#25. Daniel Craig Played A Stormtrooper In ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’
Call it a lucky coincidence, but Star Wars and James Bond were being produced in the same studio at the same time. This good timing was the opportunity for Daniel Craig -a.k.a. latest James Bond- to put a Stormtrooper helmet on and join the Dark Side. While Daniel Craig was in England shooting Spectre, he found out that Star Wars was being shot next to their studio. What a surprise!
As Craig said in an interview, he just went to Star Wars’ studio and asked director J.J Abrams “Can I be in it?”. Of course, the answer was yes, and now he’s in a big scene being the Stormtrooper that Rey (Daisy Ridley) tries to escape by using the Jedi Mind Trick. Craig even has lines, calling the Jedi hero “scavenger scum“.
#24. There’s A Coffee Cup In Every Scene In ‘Fight Club’
You’ve probably noticed there’s a lot of coffee drinking going on in this masterpiece. And if you watch the movie closely you’ll find out that David Fincher managed to slip a Starbucks coffee cup in every single scene. You might not see the logo in every shot, but you could easily recognize the hugely popular coffee chain’s iconic cup without any trouble.
Fincher once said in an interview he tried to work the Starbucks cup into the movie as much as he could because, as he explained: “I don’t have anything personal against Starbucks, I think they’re trying to do a good thing. They’re just too successful“. So, if you ended up craving a latte macchiato every time you watched the movie, now you know why.
#23. Alan Rickman Is Genuinely Surprised To Be Falling In ‘Die Hard’
You probably thought that the shock on Alan Rickman’s face in the scene where Bruce Willis drops him to his death was just really good acting. But you probably didn’t know that his surprise at that moment was 100 percent real. All this, thanks to the stuntmen playing a little trick on him.
Director John McTiernan asked Rickman to fall onto an airbag from a height of 25 feet on the count of three. Instead, the stunt crew released Rickman at one, just to make his reaction more genuinely believable. “That’s true terror you see in his face. He’s really scared of falling backward, even though it was going to be a nice soft blue pillow filled with air below.”, visual effects supervisor Richard Edlund said in an interview.
#22. C-3PO And R2-D2 Make A Cameo In ‘Raiders Of The Lost Ark’
The iconic robot duo from Star Wars made not one but two cameos in the first Indiana Jones adventure. First, the pair shows up as a tiny hieroglyph on a pillar, right behind Jones (played by Harrison Ford), when he discovers the Ark. And the second appearance is when Indiana Jones and Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) are lifting the ark. You can clearly see the moment when Princess Leia uploads secret files to R2-D2 as C-3PO watches.
However, these two cameos were not the only time that Star Wars showed up in the Indiana Jones series. In Temple of Doom, you can see that the nightclub in the opening scene is called “Club Obi-Wan”. Also, R2-D2 has made appearances in other movies, such as Star Trek, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and Close Encounter of the Third Kind.
#21. ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ Remembers Samuel L. Jackson’s Other Iconic Role
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has the most incredible in-universe Easter eggs ever. But Capitan America: The Winter Soldier also links Nick Fury to another character Samuel L. Jackson portrayed before, the iconic Jules Winnfield, from Pulp Fiction, a character that defines him more than any other role he has ever played.
At the end of the movie, when Fury stands next to his own fake grave, you can see that the headstone has a quote from Ezekiel 25:17 “The path of the righteous man”. This is the same bible verse that Jules quotes in Pulp Fiction before shooting a man. For Pulp Fiction fans, it was such a delight to see that!
#20. Heath Ledger’s Daughter Has A Semi-Appearance In ‘The Dark Knight’
If you give The Dark Knight another viewing, you’ll have to pay special attention to one incredible detail. Do you remember that scene when Joker (played by Heath Ledger) dressed up as a nurse and infiltrated the hospital where Harry Dent was? If you look closer to the name tag, you’ll discover an incredible -and cute- surprise.
Just above the ‘Dent’ political sticker, the nametag on Joker’s nurse’s outfit reads ‘Matilda’, which is the first name of Heath Ledger’s daughter. So while the Joker’s nurse is a character who torments Harvey Dent in the film, IRL Ledger used the outfit to shout out his little girl.
#19. Steve Buscemi Reveals The Running Time In ‘Fargo’
Any Fargo fan would remember by heart that scene when Carl (brilliantly portrayed by Steve Buscemi) punishes car salesman Jerry Lundegaard (played by William H. Macy) in one of the final scenes of the movie. But there’s one thing you never thought you should have paid attention to.
When Carl started yelling “30 minutes, Jerry. We wrap this thing up”, he doesn’t just mean the time left of their criminal schedule. We’re not sure if this was a coincidence or something planned, but Buscemi utters that line exactly 30 minutes before the movie ends. Next time you see this amazing film, check out your watch!
#18. The Real Frank Abagnale Arrests Himself In ‘Catch Me If You Can’
You may already know that thriller the Catch Me If You Can was inspired by a true story. Leo DiCaprio stars as Frank Abagnale, a man who, before his 19th birthday, successfully performed cons worth millions of dollars by posing as a PanAm Airways pilot, a Georgia doctor, and a Louisiana parish prosecutor.
In an amusing twist, DiCaprio’s character got arrested by a French policeman in the small town of Montrichard, France. And for the audience’s surprise, the policeman was played by the real Frank Abagnale, allowing him to arrest himself, and recreating the scene that he experienced decades ago.
#17. The Letter X Foreshadows Death In ‘The Departed’
Martin Scorsese’s remake of The Departed is full of drama and violence, and if you look closer, it’s also full of not-so-subtle clues that foreshadow every death scene. When the characters are closer to their end, an X appears to share the screen with them.
The only character who never gets killed is Mark Wahlberg’s Sgt. Dignam, and he’s the only one who managed to avoid being on-screen with an X. This is a tribute to the original 1932 version of Scorsese’s favorite film Scarface, where an X shows up every time a character died.
#16. Pac-Man Shows Up In ‘Tron’
In the original Tron, from 1982, while searching for Flynn and Tron, Sark yells at a display where, if you look closely, Pac- Man’s image appears on the corner of the screen. It’s something easy to miss because of the tinyness of the Pac-Man’s appearance, but if you pay a little attention, you can even hear the unique “waka- waka” sound effect.
Some other amazing Easter eggs have appeared in this movie. As a Disney movie, it comes as no surprise that Mickey appears on-screen when Solar Sailor is flying over digital terrains. Even King Kong has shown up in the grid of this video game movie.
#15. The ‘Toy Story’ Series Has Multiple References To ‘The Shining’
The Toy Story series has many nods to Stanley Kubrick’s horror movieThe Shining, and this is definitely the last reference we expected to see in a Pixar movie, right? In the first movie, the carpet in Sid’s house has an identical pattern than the one used at the Overlook Hotel in the not-at-all kid-friendly movie.
But this isn’t the only Shining reference in the movie. In Toy Story 3, the number “237” appears several times. This number is also Jack’s room number, a.k.a. the most haunted room of the Overlook Hotel. According to Toy Story director Lee Unkrich, The Shining was the film that inspired him to become a filmmaker.
#14. Kurt Russell Has The Same Weapon Load-Out As Marvin The Martian
In action thriller Soldier, military assassin Todd (played by Kurt Russell) defies a group of highly skilled genetically advanced soldiers that try to replace him, and if you pay a bit of extra attention, you’ll notice there are many subtle jokes hidden in several moments of the movie.
In a list of the weapons Todd used for his training, there’s one that might sound familiar. The “Illudium PU36 ESM,” also known as the Illudium PU36 Explosive Space Modulator, is the weapon Marvin the Martian is always threatening to use on Earth in the Looney Tunes cartoons.
#13. Waldo Is Among The Dead In ‘Apocalypto’
Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto shows a bloody representation of the fall of the Mayan civilization in the 16th century. It wasn’t meant to be a funny movie, but Gibson felt it was necessary to slip a little joke in the scene. When Jaguar Paw (portrayed by Rudy Youngblood) discovers a huge grave, you can instantly recognize that one of the bodies is a little familiar…
Among a sea of dead bodies, you can see Waldo, from the Where’s Waldo books. This moment was meant to relieve some tension of the gory confrontation, but not everyone loved this, and because of this, they had to cut the footage from the DVD release.
#12. Oranges Foreshadow Death In ‘The Godfather’ Films
Like we saw the Xs in Scorsese’s The Departed, directors use specific things for foreshadowing. In The Godfather trilogy, Francis Ford Coppola uses oranges to set the time left of a mafioso. If you see an orange, it means someone will face their death soon.
So if you look closely, you’ll see that Vito (played by Marlon Brando) buys some oranges just before the assassination attempt or peels an orange before his grandson’s cardiac arrest death. Even if a fun fruit bowl or simply a peel in a cocktail shows up, it means that the character holding it won’t be around much longer.
#11. The Mall Changes Names In ‘Back To The Future’
One thing Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) repeated to Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and warned him several times about, was that anything he did in the past while time-traveling would change the future, whether it involved his parents’ relationship or even the city where he lived his whole life.
Doc and Marty originally met at Marty’s favorite mall Twin Pines to travel back to 1955, when the mall hadn’t been built yet and instead there was a ranch named Two Pines. When McFly has to escape from the ranch’s owner, he crashes into one of the famous pines and back in the present, the mall is named Lone Pine Mall, as a reflection of Marty’s accident.
#10. Tim Robbins Spoils The Great Escape In ‘Shawshank Redemption’
If you look closely at the opening scenes of Shawshank Redemption, you’ll discover a massive spoiler revealed in one of them! Like an amazing thing only Stephen King’s mind would do, the famous director managed to slip into a conversation between the main characters Andy (Tim Robbins) and Red (Morgan Freeman), a line that reveals the finale of the movie.
In that scene when Andy is feeling really depressed, he talks to Red about his dream of escaping to Mexico and starting a new life. But Red immediately dismissed the idea, because it’s only a “pipe dream”. However, at the end of the movie, Andy managed to escape the prison, and escaping through a pipe is exactly the way he does the getaway. So, Red wasn’t wrong after all.
#9. ‘Snakes On A Plane’ Teaches You How To Put Snakes On A Plate
Filled with so much over-the-top hilarity, Snakes on a Plane has some of the smallest sight gags in film history. These Easter eggs are so easy to miss, that we chose one of our favorites to show you! Next time you see this movie, make sure you don’t miss these little details.
During the snake invasion, one of the flight attendants grabs a snake and puts it inside a microwave. When the snake’s stuffed, she hits a preset button that reads “Snake”. I don’t know about your microwave, but the last time we checked ours, it didn’t have the snake-cooking option.
#8. Those Are Real Skeletons In The Pool In ‘Poltergeist’
In the classic frightening horror film, Diane Freeling (JoBeth Williams) gets dragged into a swimming pool with muddy waters. There, she is surrounded by skeletons. As the great actress she is, Williams has made her terror reaction look genuine in the film, but there’s a secret behind this horrific face…
“In my innocence and naiveté, I assumed that these were not real skeletons,” Williams said in an interview. “I assumed that they were prop skeletons made out of plastic or rubber.” But then, she found out there were real skeletons because it’s too expensive to make fake skeletons out of rubber.
#7. Abraham Lincoln Gets Assassinated In ‘Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs’
The last thing you’d expect from a cartoon movie for kids is a history lesson, right? But in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, you’ll get this and more. As Flint Lockwood’s machine starts to fail, and the food falls from the sky without control, there’s a scene with a lot of historic content.
As the food makes a mess in the town below, many pies are slammed in every U.S. president at Mount Rushmore. All except for Abraham Lincoln, who gets a pie in his backhead. This is clearly a reference to how ex-president Lincoln was murdered, but, of course, in real life, he wasn’t murdered with a pie.
#6. The Cereals At Hogwarts Are Much Like Cereals In The Muggle World
Just like us, wizards at Hogwarts eat as much cereal for breakfast as they can. That’s why on breakfast scenes in several Harry Potter movies, the most common food on display in the Great Hall of Hogwarts are cereals.
As any great fan of Harry Potter, you can re-watch every movie as many times as you can count. So next time, put an eye on the background and check out that kids on Hogwarts were probably munching on wizard cereals like Cheeri Owls and Pixie Puffs.
#5. The Disclaimer In ‘Frozen’ Says: Don’t Eat Your Boogers!
If there are kids in your family, surely you’ve seen Disney’s movie Frozenlike a trillion times, -and you’ll see it a trillion more. There’s one scene where Kristoff reveals to Anna the gross secret that all boys eat their own boogers
But in the closing credits, there’s a callback of that moment, and they offer the next disclaimer: “The views and opinions expressed by Kristoff in the film that all men eat their own boogers are solely his own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of The Walt Disney Company or the filmmakers. Neither The Walt Disney Company nor the filmmakers make any representation of the accuracy of any such views and opinions.”. That’s what we call a clever move.
#4. That Giggle Fit In ‘The Usual Suspects’ Wasn’t A Spoof
Did you know that the scene of the lineup of crooks and thieves was intended to be deadly serious? But somehow the characters burst into laughter for no reason. Well, there was a reason, and it’s pretty disgusting yet so funny.
On a special DVD edition, Benicio Del Toro reveals the reason for the uncontrollable laughter. It was actually flatulence! “All I remember is that someone farted,” he said, “and no one knew who the guilty party was.” But Kevin Pollak had a different memory about that moment. “Del Toro farted like 12 takes in a row,” he said. Try not to laugh hard in this part next time you see the movie.
#3. Kurt Russell’s Shirt From ‘Big Trouble In Little China’ Makes A Comeback In ‘Death Proof’
It’s common knowledge that Quentin Tarantino loves filling his movies with almost imperceptible gags, and only the more sharp-eyed fans would notice them. That’s’ exactly the case in his “Grindhouse” feature Death Proof, where Kurt Russel portrayed Stuntman Mike.
In this scene, you can see many memorabilia hanging on the wall, and right above Jungle Julia’s table hangs an incredible t-shirt that is easy to miss. This tank top is the same shirt Russell worn in John Carpenter’s movie Big Trouble in Little China, but only a few realized that!
#2. Drew Barrymore Returns To Her E.T. Childhood In ‘Charlie’s Angels’
When Drew was starring in the 2000 remake of Charlie’s Angels, her beginnings at Steven Spielberg’s E.T. were not still behind her. But in a scene of Charlie’s Angels, she gave us a little reminder of one of her first movie appearances when she breaks into a room where two teenage boys were hanging out.
You may think this room looks very familiar, and that’s because it’s the same bedroom set from E.T. If you pay extra attention, you can even see the E.T. poster hanging on the wall. Also, the boys were eating the favorite candy of her alien friend, Reese’s Pieces.
#1. There Are Literal Easter Eggs In ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’
While filming the movie, the cast and crew of The Rocky Horror Picture Show allegedly had an actual Easter egg hunt while on set but were unable to find all of the eggs before production was due to start. So, many real eggs were visible in certain scenes.
If you look closely, you can see eggs tucked away under chairs, like Frank N. Furter’s throne, glanced on railings, and many are hidden in other unique locations. Probably, they may be the beginners of the term “Easter eggs”.