Easter eggs

CNET'S GUIDE TO HIDDEN MOVIE GOODIES

By Molly Wood and Matt Lake
(April 17, 2003)

Spring is in the air, budding flowers are all around us, and stores are filled with fuzzy bunnies, Passover cards, Peeps, and wicker baskets. It must be time for our annual collection of technology Easter eggs.

A strange thing happened while we were hunting for eggs, however. We discovered that software and Internet Easter eggs are totally passé, and the best and coolest eggs now live on your movie shelf, in DVDs. They're so hot, they even have their own Web site, and online DVD rental maven Netflix has taken to maintaining its own list of popular eggs. Here are a few of our faves.

MOST EXPLANATORY EGG

Head-scratching mystery no more!

Memento (Limited Edition)
If you're like us, your head still hurts a little from watching this edited-backwards-and-out-of-order movie about a man who's lost his short-term memory. Well, this DVD contains an amazing five Easter eggs, and one of them lets you rearrange the movie and watch it in chronological order. Let the understanding dawn (hopefully).

The egg: Memento reordered
Where to find it: Disc 2
Cracking the egg: On the main menu of the second disc, select the picture of the clock (all of the other pictures let you access special features and remaining eggs). Answer each question with choice C until you reach the sixth and final question, which asks you to put pictures in chronological order. To watch the original short story that inspired the movie, select the second, first, fourth, then third pictures. To watch the movie in chronological order, use the reverse path: choose the third, fourth, first, then second pictures.

BEST EGG ON A BAD MOVIE

The Easter egg is better than Anakin's acting.

Star Wars Episode II : Attack of the Clones
Before Star Wars Episode II began, there was a distinctly low-tech ad campaign using cheaply photocopied flyers stuck all over college campuses. The bogus ads for used speeders, cheap accommodations, and tutors featured grainy pictures of Anakin Skywalker, C3PO, Yoda, and locations from the movie, along with Web sites to visit. The Easter egg hidden on the movie's DVD shows the full campaign.

The egg: Campus promotion
Where to find it: Disc 2
Cracking the egg: In the main menu, hit the Down button till you reach the Dex's Kitchen option and press Enter. Go to the kitchen itself, where you'll see Dex. Use your remote's arrow keys to get to the Main Menu option, then punch the left arrow. A little note will appear on the wall near Dex's left arm. Press Enter. A screen of instructions will appear for cycling through the campus campaign.

MOST FAN-PLEASING EGGS

Not for the faint of heart.

Lord of the Rings (Extended Edition)
When you include four discs for one movie--even one such as Lord of the Rings that's longer than the lifespan of a fruit fly--you expect an Easter egg or two. And that's what you get (only two, unless you count the tedious business of DVD credits that only the DVD makers' mothers read).

The egg: Jack Black and Sarah Michelle Gellar in MTV's Council of Elrond spoof
Where to find it: Disc 1
Cracking the egg: Go to Scene Selection. Go to the final page and highlight the final option, "Council of Elrond Highlight Scene 27." Press the down arrow on your remote control. An image of the Ring will appear. Now press Enter. Peter Jackson appears and introduces a version of the Council of Elrond with footage of Jack Black and Sarah Michelle Gellar interspersed with the real action. You don't want to know what Jack did with the Ring. (Warning: Adult egg content.)

The egg: Trailer for The Two Towers
Where to find it: Disc 2
Cracking the egg: In Scene Selection, highlight Scene 48, "Official Fan Club Credits." Press the down arrow and an image of the two towers appears. Press Enter, and Peter Jackson introduces a long trailer for The Two Towers.

MOST FAMILY-FRIENDLY EGGS

How much more fun could it be?

Monsters, Inc. (Collector's Edition)
Disc 2 of this edition is full of fun and games--including two hidden treats, one featuring animation trials and one including live footage of the Pixar folks taking advantage of their aircraft hangar-sized lobby.

The egg: Pixar's Annual Air Show
Where to find it: Disc 2
Cracking the egg: Navigate through the Humans Only door. Highlight the Pixar door and press Enter. When the paper dart stops moving, press your remote's down arrow until the M is highlighted, then press the left button. This will highlight the paper dart. Press Enter. Sit back and enjoy the Pixar Annual Air Show.

The egg: Animation trials
Where to find it: Disc 2
Cracking the egg: Navigate through the Monsters Only door. When the main menu appears, press the right arrow: this will select the Monsters, Inc. eye logo. Press Enter. You'll see some trial footage in which the animators were clearly getting punchy. Using Boo as a bowling ball, indeed!

MOST SATISFYING EGG

Be patient; at least you don't have to fight the aliens.

Independence Day
This aliens-vs.-America blockbuster featured some dubious technology (giving an alien ship a virus via a PC laptop?), but the DVD is a whiz-bang collection of codes and suspense. If you're quick with a remote and can remember the sequence of numbers to press in time, you can unlock more than an hour of extra features--including some eggs within eggs.

The egg: Open the ship's console
Where to find it: Disc 2
Cracking the egg: Choose Data Console, then Main Menu, and press the Right button. You'll see a screen that says "Access: 7-4-Enter." Return to the main menu, and, within 7 seconds, enter 7 and 4 on your remote, then press Enter. (Be sure to read all the instructions you can find, though, as this process differs from DVD player to DVD player.) If you can get to the right menus, you can watch randomly selected combat scenes, isolated audio tracks, long excerpts from the fake news broadcasts created for the film, and more.