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Easter eggs
Hidden details in every movie and series: 51 in total. Tap a poster to see its eggs. Titles you haven't marked as seen stay locked so nothing gets spoiled.
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- Referencenod to comics or other movies
- Cameoa familiar face shows up
- Setupplanted now, pays off later
- Behind the scenesproduction trivia
- SetupRaphael Adolini's pistol
The Italian translator teaches Naru to use a flintlock pistol engraved "Raphael Adolini 1715". Remember that name: it comes back later in the saga.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesA whole movie dubbed in Comanche
The cast came back to record a full Comanche-language version, the first feature film dubbed in that language. Both versions are on streaming.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesHorses, at the producer's insistence
Producer Jhane Myers, of the Comanche and Blackfeet Nations, brought binders of reference material to set and insisted on horses: "We're a horse culture." You can see it in Taabe.
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- Behind the scenesMade in a game engine
The film was animated in Unreal Engine, Epic's game engine, making it one of the first features made with it.
source ↗ - ReferenceAkira and Arcane in its DNA
The look draws on Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira (1988) and the series Arcane. Several Arcane animators worked on it, including the lead character animator.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesNo two Predators alike
Dan Trachtenberg wanted every Predator to look distinct, avoiding what he called the Star Wars trope where every member of a species looks the same.
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- Behind the scenesVan Damme almost played the Predator
Jean-Claude Van Damme was cast as the creature, but at 5'9" he looked small next to Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers and Jesse Ventura, and he complained about the hot suit. 7'2" Kevin Peter Hall took over.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe mandibles were Cameron's idea
Stan Winston redesigned the creature while sketching on a flight next to James Cameron, then making Aliens. Cameron suggested the mandibles.
source ↗ - CameoA future governor in the squad
Jesse Ventura, Blain with the giant minigun, was governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003. And radio operator Hawkins is Shane Black, the writer of Lethal Weapon.
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- ReferenceA Xenomorph skull among the trophies
On the ship, among the Predator's skull collection, sits the head of a Xenomorph, the creature from Alien. Fox owned both franchises.
source ↗ - SetupThe pistol engraved 1715
The elder Predator hands Harrigan a flintlock pistol engraved "Raphael Adolini 1715". The film never says where it came from.
source ↗ - CameoDouble duty for Kevin Peter Hall
Hall returns as the Predator and also plays the elder leader who shows up at the end. The creature's voice went from Peter Cullen to Hal Rayle.
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- ReferenceIsabelle knows about 1987
Sniper Isabelle recognizes the creature from reports of something that killed a special forces team in Guatemala in 1987 and was beaten by a lone survivor.
source ↗ - ReferenceLong Tall Sally again
Little Richard's song plays over the end credits. It's also in the 1987 Predator.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesA script shelved since 1994
Robert Rodriguez wrote the first draft in 1994 while making Desperado. Fox found it too expensive, shelved it and only rediscovered it in 2009.
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- CameoKeyes's son
Jake Busey plays Sean Keyes, son of Peter Keyes, the agent his father Gary Busey played in Predator 2.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe director was once prey
Shane Black, the director and co-writer, is the same actor who played radio operator Hawkins in the 1987 Predator.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesA last act redone in a hurry
After poor test screenings, about three-quarters of the final act was rewritten and reshot in July 2018, moving the climax from day to night. Edward James Olmos's role was cut entirely.
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- ReferenceDavid watches Lawrence of Arabia
Alone on the ship, David watches Lawrence of Arabia and repeats Peter O'Toole's lines. Michael Fassbender based the android on that performance, down to the blond hair.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesMurals by H.R. Giger
The murals in the chamber with the giant head were designed by H.R. Giger, the Swiss artist who created the creature in the first Alien.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesA TED Talk in 2023
In the viral campaign, Guy Pearce plays Peter Weyland giving a TED Talk in 2023. Another video sold David 8 as a product, narrated by Fassbender.
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- CameoJames Franco, for a few seconds
Captain Branson, Daniels's husband, is James Franco. He only shows up in photos and video, since he dies right at the start.
source ↗ - ReferenceOzymandias, wrong author
David recites Ozymandias and credits it to Byron. Walter corrects him: it's Shelley. The slip shows David understands human culture less than he thinks.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesPrologues released ahead of the film
Fox put out lead-in shorts: Prologue: Last Supper, the crew's final meal before cryosleep, directed by Luke Scott, and Ridley Scott's The Crossing, with Shaw and David after Prometheus.
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- ReferenceNames straight from Peter Pan
Wendy, the Lost Boys, Smee, Nibs, Curly, Slightly, Tootles and Neverland island all come from Peter Pan. One of the hybrids even asks why they're all named that way.
source ↗ - ReferenceA title that echoes a tagline
Episode 5 is called "In Space, No One...", a nod to the 1979 Alien poster tagline: "In space no one can hear you scream."
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe franchise's first TV series
Created by Noah Hawley, it's the first TV series in the Alien franchise. The production built 82 sets on Bangkok soundstages.
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- Behind the scenesThe cast's shock was real
The actors didn't know about the blood spray in Kane's chest scene. Veronica Cartwright took it full on, and her reaction stayed in the film.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesRipley was written gender-neutral
The script described the crew generically, without saying who was a man or a woman. Sigourney Weaver was the last actor cast.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesBorn from the Dune that never was
Dan O'Bannon discovered H.R. Giger's art while working on Alejandro Jodorowsky's failed Dune. That's where the idea of bringing Giger in for the creature came from.
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- CameoIan Holm's face
The android Rook has the likeness of Ian Holm, Ash in Alien, who died in 2020. His estate approved it, and the animatronic head started from a scan made on The Lord of the Rings.
source ↗ - ReferenceAlien: Isolation phones
The station's wall phones are the save points from the game Alien: Isolation (2014). Fede Álvarez uses them to hint that danger is close.
source ↗ - ReferenceNostromo wreckage in the opening
The first scene shows a Weyland-Yutani probe recovering a cocoon from the wreckage of the Nostromo, the ship from Alien.
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- Behind the scenesAlien$, with a dollar sign
To sell the title, James Cameron drew lines through the "s" in Aliens on a whiteboard to make a dollar sign. It sounded like a myth until he confirmed it in 2021.
source ↗ - CameoWeaver's mother in the photo
In the extended cut, Ripley learns her daughter Amanda died an old woman. In the photo, elderly Amanda is Elizabeth Inglis, Sigourney Weaver's mother.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe knife trick drew blood
According to Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton didn't know he'd be part of Bishop's knife trick until it was shot. During the reshoot, Henriksen nicked his finger.
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- CameoLance Henriksen, twice
Henriksen returns as the voice of the damaged Bishop and, at the end, shows up as Bishop II, a man claiming to be the android's designer.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesWilliam Gibson's rejected script
A rejected draft by William Gibson made Hicks the lead, with Ripley in a coma. He summed it up as "Space commies hijack alien eggs—big problem in Mallworld."
source ↗ - Behind the scenesTheaters got a dog, Assembly an ox
In the theatrical cut, the creature bursts out of Spike, an inmate's dog. In the 2003 Assembly Cut, with over half an hour of extra footage, the host is an ox.
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- Behind the scenesThe behind-the-back shot was real
Sigourney Weaver trained for a month and made the backward shot for real. Ron Perlman broke character with an "Oh my god!", but there was enough of a pause for the editors to cut around it.
source ↗ - ReferenceMother gets a Father
The Auriga's computer is called Father, a counterpart to Mother, the Nostromo's computer in Alien.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesJoss Whedon's five endings
Joss Whedon wrote five different endings for the script. He later said the film followed his script but was poorly executed.
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- Behind the scenesElle Fanning vs. Elle Fanning
Elle Fanning plays both synthetics: Thia, who helps Dek, and Tessa, the "sister" working for Weyland-Yutani.
source ↗ - ReferenceNumbers from the 1987 countdown
Linguist Britton Watkins built a written and spoken Yautja language. Its numerals come from the self-destruct countdown in the 1987 Predator.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe main series' first PG-13
It's the first mainline Predator film rated PG-13. Before it, only the Alien vs. Predator crossover had gotten that rating.
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- CameoThe man behind Bishop
Lance Henriksen, the android Bishop in Aliens, plays billionaire Charles Bishop Weyland. Paul W. S. Anderson's explanation: 150 years later, the company builds the android with its creator's face.
source ↗ - ReferencePromised since Predator 2
The two creatures' meeting was teased back in 1990, when a Xenomorph skull showed up in the trophy room in Predator 2.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesIt started in comics
The idea came from a 1989 Dark Horse comic series. Peter Briggs wrote a spec script in 1990-1991, but the movie didn't move until 2002.
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- ReferencePicks up where AVP left off
The opening continues AVP's final scene: the hybrid creature is born aboard the Predator ship, kills the crew and brings the ship down in Colorado.
source ↗ - ReferenceA certain Ms. Yutani
In the final scene, Colonel Stevens hands the Predator's plasma pistol to a Ms. Yutani, a name Alien fans know well.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesAlmost all in camera
The Brothers Strause came from visual effects but leaned on practical effects. Per Colin Strause, apart from exterior spaceship shots, there are no pure CG shots.
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Locked. These details give away parts of the title. Mark it as seen to unlock.
Timeline
when each title takes placePredator in the past
1719
PreyA Comanche warrior vs. the Predator
841, 1609 and 1942
Predator: Killer of KillersAnimated: three warriors, three eras
Predator in the present day
1987
PredatorSchwarzenegger hunted in the jungle
1997
Predator 2The hunter takes on Los Angeles
2010
PredatorsHumans dropped on an alien hunting preserve
2018
The PredatorA bigger Predator comes to Earth
Alien: 21st and 22nd centuries
2093
PrometheusSearching for humanity's origins
2104
Alien: CovenantColonists run into David
2120, 2 years before Alien
Alien: Earth · S1Xenomorphs reach Earth; the FX series
2122
AlienRipley and the Nostromo crew
2142, between Alien and Aliens
Alien: RomulusYoung colonists raid an abandoned station
2179, 57 years after Alien
AliensRipley goes back with the Colonial Marines
2179, right after Aliens
Alien³Ripley on a prison planet
Distant future
2381
Alien ResurrectionRipley returns, 200 years later
distant future
Predator: BadlandsA young Predator and a Weyland-Yutani synthetic
Original text by Sagaticket. Posters: The Movie Database (TMDB); character photos via Wikipedia. This site uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB. All trademarks and titles mentioned belong to their respective owners. Streaming availability may change.