With everything from superhero team-ups to record-breaking horror releases, 2017 has
been a big year for movies—and an even bigger year for all the Easter eggs they hid.
It's a lot to go through, so we rounded up some of the all-time best movie Easter eggs
of 2017.
Some spoilers ahead.
A mop and a beer
The fifth entry in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise featured a heavily CGI'd version
of a young Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, but that wasn't the only glimpse into the
actor's past.
Just before Sparrow is set to be executed, his Uncle Jack--played by ex-Beatle Paul McCartney--tells
him a joke:
"Did I ever tell you the one about the skeleton?"
"Yes you have many time…"
"Skeleton goes into a bar, orders a beer and a mop."
It sounds like your average bad pirate joke, but it's actually an Easter egg with roots
20 years in the past that started with Al Pacino, of all people.
While Depp and Pacino were filming 1997's Donnie Brasco, Pacino would tell that joke
repeatedly, then laugh and walk off.
Depp later admitted:
"I didn't get the joke!
He thought it was my problem.
He inflicted it upon me and I could feel my IQ points drop…
He would howl every time he told the joke."
What better way to return the favor than to inflict it on millions of moviegoers?
Even better, the guy laughing at the joke in Pirates of the Caribbean sounds a lot like
Pacino.
"Funny as ever."
Play time
Hot on the heels of 2016's Deadpool, Logan proved once again that it's okay for a superhero
to spill buckets of blood and swear like a sailor without sacrificing those ever-important
ticket sales.
Hopefully, this will kick off a new trend in superhero films, but Logan wasn't entirely
focused on the future—it also had a few pretty sweet callbacks to days of Wolverine
past.
While the comic books Laura picks up play a big part in the plot, you may not have noticed
another Easter egg that popped up: during Logan's funeral, you can see one of the mutant
children holding a Wolverine action figure—complete with yellow spandex.
Considering this is most likely Hugh Jackman's last outing with the adamantium claws, it
was a nice touch to put Wolverine's early comics outfit onscreen, even if it only showed
up briefly, and on a plastic toy.
Journey mountain
Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts is a self-proclaimed video game fanatic, and his sophomore feature
film Kong: Skull Island is jam-packed with video game nods, with references to everything
from Resident Evil to The Legend of Zelda.
But the best Easter egg in the film doesn't come from a massive franchise—rather, it's
a subtle nod to Journey, a game in which players have to cross a huge open world while communicating
with other players via musical notes, all while trying to reach a glowing mountain in
the distance.
Perhaps to emphasize the journey the characters in Kong had to take to cross Skull Island,
Vogt-Roberts stuck a re-creation of Journey's mountain in the distance in a few scenes of
the movie.
It's most visible when the helicopters first breach the storm around the island, and again
at the end when the characters are leaving.
It's subtle, but awesome once you've spotted it—a perfect example of what an Easter egg
should be.
Musical cameo
It's the music of Baby Driver that brings the film to life, which is particularly fitting
considering the core premise has its origins in a music video.
In 2002, Edgar Wright—who helmed Baby Driver—directed a music video for "Blue Song" by British band
Mint Royale.
The narrative of the video is this: a sunglasses-wearing driver takes a group of thieves to a heist,
then waits in the car and lip-syncs to a song.
Sound familiar?
That sequence inspired the opening scene in Baby Driver, which sees Baby rocking out to
"Bellbottoms" by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion while the rest of the crew pulls off the heist.
Even better, Wright didn't pay homage to that video in style only.
During a scene in Baby's apartment, the "Blue Song" music video can briefly be seen playing
on the TV.
Spider-Signal
You may have missed this quick Easter egg in Spider-Man Homecoming, because it was only
visible for about a second.
In the scene when Spider-Man is locked in the warehouse in DC, he starts tinkering with
his suit to pass the time.
"What?"
"Maybe we should run that refresher course."
That's the Spider-Signal, also known as the worst superhero gadget ever.
The Spider-Signal first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #3, published in 1963, in which
the signal is literally nothing more than a warning to criminals that Spider-Man is
somewhere nearby.
Usually--surprise!--at the other end of the beam of light projecting the signal.
So why is this such a great Easter egg compared to everything else in Homecoming, like the
Ultron head Spidey pulls out of a bag later in the same scene?
Mainly because it's such a useless detail to add, and it's all the more amazing because
of that.
Final farewell
The Guardians of the Galaxy movies have a ton of Easter eggs, but one of the best recurring
eggs in the franchise showed up at Yondu's funeral.
One of Yondu's favorite trinkets in the first film was that little blue crystal frog that
he got at the beginning of the movie.
You got any other cute little buggers like this un?
I like to stick em all in a row on my control console."
In Guardians 2, just before Yondu is blasted into space, the camera lingers for a second
on that same frog, sitting by his side just as it did in life.
Among the hundreds of Easter eggs in Marvel movies, this is the only one that'll bring
a tear to your eye.
Walt's initials
Spotting secrets in any Disney film is always fun, and the studio rarely disappoints.
In 2017's live-action Beauty and the Beast, one of the biggest Easter eggs in the film
is built right into the woodwork, so to speak.
In the Beast's massive, ornate ballroom, pay attention to the monogram inscribed on the
ballroom floor.
Hidden within the flowery design is a big "WD"—short for Walt Disney.
Honestly, we'd chalk this one up to a trick of the eye if this Easter egg hadn't been
confirmed by none other than Sarah Greenwood, production designer for the film.
Bookwhacked
By every reasonable measure, the Tom Cruise-led reboot of The Mummy was a complete failure.
Critics bashed the film for everything from the muddled story to its shameless ripoffs
of previous plots, but there was one little highlight in the movie that might warrant
a re-watch.
Maybe.
If you hate yourself.
In the scene when Dr. Jekyll goes full-on Hyde, Annabelle Wallis' character, Jenny,
knocks a guy out by whacking him on the head with a big book.
Look closely, because that book has made an onscreen appearance in the past—it's the
Book of the Dead, first seen in 1999's The Mummy.
You know, the one with Brendan Fraser.
Who would have thought we'd ever miss that version?
"Ah.."
Gunshot sonata
John Wick: Chapter 2 should be a case study for sequels done right.
It took everything great about the first film and made it even better.
A lot of that comes down to the incredible detail put into building the franchise's hyper-kinetic
world—details that most fans likely won't even notice.
Probably the best example came at the end of John Wick 2, during the gun battle in the
museum.
The shootout is set to Vivaldi's Four Seasons, only the percussion is replaced by the sound
of Wick's gun, literally turning his shots into the musical score.
It's an insanely obscure Easter egg, but a fantastic example of an off-kilter detail
that only the filmmakers are likely to ever notice.
As director Chad Stahelski put it,
"If somebody does pick it up, it'll be two guys going like, holy s—, that's Vivaldi!"
What's in a name?
We know—Ready Player One isn't getting released until 2018, but its Easter eggs are already
spilling over into the film's marketing: when the film's logo was released in July 2017,
fans were quick to spot an Easter egg hiding right in the name of the film.
If you look closely, the letters in "Ready Player One" form a maze that runs to a literal
egg in the center of the "O" in "One."
As noted by Gizmodo, that's a nod to Adventure, a 1979 Atari game that sees the player moving
through the maze-like rooms of a castle.
More importantly, Adventure is widely believed to contain the first Easter egg in gaming
history, and in the Ready Player One book, Adventure is a massive inspiration for one
of the characters.
We don't want to give too much else away, so you'll have to read the book or wait until
March 2018 to see how all those pieces connect.
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