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Every Time A Hacker Types In An IP Adress, It Leads To An Actual Website In The Real World
Over its three seasons, Elliot and other hackers have typed in a lot of IP addresses. For every IP address entered on the series, there is an actual website for it on the internet. For example the following IP addresses: 192.251.68.239, 192.251.68.250, and 192.251.68.254, all lead to a pretty taunting and very disturbing image of a laughing pixilated FSociety mask, mockingly informing the user that "Your Personal Files Are Encrypted."
What's even cooler is the 24 hour countdown on the bottom of the screen. If you stay on the page for 24 hours (of if a user can somehow alter the ticking clock), the following quote from Thomas Jefferson comes up: "I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."
There's A Hidden Audio Processed Image - That May Be A Message To Fans
In Season 2, Episode 5, some astute fans noticed an odd noise just at the beginning of the episode. One reddit user claimed their boyfriend was an audio engineer and recognized the sound as an image being rendered as audio. If this image is recorded and then processed, the audio file produced will reveal a picture. After their boyfriend processed the audio, the user discovered the image of the motivational poster circulated throughout the 1970s featuring a cat hanging onto a tree branch with the words "Hang in there."
So what does this mean? It could just be a fun and random Easter Egg. However, some fans interpreted the image as a promise from Sam Esmail. He was encouraging fans to stick with the show, as the best was yet to come.
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Sam Esmail Pulls A Hitchcock
The Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, was one of the first examples of an Easter Egg in cinema. The legendary director made a cameo in 39 of his 52 movies. The game for alert movie viewers was to spot the director, who was usually hidden somewhere in one scene of a film. Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail took a page from Hitchcock during a subway scene during the premiere episode of the series.
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A QR Source Code Taken From Elliot's Notebook Led To A Website Called Confictura Industries
During the Season 2 premiere, Fusion editor Dodai Stewart took to Twitter to reveal that the QR Code from Elliot's notebook worked in real life. Stewart was able to scan the QR code, which brought the editor to a website called Confictura Industries. It was obvious from the graphics on the website that it was over 20 years old. It was also discovered that if a person clicked on the "Terms of Service Privacy" links found at the bottom of the page, they would be redirected to the USA Network page.
There were a bunch of fan theories around what the code could mean. One aware viewer noticed that underneath the source code it read: "YOU ARE NOT ALONE." Additionally, the word Confictura is Latin for imagination or fantasy, this could be a nod to everything just being a figment of Elliot's imagination.
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Elliot And Ray Recreate An Epic Chess Match Move-For-Move
In truly what is incredible attention to detail, the chess match between Elliot and Ray details the exact moves from the epic 1851 chess game known as the Immortal Game. This was a chess game was a game played in 1851 between two European math professors. One of the most famous chess games of all time, both professors made some impressive moves during the show down.
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The Arcade Game Is Named After The Notorious Hacking Group Lizard Squad
The arcade game on the right side of the frame is called Lizard Squad, which is also the name of a prominent hacking group. The black hat hacking group is primarily known to make attacks that disrupt gaming-related services. The group has taken credit on their Twitter page for taking down several big time targets, like the Vatican's website, Sony's PlayStation network, Battle.net, and League of Legends.
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Christian Slater Gets Two Shout-Outs
The writers gave two shout-outs to Mr. Robot himself Christian Slater on the series. The actor was one of the hottest film stars of the 1980s and 90s. During an episode in Season 2, there was a reference to Slater's film Pump Up the Volume with a sly nod to the name "Harry Harry Hard-on." Two weeks after that, Mr. Robot also referenced Slater's 1988 cult favorite high school drama Heathers, when Darlene asked Elliot, "What's your damage?" That was an iconic line spoken by Winona Ryder's titular character in Heathers.
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Season Two References The Movie Hackers More Than Once
It's probably true that no one appreciates Mr. Robot more than actual hackers. And the show goes a long way to satisfy that target audience. During the premiere episode of Season 2, Darlene sets the E-Corp bank hack in motion. She types in: "Hack the Gibson…and remember…hugs are worth more than handshakes."
"Hack the Gibson" is a popular quote from the 1995 computer nerd cult film Hackers. The hugs part of the line is a nod to social engineer Jayson E. Street, a popular figure in the computer world, who has made a name for himself at hacker conferences by giving people hugs.
In Season 3, Episode 2, Hackers is referenced yet again. When Elliot is e-mailing the FBI, the recipient is "The Plague" and the sender is "Eugene Belford." This is Fisher Stevens's character in the film.
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The Highway Numbers On This Road Sign Are An IP Address
Astute viewers got a treat during Season 2's 1990s sitcom-inspired episode, which was Sam Esmail's favorite to date. During the 17-minute opening, there was a brief shot of a road sign. The highway numbers are an actual IP address.
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Elliot's Childhood Home's Address References His Memory Issues
Throughout Mr. Robot, Elliot is plagued with a fragmented memory and often cannot remember details from the past - especially regarding certain aspects of his childhood. In Season 1, Episode 2, Elliot passes by his childhood home. If you look closely, the house number is 404. This number is associated with the error code "HTTP 404 Page Not Found," which occurs when a website has been removed. This is a subtle reference to Elliot's missing memories.
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Various Literary References Foreshadow A Big Reveal In Season 2
In Season 2, Episode 1, we see Elliot's journal placed next to a copy of Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy, which is about a man in prison. On Elliot's journal are the words "Red Wheelbarrow," a reference to a William Carlos William poem. In the poem, Carlos gives readers a single image of a red wheelbarrow in the rain, and literary critics often see themes of both isolation and the importance of perception in the poem. This and the Tolstoy novel are both symbolic nods to Elliot's current state - he is isolated in prison, but his perception is skewed. He is knowingly pretending he's staying with his mother.
Later, we see "Hot Carla" - likely an inmate - burning a copy of Waiting for Godot in a red wagon. The play features two men waiting for a man called Godot indefinitely for unspecified purposes. The symbolism/foreshadowing gets murkier here, but some fans theorize there are parallels between characters in the play and Mr. Robot and Elliot. The idea of indefinitely waiting could also reference prison.
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The Crew Gets A Shout-Out
This Easter Egg from Season 1, Episode 2, gives a shout-out to different members of the Mr. Robot crew. In the sender column, you will see various crew members listed: Courtney Looney (writer's assistant), Kurt Haas (script coordinator), Margo Myers (producer), Bill Sell, Nick Carr, Ralph Nicastro, and Kate Erichson (staff writer.)
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Mr. Robot Pays Homage To Pulp Fiction
It says "1994" in the background of this shot, which also happens to be the year that Easter Egg connoisseur Quentin Tarantino's seminal Pulp Fiction hit theaters. If you look at the right side of the newspaper Mr. Robot is reading, you will see a full page ad for the film. Tarantino had to give permission to the show's production in order to use the movie's ad.
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Darlene's Sunglasses Make A Reference To Lolita
One popular Easter Egg category is when an artist gives a nod to another artist. In this still from Season 1, Episode 2, the writers at Mr. Robot are paying homage to the great film director Stanley Kubrick. Darlene is wearing heart-shaped sunglasses, which make reference to the iconic sunglasses worn by Lolita in Kubrick's 1962 drama of the same name.
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The Season Two Trailer Included An Actual Working Phone Number
If you look closely at the Season 2 trailer, you see a phone number jotted down on an evidence box. Eagle eyed viewers who spotted this went ahead and called the number. Their reward? Fans who called received a free Mr. Robot sweatshirt in the mail.
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Whiterose Is In This Chatroom
This is an actual conversation in Mandarin that takes place in a chatroom from Season 1, Episode 2. Of course, most of us cannot read Mandarin. But if you could, you would see that Whiterose is present in this chatroom talking up his plans for the Dark Army.
