1. ET's friends appear in Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace
After Steven Spielberg included a Yoda cameo and Star Wars toys in his 1982 film (and in Raiders of the Lost Ark, see below), George Lucas promised to continue the gag in the next film he made. Unfortunately this was The Phantom Menace.
Here's some fairly in-depth discussion over whether the aliens can be taken as canon in the Star Wars universe (in short, yes but no but undetermined).
2. The Shining appears all over Toy Story
They're dark, dark folks over at Pixar. In Stanley Kubrick's famous adaptation of Steven King's horror novel, young Danny Torrence plays on the iconic carpet of the Overlook Hotel's corridors...
...which then appears in Toy Story....
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There are more, too. The number 237 recurs across Toy Story 3: the numberplate on the rubbish truck which Woody thinks his friends have been thrown into reads RM237. When Trixie the blue Triceratops is shown on instant messenger, she's chatting with Velocistar 237, and the brand shown on a security camera in Sunnyside is Overlook H237.
Why 237? It's the terrifying room of psychelogical horrors Jack Torrence finds himself in in The Shining.
Pixar are also very self-referential across their films: A Lotso bear appears in Up! A Buzz Lightyear doll can be seen on the floor of the dentist's waiting room in Finding Nemo, a Rex dinosaur is hiding behind a pair of discarded bowling pins in Wall:E, Arlo, the dinosaur star of the film of the same name out in 2015, serves as a prop in the monster training room in Monsters Inc – the list goes on.
3. A sex scene was snuck into the closing credits of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
The Marauders' Map, a magical bit of cartography that helps Harry and friends see where other people are in Hogwarts, can only be accessed by the user promising that they are up to no good.
Clearly, the makers of the third Harry Potter film decided to inject some of this mischief into their closing credits. Blink and you'll miss it, but in the bottom left corner of the screen you'll see two pairs of feet, entwined and facing opposite directions: it's the closest thing you'll get to a sex scene across all eight films in the Warner Bros franchise. Thankfully. Nobody needs to see Ron and Hermione getting it together.
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4. An X appears before the death of someone in The Departed
This is a very handy hint for anyone who tends to get a case of the wiggins at on-screen deaths: people, beware of the X. And cover your eyes because something awful is about to occur.
5. R2D2 in JJ Abrams' Star Trek films
6. The name of the Bride is revealed far earlier in the Kill Bill films
Uma Thurman's vengeful assassin is only referred to by her codename, the Bride, in the first film, but there are a couple of sneaky references, of which this is the most obvious.
Well, we say the most obvious, but you'd need to be phenomenally observant and able to notice things that only pop up for a second. If this applies to you, you should probably think about a career as a vengeful assassin.
7. The Captain America suit being constructed in Iron Man
Eyes left and you'll get a look at Cap's shield. Strong sneaky work there, Mr Stark.
8. R2D2 and C3PO in Raiders of the Lost Ark
Spielberg is probably due a few more Easter eggs from the Star Wars team: as well as the cameos in ET, he included C-3PO and R2-D2 in Raiders' hieroglyphs.
JJ Abrams, if you could kindly include a couple of sharks in The Force Awakens, that would be splendid.
8. The Flux Capacitor in The Polar Express
As pointed out expertly by YouTube user FunWithGuru, the Flux Capacitor from Back to the Future's DeLorean can be found in the rather terrifying CGI Christmas film, The Polar Express.
10. There is a Starbucks cup visible in every scene of Fight Club
Director David Fincher: "When I first moved to LA in 1984, you could not get a good cup of coffee in Los Angeles to save your life. I mean, it was really pathetic. Then Starbucks came out, and it was such a great idea: good coffee.
"And when it became successful there were, like two or three on every block. It's too much of a good thing. But they read the script, they knew what we were doing, and they were kind of ready to poke a little fun at themselves. I mean, they wouldn't let us use their name on the coffee shop that gets destroyed by the piece of tragic corporate art, but they were willing to give us the rest of their stuff.
"We had a lot of fun using that – there are Starbucks cups everywhere, in every shot. I don't have anything personal against Starbucks. I think they're trying to do a good thing. They're just too successful."
This article was written by Alice Vincent from The Daily Telegraph and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.
