Sunday, March 27, 2016

A Geek Daddy's 10 Favorite Easter Eggs From Last Year

When I think of Easter Eggs it normally isn't the decorated holiday decorations that come to mind but rather the inside jokes and references that are often hidden within movies.  Whenever we add a new movie to our family's home video library, I always enjoy going on an Easter egg hunt to find these hidden tidbits within a film.  As an Easter treat here are ten of my favorite discoveries from the last year:

10.  THE MARTIAN



When a group from NASA secretly works to save a stranded astronaut on Mars they call their effort Project Elrond in a reference to the secret mission that is the heart of the plot for The Lord Of The Rings.  Also actor Sean Bean has major parts in both movies.

 9.  JAMES BOND: SKYFALL



The Mi6 safe house location in the film is hidden behind a storefront that says "Hildebrand - Prints and rarities - Established 1953, London" which is a reference to James Bond creator Ian Fleming's  collection of  five short stories titled For Your Eyes Only which included one called The Hildebrand Rarity.  

8. STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

While rummaging through the Millennium Falcon, Finn comes across the training orb used by Luke Skywalker from when he trained with Ben Kenobi during his first voyage on the ship. A nice homage to the original Star Wars movie. 

 
7.  ANT-MAN

While watching the Ant-Man scenes within Hank Pym's house keep an eye out for shrunken items sprinkled throughout the house from the scientist's experiments.  One of the items to look out for is a little red chair that is a reference to Pym's first comic book appearance in Tales To Astonish where he shrinks this chair to test his invention before using it on himself.


In another scene of the movie the character Darren Cross during his speech introducing the Yellow Jacket militarized shrinking suit jokes about Hank Pym saying "an Ant-Man sounds like tales to astonish" referencing the Marvel comic book series in which the Ant-Man and Wasp characters were first introduced.  Hank Pym first appeared in Tales To Astonish #27 and the Wasp joined him in his adventures beginning with issue #44.

6. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

The movie references a popular character from past Mad Max films, Gyro Captain, in a gruesome scene.  When the Road Warrior is captured by the War Boy's one of the captors is hoisting a totem that has a human skull mounted at the top wearing the Gyro Captain's cap and flight googles.  Alas it appears this is the end of the road for the Gyro Captain in Mad Max films.



5.  FANTASTIC FOUR

When the Johnny Storm character is introduced in the movie there is a hint to his future fate hanging from the rear view mirror of the car he is racing -- A Super Mario Fire Flower which spits out flames in the video game.



4.  JURASSIC WORLD

 Jeff Goldblum may not have appeared in Jurassic World, but the book God Creates Dinosaurs (written by his Jurassic Park character  Dr. Ian Malcolm) is shown in the movie during several different scenes.



3.  AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

When Tony Stark needs to replace JARVIS at the end of Age of Ultron to help him control the Iron Man suit he considers several alternate AI programs to use including versions called Friday, Jocasta and Tadashi.  Friday is a reference to an AI secretary used by Stark in Marvel's comic books; Jocasta was a robot built by Ultron as his wife in a comic book story arc; and Tadashi refers to the character that created the Baymax robot in the Disney animated movie BIG HERO 6.





2. INSIDE OUT

Disney / Pixar films are know for being filled with Easter eggs, especially ones with clues to upcoming movies, and INSIDE OUT is no different with references to The Good Dinosaur and Finding Dory.  In one scene you can see an image of Nemo on the box for a board game called FIND ME in a tease for the upcoming sequel.  There is also a scene where Riley's family car has a run in with a dinosaur tale to tease The Good Dinosaur.



1. FURIOUS 7

While the Rock's character is staying in the hospital he's watching a football game that features footage of his real life self (Dwayne Johnson) playing as a defensive tackle in a Miami Hurricanes versus Florida State Seminoles game.




So what are some of your favorite Easter Eggs from movies that you've stumbled across?

14 comments:

  1. I am sad to say there were only 3 movies on your list I saw and they were all Disney related. Yes I know i need to catch up.

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  2. I loved all the Disney/Marvel/ and Star Wars easter eggs. It is fun to watch the movies and look for little gems like these :)

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  3. Now I feel lame. We made Yoshi (from Mario) eggs. I thought they were pretty cool, though :)

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  4. Love all the disney movies....they are the best!!

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  5. You have a good eye! I seem to watch right through all of these easter eggs and not notice! I need to pay better attention ;)

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  6. I stumbled upon the movie The Wiz and I just cant get enough of it. I must check Ant-Man out.

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  7. Lol, I also have only seen three of these movies. I had not noticed any of these tidbits!

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  8. This is awesome! I love the idea of these insider jokes as "Easter eggs," and will have to go watch them again to find them!

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  9. I have never thought to look for "Easter Eggs" in movies but I've heard that Disney is famous for them. I'll now have to look a lot more closely from now on.

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  10. Gosh, I would have never caught these! Those Pixar movies always have some clever ones.

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  11. I only saw the Martian on this list but I really loved it. Good list for Pixar and sci fi fans here.

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  12. Ha, that's fun to see them here. I don't think I noticed a one! I didn't see Star Wars yet, but I do want to see it.

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  13. We don't celebrate the Easter bunny so I like your version of Easter eggs much better than the traditional definition. It was fun to check out your colletion.

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  14. I love Easter Eggs too! They are so fun to look for, especially in Disney movies

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