The Witcher 3 Easter eggs

This article will catalogue Easter Eggs and Pop Culture References in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt


 * A virtual Easter egg is an intentional hidden message or feature in an object such as a movie, book, CD, DVD, computer program, or video game. The term draws a parallel with the custom of the Easter egg hunt.

Django Unchained

 * In "A Deadly Plot" Thaler is travelling under the disguise of a cobbler. His wagon bears great resemblance to the one used by Dr. King Schultz in "Django Unchained", with a giant wobbly shoe on top of the wagon. No resemblance at all.

A Knight's Tale

 * During the "Fists of Fury Novigrad" quest the line "You've been weighed, you've been measured, and you've ben found scrawny." is a reference to the line Count Adhemar uses on William Thatcher after their joust.

Gangs of New York

 * A Quest named "The Gangs of Novigrad" is an obvious reference to the movie "Gangs of New York" starring Leonardo Di Caprio.

Once Upon a Time in America

 * A man standing in the building just north of Ursten village whistles theme from "Once Upon a Time in America", composed by Ennio Morricone.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

 * When Geralt reaches a cabin in the Isles of Mists, he meets a company of shipwrecked dwarfs. Originally a company of seven, four of the dwarfs barricaded themselves in the cabin, while the other three were elsewhere on the island. One of the dwarfs, Gaspard, suffers a sleeping disorder, where he falls asleep randomly, and another dwarf sneezes a lot. Geralt also finds the dwarfs have been housing Ciri, who was put under a death-like sleep, a reference to the character, Snow White. Technically Ciri is a Princess and The White Frost is directly linked to Ciri's story which makes the reference even stronger.

The Departed

 * After finishing Return to Crookback Bog one of the witch hunters utters the line "Maybe, maybe not, maybe go fuck yourself" which is a Mark Wahlberg line from the film The Departed.

Twilight

 * During the quest "Message from an Old Friend" in Novigrad, you can pick up a book entitled Moribundia: The Vampire's Last Likeness. The text describes a lovers' exchange between Isabella and a vampire named Edward, and refers to an unnamed werewolf and Isabella's pregnancy. These are all references to the plot of the Twilight movie and book series.

Fight Club

 * There is a reference about Tyler Durden, the split personality of Fight Club's protagonist in a notice at a Novigrad's notice board.Tyler Durden's Reference.jpg
 * Also in Novigrad you have to defeat a man called "Durden the Tailor" in a fist fight.

Pulp Fiction

 * In the basement of Crow's Perch castle, you might hear 2 guards talking about waking the gimp.
 * In the quest A Dangerous Game, you come across a dead body whose name is Zed, he happens to own a pawnshop, a clear reference to "Zed's dead".

Kill Bill

 * The master blacksmith in Novigrad is retired, is called Hattori and makes dumplings, almost identical to the retired blacksmith in the Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill. Incidentally, he is also referencing the real life Hattori Hanzo, a samurai from the Edo era.
 * The plot of the quest "Following the Thread" is very similar to Kill Bill, involving the search of a scattered group of assassins for revenge. The head of the group, Caradin, is a reference to David Carradine who played Bill in Kill Bill.

Snatch

 * A fist fighter is named Georgius George as in Gorgeous George.
 * You are asked by the bookie named Claytop (Bricktop) to throw the fight.

Star Wars

 * On Skellige Isles there is a quest given by a bounty hunter called "Djenge Frett", a reference to the bounty hunter Jango Fett from Star Wars.

Wizard of Oz + Alice in Wonderland

 * The Book "Travel Between Worlds" contains references to the Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland. Zo is Oz backwards as it is mentioned in the book. The story is similar too. Theodore is being taken by a hurricane to another world and Ecila who traveled down a rabbit hole is simply Alice written backwards.

Fast and Furious

 * A trophy is called Fast and Furious for winning horse races.

Monty Python

 * Rabbit of Caerbannog.jpg the entrance of a hidden cave near Benek (location of quest "Hidden in the stars", Velen), there is a pile of corpses and a single "snow hare", a reference to the Rabbit of Caerbannog.
 * Thieves randomly shout “Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!”.
 * Beggars talk about how one of them was cured by a mage from a disease and has a hard time begging now.
 * The entire Shock Therapy quest is in reference to the scene in The Life of Brian where Brian causes a hermit to talk after a vow of silence.

50 Shades of Grey

 * One of Dandelion's lovers is said to like to call him Christian and like him to call her Anastasia.

The Godfather

 * At the beginning of the game, when discussing the summons of the Emperor of Nilfgaard, Vesemir says "an offer he can't refuse?".

Lord of the Rings

 * When you recruit Zoltan to defend Kaer Morhen he says "You have me and my axe!".
 * During the quest 'The Great Escape' (reference itself), when you proceed towards the Commanders chambers for the keys to free Magarita, you'll find a document - a list of prisoners - stating 'Undomiel, an Elven mage' being imprisoned which is a reference to Arwen from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings universe.
 * After the mission 'Of Swords and Dumplings' Hattori gives you the 'Sword from the Bits', proclaiming it to be a "Sword that outshines all others." This is probably a reference to the sword forged from the shards of Narsil and given to Aragorn (who names it Andúril; Flame of the West) by Lord Elrond "Very bright was that sword when it was made whole again."

The Hobbit

 * Many halflings when you keep talking to them suggest you don't call them "Baggins".

300

 * Guards and villagers in Skellige will sometimes yell "This is Skellige!"

Peter Pan

 * During the quest "Empty Coop" given by an old woman living just east of Honeyfill meadworks, you meet a group of kids, one of whom is named Pete, and the little girl says "Pete says we're going to live in the woods and wear animal skins and make a tent out of leaves and never grow up." Clearly a reference to Peter Pan.

The Horse Whisperer

 * A book called "The Horse Whistler" discusses training horses

127 Hours

 * There's a monster cave with a narrow part that has a skeleton trapped between a rock and the wall by its arm.

Addams Family

 * The village of Lurch is named after the butler of the Evves family who left the land to the peasants when he died. A reference to the Addams family who have a butler named Lurch, and Evves is meant to be a female version of Addams, as in Adam and Eve.

Apocalypse Now

 * The "Siege Tower" gwent card references the movie's famous quote, saying: "I love the clamor of siege towers in the morning. Sounds like victory."

Mad Max: Fury Road

 * During the Hearts of Stone expansion, some Knights from the Order of Flaming Rose occasionally cry "Witness me, brothers!", "What a day! What a lovely day!" and "I live, I die, I live again!", mimicking the Nux' lines from the latest Mad Max movie.

Vabank

 * During the Hearts of Stone expansion quest: "Open Sesame!", Geralt may rescue a character named Quinto: it's a reference to a polish film "Vabank". The main character of the film is called Kwinto, and he's a famous safecracker.

Multiple Movies
Singin' in the rain
 * Falling from the broken bridge leading to the Nilfgaardian garrison in White Orchard gives an unusual scream, which is the "Wilhelm Scream" used in many movies.

Priest of Eternal Fire (heard in Hierarch square), during the evening if it's raining will start humming "I'm singin' in the rain..."

Russ Meyer
 * During the Quest "Carnal Sins", Geralt visits the workshop of a Dwarf to investigate his murder. He is met by the Dwarf's Brother Gus Meyer, who tells Geralt his brother had a fixation for carving female statues with large breasts, regardless of their status. Russ Meyer was a 60's-70's film director known primarily for writing and directing a series of successful low-budget sexploitation films that featured campy humour, sly satire and large-breasted women.

Breaking Bad

 * A trophy is called "Let's Cook".
 * Behind an illusion in a cave north of Novigrad you'll discover a laboratory with a skeleton holding a document called "Alchemists Notes". In it the alchemist is complaining about his assistant, Jester(Jesse), who'd have had "One Job. ONE." Also, he states, it'd be "better to go out with a bang than to die slowly in a hospital."

Game of Thrones

 * A secondary quest found in Novigrad is titled "A Feast For Crows". Same as the fourth book from the series A Song Of Ice And Fire by George R. R. Martin. The witcher 3 game of thrones.jpg
 * At the small isle of Kaer Almhult there are sky cells. In one of them a dwarf that clearly resembles Tyrion lies dead. Upon examining him, Geralt says "Sky cells… Nice idea for a prison without bars. Shame he didn't know how to fly."
 * There is a sword named Longclaw after Jon Snow's sword.
 * In the cave underneath the Temple Isle the sorcerer's notes tell that he tried using milk of the poppy in his experiments.
 * After the fight in the arena, when some of Cleaver's dwarves attack Whoreson Junior's men, some of the dwarves will say, "You're the fucking dainklage!" an apparent reference to Peter Dinklage, the actor who portrays Tyrion Lannister, a dwarf.
 * When you try to get help to fight the wild hunt from Crach an craite he shows you his ancestors sword Winter's Blade which is said to have been forged in Mahakam tempered with dragon fire a reference to Game of thrones Valyrian steel swords.
 * The last opponent in the Fist-fighting Quest Chain is a bear in an arena not unlike the "Bear and Maiden Fair" scene.

Doctor Who

 * A graveyard near Lindenvale contains statues of weeping angels. When you go out of the small building, you will find they have moved and are staring at you.
 * In the quest "Through Time and Space", when Geralt is sent to the frozen world, there is a breaking in the cave wall directly in front of Geralt that resembles the crack in Amy's wall.
 * Tower outta nowhere Quest. Geralt, on entering through the portal says, "It looks smaller on the outside". This is an inversion of a classic comment when people enter The Doctor's TARDIS for the first time. 292030 screenshots 2015-07-19 00002.jpg

Sherlock

 * During the Triss romance scene in the Lighthouse two sailors believe the subsequent flickering of the light to be a Morse Code message. This is a reference to the scene in 'The Hounds of Baskerville' where Watson notices car headlights flashing on Dartmoor and thinks it to be Morse Code but turns out to be a dogging site.

Baldur's Gate

 * One of the items that you can find in cupboards or lockers is Balduran's Butter knife.
 * Another item that you can find in cupboards is Silver Pantaloons, which is an easter egg reference to a recurring easter egg throughout the Baldur's Gate trilogy.
 * There is a sword called 'Daystar' which is a reference to a sword guarded by a lich in the city of Amn.

Starcraft

 * In the trophy list the trophy for unlocking places of power is called "Power Overwhelming", in reference to the original Starcraft Archon quote and cheat of the same name.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

 * The card text of "Black Infantry Archer" in Gwent says "I always aim for the knee". Clear reference of infamous: "I used to be adventurer like you, then I took an arrow in the knee".
 * While traveling to the Circle of Elements with Lambert on "The Final Trial", Geralt says "Was bold and brash once, like you. Then I took a pitchfork in the gut." (It is worth noting that the thing actually happened in the novel "The Lady of the Lake" by Andrzej Sapkowski).  
 * Occasionally, Guards in Novigrad will say "No lollygagging," a phrase also spoken by Guards in Skyrim.
 * In the Hearts of Stone expansion, during a dialog between Shani and a guard in the main quest "Whatsoever a Man Soweth", Shani says to the guard "You were much kinder when I was patching you up. By the way, how's your knee?" To which the guard responds: "Fine, dandy. As if no arrow ever struck it."

Fallout

 * Peasants sometimes say "War - it just never changes".
 * An elf in a Scoiat'el camp near Novigrad sometimes says War. War changes EVERYTHING!

CD projekt RED



 * Some of the weather vanes use the stylized cardinal logo used by CD Projekt RED.

GOG.com

 * A book titled Gottfried’s Omni-opening Grimoire (GOG) explains how to bypass the Defensive Regulatory Magicon (DRM). GOG is a distribution service and publisher for PC games and films, operated by GOG Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of CD Projekt based in Warsaw, Poland.[3] GOG delivers video games through its DRM-free digital platform for Windows, OS X and Linux.

Duke Nukem

 * When fighting bandits sometimes they will say "I'll rip off your melon and shit down your neck".

Killer Instinct and Primal rage

 * During a mission, you must hire thugs for a job. They offer to work for free if you fight them both in an organized fight. If you accept, he says: "It will be a grand fight, Killer Instinct versus Primal rage". This is a nod back to 2 separate fighting games on the SNES and Sega Genesis, Killer Instinct and Primal rage.

Tomb Raider

 * During the quest "The Great Escape" you will find a corpse. Upon examining it Geralt will say "Heheh. Tomb raider. Seemed this one liked elven stuff".

Folk Tales

 * Occasionally on notice boards you can find a reference to the Pied Piper of Hamelin Story.
 * Also after helping Triss rid a warehouse of rats you will see them running 2015-05-27_00001.jpg water like in the story.
 * The "Trail of Treats" is reminiscent of the tale of Hansel and Gretel.
 * You can find Excalibur inside the stone in the dungeon in Skellige, when you want to find the mask from the druid with Yennefer. When Geralt tries to pull Excalibur out of the stone, Yennefer says that the sword is not actually in the stone, it's held in place by a vice.
 * The mission "A Towerful of Mice" tells a story of a cruel noble family, that hid in a tower when the peasants rebelled and were eaten by mice. All these details are similar to the polish tale of Prince Popiel.
 * The book "Golem, or Man's Most Faithful Servant" holds a tale of a dwarf who crafted a golem to defend the dwarves from prosecution, which is very similar to the tale of the golem of Prague, about Judah Loew ben Bezalel 'המהר"ל' who made a golem to defend the Jewish community from pogroms. This tale is the main origin of golems in fantasy works.
 * Similarly, an ancient invoice for a golem states the payment is to be made to one Jehuda Löw
 * During Contract: Dragon quest, Geralt needs sheep for a bait. Village elder asks, if Geralt is going to fill it with sulfur and he responds "Another ally of the brave little shoemaker". It is a two-fold reference. Firstly to the short story Granica możliwości from Miecz przeznaczenia, where the shoemaker Kozojed/Goatmuncher used a fake sheep filled with poison to try and kill a dragon. Secondly, to the second version of the legend of the Wawel Dragon, a tale from Polish folklore which the short story is based on.
 * The Side mission A Favor for a Friend is based on Cinderella, Apparently Keira Metz favorite fairy tale who with Geralt's help reenacts the story. According to Geralt the story takes inspiration from a true event: Apparently it involves a Zeugl swallowing a princess whole and leaving behind a single glass slipper.
 * During the Quest The Lord of Undvik one of the members of Hjalmar's crew claimed that when the crew encountered a group of Sirens blamed the wrecking of their ship on one of the Helmsman, who tried to protect himself from the sirens by stuffing his ears full of wax, but as a consequence he couldn't hear the rest of the crew trying to talk to him and they ended up crashing on shore, a tale clearly inspired by the Tale of Odysseus.

Literature

 * In the island where the GOT Easter Egg is found one of the bandits drops a note with: "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn". Direct reference to H.P. Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu. Appropriately, the Necronomicon, which was referenced in works of H.P. Lovecraft, can be found as an in-game book.
 * During the quest 'The Great Escape', you can find a list of prisoners with several inside jokes, including a reference to a prisoner named Sardukhar, a member of the Nilfgaardian Elite Palace Guard. This a reference to the novel "Dune" by Frank Herbert. In the novel, the Sardukar were the elite palace guards of the Padishah Emperor.
 * The "Forefathers Eve" mission is a reference to the poem "Dziady" (Forefathers Eve) by Adam Mickiewicz. The ceremony on the island directly quotes parts of it.
 * In the quest "The Great Escape", Geralt and Yennefer go to meet a man who escaped from the prison. His name is Abbé Faria, which is a reference to the priest that Edmond Dantes meets in the book The Count of Monte Cristo. Additionally, the way the man escapes from prison is by playing dead and being tossed in the sewers, which is similar to the way Edmond Dantes escapes the Chateau d'If prison island, by pretending to be dead and being tossed in to the sea.
 * The Mission "Swamp Thing" refers to the character from DC comics
 * There is a trophy called "Fist of the South Star", a reference to the manga "Fist of the North Star".
 * When talking to the Old Sage in "The Truth is in the Stars" quest, if asked about his "gift", the Old Sage will first respond that as a child he fell into a cauldron of magic brew. This is how Obelix from the comic book series "Asterix and Obelix" gained his superhuman strength.
 * On one of the notice boards there's a notice from "Ismael" claiming "if you see a white whale in the sea, let it swim on. It's mine. If anyone catches it before me, Freya be my witness, I will stab that wretch to death with my harpoon" Clearly a reference to Ishmael and Moby Dick / the whale by Herman Melville.
 * There is an in game book titled "How to Avoid Colossal Vessels" which is a reference to "How to Avoid Huge Ships"
 * The book called "Journey to the end of the world" is a reference to Jules Verne's "Journey to the center of the earth"
 * During "The King is Dead - Long Live the King" Geralt is tasked with finding a key to place in a statue's hand, opening a secret passage. Many items are provided to try, only one works. One of the items is a skull. Nothing happens when it is placed in the statue's hand. After, Geralt sighs, "Guess you're no indecisive prince." A reference to Shakespeare's Hamlet and the famous "Alas, poor Yorick" scene, and Hamlet as a character.
 * The mission "The Play's the Thing" is a reference to Shakespeare's play Hamlet, where Hamlet says "The Play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscious of the King."
 * Captain Wolverstone and his ship Atropos are right from Sabatini's book 'Captain Blood'
 * Towards the end of the quest "Where the Cat and the Wolf Play" Geralt may say "The soil lie light upon you." depending on your choices made throughout the duration of the quest. This is a reference to an inscription commonly used on funerary items from ancient Roman times; "Sit tibi terra levis." Translated from Latin meaning: "May the earth rest lightly on you."
 * During the quest "Count Reuven's Treasure", it is mentioned that one of the customers in Novigrad baths is named "general Joseph Svejk", being a reference to the main character of Jaroslav Hašek's novel "The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk".
 * The backstory of a quest "The Fall of the House Reardon" is about a 14-year-old girl Dolores Reardon and her brother/guardian Humbert. They're the main characters of Vladimir Nabokov's novel "Lolita".
 * The title of a quest "The Fall of the House Reardon" references Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House Usher". During the same quest one can find Humbert's remains, who was entombed alive behind a brick wall. The whole setup is a reference to "The Cask of Amontillado" by the same author.
 * During the quest "The Mystery of the Byways Murders" Geralt has to track and kill the old vampire named Sarasti, who is a reference to one of the main characters of the novel "Blindsight" by Peter Watts.
 * After being possessed by a spirit, the random black mare caught for the quest will be called "Black Beauty".
 * During the quest "Final Preparations", you encounter a character by the name of Abbe Faria. This is the name of the prisoner who helps Edmond Dantes escape the prison in The Count Of Monte Cristo by faking his own death.
 * During quest "Through Time and Space" on the desert planet Avallac'h describes a living sea that was on this planet. A direct reference to Solaris novel by Stanislav Lem.
 * The quest "The Sad Tale of the Grossbart Brothers" is a direct reference to the book "The Sad Tale of the Grossbart Brothers", about the murderous and grave-robbing brothers Hegel and Manfred Grossbart. You are asked to kill them and will later fight them later in a cave.

Songs

 * One of the women in Crippled Kate's Brothel can be overheard saying "It's a material world, and I'm a material girl.", referencing Madonna's song "Material Girl".
 * One of the first missions in the game 'Twisted Firestarter ' references the lyrics of the song Firestarter by Prodigy. "...I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter..."
 * The "Rosemary and Thyme" is a reference to the English folk song "Scarborough Fair" most known by its performance by Simon and Garfunkel.
 * The song Johnny sings to Gran is the translated version of the Polish lullaby "Na Wojtusia z popielnika"
 * The piper at the Inn at the Crossroads intregrates parts of the "Palästinalied" by Walther von der Vogelweide into his play.
 * Older peasants will sometimes humm Polish old cabaret song "Wesołe jest życie staruszka"
 * A loading tip says "When the time of the White Frost comes, do not eat the yellow snow.", referencing Frank Zappa's song "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow".

Miscellaneous

 * During the mission "Defender of Faith", you come across some students vandalizing shrines. The say their master Friedrich sent them, which refers to Friedrich Nietzsche. They say some tenets from Nietzsche's philosophy, that god is dead and that they need to forge a new morality.
 * The maps sold in Skellige are called "Lonesome World" Guides, a parody of Lonely Planet Guides.
 * Rock Trolls say Trollololo from time to time.
 * Novigrad is similar to the city of Gdańsk in Poland. Historically it's been an independent city between 1920 and 1939. It also bears similarities of medieval trade city of Novgorod in modern Russia.
 * A book called "Wondrous World of Insectoids" detail a system called "arachnocommunism"
 * The Bald Mountain is a reference to Łysa Góra (Bald Mountain), a mountain in Poland known to be an ancient pagan place of cult activity. Due to that, the mountain is known in legends as a place where witches had sabbaths.
 * Dandelion acting as a hero takes a nickname Crimson Avenger, same alias is used in DC Universe by Lee Travis and in Disney's animated series Gummi Bears by Cubby. Additionally that's a name of a class in game Elsworld.
 * When speaking to a troll in the marsh he will say "Trolololol".
 * During the "Where the Cat and Wolf Play" quest, if you let Witcher go and find letter in his stash, you can read that Witcher of Cat School named Schrödinger might be dead or alive, referencing a quantum mechanics paradox called Schrödinger's Cat.
 * In Ermion's laboratory in Kaer Trolde one can find a book titled "White Cold", which describes a theory by mage Democritus of Ban Ard that the White Cold phenomenon consists of microscopic indivisable particles. It refers to an ancient greek philosopher Democritus of Abdera who is known as the founder of atomic hypothesis.
 * During the Quest "Cabaret" you encounter a halfling named Henri Rautlec who is supposed to paint posters for the Rosemary and Thyme. He's referencing french painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
 * During the quest "an elusive thief" should you spare the Doppler, the merchant will refuse to reward you without a trophy, to which geralt responds "There better be one, or you'll feel the invisible hand of the market smack you so hard you won't be able to sit down for a week".  This is a reference to Adam Smith's book "The wealth of nations". The invisible hand is a metaphor introduced by Smith which is often used by liberal economist to explain how the market is able to allocate resources more efficiently without any kind of central planning or intervention.
 * Upon entering the Temerian Partisan Hideout, a soldier at the entrance says "A Witcher, just what our band of merry men needed," referencing Robin Hood and his Merry Men.