‘Ready Player One’ Team Sneaks Spielberg References Into Film

The only sad news that accompanied the announcement that Steven Spielberg was set to direct Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One was that he said he would be yanking references to his own films from the story so that the movie didn’t become too “Self-referential.” According to a new article in EW, it sounds like the post-production team for the film wasn’t satisfied with this idea either. There were apparently several attempts to hide Easter Eggs for Spielberg films in the movie and a couple of them made it past the director into the final cut!

The Easter Eggs that got nixed include some Gremlins-inspired graffiti, and a reference to Goonies. On the upside, they were able to slip the book that inspired ‘Schindler’s List’ into one scene, and they managed to get an actual gremlin into the final battle! Here’s what Spielberg had to say about it:

I think a lot of the digital artists were trying to get some of their favorite ’80s cultural references in there, you know? And having seen every shot 30 times as we go through all the different steps from pre-viz to animatic to final, I started noticing little things. They snuck a gremlin in. I said, ‘Well, I guess it’s too late to take that guy out.’ So he survived the cut.”