Missing Producer Claims Film Has “The Single Most Elaborate Easter Egg in the Entire History of Cinema”

Sev Ohanian, a producer on the thriller Missing, says there is a “masterpiece” Easter egg that you can only unlock by pausing the movie at key moments and following a maze of clues to figure out what’s so important. That creates a level of interactivity that’s kind of meta, given that the movie — a sequel to 2018’s Searching — uses screens as a key part of the narrative. The movie centers on a girl who is searching for her missing mother, only to get wrapped up in international red tape.

The movie, which earned much more enthusiastic reviews than its predecessor, stars Storm Reid, Nia Long, Megan Suri, and Ken Leung. It was directed by Nicholas D. Johnson and Will Merrick, who made Searching and spent a few years sharpening the sequel.

You can see the tweet below.

The directors of MISSING hid what I think is the single most elaborate easter egg in the entire history of cinema. It involves pausing the movie at key moments and following extremely subtle clues to get to the end.https://t.co/Al4QpgRx6N

— Sev Ohanian (@SevOhanian) March 11, 2023

He also elaborated on the Easter egg in a recent interview.

“Our directors, Will Merrick and Nick Johnson, incorporated an Easter egg in Missing that I don’t feel at liberty to talk about yet, because I think it’s such a masterpiece that requires somebody to actually treat the entire movie like a video game because there’s moments where you have to pause and you have to deduct a code, and then apply that code to another moment, and apply…It’s insane,” Ohanian told Collider’s Perri Nemirov. “I did not even understand the depths of this Easter egg until the night of the premiere where they told me the final steps. That could be a fun follow up maybe when the home video comes out, but it’s insane.”

Here’s the official synopsis for the film:

When her mother (Nia Long) disappears while on vacation in Colombia with her new boyfriend, June’s (Storm Reid) search for answers is hindered by international red tape. Stuck thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, June creatively uses all the latest technology at her fingertips to try and find her before it’s too late. But as she digs deeper, her digital sleuthing raises more questions than answers… and when June unravels secrets about her mom, she discovers that she never really knew her at all.

Directed by Will Merrick and Nicholas D. Johnson, Missing is available to buy or rent from various digital video on demand platforms.