The Most Brilliant Easter Eggs Of The Last Decade

Watching a film for the very first time can be an incredible experience, but for many curious fans, there's no better way to watch a movie than to tirelessly pore through it to find different pieces of trivia, clues, and neat Easter eggs that provide even more depth to the story. Many of the decade's very best films definitely merit repeat viewings, and eagle-eyed audience members will likely be rewarded by the extra layers of storytelling they can find as they continue to explore their favorite films.

From secret songs to gunshot sonatas, from returning characters to television references, some of the decade's strongest cinematic offerings are packed full of small details you might have missed the first time around. As we leave the 2010s behind, it's a perfect time to cue up your favorites and see what you might be able to find. To get you started, here are some of our favorite brilliant Easter eggs of the last decade. Major spoilers for all of these films to follow!

Pixar is notorious for its numerous Easter eggs, sneaking references to past and future films into its current releases ever since even before the studio began its odyssey into feature-length animation in 1995 with the original Toy Story. From the Pizza Planet truck to a bouncy ball that appears in every single Pixar project, the Toy Story sequels in particular are packed full of sly references.

2010's Toy Story 3, is one of Pixar's very best efforts, features one of the smartest (and saddest) Easter eggs in the studio's history. As Andy grows up, his toys — including Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) — must adjust to the fact that their owner doesn't really need them anymore. Though Andy intends to bring at least Woody to college with him, all of the toys fear the possibility of winding up in the trash. One of the many reasons that's a horrifying prospect is the garbageman himself. Check out his shirt — it's Sid, who terrorized the toys back in the first Toy Story installment. Pixar's motifs are always quite intentional, so though he's never named, it's pretty clear that he grew up to work in trash removal, fatefully symbolizing the grim fate that strikes fear into the heart of Andy's childhood toys.

Jordan Peele's sophomore film Us is filled with doubles — specifically, underground doppelgangers, which confront and attempt to murder their above-ground counterparts while clad in red jumpsuits. While the Wilson family (led by Lupita Nyong'o and Winston Duke — both Black Panther alumni), successfully evade their doppelgangers, the audience is eventually let in on a horrifying truth. Nyong'o's Adelaide isn't who she says she is, and as it turns out, she's the clone who switched places with her double when the two of them were children.

Much like Get Out, the film is packed full of small details, with multiple references to Hands Across America (which the doppelgangers literally mimic at the end of the movie) and Michael Jackson's "Thriller" (which features zombie creatures much like the doppelgangers). The most obvious reference to doubles, however, is the number 11, which appears constantly throughout the film. One of the most prominent examples is the recurring Bible verse Jeremiah 11:11, but a young Adelaide also requests prize #11 after winning a carnival game (it's a "Thriller" shirt), Adelaide's son Jason notices that it's 11:11 shortly before the doppelgangers arrive, and Gabe (Duke) even watches a baseball game where the score is 11 to 11. The duality of the number 11 is a perfect fit for Us, but even so, it's thrilling to see how many times Peele was able to work it into the narrative.

At the beginning of the decade, it may have seemed like Pixar had cornered the market on animated films. Still, their parent company, Disney, continued to reign supreme with hits like Tangled and Frozen. And as it turns out, two of Disney's biggest modern hits are actually connected.

Tangled, which retells the story of Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) as she escapes her mother's overprotective custody to live her own life, and Frozen, which sees sisters Anna (Kristen Bell) and Elsa (Idina Menzel) struggling to mend their fractured relationship while managing Elsa's potentially destructive powers, have more in common than most might think. At the beginning of Frozen, as the kingdom of Arendelle prepares for Elsa's coronation, two familiar guests appear quite briefly on screen — specifically, Rapunzel and her husband, Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi). There's a darker side to this Easter egg, thanks to a fan theory that circulated about Elsa and Anna's parents dying on their way to Rapunzel's wedding. Mandy Moore herself debunked the theory, making sure that both of these movies stay positive and this particular Easter egg remains a small, sweet connection between the two films.

Over the years since George Lucas brought audiences to a galaxy far, far away in 1977 with the first Star Wars, the franchise has instituted some standard elements that fans can expect in every film. One of the most beloved Star Wars traditions is that each film within the three trilogies — the original trilogy, the prequel trilogy, and the sequel trilogy — contains one classic line: "I have a bad feeling about this."

Throughout the movies, everyone from Han Solo (Harrison Ford) to Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) to Princess Leia (the late Carrie Fisher) utters the line, but unless you listen carefully — or speak droid — you might miss its appearance in 2017's The Last Jedi. In this particular film, a human doesn't utter the line. According to director Rian Johnson, it comes from BB-8, the sequel trilogy's breakout droid star who speaks in bleeps and boops. It's clever to make Star Wars fans really hunt for their favorite line, and it's a particularly difficult feat to decipher BB-8's expressive language and realize the little droid gets the big line this time.

Undoubtedly one of the most unique films of the entire decade, Sony's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse breathed new life into the Spider-Man franchise while creating an entirely new animated vision of the iconic hero's universe that can exist alongside the live-action adventures of Tom Holland's Peter Parker. When a young Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) discovers that there are several Spider-Heroes working throughout multiple universes, he embarks on a journey of self-discovery alongside Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld), Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage), Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn), Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), and a bedraggled Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson).

Since Spider-Verse takes place in a slightly altered version of our own universe, it stands to reason that everything would just be a little bit different, and those tiny adjustments extend to Spider-Verse's version of New York City's Times Square. Among plenty of other cool Easter eggs, the posters in Miles' Times Square are just ever so slightly removed from our real pop culture, featuring posters for projects like From Dusk Till Shawn (a reference to Shaun of the Dead), Baby Shower (instead of Bridesmaids),and restaurants like Planet Inglewood (a stand-in for Planet Hollywood). There's even an ad for Clone College, an imaginary follow-up to Clone High, the real-world cult classic MTV series from Spider-Verse producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

The strength of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's crossover efforts, including the Avengers films, relies on the strong chemistry between its leads. From Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark to Chris Evans' Steve Rogers to Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner, everybody genuinely seems like they get along on and off screen, creating a real sense of camaraderie among these huge stars.

Thanks to their easy chemistry, it's clear that the stars don't shy away from sly references to all of their real-life projects — even ones that most audience members might have forgotten. A perfect example of this is during Captain America: Civil War, which finds several members of the Avengers at odds after a rift between Captain America and Iron Man. As Tony enters a scene late in the film, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) sarcastically announces to the room that "the futurist is here" — a line which could easily be taken as a reference to Downey's largely forgotten yet well-received 2004 jazz album. It's a small, cheeky reference, but it's still a perfect callback to Downey's varied career meant for the most intense fans.