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Info Icon Canon Dispute
The contents of this section are non-canonical.
Due to either narrative retcon or other continuity changes, the contents of this section are no longer considered part of the main Metro 2033 canon.
A virtual Easter egg is an intentional hidden message, in-joke or feature in a work such as a computer program, web page, video game, movie, book or crossword. The term was coined—according to Warren Robinett—by Atari after they were pointed to the secret message left by Robinett in the game Adventure. It draws a parallel with the custom of the Easter egg hunt observed in many Western nations as well as the last Russian imperial family's tradition of giving elaborately jeweled egg-shaped creations by Carl Fabergé which contained hidden surprises.

— Wikipedia definition of the term

Metro 2033

A copy of the book Metro 2033

At the very beginning of the game, chapter 1 - Exhibition just after you got the weapons at the armory. At the corner between the marketplace and the corridor that leads to the armory there is a guard sitting down reading a book. If you try to talk to him he will mention the book you lent him and will ask you to wait some time so he can finish reading it before giving it back. The book in question is a copy of Metro 2033.

Annoying Players

Easter egg annoying

A certain guard at Riga station in a Russian dub will break the fourth wall by commenting on the player's persistence after he or she tries to talk to him several times in a row. "No, seriously, what do you expect to hear from an ordinary guard on this station? Do you really have to click on EVERYONE? But for your persistence I will grant you three wishes. Miracles happen, man. You don't believe in that? Too bad. Scram already."

Listen to that quote in Russian:

Battery

Easter egg battery

Another easter egg is hidden in the textures of a scoped Tihar. The text reads:

BATTERY. Super powerful energy cell produced by Sushka_invented_it_himself. Made in 4A Games.

Sushka or CyLLlKA is one of the developers and perhaps the most talkative of the team.

Bioshock

Bioshock logo

According to 4A Games employees there was supposed to be an easter egg referring to Bioshock. Unfortunately a Big Daddy helmet was cut during location clean up and does not appear in the game.

Dmitry Kinev

Easter egg dmitry

An easter egg referring to DJ Din Rise can be found on Dead City 1 level in the building with a sleeping Watcher. It's a small photo of Dmitry "DJ Din Rise" Kinev on the floor. It was placed as a favor due to Dmitry knowing people from the 4A Games team.

Half-Life

Easter egg hl2

An easter egg referring to Half-Life can be found on Trolley Combat level in the room directly in front of the player after the introductory cutscene ends. It is an old skeleton with glasses holding a crowbar, the signature weapon of Gordon Freeman from the Half-Life series. A corpse of Gordon Freeman is also an easter egg in S.T.A.L.K.E.R., a game developed by GSC, former employees of which left the company and formed 4A Games.

Hole Station

Easter egg khreschatyk

Hole Station was modeled after Khreshchatyk station of Kiev Metro instead of Paveletskaya station of Moscow one. It might be a nod to GSC who used the likeness of Khreshchatyk in one of their test builds.

Left 4 Dead

Easter egg l4d

An easter egg referring to Left 4 Dead can be found on Dead City 1 level in the water past where a Demon was feasting on a corpse. It is a severed shriveled hand with a missing thumb just like one on the cover of L4D.

Mummy

Easter egg mummy

Another easter egg can be found on Dark Star level. It is a mummy stuck between logs. According to developers they didn't want an old model go to waste and added it to the game. The model is called "babka", which is a Russian word meaning "an old woman", "granny" or, derogatorily, "a hag", depending on context.

Screamers

Easter egg screamers

An easter egg referring to a 1995 dystopian science fiction film named "Screamers" can be found on Exhibition level. It's a child telling his father what he wants to get as a gift. His model resembles a Type 3 Screamer "David" from the movie (A weapon system called the 'Autonomous Mobile Sword", an artificially intelligent self-replicating machine capable of impersonating a human). According to pre-release screenshots and materials Sasha, a boy you carry on your back during the level Child, was supposed to have exactly this model, possibly adding to the fright of those who realize the reference.

Star Wars

Easter egg SW

An easter egg referring to Star Wars franchise can be found on Riga station in a Russian dub. A retired IT systems administrator begs for a spare MGR and replies with "May the force be with you" if the player agrees. This phrase was used to wish luck or good will, generally when individuals parted ways or the object of the expression was facing some sort of imminent challenge.

Listen to that quote in Russian:

Strugatsky Brothers

Easter egg strugatskie

An easter egg referring to Arkady and Boris Strugatsky can be found on Library level in the third room after Demon's attack. Danila will read the names of the books on a shelf and will come across a copy of Roadside Picnic, a book which S.T.A.L.K.E.R is loosely based on.

Listen to that quote in English:
Listen to that quote in Russian:

Subway Cars

Easter egg traincar E
Easter egg traincar E2

Metro train cars in Metro 2033 were modeled after Metro car type E. Those cars are currently used in Kiev and Saint-Petersburg subways and were used in Moscow one up until 2008. In early builds they had the Ukrainian coat of arms on them.

Wall-E

Easter egg walle

An easter egg referring to Pixar's CGI cartoon Wall-E can be found on D6 level in the Missile Control room to the left from the main screen on the wall. It's an old boot with a plant growing out of it. In the cartoon, the aforementioned Wall-E finds a green plant during scavenging, digs it up and places it in a shoe.

Metro: Last Light

Avatar

MLL easter miller quaritch

Miller's updated appearance in Metro: Last Light resembles that of the Miles Quaritch from the James Cameron's science fiction film Avatar. They even share the military rank of Colonel.

As a side note, it appears that a lot of stalkers in the Metro share the same facial three-clawed scar left by the mutants.

Andrew's Computer

MLL easter computer

There is a destroyed computer in Andrew the Blacksmith's hideout near Revolution station. There is an axe stuck in the display and a kitchen knife sticking out of the keyboard. It seems that the developers were quite frustrated and tired with certain aspects of the development and left this as a reminder of their lamenting.

Delivery truck

MLL easter crap

A broken truck on the Bridge level has a slogan written on the side that says "Доставка хрени к вам домой", which literally means "Delivering crap to your home".

Developer portraits

MLL easter developers

All propaganda posters and pieces of art stolen from the museums by the bandits in Metro: Last Light were edited by the developers to include 4A Games team members.

Fishing gone wrong

MLL easter fishing

An unfortunate fisherman in Venice gets more than he bargained for. There was a reason why Fedor was urging the slacking off guard to lock the gates before something nasty slips into the station just a few minutes before.

Getting drunk

MLL easter drunk

Artyom can order a local special called "Bullet" in the Fishing Float bar in Venice. Since he can't hold his liquor, this results in him destroying the furniture and scaring off the customers after consuming three shots of moonshine in a row. He then wakes up with the lady from the bar near the pig pen.

Artyom can return and pay the stressed out owner of the bar a hundred MGRs for repairs, or just walk away.

Nesting boxes

MLL easter nesting boxes

Towards the end of the Revolution level Artyom can come across a set of four locked boxes placed one within another in a manner similar to the nesting dolls. A matryoshka doll, also known as Russian nesting/nested doll, is a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside the other.

Stalker

MLL easter stalker

Artyom can stumble upon two scavengers resembling Strelok and Swamp Doctor from the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl in the Theater station. They will converse about having wasted all of their money from the last job on drinks and plan their next trip to the surface, hoping to one day be promoted to full-fledged Stalkers. If the player lingers around for a bit, they talk to him directly.

"Ha! A stalker! Man, if you ever need help with, like, carrying something heavy from the surface... We'll be ready to join you in a couple of days. We won't charge much!"

There will come soft rains

MLL easter soft rains

Posters of the Metro 2035 book found in Last Light are designed to resemble the robot from the There Will Come Soft Rains animated film based on the short story with the same name by a science fiction author Ray Bradbury. The story portrays a scene of obliteration, in which the human race has been destroyed by a nuclear war.

Yuri Semetsky

MLL easter semenovich

Well-known Russian fan and editor Yuri Semetsky was for several years repeatedly killed in almost every new Russian Science Fiction book. This became so popular that writers started to compete in the most imaginative ways to kill him, and some young authors were even told by editors to remove killing Semetsky from their books because they were too junior for it.

This was allegedly due to the fact that fortune teller once told Semetsky that he was to die at 43, and his writer friends started this campaign to save him from this fate - there is a Russian folk belief that if a person once thought dead actually isn't, then he or she would live a long life. So, when he topped 44 and was still alive, this thing generally stopped.

He is mentioned several times in Metro: Last Light. Bandits tell a horror story about him, he is guarding the Venice gates and dies during the Quarantine level in the 8th block. He often claims that he will outlive all of us.

White sun of the desert

MLL eater white sun

One of the many doors you can knock on in Venice will kick off an overheard word-for-word recreation of the dialogue between Vereschagin and his wife from White Sun Of The Desert, a cult Soviet western-like action movie, filmed in 1969 ("Caviar? AGAIN? Woman, can't you feed me some bread at least?")

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