Rampage was an arcade game released in 1986 by Midway Games that put you in the shoes
of giant monsters trying to survive an onslaught of military forces.
These monsters include the likes of George, a giant gorilla, Lizzie, a lizard turned into
a Godzilla look-a-like, and Ralph, a massive werewolf, who all took a page out King Kong’s
book and climb up buildings, abduct humans and, of course, can fight one another.
Like any popular video game property, it’s now a movie!
Featuring Dwayne the Rock Johnson!
And, like every video game movie, it’s got a ton of Easter Eggs.
So today, we’re counting them down with our list of the top 10 Easter Eggs that you
missed in Rampage.
10 The Rat There’s a rat in the film that was featured
in the game, named Larry the Lab Rat.
The character was only featured in the Atari Lynx version of the game.
Director Brad Peyton slipped Larry into the film, and has said that if you look closely
in the background of Brett and Clarie’s office, you’ll take notice of it.
9 The Actual Game It should be no surprise that the original
Rampage game made its way into the film as an Easter Egg.
There’s a scene in the office of villains Claire and Brett Wyden, played by Malik Akerman
and Jake Lacy, and a copy of the original co-op version of the game can be seen in the
background as part of the set dec.
8 Project Rampage Turns out our last number actually goes a
little further than being a cute little Easter Egg.
In the film, Akerman’s evil scheme is called Project Rampage.
According to Peyton, it’s a legit theory to speculate the game itself is what inspired
Project Rampage as a whole.
I quote, “The name of their project was Project Rampage.
So I didn’t want to pin it down, but I wanted to kind of go.
‘Yeah, she could have actually been a fan of the game to name it that.
And then if you needed to find out why they called the movie Rampage you also have the
fact that the whole thing was started by Project Rampage.
So it’s very possible.”
7 George’s White Fur In a bit of a reverse Easter Egg here, some
fans may be wondering why on earth George’s fur is white when in the original game, the
character always had dark fur.
Turns out the reason why his fur colour was changed was to AVOID and reference to another
massive iconic ape – King Kong.
While the game itself definitely took inspiration from the popularity that King Kong has had
over the years, Brad Peyton didn’t want to draw any more similarities in the film
itself.
6 DCEU Connection Some fans are speculating about whether Dwayne
Johnson’s character Davis in Rampage will be somehow connected to the DCEU.
Aside from Rampage also being a Warner Bros film, there’s a scene in which Johnson and
Naomi Harris’ characters are detained by Agent Russell, played by Jeffery Dean Morgan.
The question Russell about what government agency he works for, and the Justice League
is mentioned.
While it’s quite possibly just a throwaway line, some eager fans are questioning whether
that will have some sort of grander impact in the near future.
Which, will probably be unlikely, considering Johnson is set to play Black Adam in the DCEU.
5 Building Action One of the more direct references to the Rampage
games throughout the film is how George, Ralph and Lizzie interact over the city scape terrains
they’re destroying.
In the game, the way you move around buildings is by climbing them or jumping on top of them
– both of which made it into the film instead of just simply having the giant creature smash
their way through like bulldozers.
They even smash their hands through the buildings like you can in the game.
4 Alien For those of you who are fans of the Alien
franchise and all things xenomorph, there was a subtle reference to one of the scenes
in the first Alien film, in which the xenomorph comes up behind Samuel Brett before his death,
and there’s that iconic moment where it’s drool falls from its mouth.
There’s a similar moment in Rampage featuring Joe Manganiello’s character and Ralph, the
wolf, where Ralph’s drool drops down on to him.
3 Power-Ups A bit of a smaller Easter Egg here, those
familiar for Rampage: World Tour, you can get a power up that will turn your monster
into a new beast called a VERN, which stands for Violently Enraged Radioactive Nemesis.
These power ups come in the form of a vat that contains purple radioactive waste.
This VERN is a gigantic bat creature.
This bat-esque transformation was adapted into the film, and explains why Ralph the
Wolf has got wings at one point.
2 Brian Colin Brian Colin was the creator of Rampage, and
makes several cameos in the film adaptation.
The most notable is in a shot where he’s running away from George.
Funny enough, this is a reference to a hidden easter egg in the original game, where three
humans transform into the three monsters - Colin turns into George, his wife Lizzie turns into
Lizzie, and head programmer Jeff Nauman is Ralph.
1 The Red Dress Director Brad Peyton went out of his way to
include multiple Easter Eggs in the film, but his favourite is the woman in the Red
Dress, worn by Malin Ackerman, who plays villain Claire.
Those who have played the game likely remember one of the more noticeable civilians that
you could pick up.
If you grabbed her, you’d get a hefty amount of points for doing so.
Despite the woman not having any narrative impact on the game, Peyton went on to say
that “the woman in the red dress is, to me, the ultimate Easter Egg.
Part of the challenge with this was balancing an adaptation, and doing an original mythology
and plot and storyline.”
He also noted that “at the top of the stand-up arcade game, it would say Rampage, and it
would have George holding the woman in the red dress.”
There we have it friends!
Which of these Easter Eggs did you catch?
Which ones completely slipped your mind?
Let us know in those comments below!
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Catch you all in the next one.