Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Hides Even More Easter Eggs, From Ganke's Spider-Man 2 Game to Earth 42's Green and Purple Miles

Yes, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse showed Miles's roommate Ganke Lee playing the real life Spider-Man 2 game. That is one of the extra details and Easter eggs I left out of my main breakdown of the film, and here are the rest.

Spoilers follow for the whole film.

A graffiti cough and a dolphin sound continue Lord and Miller running jokes

The opening frames of the film have the red graffiti word "cough" flash in the lower right corner. This running joke in Lord and Miller films goes back to 22 Jump Street, where a cough was audible in the opening seconds, and they added a cough to the 2018 Into the Spider-Verse film as well.

If you listen closely, you can hear a dolphin sound effect over the Lord Miller logo. That is another running joke from these guys. It goes back to Clone High, when they put that sound effect into everything, and it continued through The Lego Movie and, yes, the opening cards of the 2018 Spider-Verse film.

Miles's recap is packed with callbacks, from a 90s polo to baby powder

One of the shirts the Earth 65 Peter wears, along with that Halloween Lizard costume, is the same polo that Peter Parker wears in the 90s animated series.

In Miles's recap he talks about a baby powder sponsorship deal, a callback to Peter B. Parker recommending baby powder in the suit in the 2018 film. We also see Miles's online apology, which gets 11 million views yet somehow 69 million downvotes. And there is this comment: "I heard it was made from actual babies though for real."

In Miles's fantasy where he reveals himself to his parents, I love how they throw the couch in the air and it never comes back down, because it is a fantasy.

Bagels, Benjamin Franklin and Jeff Morales

Bagels are everywhere in this movie, reflecting their importance to the Spot's origin in that amazing moment from the 2018 movie, and of course there is the Everything Everywhere All at Once everything bagel symbol. Bagels also sit in the pastry case in the bodega, a bagel follows Miles and Jonathan Ohnn through a portal, and in the Spider Society cafeteria a lot of people are eating bagels.

In the ATM, the hundred dollar bills do not show Benjamin Franklin. I now realise they actually show a Sony animation supervisor.

Miles's dad was named Jeff Davis in the 2018 movie and in the comics, but his badge in this movie has updated his name to Jeff Morales, meaning he took his wife's surname. The comics go into why Jeff and Rio decided to give Miles his mother's surname of Morales: basically, Jeff did not want Miles to have his father's last name.

When Miles is late, Jeff says he sees bubbles on the phone, referring to the three dots on the text feed. But it is also literally the soap suds Miles is covered in at that moment.

Ganke's dorm room: pigeons, Spider-Man 2 and a two cake problem

When Miles returns to his dorm room, he waits for pigeons to fly past like a jogger waiting for traffic at an intersection. It shows that Miles has learned from running into pigeons and sticking to all of them in the first movie.

Yes, Ganke Lee is playing the Spider-Man 2 video game when Miles enters the room. That lucky kid also has a poster for a soccer player known for doing a Spider-Man celebration whenever he scores, who is also apparently friends with Tom Holland.

Miles jokes about buying two cakes, which is kind of a life hack. But buying two cakes later screws him over, because he cannot flip with both of them in his hands. It is just a fun way of showing Miles trying to juggle two parts of his life.

Jeff takes the stairs, Spider 42 and the Spot's busy ink

When Jeff follows Miles and spots the Alchemax site, he faces the leap of faith into a portal, but he washes out and takes the stairs, just like Miles initially did with his jump test in the 2018 film.

The Spot reveals that the number 42 spider came from an alternate dimension, Earth 42. I love how they foreshadowed this in the first movie by having the spider glitch, because the spider was in the wrong reality.

As for the Spot's design, the film's visual effects supervisor said that as the Spot evolves throughout the movie, his ink spots get more and more active and busier, with more personality as they pop off his body.

Gwen and Miles upside down make my favourite shot of the movie

When Miles swings with Gwen, he says something along the lines of a good guy vampire, he paid good money to see that. It is a jab at Morbius, the good guy vampire that Sony hoped we would pay good money to see twice.

Miles tells my favourite character in the movie to stop licking the window, which is kind of a callback to when he put his mouth on Aaron's window back in 2018.

When we first see the Spot's apartment, beneath that Everything Everywhere All at Once reference billboard is a sign reading 1917 1610 616. The 1610 is Miles's universe and 616 is the main Marvel Universe.

My favourite shot of the movie is Gwen walking upside down on that bank building: the sunset flare disappears and then reappears with the rotation. Everything in the scene is so beautifully designed. Gwen and Miles also sit upside down by whipping under the overhang, and as they sit, their hands and legs must be sticky. They have sticky behinds. As they hang upside down, you can see gravity tugging their eyebrows, cheeks and foreheads upward.

Pavitr Prabhakar's martial art and Hobie Brown's layered frame rates

On the way to Jonathan Ohnn's place there is a sign in the background reading "soda", a generic brand.

Pavitr Prabhakar's acrobatic movement, and the way he flattens his feet as he moves, is based on Kalaripayattu. It is a 2,000 year old martial art from the Indian region of Kerala, and one of the oldest known martial arts still practised on Earth today.

I had already talked about how Hobie Brown's body was animated at a lower frame rate, but it is actually different parts of him. His body was animated on threes with parts slightly offset. His guitar is animated on fours so we see each individual part of him strumming it as a rock star pose. His general outline is animated on twos, the way Miles was at the beginning of the 2018 film. They separated different parts of his body for an overall anarchic punk rock aesthetic.

Nueva York and the Spider Society hide game, film and comic nods

In Nueva York, beside the PS4 Spidey, is the Green Goblin from the 1982 Spider-Man Atari game. As Hobie steals things from around Miguel's lab, Miguel is in the background building his red and white 2099 suit from the game.

When Miles is told about canon events, one of the wedges in the notes for the Venom event is Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker pulling the symbiote off himself in the 2007 film. According to production designer Patrick O'Keefe, the look of the Canadian Spider-Woman came from the 1972 Summit Series hockey jersey.

One of the Spideys chasing Miles is the Spider-Man popsicle we saw at the beginning of the first movie, and the cafeteria serves Miguel O'Hara branded hamburgers. The 1967 Spider-Man tries to grab Miles but misses, because 67 Spidey is in 2D animation and flies right past him. Soundtrack producer Metro Boomin cameos as one of the spider people, and some of the Spideys are based on vintage Mexican wrestler toys.

We already talked about the 90s animated Sinister Six in the training room, but Doc Ock saying "hello Peter" is audio of Alfred Molina's Doc Ock in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Earth 42's streets carry Sinister Six red flags

On the train as it flies towards the moon, Miles glitches, and for a frame you can see his DIY suit from the first movie, bought from Stan Lee's costume shop.

When Miles swings through Earth 42 there are some Sinister Six cartel red flags if you look closely: signs for Vulture Telecom and Electro 2G cell service, and later on a rooftop, signs for Hammerhead and another name that might be an alternate universe Oscorp. The alternate M&Ms have their colours reversed from the regular and peanut ones. And instead of Forever 21, there is Never 21. Which makes me wonder how low the life expectancy of this place is.

Mayday's pajamas and the 616B retcon

When Peter B. Parker puts Mayday to sleep, she wears Spider-Ham pajamas.

When Gwen goes, "Yep, B. Parker," her wrist gadget reads 616B. That is a retcon of the first movie, which labelled his universe just 616, because they do not want to say his is the main 616.

Earth 42 Miles's coat and hoodie are green and purple instead of red and blue

Miles's coat and hoodie on Earth 42 are green and purple instead of the red and blue of 1610. Green and purple were the colours of Miles's aura in the 2018 film, right before Peter saw the red and blue in him and altered his life trajectory. It is also important to note that Aaron's apartment is red and blue, which leads to a theory I have shared before: these guys might actually be good guys.

Rio has green eyes on Earth 42 instead of her normal brown, though that could just be the lighting of the room. There is also a sketch of the Prowler claw in Earth 42 Miles's bedroom, and the poster above his bed sits on a green background rather than the red one in his 1610 bedroom.

Rio asks whether webs come out of his culito, which is Spanish for little butt, and Miles replies, "I had a nightmare about that once but no." Since this connects to the multiverse logic of the MCU, the Multiverse of Madness dream walking rule might apply here, in which dreams are technically you peering into the life of your alternate universe self. Both America Chavez and the MCU Peter Parker speculated about alternate Spider-People maybe shooting webs out of their behinds, so there is one out there that does this.

Aaron's phone, untied shoes and different sneakers

On the roof, Aaron's phone lights up as he side eyes Miles, a detail showing that Earth 42 Miles texted him that he was on his way.

In the 2018 film we saw Miles go from untied shoes to tied shoes to show his evolution and maturity. Now, when he is tied up to Aaron's punching bag, his shoes are untied again. And while 1610 Miles famously wears Air Jordan Ones in red and white with the black swoosh, Earth 42 Miles wears black Nike Airs.

Gwen's emotional scene with her dad uses the colours of the trans flag

When Gwen has her emotional speech with her dad, the mood ring watercolour background rains down in specific stripes of blue, pink, white, pink and blue, which makes the transgender flag. Her dad's uniform also has a patch showing the trans flag, and as I mentioned before, Gwen's room has the protect trans kids sign.

I'm not telling you what to think, but these animators use colour in this really cool way to show how difficult it can be for kids to reveal themselves to their parents. And for all the kids out there: you are not alone.

Do you think Aaron's red and blue apartment means the Earth 42 crew might actually be good guys?