With the billions of dollars being spent on blockbuster films, it's hard to watch an epic
action, fantasy, or science fiction movie just once. But even with repeat viewings,
some awesome or unbelievable details always seem to slip by viewers' eyes. We're determined
to fill fans in on every cool easter egg or inside reference, so we hope you enjoy Screen
Rant's 10 Amazing Hidden Details in Movies.
Pearl Harbor (Buena Vista)
Plenty of cash was spent on the special effects of Pearl Harbor, but apparently, either director
Michael Bay or the special effects team decided they still had room for some fun. Once the
movie made it to home video, fans started noticing a standout extra among the wounded
sailors. As strange as it may seem, it appears that Bruce Willis' tough-as-nails cop John
McClane has been spliced out of Die Hard, and into the WWII-era drama. Since the footage
of a bruised, battered McClane in an undershirt isn't an exact match to any Die Hard scene,
some skeptics say it's all coincidence. But the size and perspective shows it's clearly
an added digital effect, and one that can never be missed once it's pointed out.
The Matrix (Warner Bros.)
Most fans of The Wachowski's game-changing sci-fi series know that the movie's plot forms
a perfect circle: the hotel and room 303 where the movie begins is also the same place where
Neo becomes "The One". But fans probably missed an even bigger example. The first movie ended
with a serious phone call, as Neo told the Machines that he planned on freeing humanity.
Two sequels followed, but when Neo finally ended the war in his epic battle with Agent
Smith, their fight is set at that exact intersection. When the two slam into the street, you can
even catch a glimpse of the phonebooth from the first film. Talk coming full circle.
Iron Man (Marvel/Disney)
Tony Stark found out the hard way that even friends can't be trusted, when his business
partner Obadiah Stane revealed he was funding terrorists. But Iron Man should have known
he was up to no good long before. When Tony finds Stane playing some piano in his Malibu
mansion, it's not a random bit of music, but a sample of Antonio Salieri's Piano Concerto
in C. Music buffs, or those who saw the movie Amadeus
will get the hint, since Salieri was long rumored to have sabotaged and killed Mozart.
The composers' rivalry wasn't anywhere close to Stark and Stane's but the hint was there
all along.
The LEGO Movie (Warner Bros.)
Directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord beat the odds when they made a movie about LEGO
a worldwide hit. The film even included Superman and Green Lantern, played by Channing Tatum
and Jonah Hill, the stars of their previous surprise hit, the rebooted 21 Jump Street.
It wasn't the only nod to the story of undercover cops, though. When Emmet's apartment is first
shown, a poster can be seen advertising the movie "Teen Copz," an obvious reference to
Jump Street. But the poster next to it takes the cake, since the Tatum/Hill comedy really
was sold to Russian audiences as "Macho and the Nerd".
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Warner Bros.)
For those not versed in Harry Potter mythology, we'll just say that to bring down Lord Voldemort,
the three Deathly Hallows were sort of an important combination. It wasn't until the
second last book that audiences learned that a cloak, stone, and Elder Wand held the key
to victory, but the idea was teased ahead of time. As in, two full movies ahead of time.
In one of the franchise's best easter eggs, Dumbledore tells Harry that he's been searching
for such a detail. The answer is literally right in front of him, in the form of a 3d
version of the Deathly Hallows symbols stored in his own office.
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (Paramount Pictures)
Every fan of Disney and Pixar knows to keep an eye out for the code "A113," the room number
that the studio's top animators all studied in when attending the California Institute
of the Arts. But it doesn't stop at animated movies. When Brad Bird graduated from directing
movies like The Incredibles and Ratatouille to Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol, he made
sure to give a nod to his roots. Watch closely, and you'll spot the code on a trick ring used
by IMF agents to inject a sleeping agent into their unsuspecting target.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Lionsgate)
The Hunger Games series took a major step up in budget and spectacle with its second
installment, but not every addition was taken completely seriously. When Katniss and Peeta
are heading out to make their grand entrance before the next Games, the doorway they pass
under is clearly marked with the code PDL-736. The meaning isn't complicated, it's just an
address: 736 Ponce de Leon Avenue, a hip hop nightclub that the cast would frequent when
filming in Atlanta, Georgia.
Man of Steel (Warner Bros.)
Zack Snyder and Warner Bros. wanted to make a clean start with Man of Steel, but that
didn't mean the director wanted to ignore the version of the DC hero who came before,
specifically, the original films from director Richard Donner. The updated version of the
ship that brought Kal-El to Earth played a big part in the story, but when Kal-El had
his escape explained by his father Jor-El, the version of the ship is obviously modelled
after Donner's version, not Snyder's.
The Avengers Age of Ultron (Marvel/Disney)
It wasn't just powerful fighters or alien invaders that Marvel's Avengers had to tackle
in their second team-up, but a girl who could force them to face their worst fears, or tempt
them with a better life. For Captain America, that meant sending him back to a USO soiree
before he was frozen for decades. Pay attention to the band though: the Roy Thomas Players
aren't named after a musician, but a Marvel Comics legend. Roy Thomas spent years writing
X-Men, Avengers, Doctor Strange, and even created modern characters like Adam Warlock,
and Vision, who makes his movie debut in the same film.
Star Trek Into Darkness (Paramount)
Before Chris Hemsworth was famous as the Marvel hero Thor, he splashed onto the scene playing
Captain Kirk's father George. The 2009 reboot saw George killed in battle aboard the USS
Kelvin, but his legacy, and that of the ship, lived on. In the sequel, fans were probably
too busy trying to make sense of the bomb plot and blood transfusions to notice that
the scene of the disaster was the Kelvin Memorial Archive. Named for Kirk's ship, it means the
destruction of the Kelvin set the plots of both films in motion - a subtle nod that only
the diehard fans might have caught.
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