Lights, camera, hatch-on!: A brief history of screen easter eggs

Almost a century ago, cinema-goers enjoying Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lodger (1927) may have noticed something familiar about the extra appearing at two minutes into the story. It was Hitchcock himself, an appearance that served as a hat-tip to anyone following more than just what was happening at the centre of the screen.

Five decades and 30-plus Hitchcock cameos later, computer manufacturer DEC unveiled Moonlander (1972): an early lunar flight simulator which showcased the power of their new GT40 vector graphic machine. Users soon discovered an amusing glitch: if you landed your craft next to a square box on the moon’s surface, the McDonald’s logo appeared followed by a prompt reading “Two cheeseburgers and a Big Mac to go.” 

These hidden messages were given a name eight years later with the release of Atari’s Adventure (1980). Conscious that programmers weren’t always credited for their efforts, developer Warren Robinett hid his name on a screen that could only be accessed by heading north of the game’s Black Castle and discarding two items. Discovered after the game had already gone on sale, the hidden credit was deemed too expensive to remove. Atari director Steve Wright instead claimed that the message was an “Easter egg”, one of many that consumers might enjoy finding.

Wright could never have predicted how seriously future creatives would take his spur of the moment suggestion nor how far and wide the practice would creep. In 1992 Hewlett Packard released the 54600 oscilloscope. Engineers found that by holding down soft keys while in the utility menu, the scope’s screen would transform into a playable clone of Tetris (1985).

Video games – interactive systems often designed to conceal mysteries – would seem the natural egg basket, yet film is a treasure trove of easter eggs too. Disney’s Tron (1982) depicts the interactions between computer programs and their human users as a series of gladiatorial battles, one of which sees whizz-kid programmer Flynn (Jeff Bridges) pursued by henchman Sark (David Warner). As the villain hisses “Get them!” to a hapless assistant, a yellow figure can be seen chomping at the corner of a scanner screen. While not credited as Pac-Man, it’s clearly a nod to the then biggest-selling video game character of all time. 

Pixar’s Toy Story (1995) may have been billed as ‘Family-friendly’, but notice the sinister carpet in Sid the toy-torturer’s house. It’s a direct lift of the patterned corridors from the Overlook Hotel in The Shining (1980). Toy Story series mainstay Lee Unkrich is a serious Stanley Kubrick devotee.

Cynics might argue that carpet patterns don’t make for an exciting hidden message, but one Easter egg that certainly got cinema audiences gasping featured in the closing moments of sci-fi action sequel Predator 2 (1990). As a bloodied Lt Harrigan (Danny Glover) tracks the killer extraterrestrial to its spaceship in Los Angeles, he notices an elongated skull in a trophy room: H. R. Geiger’s iconic xenomorph from the Alien franchise. To the delight of fans, this image seemed to confirm that both monsters existed in the same universe (a suggestion made a year earlier in 1989’s Aliens versus Predator comic, and confirmed in later crossover films).

These kind of eggs could be found with just a pause button and a sharp pair of eyes. Gaming’s eggs are often buried deeper. The so-called ‘Glitterbeard reward’, in Rare’s pirate simulator game Sea of Thieves (2018), requires collaboration. The game’s most hidden treasure can be activated by assembling eight online players around a tree in Plunder Valley region, and playing musical instruments at 10pm by the game’s clock. The resulting song will open a cave more carefully guarded than the gold in Treasure Island – if the Easter Bunny concealed his eggs this deviously, a lot of people would be waking up disappointed on Sunday.

Proving that it’s possible to be both meta and easy to find, the Easter egg in TV series The Good Place (2016) comes hidden in plain sight. Afterlife accountant Neil (Stephen Merchant) is introduced in his office drinking from a coffee cup marked “Existence’s Best Boss”: a twist on the “World’s Best Boss” mug as favoured by Michael Scott (Steve Carell) of The Office (2005). Merchant co-created and scripted the original British version with Ricky Gervais.

As streaming hatched a barrage of new TV franchises and video games moved into the eighth generation of consoles, studios strove to not just include Easter eggs in their releases but entire chocolate rabbit warrens. Undertale (2015), games-indie-developer Toby Fox’s 2D hit – an RPG in which our young player falls into an underground labyrinth – offered a platter of Easter eggs, the sneakiest of which – the lair of the Annoying Dog – was hidden between mushrooms in Snowdin Forest and showed off items that appeared earlier in the game and that casual players may have dismissed as novelties.

In a world where people have built careers on digging up these secrets it’s become increasingly difficult to hide easter eggs from a wider audience for long. Is it still possible to discover Easter eggs in movies and games for ourselves?

It appears so: the first episode in season two of HBO’s The Last Of Us (2025) has already set off multiple egg alarms, with viewers noticing the nods in Ellie’s bedroom décor to the parent video game. Plus, the show is airing over Easter. Eggs don’t come much more meta than that.