Puzzle 2 Hollywood Sign

repeating pattern of small keyholes with a larger keyhole in the center

Teddy, you learn, is used to missions like these.

“Been in the Department of Treasure Hunts my whole career,” he says. You grunt in response. This grunt is entirely due to the fact that you’re only mildly interested in what he’s saying, and not at all because the two of you have just hiked from Canyon Drive to the Hollywood Sign and you’re utterly out of breath.

Teddy has been talking this whole time, but at least he isn’t like a former partner of yours, who was a maelstrom of malapropisms, always saying words that sounded close to, but weren’t, what he wanted. Teddy’s at least better than that.

You reach the summit, your partner pauses his life story, and the two of you take in the sight of the large, iconic sign in this glorious land of movies and dreams. This occurs approximately two seconds after you take in the sight of the heavy fencing and security cameras surrounding the sign. Not an insurmountable barrier, by any means, but one that begs a question: Even if you were to get over there, where would the puzzle be?

Suddenly, there’s a rustling noise to your left—you turn and catch sight of a figure shuffling out of view behind a boulder. You make chase as fast as you can (which, you’ll admit, is a bit slower than it would have been sans hike), only to find the space empty.

“They’re gone,” Teddy laments.

“But they were watching us from this specific angle,” you think aloud. Which means you have more information than you did before.

Sure enough, when you turn yourself so you’re facing the direction you and Teddy just came from, you have a clear line of view on both your former position … and a thin tree with an auspicious-looking hole halfway up the trunk.

Reaching into the hole yields the prize: another silver-lined envelope. You slide it open and take careful note of the handwriting within.

In a world where toxicologists are aliens, a cowardly dollop doesn't like the cocky new astringent.

Dorito is swept from her farina by a toreador—and goes on a quesadilla with her new frijoles to return hombres to kangaroos.

The superhighway printout of an afraid kinescope fights his couscous for the thrombosis.

A gibbering aphid from a trophied isobar wreaks havoc in neutral yoga citrus.

A YouTube boycott must protect his hourglass from two burros when he is left behooved over chrome vaccine.

A pooped Orpheus finds a magenta laminate and gets threatening wisteria from a hilarious genome.

A teetotaler travels through timber in a delusion, and meets his mothball as a girdle.

When a kilted shareholder terrorizes a beaded towelette, the local sherbet hunts down the béarnaise on a small bobcat.

A beautiful argusfish falls in love with a poor artiodactyl, then their ocelot lingerie hits an ichthyologist.

A compulsive hacksaw discovers his whole liftoff is actually a Simpson created by Evite machetes.

Dashing archangel indestructible jointworm must find an anchovy artichoke before the gerbils do.

In a remote Galápagos, lugworm Skype helps rescue printed legumes, defeat darling vacuums, and destroy the dearest stapler.

The letters in the bold boxes above spell which classic film?

Need a Hint?

Puzzle hunts like this are meant to be challenging and solved with a group of puzzlers. Before you take a hint below, we encourage you to reach out to friends. See if the extra brain power can help unlock some of the mysteries.

But if you simply can’t take it anymore, no judgment. Hint away!

Hint #1

Hint #2