Age of The Nerd
Easter is upon us! Baskets have been left, candy has been eaten and eggs have been hunted. Now it’s time to read some stuff for some nice adult time. Today we will talk about none-other-than the beloved film Easter Egg. Today, the term Easter Egg in the cinema world is used to define when a film references anything in pop culture.
Studios that have adopted the cinematic Easter Egg quite a bit have been Pixar, Marvel Studios and Warner Bros. These studios use Easter Eggs very heavily throughout their cinematic universes to reference other characters, past films and even give hints at what’s to come in future films. Easter Eggs have laid out a blueprint to create huge cinematic universes over the years. For example: One of the very first Easter Eggs in a Marvel film can be found in Iron Man 2 (2010). During a scene in Tony Stark’s lab, fans can see Captain America’s shield in the background. Captain America: The First Avenger would come out a year later.
Guardians of the Galaxy and director James Gunn had a field day with hidden gems when it came to the Collector’s museum. While walking in the Collector’s museum, you can see other Marvel characters such as Cosmo, a Dark Elf from Thor, a character that resembles Beta Ray Bill also from Thor, a cocoon hinting at Adam Warlock, one of the aliens from the Avengers invasion. Gunn also references one of his previous films Slither with one of the slugs in a case. Stan Lee makes one of his signature cameos during the scene and Howard the Duck shows up in the background and once again in an after credit scene.
Marvel was not the first to use Easter eggs in their films. Easter eggs can go back all the way to Star Wars: The Phantom Menace where Steven Spielberg’s E.T. makes a cameo or you can go even further back to the beloved Indiana Jones films where Star Wars is often referenced in the films. But one Easter Egg that people forget is the DVD Easter Egg.
Once upon a time in a world where people still used DVD players, you could slip in the disc and access bonus features much like Blu-rays allow you to do today. Sometimes you would get lucky and find a hidden feature while you were navigating through parts of the menu. Once you found these hidden features which were usually highlighted once you landed on one, you could press the play or enter button and it would show you an undocumented bonus feature. These hidden gems were known as Easter Eggs.
Back to present day, the Easter Egg is the driving force in Steven Spielberg‘s rendition of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One. The main characters of the film have to find Easter Eggs in numerous challenges to earn the right to be the leader of the Oasis. Pop culture references are littered throughout the film and it’s one of the most enjoyable things you will ever see.
Before you go, enjoy some of these Easter Egg videos below.
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