All of Ready Player One's Best & Most Obscure Easter Eggs

WARNING: The following article contains MAJOR spoilers for Ready Player One, in theaters now.

Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Ernest Cline’s popular sci-fi novel Ready Player One is in theaters now, and while some critics are saying the film is nothing more than an excuse to pack the screen with Easter eggs for two hours, they may be missing the point. This is a movie based on a book about a future where our obsession with Easter eggs has increased exponentially. And yes, at it's core, the protagonist’s heroic journey is, in fact, a virtual Easter egg hunt… for a giant, golden egg.

There are literally hundreds of fun references in the novel's 385 pages that are easy to miss if you’re not versed in 1980s pop culture. So, regardless of how you feel about the film, one thing is for sure: Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One successfully conveys the spirit of Cline’s futuristic tale.

The trailers for the movie alone reveal dozens of Easter eggs, while the various posters and promotional art contain even more, including some that don’t even seem to be in the film. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Upon our initial viewing we were a little, well, overwhelmed. There is such a multitude of hidden goodies that if you blink, you will miss a couple. We managed to hunt down more than 160 visual nods and verbal mentions! However, to keep this piece from becoming a scroll-a-thon, we’re only going to cover the coolest, most obscure, and hardest to find Easter eggs.

Spielberg’s ‘80s films are a big part of the Ready Player One book's plot, so it’s rather perfect that the director is helming this adaptation. However, the filmmaker didn't want to include Easter eggs from films he directed or produced...but a few made it in. When Parzival (aka Z) and Art3mis are trying to figure out the riddle to get the crystal key, they have a notebook with a list of movies that might hold clues, it includes Gremlins and Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom. The Dark Crystal, Krull, Splash, and the Helm’s Deep Battle from Lord Of The Rings: The Twin Towers are also written down. Then there’s the T-Rex from Jurassic Park that's one of the obstacles in the race. Aech also refers to Z as McFly after the contest of speed.

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Z’s introduction of OASIS features Hello Kitty with Badtz-Maru and Kero Kero Keroppi, Attikus from Battleborn, Robocop, and the latest movie version of Raphael from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He also lists off all the iconic spaceships you can acquire in the virtual world, including the Galactica from Battlestar Galactica (1978), USCSS Nostromo from Alien, the Valley Forge from Silent Running, and the Harkonnen Drop-Ship from Dune. When we see his aunt’s boyfriend in OASIS, he is wearing a customized version of Jim Raynor’s armor from StarCraft. Beetlejuice can also be spotted in the first half of the film.

The race is jam-packed with eggs but the best ones are Lara Croft from the original Tomb Raider talking to Dizzy from Gears of War before the race, Ryu going to his car, and iconic vehicles at the starting line like the car from Christine, the Mach 5 from Speed Racer, the A-Team van, the red Pole Position race car, the 1966 Batmobile with Batman in it, the Interceptor from Mad Max, the Bigfoot monster truck, Kaneda’s motorbike from Akira, and of course, the flying version of the Delorean from the Back To the Future trilogy that has been customized with KITT from Knight Rider.

The Akira bike is covered in stickers, which unfortunately don't include Canon, Citizen, or Toei ones like in the actual movie. Instead, Art3mis has plastered the bike with logos for Atari, Sega, Taito (the original publisher of popular titles like Space Invaders and Arkanoid), Ms. Pac-Man, Hello Kitty, Wonder Woman and, perhaps the most obscure, The Greatest American Hero.

Then, when Z, Aech and Art3mis go to Aech’s garage to fix Art3mis’ bike, we see she's working on Iron Giant, the Eagle 5 from Spaceballs, the EVA Pod from 2001: A Space Odyssey, the 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, a Thunderfighter from Buck Rogers, a Colonial Viper from Battlestar Galactica (1978), ED-209 from Robocop, the PO-024 Field Repair E-Frame from the animated series Exosquad, and Spike’s Swordfish II ship from Cowboy Bebop. Whoa!

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Z mentions Bill and Ted from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure somewhere around the race. Aech refers to Z’s ‘do as Something About Mary hair after the initial rally. We get our first Star Wars reference when Z figures out the first riddle, and Anorak appears and says, “Nice racing, padawan.” The second comes when Nolan Sorrento is trying to get Z to work for IOI and offers him the Millennium Falcon (in OASIS) as incentive. Sorrento also tries to flex some John Hughes knowledge at this point and mentions Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Z then tests him by seeing if he knows if Hughes directed Fast Times At Ridgemont High and Animal House. The head of IOI also says he likes to relax by drinking a Tab Cola and playing some Robotron: 2084, an ‘80s arcade classic.

After they find the copper key, Z and Aech go to stock up at the Item Shop and two of the power items available are a Rubix Cube and the Holy Hand Grenade from Monty Python. There are lots more to find in this scene, so keep your eyes peeled.

When Art3mis and Z meet up after they become famous Gunters, she is disguised as Goro from Mortal Kombat. Then, as a practical joke, she has an Alien chestburster pops out of her new skin. She tells Z he needs to keep a low profile and gives him a pair of Clark Kent glasses, which outfit him with a suit and tie as well. They agree to meet up at Ogden Morrow’s birthday party later that night at the Distracted Globe nightclub. So, Z goes to chill with Aech and decide what to wear. He tries on Michael Jackson’s red leather gear from Thriller, a Duran Duran look, and then settles on Buckaroo Bonzai’s get-up.

The Distracted Globe is another treasure trove of eggs. A number of vehicles are arriving as Z goes in but the Serenity is the only one we could pick out. We get glimpses of Conan, Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings, Harley Quinn, Deathstroke, The Joker, Commander Shepard from Mass Effect, Lara Croft again, a Battle Toad, Blanka from Street Fighter II, and the bartenders wear Devo hats and have digital displays on their chests that read “Devo.”

Z and Art3mis go through Halliday’s archived memories a couple of times to search for clues. We get a verbal nod to Kira from The Dark Crystal and in one shot we spotted a Billy Idol CD and Triceraton action figure from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The scene where The Curator shows them what movies Halliday watched during a certain period, we see hundreds of floating DVD (or possibly VHS) covers. The only ones we could make out for sure were Full Metal Jacket, Scarface, and Batman (1989). The films he had watched in the week Z and Art3mis were investigating were The Fly remake, Say Anything, and The Shining. Then, once they figure out the clue, they end up going to a virtual version of the hotel from The Shining, replete with the creepy twins, the blood wave, Room 237 and the undead woman in the tub, and even the ballroom.

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Now, when we get to the final battle it’s an all out barrage of Easter eggs. Z makes his speech to rouse the people while holding up a boombox like in Say Anything. His army includes Deadshot from DC Comics, a squad of Spartans from Halo, Chun Li and Sagat from Street Fighter II, Tracer from Overwatch, Lara Croft from Tomb Raider, Ambra and El Dragón from Battleborn, the Red and Black Lions from Voltron, Cassie Cage from Mortal Kombat, the knights on ostrichback from Joust, more Battle Toads, the cyclops from The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, Deadites from Army of Darkness, Donatello and Tokka from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Chucky thrown in for good measure. Z uses Mad Max’s shotgun during fray, while Aech arms herself with Master Chief’s assault rifle from Halo. Z also throws a bomb that looks exactly like Dust Brain from the Madballs toy line (Repvile also appears as graffiti in The Stacks earlier in the film). The one character we noticed on IOI's side was Jason from Friday the 13th.

Things really start heating up when Sorrento brings out Mechagodzilla to do battle with Iron Giant. Daito then utilizes his Gundam RX-78 skin to clash with the mechanical kaiju. It was a real treat to see one of combatants throw the Glave blade from Krull. And when Z musters a Sonic Boom from Street Fighter II in his one-on-one fight with Sorrento, we almost got up and cheered!

The war in OASIS is interspersed with what is happening in the real world, which is Z, Daito, and Sho in their VR rigs in the back of Aech’s van…which is being chased by IOI. When Z asks why it’s such a bumpy ride, Aech facetiously replies, “Just practicing my Mario Kart.” Aech’s jacket in this part of the film is covered in patches and pins, all of which are awesome. They include three Wonder Woman patches, a Rocky Horror Picture Show patch, Cheetara, Wilykit, and Wilykat from Thundercats patches, a 20-sided dice pin, a Supergirl pin, a Simon Says pin, two Dead Kennedys patches, two Rush Fly By Night owl patches, the Lyndono patch that Wash wears in Serenity, and three Battlestar Galactica (1978) Blue Squadron uniform patches. To top it all off, she is wearing a Rush 2112 t-shirt.

After the conflict, Z and his clan meet Ogden Morrow and there is mention of Rosebud from Citizen Kane. And lastly, at the end of the movie we see a B-9 toy from Lost In Space and a life-sized Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet.

While we have covered a lot of Easter eggs here, there are still a few we have confirmed exist, but couldn’t find. So, our challenge to all you Gunters out there is to locate R2-D2, an X-Wing, Sonic the Hedgehog, the Martian tripods from War of the Worlds, and some element from Minecraft.

In theaters now, Ready Player One is produced and directed by Steven Spielberg from a script by Zak Penn and Ernest Cline. The film stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Win Morisaki, Lena Waithe, Hannah John-Kamen, Simon Pegg, Mark Rylance, Ben Mendelsohn, TJ Miller and Ralph Ineson.