Top 10 Hidden Details in Movie Posters
#10: Button Reference
“Gremlins” (1984) While there is plenty of plot spoiling and complicated easter eggs on this list, let’s start with something light and fun! The iconic “Gremlins” is a cult classic film that was fortunate enough to have its poster painted by legendary artist: John Alvin. One of the companies that produced “Gremlins” was Amblin Entertainment, which Steven Spielberg owns. The logo for the company happens to be a snippet from an iconic scene from “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.” Well, on this particular poster design for 1984’s “Gremlins”, the silhouette of the Amblin logo is imprinted on the character Billy Peltzer’s jeans button! It’s a fun little nod to the company that made it all happen!
#9: Tarantino Cameo
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“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (2019) If you’re a fan of Quentin Tarantino’s movies, you’re always on the lookout for the cameo he makes in all of his films. But “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” was a rare exception where he didn’t appear. But the sly dog found a way to make an appearance somehow, and that somehow is on the poster. On several different iterations of the main poster design, If you look closely, you can see a director operating a camera. It could go easily unnoticed, but that director is Quentin Tarantino himself.
#8: The “Up” Connection
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“Toy Story 4” (2019) Disney and Pixar enthusiasts have plenty of theories about how all the animated film universes connected somehow. Well, it turns out you might be right! Or at least the marketing team knows how to tease die-hard fans. One of the posters for “Toy Story 4” sees the main cast standing in the antique store which is the hub for a fair amount of the film. If you look closely at the left wall, one of the paintings contains a familiar design and characters. The painting is an homage to the classic “Dogs Playing Poker” painting by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, but the dogs playing poker appear to be the canines from Pixar’s “Up.”
#7: Morse Code
“Passengers” (2016) 2016’s “Passengers” was a tense movie about isolation and human connection. For the most part, Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt’s characters are stuck on a ship with no one to help them. With this theme of feeling lost, the promotional material was sure to take that into account. While the symbols on the poster might look random, to someone familiar with morse code, you’ll know what these lines and dots spell out. They spell “S.O.S.” hinting at the film’s dilemma. Chris Pratt’s character is crying for someone to save him from the endless loneliness that beset him.
#6: Foreshadowing
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“Us” (2019) Jordan Peele’s “Us” was a terrifying film where the central premise was that underground, we all have twins that we are intrinsically connected to. These murderous “tethered” are unique villains and the main selling point of the horror flick. The marketing also added a subtle hint towards the “tethered” connection in its posters. With this one poster heading a pair of hands holding scissors, the handles themselves look like two distinct heads. But what’s even creepier is that once you’ve watched the movie, you realize the two hands holding the scissors are actually from the two different versions of the same person. One is gloved and the other bare.
#5: A Taste for the Theatrical
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“The Dark Knight” (2008) When dealing with one of comics’ most excellent investigators, you know fans were going to have a keen eye on what was coming out before the release of the second Christopher Nolan Batman film. One of the comparisons Detective Gordon makes between the caped crusader and the Joker is their “Taste for the Theatrical,” a phrase that marketers used in the promotional material. At the bottom of this particular Joker poster, you can see symbols that, when rotated, spelled out “atasteforthetheatrical.” The marketing team launched the “atasteforthetheatrical.com” website, which featured a Gotham Times newspaper cut out hinting at the plot for the film. Way to make the audience feel like the iconic detective!
#4: Coded Message
“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (2016) The Star Wars universe is so densely filled with lore; it’s hard to wrap your head around it sometimes. But any true diehard will be aware of the Galactic Basic Standard, which has several different writing styles, one of which being Aurebesh. On the cardboard stand-ups for in-theatre promotion, you’ll see several phrases of Aurebesh semi-transparent across several of the characters. Once decoded, these phrases read as “BEAT BACK THE REBELS,” “JOIN THE EMPIRE,” For example, one “THIS STATION IS THE ULTIMATE POWER IN THE UNIVERSE” and so on. These provided several hints as to the plot and characters in the film. It was a fun easter egg for superfans of the franchise.
#3: Hidden Clues
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“Mother!” (2017) Darren Aronofsky’s “Mother!” was a divisive film, some calling it extraordinary and others seemingly confused by its tone. However, the posters might’ve given you a clue of what you were in for. One user found that if you isolated the blue channel on one of the posters, the URL “http://youllneveranswerthedooragain.com/” can be found. Further, may we bring your attention to the doorknob and the small picture on the artistic Jennifer Lawrence poster. And on Javier Bardem poster, there are various faces littered throughout the flames and what appears to a baby in the reflection of the orb. Spooky stuff and even better if you’ve watched the movie and know what they mean!
#2: Hinted Villains
“Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021) The leaks for the third Spider-Man film in the MCU have been relentless, with new hints dropping one after another, hinting to the heroes and villains that could be making an appearance. While Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin was hinted at joining the cast for this film, it wasn’t until he made a very, very tiny appearance in the background of some posters that fans all but confirmed it was definitely him. You can see a tiny little silhouette of him which the internet was quick to pick up on. He was then featured in a much bigger way in future promos and trailers, but this hidden detail was incredibly tantalizing for the Marvel fandom.
#1: Interactive Clues
“Murder on the Orient Express” (2017) Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel is an iconic murder mystery that was sure to have it’s audience trying to piece together the culprit from the moment they sat in their seat. But eagle-eyed viewers could have caught a few extra clues from all the different promotional material, had they been attentive enough. A notable example is on the poster featuring just Josh Gad’s character. On his pocket square, there is a phone number that, if you called it, you would hear an answering machine from the actual character! There were a bunch of these secrets sequestered across it’s marketing, most leading to the website “https://cluesareeverywhere.com/”. It definitely set a mysterious tone for the movie.
