Warning: This story contains spoilers for It Ends With Us . Justin Baldoni is hoping fans will take a ride with him on the EAC. With his new movie It Ends With Us out in theaters, the director and star is revealing some of the Easter Eggs he included in the film—which costars Blake Lively , Brandon Sklenar , Jenny Slate and Isabela Ferrer —because, as he noted, they couldn't include everything from Colleen Hoover 's 2016 novel.
"Something that I know so many fans love from the book that didn't make it in the movie," Justin explained in an Aug. 23 Instagram video , "was the phrase ‘just keep swimming' that Lily and Atlas shared over the course of the book." The iconic phrase—which comes from Pixar's 2003 film Finding Nemo —is a mantra repeated by Ellen DeGeneres ' character Dory that becomes a motivational message between Lily (Blake) and Atlas (Brandon) in the book.
Although the line didn't make it into the film, as long as you're paying attention during It Ends With Us , you might see a few nods to the cartoon. "If you watch the movie," Justin said, "look in Lily's bedroom on her wall, there's a poster. I'm not gonna say what it's of, but you'll see a little homage to maybe the movie or the saying, if you will.
" The 40-year-old revealed that there's also a special stuffed animal in one scene, but be careful, because "if you blink, you might miss" it. (Indeed, a plushie of a clown fish appears in Lily's nursery for her baby girl, prompting one fan to note on TikTok, "The detail of the movie is top-tier!") And there is yet another tribute to the Finding Nemo phrase when Lily and Atlas connect for the first time at his restaurant Root. "Right by the bathroom," Justin shared, "if you look in between them, there is a frame on the wall with a very similar saying.
" Luckily, plenty of fans have spotted the clues since the movie's premiere, with one user sharing the restaurant scene on TikTok and pointed out the "Keep on Swimming" painting, adding, "Did we all miss this? Or was it just me?" But details weren't the only thing Justin was focused on as while directing the movie, as he also wanted to make sure he was letting all the voices on set be heard, especially at times when he felt it best for him to step back, like when he requested the intimacy coordinator and stunt coordinator take the lead on the more delicate scenes in the film that depicted domestic violence. "The last thing I wanted to do was have a male gaze penetrate these very important moments that need to be told in a truthful way," he told Today.com Aug.
9 , "to represent all of the women that experience them every day.".
