was like “YEEEAH” when I realized it. The best part is at the end of the scene, Danny says “I’m getting too old for this s–t.” Classic Lethal Weapon Line.
SaggitariutJeferspin
22. 30 Rock: Jack is out with Liz Lemon and her family. Her father, Dick Lemon, offers to pay and Jack tries to take the bill. Dick says, “It’s on me. Wouldn’t be a Lemon party without old Dick.”
I almost choked on my soda.
mightycow
23. In Doctor Who with Matt Smith, when he has a blue bowtie, he’s not in his correct timeline, but when he’s shown with his red bowtie, he is.
hershall
24. There’s an episode of Star Trek where the characters from The West Wing are all listed as officers on a crashed vessel.
JJJJShabadoo
25. All the little things they slip into How I Met Your Mother.
A few I can think of off the top of my head:
Scene in the Future with Future Marshall: There’s a framed newspaper article behind him. It’s about him finding the Loch Ness Monster.
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Marshall is a big believer in criptids (things like Bigfoot.)
An episode about emotional baggage shows people walking around a city block in New York in front of a theater, all carrying their baggage with a label showing what it is. At least three of them read “Slept with Barney.”
Patius
26. Tasha Yar was killed in Star Trek the Next Generation by the tar monster but that episode was filmed before her last one. She waves goodbye in her last scene ever filmed.
Anonymous
27. Apparently in My Name Is Earl, whenever they have the Mexican woman yelling in Spanish, she’s really saying stuff completely irrelevant to the scene such as “And so concludes the 1st season of My name is earl!”
Anonymous
28. Every episode of Futurama has one joke that the writers write intentionally so that less that 1% of the audience actually get the joke.
CaptainRandus
29. The subtle placement of the words “ARM OFF” several times over in the episode of Arrested Development where Buster loses his hand.
bachrock37
30. Obviously well known around these parts, but blue meth being among the drugs in Merle’s stash on The Walking Dead was worth a chuckle.
Jensaarai
31. Don’t know if this is an easter egg, but when the FBI disclaimer/warning comes up in Fight Club, it is not the usual text you’ll read. Mr. Durden is at it again.
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“WARNING: If you are reading this, then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second of your life. Don’t you have other things to do? Is your life so empty you can’t honestly think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed by authority that you give respect and credence to all who demand it? Do you read everything you’re supposed to read? Do you think everything you’re supposed to think? Buy what you’re told you should want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job, start a fight, prove you’re alive. If you don’t claim your humanity, you will become a statistic. You have been warned. — Tyler”
Carstin
32. Don’t know if it qualifies as an ‘easter egg’ but while rewatching Inglourious Basterds the other night, I caught a very nice little move by Tarantino.
When the Basterds have captured some Germans and bashed the leader to death, Wicki the German born member is translating between Aldo and the German private. During that scene, a yellow leaf has gotten stuck on the front of Wicki’s shirt, and stays there virtually the whole time. It essentially looks exactly like the yellow star that Jews were forced to wear. Nice bit of symbolism by Tarantino.
Anonymous
33. Right before every murder scene in The Departed, there is a clear X somewhere in the frame.
kevindemand
34. In the movie Kick-Ass, when the two girls in the movie are still under the impression that the main character is gay and they are talking in the comic book shop, they suggest Scott Pilgrim VS The World to him.
EggSauce
35. Probably my favorite of all time was in Predator 2…when the Predator returns to his ship to add a skull to his trophy case where we can clearly see an Alien skull hanging on the wall.
It’s a shame they did such a lousy job eventually tying the two franchises together on the big screen.
Anonymous
36. At the end of Dodgeball when they win the $5 million, the front of the treasure chest says “Deux ex Machina”, which is a Latin phrase that means “God from the Machine”. It is a plot device where some previously unknown figure or object comes in and solves the problems in the movie/story. The Greeks generally used gods to resolve the plots of their plays, since the gods can get away with anything because they’re gods. In Dodgeball the $5 million is the deus ex machina, since it solves all the plot problems (the money they owe the bank, the money to buy Ben Stiller’s gym) very conveniently. I think the writers of that movie were brilliant for doing that. I think they’re also making fun of themselves a bit because a deus ex machina is typically used to help the writer escape from a corner he has written himself into.
Anonymous
37. In “Dumb and Dumber”, had Lloyd ever gotten together with Mary, her full name might have been Mary Christmas.
seebs