Easter Eggs (Life is Strange)

Life is Strange

Before the Storm

Several Easter Eggs were featured in Life is Strange by DONTNOD Entertainment and Square Enix.

This article does not list all references to different media and artists that you can find in Life is Strange. For a full overview on references, please see here.

555 Phone Numbers

Whenever a telephone number is mentioned in the game, it has the prefix 555. That does not have anything to do with Arcadia Bay, however. The prefix 555 is widely used for fictitious telephone numbers in North American television shows, films, video games and other media in order to prevent curious callers from bothering real people and organisations by telephoning numbers they see in works of fiction.

Telephone numbers with the prefix 555 in Life is Strange:

Episode 1:

• Arcadia Bay Sheriff's number on Rachel Amber's Missing Person Poster: 555-388-6020
• Steve Hackney's telephone number (found on an advertisement in the Blackwell hallway): 555-846-9129
• Tyron's number (found on an advertisement on the Main Campus noticeboard): 555-756-1896
• Anti-depression hotline number (found on a flyer in the girls' dormitories): 555-784-9165

Episode 3:

• Numbers from Student Information Sheets in Principal Wells' Office:

Type	Chloe Price	Kate Marsh	Max Caulfield	Nathan Prescott	Rachel Amber	Victoria Chase	Warren Graham
City of Birth	555-0043	555-0198	555-0198	555-0198	555-0769	555-0198	555-0198
Parents	555-0179	555-1314	N/A	555-7063	555-0769	555-3119	555-0092
Home Phone	555-0043	N/A	555-3303	555-7063	N/A	555-4790	555-3292
Cell Phone	555-0133	N/A	555-2070	555-1010	N/A	555-3009	555-0134
Work Phone	555-503-1990	N/A	555-0109	555-8603	N/A	555-0102	555-9092

• Numbers in the notebook at the Price Household:
  • Thomas B. - 555-601-2001
  • Tony Bikes - 555-009-2064
  • Two Whales - 555-503-1990
  • Turtle and oven - 555-764-1065

Episode 4:

• The Bloch Hotel number (found near the telephone in the Madsen Household): 555-397-0042
• ABPD non-emergency number (found on the department's website on Max's computer): 555-ASK-ABPD

Episode 5:

• Blackwell staff numbers from the school's pamphlet:
  • Admissions: Marianna Taylor - 555-630-8231
  • Financial Aid: Lisa Avena - 555-630-8282
  • Security: David Madsen - 555-630-8243
  • Custodian: Samuel Taylor - 555-630-8233

Amaury

There are many hidden references to Amaury Balandier, the lead environment artist at DONTNOD, scattered throughout Life is Strange.

• A member of the 2013 Yearbook Committee at Blackwell Academy in is called "Amaury".
• The soda cans in Chloe's room are a brand called "Pr. Amaury".
• There is a postcard that can be found in Chloe's room, the metalbox under Chloe's bed. Once enlarged, it appears the letter was from someone called "Amaury".
• Victoria's tablet is from the brand "Amaury" as evident from the textures found in the game files.

Amaury member of the Yearbook Committee.

Pr. Amaury soda can.

Postcard from Amaury.

Geometrical net of Victoria's tablet.

Bigfoot

Bigfoot is a large and mysterious humanoid creature purported to inhabit the wild and forested areas of Oregon and the West Coast of North America. It's a recurring theme in Life is Strange since the game's story is set in the same area where the Bigfoot folklore originated from.

[to be continued]

• The Bigfoots, Blackwell Academy's football team.
• The fifth optional photo in Episode 4.

Box Art Polaroid

When Max Caulfield attempts to fix her broken camera in Chloe's room in Episode 1, "Chrysalis", there are a number of polaroids visible on the desk. One of these looks very similar to the box/cover art of Life is Strange. It is not obvious in the game itself, as Max's broken camera slightly obscures this particular photo, but the game files reveal the full image.

Texture and the ingame appearance

Cover art

Breaking the Fourth Wall

In the diner sequence of Max's nightmare in Episode 5, "Polarized", Max has to enter a code to exit the diner bathroom. If you enter the incorrect code 50 times, the door will open and Max will say,

"I'm going to make the designers pay for all these bullshit code puzzles!"

Bottle Hunt

During Episode 2, "Out of Time", Max is given the arduous task of finding five bottles for Chloe in the American Rust Junkyard. It is clear from a statement she later makes in the VIP section of the End of the World Party in Episode 4, "Dark Room", that the bottle-collecting task was not something she particularly enjoyed:

"No. More. Bottles."

During Episode 5, "Polarized", Max has the opportunity to once again put herself through the task of finding five bottles for a photo op in the nightmare maze section that resembles the junkyard. She will make several disgruntled comments about this:

"Looks like there are still bottles to find... Oh, joy."

"Chloe, I blame you for this... You will pay."

"Oh no... Bottles. This might be Hell."

"When did I get bad bottle karma?"

Once she takes a photograph of all collected bottles, she says:

"I need proof that bottles were out to get me, just in case..."

Cat Pics

Throughout the game, on several occasions it's mentioned that someone lost his tablet with cat pics on it. It became a running gag since there are several funny hints to the owner's desperate attempts to get it back, and even the thief has their say.

• At the beginning of the first episode, Max spots a paper calling for help in finding the missing tablet and advertising a finder's reward. It states that the tablet contains a lot of personal pics of the owner's late cats (RIP). It also says that everyone would know who and where the owner is.
• At the entrance to the End of the World Party, you can hear Stella talking to someone explaining that she hasn't seen any tablet with cat pics.
• In Episode 5, in the street leading to the diner, Max can find a note from the actual thief saying that he regrets what he did and that he only was jealous that the owner "had all those cool cats in his life".
• In Max's nightmare in Episode 5, one of the lines written in her journal says,

  "Find my cat pix. Please. My heart is broken."

(To Be Continued)

Episode 5

Episode 1

Episode 2

TBA

Deja Vu

In Episode 5, there are several instances where Jefferson shoots David if Max tries to warn David instead of pulling the cable of the reflector umbrella left to her to distract Jefferson. Given the following warning options: David's Gun, Bottle, Table, Jefferson's Gun, David will get shot at least one time before the player notices the Pull option. When Max warns David about the gun Jefferson is hiding in his cabinet, which is the fourth out of four warning options available in this scene, Jefferson is again faster than David and manages to shoot him. Afterwards, he appears a bit puzzled and says,

"Sorry, Madsen. Okay... Déjà vu..."

Final Fantasy: Spirits Within

In Episode 1, "Chrysalis", when Max is in Victoria's dorm room, she looks at her plasma TV and says,

"That is a tasty plasma. Maybe I could sneak in and watch "Final Fantasy: Spirits Within."

The film Final Fantasy: Spirits Within was rendered by Square Pictures, which is now a consolidated subsidiary of Square Enix, the publisher of Life is Strange.

Hella Large

With the Limited Edition Patch subtitle language, size and opacity became adjustable. The last subtitle size option after large is "Hella Large", referring to Chloe's slang.

[insert image]

Hawt Dawg Man

Main article: Hawt Dawg Man

Hawt Dawg Man appears several times throughout the game.

[insert instances that he is mentioned as well as images]

Kate's Video

Although there is an opportunity to view snippets of Kate's video within the game by sneaking a peek beside Juliet and Brooke in the hallway of the Girl's side of the Prescott Dormitory the morning of "Out of Time", it is unintelligible and cannot be watched. Any player who attempts to access the link to the site in real life is provided with the following official Easter egg: http://katesvid.com/ is an actual link that leads to a blog with a single post and a video that was "removed" by Youtube, linking to the fact that Victoria took the video down after Kate's suicide attempt.

Keep Yourself Clean like Max

The sign reading "showers open" on the bathroom door shows a girl seen from behind whose haircut is eerily similar to Max's. Given the fact that women are generally depicted with long hair or easily recognizable feminine hairstyles on gender pictograms, it probably is an Easter Egg.

The showers sign

In-game comparison

License Plates

The license plates around Arcadia Bay are all references to popular television series and films.

Blackwell Parking Lot

#1 "QNT MLP" - Quantum Leap (Red Car near entrance)

#2 "BRDCHRCH" - Broadchurch (Gray Car)

#3 "TWN PKS" - Twin Peaks (Chloe's Truck)

#4 "B R K B D" - Breaking Bad (Frank's RV)

#5 "SXFTNDR" - Six Feet Under (Nathan's Truck)

#6 "THPRCTC" - The Practice (Blue Truck)

#7 "PRK SN RC" - Parks and Recreation (Brown Car)

#8 "TH WR" - The Wire (Red Car)

#9 "CRNVL" - Carnivàle (Brown Truck)

#10 "THSPRNS" - The Sopranos (Blue Car)

#11 "TWLGHTZN" - The Twilight Zone (Red Truck #2)

#12 "THXFLS" - The X-Files (Warren's Car)

#13 "BFFVMPRSLR" - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Gray Truck next to Warren's car)

Two Whales Diner

#1 "NTHRRTH" - Another Earth

#2 "DNNDRK" - Donnie Darko

#3 "L P H N T" - Elephant

#4 "THFCLT" - The Faculty

#5 "THKLLNG" - The Killing

#6 "GRNDHGD" - Groundhog Day

#7 "RLSFTTRCTN" - The Rules of Attraction

#8 "THFFC" - The Office

Life is...

It's not allowed to say the game's title! There are several occasions throughout the game where a character begins their sentence with "Life is..." arousing the expectation of finishing it with "strange", but at the end it ends differently.

• After altering the past by handing in her Everyday Heroes Contest photo to Jefferson in Episode 5, Max awakes in a San Francisco Art Gallery. Demonstrating how surreal this situation is for her, she says,

  "Life is... weird."

• In Max's nightmare, Alternative Chloe appears and blames Max. Before she disappears, she says,

  "Life is... so not fair."

Lorem Ipsum

This text appears in the background of Max's Journal. It is commonly used for filler or "dummy text" in works of printing and typesetting. This dates back to the 1500s, and was made popular in the 1960's. It has roots in classical Latin literature. The standard passage used since the 1500s is thus:

"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum."

Memes

Life Is Strange references several popular memes.

Michel Koch

Michel Koch, one of the directors behind Life is Strange himself, makes an appearance in "Polarized". Or is it a coincidence that a man exactly looking like him is sitting in the same plane as Max on her way to the Zeitgeist Gallery?

He is also featured inside the gallery. Admiring three black and white pictures, he comments on them:

"Bad exposure, bad framing, bad picture. I could have done this so much better."

No Fucks Given

In Episode 3, when Max goes back in time through a photo to find herself in her 13-year-old body on the day that William Price died, she is wearing a blue T-shirt with scrambled letters. A Reddit user managed to unscramble these letters to read, "No fucks given".

Real Arcadia Bay

TBA

Reversed Reverse

In the reversed Blackwell Academy sequence of Max's nightmare, you can hear and see things normally if Max uses her rewind in this scene.

Samuel is the only character in this scene that doesn't speak backwards. If you walk up to him and stand next to him, you can hear his voice speaking forwards; things he already said during the game.

Rachel's Poster

Rachel Amber's missing person poster appears to be based off of this real life missing person poster.

Rewinding is Getting Old

If you go inside the Swimming Pool lockers in "Chaos Theory" and then rewind, Chloe says,

"Dude, it's getting old! Try and dazzle me with another trick!"

Rewind Sounds

The sounds Max hears while rewinding are reversed future and past dialog pieces or other sounds that are part of the game such as train or shoot sounds.

Self-Homage

There are several references and nods towards DONTNOD's first game, Remember Me.

• The panda plushie that is attached to Lisa the Plant and Chloe’s “cute robot panda keychain” are oblique references to Jax the Panda.

Jax the Panda (Remember Me)

Chloe's panda key chain

The plushie attached to Lisa

• Brooke's drone has a similar shape and the same paintjob as the gunship Trace flies in Remember Me.
• Max's "focus within a focus" on the selfie she took in class is a direct reference to Remember Me's "remixing the remix" segment.
• The edges of walkways in the labyrinthine segments of Max's nightmare echo the edges of walkways in the Ego Rooms in Remember Me.

Thanks for Crying

At the end of the credits for "Dark Room", it says "thanks for crying" instead of "thanks for playing".

Time Travel References

Since time travel is a central theme in Life is Strange, there are several references to other films and series that popularized time travel.

Butterfly Effect

Main article: References#The Butterfly Effect

Doctor Who

• In a text between Warren Graham and Max, he says that he will be in the Tardis, the machine that the main protagonists in Doctor Who use to travel through time.
• On the laundry ticket in Victoria's room the name of the employee is "Amelia Pond" (one the Doctor's companions).
• In the barn during the fourth episode, Max spots an owl and calls it "Doctor Hoo."
• On Kate's Get Well cards, among the signatures of students, there's the signature of River S. and Rory W. referencing Doctor Who characters.

Donnie Darko

• On Max's notepad in the classroom at the beginning of the game, you can see a small doodle of Frank the Rabbit from the film. Frank's first name is also believed to be a reference to the character.
• In Episode 2, it is shown that Max has a copy of the film in her room.

Trivia

• In an interview, Game Designer Alejandro Arque said that his favorite Easter eggs are the Harry Potter and Doctor Who references.