While It Ends With Us is a faithful adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s novel, like any book-to-screen adaptation, change is inevitable. All the details from the novel couldn’t be put in the movie, and that meant taking out things like Lily’s journals and her and Atals’ love for Finding Nemo. However, when I spoke to the film’s director Justin Baldoni about It Ends With Us’ release on the 2024 movie schedule, I asked him about the Easter eggs in it, and he told me about a meaningful nod to the book’s love of the Pixar movie.
My favorite Easter egg in this movie is easily the Finding Nemo poster, because the animated film is a favorite of mine. Taking out Lily and Atlas’ love for it was a big difference in It Ends With Us, however, they didn’t totally leave it behind. Baldoni told me during an interview for CinemaBlend that he wanted to “find a way to just sprinkle in” as many Easter eggs as possible, and that included a fun little Dory poster in Atlas’ restaurant as he explained:
So the first time that Lily meets up with Atlas again, when, they get reunited at the restaurant. They go and have they have a conversation by the bathroom, and there’s a poster that is strategically placed in the frame that isn’t the exact line of the movie as it relates to the Finding Nemo reference, but it’s very similar and very close.
He’s right, if you look very closely when Atlas and Lily meet up again at his restaurant Root, you can see a poster of a blue tang fish in the background, and there’s a quote about swimming forward. It’s not verbatim “just keep swimming,” but the sentiment is there. That was intentional to not be too spot on with it, as Baldoni told me:
We didn’t want it to be on the nose, and it’s just strategically placed in the background for the super fans who loved that story, because I knew how much ‘Just Keep Swimming’ meant to so many people, how much it means to me. It’s amazing life advice, and yet that was a part of the book we couldn’t put in the movie. So I just wanted to, like, pepper it in wherever I could.
In the book, the animated film is a beacon of hope for Lily and Atlas, because they both had difficult childhoods, and they always remind each other to, as Dory says, “just keep swimming.” The director and Ryle actor told me that he wanted to recognize that, and he figured it was a little hint “die-hard fans” of the book would “notice and hopefully appreciate.” And as a fan of the book myself, I did.
Along with the Finding Nemo poster, there’s also a little Nemo plushie in Lily’s nursery too, showing there’s still a lot of love for the Pixar project in this film, even though it’s not a major plot point.
Plus, while there were changes that “jarred” author Colleen Hoover, this was not one of them. She adored this thoughtful Easter egg. During my It Ends With Us interviews for CinemaBelnd, she told me how she reacted to the sweet Finding Nemo nod, saying:
There were a couple of things in the restaurant that were like callbacks to Atlas and Lily’s young relationship, like the Finding Dory picture on the wall in the bathroom scene. I wasn’t expecting those little things. And so there were a lot of things that didn’t make it into the film from the book, and so just seeing those tiny little touches that were like little shout-outs to those things that didn’t make it really meant a lot to me. So getting to walk around the restaurant and just find all those hidden little treasures was fun.
As I stated in my review of It Ends With Us, this film is a faithful adaptation of the book. While changes are made, yes, its story overall is the same, and there are so many little Easter eggs and hints that allude to the source material, including this sweet one about Finding Nemo.
To go and see the film for yourself and find all the Easter eggs, you can catch It Ends With Us in theaters now.