Easter Eggs You Missed In Lightyear

Pixar's "Lightyear" gives you everything you never knew about the titular "Toy Story" hero — his full origin story and mythos, as told by the 1995 film that made the action figure so popular in Andy's world. Setting the movie within the canon of the "Toy Story" franchise in this way is an interesting choice, and it opens up a lot of possibilities for callbacks and tie-ins. For as many new reveals as there are in "Lightyear," and despite Chris Evans taking over the eponymous role from Tim Allen, the film still pulls heavily from its predecessors.

Make no mistake: This is still a wholly independent story. You could show up to the theater and buy a "Lightyear" ticket with no prior knowledge of Buzz as a character, and you'd probably still have a good time. The film has earned strong reviews, after all, as has become the expectation for Pixar's animated features. But without an active knowledge of the "Toy Story" lore, a lot of the little details in "Lightyear" may fly right over your head like a ship in hyperspace.

From catchphrases and design details to whole plot lines, "Lightyear" makes a lot of references to the "Toy Story" franchise. And, of course, it also has its fair share of homages to sci-fi classics of the past. Here are some Easter eggs that you might have missed in "Lightyear."

A lot of the story in "Lightyear" centers around crystallic fusion — the sci-fi method by which Star Command and its agents are able to achieve hyperspeed in their spacecrafts. When Buzz and the other inhabitants of SC-01 crash-land at the start of the film, their old fusion core is destroyed, forcing them to experiment with the resources available to them locally in the hopes of creating a new one. It's a process that takes decades, with Buzz undergoing numerous failed experiments with crystals that are just a little bit off. Finally, his robot companion Sox (Peter Sohn) comes up with the correct solution, and a fully-functional crystallic fusion core is created.

Of course, crystallic fusion has been a part of "Toy Story" lore from the very beginning. In the original film, during Buzz and Woody's very first conversation, Buzz asks his future best friend a series of questions, believing himself to have landed on an alien planet. In the hope of repairing his ship (a plot line itself that's very relevant to "Lightyear"), he asks Woody what power sources are available. "Do you people still use fossil fuels, or have you discovered crystallic fusion?" he asks Woody, who responds, baffled, "We've got double As." In the grand scheme of things, this is a tiny detail buried in a throwaway line, so it's cool to see "Lightyear" remain so loyal to the idea in its own story.

The first act of "Lightyear" is a rollercoaster, to say the absolute least. After crashing on the alien planet and setting up a colony, Buzz and Star Command begin working a new crystallic fusion core to reactive hyperspeed and get everybody off-world. Buzz flies the first test mission for the core, which is supposed to take him four minutes and 28 seconds. However, due to the temporal distortion of hyperspeed (which he doesn't quite fully reach), more than four years have passed by the time Buzz lands.

Time dilation is certainly not a new concept in the sci-fi genre. In fact, it's pretty scientific. But in the modern context of the genre, it's hard not to draw a direct comparison to Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar," which features a devastating moment of severe time dilation. Buzz's four years aren't nearly as long as the amount of time skipped in "Interstellar," but the effect is still unnerving. What's arguably even more unsettling is that Buzz continues to volunteer for more test flights, knowing full-well that he'll lose years every time. Despite that danger, he remains loyal to the mission, just as "Lightyear" remains loyal to the science fiction greats of the past.

The opening of "Lightyear" says that it was released in 1995 in the "Toy Story" timeline. While it would have been easy for the film to completely ignore that detail later on, it remains an active component of the overarching style. A lot of the movie takes inspiration from even older sci-fi franchises like "Buck Rogers" (giant bugs, laser shields, ray guns, etc.), but there are a number of details that feel specifically '90s in nature.

During Buzz's first hyperspeed test flight, for example, his autopilot system I.V.A.N. starts malfunctioning. Buzz pulls I.V.A.N. out of the ship's system, revealing it to be nothing more than a blocky plug-in, and blows into it like it's an NES cartridge. Sure, enough the autopilot immediately starts to work as intended.

This isn't the only '90s detail that comes up, either. Many of the digital readouts in "Lightyear" have the blocky overlays of '90s computer screens, which makes sense for a movie that's supposed to have been released in 1995. Obviously, "Lightyear" pulls from all eras of science fiction, and it still feels like a contemporary animated movie in its overall structure. But still, it's fun to see that the writers committed to the mid-1990s setting in multiple ways.

It's no secret that Pixar loves spoofing "Star Wars" in its Buzz Lightyear storylines. Zurg is basically a big, silly, purple Darth Vader with Emperor Palpatine's title. And if you thought that "Lightyear," would mark the end of Buzz's history of "Star Wars" references, you'd be very wrong.

The big one in "Lightyear" is more subtle than some of the ones in the "Toy Stoy" films, but it should still stick out to those who know both series well. Sox, Buzz's robotic cat comrade, is able to interface with various computer systems using a plug in the tip of his tail. When he interfaces and starts "hacking," his head spins around in full 360 degrees and he starts mumbling "beep boop beep boop" over and over again. It's a funny gag, if a pretty simple one, and it seems like a pretty clear reference to R2-D2's own hacking habits in "Star Wars."

While R2 certainly isn't the only prominent sci-fi robot to hack into computer systems, the specific way in which Sox goes about his work and the sounds he hilariously makes are strikingly similar to the astromech droid in particular. It seems that every galactic hero needs a robot companion with a USB cable.

If you've absorbed much Buzz Lightyear content in the past, you'll recognize a number of the visual touches surrounding Zurg and his robots in "Lightyear." The robots themselves are a little more advanced and intimidating than the ones seen in "Toy Story 2," but they still have the same basic design. The same is true for Zurg himself, who swaps out his old robe and cape for a more mechanical aesthetic but still remains unmistakably him.

From the giant robot mouth and the little bull horns to the tri-barreled ion blaster, Zurg retains almost all of his most memorable touches. And, of course, every last bit of Zurg tech bears the villain's purple color palette. Even Zurg's dreadnought harkens back to the franchise's past, although it does looks a good deal different this time around. Still, "Lightyear" isn't the first official Buzz Lightyear story to show the evil emperor's intimidating flagship.

As the "Toy Story" movies constantly remind us, Buzz Lightyear is a cool toy. He comes with "karate-chop action," a wrist-mounted laser, and a winged jetpack (though he's not a flying toy). All of these special abilities come into play in "Lightyear" as well, with some proving crucial.

At multiple points throughout the film, Buzz shows off his "karate-chop action," which manifests as a far more versatile collection of martial arts skills. His wrist laser doesn't come with the old Space ranger suit model, but in the third act of the film, Buzz improvises by strapping a smaller standalone laser blaster to his wrist for easy use. The weapon comes in particular handy in his battle with Zurg, and when the new Space Ranger suits are revealed at the end of the film, they all have wrist lasers built in.

As for Buzz's winged jetpack, Pixar waits most of the movie to reveal it. Only when the rest of th team is reentering the atmosphere in their ship does Buzz pop the wings to try to help keep the vessel on course. It all works out, though the reentry could definitely be classified as falling with style.

The ending of "Lightyear" foreshadows a bright future for Buzz, his friends, and the Galactic Alliance. The Space Ranger Corps is reinstated with state-of-the-art tech, and Buzz's team becomes officially sanctioned for high-priority missions. Their first assignment? Head to the Gamma Quadrant of Sector 4 for some investigating. That destination may ring familiar if you're up on "Toy Story."

When Buzz first arrives in Andy's room, he says that he's stationed in the Gamma Quadrant of Sector 4. The location is mentioned again in "Toy Story 2," as it's the setting of Buzz's video game battle with Zurg. Given that the evil emperor is shown to still be alive at the end of "Lightyear," it's possible that a new version of that showdown could take place in a sequel. Either way, it'd nice to see Pixar staying so consistent with the silly lore they've created over the decades. Since the Buzz toy has all the memories of his fictional self, it makes sense that he'd have a strong association with the Gamma Quadrant of Sector 4.