<i>Freakier Friday</i> Has So Many References to the Original Film—and Lindsay Lohan’s Other Movies

Spoilers below.

For many of us millennials, Lindsay Lohan was the blueprint in the early 2000s, inspiring us with her style, humor, and all-around It-girl vibes. Twenty years later, that’s still the case, and Freakier Friday is further proof. The sequel pays subtle homage to a few of Lohan’s projects, including 2003’s Freaky Friday and even Mean Girls. She’s not the only reference either; equally cool Hollywood royalty Jamie Lee Curtis, who stars as her onscreen mom, also inspired some surprises in the film.

Below, we’re rounding up all the Easter eggs we found in Freakier Friday, from shoutouts to the original film to other hidden treats. The movie’s director Nisha Ganatra even walks us through some of the fun cameos.

Anna (Lohan) uses the same red electric guitar she played in the original film, Ganatra confirms. “We got it from the first movie, so she was [using it] in her fantasy sequence in the opening of this one,” the director explains. You see Lohan shredding in the dream sequence at the top of the film. The instrument appears in the final performance scene as well.

This one’s not a Freaky Friday reference but a nod to another film in the Lindsay Lohan cinematic universe: Mean Girls. Fans may remember the iconic quote, “On October 3rd, he asked me what day it was. ‘…It’s October 3rd.’” Funnily enough, so-called Mean Girls Day is the same date as Anna’s wedding in Freakier Friday. During a scene where she looks at the calendar app on her phone, her wedding is scheduled for October 3.

Lohan told Collider that it was a total accident. “I genuinely don’t think anyone realized it,” she said, until the date was printed on the invitations for the film. “Because it was one of the first days shooting and I was like, ‘Does anyone realize this is October 3rd? That’s Mean Girls Day,’” she added. But Lohan was cool with it. “I was like, ‘Let’s leave it, it’s an Easter egg.’ And Nisha was like, ‘We’re not doing Easter eggs.’ I’m like, ‘Well, you did!’” she recalled.

The beginning of the film contains a montage of Anna trying to wake up her daughter, Harper (Julia Butters), to get ready for school—much like Anna’s mom, Tess, did to her in the original film. But instead of trying to pull her out of bed from the ankles à la Freaky Friday, Anna gives gentle parenting a try, knocking on Harper’s door multiple times to get ready. Harper’s door is also covered in posters, like Anna’s teenage bedroom door.

While dropping her daughter off at school, Anna calls after her from the car, “Make good choices!” It’s the same line her mother said to her while taking her to school in the first film. Tess gives her a knowing look, clocking that her daughter has followed her lead.

In another reference to Lohan’s iconic repertoire, Elaine Hendrix, who played Lohan’s would-be stepmother in The Parent Trap appears in a Freakier Friday scene. She’s on set during a photo shoot for Ella, the pop star Anna manages.

Ganatra told ELLE how that moment came to be: “The fun call I got to make was, we were filming a scene, and I really wanted Elaine Hendrix to make an appearance. I called Elaine, and I was like, ‘Would you please do a cameo?’ And she just came out and did that. I was doing my fantasy version of this movie, hoping anybody else would catch on to all the little Easter eggs of Parent Trap and Mean Girls. It’s a little bit ode to Lindsay’s [filmography]. Elaine’s character is named Blake, so little things are hidden in there.”

A couple of years ago, MUNA dressed up as the members of Pink Slip during a Halloween show and covered “Take Me Away.” In a full-circle moment, they appear in Freakier Friday as the pop star Ella’s (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) band. They perform with her during her show at The Wiltern. (Funny enough, that’s where MUNA performed the Pink Slip cover too.)

“We just sort of filled [this movie] up with all the fantasy star players that we could," Ganatra said of the band’s inclusion.

In Freakier Friday, Anna (who has body-swapped with her daughter, Harper) and Tess (who has switched with her future step-granddaughter Lily) find Jake (Chad Michael Murray) at his record shop. Tess tries to hide while Anna talks to Jake, covering her face with a number of different vinyls, from Sade to Madonna. The last one she holds up is Britney Spears, a nod to “...Baby One More Time” in the first film.

In Freaky Friday, Tess (who’s really Anna on the inside) bonds with Jake at a cafe as they talk about music. When a rock cover of “...Baby One More Time” (performed by Bowling for Soup) plays on the speakers, they bond over their love for the song.

Ganatra credits Curtis for the clever reference. “[Jamie’s] the one who, brilliantly, was like, ‘Britney should be for the end. When Lindsay’s flirting with Jake, I should be hiding behind Britney,’” she said.

It turns out, Jake gets invited to Anna’s wedding with a plus-one. During the final scene, as she’s walking back down the aisle, she and Tess find Jake in the crowd with a woman who looks just like Tess did in the original film—printed dress, short pixie cut, and all.

"[We] were like, ‘Oh, Chad’s going to be in town [while the wedding scene is shooting], so let’s put him in the wedding,’” Ganatra recalls. “I was like, ‘What if he has a girlfriend that looks like Jamie’s character from the first one?’ And Kristin [Burr, a Freakier Friday producer] thought that was hilarious. So she was like, ‘I’m going to get the dress.’”

Jake says there’s just “something about her,” though he can’t put his finger on it. It’s a silly little bit, but I for one am glad we’re all ready to admit Jake and Tess had better chemistry than he and Anna did. But perhaps that’s a story for another time.

Freakier Friday brings a number of sequences and characters back from the first film, and while they don’t really count as Easter eggs, but they’re still fun little parallels. For example, Anna is preparing for a wedding just like her mom was in Freaky Friday. Pei-Pei (Rosalind Chao) and her mother return at Anna’s bachelorette and wedding, though this time their magical fortune cookies are not the reason for the body switching (the first film’s portrayal of Asian stereotypes was a little problematic). Instead, a fortune teller played hilariously by Vanessa Bayer accidentally causes the supernatural swap, which is still marked by an earthquake.

Mr. Bates (Stephen Tobolowsky), Anna’s mean teacher from Freaky Friday, returns in the sequel to wreak havoc on her daughter’s life. And in a callback to one of the first film’s most iconic scenes, Anna (who is still swapped with her daughter, Harper) goes onstage for a Pink Slip performance but is once again without her guitar skills. Harper (who is really Anna on the inside) sneaks to the back of the stage, ready to play to cover up for her mom. But instead of hiding Harper in the background, Anna brings her out to stage to perform together.

With all these little shoutouts, Freakier Friday pays homage to its roots and plays up the nostalgia, while still forging its own path at the same time.