Visual amusements, perhaps that's not the best term to describe them, but it's what comes to my mind when I think of Easter Eggs at least as it pertains to the movie industry. Some are intentional, some are much less so, but they certainly all add an entirely new dimension to our movie enjoyment. My primary inspiration for writing this article came from Star Wars: Insider 48, where there is an article called Episode I Easter Egg Hunt! In any case, I figured I would mention some of the Easter Eggs mentioned in the article, some of the things I've seen or read about on the web, and I had thought I would mention some other hidden, yet visible, images. However, I will leave that for another day.
Going back to last May, at the opening of "The Phantom Menace", I remember how psyched I was to finally get to see a brand new Star Wars movie. After seeing the movie I just couldn't wait to get to see it again (which was a couple of days later, when the waiting list for tickets at the best theater in town finally shortened enough to let walk-ins buy tickets as well). However, prior to that second viewing I had already heard two separate things about the movie that had made me feel like a complete dolt. First, I had heard about Vader's breathing at the end of the credits, which I thought was completely cool, and at the same time I asked myself why I didn't stay for the credits in the first place. Why would I stay for the credits? Well, when it comes to the Star Wars movies I become a little odd in my movie watching habits, almost compulsive really, I almost always end up watching the credits, even though I've seen Episodes IV, V, and VI at least a few hundred times (which is an overly conservative estimate if you ask anyone in my family or any of my friends, but I stopped counting when I was about twelve). Second, I then heard about the E.T.'s, which I completely disbelieved, and I thought that the person who told me that was completely putting me on. Upon my second viewing, I looked for the E.T.'s and I could not find them, of course I was never told where I should look, but I did manage to hear Vader's breathing at the end, which didn't take a whole helluva lot of effort on my part. So I questioned the person who had told me the story in the first place, and upon my third viewing I would finally get to see the E.T.'s in the Senate Chamber in "The Phantom Menace."
Later, much later, I had started to find out about various other Easter Eggs that were strewn throughout the movie. Most of this information I had found out through my extensive Internet travels that I went on prior to setting up my own site. For starters, I remember reading about how, in the vast crowds at the pod race, Indiana Jones is walking up a stairway. Now I don't know how much validity there is to this, and I can't really remember if it was in the article or not (which is probably a good clue that I need read it again), but I have to admit that I thought it was pretty cool as were all the other Easter Eggs that I found listed on the internet (way too numerous for me to remember them all). Also among "The Phantom Menace" Easter Eggs was a homage to the late Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was a service pod that was located in open view in Watto's junkyard. I read this in SWI and had thought it was cool, because I'm also a Stanley Kubrick fan.
However, I did think that the article highlighted a lot of things that really aren't what I'd call Easter Eggs. For instance, Luke's speeder was reused in "The Phantom Menace," although it was painted green. Does this really constitute as an Easter Egg, or is it just helping establish continuity in the Star Wars Universe? I will admit that the addition of the Jawa sand-crawler at the pod race was kind of neat though, and much more of an Easter Egg than the re-use of Luke's speeder.
But let us not forget the Easter Eggs from the other Star Wars films. For instance Luke's answer to the inquiring Imperial Officer, as to where he was taking Chewbacca: "Prisoner transfer from Cell Block one-one-three-eight." This was of course a homage to George Lucas' first film THX 1138. It has also been mentioned that during chase through the asteroid field in "The Empire Strikes Back," two of the asteroids were a potato and a shoe. However, I have yet to see this, and if anyone could show me a picture that would capture the frame or frames in which this occurs I would be most grateful. In "Return of the Jedi" there's supposedly a tennis shoe among the ships in the final battle, and a matte painting of San Francisco's TransAmerica Pyramid building, blended in with the rest of the hangar bay wall inside the Death Star.
Sometimes it's just not enough though to look for these Easter Eggs in the Star Wars movies themselves. Star Wars has of course branched out into other movies, such as, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Raider of the Lost Ark," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," "Blade Runner," the list goes on and on. I had heard about the little surprises in "Blade Runner" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," but I again felt like a dolt when I found out about the Easter Eggs in the first two Indiana Jones movies, which I consider to be among my most favorite films. I had been going through the picture files at the Official Star Wars Site when I came across two pictures, the first of which I still need some verification upon. In "Raiders of the Lost Ark," inside one of the tombs, there's a bas-relief of C-3PO and R2-D2 on the wall. "The Temple of Doom" has a much more noticeable surprise, in that the Club where Indiana escapes from is actually called 'Club Obi Wan' (seriously, just look at the neon signs).
Easter Eggs a really neat things to look for when watching movies that you hold so dear to your heart. I can honestly say that I'm going to actually spend part of my time, when I receive my copy of TPM, looking for all of those Easter Eggs that I've read about here and there. And of course I surely cannot limit this on going search to only TPM, there's still so much I have yet to see in ANH, ESB, and ROTJ. If you have anything you'd like to add to this please feel free to e-mail me at smcranda@yahoo.com.
