r/MovieDetails • u/TheRubiksKid • Jul 21 '25
🥚 Easter Egg In Pixels (2015) the arcade urban legend Polybius can be seen very briefly in the background during the opening
- Best shot I could get from the movie
- On set photo
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u/JustGreybeardThings Jul 21 '25
I physically bumped into Billy Mitchell king of Kong the other day coming out of a hotel elevator. Scared the hell out of me.
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u/Relish_My_Weiner Jul 21 '25
Is he really just a giant head with arms and legs poking out of his beard?
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u/Frognaros Jul 21 '25
Taken from google: The Arcade Game Legend:
- Origin:The legend began circulating in the early 2000s, claiming a game called Polybius appeared in arcades around Portland, Oregon, in 1981.Â
- Gameplay:The game was described as intensely psychoactive, abstract, and potentially dangerous, causing addiction and side effects.Â
- Government Conspiracy:The legend also suggests the game was part of a US government experiment, with men in black periodically collecting data from the machines.Â
- Disappearance:The Polybius arcade machines were said to have vanished from the market shortly after their appearance.Â
- Inspiration:The legend has inspired several games with the same name, including a 2017 PSVR title by Llamasoft.Â
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u/DrDuke80 Jul 21 '25
Ahoy made a video investigating Polybius.
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u/Gcoks Jul 21 '25
AVGN did one as well, but it's for entertainment purposes only. Starts off looking like a documentary but it isn't.
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u/steeb2er Jul 21 '25
https://radiotopiapresents.fm/the-polybius-conspiracy
Radiotopia released a fictional documentary podcast about some kids who went missing after playing Polybius. It was a decent listen.
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u/friendlessghost Jul 21 '25
Lowkey but Pixels is extremely underrated, it’s insane it was received so poorly
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u/TheUmgawa Jul 21 '25
Speaking of lowkey, Polybius can also be seen in the hideout in Episode 5 of the first season of Loki. Personally, I think the best joke in that episode is the USS Eldridge, but Polybius was a nice second.
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u/Schmedly27 Jul 21 '25
I remember people complaining at the time that it was stupid and unreasonable that one of the jokes was the the president couldn’t read…maybe we shouldn’t have treated the movie so poorly
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u/PM_tanlines Jul 21 '25
It’s like how everyone always thought plague/zombie movies were unreasonable because it required Society to be stupid, but then Covid happened and everyone realized society actually is that stupid
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u/SimonCallahan Jul 22 '25
No it's not. It's a terrible fucking movie that panders to "nerds" and people who like nostalgia. There is nothing of value in Pixels.
Which sucks because the original short film it was based on was really cool.
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u/klemmo Jul 22 '25
Can't help but feel it would have been so much better with Simon Pegg, Nick Frost & Edgar Wright directing
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u/TonyWonderslostnut Jul 21 '25
Well Pixels is getting rereleased in a few months. But this time they’re calling it Tron: Ares.
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u/jinxykatte Jul 21 '25
Yeah cos being able to enter a cheat code into a car makes so much fucking sense.Â
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u/SomethingSo84 Jul 21 '25
Rule of cool and fun
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u/jinxykatte Jul 21 '25
It still has to make sense. Entering a cheat code during a competitive tournament was already bad enough.
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u/SomethingSo84 Jul 21 '25 edited Jul 21 '25
Dudes a reference to Todd Rogers (Made a whoopsie and said Howard originally) and Billy Lee Mitchell era cheating where they got away with some massive cheating with the help of the people who were meant to oversee their records.
The car became part of the world of the Aliens and as such when he enacted a cheat from one of the games they scanned through his controller, the cars controls, it worked.
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u/CheapScientist06 Jul 21 '25
Wait Todd Howard as in Bethesda Todd?
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u/Spit_for_spat Jul 21 '25 edited Jul 21 '25
Nah different Todd.
Todd Rogers worked as a referee/authenticator at Twin Galaxies, which was a popular arcade where he and Billy Mitchel set many of their "records." Yes, IIRC, Todd authenticated some of his own records.
Proof was mostly honour system back then, which is where some of the wilder faked records came from in places like Twin Galaxies, or Guiness World Records.
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u/CheapScientist06 Jul 21 '25
Gotcha thanks. I knew about Billy Mitchel but didn't know the rest of the story
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u/Spit_for_spat Jul 21 '25
I made an edit, but you replied quick so Idk if you saw it.
His name is Todd Rogers.
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u/CottonCandyLollipops Jul 21 '25
Haven't seen the movie but Tesla's have cheat codes you can do
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u/few23 Jul 21 '25
Does one of them repair your reputation after buying a Tesla?
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u/CottonCandyLollipops Jul 21 '25
I don't like elmo but are we really judging people's cars now? What do you do for BMW and Porche owners?
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u/few23 Jul 21 '25
Sorry, I meant if you bought one after 2024. Why else would there be "I bought it before Elon went crazy" bumper stickers?
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u/comparmentaliser Jul 21 '25
I haven’t seen the movie , but people tweak their car computers all the timeÂ
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u/Kroserz Jul 23 '25
There's another reference to this arcade game in in the series "Loki", jumped from my couch like Di Caprio when I spotted it.
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u/NightModeMuse Jul 22 '25
I'm a huge retro games nerd and I gotta say, referencing Polybius on Pixels is low-key genius.
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u/PeachyButPetty Jul 22 '25
LOL, the real challenge is spotting Polybius without pausing every 2 seconds 😂 Who knew Pixels was goin’ deep into arcade mythology!
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u/outfoxingthefoxes Jul 21 '25
There was a PC rom of Polybius, you could play and even access the secret menu the CIA used. Was all that fanmade to feed the legend?
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u/Bobo3076 Jul 21 '25
Someone tell Ashens