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There’s more than one way to go hunting for Easter eggs. When it comes to movies, you can find them all over the place — and not just on a specific day of the year. Filmmakers have been hiding subtle hints, messages, and references in their movies for almost as long as they’ve been making movies at all, often as a wink-wink allusion to other movies they themselves love. You usually have to look carefully to notice them, but once seen they can’t be unseen. Here are six of them.

2023: A Barbie Odyssey

Some Easter eggs are subtle, while others are… less so. Greta Gerwig’s massively popular Barbie, which is all but certain to become the highest-grossing film of the year at the time of writing, opens with one of the not-so-subtle variety. As little girls play with old-fashioned dolls in a barren landscape, the narrator (Helen Mirren) intones about how things will soon change with the arrival of a new doll: Barbie (Margot Robbie), who appears out of the ether as Richard Strauss’ “Also sprach Zarathustra” plays. It’s a direct callback to the opening credits and first sequence of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, which likewise heralds the dawn of a historical event with massive implications for the future of humanity as that famous piece of music reaches its crescendo.

The “Pulp Fiction” Epitaph in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”

Among the many quotable scenes in Pulp Fiction, one has proved especially popular over the years: Samuel L. Jackson’s recitation of Ezekiel 25:17. Jackson plays a hitman who quotes the Bible before doing his victims in, using the passage as a kind of calling card:

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and good will shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

The sequence is so iconic, in fact, that the makers of Captain America: The Winter Soldier decided to reference it when Nick Fury, also played by Jackson, fakes his death. As the ruse requires a tombstone, the epitaph reads, “Col. Nicholas J. Fury: ‘The path of the righteous man…’ —Ezekiel 25:17.” Given how fond Pulp Fiction writer-director Quentin Tarantino is of alluding to other movies, it only makes sense for other filmmakers to reference his work.

Into the Tarantino-Verse

Speaking of Tarantino, it isn’t just other filmmakers whose work he references — it’s also his own. Many of the Oscar-winning writer-director’s works take place in a shared universe, with brands like Big Kahuna Burger and Red Apple cigarettes popping up in several of his films. There’s also the fact that Michael Madsen’s character in Reservoir Dogs and John Travolta’s character in Pulp Fiction are brothers: Vic and Vincent Vega, respectively, about whom Tarantino was at one point developing a spinoff.

Perhaps the deepest connection is between Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill, as the TV pilot that Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) starred in, Fox Force Five, in the former bears a striking resemblance to the female assassins in the latter. “There was a blond one, Somerset O’Neil, she was the leader,” Mia says of the show. “The Japanese fox was a kung fu master. The Black girl was a demolition expert. The French fox’s speciality was sex… according to the show, [my character] was the deadliest woman in the world with a knife.” These archetypes align strongly with the women of Kill Bill, a connection made even stronger by the fact that The Bride (also played by Thurman) titles her hit list “Death List Five.”

The Starbucks Cups in “Fight Club”

The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: When breaking the first rule, be sure to point out that almost every shot in Fight Club features a Starbucks cup. David Fincher’s cult classic, an adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s counterculture novel of the same name, has become an anti-establishment rallying call since it first hit theaters in 1999. Few companies symbolize the kind of corporate ubiquity the film satirizes quite like the coffee behemoth, leading Fincher to feature their instantly recognizable cups throughout. Somewhat surprisingly, Starbucks approved of this: “They read the script, they knew what we were doing, and they were kind of ready to poke a little fun at themselves,” Fincher said.

He’s Off to See the Wizard

You might love The Wizard of Oz, but you probably don’t love it as much as David Lynch. The revered filmmaker behind favorites such as Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, and Mulholland Drive, who has earned four Oscar nominations throughout his storied career, has sprinkled references to the Judy Garland classic in several of his films. The most overt comes in Wild at Heart, when an effervescent figure bearing a strong resemblance to Glinda the Good Witch descends from the sky, but it’s far from the only Easter egg. Lynch also has a habit of naming characters Judy and featuring red shoes in his movies, even once admitting, “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about The Wizard of Oz.” The connection is so strong that it recently became the subject of a documentary, the appropriately named Lynch/Oz.

These Are the Droids You’re Looking For

Raiders of the Lost Ark was directed by Steven Spielberg, but it was dreamt up by George Lucas shortly after he finished American Graffiti in 1973. The blockbuster starring Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones was eventually produced by Lucasfilm, with the production company’s namesake receiving a story credit, so it makes sense that the final product would contain a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it allusion to his best-known work: Star Wars. When Indy finally finds the Ark of the Covenant near the end of the film, a set of hieroglyphics can be seen to his right that depict R2-D3 and C3PO. It isn’t the only Star Wars Easter egg in the series, as the opening scene of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom takes place in Club Obi Wan.

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Dancing takes many forms, from formal, highly skilled ballet solos to the electric slide. Just like music exists in every culture, so does dancing — although the form and function may vary. Just how long have humans been dancing? Why have so many cities banned dance marathons? How long was the longest conga line? These eight facts about dancing might just inspire you to get your boogie on.

Humans Have Danced for Tens of Thousands of Years

The earliest book about dance is around 1,500 years old, and the first written records of dancing date back about 4,000 years, to ancient Egypt — but cave paintings and rock art more than 20,000 years old show that dance far predates written communication. It’s possible that we’ve been dancing since before we were human, since chimpanzees can keep a beat, too.

The Foxtrot Was One of Several Animal Dances

The ragtime era (circa 1899 to 1917) brought with it many then-scandalous dances that are pretty standard ballroom fare today, such as the foxtrot. But in its heyday, the foxtrot was just one of a number of animal-themed dances that had people clutching their pearls. The turkey trot came before the foxtrot, and was so feared by the morality police of the day that the New York Times reported that Woodrow Wilson canceled his inaugural ball over it and other animal dances. (Wilson denied the claim.) The grizzly bear, featuring two dancers that come together in a kind of frozen bear hug, also raised hackles. Other examples include the bunny hug, the kangaroo dip, and the sloth squeeze.

Break Dancing Was Briefly an Olympic Sport

Breaking, or break dancing, emerged from New York’s hip-hop culture in the 1970s, named for the break, a musical technique used by DJs. By the 1980s, it had hit the mainstream. The form is improvisational and acrobatic, requiring both a sense of rhythm and a high level of athleticism.

The first Olympic event to feature breaking was the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in 2018, and it debuted as part of the main event during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. However, the IOC announced after the Games that it would not return in 2028.

Dancing Could Help Treat Parkinson’s

Dancing is great for your brain, and it could even be therapeutic for those with degenerative neurological disorders like Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s comes with a lot of dysfunction in the motor system, like slowed movement, stiffness, tremors, and loss of balance. Rhythmic auditory stimulation, a therapy that has patients move to a rhythm — like dance — appears to help significantly with gait and motor function. This helps decrease fall risk and improve quality of life. Similar treatments have also been studied for Huntington’s disease, although their efficacy is still up in the air.

Early Ballet Dancers Were Mostly Male

Ballet has a reputation as a feminine art, and modern choreography often showcases ballerinas at the expense of ballerinos. But for the first century-plus of the art, which developed in Europe (particularly France) in the 15th and 16th centuries, men were considered the primary performers. The first professional ballerina didn’t even come along until the 17th century, and women didn’t become stars until after the French Revolution in the late 18th century. Male dancers took the brunt of the hatred that had been directed at the aristocracy, while female dancers were able to carry the traditionally aristocratic art form into a more populist era.

The Longest Conga Line Was 119,986 People Long

Conga is a spontaneous Cuban dance in which a solo dancer or a group casually meanders around a street or a dance floor. You may have ended up in a conga line at a wedding or similar large gathering — one person puts their hands on another person’s shoulders, and the next thing you know you have a whole connected parade of dancers.

The longest conga line ever recorded was formed in Miami during the Cuban street festival Calle Ocho on March 13, 1988. A whopping 119,986 people lined up to set the record. The festival followed up that record with another one in 2012, this time featuring the world’s largest flag. (The festival has also set records for largest piñata, largest cigar, and most domino players.)

Dance Marathons Could Get Dangerous

Multiple jurisdictions in the United States, including New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and Seattle, have had rules on the books banning dance marathons, an old-timey fundraising competition that rose to prominence in the 1920s and during the Great Depression. No, it’s not because of the turkey trot — it’s because of far more legitimate dangers like dehydration,  overexertion, and worse.

Not all the laws are on the books anymore — Seattle, for example, axed theirs along with a bunch of other antiquated laws in the 1970s — but dance marathons are far less prevalent and, when they do take place, more precautions tend to be put in place. The Guinness Book of World Records, for example, only supervises dance marathons that offer at least five minutes of rest for every hour of continuous dancing, which can accumulate if not taken, and records can only be set by people ages 16 and over. The current solo record-holder is Indian 16-year-old Srushti Sudhir Jagtap, who danced for 127 hours in 2023.

You Have To Call the Police To Dance in Public in Sweden

Sweden put a law on the books in 1956 that required permits for any public dancing, so if you wanted to cut a rug at a bar, the owner would need government approval first. If the authorities came by and observed dancing without a permit, the establishment could lose their liquor and business licenses.

The requirement was finally lifted in 2023, but it’s still not exactly a free-for-all. If there’s about to be dancing, you still have to call the police to give them a heads up.

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Visit Los Angeles’ Hollywood neighborhood and you’ll walk sidewalks unlike any other. That’s where you’ll find the Hollywood Walk of Fame, featuring brass and terrazzo stars inscribed with the names of some of Hollywood’s most influential actors, directors, producers, and even fictional characters. The Walk of Fame laid its first star in 1960, and more than 60 years later, the institution continues to add around 20 to 30 names every year. These seven facts explore how this entertainment landmark came to be, the kind of people it honors, and some of the twists and turns it’s taken along the way.

The Ceiling of a Hollywood Hotel Possibly Inspired the Walk of Fame

The idea for the Walk of Fame is credited to E. M. Stuart, who served as the volunteer president of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce in the mid-1950s. According to the Walk of Fame website, Stuart wrote in 1953 that a monument like the walk would “maintain the glory of a community whose name means glamour and excitement in the four corners of the world.”

In the 1950s, Hollywood still stood at the center of the world’s entertainment industry, though its golden age had begun to fade in 1948 when the U.S. Supreme Court broke up movie studios’ monopolistic grip on movie theaters. Stuart may have been motivated by wanting to preserve those glory days when the idea for the Walk of Fame began to coalesce. Where Stuart got the idea for the Walk of Fame is a matter of debate, but the leading theory is that the dining room ceiling of the Hollywood Hotel (demolished in 1956) used to feature stars with the names of famous actors and actresses written on them. Stuart may have simply brought that entertainment tradition onto the streets of Hollywood itself.

The First Star Added to the Walk of Fame Belonged to Filmmaker Stanley Kramer

To get the Hollywood Walk of Fame off to a strong start and to drum up excitement, the creators made a sample walk in 1958, which included stars for Olive Borden, Ronald Colman, Louise Fazenda, Preston Foster, Burt Lancaster, Edward Sedgwick, Ernest Torrence, and Joanne Woodward. Although Woodward is often cited as the first recipient, the inaugural star laid at today’s Hollywood Walk of Fame belonged to director/producer Stanley Kramer (It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Defiant Ones, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner); it was laid on March 28, 1960, near Hollywood Boulevard and Gower Street. However, Kramer was soon only one among many — 1,558 stars were installed in just the first year alone.

The Youngest Person at Induction Was 15-Year-Old Patty McCormack

While it usually takes time to develop an entertainment career worthy of a Hollywood star, actress Patty McCormack achieved the feat in record time. As part of the initial creation of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, McCormack received a star at only 15 years old — making her the youngest person to receive the honor. Starting her career as a child model at age 4, she transitioned to television at age 7 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the film The Bad Seed when she was only 11 years old.

On the other end of the spectrum, the oldest living person ever to receive a Hollywood star was 93-year-old James Hong, who was inducted in 2022. Hong racked up more than 400 screen credits during his decades-long career, including Blade Runner, Big Trouble in Little China, and Everything Everywhere All At Once — an “oh, it’s that guy” kind of actor.

The Walk of Fame Stagnated for 8 Years in the 1960s

Despite nearly seven years of planning and after installing nearly 1,600 stars within the first year, the Hollywood Walk of Fame took an eight-year-long hiatus almost immediately, and inducted no one new until 1968. Some attributed the delay to worries related to urban decay in the Hollywood area during the ’60s and ’70s. However, the Walk of Fame website says the Los Angeles City Council approved an ordinance in 1962 that required the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to revamp their selection and financing process — a task that took years to complete. Finally, in 1968, a new star belonging to producer Richard D. Zanuck was installed in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre (now the TCL Chinese Theatre).

However, the Walk of Fame has faced other rough patches and controversies over the years. A handful of stars have been stolen, damaged, or vandalized; in many such cases,  the person depicted on the star later became the subject of controversy. While petitions have often called for the removal of certain Hollywood stars, it’ll likely never happen, as the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce says the memorial is “a historic landmark” and that “stars once installed, are considered part of the historic fabric of the Walk.”

Muhammad Ali Is the Only Star Not on the Ground

In 2002, world-famous boxer Muhammad Ali received a Hollywood Walk of a Fame star that was quite unlike the others in one big way — it wasn’t on the ground. Instead, Ali’s star was installed on the Kodak Theatre (now the Dolby Theater) entertainment complex wall. This exception was granted due to Ali’s initial refusal of the accolade because he didn’t want his name disrespected by “people who have no respect for me” by walking on it. This wasn’t about superstar ego (at least, not solely), but a statement of reverence for what his name represented and his Muslim faith. “I bear the name of our beloved prophet Mohammad,” Ali said at the time, “and it is impossible that I allow people to trample over his name.” The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce agreed with his wishes, and Ali’s star, the Walk of Fame’s 2,189th, became the first — and only — star to ever be mounted on a wall.

A Hollywood Star Comes With a $75,000 Fee

Every year, the Walk of Fame Committee receives around 200 submissions and selects two dozen or so applicants. However, the Walk of Fame is a nonprofit, so nominees (usually their movie studios or record labels) have to pony up some serious cash if they want to join the ranks — and like pretty much everything else, the price of a Hollywood star is subject to inflation. In 1987, a Hollywood star set you back some $3,500, but as of 2024 that number has skyrocketed to $75,000, which covers the creation of the 300-pound star as well as installation, upkeep, and things like floral arrangements upon the honoree’s death. Sometimes impassioned fans of stars will take it upon themselves to honor celebrities: In the early ’90s, for example, Liza Minnelli was nominated by superfans who held movie nights and bake sales to raise the money. Note that celebrities are required to show up to the installation, a rule known as the “Springsteen clause” after the New Jersey musician didn’t show up to his own ceremony.

Not All Stars on the Walk of Fame Honor People

While the Hollywood Walk of Fame is a monument to the many people who made cinema what it is today, the popular memorial doesn’t limit itself to Homo sapiens. Three live-action canines can be found on the Walk of Fame, including Strongheart, Rin Tin Tin, and Lassie, who was portrayed by a variety of border collies throughout the years. While those are the only animal actors (Flipper got robbed), the Walk of Fame is host to many other nonhumans in the form of 19 fictional characters. This imaginary cohort includes such silver-screen luminaries as Big Bird, Godzilla, Pee-wee Herman, the Simpsons, Snow White, and Woody Woodpecker. But perhaps the strangest addition to the Hollywood Walk of Fame is the Chevrolet Suburban, the only inanimate object awarded the honor. It has apparently “starred” in more than 1,750 films.

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We interact with many industries every day with little idea about what’s going on behind the scenes — unless, of course, you’re in the industry in question or know someone who is. These seven secrets reveal surprising truths behind grocery store brands, the hospitality world, and entertainment. They used to be hush-hush, before the internet gave people a platform to share their knowledge. Be careful: You may never look at weddings, hotels, or outlet shopping the same way again.

Claw Games Aren’t Just Rigged — They’re Adjustable

If you’ve ever gotten a toy out of one of those coin-operated claw games, good for you! It’s rigged to be a lot harder than it looks. The machine is designed to have a strong grip for only part of the time, so that moment of joy when the claw hooks onto your favorite plush, immediately followed by the disappointment when it doesn’t actually lift it, is absolutely by design — and the machine’s owner can actually adjust the claw’s strength and how often it drops the prize. In one popular machine, they can even input their desired profit level and have the machine adjust automatically.

Sometimes the Grocery Store Brand Is the Same as the Name Brand

There isn’t a single factory that makes every Trader Joe’s or Kirkland Signature product. They typically come from a third-party vendor before the label gets slapped on. These products made by one company and branded by another are called private label products.

Sometimes, store brand products are made by companies that mostly make store brands, but sometimes, they come from more expensive name brands, or from suppliers that also supply name brands.

Wonderful Pistachios and Trader Joe’s pistachios have come from the same place. Naked Juice has supplied the chain with some of its smoothies, too. Duracell makes Kirkland Signature batteries. Kirkland Signature diapers come from the maker of Huggies. Trader Joe’s and Kirkland Signature bourbon has ties to some highfalutin whiskey brands, too. Dole supplies salads and vegetables to Walmart, Kroger, and H-E-B, although Kroger does make around 40% of its own generic products. Sometimes grocery brands even make things for their competitors, like Safeway-owned Lucerne, which makes dairy products for other chains.

Different Brands Sell the Exact Same Furniture at Different Prices

White label products are similar to private label products, but with one key difference: White label stuff comes already fully made and ready for distribution with little to no customization. This is especially common in online furniture sales. It’s why you’ll see different names and different prices for the exact same product on Wayfair, Amazon, Target, and other retailers — even more expensive places like Urban Outfitters and Pottery Barn. Usually these products are sold using the same stock image, so even though they have different names, you can comparison shop using a reverse image search. Services such as Spoken are also trying to streamline that process.

Hotel Bedding Doesn’t Always Get Cleaned

You’ll find plenty of anecdotes online from hotel employees about bedding left unchanged, particularly blankets — and unfortunately, there’s reporting to back it up. In 2016, Inside Edition checked into nine hotel rooms, wrote messages readable by UV light on the bedding, then checked into the same rooms the next day under different names. In three of them, at least some of the bedding hadn’t been changed. They repeated the experiment a few years later at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and again found marked bedding in three hotels, including one that went for $600 a night.

Vendors Charge More for Weddings, but Sometimes They Have a Good Reason

It’s a pretty open industry secret that hospitality vendors such as party planners, photographers, and caterers charge more for weddings, which is sometimes known as the “wedding tax.” It’s an overwhelming event to plan and, because it ideally only happens once in your life, it’s hard to get a handle on what a good deal is.

But if you end up paying a vendor more than what you’d pay them for a family reunion, you didn’t get hosed. Special wedding rates exist not to scam clients, but because weddings are more hands-on than other events (sometimes called “high touch”), with extremely high stakes.

Your best bet isn’t necessarily to find the cheapest vendor or avoid wedding prices — but you’ll want to find businesses with transparent pricing so you don’t get any surprises down the line.

Some Clothing Is Made to Go Directly to Outlets

When you shop at an outlet store or a discount retailer like Marshalls or Ross, it can feel like you’re getting a great deal on name brands — but that’s not always the case, even when a label is genuine. Fashion companies actually make lower-quality lines that go directly to outlets and discount stores without hitting the regular racks first. They could be made of lower-quality fabric, have different embellishments, or be manufactured more cheaply.

Sometimes, retailers even make up the full price that ends up on the tag as a comparison so it looks like you’re saving a ton. This goes for both mid-tier brands like Gap and designer labels like Coach. It doesn’t apply to everything and every outlet store, but it’s an extremely common practice, so pay close attention to make sure you’re actually getting the deal you want.

Entertainment Studios Have Departments to Enforce Moral and Legal Standards

Behind the scenes, one of the biggest influencers of what you see on your TV are Standards and Practices (S&P) departments, which review content for its moral and ethical aspects, as well as legal liabilities.

Sometimes this is pretty straightforward; Telemundo, for example, has a rule that protagonists in children’s programming need to be following general safety guidelines like wearing seat belts. But sometimes these departments demand revisions that seem strange or arbitrary. A character in one Cartoon Network show was allowed to ride on the hood of a car as long as he was shown wearing a seat belt. One storyboard artist tweeted that she’d been asked to change finger guns to just pointing fingers. The Disney film Lilo & Stitch originally had a main character hiding in a dryer in the theatrical and first DVD releases, but the dryer was altered to a shelf and a pizza box in later versions.