There's a fine line between Hollywood's need to Hoover the audience's pockets clean and
the artist's desire to brain rape his fans into a stupor.
Dancing on that Razor's edge is the hidden code of movies.
Otherwise known as Easter eggs.
These cryptic surprises in the frames of TV shows and movies skyrockets home media sales.
This bonus material planted by the director and the crew is present for the sole purpose
of giving their audio-visual baby, an endless rewatch ability factor whilst also leaving
the audience, creaming their pants, feeling that they're part of a secret joke between
themselves and the movie makers.
Here are 10 hidden secrets and codes in famous shows and movies.
Number 10: The Number 42 Here's a quick list of some of the many times
this digit has grazed the screen you'll find that it is Fox Mulder's apartment number,
the dentist's address in finding Nemo, Pearlies lotto number in lost and the number of bullets
in Ripley's gun in Alien, and the same number used in the name of the Iron Man3 suit and
that's just a few examples.
There are hundreds more.
So, what's all this fuss about?
Well, in 1979, British author Douglas Adams took it back to a generation's head and left
an impression on artistic minds.
His book, the highly acclaimed Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy was blamed for this numeral
assault on films and Television.
In it, an enormous supercomputer named deep thought was tasked with the mission of calculating
the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything.
Its response after 7.5 million years was “42”, in its defense.
The programmers simply forgot to tell deep thought what's the question in the equation
was, hence the joke was officially born.
Number 9: Psych Every so often a goof quickly becomes a craze
and a craze rapidly develops into a game for over eight seasons.
One of the USA networks, top rated TV shows, Psych played with the audience, a strange
competition or fruit ninja only instead of dicing fruit.
It was all about finding the hidden pineapple.
In every episode of the hit show, a pineapple can be spotted in the background.
The running gag has become a major marketing point for items related to the series.
And there's even an entire website dedicated to listing where in each episode, the pineapple
can be found.
Number 8: Fight Club Apparently the first rule of fight club isn't
that you shouldn't talk about fight club It's that you shouldn't point out the fact
that David Fincher, the director is the equivalent of a meth addict for Starbucks.
In almost every scene, the corporate giants logo magically pops up steamrolling its way
through the narrative with caffeinated goodness.
Does it reinforce the theme of the movie?
Like we've been led to believe, or is there some deeper conspiracy effort?
Perhaps and I'm just spit balling here.
The Seattle coffee peddler is really a front for Project Mayhem by which I mean, it proves
a major theme of the film that corporate brands are overly ubiquitous in today's consumer
culture.
Just listen to this quote and you my space monkey can be the judge of this theory.
“When deep space exploration ramps up, it'll be the corporations that name, everything,
the IBM stellar sphere, Microsoft galaxy, planets Starbucks.”
Number 7: Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban
Hogwarts isn't just known for its endless supply of ghosts, faulty regulations concerning
students' safety and its impeccable need of being a place where the shit will eventually
go down.
Nope, it has one more honor to claim, Hogwarts like any academy of its kind.
It's also a steaming pot of boiling teenage hormones waiting to go nuclear, right there
at the very corner of the closing credits on the more orders map are a pair of dodgy
footprints doing the dance of love.
I wonder what the wizardry world calls the missionary position?
Number 6: Futurama language Like Klingon or Dothraki a good Sci-fi gem
deserves its very own form of gibberish.
You can't properly call yourself a classic without the street cred of making up your
own language.
Futurama, the Simpsons is bastard stepchild is no stranger to this point of pride, it's
actually developed the sort of cipher spotted throughout the show that fans quickly unravelled.
The creator's no doubt pissed in finding out that they aren't as cunning as they thought.
Up the ante and slapped on a more complicated piece of cipher into the second season.
The fans, well, they rapidly went on and translated that one too.
Since then, it's been a nerd free-for-all a battle of wits between the programmers’
writers and their adorning devotees.
Each season a crafty, a language gets on stage to test out the viewers neurons.
Sadly, this game of cat and mouse all depends on future armours.
Well, future, as this show may not be coming back for another series.
Number 5: Fringe From complicated icons glyphs in every episode's
opening to off the wall insane science, fringes played with the views mind since day one.
It's most intricate secret tough The Observer has slowly floated to the top as the biggest
mystery.
The character presented in the season one episode; the arrival played by Michael Cerberus.
Became a crucial piece of the show's 100-episode arc.
What few viewers appreciate is that The Observer as he was called, was a constant shadowy figure,
like a dastardly game of where's Wally with a busload of LSD, the producers and writers
shoehorn, this character into every episode of the series, raising his presence and importance
to mythical levels in the overall main story.
Number 4: Community Over its tumultuous seasons, Community became
a staple of pushing the envelope in sitcoms, some jokes and gags hit the bullseye.
Others went wide and misfired, while a few were so strange that they became red flags
to the writer's growing weed habit.
For all its troubled history community never backed down from its unique form of entertainment.
Some of its most enduring and greatest puns took seasons to slowly simmer into a punchline.
Breadcrumbs were laid over different episodes, waiting for that savvy fan to pick them up.
One of its longest and greatest was the beetle juice routine.
Like in the 1988, Tim Burton movie, the ghost BeetleJuice needed his name called out a total
of three times in order to be conjured into existence, a prank that took three seasons
to come to fruition.
If you pause just at the right time, you can actually see a Michael Keaton look alike glide
by in the back ground.
Just as Annie hits the third strike.
Number 3: the Departed “spoiler alert there!”
It's been said I'm covered In 2006 director, Martin Scorsese and writer,
William Monaghan bagged a truckload of awards.
Including four Oscars, one of which was for best picture with their critically acclaimed
movie, The Departed with a body count that could easily make Jason and Freddie feel as
if they've been slacking on their day job.
The Departed bathes the screen red and only leaves marky mark unscathed everyone's life
is up for grabs as the climax of the film nears fruition.
The audience found themselves at the edge of their seat, taking bets on who was going
to die next.
Damon, DiCaprio, Sheen, Nicholson, farming, Baldwin.
Every protagonist's head was on the chopping block and only Scorsese knew the ending, the
hidden Easter egg.
The fact that on second and third viewings, who was about to get murdered, wasn't really
a mystery, Scorsese throwing subtlety to the wind, actually included an X somewhere in
the background or in the scenery next to the character that was about to take the final
dirt nap.
His very own way of crossing out and spoiling the fun.
Number 2: A 1, 1, 3, The mystery code A 1, 1, 3 can easily be seen
in all of Pixar’s motion pictures, a strange alphanumeric cipher that simply doesn't go
away.
As license plates, street signs, train cots, and even product serial numbers.
A 1, 1, 3 can be spotted all across the board, even in the Gaelic, Brave in Roman numeral.
This enigmatic cool sign has dashed over studio boundaries and even infected other production
companies.
From the Simpsons passing by American dad, all the way to Marvel and even in the Disney
hit Lilo and stitch.
Is it a conspiracy?
an Illuminati joke worthy of Dan Brown.
Nope, A 1, 1 3 is a student homage to classroom A 1 1 3 in the California Institute of Arts.
The very spot where many of Pixar's Disney's and Dreamworks animators got their Rocky start
and fell in love with the craft, the place where legends were born.
Before we go into number one, let's crank out the honorable mentions.
Stan lee in almost every film made by Marvel.
Raiders of the lost Ark r2d2 hieroglyphics.
I am legend: Batman vs Superman poster.
Eyes wide shut Romanian track in reverse.
Bryan Cranston during the intro of Godzilla 2014, with reference to Walter White.
And lots of ice cream in hot fuzz, Shaun of the dead and the world's end.
Number 1: Psycho The master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock was
a sadist, a psychological terrorist, and got his jollies by pushing other people's buttons.
He was well-known throughout studios as one of the most Brazen directors scoring his stars
into a panicked state just to get the right reaction on camera.
He believed that the movie experience shouldn't begin or end in the theatre.
It should be an all-encompassing adventure that follows you from your home to the cinema
and haunts you back worming its way into your dreams and really screwing up your brain.
In 1960 Hitchcock, premiered, Psycho his most over the top film and to many his masterpiece.
This movie was the precursor to the slasher genre and due to immediate Blitzkrieg, the
audience was already on their heels.
Terrified beyond belief before stepping into that aisle and taking a seat as a final push
by the director in two years of therapy, Alfred, super-imposed a quick blink and you’ll miss
it frame of Norman Bates is mummified mother's face in one of the final scenes.
Anthony Perkins, his cheeks dissolving on the rigor mortar smile of a cadaver.
The audience came out, uncommonly disturbed by the image.
But since Alfred was a right bastard, he only included the hidden frame into half of the
distributed reels.
The kicker, no one really knew whether they had truly seen it.
Viewers started doubting their sanity.
Certain that psycho had traumatized them for life.
Well, 10 of the best hidden codes and mind-bending secrets hidden between the frames of some
of the most audacious and amazing films and shows in history.
I'm more than certain.
We've missed a few.
So let me know about any I've missed in the comment section below.
Thanks for watching.