 The rabbit was a reference to Stephen King's "", where King uses a rabbit in a cage with the number 8 written on its back as an example for the connection between reader and writer.Emerson said that part of the appeal of the scene was that "bunnies look so innocent, and the audience feels so tenderly about them you can feel nothing but beastly being mean to them".But Emerson added the rabbit in the scene had problems reacting to his attempts to scare him – "it was unfazed, it barely blinked".