1.
In Finding Nemo, because Pixar is Pixar, they sprinkled in a real-life Easter egg in the dentist’s office. There’s a “Pixar University School of Dentistry” diploma hanging on the wall:
2.
Also in Finding Nemo, a kiddo is reading an Incredibles comic book while sitting in the waiting room at the dentist’s office (The Incredibles wouldn’t be released until 2004!):
3.
In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, you can see paintings on the walls of M’s meeting room of previous leagues that were made up of notable figures like the Three Musketeers, Lemuel Gulliver, and Robin Hood:
4.
In Freddy vs. Jason, there’s a subtle nod to Freddy Krueger’s name when a news channel is reporting a horrible story. If you look close enough, you can see “krgr” on the bottom of the TV screen:
5.
You know how Orlando Bloom was in The Lord of the Rings series in the early 2000s? Well, you can certainly tell when he played Will Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl — do you notice his elvish LOTR Tattoo now? Because I sure do!
6.
In The Matrix Revolutions, the Wachowskis used the “holy trinity” of Hinduism to represent the major plot of Neo’s mission to “destroy the Matrix.” Neo represented Shiva, Rama Kandra was Vishnu, and his wife Kamala was Brahma:
7.
In director Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes, RZA from Wu-Tang Clan wears a Ghost Dog hat — Ghost Dog is Jarmusch’s previous film that RZA also acted in!
8.
In Kill Bill: Volume 1, Gogo Yubari — played by Chiaki Kuriyama — stabs a man who came for her. This is a reference to a famous scene in the classic Japanese film, Battle Royale, where Kuriyama played a schoolgirl — students are forced to fight to the death, and she stabs another student. Director Quentin Tarantino is a huge fan of this Japanese film (which many believe inspired The Hunger Games) and even said he wished he directed it.
9.
In Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, there’s a small scene that has great importance. A love letter to Sophie is seen on Captain Aubrey’s desk, which is a great detail because she’s “a major character in the book series the film is based upon:”
10.
In Freaky Friday, Jamie Lee Curtis actually learned how to play the guitar. When Lindsay Lohan’s character performs at the House of Blues towards the end of the movie, you see Curtis’ character side-stage helping her out (yes, folks: she’s actually shredding on that electric guitar!!):
11.
In The Cat in the Hat, there’s a prettttty small yet major foreshadowing moment I bet you didn’t notice. There’s a newspaper headline that reads: “City Ok’s 72-hour ravers’ partython,” which ultimately ends up happening in the movie:
12.
In Final Destination 2, you’ll notice something very eery with the characters who died in the plane crash in Final Destination (2000). Looking back at their yearbook photos, they’re all wearing the same outfits they wore during the crash (which was a smart detail to sprinkle into the sequel):
13.
In Holes, as the years passed by, you’ll notice that Kissin’ Kate Barlow’s boat “Mary Lou” slightly changed color. Initially, it was blue, but by the time Stanley and Zero arrived at the camp, it faded and became a paler color:
14.
In Elf, there’s a candy cane status bar if you pause the movie at any point — allegedly, this is only available on the Blu-ray version of the flick (so I suggest you buy it right now!!):
15.
In The Matrix Reloaded, the Oracle eats the infamous red pill while under the impression that “it’s candy:”
16.
And at the end of Love Actually, everyone who embraced at the airport weren’t actors — they were real people! The directors kept the footage in the final cut to illustrate “true warmth” and “love” in the real world: