FILM · 2002 · UK

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Directed by

Chris Columbus

Runtime

161 min

Studio

Warner Bros. Pictures, Heyday Films, 1492 Pictures

221 archived facts · 7 topics · 2 sources · Last reviewed Sep 2026

Cars fly, trees fight back, and a mysterious house-elf comes to warn Harry Potter at the start of his second year at Hogwarts. Adventure and danger await when bloody writing on a wall announces: The Chamber Of Secrets Has Been Opened. To save Hogwarts will require all of Harry, Ron and Hermione's magical abilities and courage.

Summary: TMDB

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8 Easter Eggs and References in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

1. #012
   Contains a major spoiler — show

   (At about one hour and sixteen minutes) When Hagrid storms into Dumbledore's office to defend Harry, he is carrying a dead rooster. This references a scene in the book (cut from the film) in which Hagrid finds all the roosters dead. A rooster's crow is fatal to a basilisk.

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2. #072
   Contains a major spoiler — show

   Although Crabbe and Goyle have more screen time in this film than in the other films they appear in, they have no dialogue because their voices for the Polyjuice Potion sequence were dubbed by Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint.

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3. #083
   Contains a major spoiler — show

   Sally Mortemore was cut from the role of Hogwarts librarian Madam Irma Pince. She appears only briefly in the background at the staff table during dinner scenes.

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4. #100

   During the 1992-1993 school year, the second message left by the Heir of Slytherin when the Chamber of Secrets was opened read: 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.' Although the message was intended to refer to Ginny Weasley, who had been taken into the Chamber, the Basilisk was in fact female. When Ron and Hermione went there in 1998 to destroy Helga Hufflepuff's Cup using its fangs, the skeleton was still present in the Chamber, which ironically fits the message.

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5. #110
   Contains a major spoiler — show

   The film's darker, sharper tone was already hinted at in the main title; in "Hedwig's Theme", after the crescendo as the Warner Brothers logo approaches, the theme reaches a brand-new, quieter arrangement as the Harry Potter logo appears, a notably more foreboding and ominous arrangement compared with the existing arrangements in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001). The moment the bass strings enter, the "and the Chamber of Secrets" subtitle also appears.

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6. #126
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   Director Chris Columbus's four children appear in the film. Eleanor Columbus plays Susan Bones in this film and the previous one; in the first film she can be seen being sorted into a house by the Sorting Hat; Violet Columbus plays a girl surrounded by flowers in one of the Hogwarts portrait frames (in the first three films); Isabella Columbus plays a girl in the bookshop when Lockhart is introduced; and finally young Brendan Columbus appears in the study hall.

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7. #174
   Contains a major spoiler — show

   During the flashback in Riddle's diary, the fact that Tom Riddle was in Slytherin is concealed by Riddle wearing Hogwarts robes bearing the school crest rather than his own house's, as Harry's generation does.

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8. #177
   Contains a major spoiler — show

   As in the first film, many scenes were shot at Gloucester Cathedral. A fake floor made of roofing felt and painted to match the rest of the stonework was used to protect the cathedral's real floor and to hide the many ledger stones (grave markers) from view. The scenes in which the trio discovers the writing on the wall and Mrs Norris is petrified, and later when Harry and Ron discover that Moaning Myrtle's girls' toilet has been flooded, were shot in the cathedral's East Cloister. Both scenes have puddles of water on the floor. Although a fake floor was used, the real floor underneath still suffered some water damage, and evidence of it can still be seen.

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