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Easter eggs

11 secret references from your favourite films

How many have you noticed?

THE BEST PART about rewatching movies is catching hidden references you didn’t see the first time around.

These hidden references are also known as ‘Easter eggs’ and they can be anything from an inside joke on set to a shout-out to another film.

From “Star Wars” to “The Godfather,” let’s go on a scavenger hunt for some of the best hidden references in your favorite films.

Tron

Most movie Easter eggs subtly reference another piece of pop culture.

For example, 1982′s Tron hid the arcade favorite “Pac-Man” on a map within the film’s video-game-like grid.

tron

 Raiders of the Lost Ark

They can also be used by directors to acknowledge one another.

This was the case when Steven Spielberg's 1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark included a hieroglyphic of R2-D2 and C-3PO from George Lucas' 1977 Star Wars.

raiders

Temple of Doom

Spielberg did it again when he named a club in 1984's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom after the Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi.

obi

Phantom Menace

Lucas returned the favor in 1999's Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace when he included aliens from Spielberg's 1982 "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" in the galactic senate.

senate

Star Trek

Hidden Star Wars references pop up in other films, too.

Avid Star Wars fan and Episode VII director J.J. Abrams had R2-D2 appear in 2009's Star Trek as a piece of debris floating through space

jj

Hook

Easter eggs are also hidden cameos, such as Glenn Close dressing up as a bearded male pirate who was tortured by Captain Hook in 1991's Hook.

hook

The Godfather

Hidden references can even be seen as symbolism or foreshadowing. For example, many fans see oranges in 1972's The Godfather as a symbol of death.

oranges

The Departed

The same concept was more deliberate in 2006's "Departed." Martin Scorsese paid homage to old gangster movies by sprinkling X's all over the film to express impending doom.

dep

Jurassic Park

"Jurassic Park" (1993) has a symbolic hidden reference. When the helicopter lands on the island, Dr. Grant ties two female ends of a seat belt together.

Fans see this as a metaphor for the DNA splicing that lets the dinosaurs reproduce in the film (even though they're all female).

seat

Back to the Future

Sometimes Easter eggs can give a brief nod to a film's storyline. When Marty McFly travels back in time in 1985's "Back to the Future" he runs over a pine tree.

When he returns to the future, there's a name change to the mall named after the pines.

back

Iron Man

Easter eggs also reference films that have yet to come. This was done when the shield of future Avenger Captain America showed up in Tony Stark's workshop in 2008's "Iron Man."

star

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