Easter Eggs aren’t always a tasty chocolate surprise left by a rabbit* – Rather, they are hidden items left by creators, artists, and craftsmen for others to (hopefully) find and get enjoyment.
Because it is Easter, I thought that I would make a series of Easter Egg posts for you to read whilst you make yourself ill on the edible ones.
The “eggs” I’m referencing can take many forms – from a simple message or image, a page of programmer credits, or a small video game hidden inside an otherwise serious piece of software.
Easter Eggs occur a vast array of places – architecture, movies, music, art, books and other places.
Church Mice
One of the most endearing “eggs” can been seen in thousands of houses and churches around the UK – These are known as “Robert Thompson Mice”.
Robert (Mouseman) Thompson (7 May 1876 – 8 December 1955) was a British furniture maker from Kilburn, North Yorkshire, where he made oak furniture.
It is claimed that the mouse motif came about accidentally in 1919 following a conversation about “being as poor as a church mouse”, which took place between Thompson and one of his colleagues. This remark led to him carving a mouse into a piece he was working on, and this remained part of his work from that point onward. Thompson went on to carve a mouse into almost every piece of furniture he made thereafter.
Movie Eggs
Movies are rich with hundreds of hidden eggs, possibly one of the most well known distributor of Easter eggs are the animators who work for Disney & Pixar. Many of these eggs are subtle references to other Disney films and characters who appear very briefly.
There are many such Easter eggs in Disney films – far too many for me to mention here, but below are just a few examples:
There are other Easter eggs in many other movies too – It’s not just Disney who have the monopoly on that:
In the movie Fight Club, there is a Starbucks coffee cup in every scene – some are quite obvious, whereas others are fairly well hidden away and take a number of “freeze-frames” to spot them.
In the classic film The Godfather, director Francis Ford Coppola makes use of a simple orange as a portent to a characters imminent death.
In the 1982 film Tron, a special appearance by the iconic Pac-Man is made is a scene where the characters are examining a map of the game in which they are trapped.
One of the most chilling Eggs is actually in the child-friendly film Toy Story.
When the characters of Buzz and Woody are held captive by Sid, eagle-eyed viewers might recognise the carpet choice in Sids bedroom. It’s the same carpet as the which is installed in the Overlook hotel from Steven Kings the shining
The carpet isn’t the only reference to the Shining in the Toy Story franchise…
Room 237 in the Shining is the one which is haunted by a woman who drowned in the bath – there are numerous references to the room number in the Toy Story films. In Toy Story 3, it’s shown three times; on a security camera, on the license plate of the garbage truck Sid drives, and in the username Velocistar237, who Trixie messages online.
The same number can also be seen in Toy Story 4 as the house number of the old woman Ducky and Bunny attack in a daydream.
In another reference, In The Shining, the song “Midnight, The Stars And You” plays during the memorable shot of a black and white photograph of Jack with the title “Overlook Hotel July 4th Ball, 1921.”
In Toy Story 4, the same song is heard playing on the record player in the antique shop.
Star Wars
In the Star Wars franchise, there are quite a few Easter Eggs – one of the most common is the use of the number 1138.
Director George Lucas’ first film was titled Electronic Labyrinth: THX-1138 4EB. The number 1138 appears multiple times across the various Star Wars films:
In Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, the cell block where Chewbacca is to be transferred to is Block 1138
The number is also seen in Episode IV on a computer screen viewed by R2-D2.
In Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, the number is breifly visible on the helmet of the bounty hunter Boushh.
A more obscure reference to the number is made in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, when General Rieekan orders rogue 11 to go to station 3-8.
In Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom menace, the number 1138 can be briefly seen on the back of a droid
In Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, the number appears on another droid
In more recent Disney releases, the 1138 tradition carries on – In the Episode of Andor: Reckoning, the number is printed on the side of a shuttle ferry.
The same number can also be seen in multiple Star Wars spin-offs, including the Lego star Wars games, The Star Wars animated series, and other Star Wars related computer & Games console games.
Indiana Jones
Star Wars is not the only film franchise to reference George Lucas’ number. In the Steven Spielberg directed Indiana Jones films, the number is referenced a number of times:
In Raiders of the Lost Ark, the number is heard over an intercom, spoken in German (Eins-eins-drei-acht), and is also seen on the wing of an aeroplane.
In the film The Last Crusade, the number is written in Roman numerals in Indiana Jones’notebook (MCXXXVIII).
In the film The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, there is a car in the opening scene which has the number plate THX 138, which whilst not being a direct reference to 1138, is actually a reference to George Lucas’s 2nd film – American Graffiti in which the main character has the licence plate THX 138
Staying with George Lucas /Steven Spielberg Easter Eggs – another fan favourite is the fact that the race of aliens from Spielberg’s 1980’s film ET, also appear in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
A final Lucas / Spielberg Easter Egg is the one which appears in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark – In the scene where Indy lifts the Ark of the Covenant from its crate, there is a brief glimpse of some hieroglyphs – ones which contain imagery of Star Wars droids R2-D2 & C-3PO.
Actual Eggs
As my final example of Easter Eggs in films, I need to mention the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
The story here is that just before filming, the cast and crew had an Easter Egg hunt around the set. Unfortunately, a number of hidden eggs were not discovered before filming started, and a few eggs made it into the final cut for the film.
So far three eggs have been spotted by eagle-eyed fans:
There is one under Frank-n-Furters throne, one in place of a lamp in the main room, and one in the lift as Brad and Janet ascend to Franks laboratory.
My next post will look at the Easter Eggs found in the world of music – Specifically the world of Vinyl records and their cover art.
*I’ve never understood the “Easter bunny” reference – Rabbits don’t lay eggs…