In a movie all about finding an Easter Egg, like Ready Player One, there are going to be a lot of Easter eggs within it. The movie, based on the best-selling book of the same name by Ernest Cline, is chock full of pop culture references from the late 20th Century, some going as far back as the 1960s. There are probably hundreds of easter eggs hidden throughout the movie, but we've settled on 32 of the less-than-obvious ones.
Pee-Wee Herman's Bike
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure is a cultural touchstone for many born in the '70s and it's so fun to see it represented in Ready Player One. It's subtle, as no character actually references it and it has about 10 seconds of screen time, but as Aech, Parzival, and Art3mis walk into Aech's workshop, viewers can spy Pee-Wee's bike leaning against the wall in the background.
Police Synchronicity Shirt
Music plays a big role in the movie, with a soundtrack filled with '80s bangers. Even some of the music of the decade not heard in the movie are represented. In the beginning, as Wade (Tye Sheridan) leaves his house, his neighbor is wearing a tee shirt from The Police's 1983 album Synchronicity.
Mortal Kombat Button
In the Ready Player One future, 2045 to be exact, everyone in the world spends their time in The Oasis, a virtual reality world. The easter eggs are not confined to The Oasis though. In the real world, Toshiro (Win Morisaki) wears a Mortal Kombat button on his suit. He also decorated his goggles with a Batman sticker.
Cocktails & Dreams Neon Sign
There are a few places in the Oasis that are chock-full of '80s references. The game is all about its creator's favorite things from the '80s, so most of the characters are obsessed with the pop culture of the decade. One subtle reference appears in Aech's clubhouse, a neon sign for Cocktails & Dreams, the bar that Tom Cruise's character opens in 1988's Cocktail.
Rush's 2112 Album
If you've read the book, you know that the legendary band Rush plays a big part in Halliday's (Mark Rylance) youth. There is no Rush on the soundtrack of the movie, though their song "Tom Sawyer" was used in the trailer. That doesn't mean Rush isn't represented though. In fact, the album cover for their album "2112" is all over the place, including on a poster in Halliday's childhood room at the end.
School House Rock
After discovering the 3rd key, Wade and Samantha, played by House Of The Dragon cast member Olivia Cooke, are discussing the third clue. Fans of School House Rock will remember that three is the magic number and they thought it could be important, so they wrote in their notebook.
Lost In Space Robot
Perhaps the oldest pop culture reference in the movie comes in the form of a toy robot from the 1960s TV show Lost In Space. Halliday is shown briefly holding it towards the end of the movie in the recreation of his childhood room. Though Lost in Space pre-dates most of the references in the movie, the show's popularity endured for decades and the show was even rebooted for a Gen X audience by Netflix in 2018.
Simon Button
In 1978 the Milton Bradley company released the electric game Simon. It's been a hit ever since, and it was important to Halliday. It's seen in one of the scenes in his library in the Oasis, and when he announces the easter egg game after his death, he's wearing a Simon button in the video.
Donkey Kong, Jr. Poster
Video games play a huge role in Ready Player One and there are references all over the place from them. One of the most subtle references comes from the 1982 Nintendo release, Donkey Kong, Jr. It is shown on a wall in the bedroom of a frustrated Oasis user.
Spaceballs Winnebago
Mel Brooks' Spaceballs was filled with classic Brooksian jokes, like the heroes driving a beat-up spaceship shaped like a classic '70s Winnebago. A life-sized model of the ship can be seen in Aech's workshop at Art3mis and Parzival chat.
Ratner's Restaurant
For some eagle-eyed viewers with a knowledge of New York City of old, you might catch a quick glimpse of the legendary East Village restaurant Ratner's during the car race. With locations on Delancy Street and Second Avenue, Ratner's was a legendary Kosher dairy joint that was popular with movie stars and celebrities, as well as everyday New Yorkers. It closed in 2002 after almost 100 years of service.
Joust Sticker
Video games, especially those from the '80s, play a big part in Ready Player One. In one of the earliest scenes in the movie, when Wade is getting ready to enter the Oasis, he puts on his goggles, and viewers watching closely can see a small sticker with the logo from the game Joust on them.
Ace Chemicals
The car race towards the beginning of the movie - the first challenge in the game has a ton of easter eggs and one of those is an Ace Chemicals building. Ace Chemicals is, of course, where the Joker became the Joker in Batman comics after falling into a vat of chemicals.
Jack Burton's Truck
You know what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like this? "Watch out for my truck!" That's right, Jack Burton's semi from Big Trouble In Little China is one of the many obstacles in the race across New York City, just as the race enters Chinatown.
Speed Racer's Mach 5
As the racers join the field for the race scene, there are a number of famous pop culture vehicles and one is Speed Racer's legendary Mach 5 race car. It turns out, we learn later that it's Daito's main car in the Oasis.
Dead Kennedy's Logo Patch
When we finally meet the "real" Aech, Helen (Lena Waithe), she's wearing an old army jacket covered in patches. The Wonder Woman logo is seen, as is the Thundercats logo and some others. The coolest patch though, has to be the logo of the legendary punk back The Dead Kennedys next to the Wonder Woman patch.
The Knight Rider Delorean
Parzival's Delorean is not exactly one of the more subtle references on this list, obviously in tribute to Back To The Future. But there is a modification on it that isn't so obvious. At the front of the car is the red light made famous by K.I.T.T. in Knight Rider. It's also worth mentioning that the "Zemeckis Cube" that Parzival buys and uses later to reverse time 30 seconds is a tribute to Robert Zemeckis, the director of Back To The Future. Furthermore, in the book, there is an additional modification to the Delorean, Parzival has added a Ghostbusters logo that isn't there in the movie, sadly.
Holy Hand Grenade
The Holy Hand Grenade is not a very subtle reference in the movie, but the meaning behind it is. You might know that the Holy Hand Grenade comes from Monty Python And The Holy Grail, but did you know that the name Parzival is also taken from Arthurian lore? While he doesn't appear in the Monty Python movie, Wade's gamer tag comes from another one of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table.
Marvin The Martian Statuette
There are a lot of things on the floor in one of Halliday's memories in the archive of his brain, and one of them is a small statuette of Marvin The Martian from only Looney Tunes cartoons.
Goldie Wilson For Mayor Poster
Back To The Future features quite a bit in Ready Player One and one of the less obvious easter eggs is the "Goldie Wilson For Mayor" poster hanging in Aech's hangout space as Parzival gets ready for his date with Art3mis. On the opposite side of the mirror, there is a Wil Wheaton For President poster in the same style that is a subtle reference back to the book where Star Trek star Wil Wheaton is the VP of the Oasis Council.
Greatest American Hero Logo Sticker
One of the hardest easter eggs to spot has to be the Greatest American Hero sticker on Artemis' Akira bike. It's there, but it's tough to see. The Greatest American Hero has an outsized legacy for many in Gen X, as the show only aired for 45 episodes, but the theme song has lived forever.
He-Man Lunch Box
One of the earliest references in Ready Player One comes as Wade gets ready to enter the Oasis for the first time in the movie. He sets his glasses down on a classic 1980s He-Man lunch box. All the cool kids had them in the '80s.
The A-Team Van
The van that the A-Team drove in the show by the same name is one of the coolest cars in Hollywood history so it just had to make an appearance here. It's one of many cars on the start line for the race.
Jack Slater Marquee
Now we're getting meta! On the marquee of a movie theater in the race is the name of the movie "Jack Slater" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. This is, of course, a reference to another movie-in-a-movie from the '90s movie The Last Action Hero. That movie also has a great soundtrack of '80s songs, like Ready Player One.
Christine
Of all the cool cars in the race scene, maybe the hardest to identify is Christine from the movie Christine. It's a perfect fit for the movie, of course, as another movie based on a Stephen King novel, The Shining, plays a huge role in the movie as one of the challenges for the players to beat.
A Madball
There were a lot of toy fads in the 1980's. Cabbage Patch Kids, Pound Puppies, Koosh balls, and, as seen in Ready Player One, Madballs. The line of soft squeezable balls with gross-looking faces were a huge hit briefly in the middle part of the decade. In the movie, Art3mis throws a "Dust Brain" version of a Madball into the Mecagodzilla, blowing up Nolan Sorrento's (Ben Mendelsohn) avatar.
RoboCop
RoboCop is one of two movies that feature Peter Weller's characters in Ready Player One. Parzival dresses as Buckaroo Bonzai for his date with Art3mis, and before that, as Parzival is walking through the Oasis, he walks past an avatar of RoboCop. It's a brief moment and you might not catch it, but it's there.
Silver Cup Studios
The race through the streets of New York in the movie goes past some iconic NYC landmarks. Wall Street, Chinatown, and the Empire State Building are all seen, as is a less well-known landmark, Silver Cup Studios. The iconic sign on top of Silver Cup Studios in Queens is well known to New Yorkers and fans of The Highlander, as it's destroyed in the climatic battle in the sci-fi fantasy classic. While The Highlander doesn't play much of a role in the film version of Ready Player One, it is quite prominent in the book.
Leonardo The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle
There are tons of fun avatars in the Oasis, far too many to list here. One of the most fun has to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle who walks by Parzival in the Oasis. It's Leonardo, to be exact and there is no mention or even an acknowledgment as he breezes by, smiling. Just another day in the Oasis.
Freddy Krueger
Okay, we admit, this one is a little more obvious than most of the easter eggs from Ready Player One on this list, but Freddy Krueger is one of the first '80s references viewers see and he's only one of a number of '80s horror icons in the movie, along with Jason, Chuckie, and more.
1960s Batmobile
Of all the Batmobiles to use, the fact that director Steven Spielberg chose the one from the 1960s TV show is perfect. Remember, in the '80s, before Tim Burton's Batman in 1989, the Adam West Batman was the definitive live-action Batman. Anything else would have felt weird.
1980s Cereal Boxes
Ready Player One relies on a lot of nostalgia to succeed, for better or worse, and there is nothing more nostalgic than sitting in front of the TV and watching your favorite Saturday morning cartoons with a big bowl of sugary cereal. Of course, they had to include some examples of the cereal boxes kids were pouring those sugar bombs out of!
